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Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu, XVI. Conclusion

XVI. Conclusion

I write all this you suppose with composure. But far from it; I cannot think of it without agitation. Nothing but your earnest desire so repeatedly expressed, could have induced me to sit down to a task that has unstrung my nerves for months to come, and reinduced a shadow of the unspeakable horror which years after my deliverance continued to make my days and nights dreadful, and solitude insupportably terrific.

Let me add a word or two about that quaint Baron Vordenburg, to whose curious lore we were indebted for the discovery of the Countess Mircalla's grave. He had taken up his abode in Gratz, where, living upon a mere pittance, which was all that remained to him of the once princely estates of his family, in Upper Styria, he devoted himself to the minute and laborious investigation of the marvelously authenticated tradition of Vampirism. He had at his fingers' ends all the great and little works upon the subject. "Magia Posthuma," "Phlegon de Mirabilibus," "Augustinus de cura pro Mortuis," "Philosophicae et Christianae Cogitationes de Vampiris," by John Christofer Herenberg; and a thousand others, among which I remember only a few of those which he lent to my father. He had a voluminous digest of all the judicial cases, from which he had extracted a system of principles that appear to govern--some always, and others occasionally only--the condition of the vampire. I may mention, in passing, that the deadly pallor attributed to that sort of revenants, is a mere melodramatic fiction. They present, in the grave, and when they show themselves in human society, the appearance of healthy life. When disclosed to light in their coffins, they exhibit all the symptoms that are enumerated as those which proved the vampire-life of the long-dead Countess Karnstein.

How they escape from their graves and return to them for certain hours every day, without displacing the clay or leaving any trace of disturbance in the state of the coffin or the cerements, has always been admitted to be utterly inexplicable. The amphibious existence of the vampire is sustained by daily renewed slumber in the grave. Its horrible lust for living blood supplies the vigor of its waking existence. The vampire is prone to be fascinated with an engrossing vehemence, resembling the passion of love, by particular persons. In pursuit of these it will exercise inexhaustible patience and stratagem, for access to a particular object may be obstructed in a hundred ways. It will never desist until it has satiated its passion, and drained the very life of its coveted victim. But it will, in these cases, husband and protract its murderous enjoyment with the refinement of an epicure, and heighten it by the gradual approaches of an artful courtship. In these cases it seems to yearn for something like sympathy and consent. In ordinary ones it goes direct to its object, overpowers with violence, and strangles and exhausts often at a single feast.

The vampire is, apparently, subject, in certain situations, to special conditions. In the particular instance of which I have given you a relation, Mircalla seemed to be limited to a name which, if not her real one, should at least reproduce, without the omission or addition of a single letter, those, as we say, anagrammatically, which compose it.

Carmilla did this; so did Millarca.

My father related to the Baron Vordenburg, who remained with us for two or three weeks after the expulsion of Carmilla, the story about the Moravian nobleman and the vampire at Karnstein churchyard, and then he asked the Baron how he had discovered the exact position of the long-concealed tomb of the Countess Mircalla? The Baron's grotesque features puckered up into a mysterious smile; he looked down, still smiling on his worn spectacle case and fumbled with it. Then looking up, he said:

"I have many journals, and other papers, written by that remarkable man; the most curious among them is one treating of the visit of which you speak, to Karnstein. The tradition, of course, discolors and distorts a little. He might have been termed a Moravian nobleman, for he had changed his abode to that territory, and was, beside, a noble. But he was, in truth, a native of Upper Styria. It is enough to say that in very early youth he had been a passionate and favored lover of the beautiful Mircalla, Countess Karnstein. Her early death plunged him into inconsolable grief. It is the nature of vampires to increase and multiply, but according to an ascertained and ghostly law.

"Assume, at starting, a territory perfectly free from that pest. How does it begin, and how does it multiply itself? I will tell you. A person, more or less wicked, puts an end to himself. A suicide, under certain circumstances, becomes a vampire. That specter visits living people in their slumbers; they die, and almost invariably, in the grave, develop into vampires. This happened in the case of the beautiful Mircalla, who was haunted by one of those demons. My ancestor, Vordenburg, whose title I still bear, soon discovered this, and in the course of the studies to which he devoted himself, learned a great deal more.

"Among other things, he concluded that suspicion of vampirism would probably fall, sooner or later, upon the dead Countess, who in life had been his idol. He conceived a horror, be she what she might, of her remains being profaned by the outrage of a posthumous execution. He has left a curious paper to prove that the vampire, on its expulsion from its amphibious existence, is projected into a far more horrible life; and he resolved to save his once beloved Mircalla from this.

"He adopted the stratagem of a journey here, a pretended removal of her remains, and a real obliteration of her monument. When age had stolen upon him, and from the vale of years, he looked back on the scenes he was leaving, he considered, in a different spirit, what he had done, and a horror took possession of him. He made the tracings and notes which have guided me to the very spot, and drew up a confession of the deception that he had practiced. If he had intended any further action in this matter, death prevented him; and the hand of a remote descendant has, too late for many, directed the pursuit to the lair of the beast." We talked a little more, and among other things he said was this:

"One sign of the vampire is the power of the hand. The slender hand of Mircalla closed like a vice of steel on the General's wrist when he raised the hatchet to strike. But its power is not confined to its grasp; it leaves a numbness in the limb it seizes, which is slowly, if ever, recovered from." The following Spring my father took me a tour through Italy. We remained away for more than a year. It was long before the terror of recent events subsided; and to this hour the image of Carmilla returns to memory with ambiguous alternations--sometimes the playful, languid, beautiful girl; sometimes the writhing fiend I saw in the ruined church; and often from a reverie I have started, fancying I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing room door.

XVI. Conclusion XVI. Schlussfolgerung XVI. Conclusión XVI. Conclusão XVI. Заключение XVI. Sonuç 十六.结论

I write all this you suppose with composure. J'écris tout cela vous supposez avec sang-froid. But far from it; I cannot think of it without agitation. Mais loin de là; Je ne puis y penser sans agitation. Nothing but your earnest desire so repeatedly expressed, could have induced me to sit down to a task that has unstrung my nerves for months to come, and reinduced a shadow of the unspeakable horror which years after my deliverance continued to make my days and nights dreadful, and solitude insupportably terrific. Rien d'autre que votre désir sincère exprimé à maintes reprises n'aurait pu m'inciter à m'atteler à une tâche qui m'a détendu les nerfs pendant des mois à venir, et réinduit une ombre de l'horreur indicible qui, des années après ma délivrance, a continué à rendre mes jours et mes nuits épouvantables. , et la solitude insupportablement terrible.

Let me add a word or two about that quaint Baron Vordenburg, to whose curious lore we were indebted for the discovery of the Countess Mircalla's grave. Permettez-moi d'ajouter un mot ou deux sur ce pittoresque baron Vordenburg, à la curieuse histoire duquel nous avons été redevables de la découverte de la tombe de la comtesse Mircalla. He had taken up his abode in Gratz, where, living upon a mere pittance, which was all that remained to him of the once princely estates of his family, in Upper Styria, he devoted himself to the minute and laborious investigation of the marvelously authenticated tradition of Vampirism. Il avait élu domicile à Gratz, où, vivant d'une misère, qui était tout ce qui lui restait des domaines jadis princiers de sa famille, en Haute-Styrie, il se consacra à l'investigation minutieuse et laborieuse des merveilleusement authentifiés. tradition du vampirisme. He had at his fingers' ends all the great and little works upon the subject. Il avait au bout des doigts tous les grands et petits ouvrages sur le sujet. "Magia Posthuma," "Phlegon de Mirabilibus," "Augustinus de cura pro Mortuis," "Philosophicae et Christianae Cogitationes de Vampiris," by John Christofer Herenberg; and a thousand others, among which I remember only a few of those which he lent to my father. He had a voluminous digest of all the judicial cases, from which he had extracted a system of principles that appear to govern--some always, and others occasionally only--the condition of the vampire. Il possédait un volumineux condensé de toutes les affaires judiciaires, dont il avait extrait un système de principes qui semblent régir, certains toujours, et d'autres occasionnellement seulement, la condition du vampire. I may mention, in passing, that the deadly pallor attributed to that sort of revenants, is a mere melodramatic fiction. They present, in the grave, and when they show themselves in human society, the appearance of healthy life. When disclosed to light in their coffins, they exhibit all the symptoms that are enumerated as those which proved the vampire-life of the long-dead Countess Karnstein. Lorsqu'ils sont révélés à la lumière dans leurs cercueils, ils présentent tous les symptômes énumérés comme ceux qui ont prouvé la vie de vampire de la comtesse Karnstein, décédée depuis longtemps.

How they escape from their graves and return to them for certain hours every day, without displacing the clay or leaving any trace of disturbance in the state of the coffin or the cerements, has always been admitted to be utterly inexplicable. The amphibious existence of the vampire is sustained by daily renewed slumber in the grave. L'existence amphibie du vampire est soutenue par un sommeil renouvelé quotidiennement dans la tombe. Its horrible lust for living blood supplies the vigor of its waking existence. Son horrible soif de sang vivant fournit la vigueur de son existence éveillée. The vampire is prone to be fascinated with an engrossing vehemence, resembling the passion of love, by particular persons. Le vampire est enclin à être fasciné par une véhémence captivante, ressemblant à la passion de l'amour, par des personnes particulières. In pursuit of these it will exercise inexhaustible patience and stratagem, for access to a particular object may be obstructed in a hundred ways. Dans leur poursuite, il exercera une patience et un stratagème inépuisables, car l'accès à un objet particulier peut être obstrué de cent manières. It will never desist until it has satiated its passion, and drained the very life of its coveted victim. Il ne s'arrêtera jamais tant qu'il n'aura pas assouvi sa passion et vidé la vie même de sa victime convoitée. But it will, in these cases, husband and protract its murderous enjoyment with the refinement of an epicure, and heighten it by the gradual approaches of an artful courtship. Mais il va, dans ces cas, marier et prolonger sa jouissance meurtrière avec le raffinement d'un épicurien, et l'augmenter par les approches graduelles d'une cour astucieuse. In these cases it seems to yearn for something like sympathy and consent. In ordinary ones it goes direct to its object, overpowers with violence, and strangles and exhausts often at a single feast. Dans les cas ordinaires, il va directement à son objet, accable avec violence, et étrangle et épuise souvent lors d'une seule fête.

The vampire is, apparently, subject, in certain situations, to special conditions. In the particular instance of which I have given you a relation, Mircalla seemed to be limited to a name which, if not her real one, should at least reproduce, without the omission or addition of a single letter, those, as we say, anagrammatically, which compose it. Dans le cas particulier dont je vous ai donné une relation, Mircalla semblait se limiter à un nom qui, sinon son vrai nom, devait du moins reproduire, sans omission ni ajout d'une seule lettre, ceux, comme on dit, anagrammatiquement, qui le composent.

Carmilla did this; so did Millarca.

My father related to the Baron Vordenburg, who remained with us for two or three weeks after the expulsion of Carmilla, the story about the Moravian nobleman and the vampire at Karnstein churchyard, and then he asked the Baron how he had discovered the exact position of the long-concealed tomb of the Countess Mircalla? The Baron's grotesque features puckered up into a mysterious smile; he looked down, still smiling on his worn spectacle case and fumbled with it. Les traits grotesques du baron se retroussèrent en un mystérieux sourire ; il baissa les yeux, souriant toujours sur son étui à lunettes usé et tâtonna avec. Then looking up, he said:

"I have many journals, and other papers, written by that remarkable man; the most curious among them is one treating of the visit of which you speak, to Karnstein. "J'ai beaucoup de journaux et d'autres papiers écrits par cet homme remarquable ; le plus curieux d'entre eux est celui qui traite de la visite dont vous parlez à Karnstein. The tradition, of course, discolors and distorts a little. La tradition, bien sûr, se décolore et se déforme un peu. He might have been termed a Moravian nobleman, for he had changed his abode to that territory, and was, beside, a noble. Il aurait pu être qualifié de noble morave, car il avait changé sa demeure sur ce territoire et était, en plus, un noble. But he was, in truth, a native of Upper Styria. It is enough to say that in very early youth he had been a passionate and favored lover of the beautiful Mircalla, Countess Karnstein. Her early death plunged him into inconsolable grief. It is the nature of vampires to increase and multiply, but according to an ascertained and ghostly law. C'est dans la nature des vampires de croître et de se multiplier, mais selon une loi déterminée et fantomatique.

"Assume, at starting, a territory perfectly free from that pest. « Supposons, au départ, un territoire parfaitement exempt de ce ravageur. How does it begin, and how does it multiply itself? I will tell you. A person, more or less wicked, puts an end to himself. Une personne, plus ou moins méchante, se met fin à elle-même. A suicide, under certain circumstances, becomes a vampire. That specter visits living people in their slumbers; they die, and almost invariably, in the grave, develop into vampires. Ce spectre visite les vivants dans leur sommeil ; ils meurent, et presque invariablement, dans la tombe, se transforment en vampires. This happened in the case of the beautiful Mircalla, who was haunted by one of those demons. My ancestor, Vordenburg, whose title I still bear, soon discovered this, and in the course of the studies to which he devoted himself, learned a great deal more.

"Among other things, he concluded that suspicion of vampirism would probably fall, sooner or later, upon the dead Countess, who in life had been his idol. "Entre autres choses, il a conclu que le soupçon de vampirisme tomberait probablement, tôt ou tard, sur la défunte comtesse, qui dans la vie avait été son idole. He conceived a horror, be she what she might, of her remains being profaned by the outrage of a posthumous execution. Il conçut en horreur, quoi qu'elle fût, sa dépouille profanée par l'outrage d'une exécution posthume. He has left a curious paper to prove that the vampire, on its expulsion from its amphibious existence, is projected into a far more horrible life; and he resolved to save his once beloved Mircalla from this. Il a laissé un papier curieux pour prouver que le vampire, sur son expulsion de son existence amphibie, est projeté dans une vie bien plus horrible ; et il a résolu de sauver son Mircalla autrefois bien-aimé de cela.

"He adopted the stratagem of a journey here, a pretended removal of her remains, and a real obliteration of her monument. "Il a adopté le stratagème d'un voyage ici, d'un prétendu enlèvement de ses restes et d'un véritable effacement de son monument. When age had stolen upon him, and from the vale of years, he looked back on the scenes he was leaving, he considered, in a different spirit, what he had done, and a horror took possession of him. Quand l'âge l'avait volé, et du val des années, il se retourna sur les scènes qu'il quittait, il considéra, dans un esprit différent, ce qu'il avait fait, et une horreur s'empara de lui. He made the tracings and notes which have guided me to the very spot, and drew up a confession of the deception that he had practiced. Il a fait les tracés et les notes qui m'ont guidé jusqu'à l'endroit même, et a rédigé un aveu de la supercherie qu'il avait pratiquée. If he had intended any further action in this matter, death prevented him; and the hand of a remote descendant has, too late for many, directed the pursuit to the lair of the beast." S'il avait eu l'intention d'agir davantage dans cette affaire, la mort l'en a empêché ; et la main d'un descendant éloigné a, trop tard pour beaucoup, dirigé la poursuite vers la tanière de la bête." We talked a little more, and among other things he said was this:

"One sign of the vampire is the power of the hand. The slender hand of Mircalla closed like a vice of steel on the General's wrist when he raised the hatchet to strike. But its power is not confined to its grasp; it leaves a numbness in the limb it seizes, which is slowly, if ever, recovered from." Mais son pouvoir ne se limite pas à sa portée ; il laisse un engourdissement dans le membre qu'il saisit, dont il se remet lentement, voire jamais." The following Spring my father took me a tour through Italy. We remained away for more than a year. It was long before the terror of recent events subsided; and to this hour the image of Carmilla returns to memory with ambiguous alternations--sometimes the playful, languid, beautiful girl; sometimes the writhing fiend I saw in the ruined church; and often from a reverie I have started, fancying I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing room door. C'était bien avant que la terreur des événements récents ne s'apaise ; et à cette heure l'image de Carmilla revient à la mémoire avec des alternances ambiguës, parfois la fille espiègle, languissante, belle ; tantôt le démon se tordant que je voyais dans l'église en ruine ; et souvent d'une rêverie j'ai commencé, m'imaginant entendre le pas léger de Carmilla à la porte du salon.