Bath'ori

Bath'ori, ELISABETH, the niece of Stephan Bathori, king of Poland, and wife of the Hungarian Count Nádasdy, was born in the latter half of the 16th century. Her diabolical cruelty has condemned her memory to eternal infamy. It is said that she used to cause young girls to be put to death in the dungeons of her castle with the utmost cruelty, that she might renew her own youth from time to time by bathing in their warm blood. The details of the monstrous story are probably exaggerated, but it at least shows that she was conceived capable of it. When at length, in 1610, inquiry was made into the appalling rumours, it was discovered that this female fiend had caused to be murdered no fewer than 650 maidens. Her accomplices were burnt; but she was shut up for life in her fortress of Csej, where she died in 1614. See Baring-Gould's Book of Werewolves (1865).