I am a vampire. Blood does not bother me. I like blood. Even seeing my own blood does not frighten me. But what my blood can do to others-to the whole world for that matter-terrifies me. Once God made me take a vow to create no more vampires. Once I believed in God. But my belief, like my vow, has been shattered too many times in my long life. I am Alisa Perne, the now-forgotten Sita, child of a demon. I am the oldest living creature on earth.　　I awake in a living room smelling of death. I watch as my blood trickles through a thin plastic tube into the arm of Special Agent Joel Drake, FBI. 　

Chapter 1The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. The mouth was open just enough to permit a rush of water over the gills. There was little other motion: an occasional correction of the apparently aimless course by the slight raising or lowering of a pectoral fin - as a bird changes direction by dipping one wing and lifting the other. The eyes were sightless in the black, and the other senses transmitted nothing extraordinary to the small, primitive brain. The fish might have been asleep, save for the movement dictated by countless　

　　　　Little Peggy was very careful with the eggs. She rooted her hand through the straw till her fingers bumped something hard and heavy. She gave no never mind to the chicken drips. After all, when folk with babies stayed at the roadhouse, Mama never even crinkled her face at their most spetackler diapers. Even when the chicken drips were wet and stringy and made her fingers stick together, little Peggy gave no never mind. She just pushed the straw apart, wrapped her hand around the egg, and lifted it out of the brood box. All this while standing tiptoe on a wobbly stool, reaching high above 　

THE RATCATCHERA VERY long time ago the town of Hamel in Germany wasinvaded by bands of rats, the like of which had never been seenbefore nor will ever be again.They were great black creatures that ran boldly in broaddaylight through the streets, and swarmed so, all over the houses, thatpeople at last could not put their hand or foot down anywhere withouttouching one. When dressing in the morning they found themin their breeches and petticoats, in their pockets and in their boots;and when they wanted a morsel to eat, the voracious horde had...　

A CONVERT OF THE MISSIONThe largest tent of the Tasajara camp meeting was crowded to itsutmost extent. The excitement of that dense mass was at itshighest pitch. The Reverend Stephen Masterton, the single erect,passionate figure of that confused medley of kneeling worshipers,had reached the culminating pitch of his irresistible exhortatorypower. Sighs and groans were beginning to respond to his appeals,when the reverend brother was seen to lurch heavily forward andfall to the ground.At first the effect was that of a part of his performance; the...　

The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Edited with Notes By William J. Rolfe, A.M. Formerly Head Master of the High School, Cambridge, Mass. Boston 　

Mary Stuartby Alexandre Dumas, PereCHAPTER ISome royal names are predestined to misfortune: in France, there isthe name "Henry". Henry I was poisoned, Henry II was killed in atournament, Henry III and Henry IV were assassinated. As to Henry V,for whom the past is so fatal already, God alone knows what thefuture has in store for him.In Scotland, the unlucky name is "Stuart". Robert I, founder of therace, died at twenty-eight of a lingering illness. Robert II, themost fortunate of the family, was obliged to pass a part of his life,...　

Carmenby Prosper MerimeeTranslated by Lady Mary LoydCHAPTER II had always suspected the geographical authorities did not know what they were talking about when they located the battlefield of Munda in the county of the Bastuli-Poeni, close to the modern Monda, some two leagues north of Marbella.According to my own surmise, founded on the text of the anonymous author of the /Bellum Hispaniense/, and on certain information culled from the excellent library owned by the Duke of Ossuna, I believed the site of the memorable struggle in which Caesar played double or quits, once and for all, with th　

OF TRAGEDYDavid Hume1757It seems an unaccountable pleasure, which the spectators ofa well-written tragedy receive from sorrow, terror, anxiety, andother passions, that are in themselves disagreeable and uneasy.The more they are touched and affected, the more are they...　

THE SKETCH BOOKA ROYAL POETby Washington IrvingThough your body be confined,And soft love a prisoner bound,Yet the beauty of your mindNeither check nor chain hath found.Look out nobly, then, and dareEven the fetters that you wear.FLETCHER.ON A soft sunny morning in the genial month of May, I made anexcursion to Windsor Castle. It is a place full of storied and...　

109 ADHISTORIESby P. Cornelius Tacitustranslated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson BrodribbBOOK I, January - March, A.D. 69I BEGIN my work with the time when Servius Galba was consul forthe second time with Titus Vinius for his colleague. Of the formerperiod, the 820 years dating from the founding of the city, manyauthors have treated; and while they had to record the transactions ofthe Roman people, they wrote with equal eloquence and freedom. After...　

The History of Caliph Vathekby William BeckfordINTRODUCTIONWilliam Beckford, born in 1759, the year before the accession of King George the Third, was the son of an Alderman who became twice Lord Mayor of London. His family, originally of Gloucestershire, had thriven by the plantations in Jamaica; and his father, sent to school in England, and forming a school friendship at Westminster with Lord Mansfield, began the world in this country as a merchant, with inheritance of an enormous West India fortune. William Beckford the elder became Magistrate, Member of Parliament, Alderman. Four year　

New Yorkby James Fenimore CooperTHE increase of the towns of Manhattan, as, for the sake ofconvenience, we shall term New York and her adjuncts, in all thatcontributes to the importance of a great commercial mart, rendersthem one of the most remarkable places of the present age. Withinthe distinct recollections of living men, they have grown from acity of the fifth or sixth class to be near the head of all thepurely trading places of the known world. That there aresufficient causes for this unparalleled prosperity, will appear...　

410 BCIPHIGENIA AT AULISby EuripidesCharacters in the PlayAgamemnonAttendant, an old manChorus of Women of ChalcisMenelausClytaemnestraIphigeniaAchillesMessengerThe sea-coast at Aulis. Enter AGAMEMNON and ATTENDANT.Agamemnon.Old man, come hither and stand before my dwelling.Attendant.I come; what new schemes now, king Agamemnon?AGAMEMNON...　

Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russiaby Maxime Kovalevsky1891Lecture 5.Old Russian Parliaments.In our last lecture we showed what causes produced the riseof monarchical power in Russia, and tried to prove that, powerfulas was the autocracy of the Czars of Moscovy, it was limited bythe political rights of the higher nobility. The exercise ofthese rights was entrusted to the Douma or Council, and similarpowers in matters ecclesiastical were vested in a HighCommission, often mentioned by the authors of the time under thename of the consecrated Sobor. This body was composed of the...　

Ferragusby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo Hector Berlioz.PREFACEThirteen men were banded together in Paris under the Empire, allimbued with one and the same sentiment, all gifted with sufficientenergy to be faithful to the same thought, with sufficient honor amongthemselves never to betray one another even if their interestsclashed; and sufficiently wily and politic to conceal the sacred tiesthat united them, sufficiently strong to maintain themselves above thelaw, bold enough to undertake all things, and fortunate enough to...