Le vieux Romuald raconte à son public les faits étranges qui ont suivi son ordination. Alors jeune prêtre d'une cure de campagne, il vit une expérience troublante : le jour il est homme d'église, la nuit il est un riche seigneur de Venise. Cette existence bicéphale prend sa source avec la rencontre de Clarimonde, une courtisane sur laquelle courent les plus sordides rumeurs. Frère Sérapion met en garde Romuald : il ne doit pas se laisser tourmenter par une goule, une vampire qui n'a d'autre volonté que de l'éloigner de Dieu. Mais la fascination qu'elle exerce sur lui est telle qu'il naît entre eux un amour plus fort que la mort. Un amour qui permit à Clarimonde de revenir d'un endroit "Sans Soleil ni Lune" pour rejoindre son aimé. Pour Romuald tout est de plus en plus confus. Il ne sait qui, d'entre le prêtre ou le gentilhomme, est l'identité chimérique. Mais un soir, il découvre que Clarimonde le drogue pour qu'il s'endorme profondément de façon à ce qu'elle le pique de son aiguille en or ; et de se nourrir parcimonieusement du sang vermeil de Romuald. Violemment encouragé par Sérapion, ils vont chercher tous deux la tombe de Clarimonde dans le cimetière de la commune. Trouvant l'emplacement du cercueil, le vieil abbé Sérapion n'hésite pas à le profaner. La belle courtisane y gît, blanche mais fraîche, sereine, un filet de sang coulant de ses lèvres. Saisi d'une rage folle, Sérapion exorcise la morte dont le cadavre se disloque en un tas de " cendre et d’os ". Romuald conclura son récit par cette sentence : "Ne regardez jamais une femme, et marchez toujours les yeux fixés en terre, car, si chaste et si calme que vous soyez, il suffit d'une minute pour vous faire perdre l'éternité."
English
The story opens with the elderly Romuald recounting a strange adventure during his youth. The day of his ordination many years ago, he saw a beautiful young woman in the church. He heard her voice promising to love him and to make him happier than he would be in Paradise, if he would just leave the church. However, he was in the middle of his vows, and before he knew it, he had finished the ceremony. As he left the church, a cold hand grasped his arm and he heard a woman say "what have you done!" When he turned around, she had disappeared. On his way back to the seminary, he was greeted by a page who gives him a card reading, "Clarimonde, Palace Concini."
He continued his studies, but he was plagued by the memory of Clarimonde and regretted taking his vows. Finally, he was notified of his new parish in the country. As he was leaving town with Sérapion, an older priest who mentored him, he looks back on the town, which was covered in shadow with the exception of a golden palace on a hill. He asked Sérapion about the palace, and Sérapion answered that it was the Palace Concini, where Clarimonde the courtesan lived. He told Romuald that it was a place of great debauchery.
Romuald lived quietly in the country, pining over Clarimonde, for an indefinite period of time. One night, a man on horseback arrived asking the priest to come quickly and offer last rites to his mistress. Romuald went to a mysterious castle in the country where he saw Clarimonde dead. In his grief, he kissed her, and his kiss brought her back to life.
He woke up three days later at his home, and his maid told him that he had been brought back by the same horseman with which he left. After that, he had fallen into a fever and remained unconscious. Romuald believed that all that had passed with Clarimonde had been a dream; but a few days later, she appeared to him in his room. She looked dead, but beautiful, and she told him to prepare for a trip.
The second night, she returned, but she looked vibrant and alive. The two of them went to Venice and lived together. During the day, Romuald performed his duties as priest, and at night, he was Seignior Romuald of Venice. One night, he refused to take the sleeping draught that Clarimonde offered him each evening, and he realized that she was drinking his blood while he slept. However, Romuald admitted that he would have gladly given all his blood for her.
Eventually, this life took its toll on Romuald, and Sérapion began to suspect what was happening. Sérapion took Romuald to Clarimonde's tomb and revealed her body, miraculously preserved thanks to Romuald's blood. Sérapion poured holy water on Clarimonde's corpse, and she turned to dust.
Back in the present, Romuald tells his audience that this was the greatest regret of his life and suggests that his listeners never look at a woman, lest they meet the same fate.