The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-09-06

charged with having kidnapped over one
hundred children. He was convict
ed and executed. Before he was
led to the block, the monster confessed
that in three years he had killed SOC
CHI ldren. He was led to do it, he said.
by an insat able desire to taste their
blood. Calmet relates this story cir
cumstantially, adding though it is
largely exaggerated that he believes il
is not myth. He cites de Retz's con-
fession that he was led to commit the
horrible atrocities by an Irresistible i'm
Pulse as an evidence that there
must be trait in humanity
which leads to vampirism, and
which awakens from its dormant state
in individuals from time to time A
case rather different from the "a owe
was that of Jean Grenier, herd boy.
In 1C03 he was placed on trial for a.
lacking young girls IN the form of a
wolf. The girls themselves and their
fathers gravely and pc lively identified
him, and what was more singular,
Grenier himself admitted that their
charge was true. He declared that he
had eaten several of them He pro-
duced what his judges accepted as good
/
sumed that he had suffered the pen lily
OF being vampire, though Calmet
omits to state what his punishment
was.
The most celebrated vampire case,
perhaps, and the late t, happened in
1S49. In that year the cemeteries of
Paris were entered, graves broken open,
and corpses rudely tossed about the
ground. The greatest alarm was felt
as the horrible depredations continued.
The strictest watch failed to detect
their author. Physicians who were
called to examine the wounds and
mutilations inflicted on the corpses
declared the depredators could not
be, as was first supposed, resur-
rectionists. A man-trap was setin Pere
la Chaise, and heavy bomb concealed
beneath it. One night the sentinels
posted about the cemetery heard the
bomb explode. They entered, but be-
yond few drops of blood and some
fragments of military clothing, found
no trace of the vampire.
Next day it became known that Ser
geant Bertrand, soldier, was danger
ously wounded. He was arrested. On
his court-martial, of which Colonel
Mansolon was President, Bertrand con-
fessed to having committed all the hor-
rible violations of graves, but could
not explain why he did it, He was
controlled by great power, he said.
Like de Retz, this man was frank, gay,
and gentle. He was sentenced to
twelve months imprisonment, and a
counsel of physicians appointed to ex-
anime his mind.
These are more properly stories of
were-wolves, since the distinction in
vampirism made between the vampire
proper and the werewolf is that the
latter is alone all the time, and the
other arises from his grave only at
night. The true vampire, according
to the superstition, may be detected
by the signs of life he presents on be.
ing exhumed from his grave. HIS
cheeks are red his lips moist, his flesh
warm, and his veins full of rich red
blood. In the literature and legends of
Hungary, Silesia, Poland, bohemia,
Moravia and the Glecian Islands,
he is always the same, a terrible crea-
ture who returns to earth at night |
to kill men and women and drink
their blood He is vampire by in
clination, by inheritance, or by
the curse of his own misdeeds. He has
usually the power to transform those
persons whom he attacks into YAM
pires like himself Such is the vampire
of the legends of these countries, and
snch, it may be added, he is in all es-
sential particulars the same to-day. |
For among the poorer and more ignor-
ant peasantry of Silesia, Poland, Hun
gary, and especially Crete, the vampire
belief is by no means eradicated 1t
still exists. A traveller in the latter
country informed the writer he wit
messed few years ago the ceremony of
exercising a vampire. 1t was the same |
method in use hundred and fifty years
ago. The body was dug up, the heart |
removed and burned on the seashore.
Among the old charms this was the |
only one considered effective. Driving
a stake through the vampires heart, |
whipping his grave with hazel switch |
welded by virgin not less than
twenty-five years old, putting pieces of
silver In his month, tying up his Jaws
tightly, were all of no avail-the YAM
pire continued to return until his body |
was eXhumed and incinerated.
From large collection of vampire
stories these are few of the best. The |
story OF the Arnold Paul vampire gained |
a wide celebrity in Europe about 1925.
Arnold Paul was a peasant who lived |
on the borders of Hungary. Near |
Madnerga he fell from wagon
and was crushed to death. He was
duly buried and forgotten. Thirty DAYS
later four persons had died, each with a
small incision in his throat, the edges
of which were purplish. Another per-
son, a young girl, declared that in the
night she had awakened with ter
rible feeling of suffocation. In the dim
light she recognized Arnold Paul, and
cried: ''Avaunt, vampire, in Jesus
and the vampire Immediately
vanished. Paul's grave was opened
and his body was found to present
strong signs OF life. There were traces
of blood about his lips and blood on his
hands. The ambassador of Louis XIV.
was present at the disinterment and
stated that the full lie blood was in the
cheeks of the supposed corpse. Paul's
body was burned, his ashes scattered to