The Painting (Narrator) 1816

The student enters the candlelit chamber

Whispering servants depart

He is alone with his dying uncle

The old man hands him a key:

“Don't drink any of the wine:

Bring the bottle straight back!”

The student unlocks the door

and finds the wine

but he is drawn to a portrait

A painting of a man

Silk sleeves, a ruff around his neck

But the eyes – how they blaze

The student returns, shaking

“What is it, boy?”

“Who is the man in the painting?”

“That is Melmoth.

A relation, centuries old,

damned for denying the resurrection.

Look - he just left...”

Then the old man points to the floor

And there the student sees

The vanishing tread of damp footprints.