In the region of the Pyrénées between Tardets and Oloron, we can find a castle, nowadays in ruins, with the name of “Château du Vampire”.
There used to live a young aristocrat – Sir Lahonce – who had married a beautiful shepherd girl, named Marguerite.
The legend concerning the couple is presented in “Les Cimetières” by Paul Sébillot [1898] and a larger version can be found in “Les Légendes des Pyrénées” by Ernest de Garay from 1857.
The two lovers have a tragic encounter in the forest. Marguerite – sickened with love [because of her not knowing if the nobleman has feeling for her] in the first part of the legend, seams to regain her straight for a while.
Lahonce on the other hand becomes paler and weaker by the day and the girl flees to his bedside to tend to him.
When she returns to the cottage she shares with her old mother she is not alone. She falls to the same illness as her lover before her and the mother is desperate to recognize the specter of Lahonce feeding on Marguerite as she sleeps.
When she tried to warn her daughter about the trap she was walking in, the poor woman was considered mad and that is how Marguerite made the trip back to the castle and awaited her wedding day – growing sicker by the night.
On her wedding night, when she was about to fall asleep around midnight, the girl heard outside [in the courtyard] a sinister howling.
She pretended to sleep and saw her husband, troubled and excited, go to the window saying: “I’m coming, I’m coming!”
He went out and returned 2 hours later, as cold as a corpse. The same happened the second night and the third as well.
The young woman followed him and saw him entering a cemetery, where, accompanied by a black dog, he went to a fresh grave.
She then saw her husband and the dog at the open grave eating a corpse. Disgusted by the scene she rushed to her chambers and climbed in bed just in time to pretend she was asleep when the vampire returned.
Sensing she was too cold to have been in bed for all the time he was away Lahonce tried to start a conversation but his young wife was too frightened to play pretend.
The next day she wanted to go see her mother thinking that the old woman would know what to advise her but the vampire told her that he will summon her mother to the castle.
Using the shadows of the night and disguised as to trick her trust, the undead got the truth out of his bride and in turned killed her.
That night he and his dog feasted on her flesh.
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† Superstitions
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