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"The ecclesiastic was absent, and I read the letter by ht have excited my ridicule But

into what quackeries will not people rush for a last chance, where all

accustomed means have failed, and the life of a beloved object is

at stake?

"Nothing, you will say, could be more absurd than the learned ned him to a madhouse He said

that the patient was suffering from the visits of a va occurred near the throat, were,

he insisted, the insertion of those two long, thin, and sharp teeth

which, it is well known, are peculiar to vampires; and there could be no

doubt, he added, as to the well-defined presence of the s as that induced by the demon's lips,

and every symptom described by the sufferer was in exact conformity with

those recorded in every case of a si myself wholly skeptical as to the existence of any such portent

as the vaood doctor furnished, in

ence oddly

associated with some one hallucination I was so , I acted upon the instructions of

the letter

"I concealedroom, that opened upon the poor

patient's roo, and watched there till

she was fast asleep I stood at the door, peeping through the small

crevice, my sword laid on the table beside me, as my directions