The Discovery of the Tomb

The discovery of the tomb of Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, in the ruined Chapel of Karnstein is the pivotal moment that shifts the narrative from haunted bewilderment to forensic certainty. It is the point at which the supernatural threat, which has already claimed Bertha Rheinfeldt and is draining Laura's life, ceases to be a matter of private terror and becomes a documented, legally actionable reality. The event is made possible only by the arcane scholarship of Baron Vordenburg, whose ancestor had orchestrated the very concealment of the grave generations before.

The Search and the Uncovering

Immediately after the violent confrontation in the chapel, where Carmilla vanished after General Spielsdorf's failed attack with the woodman's hatchet, the party is joined by a strange, stooping old man in black, with gold spectacles and a perpetual smile, whom the General greets as "the very man"—Baron Vordenburg. The Baron produces a roll of paper, which he spreads on a worn tomb, and a dirty little book with closely written yellow leaves. Using these documents, he traces imaginary lines on the paper, then leads the General and Laura's father down a side aisle. They begin measuring distances by paces, pulling ivy from the wall, rapping the plaster with their sticks, scraping and knocking until they ascertain the existence of a broad marble tablet with letters carved in relief. With the assistance of the woodman, who soon returns, a monumental inscription and a carved escutcheon are fully disclosed. They prove to be those of the long-lost monument of Mircalla, Countess Karnstein.

The Immediate Aftermath

The old General, though not given to prayer, raises his hands and eyes to heaven in mute thanksgiving. He then declares that the commissioner will arrive the next day and that the Inquisition will be held according to law. Turning to Baron Vordenburg, he shakes him warmly by both hands and proclaims that the Baron will have delivered the region from a plague that has scourged its inhabitants for more than a century, declaring that "the horrible enemy, thank God, is at last tracked." Laura's father then leads the stranger aside, and the General follows; Laura knows they are discussing her case, as she sees them glance often quickly at her. Her father returns, kisses her again and again, and leads her from the chapel, saying it is time to return, but that they must first add the good priest to their party and persuade him to accompany them to the schloss.

The Significance of the Discovery

The discovery of the tomb is the necessary precondition for the formal proceedings that follow the next day. It transforms the hunt from a chaotic, personal vendetta into a procedure governed by the Imperial Commission, complete with medical men, official witnesses, and a documented report. The location, which had been deliberately obliterated by Baron Vordenburg's ancestor—a former lover of the Countess who had sought to protect her remains from posthumous desecration—is now revealed by that same ancestor's own tracings and notes. The Baron's grotesque features pucker into a mysterious smile when asked how he found the spot, and he explains that his ancestor, having learned the truth about Mircalla's vampirism, had conceived a horror of her remains being profaned and had adopted the stratagem of a pretended removal of her remains and a real obliteration of her monument. Only when age had stolen upon him did that ancestor, in a different spirit, draw up the confession and the guiding notes that have now, too late for many, directed the pursuit to the lair of the beast.