_vampires_. They buried the corpse under the gallows; but neither the
digging up nor the re-burying were of avail to banish the spectre. Again
the spade and pick-axe were set to work, and the dead man being found
considerably improved in _condition_ since his last interment, was, with
various horrible indignities, burnt to ashes, 'after which the _spectrum_
was never seen more.'

"And a second epidemic of the same nature had broken out a little before
the period to which I have brought my story.

"About midnight, after a calm frosty day, for it was now winter, a
terrible storm of wind and snow came on. The tempest howled frightfully
about the house of the painter, and Wolkenlicht found some solace in
listening to the uproar, for his troubled thoughts would not allow him to
sleep. It raged on all the next three days, till about noon on the fourth
day, when it suddenly fell, and all was calm. The following night,
Wolkenlicht, lying awake, heard unaccountable noises in the next house, as
of things thrown about, of kicking and fighting horses, and of opening and
shutting gates. Flinging wide his lattice and looking out, the noise of
howling dogs came to him from every quarter of the town. The moon was
bright and the air was still. In a little while he heard the sounds of a
horse going at full gallop round the house, so that it shook as if it
would fall; and flashes of light shone into his room. How much of this may
have been owing to the effect of the drugs on poor Lottchen's brain, I
leave my readers to determine. But when the family met at breakfast in the
morning, Teufelsbuerst, who had been already out of doors, reported that he
had found the marks of strange feet in the snow, all about the house and
through the garden at the back; stating, as his belief, that the tracks
must be continued over the roofs, for there was no passage otherwise.
There was a wicked gleam in his eye as he spoke; and Lilith believed that