The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-05-26

leave her. AS soon as they had gone
out, the door was locked behind them.
When the ~ervants returned after
the lapse of some hours and knocked
at The door, no answer was given.
Again and again they knocked and ask
ed 70 know their mistress will; but
they might as well nave Numbered Il
the gate Of the grave for all the reply
they got.
of course. they made application to
the authrOties who came and broke
open the door. The lead man lay
there where he had been placed, but
the Princess was no longer in the room.
She had vanished. and no searching
ever succeeded in finding her.
But my grandmother told my father
years after, and ne told me. that she
came into the room at the heels of the
authorities and saw a bat clinging to
the inside of the curtains of the bed.
What that meant my grandmother
would not say, but my father would
hint hat it was nothing else than the
Princess, who was a vampire. But of
this 1 cannot speak.
Well, Signor, with the Prince, the
last of the Sforzianis died and the pal
ace passed TO the State. But they could
find no one 70 live in it-after that hor-
rible, mysterious death, and there were
tales of TRANCE shrieks heard in the
empty palace for years after hat. SO
the authorities closed the palace up,
and they did we'll, say L.
There is no man in Venice who would
land there and Sandro pointed to the
ianding-steps, latter the sun has gone
down, not though you put a thousand
lire in his and He cannot give you
q reason perhaps, but the old women
have some strange stories hat may
account for it.
One of their tales is that if you land
there. a strange fascination draws you
to the window below which the Princes
body was found, as if it had been
thrown therefor the opinion people
came To was that the Princess, being a
vampire. had killed him, tucked his
blood. and had then thrown his body
outside. And when you come TO the
window. the shutters open and a lovely
woman beckOns yOu on. You approach
she stoops as if to kiss you-and then
You now no more. o are lead and
your body will be found there in the
morning with two small holes in your
| throat.
There have been but two men who
ever landed there after night-fall. and
that was their fate-death and the two
small holes"
That's a gruesome tale, Sandro,"
said AyIwin. But 1 wager that. like
most gruesome things. it's only an old
woman's dream"
1T may be. SignOr, but l know one
thing. I had rather it was any other
man than I who was compelled to land
there after dark"
And so saying, he placed his pole
against the crumbling stones and push
ed off, for the sun had now gone down,
and although a few stars began to make
twilight beautiful, the gloom and the
place were eerie.
Aylwin shfvered where he sat and
~endeavored to think of pleasanter
things. but he could not keep the
strange tale out of his thought. He
had always been attracted by stories
of the bizarre and the horrible. He
had read again and again the tales OF
: Edgar Allan Poe, the werewolf legends
of Erckmann-Chatrian n the folk
lore horrors of all nations. So this
mystery that Sandro told with so much
OSIO lASloAANCN AAAAAA oil AHC "HN D1NH
to his hotel.
i With the bright lights, the Strauss
? waltzes of the band. and the genial ac-
l compartments of dinner, wine, and fair
2 women around him, he gradually forgot
the horror. Blu when he sought his
!, bedroom. it was with him. 1t was long
q, before his eyes closed. And when they
:, did il was only to dream.
4 He dreamed that he had landed from
n his gondola at the steps of the Palazzc
e Sfo-ziani. He stood for a moment won,
? dering what he was doing there. 4
l sound as of a window opening on his
7 left caught his ear. He looked in the
n direction from which the SCUM haC
2 come. Certainly. there was a window
I open there. for light streamed out upOr
s the darkness and fell in long flickerins
shafts against the black waters of tn
| canal. Irresistibly his feet were draw
towards the light.
: He came in front of the open window
the sill of which was just at the heigh
Of mis- chest. He looked into the room
d It was a bed-chamber. The bed wa!
s hung with heavy crimson curtain!
o drawn close. Mirrors. tables and cuSh
toned chairs made up the rest of tn
n furniture. Candles, a hundred of them
famed in silver sconces, and filled tn
II room with a radiance more han tn
light of day. The candle flames burn
q ed so calmly that it seemed as if Their
n was no breath of air there.
Then there was a whirr Of wings, an
he saw that a bat had detached itsel
e from a curtain to which it had beef
d clinging. and had begun to fit abou
. his room. touching with its wings. nov
4 candle, now a piece OF furniture. Sud
denly it darted against the curtains an,
disappeared.
i How long he stood gazing into I'll
room he could not tell. for he had n
Y sense of time.
4 The next thing he new was that tn
y curtains were slowly pushed aside an
from within a white arm came forth.