356 A TRIAD OF MEDIAEVAL MYTHS. 



nesses, often sent for the beadle and other chief people of 

 the village to bear testimony. At last the cure had recourse 

 to exorcism, but with no effect. 



' Despairing almost of being delivered from these vexations, 

 he provided himself at the end of the third year with a holy 

 branch, on Palm Sunday ; also with a sword sprinkled with 

 holy water. The hobgoblin was now soon to have the worst 

 of it. Appearing again [whether in the form of a man or 

 dog, a lion or a young lady, informant does not state], the 

 cure first dashed the holy water in the goblin's face, then 

 smote the Keing with the blessed sword. He did this once or 

 twice, and from that time was no more molested. This is 

 attested by a Capuchin monk, witness of the greater part of 

 these things, August 29, 1749.' 



Calmet declines to guarantee the truth of all these cir- 

 cumstances. The judicious reader may make what induction 

 he pleases. If they are true, here, says he, is a real ghost 

 who eats, drinks, and speaks, giving tokens of his presence 

 for three whole years, without any appearance of religion ! 



Sceptics may seek to throw discredit upon the narrations 

 of vampiredom, by urging, what I conceive to be the fact, 

 that although vampires have been seen by the thousand, 

 have been known to leave their graves, and wander about 

 biting and bloodsucking their once dearest friends ; still, no 

 authentic information is available relative to the manner in 

 which they leave their graves, or the way in which they go 

 back to the same. 



No vampire, that I am aware of, has ever been caught in 

 the very act of coming out of a grave, or going back again. 

 The omission is not of a sort to shake the belief of any reason- 

 able man in the general truth of vampiredom, knowing well, 

 as all of us do know, that thousands of occurrences take place 

 from time to time, under the very noses of people near, with- 

 out their seeing what happens. 



I once explored the battle-field of Waterloo, in companion- 



