At seven o’clock the coffin is carried by the guards to the theater. It is taken directly up to the stage and placed upright. It is left alone but in full visibility of everyone.
(Actually, Felicia will not be within, although the coffin is heavy enough to give the appearance that the coffin is occupied. It would have been placed on display before the building opened, and she will not appear in public the whole day: she will spend the time arranging her illusions, etc. That night, after the coffin has been placed in position, she will sneak in through a panel in the bottom. The whole object is to give the impression that she has spent the entire day within.)
At seven-thirty, the lights are dimmed. A spotlight strikes the coffin. The locks on the coffin, one by one, spring open. A wave of fog engulfs the stage, as the lid opens, revealing the Countess d’Sangre, lying as she were asleep, arms folded across her breasts. A crash of music and thunder, and her eyes open. She steps dramatically out on to the stage and stretches languorously, then looks out over the crowd under half-lidded eyes and visibly runs her tongue over her red lips. A pair of fangs are sharply visible just over her lower lip.
“I am Countess Camilla d’Sangre: welcome.”
After a few minutes of patter and dark humor, she begins putting the audience through a simple series of suggestability tests, all the while examining the audience’s reactions for possible subjects for her hypnotism. She will then ask whomever has responded to her suggestions and whomever is interested to raise their hands, then specifically invite anywhere from three to six individuals on stage: chairs are arranged for them facing the audience. For some reason men are most likely to volunteer.
She will pick one of the individuals to hypnotize directly, the one that seems most susceptible, usually a man, to stand facing her, at right angles between the audience and the others. She will commonly make use of the vampiric legends and use an eye fixation induction, with some mesmeric passes thrown in. As her first subject falls into a trance she turns to the others on stage, staring directly at them, passing her hand before her, and commanding “Sleep, sleep, sleep.” If anyone resists she will approach them, gaze into their eyes, and repeat the induction. If that fails she will thank them and send them back to their seat: this rarely happens. The first subject is then used for a couple of simple demonstrations of catalepsy before being sent to one of the seats.
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