The Trip to Karnstein

The Trip to Karnstein marks a decisive turning point in the narrative, shifting the story from Laura's private, inexplicable sufferings into a shared, externally confirmed horror. What begins as a scenic excursion to the deserted Karnstein estate becomes the occasion for General Spielsdorf to reveal the full, terrible account of his ward's death, a story that mirrors Laura's own symptoms with uncanny precision and identifies the beautiful guest Carmilla as a centuries-old vampire.

Journey to the Ruins

Laura's father announces the trip abruptly, telling Laura and Madame Perrodon that he is going to Karnstein on business and ordering the carriage to be ready at noon. He adds that Carmilla, who has not yet come downstairs, may follow later with Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, who will bring materials for a picnic to be laid in the ruined castle. The drive itself is described as surpassingly pretty: the ground breaks into gentle hills and hollows, all clothed with beautiful wood, and the irregularities of the road cause it to wind beautifully around broken hollows and steeper hillsides. As the carriage rounds one of these points, the party suddenly encounters General Spielsdorf riding toward them, attended by a mounted servant, with his portmanteaus following in a hired wagon. The General dismounts, exchanges greetings, and is easily persuaded to accept the vacant seat in the carriage, sending his horse on ahead to the schloss.

The General's Transformation

The General's appearance has altered dramatically in the ten months since Laura last saw him. He has grown thinner, and something of gloom and anxiety has replaced the cordial serenity that once characterized his features. His dark blue eyes, always penetrating, now gleam with a sterner light from under his shaggy grey eyebrows, and angrier passions seem to have had their share in bringing about the change. Almost immediately he begins to speak of the bereavement he has sustained in the death of his beloved niece and ward, Bertha Rheinfeldt, and breaks out in a tone of intense bitterness and fury, inveighing against the "hellish arts" to which she fell victim. Laura's father, sensing that something extraordinary has occurred, asks the General to detail the circumstances. The General hesitates, warning that his story will strain credulity, but eventually agrees to relate everything in the order it happened.

The Masked Ball and the Strangers

The General's narrative begins at a magnificent masquerade held at Count Carlsfeld's schloss in honor of the Grand Duke Charles. There, he and Bertha encounter two masked women: an older lady of stately air and a younger one, whom the older calls Millarca. The older woman engages the General in conversation, displaying an uncanny knowledge of his past, while Millarca captivates Bertha with her wit and beauty. The younger stranger eventually lowers her mask, revealing a remarkably beautiful face that neither the General nor Bertha has ever seen before. The older lady, claiming urgent business, persuades the General to take charge of her daughter during her absence, a request Bertha eagerly seconds. The General, charmed and overpowered, consents, and the mother departs in a handsome carriage accompanied by a pale gentleman in black. Millarca joins the General and Bertha for the remainder of the ball, but when the festivities end near dawn, she has vanished. She reappears the next afternoon with a story of having lost them and fallen asleep in the housekeeper's room, and she returns home with them.

The Parallel Symptoms

Once installed in the General's schloss, Millarca—who is, of course, Carmilla under another anagrammatic name—exhibits the same languor and nocturnal habits that Laura has witnessed. She never emerges from her room until late afternoon, and she is repeatedly seen walking through the trees in the early morning, looking like a person in a trance, though her door remains locked from the inside. More alarmingly, Bertha begins to lose her looks and health in a mysterious and horrible manner. She suffers appalling dreams, then visions of a specter sometimes resembling Millarca and sometimes taking the shape of a beast. She experiences the sensation of an icy stream flowing against her breast, then a sharp pain like two large needles piercing her below the throat, followed by a convulsive sense of strangulation and unconsciousness. Laura, listening in the carriage, hears her own symptoms described with exact precision, and realizes with a shock that the habits and mysterious peculiarities the General attributes to Millarca are those of her own beautiful guest, Carmilla.

Arrival at the Ruined Chapel

As the General finishes his story, the carriage arrives at the roofless village of Karnstein, which has not shown the smoke of a chimney for more than half a century. The party ascends to the ruined castle, and the General points out the chapel of the Karnsteins below. He declares his purpose: to find the grave of Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, and to decapitate the monster. Laura, in a frightened dream, gets down from the carriage and follows in silence. The woodman is summoned and tells the legend of a Moravian nobleman who once destroyed a vampire in that very churchyard, but he cannot point out the exact site of Mircalla's tomb. The General, however, is undeterred, and the stage is set for the confrontation that will follow in the shadowy chapel.