Latest / Weird Fiction Audiobooks: Cosmic Horror, Strange Realities & Uncanny Tales / 🟡 Vampire (Full Audiobook) | Luigi Capuana

Transcript

🟡 Vampire (Full Audiobook) | Luigi Capuana · Weird Fiction Audiobooks: Cosmic Horror, Strange Realities & Uncanny Tales

0:02
Speaker 1: A Vampire by Luigi Capuana. This is a LibriVox recording.
0:08
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
0:12
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
0:19
Speaker 1: Erin O'Rourke. A Vampire by Luigi Capuana, translated by Erin O'Rourke. No,
0:29
Speaker 1: don't laugh, exclaimed Lealio. Georgie, interrupting himself. What do you
0:33
Speaker 1: mean don't laugh, replied Munngetti. I don't believe in ghosts.
0:38
Speaker 1: I didn't used to believe in them, and I didn't
0:40
Speaker 1: want to believe in them either. Georgie responded, I've come
0:43
Speaker 1: to you precisely to get an explanation of certain facts
0:46
Speaker 1: which could destroy my happiness, facts that have already troubled
0:50
Speaker 1: my reason extraordinarily. Facts you mean hallucinations. It means you're
0:56
Speaker 1: sick and you need to take care of yourself. Hallucinations, Yes,
0:59
Speaker 1: are facts two, but what they represent can't be found
1:03
Speaker 1: outside of ourselves. In reality, they are to explain myself better,
1:07
Speaker 1: sensations that move from inside to the outside, a kind
1:10
Speaker 1: of projection from our organism, and so the I sees
1:14
Speaker 1: that which it really does not see. The ear hears
1:17
Speaker 1: that which it really does not hear. Previous sensations, often
1:20
Speaker 1: accumulated unknowingly, reawaken inside us and organize themselves as in dreams.
1:26
Speaker 1: Why how we still don't know and we dream? That
1:31
Speaker 1: is the correct expression with our eyes open. You must
1:34
Speaker 1: distinguish there are momentary, rapid hallucinations which don't apply any
1:39
Speaker 1: kind of organic or psychic disorder. Then there are persistent ones.
1:44
Speaker 1: And then but this isn't the case with you. Yes,
1:48
Speaker 1: mine and my wife's. You're not understanding. The hallucinations that
1:53
Speaker 1: lunatics have are what we scientists call persistent. I don't
1:57
Speaker 1: believe it's necessary to explain myself with examples. The fact, then,
2:01
Speaker 1: that both of you are suffering from the same hallucination
2:04
Speaker 1: and at the same time, is a simple case of induction.
2:08
Speaker 1: It's probably you that are influencing your wife's nervous system. No, first,
2:12
Speaker 1: it was her. Then that means that your nervous system
2:15
Speaker 1: is weaker or has greater receptiveness. Don't make such a face,
2:19
Speaker 1: my dear poet, that the sound of such horrible vocabulary,
2:22
Speaker 1: which perhaps does not exist in your dictionaries, we find
2:26
Speaker 1: it comfortable and it serves us well. If you had
2:29
Speaker 1: let me speak. It's better not to stir certain things up.
2:33
Speaker 1: You wanted a scientific explanation, well, then, in the name
2:36
Speaker 1: of science, I tell you that for now there isn't
2:39
Speaker 1: any sort of explanation to give you. We're in the
2:41
Speaker 1: hypothesis stage. We make one each day. To day's isn't
2:45
Speaker 1: the same as yesterday's. Tomorrow's won't be the same as
2:47
Speaker 1: to day's. You artists are so curious when it benefits you.
2:51
Speaker 1: You deride science. You don't give due value to the trials,
2:55
Speaker 1: the studies, the hypotheses that allow science to progress. Then
2:59
Speaker 1: if you have in a case that interests you personally,
3:01
Speaker 1: you expected to give you clear, precise, categorical answers. There are, unfortunately,
3:07
Speaker 1: scientists who lend themselves to this game, either through conviction
3:10
Speaker 1: or vanity. I am not one of these. Do you
3:13
Speaker 1: want me to tell you loud and clear. Science is
3:15
Speaker 1: the greatest proof of our ignorance. To calm you, I've
3:19
Speaker 1: spoken to you about hallucinations, inductions, receptiveness, words. My dear,
3:24
Speaker 1: The more I study, the more I despair of ever
3:26
Speaker 1: knowing anything for sure. It seems intentional. We scientists are
3:30
Speaker 1: still congratulating ourselves for having verified a law when slap
3:35
Speaker 1: a fact shows up a discovery that disproves it with
3:37
Speaker 1: a back handed slap, you must resign yourself and just
3:41
Speaker 1: let it go. What's happening to you and your wife
3:44
Speaker 1: and has happened to many others. It will pass. Is
3:48
Speaker 1: it that you care to know why and how it
3:49
Speaker 1: could have happened? Perhaps your dreams were you if you
3:52
Speaker 1: would allow me to speak, play speak Since you want
3:56
Speaker 1: to unburden yourself, but I tell you in advance that
3:59
Speaker 1: you'll make it worse. The only way to overcome certain
4:02
Speaker 1: impressions is to distract yourself, to impose stronger impressions over them,
4:06
Speaker 1: distancing yourself from the places that likely contributed to producing them.
4:10
Speaker 1: One devil drives out another. It's a very wise proverb.
4:14
Speaker 1: We've tried that it was useless. The first phenomenon, the
4:18
Speaker 1: initial manifestations happened in the country, at our villa and Foscolara.
4:23
Speaker 1: We ran away, but the same night that we arrived
4:25
Speaker 1: in the city. It's natural. What kind of distraction could
4:29
Speaker 1: your house have given you? You should have stayed away,
4:31
Speaker 1: stayed in hotels, a day here, a day there, run
4:34
Speaker 1: around all day, going to churches, monuments, museums, theaters, and
4:38
Speaker 1: returned to the hotel at night, tired, dead, tired. We
4:42
Speaker 1: did that too, But the two of you alone, I
4:45
Speaker 1: imagine you should have found some friends to keep you company,
4:48
Speaker 1: a party. We did that, It was useless. Who knows
4:52
Speaker 1: what kind of party? Happy people egotists you mean, and
4:57
Speaker 1: you found yourselves isolated among them. I understand we took
5:01
Speaker 1: part in their happiness sincerely, we were carefree, but as
5:05
Speaker 1: soon as we were alone, we couldn't get them to
5:07
Speaker 1: sleep with us. But where did you sleep then? Now?
5:11
Speaker 1: We don't understand whether you speak of hallucinations or just dreams.
5:15
Speaker 1: Enough with the hallucinations, with the dreams, we were awake,
5:19
Speaker 1: with our eyes wide open, with our senses and our
5:21
Speaker 1: spirits clear. Like I am right now trying to reason
5:24
Speaker 1: with you, and you insist on not allowing me as
5:28
Speaker 1: you wish. I at least want to tell you the facts.
5:32
Speaker 1: I know them, I can imagine them. All. The scientific
5:35
Speaker 1: books are chock full of them. There might be insignificant
5:38
Speaker 1: differences in the smallest details, they don't count. The essential
5:43
Speaker 1: nature of the phenomenon doesn't change. You don't even want
5:46
Speaker 1: to give me the satisfaction A hundred times if it
5:50
Speaker 1: will make you happy. You're the type that loves to
5:53
Speaker 1: wallow in your misery. You almost want to drink it.
5:55
Speaker 1: It's stupid. Excuse me, but if it makes you happy,
6:00
Speaker 1: you seem as though you're afraid afraid of what wouldn't
6:04
Speaker 1: that be? Something? Afraid of having to change your opinion.
6:07
Speaker 1: I've told you I don't believe in ghosts, and what
6:10
Speaker 1: if afterward you were forced to believe in them? Okay, yes,
6:14
Speaker 1: that would annoy me. What do you want? This is
6:17
Speaker 1: what we scientists are. We are men, my dear, When
6:20
Speaker 1: our way of seeing, of judging has taken a turn,
6:23
Speaker 1: the intellect refuses to remain faithful to the senses. Intelligence
6:27
Speaker 1: is a matter of habit too. You're putting my back
6:30
Speaker 1: against the wall. Go ahead, let's hear these famous facts, oh,
6:35
Speaker 1: exclaimed Lelioh Georgie with a huge sigh. You were already
6:39
Speaker 1: aware of the unfortunate circumstances that forced me to seek
6:42
Speaker 1: my fortune in America. Louis's family opposed our marriage, like
6:46
Speaker 1: all families, and I'm not saying they were wrong. They
6:50
Speaker 1: too watched over the financial situation of he who hoped
6:53
Speaker 1: to become their daughter's husband. They didn't have faith in
6:56
Speaker 1: my talent. They even doubted that I was a poet.
7:00
Speaker 1: The one little volume of juvenile verses then published was
7:03
Speaker 1: my biggest disgrace. Not that I have published or written
7:07
Speaker 1: anything since then, but you yourself just now called me my
7:10
Speaker 1: dear poet. The label has been stuck to me ever since,
7:14
Speaker 1: almost as if it were written in indelible ink. Enough,
7:17
Speaker 1: they say there's a God for drunks and for children,
7:20
Speaker 1: they need to add, and one for poets too, Since
7:23
Speaker 1: I have to pass for a poet, Just look at
7:26
Speaker 1: how literary the lot of you are. We always begin
7:29
Speaker 1: with the egg. Don't get impatient. Listen. During the three
7:34
Speaker 1: years that I lived in Buenos Aires, I never heard
7:36
Speaker 1: from Louisa. An inheritance from an uncle I had never
7:40
Speaker 1: met dropped out of the sky. I returned to Europe,
7:43
Speaker 1: ran to London, and with two hundred thousand lire from
7:45
Speaker 1: the Bank of England, flew here where the saddest disappointment
7:49
Speaker 1: awaited me. Louisa had been married for six months, and
7:52
Speaker 1: I had loved her first. The poor thing had had
7:55
Speaker 1: to give in to the pressures of her family. I
7:58
Speaker 1: swear I wasn't far from doing something and crazy these details,
8:02
Speaker 1: you see are not superfluous. I made the foolish mistake
8:05
Speaker 1: of writing her a hot hearted letter of reproach and
8:08
Speaker 1: mailed it to her. I hadn't foreseen that it might
8:10
Speaker 1: end up in her husband's hands. The next day, he
8:13
Speaker 1: presented himself at my house. I understood immediately the enormity
8:18
Speaker 1: of my act and told myself to be calm. He
8:21
Speaker 1: was calm too. I've come to return your letter, he said.
8:25
Speaker 1: I opened the envelope by mistake, not indiscretion, and it's
8:29
Speaker 1: good that it happened this way. I have been assured
8:32
Speaker 1: that you are a gentleman. I respect your pain, but
8:34
Speaker 1: I hope you don't wish to uselessly disturb my family's peace.
8:39
Speaker 1: If you can find the strength to reflect on it,
8:41
Speaker 1: you will see that no one meant to cause you
8:43
Speaker 1: harm on purpose. We can't escape certain destinies in life.
8:47
Speaker 1: You understand by now what your fate is. I tell you, then,
8:51
Speaker 1: without arrogance, that I will defend my domestic happiness at
8:54
Speaker 1: any cost. He had gone pale while speaking, and his
8:57
Speaker 1: voice shook. Please forget of my imprudence, I answered, And
9:01
Speaker 1: to reassure you, I tell you that I will leave
9:03
Speaker 1: for Paris tomorrow. I must have been even paler than him.
9:08
Speaker 1: The words left my mouth with difficulty. He held out
9:11
Speaker 1: his hand to me. I shook it, and I kept
9:14
Speaker 1: my word. Six months later, I received a telegram from Louisa.
9:19
Speaker 1: I am a widow. I still love you, and you
9:22
Speaker 1: her husband had been dead for two months. That's how
9:25
Speaker 1: the world is. One man's misfortune is another man's happiness.
9:30
Speaker 1: That's what I selfishly thought, too, But it's not always true.
9:34
Speaker 1: I felt like I touched the sky and the night
9:37
Speaker 1: of my wedding, and during the first few months of
9:39
Speaker 1: our marriage we avoided by tacit agreements speaking of him.
9:43
Speaker 1: Louisa had destroyed all traces of him, not out of ingratitude,
9:47
Speaker 1: since he, fooling himself that he was loved, would have
9:49
Speaker 1: done anything to make her happy, but because she feared
9:53
Speaker 1: that even a shadow of a memory, however insignificant, might
9:56
Speaker 1: upset me. She guessed right. At certain times, the thought
10:00
Speaker 1: that the body of my darling had been in full possession,
10:02
Speaker 1: however legitimate, of another, wrung my heart so that I
10:05
Speaker 1: shuddered from head to toe. I forced myself to hide
10:09
Speaker 1: it from her feminine intuition. However, often clouded Louise's beautiful
10:13
Speaker 1: eyes with melancholy, and so I saw her beaming with
10:16
Speaker 1: joy when she was sure of being able to announce
10:19
Speaker 1: that the fruit of our love was beating within her breast.
10:22
Speaker 1: I remember it perfectly. We were drinking coffee. I was standing,
10:26
Speaker 1: She was sitting, with a posture of sweet weariness. It
10:30
Speaker 1: was the first time a nod to the past escaped
10:32
Speaker 1: her lips. I am so happy. She exclaimed that this
10:36
Speaker 1: has only now happened. I heard a loud knock at
10:39
Speaker 1: the door, as if some one were beating at it
10:41
Speaker 1: with his fist. We were startled. I ran to sea,
10:45
Speaker 1: suspecting the heedlessness of a maid or servant. There was
10:49
Speaker 1: no one in the room next door. A crash, perhaps
10:53
Speaker 1: produced by the loss of heat in the wood due
10:55
Speaker 1: to the season, would have sounded like the knock of
10:57
Speaker 1: a fist. I gave such an explanation, seeing that Louisa
11:01
Speaker 1: was very troubled, But I wasn't convinced a strong sense
11:04
Speaker 1: of embarrassment. I don't know how else to define it
11:07
Speaker 1: had gotten hold of me, and I couldn't succeed in
11:09
Speaker 1: hiding it. We waited for a few minutes. Nothing from
11:14
Speaker 1: then on However, I noticed that Louisa avoided being alone.
11:18
Speaker 1: The disturbance persisted in her, although she didn't dare confess
11:21
Speaker 1: it to me, nor did I to ask her. And
11:24
Speaker 1: so now I understand you influenced each other, unknowingly, not
11:29
Speaker 1: at all. A few days later I laughed at the
11:31
Speaker 1: foolish impression, and I attributed Louise's interesting state to the
11:35
Speaker 1: excess of nervous excitement in her actions. Then she seemed
11:38
Speaker 1: to calm down too. She gave birth. After a few months, however,
11:43
Speaker 1: I realized that that sense of fear, even terror, had returned.
11:47
Speaker 1: One night, all of a sudden, she clutched at me,
11:50
Speaker 1: icy trembling. What's wrong? Are you feeling sick? I asked
11:53
Speaker 1: her anxiously. I'm scared. Didn't you hear that? No, you
11:58
Speaker 1: didn't hear that, she asked. The following night, No, Instead,
12:03
Speaker 1: this time I heard the faint sound of footsteps in
12:05
Speaker 1: the room, up and down around the bed. I said no,
12:08
Speaker 1: So as not to frighten her further, I lifted my
12:11
Speaker 1: head looked. A mouse must have gotten into the room.
12:15
Speaker 1: I'm scared. I'm scared. For many nights, at exactly midnight,
12:19
Speaker 1: the same shuffling that inexplicable coming and going up and
12:23
Speaker 1: down of an invisible person around the bed. We expected it,
12:27
Speaker 1: and your heated fantasies did the rest. You know me, well,
12:31
Speaker 1: I'm not a man who excites easily. I was good
12:34
Speaker 1: indeed for Louisa. I tried giving factual explanations, echoes, reverberations
12:40
Speaker 1: of far away sounds, idiosyncrasies in the construction of the
12:43
Speaker 1: house that made it strangely resonant. We returned to the city,
12:48
Speaker 1: but the next night the phenomenon reproduced itself with greater force. Twice.
12:52
Speaker 1: The foot of the bed was shaken violently. I jumped
12:55
Speaker 1: down to better observe it. Louisa curled up under the blanket, stammered,
12:59
Speaker 1: it's him, it's him. Excuse me, mun Jetty interrupted, I'm
13:03
Speaker 1: not saying this to put any hard feelings between you
13:06
Speaker 1: and your wife, but I wouldn't marry a widow for
13:08
Speaker 1: all the gold in the world. Some part of the
13:11
Speaker 1: dead husband always remains despite everything inside the widow. Not
13:15
Speaker 1: as your wife believes, the ghost of the dead man.
13:18
Speaker 1: It's that hymn, that is, that sensation, that impression of him,
13:22
Speaker 1: that remains indelibly inside her body. We're talking basic physiology,
13:27
Speaker 1: it could be, but responded lelioh, Georgie, what does your
13:31
Speaker 1: physiology have to do with me? You've been influenced now,
13:35
Speaker 1: it's clear, clear as day, only influenced at night at
13:39
Speaker 1: a fixed hour, expectant attention. Oh, you're a prodigy, And
13:44
Speaker 1: how can the phenomenon changes each time with unexpected details
13:48
Speaker 1: when my imagination doesn't work to that extent? So it
13:51
Speaker 1: seems to you we're not always aware of what goes
13:54
Speaker 1: on inside us the unconscious. Hey, hey, you're a prodigy again.
13:59
Speaker 1: Let me contine you save your explanations until I've finished.
14:03
Speaker 1: Note that in the morning, during the day we thought
14:05
Speaker 1: over the facts with relative tranquility, Louisa reminded me of
14:09
Speaker 1: what she had heard to compare it with what I
14:12
Speaker 1: had heard. Precisely, do convince ourselves, as you say, that
14:15
Speaker 1: our over excited imaginations had invented it, that awful joke.
14:19
Speaker 1: It turned out that we had heard the same identical
14:22
Speaker 1: sound of footsteps in the same direction, now slow, now fast,
14:27
Speaker 1: the same shaking at the foot of the bed, the
14:29
Speaker 1: same tug at the blankets, and under the same circumstances.
14:32
Speaker 1: That is, when I tried with a caress or a
14:34
Speaker 1: kiss to soothe her fear, to keep her from crying out.
14:37
Speaker 1: It's him, it's him. It was almost as if that kiss,
14:41
Speaker 1: that caress were provoking anger in the invisible person. Then
14:45
Speaker 1: one night, Louisa, clutching her neck, bringing her lips to
14:48
Speaker 1: my ear, whispered in a tone of voice that startled me.
14:52
Speaker 1: He spoke. What did he say? I couldn't hear. Well,
14:56
Speaker 1: did you hear it? He said, You're mine? And even
14:59
Speaker 1: as I held her tightly to my chest, I could
15:02
Speaker 1: feel that Louisa's arms were being pulled back violently by
15:05
Speaker 1: two powerful hands, and they might have had to yield
15:08
Speaker 1: despite Louisa's resistance. What resistance could she put up if
15:13
Speaker 1: it was she herself shaking that way without being aware
15:15
Speaker 1: of it? All right, But I felt an obstruction too,
15:20
Speaker 1: someone interfering between me and her, someone who wanted to
15:23
Speaker 1: obstruct at all costs contact between me and her. I
15:27
Speaker 1: saw my wife thrown backwards. She was shoved since Louisa
15:31
Speaker 1: wanted to stay up because the baby was sleeping the
15:33
Speaker 1: cradle next to the bed, and we had heard the
15:35
Speaker 1: bars that the cradle hung from creaking, and had seen
15:38
Speaker 1: the cradle rocking and wobbling, and the covers go flying
15:41
Speaker 1: across the room, thrown into the air. That wasn't a hallucination.
15:46
Speaker 1: We gathered the covers, Louisa, trembling, put them back in place,
15:49
Speaker 1: but not long after, they flew into the air again,
15:51
Speaker 1: and the baby, roused by the shaking, cried. Three nights ago,
15:55
Speaker 1: it got worse. Louisa seemed overpowered by his evil charm.
16:00
Speaker 1: She no longer heard me if I called for her.
16:03
Speaker 1: She didn't realize that I was in front of her.
16:05
Speaker 1: She talked to him, and from her response as I
16:07
Speaker 1: understood what he was saying, what fault is it of mine?
16:10
Speaker 1: If you're dead? Oh no, no, how can you think it?
16:16
Speaker 1: Me poison you? To rid myself of you? How shameful?
16:21
Speaker 1: And the baby? What fault is it of his? You're suffering.
16:25
Speaker 1: I'll pray for you. I'll have masses. Said, you don't
16:28
Speaker 1: want masses, you want me? But how you're dead? In vain?
16:34
Speaker 1: I shook her. I called to her to rouse her
16:36
Speaker 1: from her fixation, her hallucination. All of a sudden, Louisa
16:40
Speaker 1: recomposed herself. Did you hear that? She said to me,
16:43
Speaker 1: they're accusing me of poisoning him. You don't believe it.
16:47
Speaker 1: You wouldn't think me capable. Oh God, and what will
16:50
Speaker 1: we do about the baby? He'll kill him? Did you
16:53
Speaker 1: hear him? I hadn't heard anything, but I understood perfectly
16:56
Speaker 1: well that Louisa wasn't crazy, She wasn't delirious. She cried
17:00
Speaker 1: taking the baby out of the cradle and holding it
17:03
Speaker 1: very tightly to protect it from his evil. What will
17:06
Speaker 1: we do? What will we do? But the baby was fine.
17:10
Speaker 1: This should have calmed you down. What do you want?
17:13
Speaker 1: Even the most solid headed person can't witness something of
17:15
Speaker 1: that nature without being shaken. I'm not superstitious, but neither
17:19
Speaker 1: am I a free thinker, and the type that either
17:21
Speaker 1: believes or doesn't believe, the type that isn't interested in
17:24
Speaker 1: religious matters that I don't have the time or the desire.
17:28
Speaker 1: But in my situation, and under the influence of my
17:31
Speaker 1: wife's words, I'll have masses said for you. Naturally, I
17:34
Speaker 1: thought of having a priest intervene. You had an exorcism? No,
17:38
Speaker 1: but I had him blessed the house with lots of
17:40
Speaker 1: holy water scattered around to make an impression on poor
17:43
Speaker 1: Louisa's imagination too, as if it were a case of
17:46
Speaker 1: exaggerated imagination of upset nerves. Louisa is a believer. You laugh,
17:52
Speaker 1: but I'd like to have seen you in my shoes
17:54
Speaker 1: and the holy water useless as if it hadn't been used.
17:58
Speaker 1: It wasn't a bad idea. At times, science, too, resorts
18:02
Speaker 1: to similar methods in cases of nervous illnesses. We had
18:05
Speaker 1: a case of someone who believed his nose had grown
18:07
Speaker 1: enormously long. The doctor pretended to operate on him with
18:11
Speaker 1: all the instruments, tying up of veins, bandages, and the
18:14
Speaker 1: patient healed the holy water instead made it worse the
18:18
Speaker 1: next night. Oh, I feel a shudder just thinking about it. Now.
18:23
Speaker 1: All of his hatred was directed towards the baby. How
18:26
Speaker 1: to protect him? Soon Louisa saw or thought she saw.
18:31
Speaker 1: She saw my friend. She saw I saw too. Almost
18:35
Speaker 1: since my wife couldn't get any closer to the cradle,
18:38
Speaker 1: a strange force blocked her. I trembled at the sight
18:41
Speaker 1: of her with her arms desolately reaching towards the cradle
18:44
Speaker 1: while he, Louisa told me, stooped over the sleeping baby
18:48
Speaker 1: was doing something terrible, mouth to mouth, as if he
18:51
Speaker 1: were sucking out its life, its blood. Three nights in
18:54
Speaker 1: a row, the same nefarious operation was repeated, and the baby,
18:57
Speaker 1: our dear little boy, he was no long recognizable, pale
19:02
Speaker 1: white when he had been such a rosy child, as
19:05
Speaker 1: if he had really sucked out its blood, so incredibly
19:08
Speaker 1: wasted in just three nights. Is this my imagination? Is
19:12
Speaker 1: it my imagination? You come and look, then it must be.
19:17
Speaker 1: When Jady was pensive for a few minutes, his head down,
19:20
Speaker 1: knitting his eyebrows, a somewhat sarcastic, somewhat compassionate smile had
19:25
Speaker 1: appeared on his lips while Lalioh Georgie spoke, but it
19:28
Speaker 1: had suddenly disappeared. Then he raised his eyes, looked at
19:31
Speaker 1: his friend, who was watching him and anxiously waiting, and repeated,
19:36
Speaker 1: then it must be. Listen closely. I'm not going to
19:39
Speaker 1: explain anything to you, because I'm convinced that I can't
19:42
Speaker 1: explain anything. It's hard to be any more frank than this.
19:46
Speaker 1: But I can give you advice, empirical advice that might
19:50
Speaker 1: make you laugh, especially coming from me. Use it how
19:52
Speaker 1: you wish. I'll follow it to day right away. It
19:56
Speaker 1: will take a few days, for several steps are required.
19:59
Speaker 1: I'll help you get through them as quickly as possible.
20:02
Speaker 1: I don't doubt the things that you have told me.
20:05
Speaker 1: I must add that while science is reluctant to get
20:07
Speaker 1: involved with phenomena of such a nature, it has for
20:10
Speaker 1: a while now been less contemptuous than in the past.
20:13
Speaker 1: It is trying to restore these things to the realm
20:15
Speaker 1: of natural phenomena. For science, nothing else exists outside of
20:19
Speaker 1: the material world. Ghosts science, least, ghosts to the believers,
20:24
Speaker 1: the mystics, and those imaginative people that today we call spiritualists.
20:29
Speaker 1: For science, only the body is real, this structure of
20:31
Speaker 1: flesh and bone that makes up an individual, and which
20:34
Speaker 1: disintegrates upon his death, resolving itself into the chemical elements
20:38
Speaker 1: that make up life and thought disintegrate it. But soon
20:42
Speaker 1: the question is reduced, according to some, to knowing whether
20:46
Speaker 1: putre faction, the disintegration of atoms, or better, their organic
20:49
Speaker 1: function stops instantaneously upon death, a nulling individuality if so facto,
20:55
Speaker 1: or whether it endures, according to circumstances, for shorter or
20:59
Speaker 1: longer time after death. You begin to suspect, and on
21:03
Speaker 1: this point science would find itself in agreement with popular belief.
21:07
Speaker 1: For the past three years, I have been studying the
21:09
Speaker 1: folk remedies of old women peasants to explain to myself
21:12
Speaker 1: what their value is. Quite often they heal poorly what
21:16
Speaker 1: science doesn't know how to heal. Do you know what
21:19
Speaker 1: my opinion is to day? These folk remedies are the
21:22
Speaker 1: remains the fragments of an ancient secret science, and more
21:25
Speaker 1: likely of the instincts that animals are proven to have.
21:29
Speaker 1: From the beginning, when man was much closer to beasts
21:32
Speaker 1: than he is now, even he deduced the therapeutic value
21:35
Speaker 1: of certain herbs, and their use has perpetuated passed down
21:39
Speaker 1: from generation to generation. As with the beasts, they still
21:42
Speaker 1: operate by instinct. In man, with the development of his faculties,
21:47
Speaker 1: this proode of virtue became obscured, but the tradition persists
21:51
Speaker 1: all the same. These old women, who are more firmly
21:54
Speaker 1: attached to the practice, have retained some tips from natural medicine,
21:58
Speaker 1: and I think science should be paid attention to this fact,
22:01
Speaker 1: because in every superstition hides something that is not just
22:04
Speaker 1: a deceptive observation of ignorance. Please excuse my long digression.
22:10
Speaker 1: Some scientists now admit that is with the apparent death
22:13
Speaker 1: of the individual. The functioning of individual existence doesn't really
22:17
Speaker 1: cease until all the elements have completely disintegrated. Popular superstition,
22:22
Speaker 1: for this is the word we use, has already defined
22:25
Speaker 1: it in part with its belief in vampires. And I
22:28
Speaker 1: had defined the remedy, vampires would have a more persistent
22:32
Speaker 1: individuality than others in rare cases. Yes, but it's possible
22:36
Speaker 1: even without admitting the immortality of the soul of the spirit.
22:40
Speaker 1: Don't look at me like that. It's a fact and
22:42
Speaker 1: not so uncommon that so called popular superstition, or better said,
22:47
Speaker 1: primitive divination, could find itself in agreement with science. And
22:51
Speaker 1: do you know what the defense against the evil actions
22:53
Speaker 1: of vampires is these persistent individualities who believe they can
22:57
Speaker 1: prolong their existence by sucking the blood or vital essence
23:01
Speaker 1: from healthy people to accelerate the destruction of their bodies.
23:05
Speaker 1: In the places where this happens, the old women, the
23:08
Speaker 1: peasants run to the cemetery, dig up the corpse and
23:11
Speaker 1: burn it. It's proven then that the vampire has really died,
23:15
Speaker 1: and in fact the phenomenon ceases. You say that your child,
23:20
Speaker 1: come and see him. He is not recognizable any more.
23:24
Speaker 1: Louise is mad with pain and fear. I feel a
23:27
Speaker 1: Michael mad myself, or even be possessed by that diabolical suspect.
23:32
Speaker 1: But in Vain, I tell myself it's not true. It
23:35
Speaker 1: can't be true. In Vain, I tried to comfort myself,
23:38
Speaker 1: thinking and what if it were true, It's a proof
23:41
Speaker 1: of love. She poisoned him for you in Vain. I
23:46
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm sick of defending myself from a living repugnance,
23:50
Speaker 1: from this heart breakingly violent distancing, another one of his
23:54
Speaker 1: evil acts. He insists on reproach. I understand it from
23:58
Speaker 1: Louise's responses when he had her under his horrid spell,
24:02
Speaker 1: and the poor thing protested poison you me? How can
24:06
Speaker 1: you think it? Oh, we can't go on, my friend.
24:10
Speaker 1: For months and months, we've withstood this torment without saying
24:13
Speaker 1: a word to anyone, for fear of being laughed at
24:15
Speaker 1: by unscrupulous friends. You are the first person that I've
24:19
Speaker 1: had the courage to confide in out of desperation to
24:22
Speaker 1: seek advice away out. And still we would have patiently
24:26
Speaker 1: withstood everything, fooling ourselves that such strange phenomena couldn't go
24:30
Speaker 1: on for so long. If our little child weren't now
24:33
Speaker 1: in danger. You must burn the corpse. It's an experiment
24:37
Speaker 1: that interests me, not just as a friend, but as
24:39
Speaker 1: a scientist. Your wife, although no longer a widow, will
24:43
Speaker 1: be easily granted permission. I will help you in matters
24:47
Speaker 1: regarding the authorities. And I'm not ashamed for science, of
24:50
Speaker 1: which I am a poor lover. Science doesn't lose any
24:53
Speaker 1: dignity when it runs to folk wisdom, turning superstition into
24:57
Speaker 1: its prize. If you can then prove that it is
24:59
Speaker 1: only superstition in appearance, then science will be inspired to
25:03
Speaker 1: try new research to discover unexpected truths. Science must be
25:08
Speaker 1: modest good while continuing its heritage of facts and truths.
25:12
Speaker 1: You must burn the corpse, and telling you quite seriously,
25:17
Speaker 1: added mun Jetty, reading the doubt in his friend's eyes
25:19
Speaker 1: of being treated by old women or ignorant people. And
25:23
Speaker 1: the baby, meanwhile exclaimed laeliuh Georgie, wringing his hands. One night,
25:28
Speaker 1: I felt a surge of anger. I hurled myself against him,
25:32
Speaker 1: following the direction in which Louisa was looking as if
25:34
Speaker 1: he were a person that I could grab and choke.
25:37
Speaker 1: I hurled myself against him crying, go away, go away,
25:41
Speaker 1: you devil. But after a few steps I was stopped, paralyzed,
25:45
Speaker 1: nailed in place at a distance, with the words dying
25:48
Speaker 1: in my throat, unable even to translate themselves into an
25:52
Speaker 1: indistinct moan. You can't believe. You can't imagine if you
25:56
Speaker 1: would allow me to keep your company to night. There,
26:00
Speaker 1: you asked me in such a suspicious tone. You're mistaken.
26:04
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll make it worse. I feel that your presence
26:07
Speaker 1: might irritate him, more like having the house blessed. No,
26:11
Speaker 1: not to night. I'll come to see you tomorrow. And
26:15
Speaker 1: the next day. He returned so frightened, so defeated, that
26:19
Speaker 1: mun Jetti entertained certain doubts about the integrity of his
26:22
Speaker 1: friend's mental faculties. He knows, stammered Layluh Georgie. As soon
26:26
Speaker 1: as he entered the study. Ah, what a hellish knight,
26:30
Speaker 1: Louisa heard him, cursing, shouting, threatening terrible punishments. If we
26:34
Speaker 1: dare all the more reason that we must dare, replied mungettie.
26:38
Speaker 1: If you had seen that cradle shaking so hard that
26:41
Speaker 1: I don't even know how the baby didn't fall to
26:43
Speaker 1: the ground, Louisa was forced to get down on her knees,
26:47
Speaker 1: invoking his pity, crying to him, yes, I'll be yours,
26:50
Speaker 1: all yours, but spare this innocent baby. And at that
26:54
Speaker 1: moment it seemed that my every tie with her was broken,
26:57
Speaker 1: that she was no longer really mine, but his his.
27:01
Speaker 1: Calm down, we will win. Calm down. I'd like to
27:06
Speaker 1: be with you tonight. When Jetty went with a conviction
27:09
Speaker 1: that his presence would prevent the phenomenon from taking place,
27:13
Speaker 1: he thought, it nearly always works this way. These unknown
27:17
Speaker 1: forces are neutralized by indifferent foreign forces. It nearly always
27:21
Speaker 1: works this way. How why one day, certainly we'll know.
27:27
Speaker 1: We need to observe it, to study it. And in
27:30
Speaker 1: the early hours of the night it happened, just like
27:32
Speaker 1: he had thought it would. Louisa turned her frightened eyes
27:35
Speaker 1: around the room, pricked up her ears anxiously. Nothing. The
27:40
Speaker 1: cradle remained motionless, The baby, quite pale and thin, slept calmly.
27:45
Speaker 1: Lale Oh Georgie, holding back his agitation with difficulty, looked
27:50
Speaker 1: now at his wife, now at mon Jetty, who was
27:52
Speaker 1: smiling satisfied. Meanwhile, they discussed things that, despite their preoccupation,
27:58
Speaker 1: manage now and then to distract them. When Jedty had
28:01
Speaker 1: begun to tell the story of a very entertaining trip,
28:04
Speaker 1: he had taken a good speaker, free of any affectation
28:08
Speaker 1: of scientific gravity. He intended to divert their attention, and
28:12
Speaker 1: in the meantime to keep an eye on them in
28:14
Speaker 1: order to take note of all the phases of the
28:16
Speaker 1: phenomenon in case it should ever repeat itself. And he
28:20
Speaker 1: had already begun to persuade himself that his intervention had
28:23
Speaker 1: been beneficial, when just as he had turned his gaze
28:27
Speaker 1: towards the cradle, he noticed it moved lightly in a
28:30
Speaker 1: way that could not have been caused by any of them.
28:33
Speaker 1: Since Louisa and l'lia were seated far from the cradle,
28:36
Speaker 1: he couldn't help but pause and be noticed, and so
28:39
Speaker 1: Louisa and Laaliah leaped to their feet. The movement grew
28:42
Speaker 1: stronger by degrees, and when Louisa turned to look where
28:45
Speaker 1: when Jetty's eyes were involuntarily fixed, the cradle was rocking
28:49
Speaker 1: and jerking. There he is, She cried, Oh God, my
28:53
Speaker 1: poor little son. She went to run, but she couldn't,
28:57
Speaker 1: and she fell upside down on the couch where she
28:59
Speaker 1: had been pale, her entire body shaking, with her eyes
29:03
Speaker 1: open wide and her pupils motionless. She stammered something that
29:07
Speaker 1: gurgled in her throat but didn't take the form of words,
29:10
Speaker 1: and seemed as if it would suffocate her. It's nothing,
29:13
Speaker 1: said Munchetti, having stood up, squeezing L'aleioh's hand, which had
29:17
Speaker 1: come towards him in vivid terror, almost in defense. Louisa,
29:21
Speaker 1: at first stiffened, shook even more violently, and then suddenly
29:25
Speaker 1: seemed to return to her ordinary state, except that her
29:28
Speaker 1: attention was fully directed towards watching something that the other
29:31
Speaker 1: two didn't see, towards listening to words that they didn't hear,
29:34
Speaker 1: the meaning of which they deduced through her responses. Why
29:38
Speaker 1: do you say that I want to keep hurting you.
29:41
Speaker 1: I've prayed for you, I've had masses said for you,
29:44
Speaker 1: but you can't an all you're dead. You're not dead?
29:48
Speaker 1: Then why did you accuse me of poisoning you agreement
29:51
Speaker 1: with him? Oh, he promised you, yes, and he kept it.
29:56
Speaker 1: Pretend we planned it all along. He sent me the poison.
30:01
Speaker 1: It's absurd. You must not believe that. If it's true
30:04
Speaker 1: that the dead can see the truth. All right, I
30:08
Speaker 1: won't consider you dead. I won't repeat it again. She's
30:12
Speaker 1: gone into a spontaneous trance, said Mongetti into l'elio's ear,
30:16
Speaker 1: Allow me, taking hold of her thumbs. After a few minutes,
30:20
Speaker 1: he called out in a loud voice, Madam. On hearing
30:24
Speaker 1: the deep, annoyed, robust, and masculine voice with which she responded,
30:29
Speaker 1: Mongette jumped back. Something in Louisa had risen from the grave,
30:34
Speaker 1: with such a darkened face, with such hardness in her
30:37
Speaker 1: features that she seemed another person. The special beauty of
30:41
Speaker 1: her physiognomy, so good, gentle, almost virginal, that came from
30:45
Speaker 1: the sweet gaze of her beautiful blue eyes, and the
30:47
Speaker 1: light smile that roamed her lips like a delicate pulse,
30:50
Speaker 1: had completely disappeared. What do you want? Why are you meddling?
30:56
Speaker 1: Mongette regained self control almost immediately. His habitual scientist's mistrust
31:02
Speaker 1: made him suspect that he too must have felt by induction,
31:05
Speaker 1: by consent of his nervous system, the influence of the
31:08
Speaker 1: strong hallucinatory state of those two, as if he had
31:11
Speaker 1: seemed to see the cradle rocking and jerking, which he
31:14
Speaker 1: could see quite well, was now still with the baby
31:16
Speaker 1: inside quietly sleeping. Now that his attention was drawn from
31:20
Speaker 1: the extraordinary phenomenon of the ghost personification, he approached with
31:24
Speaker 1: a sense of spite against himself for that backwards jump
31:27
Speaker 1: at the sound of a rough voice that had nearly
31:29
Speaker 1: run him over, and imperiously responded, stop it, I order you.
31:35
Speaker 1: He had put such force of will into his expression
31:37
Speaker 1: that the command should have asserted its authority over the
31:40
Speaker 1: woman's nervous excitement, should have overcome it, he thought. The
31:44
Speaker 1: long and sardonic laugh that immediately replied to I order
31:47
Speaker 1: you shook him made him hesitate for an instant Stop it,
31:51
Speaker 1: I order you, he responded with greater force. Ah ah,
31:56
Speaker 1: you want to be the third poison him too? You
31:59
Speaker 1: lie wickedly. Bungette didn't have to restrain himself from responding
32:04
Speaker 1: like with a living person. In the already slightly disturbed
32:08
Speaker 1: lucidity of his mind, notwithstanding the efforts he made to
32:11
Speaker 1: retain an attentive and impartial observer, all of a sudden
32:14
Speaker 1: became very upset when he felt two blows to his
32:17
Speaker 1: back by an invisible hand, and in the same instant
32:20
Speaker 1: he saw a gray, semi transparent hand appear in front
32:23
Speaker 1: of the light, almost made of smoke that contracted and
32:26
Speaker 1: relaxed its fingers, rapidly, growing thinner, as though the heat
32:29
Speaker 1: of the candle's flame were making it evaporate. Do you
32:33
Speaker 1: see Do you see? Georgie asked him. There were tears
32:36
Speaker 1: in his voice. Suddenly the phenomenon stopped. Louisa woke up
32:41
Speaker 1: from her trance, almost as if she were waking from
32:43
Speaker 1: a natural dream, and looked round the room, questioning her
32:46
Speaker 1: husband and Mongette with a brief nod of her head.
32:49
Speaker 1: Lalio and Mongette questioned themselves in turn, bewildered by the
32:53
Speaker 1: sense of serenity, or better, liberation that eased their breathing
32:56
Speaker 1: and returned their heart beats to normal. No one dared
32:59
Speaker 1: to speak. Only a faint cry from the baby made
33:03
Speaker 1: them run anxiously towards the cradle. The baby wailed and wailed,
33:07
Speaker 1: struggling under the oppression of something that appeared to aggravate
33:10
Speaker 1: his mouth and impede his cries. Suddenly this phenomenon stopped too,
33:14
Speaker 1: and nothing more happened. In the morning, as he was leaving,
33:18
Speaker 1: when Jetty was thinking not only that scientists were wrong
33:21
Speaker 1: not to want to study up close those cases that
33:23
Speaker 1: coincided with popular superstition. But he repeated to himself in
33:27
Speaker 1: his mind what he had told his friend two days ago,
33:31
Speaker 1: I wouldn't marry a widow for all the gold in
33:33
Speaker 1: the world. As a scientist, he had acted admirably, leading
33:37
Speaker 1: the experiment until the end without minding it all. If
33:40
Speaker 1: in case burning the corpse of Louisa's first husband hadn't worked,
33:44
Speaker 1: his reputation with his colleagues and with the public had
33:46
Speaker 1: to suffer. Although the experiment had confirmed the popular belief,
33:51
Speaker 1: and since the day that the remains of the corpse
33:53
Speaker 1: had been burned, the phenomena had completely ceased, to the
33:56
Speaker 1: great relief of Lalio Georgie and his good wife Louisa.
34:00
Speaker 1: In its relation not yet published, mun Jetty had proved
34:03
Speaker 1: unable to be entirely sincere he hadn't said, these are
34:07
Speaker 1: the facts, and this is the result of the remedy.
34:09
Speaker 1: The claims of popular superstition were right in their negation
34:12
Speaker 1: of science. The vampire died completely as soon as his
34:16
Speaker 1: corpse was burned. No, he had placed many ifs, many
34:20
Speaker 1: butts in the smallest circumstances, had shown off the words hallucination, suggestion,
34:25
Speaker 1: nervous influence many times in his scientific reasoning, in order
34:29
Speaker 1: to confirm what he had confessed previously, that is, that
34:33
Speaker 1: even intelligence is a matter of habit, and that having
34:35
Speaker 1: to change his opinion had annoyed him. Most curious is
34:39
Speaker 1: that he did not prove to be more coherent as
34:41
Speaker 1: a man. He who had proclaimed I wouldn't marry a
34:45
Speaker 1: widow for all the gold in the world later married
34:48
Speaker 1: one for much less as sixty thousand Lira Dowry and
34:52
Speaker 1: Leelio Georgie, who had naively said, but how you, he replied,
34:58
Speaker 1: right now, not two atoms of the first husband's corpse exist.
35:01
Speaker 1: He's been dead six years, without realizing that in saying
35:04
Speaker 1: this he was contradicting the author of the scientific memoir
35:08
Speaker 1: an alleged case of vampirism, that is, he himself. End
35:15
Speaker 1: of a Vampire recording by Aaron O'Rourke