All language subtitles for Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu Chapter 7 Descending Read by Elise Bauman.eng.eng

chapter 7 descending it would be vain my

attempting to tell you the horror with

which

even now i recall the occurrence of that

night it was no such transitory terror

as a dream leaves behind it

it seemed to deepen by time and

communicated itself to the room and the

very furniture that had encompassed the

apparition

i could not bear next day to be alone

for a moment i should have told papa

but for two opposite reasons at one time

i thought he would laugh at my story

and i could not bear it being treated as

a jest and at another

i thought he might fancy that i had been

attacked by the mysterious complaint

which had invaded our neighborhood i had

myself no misgivings of the kind

and as he had been rather an invalid for

some time i was afraid of alarming him

i was comfortable enough with my

good-natured companions madame pereidon

vivacious mademoiselle de la fontaine

they both perceived that i was out of

spirits and nervous

and at length i told them what lay so

heavy at my heart mademoiselle laughed

but i fancied that madame paradon looked

anxious

by the by said mademoiselle laughing the

long lime tree walk behind carmilla's

bedroom window is haunted

nonsense exclaimed madame who probably

thought the theme rather inopportune

and who tells that story my dear martin

says that he came up twice

when the old yard gate was being

repaired before sunrise

and twice saw the same female figure

walking down the lime tree avenue

so he well might as long as there are

cows to milk in the river fields

said madame i dare say but martin

chooses to be frightened

and never did i see fool more frightened

who's this martin where did he come from

you must not say a word about it to

carmilla because she can see that walk

from her

room window i interposed and she is if

possible a greater coward than i

somehow don't think she has that quite

right carmilla came down rather later

than usual that day

so frightened last night she said so

soon as we were together

and i am sure i should have been seeing

something dreadful if it had not been

for the charm i brought from that poor

little hunchback whom i called such hard

names

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i had a dream of something black coming

around my bed and i awoke in a perfect

horror and i really thought for some

seconds

i saw a dark figure near the chimney

piece but i felt under my pillow for the

charm

and the moment my fingers touched it the

figure disappeared and i felt quite

certain only that i had it by me

that something frightful would have made

its appearance and perhaps throttled me

as it did those poor people we heard of

well listen to me i began

and recounted my adventure at the

recital of which she appeared horrified

and you had the charm near you she asked

earnestly good actor no i had dropped it

into the china bays in the drawing room

but i shall certainly take it with me

tonight as you have so much faith in it

oh she's looking out for her at this

distance of time i cannot tell you or

even understand how i overcame my horror

so effectually is to lie alone in my

room that night

i remember distinctly that i pinned the

charm to my pillow i fell asleep almost

immediately and slept even more soundly

than usual all night next night i passed

as well

my sleep was delightfully deep and

dreamless but i awakened with a sense of

lassitude and melancholy which however

did not exceed a degree that was almost

luxurious

while i told you so said carmilla when i

described my quiet sleep

i had such delightful sleep myself last

night i pinned the charm to the breast

of my night dress

it was too far away the night before i

am quite sure it was all fancy except

the dreams

i used to think that evil spirits made

dreams but our doctor told me that it

was no such thing

only a fever passing by or some other

maladai as they often do

he said knocks at the door and not being

able to get in passes on with

that alarm and what do you think the

charm is said i has been fumigated or

immersed in some drug

as in an antidote against the malaria

she answered that it acts

only on the body certainly you don't

suppose that evil spirits are frightened

by bits of ribbon

or the perfumes of a druggist's shop no

these complaints wandering in the air

begin by trying the nerves and so infect

the brain

but before they can seize upon you the

antidote repels them

that i am sure is what the charm has

done for us it's nothing magical

just simply natural i should have been

happier if i could have quite agreed

with carmilla

but i did my best and the impression was

a little losing its force

for some nights i slept profoundly but

still early every morning i felt the

same lassitude

and delanger weighed upon me all day i

felt myself a change to girl

a strange melancholy was stealing over

me a melancholy that i would not have

interrupted

dim thoughts of death began to open and

an idea that i was slowly sinking took

gentle and somehow

not unwelcome possession of me it was

sad the tone of my mind

which this induced was also sweet

whatever it might be

my soul acquiesced in it i would not

admit that i was ill

i would not consent to tell my papa or

to have the doctor sent for me

carmilla became more devoted to me than

ever and her strange

parexisms everyday word

of languid adoration more frequent she

used to gloat on me with increasing

ardor the more my strength and spirit

waned this always shocked me like a

momentary glare of insanity without

knowing it i was now in a pretty

advanced

stage of the strangest illness under

which mortal ever suffered there was an

unaccountable fascination

in its earlier symptoms that more than

reconciled me to the incapacitating

effect of that strain stage of the

malady

this fascination increased for a time

until it reached a certain point when

gradually a sense of the horrible

mingled itself with it

deepening as you shall hear until it

discolored and perverted the whole state

of my life the first change i

experienced was rather agreeable

it was very near the turning point from

which began the descent of averness

certain vague and strange sensations

visited me in my sleep

the prevailing one was of that pleasant

peculiar

cold thrill which we feel in bathing

when we move against the current of a

river

this was soon accompanied by dreams that

seemed interminable

and were so vague that i could never

recollect their scenery and persons

or any one connected portion of their

action but they left an awful impression

and a sense of exhaustion as if i had

passed through a long period of great

mental exertion

and danger it's kind of how i feel

reading this novella

after all these dreams there remained on

waking a remembrance of having been in a

place very nearly dark

and of having spoken to people whom i

could not see and especially

of one clear voice of a females very

deep that spoke of it at a distance

slowly and producing always the same

sensation of indiscernible solemnity and

fear

sometimes there came a sensation as if a

hand was drawn

softly along my cheek and neck sometimes

it was as if warm lips kissed me and

longer and longer and more

lovingly as they reached my throat but

there the caress

fixed itself my heart beat faster my

breathing rose and fell

rapidly and full drawn a sobbing that

rose into a sense of strangulation

supervened and turned into a dreadful

convulsion

in which my senses left me and i became

unconscious

it was now three weeks since the

commencement of this unaccountable state

my sufferings had during the last week

told upon my appearance

i had grown pale my eyes were dilated

and darkened underneath

and the langer which i had felt long

began to display itself in my

countenance

my father asked me often whether i was

ill but

with an obstinacy which now seems to me

unaccountable i persisted in ensuring

him that i was quite well

in a sense this was true i had no pain i

could complain of no bodily derangement

my complaint seemed to be one of the

imagination or the nerves

and horrible as my sufferings were i

kept them with a morbid reserve very

nearly to myself

it could not be that terrible complaint

which the peasants called the au pair

for i had now been suffering for three

weeks and they were seldom ill for much

more than three days

when death put an end to their miseries

carmilla complained of dreams and

feverish sensations but by no means of

so alarming a kind as mine

i say that mine were extremely alarming

had i been capable of comprehending my

condition

i would have invoked aid and advice on

my knees the narcotic of an unsuspected

influence was acting upon me and my

perceptions were benign

i'm going to tell you now of a dream

that led immediately to an odd discovery

one night instead of the voice i was

accustomed to hear in the dark i heard

one

sweet and tender at the same time

terrible which said

your mother warns you to beware of the

assassin

at the same time a light unexpectedly

sprang up and i saw carmilla

standing near the foot of my bed and her

white nighttress bathed

from her chin to her feet in one great

stain of blood

i awakened with a shriek possessed with

the one idea that carmilla was being

murdered

i remember springing from my bed and my

next recollection is that of standing on

the lobby crying for help

madame and mademoiselle came scurrying

out of their rooms in alarm a lamp

burned always on the lobby and seeing me

they soon learned the cause of my terror

i insisted on knocking at carmilla's

door our knocking was unanswered

it soon became a pounding in an uproar

we shrieked her name but all was vain

we all grew frightened for the door was

locked we hurried back and panicked my

room there we rang the bell long and

furiously

if my father's room had been at the side

of the house we would have called him up

at once to our aid but alas

he was quite out of hearing and to reach

him involved in exertion for which none

of us had

had courage servants however soon came

running up the stairs

i had got on my dressing gown in

slippers meanwhile and my companions

were already similarly furnished

recognizing the voices of the servants

on the lobby

we sailed out together and having

renewed as fruitlessly our summons at

carmilla's door i ordered the men to

force the lock

they did so and we stood holding our

lights aloft in the doorway

and so stared into her room we called

her by her name

but there was still no reply we looked

around the room

everything was undisturbed it was

exactly in the state

in which i had left it on the bidding of

her good night

but carmilla

was gone where did she go tune in again

to find out

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