nocturnal expeditions he invariably fell into a profound
sleep, often before he could get home, and that always, during that
sleep, he was conscious of undergoing peculiar metamorphosis. When
interrogated, he informed the court of inquiry that, as a child, he
preferred the company of all kinds of animals to that of his fellow
creatures, and that in order to get in close touch with his four-footed
friends he used to frequent the most solitary and out-of-the-way
places--moors, woods, and deserts. He said that it was immediately after
one of these excursions that he first experienced the sensation of
undergoing some great change in his sleep, and that the following
evening, when passing close to a cemetery where the grave-diggers were
covering a body that had just been interred, yielding to a sudden
impulse, he crept in and watched them. A sharp shower of rain
interrupting their labours, they went away, leaving their task
unfinished. "At the sight of the coffin," Bertrand said, "horrible
desires seized me; my head throbbed, my heart palpitated, and had it not
been for the timely arrival of friends I should have then and there
yielded to my inclinations. From that time forth I was never
free--these terrible cravings invariably came on directly after sunset."

Medical men who examined Bertram unanimously gave it as their opinion
that he was sane, and could only account for his extraordinary nocturnal
actions by the supposition that he must be the victim of some strange
monomania. His companions, with whom he was most popular, all testified
to his amiability and lovable disposition. In the end he was sentenced
to a year's imprisonment, and after his release was never again heard
of. There can, I think, be little doubt, from what he himself said, that
he was in reality a werwolf. His preference for the society of animals
and love of isolated regions; his sudden fallings asleep and sensations
of undergoing metamorphosis, though that metamorphosis was spiritual and
metaphysical only, which is very often the case, all help to
substantiate that belief.

VAMPIRISM AND LYCANTHROPY

It has been asserted that Bertrand was a vampire; but there are
absolutely no grounds for associating him with vampirism. A vampire is
an Elemental that under certain conditions inhabits a dead body, whether
human or otherwise; and, thus incarcerated, comes out of a grave at
night to suck the blood of a living person. It never touches the dead.

A w