Count Carlsfeld's schloss
Count Carlsfeld's schloss is the palatial setting of the masked ball at which the vampire Carmilla, under the alias Millarca, first made contact with her victim Bertha Rheinfeldt, setting in motion the chain of predation that General Spielsdorf would later recount in horrified detail. The schloss belonged to an old friend of the General, a host whose hospitalities were described as "quite regal" and whose wealth seemed drawn from "Aladdin's lamp." It was located about six leagues to the other side of Karnstein, placing it within the same forested region of Styria where Laura's family schloss and the ruined Karnstein castle stood.
The Grand Fete and Masked Ball
The occasion that drew General Spielsdorf and Bertha to Count Carlsfeld's schloss was a series of fetes held in honor of the Grand Duke Charles, a visitor of such importance that the entertainments were "princely" in scale. The grounds were thrown open to guests, with trees hung with colored lamps and a display of fireworks that, the General claimed, "Paris itself had never witnessed." The musical program was extraordinary: the finest instrumental band perhaps in the world, and the finest singers who could be collected from all the great operas in Europe. As guests wandered through the fantastically illuminated grounds, they would suddenly hear ravishing voices stealing from the silence of some grove or rising from boats upon the lake. The General, who confessed that music was his weakness, felt himself carried back into the romance and poetry of his early youth.
The Masked Ball and the Encounter
When the fireworks ended and the ball began, the company returned to the noble suite of rooms thrown open to the dancers. The General described it as a "very aristocratic assembly," in which he was almost the only "nobody" present. Bertha, who wore no mask, was looking quite beautiful, her excitement and delight adding an unspeakable charm to her features. It was in this crowded salon that the General first noticed a young lady, dressed magnificently but wearing a mask, who appeared to be observing his ward with extraordinary interest. He had seen her earlier in the evening in the great hall and again walking near them on the terrace under the castle windows. A lady, also masked, richly and gravely dressed with a stately air, accompanied her as a chaperon. The younger of these two masked ladies, whom her mother called by the odd name Millarca, soon took the chair next to Bertha and began a conversation, while her companion engaged the General in a dialogue that piqued his curiosity by referring to little incidents from his past that he had long ceased to think of. The young stranger eventually lowered her mask, displaying a remarkably beautiful face that was new to both the General and Bertha, yet so engaging that it was impossible not to feel the attraction powerfully. Bertha was taken with her at first sight, and the stranger herself seemed quite to have lost her heart to Bertha.
The Departure and Its Aftermath
The elder lady, who revealed herself as Millarca's mother, was interrupted by a pale gentleman in black who spoke to her urgently. She told the General she must depart immediately on a mission of "life and death," traveling day and night by a devious route nearly a hundred miles. She petitioned the General to take charge of her daughter during her absence, a request she made with deprecatory terms that threw herself entirely upon his chivalry. Bertha, at the same moment, came to her uncle's side and besought him to invite her new friend Millarca to pay them a visit. Overpowered by the combined entreaties, the General consented. The pale gentleman in black conducted the Countess from the room, and the carriage departed with a troop of couriers and footmen. Millarca, after watching her mother's departure from a window with a sigh, remained with the General and Bertha for the rest of the ball, which continued until the morning sun had almost reached the horizon. In the confusion of the crowd, Millarca was lost, and the General did not find her until near two o'clock the next day, when she turned up with a story of having fallen asleep in the housekeeper's bedroom. That day she came home with them, and the General, despite his earlier misgivings, was "only too happy" to have secured so charming a companion for his dear girl. The schloss thus served as the threshold where the vampire's artful courtship began, a courtship that would end with Bertha's death and the General's vow of vengeance.
