Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/creatureofnighti00hume_0 (The Library of Congress.) 2. Chapter XVII. (Nemesis) is misnumbered as XV. in this edition. A CREATURE OF THE NIGHT A CREATURE OF THE NIGHT _AN ITALIAN ENIGMA_ BY FERGUS HUME AUTHOR OF "THE MYSTERY OF A HANSOM CAB," "MADAME MIDAS," "MISS MEPHISTOPHELES," "MONSIEUR JUDAS" Yea, out of the womb of the night For evil a rod, With vampire wings plumed for a flight It cometh abroad, The mission to curse and to blight Permitted by God. NEW YORK JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 150 WORTH ST., COR. MISSION PLACE Copyright, 1891, BY UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY -------- _All rights reserved_. TO GRAHAM PRICE, IN REMEMBRANCE OF ITALIAN IDLINGS, SPRING, 1891. CONTENTS CHAPTER. I. The Ghoul. II. A Boccaccian Adventure. III. The Feast of Ghosts. IV. The Angello Household. V. Lost. VI. A Haunted Palace. VII. At the Teatro Ezzelino. VIII. The Phantom of Lucrezia Borgia. IX. Fiore della Casa. X. A Voice in the Darkness. XI. The Marchese Beltrami. XII. Death in Life. XIII. "Down among the Dead Men." XIV. The New Lazarus. XV. Found. XVI. An Interrupted Honeymoon. XVII. Nemesis. XVIII. A Last Word. CREATURE OF THE NIGHT. CHAPTER I. THE GHOUL. I think it is Lord Beaconsfield who, in one of his brilliant stories, makes the clever observation that "adventures are to the adventurous," and certainly he who seeks for adventures even in this prosaic nineteenth century will surely succeed in his quest. Fate leads him, chance guides him, luck assists him, and although the adventure supplied by this trinity of circumstances may be neither so dangerous nor so picturesque as in the time of Borgia or Lazun, still it will probably be interesting, which after all is something to be grateful for in this eminently commonplace age of facts and figures. Still, even he who seeks not to prove the truth of Disraeli's aphorism, may, after the principle of Mahomet's mountain, have the adventure come to him, without the trouble of looking for it, and this was my case at Verona in the summer of 18--.