The Hadnagi, with compressed lips, ordered his men to drag them forth. They were seized by the hair, pulled reeking from their coffins and laid upon the grass. The moonlight touched their faces, and I saw their bloated cheeks and leering mouths. Then the Hadnagi had them removed from the consecrated ground and laid upon the road. Of all that crowd there were but ten or twelve persons who followed, and I, with the fascination of the horrible upon me, accompanied them. Four men, two to each body, placed themselves over the corpses, and, at the given signal, plunged a pointed stake through each of the vampire’s heart. As I live, there came from each such a wailing sob and cry as never did I dream even in nightmare. Then, with the sharp spades with which their graves had been dug open, the head of each was sawed and hacked from his body. The trunks were then taken in front of the church and burned. Heartsick and weary, filled with many thoughts of what the possibilities of horror were in this pleasant world, I turned homewards.
From— The Evening Telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pal), 11 July 1870. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
