"When the light was extinguish 'd, She cover'd me warm
"And she pray'd to the angels To shield me from harm"
It seems the Congressman has been busy.
I wanna hear all about it.
My dear friend.
Since our last meeting,
I have engaged in a covert campaign of destruction
aimed solely towards the wretched creatures known as vampires,
who, in my estimation, are nothing more than cowards
and ruthless killers.
You have heard of the Blood Countess, I presume.
I beg you, indulge me.
For she is a favorite of mine and an important part of our country's history.
Elizabeth Bathory was the jewel of Hungarian nobility.
Beautiful, wealthy beyond compare.
Her only burden was sharing a bed with a man she did not love.
Count Ferenc Nédasdy.
He was a generous husband who allowed Elizabeth to indulge her every whim.
Her favorite indulgence was a dark-haired, fair-skinned girl
named Anna Darvulia.
Two women? Lovers?
A trivial detail.
It is unclear when Elizabeth learned that Anna was a vampire,
or when she became one herself.
But the pair were nonetheless eager to begin eternity together.
Upon the Count's mysterious death,
the lovers began to lure young peasant girls to Cachtice Castle.
In three years' time,
Elizabeth and Anna would rob more than 600 girls of their blood,
and ultimately of their lives.
My God!
But it is worse.
The pair seemed to pride themselves
on crafting the most gruesome methods of murder.
Some girls were partially crucified.
- Their hands nailed to wooden cross... - Please be done with this, Poe.
It is too much.
At last, the peasants would tolerate no more.
But no trace of the vampire.
Elizabeth Bathory and her lover had escaped.
The horrors, Lincoln.
The horrors that these women were able to inflict in such a short time.
I was promised an important piece of our country's history.
Is there some lesson in this unpleasantness?
Or do you merely take pleasure in tormenting an old friend?
The lesson, Abraham, is this.
Elizabeth Béthory is to blame for the many vampires
- we enjoy here in America.
Word of her atrocities spread through Europe.
Centuries of whispered superstitions turned into open hatred.
Gone forever were the days of accepting vampires as a cost of life.
Gone forever was the fear of challenging them.
Vampire hunters began to appear from England to Croatia.
It became intolerable to be a vampire in Europe.
They wanted freedom from persecution.
And where could such freedom be found?
In America.
In America, Lincoln.
America was a paradise.
They loved its lawlessness, its vastness.
But more than anything, they loved its slaves.
For here, unlike any other country fit for civilized men,
here was a place they could feed on the intoxicating blood of man
without the fear of reprisal.
They are everywhere, Lincoln.
And it shall only deepen, as it did for so many centuries in Europe.
Imagine what might have happened had there been no America
for vampires to flee to.
How long would the lions have allowed the sheep to hunt them?
I tell you, some great calamity awaits us.