Ianthe is not fated to wed the romantic young Aubrey, for she is attacked and killed, as described in this following excerpt. Note that this tale contains the very first mention of teeth or a bite in relation to vampires. It is from this story that all subsequent concepts of a vampire’s canine teeth or fangs penetrating the throat of his victim have been birthed, for no such reference in Slavic folklore exists at all.
“There was no colour upon her cheek, not even upon her lip; yet there was a stillness about her face that seemed almost as attaching as the life that once dwelt there: – upon her neck and breast was blood, and upon her throat were the marks of teeth having opened the vein: – to this the men pointed, crying, simultaneously struck with horror, ‘A Vampyre! a Vampyre!’”
Aubrey sinks into a delirium at this catastrophe, and begins to resemble the Byronic hero himself. It is at this point that Ruthven returns, and by his tender care of Aubrey in his grief and illness, seems to be deserving of friendship again. The two set off to explore the more remote areas of Greece, but Ruthven is killed in a surprise attack by bandits. As he lies dying, he extracts a promise from Aubrey not to reveal his death for a year and a day, come what may.
Ruthven’s body is conveyed to a particular rock “that it should be exposed to the first cold ray of the moon that rose after his death”, and it disappears… Subsequently, deep is Aubrey’s horror when he finds an ornamental dagger sheath among Ruthven’s effects, for the sheath was clearly made to hold a particular dagger which Aubrey had found discarded at the place where Ianthe had been murdered.
Yet these are not enough horrors for Aubrey to bear. Upon his return to England, he beholds the one he thought dead… Lord Ruthven. “Remember your oath,” says the monster to him. And remember it he does, speechless with horror, ignorant all the time, as he sinks into a state resembling that of lunacy, that his sister is being wooed cunningly by Ruthven – until the day before the wedding. All his attempts to stop the wedding fail – his physicians are convinced he is raving. The wedding is solemnised – the bride and groom depart – and Aubrey takes to his bed, having burst a blood vessel in his agitation, and near to death. As he lies there, he relates to his guardians all of the doings of Lord Ruthven, and then dies.
But his words are too late. “The guardians hastened to protect Miss Aubrey; but when they arrived, it was too late. Lord Ruthven had disappeared, and Aubrey's sister had glutted the thirst of a VAMPYRE!”
The story proved an instant hit. It was immediately translated into French and German, adapted for the stage by Charles Nodier in a melodrama entitled Le Vampire (premiering on 13th June 1820), and was imported back into England in an adaptation of the play Le Vampire, now entitled The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles. Imitators on both sides of the Channel were hot on the heels of the first vampire plays, and soon theatres were packed with audiences thirsting for these gothic, romantic melodramas. The romantic vampire had now reached the common people, who proved as easily seduced by him as Polidori’s Ruthven could have wished.