Varney the Vampire | Page 8

was great, and all his nervous energy, recoiled a step or two, and

uttered the exclamation of, "Great God!"
That face was one never to be forgotten. It was hideously flushed with
colour--the colour of fresh blood; the eyes had a savage and remarkable
lustre; whereas, before, they had looked like polished tin--they now
wore a ten times brighter aspect, and flashes of light seemed to dart
from them. The mouth was open, as if, from the natural formation of
the countenance, the lips receded much from the large canine looking
teeth.
A strange howling noise came from the throat of this monstrous figure,
and it seemed upon the point of rushing upon Mr. Marchdale. Suddenly,
then, as if some impulse had seized upon it, it uttered a wild and
terrible shrieking kind of laugh; and then turning, dashed through the
window, and in one instant disappeared from before the eyes of those
who felt nearly annihilated by its fearful presence.
"God help us!" ejaculated Henry.
Mr. Marchdale drew a long breath, and then, giving a stamp on the
floor, as if to recover himself from the state of agitation into which
even he was thrown, he cried,--
"Be it what or who it may, I'll follow it"
"No--no--do not," cried the lady.
"I must, I will. Let who will come with me--I follow that dreadful
form."
As he spoke, he took the road it took, and dashed through the window
into the balcony.
"And we, too, George," exclaimed Henry; "we will follow Mr.
Marchdale. This dreadful affair concerns us more nearly than it does
him."
The lady who was the mother of these young men, and of the beautiful
girl who had been so awfully visited, screamed aloud, and implored of
them to stay. But the voice of Mr. Marchdale was heard exclaiming
aloud,--
"I see it--I see it; it makes for the wall."
They hesitated no longer, but at once rushed into the balcony, and from
thence dropped into the garden.
The mother approached the bed-side of the insensible, perhaps the
murdered girl; she saw her, to all appearance, weltering in blood, and,
overcome by her emotions, she fainted on the floor of the room.

When the two young men reached the garden, they found it much
lighter than might have been fairly expected; for not only was the
morning rapidly approaching, but the mill was still burning, and those
mingled lights made almost every object plainly visible, except when
deep shadows were thrown from some gigantic trees that had stood for
centuries in that sweetly wooded spot. They heard the voice of Mr.
Marchdale, as he cried,--
"There--there--towards the wall. There--there--God! how it bounds
along."
The young men hastily dashed through a thicket in the direction from
whence his voice sounded, and then they found him looking wild and
terrified, and with something in his hand which looked like a portion of
clothing.
"Which way, which way?" they both cried in a breath.
He leant heavily on the arm of George, as he pointed along a vista of
trees, and said in a low voice,--
"God help us all. It is not human. Look there--look there--do you not
see it?"
They looked in the direction he indicated. At the end of this vista was
the wall of the garden. At that point it was full twelve feet in height,
and as they looked, they saw the hideous, monstrous form they had
traced from the chamber of their sister, making frantic efforts to clear
the obstacle.
Then they saw it bound from the ground to the top of the wall, which it
very nearly reached, and then each time it fell back again into the
garden with such a dull, heavy sound, that the earth seemed to shake
again with the concussion. They trembled--well indeed they might, and
for some minutes they watched the figure making its fruitless efforts to
leave the place.
"What--what is it?" whispered Henry, in hoarse accents. "God, what
can it possibly be?"
"I know not," replied Mr. Marchdale. "I did seize it. It was cold and
clammy like a corpse. It cannot be human."
"Not human?"
"Look at it now. It will surely escape now."
"No, no--we will not be terrified thus--there is Heaven above us. Come
on, and, for dear Flora's sake, let us make an effort yet to seize this bold

intruder."
"Take this pistol," said Marchdale. "It is the fellow of the one I fired.
Try its efficacy."
"He will be gone," exclaimed Henry, as at this moment, after many
repeated attempts and fearful falls, the figure reached the top of the
wall, and then hung by its long arms a moment or two, previous to
dragging itself completely up.
The idea of the appearance, be it what it might, entirely escaping,
seemed