# Strange Story of the Dragon Volant explained — The Room in the Dragon Volant

> Chapter companion for The Room in the Dragon Volant by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

## What happens

At a masked ball, the narrator removes his mask and meets Tom Whistlewick, who introduces him to Monsieur Carmaignac. Carmaignac recounts the mysterious disappearance of the Chevalier Château Blassemare, a wealthy émigré who vanished after staying in the same room at the Dragon Volant that the narrator now occupies. The story involves a heavy bag of gold, a midnight sighting at a cemetery, and no resolution. The narrator invites both men to dine with him the next day, then returns to the inn.

## Themes in this chapter

### Danger and the Supernatural

The story of the Chevalier's disappearance, with its eerie cemetery sighting and unsolved mystery, introduces a supernatural-tinged danger surrounding the Dragon Volant.

### Isolation and Vulnerability

The narrator learns that his room at the Dragon Volant was the site of two vanishings, heightening his sense of vulnerability in a lonely setting.

### Deception and Appearance vs. Reality

The masked ball itself embodies deception, and the Chevalier's seemingly ordinary departure hides a sinister disappearance.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Attends the masked ball, removes his mask, converses with Tom Whistlewick and Monsieur Carmaignac, and invites them to dinner at the Dragon Volant.

### Tom Whistlewick

A Waterloo hero, slightly tipsy, introduces the narrator to Monsieur Carmaignac and later peeps into a fortune-teller's booth.

### Monsieur Carmaignac

A French official who relates the mysterious case of the Chevalier Château Blassemare, which involved the same room at the Dragon Volant.

### Count Château Blassemare

A wealthy émigré who disappeared after staying at the Dragon Volant; last seen at a cemetery with a pistol.

## Key lines

> I removed my mask, therefore, as I saw some other people do, who were as careless of mystery as I.

I took off my mask, following the example of others who were not concerned with keeping their identity secret.

_The narrator chooses to unmask at the ball, showing his indifference to the masquerade's mystery._

> I heard a friendly English voice call me by my name. It was Tom Whistlewick, of the —⁠th Dragoons.

An English voice I recognized called out to me; it was Tom Whistlewick, a dragoon officer.

_Tom Whistlewick, a fellow Englishman, greets the narrator at the ball._

> I heard you mention that you had engaged an apartment in the Dragon Volant, about half a league from this. When I was in a different police department, about four years ago, two very strange cases were connected with that house.

You mentioned you're staying at the Dragon Volant. Four years ago, when I worked in another police division, two peculiar incidents were linked to that inn.

_Monsieur Carmaignac reveals the Dragon Volant's dark history to the narrator._

> The boy was a little nervous as he approached this ancient cemetery; and, under the bright moonlight, he saw a man whom he distinctly recognised as the Count, whom they designated by a sobriquet which means 'the man of smiles.' He was looking rueful enough now, and was seated on the side of a tombstone, on which he had laid a pistol, while he was ramming home the charge of another.

The boy, frightened near the old cemetery, saw the Count—usually called 'the smiling man'—sitting grimly on a tombstone, loading a pistol in the moonlight.

_A witness describes seeing the Chevalier in a cemetery, preparing a weapon, shortly before his disappearance._

## Links

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