# XVIII: The Churchyard explained — The Room in the Dragon Volant

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

## What happens

After a fine dinner at the Dragon Volant, Monsieur Carmaignac recounts eerie tales of three guests who vanished from the same room the narrator occupies. The narrator later ventures to the churchyard near the Château de la Carque for a midnight meeting with the Countess, but spots Colonel Gaillarde lurking and overhears him conversing with another figure. The Countess does not appear.

## Themes in this chapter

### Danger and the Supernatural

The vanishing guests and the narrator's uneasy feelings in the room evoke supernatural danger and mystery.

### Isolation and Vulnerability

The narrator waits alone in the dark churchyard, vulnerable to discovery by Gaillarde and uncertain of the Countess's arrival.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Listens to Carmaignac's stories, then goes to the churchyard for a tryst, where he observes Colonel Gaillarde.

### Monsieur Carmaignac

Tells the story of the vanished poet and other disappearances from the narrator's room.

### Colonel Gaillarde

Spotted by the narrator in the churchyard, watching and whistling to an accomplice.

### Countess de St. Alyre

Expected at the tryst but does not arrive; the narrator follows her instructions to reach the ruinous temple.

### Tom Whistlewick

Present at dinner, comments on the story with Dutch courage.

## Key lines

> The moral effect of a really good dinner is immense⁠—we all felt it. The serenity and good nature that follow are more solid and comfortable than the tumultuous benevolences of Bacchus.

A fine dinner brings a calm and genuine good humor that is more lasting than the effects of wine.

_Reflects the narrator's observation on the dinner's impact on the group's mood._

> When men are murdered, the great and immediate difficulty the assassins encounter is how to conceal the body. It is very hard to believe that three persons should have been consecutively murdered, in the same room, and their bodies so effectually disposed of that no trace of them was ever discovered.

Murderers struggle to hide bodies, making it unlikely that three people were killed in the same room without any evidence.

_Carmaignac expresses skepticism about the vanishings being murders._

> If he were, by chance, to turn his eyes in my direction, I knew that I must reckon upon an instantaneous renewal of the combat only commenced in the hall of the Belle Étoile.

If Gaillarde saw him, a fight would immediately resume from their earlier encounter.

_The narrator fears being discovered by Gaillarde in the churchyard._

## Links

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