their departure and mutters to herself as she fixes her gaze upon Juana: “Il te faut deux heures pour aller retrouver ton beau fiancé…. Je l’aurai joint dans trois minutes!” She is in fact the ghoul, a female vampire, and with the speed of lightning she has gone to destroy the unfortunate Don Luis.
In the second Act we see the huge Gothic hall of the old castle. A door opens and from an inner chamber the ghoul rushes out exclaiming: “Il était jeune! Il était beau! … Me voilà redevenue jeune et belle!” The voice of Gilbert is now heard, and with the cry, “À l’an prochain, Gilbert.” she disappears from sight. It will be remarked that in his treatment of the vampire tradition Dumas has adopted the legend that the vampire must year by year rejuvenate his waning forces by absorbing the life of another and sucking from another’s veins fresh blood, a detail which although it may recommend itself to, and legitimately be used by, the dramatist and the writer of romances is actually inexact and but rarely to be met with, and only then in folk-lore not of the first value. The travellers, no small party, spread their provisions upon the huge tables in the old hall and laughing at the stories of ghosts and apparitions are soon in convivial mood. The conversation, however, eventually turns on the supernatural and Gilbert tells of his old home in Brittany, where one room in the castle is hung with the tapestry of the Fairy Mélusine, representing this lady and all her attendants. The story goes that if any of the family sleeps in that room she will descend from the tapestry and reveal his fortune, warning him of danger should such threaten. Another companion who has sojourned in Epirus speaks of the vampires, the women who will attack men and leave them dead and sapless; the men who will attack women to drink their blood. Just as the words are uttered Lord Ruthwen enters and announces himself as a belated traveller, who finding no room at Rozo’s inn down in the village has made his way thither,—he has even taken Lazare into his service. Presently the company disperse to their several rooms to make themselves as comfortable as may be for the night in such difficult circumstances. To his horror Gilbert discovers in the chamber he is to occupy the body of a young man, strangely pale, with a slight wound in the throat. By a letter he finds near upon the body it is plain that this can be none other
