4 files changed, 60816 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/3268.txt b/old/3268.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ea15f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/3268.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,29875 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Mysteries of Udolpho
+
+Author: Ann Radcliffe
+
+Posting Date: February 28, 2009 [EBook #3268]
+Release Date: June, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Karalee Coleman
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO
+
+A Romance
+
+Interspersed With Some Pieces of Poetry
+
+
+By Ann Radcliffe
+
+
+
+      Fate sits on these dark battlements, and frowns,
+      And, as the portals open to receive me,
+      Her voice, in sullen echoes through the courts,
+      Tells of a nameless deed.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 1
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+      home is the resort
+ Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where,
+ Supporting and supported, polish'd friends
+ And dear relations mingle into bliss.*
+      *Thomson
+
+
+On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, stood,
+in the year 1584, the chateau of Monsieur St. Aubert. From its windows
+were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gascony stretching
+along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vine, and plantations of
+olives. To the south, the view was bounded by the majestic Pyrenees,
+whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibiting awful forms, seen, and
+lost again, as the partial vapours rolled along, were sometimes barren,
+and gleamed through the blue tinge of air, and sometimes frowned
+with forests of gloomy pine, that swept downward to their base. These
+tremendous precipices were contrasted by the soft green of the pastures
+and woods that hung upon their skirts; among whose flocks, and herds,
+and simple cottages, the eye, after having scaled the cliffs above,
+delighted to repose. To the north, and to the east, the plains of
+Guienne and Languedoc were lost in the mist of distance; on the west,
+Gascony was bounded by the waters of Biscay.
+
+M. St. Aubert loved to wander, with his wife and daughter, on the margin
+of the Garonne, and to listen to the music that floated on its waves. He
+had known life in other forms than those of pastoral simplicity,
+having mingled in the gay and in the busy scenes of the world; but the
+flattering portrait of mankind, which his heart had delineated in early
+youth, his experience had too sorrowfully corrected. Yet, amidst
+the changing visions of life, his principles remained unshaken, his
+benevolence unchilled; and he retired from the multitude 'more in PITY
+than in anger,' to scenes of simple nature, to the pure delights of
+literature, and to the exercise of domestic virtues.
+
+He was a descendant from the younger branch of an illustrious family,
+and it was designed, that the deficiency of his patrimonial wealth
+should be supplied either by a splendid alliance in marriage, or by
+success in the intrigues of public affairs. But St. Aubert had too nice
+a sense of honour to fulfil the latter hope, and too small a portion
+of ambition to sacrifice what he called happiness, to the attainment of
+wealth. After the death of his father he married a very amiable woman,
+his equal in birth, and not his superior in fortune. The late Monsieur
+St. Aubert's liberality, or extravagance, had so much involved his
+affairs, that his son found it necessary to dispose of a part of
+the family domain, and, some years after his marriage, he sold it to
+Monsieur Quesnel, the brother of his wife, and retired to a small estate
+in Gascony, where conjugal felicity, and parental duties, divided his
+attention with the treasures of knowledge and the illuminations of
+genius.
+
+To this spot he had been attached from his infancy. He had often made
+excursions to it when a boy, and the impressions of delight given to his
+mind by the homely kindness of the grey-headed peasant, to whom it
+was intrusted, and whose fruit and cream never failed, had not been
+obliterated by succeeding circumstances. The green pastures along
+which he had so often bounded in the exultation of health, and youthful
+freedom--the woods, under whose refreshing shade he had first indulged
+that pensive melancholy, which afterwards made a strong feature of his
+character--the wild walks of the mountains, the river, on whose waves he
+had floated, and the distant plains, which seemed boundless as his early
+hopes--were never after remembered by St. Aubert but with enthusiasm
+and regret. At length he disengaged himself from the world, and retired
+hither, to realize the wishes of many years.
+
+The building, as it then stood, was merely a summer cottage, rendered
+interesting to a stranger by its neat simplicity, or the beauty of the
+surrounding scene; and considerable additions were necessary to make it
+a comfortable family residence. St. Aubert felt a kind of affection for
+every part of the fabric, which he remembered in his youth, and would
+not suffer a stone of it to be removed, so that the new building,
+adapted to the style of the old one, formed with it only a simple and
+elegant residence. The taste of Madame St. Aubert was conspicuous in its
+internal finishing, where the same chaste simplicity was observable
+in the furniture, and in the few ornaments of the apartments, that
+characterized the manners of its inhabitants.
+
+The library occupied the west side of the chateau, and was enriched by
+a collection of the best books in the ancient and modern languages. This
+room opened upon a grove, which stood on the brow of a gentle declivity,
+that fell towards the river, and the tall trees gave it a melancholy
+and pleasing shade; while from the windows the eye caught, beneath the
+spreading branches, the gay and luxuriant landscape stretching to the
+west, and overlooked on the left by the bold precipices of the Pyrenees.
+Adjoining the library was a green-house, stored with scarce and
+beautiful plants; for one of the amusements of St. Aubert was the
+study of botany, and among the neighbouring mountains, which afforded a
+luxurious feast to the mind of the naturalist, he often passed the day
+in the pursuit of his favourite science. He was sometimes accompanied
+in these little excursions by Madame St. Aubert, and frequently by his
+daughter; when, with a small osier basket to receive plants, and another
+filled with cold refreshments, such as the cabin of the shepherd did
+not afford, they wandered away among the most romantic and magnificent
+scenes, nor suffered the charms of Nature's lowly children to abstract
+them from the observance of her stupendous works. When weary of
+sauntering among cliffs that seemed scarcely accessible but to the steps
+of the enthusiast, and where no track appeared on the vegetation, but
+what the foot of the izard had left; they would seek one of those green
+recesses, which so beautifully adorn the bosom of these mountains,
+where, under the shade of the lofty larch, or cedar, they enjoyed their
+simple repast, made sweeter by the waters of the cool stream, that crept
+along the turf, and by the breath of wild flowers and aromatic plants,
+that fringed the rocks, and inlaid the grass.
+
+Adjoining the eastern side of the green-house, looking towards the
+plains of Languedoc, was a room, which Emily called hers, and which
+contained her books, her drawings, her musical instruments, with some
+favourite birds and plants. Here she usually exercised herself in
+elegant arts, cultivated only because they were congenial to her taste,
+and in which native genius, assisted by the instructions of Monsieur
+and Madame St. Aubert, made her an early proficient. The windows of
+this room were particularly pleasant; they descended to the floor, and,
+opening upon the little lawn that surrounded the house, the eye was led
+between groves of almond, palm-trees, flowering-ash, and myrtle, to the
+distant landscape, where the Garonne wandered.
+
+The peasants of this gay climate were often seen on an evening, when
+the day's labour was done, dancing in groups on the margin of the river.
+Their sprightly melodies, debonnaire steps, the fanciful figure of
+their dances, with the tasteful and capricious manner in which the girls
+adjusted their simple dress, gave a character to the scene entirely
+French.
+
+The front of the chateau, which, having a southern aspect, opened upon
+the grandeur of the mountains, was occupied on the ground floor by a
+rustic hall, and two excellent sitting rooms. The first floor, for the
+cottage had no second story, was laid out in bed-chambers, except one
+apartment that opened to a balcony, and which was generally used for a
+breakfast-room.
+
+In the surrounding ground, St. Aubert had made very tasteful
+improvements; yet, such was his attachment to objects he had remembered
+from his boyish days, that he had in some instances sacrificed taste
+to sentiment. There were two old larches that shaded the building, and
+interrupted the prospect; St. Aubert had sometimes declared that he
+believed he should have been weak enough to have wept at their fall. In
+addition to these larches he planted a little grove of beech, pine, and
+mountain-ash. On a lofty terrace, formed by the swelling bank of the
+river, rose a plantation of orange, lemon, and palm-trees, whose fruit,
+in the coolness of evening, breathed delicious fragrance. With these
+were mingled a few trees of other species. Here, under the ample shade
+of a plane-tree, that spread its majestic canopy towards the river, St.
+Aubert loved to sit in the fine evenings of summer, with his wife and
+children, watching, beneath its foliage, the setting sun, the mild
+splendour of its light fading from the distant landscape, till the
+shadows of twilight melted its various features into one tint of sober
+grey. Here, too, he loved to read, and to converse with Madame St.
+Aubert; or to play with his children, resigning himself to the influence
+of those sweet affections, which are ever attendant on simplicity and
+nature. He has often said, while tears of pleasure trembled in his eyes,
+that these were moments infinitely more delightful than any passed amid
+the brilliant and tumultuous scenes that are courted by the world. His
+heart was occupied; it had, what can be so rarely said, no wish for a
+happiness beyond what it experienced. The consciousness of acting right
+diffused a serenity over his manners, which nothing else could impart
+to a man of moral perceptions like his, and which refined his sense of
+every surrounding blessing.
+
+The deepest shade of twilight did not send him from his favourite
+plane-tree. He loved the soothing hour, when the last tints of light
+die away; when the stars, one by one, tremble through aether, and are
+reflected on the dark mirror of the waters; that hour, which, of all
+others, inspires the mind with pensive tenderness, and often elevates
+it to sublime contemplation. When the moon shed her soft rays among the
+foliage, he still lingered, and his pastoral supper of cream and fruits
+was often spread beneath it. Then, on the stillness of night, came the
+song of the nightingale, breathing sweetness, and awakening melancholy.
+
+The first interruptions to the happiness he had known since his
+retirement, were occasioned by the death of his two sons. He lost them
+at that age when infantine simplicity is so fascinating; and though,
+in consideration of Madame St. Aubert's distress, he restrained the
+expression of his own, and endeavoured to bear it, as he meant, with
+philosophy, he had, in truth, no philosophy that could render him calm
+to such losses. One daughter was now his only surviving child; and,
+while he watched the unfolding of her infant character, with anxious
+fondness, he endeavoured, with unremitting effort, to counteract
+those traits in her disposition, which might hereafter lead her from
+happiness. She had discovered in her early years uncommon delicacy
+of mind, warm affections, and ready benevolence; but with these was
+observable a degree of susceptibility too exquisite to admit of lasting
+peace. As she advanced in youth, this sensibility gave a pensive tone to
+her spirits, and a softness to her manner, which added grace to beauty,
+and rendered her a very interesting object to persons of a congenial
+disposition. But St. Aubert had too much good sense to prefer a charm
+to a virtue; and had penetration enough to see, that this charm was too
+dangerous to its possessor to be allowed the character of a blessing. He
+endeavoured, therefore, to strengthen her mind; to enure her to habits
+of self-command; to teach her to reject the first impulse of her
+feelings, and to look, with cool examination, upon the disappointments
+he sometimes threw in her way. While he instructed her to resist first
+impressions, and to acquire that steady dignity of mind, that can alone
+counterbalance the passions, and bear us, as far as is compatible with
+our nature, above the reach of circumstances, he taught himself a
+lesson of fortitude; for he was often obliged to witness, with seeming
+indifference, the tears and struggles which his caution occasioned her.
+
+In person, Emily resembled her mother; having the same elegant symmetry
+of form, the same delicacy of features, and the same blue eyes, full
+of tender sweetness. But, lovely as was her person, it was the varied
+expression of her countenance, as conversation awakened the nicer
+emotions of her mind, that threw such a captivating grace around her:
+
+ Those tend'rer tints, that shun the careless eye,
+ And, in the world's contagious circle, die.
+
+St. Aubert cultivated her understanding with the most scrupulous care.
+He gave her a general view of the sciences, and an exact acquaintance
+with every part of elegant literature. He taught her Latin and English,
+chiefly that she might understand the sublimity of their best poets. She
+discovered in her early years a taste for works of genius; and it was
+St. Aubert's principle, as well as his inclination, to promote every
+innocent means of happiness. 'A well-informed mind,' he would say, 'is
+the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant
+mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to
+escape from the languor of idleness. Store it with ideas, teach it the
+pleasure of thinking; and the temptations of the world without, will
+be counteracted by the gratifications derived from the world within.
+Thought, and cultivation, are necessary equally to the happiness of a
+country and a city life; in the first they prevent the uneasy sensations
+of indolence, and afford a sublime pleasure in the taste they create for
+the beautiful, and the grand; in the latter, they make dissipation less
+an object of necessity, and consequently of interest.'
+
+It was one of Emily's earliest pleasures to ramble among the scenes
+of nature; nor was it in the soft and glowing landscape that she
+most delighted; she loved more the wild wood-walks, that skirted the
+mountain; and still more the mountain's stupendous recesses, where the
+silence and grandeur of solitude impressed a sacred awe upon her heart,
+and lifted her thoughts to the GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. In scenes like
+these she would often linger along, wrapt in a melancholy charm, till
+the last gleam of day faded from the west; till the lonely sound of a
+sheep-bell, or the distant bark of a watch-dog, were all that broke
+on the stillness of the evening. Then, the gloom of the woods; the
+trembling of their leaves, at intervals, in the breeze; the bat,
+flitting on the twilight; the cottage-lights, now seen, and now
+lost--were circumstances that awakened her mind into effort, and led to
+enthusiasm and poetry.
+
+Her favourite walk was to a little fishing-house, belonging to St.
+Aubert, in a woody glen, on the margin of a rivulet that descended from
+the Pyrenees, and, after foaming among their rocks, wound its silent
+way beneath the shades it reflected. Above the woods, that screened this
+glen, rose the lofty summits of the Pyrenees, which often burst boldly
+on the eye through the glades below. Sometimes the shattered face of
+a rock only was seen, crowned with wild shrubs; or a shepherd's cabin
+seated on a cliff, overshadowed by dark cypress, or waving ash. Emerging
+from the deep recesses of the woods, the glade opened to the distant
+landscape, where the rich pastures and vine-covered slopes of Gascony
+gradually declined to the plains; and there, on the winding shores of
+the Garonne, groves, and hamlets, and villas--their outlines softened by
+distance, melted from the eye into one rich harmonious tint.
+
+This, too, was the favourite retreat of St. Aubert, to which he
+frequently withdrew from the fervour of noon, with his wife, his
+daughter, and his books; or came at the sweet evening hour to welcome
+the silent dusk, or to listen for the music of the nightingale.
+Sometimes, too, he brought music of his own, and awakened every fairy
+echo with the tender accents of his oboe; and often have the tones of
+Emily's voice drawn sweetness from the waves, over which they trembled.
+
+It was in one of these excursions to this spot, that she observed the
+following lines written with a pencil on a part of the wainscot:
+
+ SONNET
+
+ Go, pencil! faithful to thy master's sighs!
+ Go--tell the Goddess of the fairy scene,
+ When next her light steps wind these wood-walks green,
+ Whence all his tears, his tender sorrows, rise;
+ Ah! paint her form, her soul-illumin'd eyes,
+ The sweet expression of her pensive face,
+ The light'ning smile, the animated grace--
+ The portrait well the lover's voice supplies;
+ Speaks all his heart must feel, his tongue would say:
+ Yet ah! not all his heart must sadly feel!
+ How oft the flow'ret's silken leaves conceal
+ The drug that steals the vital spark away!
+ And who that gazes on that angel-smile,
+ Would fear its charm, or think it could beguile!
+
+These lines were not inscribed to any person; Emily therefore could not
+apply them to herself, though she was undoubtedly the nymph of these
+shades. Having glanced round the little circle of her acquaintance
+without being detained by a suspicion as to whom they could be
+addressed, she was compelled to rest in uncertainty; an uncertainty
+which would have been more painful to an idle mind than it was to hers.
+She had no leisure to suffer this circumstance, trifling at first, to
+swell into importance by frequent remembrance. The little vanity it had
+excited (for the incertitude which forbade her to presume upon having
+inspired the sonnet, forbade her also to disbelieve it) passed away,
+and the incident was dismissed from her thoughts amid her books, her
+studies, and the exercise of social charities.
+
+Soon after this period, her anxiety was awakened by the indisposition of
+her father, who was attacked with a fever; which, though not thought to
+be of a dangerous kind, gave a severe shock to his constitution.
+Madame St. Aubert and Emily attended him with unremitting care; but
+his recovery was very slow, and, as he advanced towards health, Madame
+seemed to decline.
+
+The first scene he visited, after he was well enough to take the
+air, was his favourite fishing-house. A basket of provisions was sent
+thither, with books, and Emily's lute; for fishing-tackle he had no use,
+for he never could find amusement in torturing or destroying.
+
+After employing himself, for about an hour, in botanizing, dinner was
+served. It was a repast, to which gratitude, for being again permitted
+to visit this spot, gave sweetness; and family happiness once more
+smiled beneath these shades. Monsieur St. Aubert conversed with unusual
+cheerfulness; every object delighted his senses. The refreshing pleasure
+from the first view of nature, after the pain of illness, and the
+confinement of a sick-chamber, is above the conceptions, as well as
+the descriptions, of those in health. The green woods and pastures; the
+flowery turf; the blue concave of the heavens; the balmy air; the murmur
+of the limpid stream; and even the hum of every little insect of the
+shade, seem to revivify the soul, and make mere existence bliss.
+
+Madame St. Aubert, reanimated by the cheerfulness and recovery of her
+husband, was no longer sensible of the indisposition which had lately
+oppressed her; and, as she sauntered along the wood-walks of this
+romantic glen, and conversed with him, and with her daughter, she often
+looked at them alternately with a degree of tenderness, that filled her
+eyes with tears. St. Aubert observed this more than once, and gently
+reproved her for the emotion; but she could only smile, clasp his hand,
+and that of Emily, and weep the more. He felt the tender enthusiasm
+stealing upon himself in a degree that became almost painful; his
+features assumed a serious air, and he could not forbear secretly
+sighing--'Perhaps I shall some time look back to these moments, as to
+the summit of my happiness, with hopeless regret. But let me not misuse
+them by useless anticipation; let me hope I shall not live to mourn the
+loss of those who are dearer to me than life.'
+
+To relieve, or perhaps to indulge, the pensive temper of his mind, he
+bade Emily fetch the lute she knew how to touch with such sweet pathos.
+As she drew near the fishing-house, she was surprised to hear the tones
+of the instrument, which were awakened by the hand of taste, and uttered
+a plaintive air, whose exquisite melody engaged all her attention. She
+listened in profound silence, afraid to move from the spot, lest the
+sound of her steps should occasion her to lose a note of the music, or
+should disturb the musician. Every thing without the building was still,
+and no person appeared. She continued to listen, till timidity succeeded
+to surprise and delight; a timidity, increased by a remembrance of the
+pencilled lines she had formerly seen, and she hesitated whether to
+proceed, or to return.
+
+While she paused, the music ceased; and, after a momentary hesitation,
+she re-collected courage to advance to the fishing-house, which she
+entered with faltering steps, and found unoccupied! Her lute lay on the
+table; every thing seemed undisturbed, and she began to believe it was
+another instrument she had heard, till she remembered, that, when she
+followed M. and Madame St. Aubert from this spot, her lute was left on
+a window seat. She felt alarmed, yet knew not wherefore; the melancholy
+gloom of evening, and the profound stillness of the place, interrupted
+only by the light trembling of leaves, heightened her fanciful
+apprehensions, and she was desirous of quitting the building, but
+perceived herself grow faint, and sat down. As she tried to recover
+herself, the pencilled lines on the wainscot met her eye; she started,
+as if she had seen a stranger; but, endeavouring to conquer the tremor
+of her spirits, rose, and went to the window. To the lines before
+noticed she now perceived that others were added, in which her name
+appeared.
+
+Though no longer suffered to doubt that they were addressed to herself,
+she was as ignorant, as before, by whom they could be written. While she
+mused, she thought she heard the sound of a step without the building,
+and again alarmed, she caught up her lute, and hurried away. Monsieur
+and Madame St. Aubert she found in a little path that wound along the
+sides of the glen.
+
+Having reached a green summit, shadowed by palm-trees, and overlooking
+the vallies and plains of Gascony, they seated themselves on the turf;
+and while their eyes wandered over the glorious scene, and they inhaled
+the sweet breath of flowers and herbs that enriched the grass, Emily
+played and sung several of their favourite airs, with the delicacy of
+expression in which she so much excelled.
+
+Music and conversation detained them in this enchanting spot, till the
+sun's last light slept upon the plains; till the white sails that glided
+beneath the mountains, where the Garonne wandered, became dim, and the
+gloom of evening stole over the landscape. It was a melancholy but not
+unpleasing gloom. St. Aubert and his family rose, and left the place
+with regret; alas! Madame St. Aubert knew not that she left it for ever.
+
+When they reached the fishing-house she missed her bracelet, and
+recollected that she had taken it from her arm after dinner, and had
+left it on the table when she went to walk. After a long search, in
+which Emily was very active, she was compelled to resign herself to the
+loss of it. What made this bracelet valuable to her was a miniature of
+her daughter to which it was attached, esteemed a striking resemblance,
+and which had been painted only a few months before. When Emily was
+convinced that the bracelet was really gone, she blushed, and became
+thoughtful. That some stranger had been in the fishing-house, during
+her absence, her lute, and the additional lines of a pencil, had already
+informed her: from the purport of these lines it was not unreasonable
+to believe, that the poet, the musician, and the thief were the same
+person. But though the music she had heard, the written lines she had
+seen, and the disappearance of the picture, formed a combination of
+circumstances very remarkable, she was irresistibly restrained from
+mentioning them; secretly determining, however, never again to visit the
+fishing-house without Monsieur or Madame St. Aubert.
+
+They returned pensively to the chateau, Emily musing on the incident
+which had just occurred; St. Aubert reflecting, with placid gratitude,
+on the blessings he possessed; and Madame St. Aubert somewhat disturbed,
+and perplexed, by the loss of her daughter's picture. As they drew near
+the house, they observed an unusual bustle about it; the sound of voices
+was distinctly heard, servants and horses were seen passing between the
+trees, and, at length, the wheels of a carriage rolled along. Having
+come within view of the front of the chateau, a landau, with smoking
+horses, appeared on the little lawn before it. St. Aubert perceived the
+liveries of his brother-in-law, and in the parlour he found Monsieur and
+Madame Quesnel already entered. They had left Paris some days before,
+and were on the way to their estate, only ten leagues distant from La
+Vallee, and which Monsieur Quesnel had purchased several years before
+of St. Aubert. This gentleman was the only brother of Madame St.
+Aubert; but the ties of relationship having never been strengthened by
+congeniality of character, the intercourse between them had not been
+frequent. M. Quesnel had lived altogether in the world; his aim had been
+consequence; splendour was the object of his taste; and his address
+and knowledge of character had carried him forward to the attainment of
+almost all that he had courted. By a man of such a disposition, it is
+not surprising that the virtues of St. Aubert should be overlooked; or
+that his pure taste, simplicity, and moderated wishes, were considered
+as marks of a weak intellect, and of confined views. The marriage of his
+sister with St. Aubert had been mortifying to his ambition, for he had
+designed that the matrimonial connection she formed should assist him
+to attain the consequence which he so much desired; and some offers were
+made her by persons whose rank and fortune flattered his warmest hope.
+But his sister, who was then addressed also by St. Aubert, perceived, or
+thought she perceived, that happiness and splendour were not the same,
+and she did not hesitate to forego the last for the attainment of the
+former. Whether Monsieur Quesnel thought them the same, or not, he would
+readily have sacrificed his sister's peace to the gratification of his
+own ambition; and, on her marriage with St. Aubert, expressed in private
+his contempt of her spiritless conduct, and of the connection which it
+permitted. Madame St. Aubert, though she concealed this insult from her
+husband, felt, perhaps, for the first time, resentment lighted in
+her heart; and, though a regard for her own dignity, united with
+considerations of prudence, restrained her expression of this
+resentment, there was ever after a mild reserve in her manner towards M.
+Quesnel, which he both understood and felt.
+
+In his own marriage he did not follow his sister's example. His lady was
+an Italian, and an heiress by birth; and, by nature and education, was a
+vain and frivolous woman.
+
+They now determined to pass the night with St. Aubert; and as the
+chateau was not large enough to accommodate their servants, the latter
+were dismissed to the neighbouring village. When the first compliments
+were over, and the arrangements for the night made M. Quesnel began the
+display of his intelligence and his connections; while St. Aubert, who
+had been long enough in retirement to find these topics recommended by
+their novelty, listened, with a degree of patience and attention,
+which his guest mistook for the humility of wonder. The latter, indeed,
+described the few festivities which the turbulence of that period
+permitted to the court of Henry the Third, with a minuteness, that
+somewhat recompensed for his ostentation; but, when he came to speak of
+the character of the Duke de Joyeuse, of a secret treaty, which he knew
+to be negotiating with the Porte, and of the light in which Henry of
+Navarre was received, M. St. Aubert recollected enough of his former
+experience to be assured, that his guest could be only of an inferior
+class of politicians; and that, from the importance of the subjects
+upon which he committed himself, he could not be of the rank to which he
+pretended to belong. The opinions delivered by M. Quesnel, were such as
+St. Aubert forebore to reply to, for he knew that his guest had neither
+humanity to feel, nor discernment to perceive, what is just.
+
+Madame Quesnel, meanwhile, was expressing to Madame St. Aubert her
+astonishment, that she could bear to pass her life in this remote corner
+of the world, as she called it, and describing, from a wish, probably,
+of exciting envy, the splendour of the balls, banquets, and processions
+which had just been given by the court, in honour of the nuptials of the
+Duke de Joyeuse with Margaretta of Lorrain, the sister of the Queen. She
+described with equal minuteness the magnificence she had seen, and that
+from which she had been excluded; while Emily's vivid fancy, as she
+listened with the ardent curiosity of youth, heightened the scenes she
+heard of; and Madame St. Aubert, looking on her family, felt, as a tear
+stole to her eye, that though splendour may grace happiness, virtue only
+can bestow it.
+
+'It is now twelve years, St. Aubert,' said M. Quesnel, 'since I
+purchased your family estate.'--'Somewhere thereabout,' replied St.
+Aubert, suppressing a sigh. 'It is near five years since I have been
+there,' resumed Quesnel; 'for Paris and its neighbourhood is the only
+place in the world to live in, and I am so immersed in politics, and
+have so many affairs of moment on my hands, that I find it difficult
+to steal away even for a month or two.' St. Aubert remaining silent, M.
+Quesnel proceeded: 'I have sometimes wondered how you, who have lived
+in the capital, and have been accustomed to company, can exist
+elsewhere;--especially in so remote a country as this, where you can
+neither hear nor see any thing, and can in short be scarcely conscious
+of life.'
+
+'I live for my family and myself,' said St. Aubert; 'I am now contented
+to know only happiness;--formerly I knew life.'
+
+'I mean to expend thirty or forty thousand livres on improvements,' said
+M. Quesnel, without seeming to notice the words of St. Aubert; 'for I
+design, next summer, to bring here my friends, the Duke de Durefort and
+the Marquis Ramont, to pass a month or two with me.' To St. Aubert's
+enquiry, as to these intended improvements, he replied, that he should
+take down the whole east wing of the chateau, and raise upon the site
+a set of stables. 'Then I shall build,' said he, 'a SALLE A MANGER, a
+SALON, a SALLE AU COMMUNE, and a number of rooms for servants; for at
+present there is not accommodation for a third part of my own people.'
+
+'It accommodated our father's household,' said St. Aubert, grieved that
+the old mansion was to be thus improved, 'and that was not a small one.'
+
+'Our notions are somewhat enlarged since those days,' said M.
+Quesnel;--'what was then thought a decent style of living would not now
+be endured.' Even the calm St. Aubert blushed at these words, but
+his anger soon yielded to contempt. 'The ground about the chateau is
+encumbered with trees; I mean to cut some of them down.'
+
+'Cut down the trees too!' said St. Aubert.
+
+'Certainly. Why should I not? they interrupt my prospects. There is a
+chesnut which spreads its branches before the whole south side of the
+chateau, and which is so ancient that they tell me the hollow of its
+trunk will hold a dozen men. Your enthusiasm will scarcely contend that
+there can be either use, or beauty, in such a sapless old tree as this.'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed St. Aubert, 'you surely will not destroy that
+noble chesnut, which has flourished for centuries, the glory of the
+estate! It was in its maturity when the present mansion was built. How
+often, in my youth, have I climbed among its broad branches, and sat
+embowered amidst a world of leaves, while the heavy shower has pattered
+above, and not a rain drop reached me! How often I have sat with a book
+in my hand, sometimes reading, and sometimes looking out between the
+branches upon the wide landscape, and the setting sun, till twilight
+came, and brought the birds home to their little nests among the leaves!
+How often--but pardon me,' added St. Aubert, recollecting that he was
+speaking to a man who could neither comprehend, nor allow his feelings,
+'I am talking of times and feelings as old-fashioned as the taste that
+would spare that venerable tree.'
+
+'It will certainly come down,' said M. Quesnel; 'I believe I shall plant
+some Lombardy poplars among the clumps of chesnut, that I shall leave
+of the avenue; Madame Quesnel is partial to the poplar, and tells me how
+much it adorns a villa of her uncle, not far from Venice.'
+
+'On the banks of the Brenta, indeed,' continued St. Aubert, 'where its
+spiry form is intermingled with the pine, and the cypress, and where
+it plays over light and elegant porticos and colonnades, it,
+unquestionably, adorns the scene; but among the giants of the forest,
+and near a heavy gothic mansion--'
+
+'Well, my good sir,' said M. Quesnel, 'I will not dispute with you. You
+must return to Paris before our ideas can at all agree. But A-PROPOS of
+Venice, I have some thoughts of going thither, next summer; events may
+call me to take possession of that same villa, too, which they tell me
+is the most charming that can be imagined. In that case I shall leave
+the improvements I mention to another year, and I may, perhaps, be
+tempted to stay some time in Italy.'
+
+Emily was somewhat surprised to hear him talk of being tempted to remain
+abroad, after he had mentioned his presence to be so necessary at Paris,
+that it was with difficulty he could steal away for a month or two; but
+St. Aubert understood the self-importance of the man too well to wonder
+at this trait; and the possibility, that these projected improvements
+might be deferred, gave him a hope, that they might never take place.
+
+Before they separated for the night, M. Quesnel desired to speak with
+St. Aubert alone, and they retired to another room, where they remained
+a considerable time. The subject of this conversation was not known;
+but, whatever it might be, St. Aubert, when he returned to the
+supper-room, seemed much disturbed, and a shade of sorrow sometimes fell
+upon his features that alarmed Madame St. Aubert. When they were alone
+she was tempted to enquire the occasion of it, but the delicacy of mind,
+which had ever appeared in his conduct, restrained her: she considered
+that, if St. Aubert wished her to be acquainted with the subject of his
+concern, he would not wait on her enquiries.
+
+On the following day, before M. Quesnel departed, he had a second
+conference with St. Aubert.
+
+The guests, after dining at the chateau, set out in the cool of the day
+for Epourville, whither they gave him and Madame St. Aubert a pressing
+invitation, prompted rather by the vanity of displaying their splendour,
+than by a wish to make their friends happy.
+
+Emily returned, with delight, to the liberty which their presence had
+restrained, to her books, her walks, and the rational conversation of
+M. and Madame St. Aubert, who seemed to rejoice, no less, that they were
+delivered from the shackles, which arrogance and frivolity had imposed.
+
+Madame St. Aubert excused herself from sharing their usual evening walk,
+complaining that she was not quite well, and St. Aubert and Emily went
+out together.
+
+They chose a walk towards the mountains, intending to visit some old
+pensioners of St. Aubert, which, from his very moderate income, he
+contrived to support, though it is probable M. Quesnel, with his very
+large one, could not have afforded this.
+
+After distributing to his pensioners their weekly stipends, listening
+patiently to the complaints of some, redressing the grievances of
+others, and softening the discontents of all, by the look of sympathy,
+and the smile of benevolence, St. Aubert returned home through the
+woods,
+
+     where
+ At fall of eve the fairy-people throng,
+ In various games and revelry to pass
+ The summer night, as village stories tell.*
+     *Thomson
+
+
+'The evening gloom of woods was always delightful to me,' said St.
+Aubert, whose mind now experienced the sweet calm, which results from
+the consciousness of having done a beneficent action, and which disposes
+it to receive pleasure from every surrounding object. 'I remember that
+in my youth this gloom used to call forth to my fancy a thousand fairy
+visions, and romantic images; and, I own, I am not yet wholly insensible
+of that high enthusiasm, which wakes the poet's dream: I can linger,
+with solemn steps, under the deep shades, send forward a transforming
+eye into the distant obscurity, and listen with thrilling delight to the
+mystic murmuring of the woods.'
+
+'O my dear father,' said Emily, while a sudden tear started to her eye,
+'how exactly you describe what I have felt so often, and which I thought
+nobody had ever felt but myself! But hark! here comes the sweeping sound
+over the wood-tops;--now it dies away;--how solemn the stillness that
+succeeds! Now the breeze swells again. It is like the voice of some
+supernatural being--the voice of the spirit of the woods, that watches
+over them by night. Ah! what light is yonder? But it is gone. And now it
+gleams again, near the root of that large chestnut: look, sir!'
+
+'Are you such an admirer of nature,' said St. Aubert, 'and so little
+acquainted with her appearances as not to know that for the glow-worm?
+But come,' added he gaily, 'step a little further, and we shall see
+fairies, perhaps; they are often companions. The glow-worm lends his
+light, and they in return charm him with music, and the dance. Do you
+see nothing tripping yonder?'
+
+Emily laughed. 'Well, my dear sir,' said she, 'since you allow of this
+alliance, I may venture to own I have anticipated you; and almost dare
+venture to repeat some verses I made one evening in these very woods.'
+
+'Nay,' replied St. Aubert, 'dismiss the ALMOST, and venture quite; let
+us hear what vagaries fancy has been playing in your mind. If she has
+given you one of her spells, you need not envy those of the fairies.'
+
+'If it is strong enough to enchant your judgment, sir,' said Emily,
+'while I disclose her images, I need NOT envy them. The lines go in a
+sort of tripping measure, which I thought might suit the subject well
+enough, but I fear they are too irregular.'
+
+  THE GLOW-WORM
+
+ How pleasant is the green-wood's deep-matted shade
+  On a mid-summer's eve, when the fresh rain is o'er;
+ When the yellow beams slope, and sparkle thro' the glade,
+  And swiftly in the thin air the light swallows soar!
+
+ But sweeter, sweeter still, when the sun sinks to rest,
+  And twilight comes on, with the fairies so gay
+ Tripping through the forest-walk, where flow'rs, unprest,
+  Bow not their tall heads beneath their frolic play.
+
+ To music's softest sounds they dance away the hour,
+  Till moon-light steals down among the trembling leaves,
+ And checquers all the ground, and guides them to the bow'r,
+  The long haunted bow'r, where the nightingale grieves.
+
+ Then no more they dance, till her sad song is done,
+  But, silent as the night, to her mourning attend;
+ And often as her dying notes their pity have won,
+  They vow all her sacred haunts from mortals to defend.
+
+ When, down among the mountains, sinks the ev'ning star,
+  And the changing moon forsakes this shadowy sphere,
+ How cheerless would they be, tho' they fairies are,
+  If I, with my pale light, came not near!
+
+ Yet cheerless tho' they'd be, they're ungrateful to my love!
+  For, often when the traveller's benighted on his way,
+ And I glimmer in his path, and would guide him thro' the grove,
+  They bind me in their magic spells to lead him far astray;
+
+ And in the mire to leave him, till the stars are all burnt out,
+  While, in strange-looking shapes, they frisk about the ground,
+ And, afar in the woods, they raise a dismal shout,
+  Till I shrink into my cell again for terror of the sound!
+
+ But, see where all the tiny elves come dancing in a ring,
+  With the merry, merry pipe, and the tabor, and the horn,
+ And the timbrel so clear, and the lute with dulcet string;
+  Then round about the oak they go till peeping of the morn.
+
+ Down yonder glade two lovers steal, to shun the fairy-queen,
+  Who frowns upon their plighted vows, and jealous is of me,
+ That yester-eve I lighted them, along the dewy green,
+  To seek the purple flow'r, whose juice from all her spells can
+free.
+
+ And now, to punish me, she keeps afar her jocund band,
+  With the merry, merry pipe, and the tabor, and the lute;
+ If I creep near yonder oak she will wave her fairy wand,
+  And to me the dance will cease, and the music all be mute.
+
+ O! had I but that purple flow'r whose leaves her charms can foil,
+  And knew like fays to draw the juice, and throw it on the wind,
+ I'd be her slave no longer, nor the traveller beguile,
+  And help all faithful lovers, nor fear the fairy kind!
+
+ But soon the VAPOUR OF THE WOODS will wander afar,
+  And the fickle moon will fade, and the stars disappear,
+ Then, cheerless will they be, tho' they fairies are,
+  If I, with my pale light, come not near!
+
+Whatever St. Aubert might think of the stanzas, he would not deny his
+daughter the pleasure of believing that he approved them; and, having
+given his commendation, he sunk into a reverie, and they walked on in
+silence.
+
+     A faint erroneous ray
+ Glanc'd from th' imperfect surfaces of things,
+ Flung half an image on the straining eye;
+ While waving woods, and villages, and streams,
+ And rocks, and mountain-tops, that long retain
+ The ascending gleam, are all one swimming scene,
+ Uncertain if beheld.*
+     *Thomson.
+
+
+St. Aubert continued silent till he reached the chateau, where his wife
+had retired to her chamber. The languor and dejection, that had lately
+oppressed her, and which the exertion called forth by the arrival of
+her guests had suspended, now returned with increased effect. On the
+following day, symptoms of fever appeared, and St. Aubert, having sent
+for medical advice, learned, that her disorder was a fever of the same
+nature as that, from which he had lately recovered. She had, indeed,
+taken the infection, during her attendance upon him, and, her
+constitution being too weak to throw out the disease immediately, it had
+lurked in her veins, and occasioned the heavy languor of which she had
+complained. St. Aubert, whose anxiety for his wife overcame every other
+consideration, detained the physician in his house. He remembered the
+feelings and the reflections that had called a momentary gloom upon his
+mind, on the day when he had last visited the fishing-house, in company
+with Madame St. Aubert, and he now admitted a presentiment, that this
+illness would be a fatal one. But he effectually concealed this from
+her, and from his daughter, whom he endeavoured to re-animate with hopes
+that her constant assiduities would not be unavailing. The physician,
+when asked by St. Aubert for his opinion of the disorder, replied,
+that the event of it depended upon circumstances which he could not
+ascertain. Madame St. Aubert seemed to have formed a more decided one;
+but her eyes only gave hints of this. She frequently fixed them upon her
+anxious friends with an expression of pity, and of tenderness, as if she
+anticipated the sorrow that awaited them, and that seemed to say, it was
+for their sakes only, for their sufferings, that she regretted life. On
+the seventh day, the disorder was at its crisis. The physician assumed
+a graver manner, which she observed, and took occasion, when her family
+had once quitted the chamber, to tell him, that she perceived her death
+was approaching. 'Do not attempt to deceive me,' said she, 'I feel that
+I cannot long survive. I am prepared for the event, I have long, I hope,
+been preparing for it. Since I have not long to live, do not suffer a
+mistaken compassion to induce you to flatter my family with false hopes.
+If you do, their affliction will only be the heavier when it arrives: I
+will endeavour to teach them resignation by my example.'
+
+The physician was affected; he promised to obey her, and told St.
+Aubert, somewhat abruptly, that there was nothing to expect. The latter
+was not philosopher enough to restrain his feelings when he received
+this information; but a consideration of the increased affliction which
+the observance of his grief would occasion his wife, enabled him,
+after some time, to command himself in her presence. Emily was at first
+overwhelmed with the intelligence; then, deluded by the strength of her
+wishes, a hope sprung up in her mind that her mother would yet recover,
+and to this she pertinaciously adhered almost to the last hour.
+
+The progress of this disorder was marked, on the side of Madame St.
+Aubert, by patient suffering, and subjected wishes. The composure, with
+which she awaited her death, could be derived only from the retrospect
+of a life governed, as far as human frailty permits, by a consciousness
+of being always in the presence of the Deity, and by the hope of a
+higher world. But her piety could not entirely subdue the grief of
+parting from those whom she so dearly loved. During these her last
+hours, she conversed much with St. Aubert and Emily, on the prospect of
+futurity, and on other religious topics. The resignation she expressed,
+with the firm hope of meeting in a future world the friends she left in
+this, and the effort which sometimes appeared to conceal her sorrow at
+this temporary separation, frequently affected St. Aubert so much as to
+oblige him to leave the room. Having indulged his tears awhile, he would
+dry them and return to the chamber with a countenance composed by an
+endeavour which did but increase his grief.
+
+Never had Emily felt the importance of the lessons, which had taught her
+to restrain her sensibility, so much as in these moments, and never had
+she practised them with a triumph so complete. But when the last was
+over, she sunk at once under the pressure of her sorrow, and then
+perceived that it was hope, as well as fortitude, which had hitherto
+supported her. St. Aubert was for a time too devoid of comfort himself
+to bestow any on his daughter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+ I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word
+ Would harrow up thy soul.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+
+Madame St. Aubert was interred in the neighbouring village church; her
+husband and daughter attended her to the grave, followed by a long train
+of the peasantry, who were sincere mourners of this excellent woman.
+
+On his return from the funeral, St. Aubert shut himself in his chamber.
+When he came forth, it was with a serene countenance, though pale in
+sorrow. He gave orders that his family should attend him. Emily only was
+absent; who, overcome with the scene she had just witnessed, had retired
+to her closet to weep alone. St. Aubert followed her thither: he took
+her hand in silence, while she continued to weep; and it was some
+moments before he could so far command his voice as to speak. It
+trembled while he said, 'My Emily, I am going to prayers with my family;
+you will join us. We must ask support from above. Where else ought we to
+seek it--where else can we find it?'
+
+Emily checked her tears, and followed her father to the parlour, where,
+the servants being assembled, St. Aubert read, in a low and solemn
+voice, the evening service, and added a prayer for the soul of the
+departed. During this, his voice often faltered, his tears fell upon the
+book, and at length he paused. But the sublime emotions of pure devotion
+gradually elevated his views above this world, and finally brought
+comfort to his heart.
+
+When the service was ended, and the servants were withdrawn, he tenderly
+kissed Emily, and said, 'I have endeavoured to teach you, from your
+earliest youth, the duty of self-command; I have pointed out to you the
+great importance of it through life, not only as it preserves us in
+the various and dangerous temptations that call us from rectitude and
+virtue, but as it limits the indulgences which are termed virtuous,
+yet which, extended beyond a certain boundary, are vicious, for their
+consequence is evil. All excess is vicious; even that sorrow, which is
+amiable in its origin, becomes a selfish and unjust passion, if indulged
+at the expence of our duties--by our duties I mean what we owe to
+ourselves, as well as to others. The indulgence of excessive grief
+enervates the mind, and almost incapacitates it for again partaking of
+those various innocent enjoyments which a benevolent God designed to be
+the sun-shine of our lives. My dear Emily, recollect and practise the
+precepts I have so often given you, and which your own experience has so
+often shewn you to be wise.
+
+'Your sorrow is useless. Do not receive this as merely a commonplace
+remark, but let reason THEREFORE restrain sorrow. I would not annihilate
+your feelings, my child, I would only teach you to command them; for
+whatever may be the evils resulting from a too susceptible heart,
+nothing can be hoped from an insensible one; that, on the other hand,
+is all vice--vice, of which the deformity is not softened, or the effect
+consoled for, by any semblance or possibility of good. You know my
+sufferings, and are, therefore, convinced that mine are not the light
+words which, on these occasions, are so often repeated to destroy even
+the sources of honest emotion, or which merely display the selfish
+ostentation of a false philosophy. I will shew my Emily, that I can
+practise what I advise. I have said thus much, because I cannot bear to
+see you wasting in useless sorrow, for want of that resistance which
+is due from mind; and I have not said it till now, because there is
+a period when all reasoning must yield to nature; that is past: and
+another, when excessive indulgence, having sunk into habit, weighs
+down the elasticity of the spirits so as to render conquest nearly
+impossible; this is to come. You, my Emily, will shew that you are
+willing to avoid it.'
+
+Emily smiled through her tears upon her father: 'Dear sir,' said she,
+and her voice trembled; she would have added, 'I will shew myself worthy
+of being your daughter;' but a mingled emotion of gratitude, affection,
+and grief overcame her. St. Aubert suffered her to weep without
+interruption, and then began to talk on common topics.
+
+The first person who came to condole with St. Aubert was a M. Barreaux,
+an austere and seemingly unfeeling man. A taste for botany had
+introduced them to each other, for they had frequently met in their
+wanderings among the mountains. M. Barreaux had retired from the world,
+and almost from society, to live in a pleasant chateau, on the skirts of
+the woods, near La Vallee. He also had been disappointed in his opinion
+of mankind; but he did not, like St. Aubert, pity and mourn for them;
+he felt more indignation at their vices, than compassion for their
+weaknesses.
+
+St. Aubert was somewhat surprised to see him; for, though he had often
+pressed him to come to the chateau, he had never till now accepted the
+invitation; and now he came without ceremony or reserve, entering the
+parlour as an old friend. The claims of misfortune appeared to have
+softened down all the ruggedness and prejudices of his heart. St. Aubert
+unhappy, seemed to be the sole idea that occupied his mind. It was in
+manners, more than in words, that he appeared to sympathize with his
+friends: he spoke little on the subject of their grief; but the minute
+attention he gave them, and the modulated voice, and softened look that
+accompanied it, came from his heart, and spoke to theirs.
+
+At this melancholy period St. Aubert was likewise visited by Madame
+Cheron, his only surviving sister, who had been some years a widow, and
+now resided on her own estate near Tholouse. The intercourse between
+them had not been very frequent. In her condolements, words were not
+wanting; she understood not the magic of the look that speaks at once
+to the soul, or the voice that sinks like balm to the heart: but she
+assured St. Aubert that she sincerely sympathized with him, praised the
+virtues of his late wife, and then offered what she considered to be
+consolation. Emily wept unceasingly while she spoke; St. Aubert was
+tranquil, listened to what she said in silence, and then turned the
+discourse upon another subject.
+
+At parting she pressed him and her niece to make her an early visit.
+'Change of place will amuse you,' said she, 'and it is wrong to give way
+to grief.' St. Aubert acknowledged the truth of these words of course;
+but, at the same time, felt more reluctant than ever to quit the spot
+which his past happiness had consecrated. The presence of his wife
+had sanctified every surrounding scene, and, each day, as it gradually
+softened the acuteness of his suffering, assisted the tender enchantment
+that bound him to home.
+
+But there were calls which must be complied with, and of this kind was
+the visit he paid to his brother-in-law M. Quesnel. An affair of an
+interesting nature made it necessary that he should delay this visit no
+longer, and, wishing to rouse Emily from her dejection, he took her with
+him to Epourville.
+
+As the carriage entered upon the forest that adjoined his paternal
+domain, his eyes once more caught, between the chesnut avenue, the
+turreted corners of the chateau. He sighed to think of what had passed
+since he was last there, and that it was now the property of a man who
+neither revered nor valued it. At length he entered the avenue, whose
+lofty trees had so often delighted him when a boy, and whose melancholy
+shade was now so congenial with the tone of his spirits. Every feature
+of the edifice, distinguished by an air of heavy grandeur, appeared
+successively between the branches of the trees--the broad turret, the
+arched gate-way that led into the courts, the drawbridge, and the dry
+fosse which surrounded the whole.
+
+The sound of carriage wheels brought a troop of servants to the great
+gate, where St. Aubert alighted, and from which he led Emily into the
+gothic hall, now no longer hung with the arms and ancient banners of the
+family. These were displaced, and the oak wainscotting, and beams that
+crossed the roof, were painted white. The large table, too, that used to
+stretch along the upper end of the hall, where the master of the mansion
+loved to display his hospitality, and whence the peal of laughter, and
+the song of conviviality, had so often resounded, was now removed; even
+the benches that had surrounded the hall were no longer there. The heavy
+walls were hung with frivolous ornaments, and every thing that appeared
+denoted the false taste and corrupted sentiments of the present owner.
+
+St. Aubert followed a gay Parisian servant to a parlour, where sat Mons.
+and Madame Quesnel, who received him with a stately politeness, and,
+after a few formal words of condolement, seemed to have forgotten that
+they ever had a sister.
+
+Emily felt tears swell into her eyes, and then resentment checked them.
+St. Aubert, calm and deliberate, preserved his dignity without assuming
+importance, and Quesnel was depressed by his presence without exactly
+knowing wherefore.
+
+After some general conversation, St. Aubert requested to speak with him
+alone; and Emily, being left with Madame Quesnel, soon learned that a
+large party was invited to dine at the chateau, and was compelled to
+hear that nothing which was past and irremediable ought to prevent the
+festivity of the present hour.
+
+St. Aubert, when he was told that company were expected, felt a mixed
+emotion of disgust and indignation against the insensibility of Quesnel,
+which prompted him to return home immediately. But he was informed, that
+Madame Cheron had been asked to meet him; and, when he looked at Emily,
+and considered that a time might come when the enmity of her uncle would
+be prejudicial to her, he determined not to incur it himself, by conduct
+which would be resented as indecorous, by the very persons who now
+showed so little sense of decorum.
+
+Among the visitors assembled at dinner were two Italian gentlemen, of
+whom one was named Montoni, a distant relation of Madame Quesnel, a man
+about forty, of an uncommonly handsome person, with features manly and
+expressive, but whose countenance exhibited, upon the whole, more of the
+haughtiness of command, and the quickness of discernment, than of any
+other character.
+
+Signor Cavigni, his friend, appeared to be about thirty--inferior in
+dignity, but equal to him in penetration of countenance, and superior in
+insinuation of manner.
+
+Emily was shocked by the salutation with which Madame Cheron met her
+father--'Dear brother,' said she, 'I am concerned to see you look so
+very ill; do, pray, have advice!' St. Aubert answered, with a melancholy
+smile, that he felt himself much as usual; but Emily's fears made her
+now fancy that her father looked worse than he really did.
+
+Emily would have been amused by the new characters she saw, and the
+varied conversation that passed during dinner, which was served in a
+style of splendour she had seldom seen before, had her spirits been less
+oppressed. Of the guests, Signor Montoni was lately come from Italy, and
+he spoke of the commotions which at that period agitated the country;
+talked of party differences with warmth, and then lamented the probable
+consequences of the tumults. His friend spoke with equal ardour, of
+the politics of his country; praised the government and prosperity
+of Venice, and boasted of its decided superiority over all the other
+Italian states. He then turned to the ladies, and talked with the same
+eloquence, of Parisian fashions, the French opera, and French manners;
+and on the latter subject he did not fail to mingle what is so
+particularly agreeable to French taste. The flattery was not detected
+by those to whom it was addressed, though its effect, in producing
+submissive attention, did not escape his observation. When he could
+disengage himself from the assiduities of the other ladies, he sometimes
+addressed Emily: but she knew nothing of Parisian fashions, or Parisian
+operas; and her modesty, simplicity, and correct manners formed a
+decided contrast to those of her female companions.
+
+After dinner, St. Aubert stole from the room to view once more the old
+chesnut which Quesnel talked of cutting down. As he stood under its
+shade, and looked up among its branches, still luxuriant, and saw here
+and there the blue sky trembling between them; the pursuits and events
+of his early days crowded fast to his mind, with the figures and
+characters of friends--long since gone from the earth; and he now felt
+himself to be almost an insulated being, with nobody but his Emily for
+his heart to turn to.
+
+He stood lost amid the scenes of years which fancy called up, till the
+succession closed with the picture of his dying wife, and he started
+away, to forget it, if possible, at the social board.
+
+St. Aubert ordered his carriage at an early hour, and Emily observed,
+that he was more than usually silent and dejected on the way home; but
+she considered this to be the effect of his visit to a place which spoke
+so eloquently of former times, nor suspected that he had a cause of
+grief which he concealed from her.
+
+On entering the chateau she felt more depressed than ever, for she more
+than ever missed the presence of that dear parent, who, whenever she
+had been from home, used to welcome her return with smiles and fondness;
+now, all was silent and forsaken.
+
+But what reason and effort may fail to do, time effects. Week after week
+passed away, and each, as it passed, stole something from the harshness
+of her affliction, till it was mellowed to that tenderness which the
+feeling heart cherishes as sacred. St. Aubert, on the contrary, visibly
+declined in health; though Emily, who had been so constantly with him,
+was almost the last person who observed it. His constitution had never
+recovered from the late attack of the fever, and the succeeding shock
+it received from Madame St. Aubert's death had produced its present
+infirmity. His physician now ordered him to travel; for it was
+perceptible that sorrow had seized upon his nerves, weakened as they had
+been by the preceding illness; and variety of scene, it was probable,
+would, by amusing his mind, restore them to their proper tone.
+
+For some days Emily was occupied in preparations to attend him; and he,
+by endeavours to diminish his expences at home during the journey--a
+purpose which determined him at length to dismiss his domestics. Emily
+seldom opposed her father's wishes by questions or remonstrances, or she
+would now have asked why he did not take a servant, and have represented
+that his infirm health made one almost necessary. But when, on the eve
+of their departure, she found that he had dismissed Jacques, Francis,
+and Mary, and detained only Theresa the old housekeeper, she was
+extremely surprised, and ventured to ask his reason for having done so.
+'To save expences, my dear,' he replied--'we are going on an expensive
+excursion.'
+
+The physician had prescribed the air of Languedoc and Provence; and St.
+Aubert determined, therefore, to travel leisurely along the shores of
+the Mediterranean, towards Provence.
+
+They retired early to their chamber on the night before their departure;
+but Emily had a few books and other things to collect, and the clock had
+struck twelve before she had finished, or had remembered that some of
+her drawing instruments, which she meant to take with her, were in the
+parlour below. As she went to fetch these, she passed her father's
+room, and, perceiving the door half open, concluded that he was in his
+study--for, since the death of Madame St. Aubert, it had been frequently
+his custom to rise from his restless bed, and go thither to compose his
+mind. When she was below stairs she looked into this room, but without
+finding him; and as she returned to her chamber, she tapped at his door,
+and receiving no answer, stepped softly in, to be certain whether he was
+there.
+
+The room was dark, but a light glimmered through some panes of glass
+that were placed in the upper part of a closet-door. Emily believed her
+father to be in the closet, and, surprised that he was up at so late
+an hour, apprehended he was unwell, and was going to enquire; but,
+considering that her sudden appearance at this hour might alarm him,
+she removed her light to the stair-case, and then stepped softly to the
+closet. On looking through the panes of glass, she saw him seated at a
+small table, with papers before him, some of which he was reading with
+deep attention and interest, during which he often wept and sobbed
+aloud. Emily, who had come to the door to learn whether her father was
+ill, was now detained there by a mixture of curiosity and tenderness.
+She could not witness his sorrow, without being anxious to know the
+subject of; and she therefore continued to observe him in silence,
+concluding that those papers were letters of her late mother. Presently
+he knelt down, and with a look so solemn as she had seldom seen him
+assume, and which was mingled with a certain wild expression, that
+partook more of horror than of any other character, he prayed silently
+for a considerable time.
+
+When he rose, a ghastly paleness was on his countenance. Emily was
+hastily retiring; but she saw him turn again to the papers, and she
+stopped. He took from among them a small case, and from thence a
+miniature picture. The rays of light fell strongly upon it, and she
+perceived it to be that of a lady, but not of her mother.
+
+St. Aubert gazed earnestly and tenderly upon his portrait, put it to his
+lips, and then to his heart, and sighed with a convulsive force. Emily
+could scarcely believe what she saw to be real. She never knew till now
+that he had a picture of any other lady than her mother, much less
+that he had one which he evidently valued so highly; but having looked
+repeatedly, to be certain that it was not the resemblance of Madame St.
+Aubert, she became entirely convinced that it was designed for that of
+some other person.
+
+At length St. Aubert returned the picture to its case; and Emily,
+recollecting that she was intruding upon his private sorrows, softly
+withdrew from the chamber.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+ O how canst thou renounce the boundless store
+ Of charms which nature to her vot'ry yields!
+ The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
+ The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields;
+ All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
+ And all that echoes to the song of even;
+ All that the mountain's shelt'ring bosom shields,
+ And all the dread magnificence of heaven;
+ O how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven!
+..... These charms shall work thy soul's eternal health,
+ And love, and gentleness, and joy, impart.
+     THE MINSTREL
+
+St. Aubert, instead of taking the more direct road, that ran along the
+feet of the Pyrenees to Languedoc, chose one that, winding over the
+heights, afforded more extensive views and greater variety of romantic
+scenery. He turned a little out of his way to take leave of M. Barreaux,
+whom he found botanizing in the wood near his chateau, and who, when
+he was told the purpose of St. Aubert's visit, expressed a degree of
+concern, such as his friend had thought it was scarcely possible for him
+to feel on any similar occasion. They parted with mutual regret.
+
+'If any thing could have tempted me from my retirement,' said M.
+Barreaux, 'it would have been the pleasure of accompanying you on this
+little tour. I do not often offer compliments; you may, therefore,
+believe me, when I say, that I shall look for your return with
+impatience.'
+
+The travellers proceeded on their journey. As they ascended the heights,
+St. Aubert often looked back upon the chateau, in the plain below;
+tender images crowded to his mind; his melancholy imagination suggested
+that he should return no more; and though he checked this wandering
+thought, still he continued to look, till the haziness of distance
+blended his home with the general landscape, and St. Aubert seemed to
+
+ Drag at each remove a lengthening chain.
+
+He and Emily continued sunk in musing silence for some leagues, from
+which melancholy reverie Emily first awoke, and her young fancy, struck
+with the grandeur of the objects around, gradually yielded to delightful
+impressions. The road now descended into glens, confined by stupendous
+walls of rock, grey and barren, except where shrubs fringed their
+summits, or patches of meagre vegetation tinted their recesses, in which
+the wild goat was frequently browsing. And now, the way led to the
+lofty cliffs, from whence the landscape was seen extending in all its
+magnificence.
+
+Emily could not restrain her transport as she looked over the pine
+forests of the mountains upon the vast plains, that, enriched with
+woods, towns, blushing vines, and plantations of almonds, palms, and
+olives, stretched along, till their various colours melted in distance
+into one harmonious hue, that seemed to unite earth with heaven.
+Through the whole of this glorious scene the majestic Garonne wandered;
+descending from its source among the Pyrenees, and winding its blue
+waves towards the Bay of Biscay.
+
+The ruggedness of the unfrequented road often obliged the wanderers to
+alight from their little carriage, but they thought themselves amply
+repaid for this inconvenience by the grandeur of the scenes; and,
+while the muleteer led his animals slowly over the broken ground, the
+travellers had leisure to linger amid these solitudes, and to indulge
+the sublime reflections, which soften, while they elevate, the heart,
+and fill it with the certainty of a present God! Still the enjoyment
+of St. Aubert was touched with that pensive melancholy, which gives
+to every object a mellower tint, and breathes a sacred charm over all
+around.
+
+They had provided against part of the evil to be encountered from a want
+of convenient inns, by carrying a stock of provisions in the carriage,
+so that they might take refreshment on any pleasant spot, in the open
+air, and pass the nights wherever they should happen to meet with a
+comfortable cottage. For the mind, also, they had provided, by a work on
+botany, written by M. Barreaux, and by several of the Latin and Italian
+poets; while Emily's pencil enabled her to preserve some of those
+combinations of forms, which charmed her at every step.
+
+The loneliness of the road, where, only now and then, a peasant was seen
+driving his mule, or some mountaineer-children at play among the rocks,
+heightened the effect of the scenery. St. Aubert was so much struck with
+it, that he determined, if he could hear of a road, to penetrate further
+among the mountains, and, bending his way rather more to the south, to
+emerge into Rousillon, and coast the Mediterranean along part of that
+country to Languedoc.
+
+Soon after mid-day, they reached the summit of one of those cliffs,
+which, bright with the verdure of palm-trees, adorn, like gems, the
+tremendous walls of the rocks, and which overlooked the greater part of
+Gascony, and part of Languedoc. Here was shade, and the fresh water of
+a spring, that, gliding among the turf, under the trees, thence
+precipitated itself from rock to rock, till its dashing murmurs were
+lost in the abyss, though its white foam was long seen amid the darkness
+of the pines below.
+
+This was a spot well suited for rest, and the travellers alighted to
+dine, while the mules were unharnessed to browse on the savoury herbs
+that enriched this summit.
+
+It was some time before St. Aubert or Emily could withdraw their
+attention from the surrounding objects, so as to partake of their little
+repast. Seated in the shade of the palms, St. Aubert pointed out to her
+observation the course of the rivers, the situation of great towns, and
+the boundaries of provinces, which science, rather than the eye, enabled
+him to describe. Notwithstanding this occupation, when he had talked
+awhile he suddenly became silent, thoughtful, and tears often swelled to
+his eyes, which Emily observed, and the sympathy of her own heart told
+her their cause. The scene before them bore some resemblance, though it
+was on a much grander scale, to a favourite one of the late Madame St.
+Aubert, within view of the fishing-house. They both observed this, and
+thought how delighted she would have been with the present landscape,
+while they knew that her eyes must never, never more open upon this
+world. St. Aubert remembered the last time of his visiting that spot in
+company with her, and also the mournfully presaging thoughts which had
+then arisen in his mind, and were now, even thus soon, realized! The
+recollections subdued him, and he abruptly rose from his seat, and
+walked away to where no eye could observe his grief.
+
+When he returned, his countenance had recovered its usual serenity; he
+took Emily's hand, pressed it affectionately, without speaking, and soon
+after called to the muleteer, who sat at a little distance, concerning
+a road among the mountains towards Rousillon. Michael said, there were
+several that way, but he did not know how far they extended, or even
+whether they were passable; and St. Aubert, who did not intend to travel
+after sun-set, asked what village they could reach about that time. The
+muleteer calculated that they could easily reach Mateau, which was in
+their present road; but that, if they took a road that sloped more to
+the south, towards Rousillon, there was a hamlet, which he thought they
+could gain before the evening shut in.
+
+St. Aubert, after some hesitation, determined to take the latter course,
+and Michael, having finished his meal, and harnessed his mules, again
+set forward, but soon stopped; and St. Aubert saw him doing homage to a
+cross, that stood on a rock impending over their way. Having concluded
+his devotions, he smacked his whip in the air, and, in spite of the
+rough road, and the pain of his poor mules, which he had been lately
+lamenting, rattled, in a full gallop, along the edge of a precipice,
+which it made the eye dizzy to look down. Emily was terrified almost
+to fainting; and St. Aubert, apprehending still greater danger from
+suddenly stopping the driver, was compelled to sit quietly, and trust
+his fate to the strength and discretion of the mules, who seemed to
+possess a greater portion of the latter quality than their master; for
+they carried the travellers safely into the valley, and there stopped
+upon the brink of the rivulet that watered it.
+
+Leaving the splendour of extensive prospects, they now entered this
+narrow valley screened by
+
+ Rocks on rocks piled, as if by magic spell,
+ Here scorch'd by lightnings, there with ivy green.
+
+The scene of barrenness was here and there interrupted by the spreading
+branches of the larch and cedar, which threw their gloom over the cliff,
+or athwart the torrent that rolled in the vale. No living creature
+appeared, except the izard, scrambling among the rocks, and often
+hanging upon points so dangerous, that fancy shrunk from the view of
+them. This was such a scene as SALVATOR would have chosen, had he then
+existed, for his canvas; St. Aubert, impressed by the romantic character
+of the place, almost expected to see banditti start from behind some
+projecting rock, and he kept his hand upon the arms with which he always
+travelled.
+
+As they advanced, the valley opened; its savage features gradually
+softened, and, towards evening, they were among heathy mountains,
+stretched in far perspective, along which the solitary sheep-bell was
+heard, and the voice of the shepherd calling his wandering flocks to the
+nightly fold. His cabin, partly shadowed by the cork-tree and the ilex,
+which St. Aubert observed to flourish in higher regions of the air than
+any other trees, except the fir, was all the human habitation that yet
+appeared. Along the bottom of this valley the most vivid verdure was
+spread; and, in the little hollow recesses of the mountains, under the
+shade of the oak and chestnut, herds of cattle were grazing. Groups
+of them, too, were often seen reposing on the banks of the rivulet, or
+laving their sides in the cool stream, and sipping its wave.
+
+The sun was now setting upon the valley; its last light gleamed upon the
+water, and heightened the rich yellow and purple tints of the heath and
+broom, that overspread the mountains. St. Aubert enquired of Michael
+the distance to the hamlet he had mentioned, but the man could not with
+certainty tell; and Emily began to fear that he had mistaken the road.
+Here was no human being to assist, or direct them; they had left the
+shepherd and his cabin far behind, and the scene became so obscured in
+twilight, that the eye could not follow the distant perspective of the
+valley in search of a cottage, or a hamlet. A glow of the horizon still
+marked the west, and this was of some little use to the travellers.
+Michael seemed endeavouring to keep up his courage by singing; his
+music, however, was not of a kind to disperse melancholy; he sung, in a
+sort of chant, one of the most dismal ditties his present auditors had
+ever heard, and St. Aubert at length discovered it to be a vesper-hymn
+to his favourite saint.
+
+They travelled on, sunk in that thoughtful melancholy, with which
+twilight and solitude impress the mind. Michael had now ended his ditty,
+and nothing was heard but the drowsy murmur of the breeze among the
+woods, and its light flutter, as it blew freshly into the carriage. They
+were at length roused by the sound of fire-arms. St. Aubert called to
+the muleteer to stop, and they listened. The noise was not repeated; but
+presently they heard a rustling among the brakes. St. Aubert drew forth
+a pistol, and ordered Michael to proceed as fast as possible; who had
+not long obeyed, before a horn sounded, that made the mountains ring. He
+looked again from the window, and then saw a young man spring from the
+bushes into the road, followed by a couple of dogs. The stranger was in
+a hunter's dress. His gun was slung across his shoulders, the hunter's
+horn hung from his belt, and in his hand was a small pike, which, as
+he held it, added to the manly grace of his figure, and assisted the
+agility of his steps.
+
+After a moment's hesitation, St. Aubert again stopped the carriage, and
+waited till he came up, that they might enquire concerning the hamlet
+they were in search of. The stranger informed him, that it was only half
+a league distant, that he was going thither himself, and would readily
+shew the way. St. Aubert thanked him for the offer, and, pleased with
+his chevalier-like air and open countenance, asked him to take a seat
+in the carriage; which the stranger, with an acknowledgment, declined,
+adding that he would keep pace with the mules. 'But I fear you will be
+wretchedly accommodated,' said he: 'the inhabitants of these mountains
+are a simple people, who are not only without the luxuries of life,
+but almost destitute of what in other places are held to be its
+necessaries.'
+
+'I perceive you are not one of its inhabitants, sir,' said St. Aubert.
+
+'No, sir, I am only a wanderer here.'
+
+The carriage drove on, and the increasing dusk made the travellers very
+thankful that they had a guide; the frequent glens, too, that now opened
+among the mountains, would likewise have added to their perplexity.
+Emily, as she looked up one of these, saw something at a great distance
+like a bright cloud in the air. 'What light is yonder, sir?' said she.
+
+St. Aubert looked, and perceived that it was the snowy summit of a
+mountain, so much higher than any around it, that it still reflected the
+sun's rays, while those below lay in deep shade.
+
+At length, the village lights were seen to twinkle through the dusk,
+and, soon after, some cottages were discovered in the valley, or rather
+were seen by reflection in the stream, on whose margin they stood, and
+which still gleamed with the evening light.
+
+The stranger now came up, and St. Aubert, on further enquiry, found not
+only that there was no inn in the place, but not any sort of house of
+public reception. The stranger, however, offered to walk on, and enquire
+for a cottage to accommodate them; for which further civility St. Aubert
+returned his thanks, and said, that, as the village was so near, he
+would alight, and walk with him. Emily followed slowly in the carriage.
+
+On the way, St. Aubert asked his companion what success he had had
+in the chase. 'Not much, sir,' he replied, 'nor do I aim at it. I am
+pleased with the country, and mean to saunter away a few weeks among
+its scenes. My dogs I take with me more for companionship than for game.
+This dress, too, gives me an ostensible business, and procures me that
+respect from the people, which would, perhaps, be refused to a lonely
+stranger, who had no visible motive for coming among them.'
+
+'I admire your taste,' said St. Aubert, 'and, if I was a younger man,
+should like to pass a few weeks in your way exceedingly. I, too, am a
+wanderer, but neither my plan nor pursuits are exactly like yours--I go
+in search of health, as much as of amusement.' St. Aubert sighed, and
+paused; and then, seeming to recollect himself, he resumed: 'If I can
+hear of a tolerable road, that shall afford decent accommodation, it
+is my intention to pass into Rousillon, and along the sea-shore to
+Languedoc. You, sir, seem to be acquainted with the country, and can,
+perhaps, give me information on the subject.'
+
+The stranger said, that what information he could give was entirely at
+his service; and then mentioned a road rather more to the east, which
+led to a town, whence it would be easy to proceed into Rousillon.
+
+They now arrived at the village, and commenced their search for a
+cottage, that would afford a night's lodging. In several, which they
+entered, ignorance, poverty, and mirth seemed equally to prevail; and
+the owners eyed St. Aubert with a mixture of curiosity and timidity.
+Nothing like a bed could be found, and he had ceased to enquire for
+one, when Emily joined him, who observed the languor of her father's
+countenance, and lamented, that he had taken a road so ill provided
+with the comforts necessary for an invalid. Other cottages, which they
+examined, seemed somewhat less savage than the former, consisting of
+two rooms, if such they could be called; the first of these occupied by
+mules and pigs, the second by the family, which generally consisted of
+six or eight children, with their parents, who slept on beds of skins
+and dried beech leaves, spread upon a mud floor. Here, light was
+admitted, and smoke discharged, through an aperture in the roof; and
+here the scent of spirits (for the travelling smugglers, who haunted the
+Pyrenees, had made this rude people familiar with the use of liquors)
+was generally perceptible enough. Emily turned from such scenes, and
+looked at her father with anxious tenderness, which the young stranger
+seemed to observe; for, drawing St. Aubert aside, he made him an offer
+of his own bed. 'It is a decent one,' said he, 'when compared with
+what we have just seen, yet such as in other circumstances I should be
+ashamed to offer you.' St. Aubert acknowledged how much he felt himself
+obliged by this kindness, but refused to accept it, till the young
+stranger would take no denial. 'Do not give me the pain of knowing,
+sir,' said he, 'that an invalid, like you, lies on hard skins, while
+I sleep in a bed. Besides, sir, your refusal wounds my pride; I must
+believe you think my offer unworthy your acceptance. Let me shew you the
+way. I have no doubt my landlady can accommodate this young lady also.'
+
+St. Aubert at length consented, that, if this could be done, he would
+accept his kindness, though he felt rather surprised, that the stranger
+had proved himself so deficient in gallantry, as to administer to the
+repose of an infirm man, rather than to that of a very lovely young
+woman, for he had not once offered the room for Emily. But she thought
+not of herself, and the animated smile she gave him, told how much she
+felt herself obliged for the preference of her father.
+
+On their way, the stranger, whose name was Valancourt, stepped on first
+to speak to his hostess, and she came out to welcome St. Aubert into a
+cottage, much superior to any he had seen. This good woman seemed very
+willing to accommodate the strangers, who were soon compelled to accept
+the only two beds in the place. Eggs and milk were the only food the
+cottage afforded; but against scarcity of provisions St. Aubert had
+provided, and he requested Valancourt to stay, and partake with him of
+less homely fare; an invitation, which was readily accepted, and they
+passed an hour in intelligent conversation. St. Aubert was much pleased
+with the manly frankness, simplicity, and keen susceptibility to the
+grandeur of nature, which his new acquaintance discovered; and, indeed,
+he had often been heard to say, that, without a certain simplicity of
+heart, this taste could not exist in any strong degree.
+
+The conversation was interrupted by a violent uproar without, in which
+the voice of the muleteer was heard above every other sound. Valancourt
+started from his seat, and went to enquire the occasion; but the dispute
+continued so long afterwards, that St. Aubert went himself, and found
+Michael quarrelling with the hostess, because she had refused to let his
+mules lie in a little room where he and three of her sons were to pass
+the night. The place was wretched enough, but there was no other for
+these people to sleep in; and, with somewhat more of delicacy than was
+usual among the inhabitants of this wild tract of country, she persisted
+in refusing to let the animals have the same BED-CHAMBER with her
+children. This was a tender point with the muleteer; his honour was
+wounded when his mules were treated with disrespect, and he would have
+received a blow, perhaps, with more meekness. He declared that his
+beasts were as honest beasts, and as good beasts, as any in the whole
+province; and that they had a right to be well treated wherever they
+went. 'They are as harmless as lambs,' said he, 'if people don't affront
+them. I never knew them behave themselves amiss above once or twice in
+my life, and then they had good reason for doing so. Once, indeed, they
+kicked at a boy's leg that lay asleep in the stable, and broke it; but
+I told them they were out there, and by St. Anthony! I believe they
+understood me, for they never did so again.'
+
+He concluded this eloquent harangue with protesting, that they should
+share with him, go where he would.
+
+The dispute was at length settled by Valancourt, who drew the hostess
+aside, and desired she would let the muleteer and his beasts have the
+place in question to themselves, while her sons should have the bed of
+skins designed for him, for that he would wrap himself in his cloak, and
+sleep on the bench by the cottage door. But this she thought it her
+duty to oppose, and she felt it to be her inclination to disappoint the
+muleteer. Valancourt, however, was positive, and the tedious affair was
+at length settled.
+
+It was late when St. Aubert and Emily retired to their rooms, and
+Valancourt to his station at the door, which, at this mild season, he
+preferred to a close cabin and a bed of skins. St. Aubert was somewhat
+surprised to find in his room volumes of Homer, Horace, and Petrarch;
+but the name of Valancourt, written in them, told him to whom they
+belonged.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+   In truth he was a strange and wayward wight,
+  Fond of each gentle, and each dreadful scene,
+  In darkness, and in storm he found delight;
+  Nor less than when on ocean-wave serene
+  The southern sun diffus'd his dazzling sheen.
+  Even sad vicissitude amus'd his soul;
+  And if a sigh would sometimes intervene,
+  And down his cheek a tear of pity roll,
+ A sigh, a tear, so sweet, he wish'd not to controul.
+     THE MINSTREL
+
+St. Aubert awoke at an early hour, refreshed by sleep, and desirous to
+set forward. He invited the stranger to breakfast with him; and, talking
+again of the road, Valancourt said, that, some months past, he had
+travelled as far as Beaujeu, which was a town of some consequence on the
+way to Rousillon. He recommended it to St. Aubert to take that route,
+and the latter determined to do so.
+
+'The road from this hamlet,' said Valancourt, 'and that to Beaujeu, part
+at the distance of about a league and a half from hence; if you will
+give me leave, I will direct your muleteer so far. I must wander
+somewhere, and your company would make this a pleasanter ramble than any
+other I could take.'
+
+St. Aubert thankfully accepted his offer, and they set out together, the
+young stranger on foot, for he refused the invitation of St. Aubert to
+take a seat in his little carriage.
+
+The road wound along the feet of the mountains through a pastoral
+valley, bright with verdure, and varied with groves of dwarf oak,
+beech and sycamore, under whose branches herds of cattle reposed. The
+mountain-ash too, and the weeping birch, often threw their pendant
+foliage over the steeps above, where the scanty soil scarcely concealed
+their roots, and where their light branches waved to every breeze that
+fluttered from the mountains.
+
+The travellers were frequently met at this early hour, for the sun had
+not yet risen upon the valley, by shepherds driving immense flocks from
+their folds to feed upon the hills. St. Aubert had set out thus early,
+not only that he might enjoy the first appearance of sunrise, but that
+he might inhale the first pure breath of morning, which above all things
+is refreshing to the spirits of the invalid. In these regions it was
+particularly so, where an abundance of wild flowers and aromatic herbs
+breathed forth their essence on the air.
+
+The dawn, which softened the scenery with its peculiar grey tint, now
+dispersed, and Emily watched the progress of the day, first trembling on
+the tops of the highest cliffs, then touching them with splendid light,
+while their sides and the vale below were still wrapt in dewy mist.
+Meanwhile, the sullen grey of the eastern clouds began to blush, then to
+redden, and then to glow with a thousand colours, till the golden light
+darted over all the air, touched the lower points of the mountain's
+brow, and glanced in long sloping beams upon the valley and its stream.
+All nature seemed to have awakened from death into life; the spirit of
+St. Aubert was renovated. His heart was full; he wept, and his thoughts
+ascended to the Great Creator.
+
+Emily wished to trip along the turf, so green and bright with dew, and
+to taste the full delight of that liberty, which the izard seemed to
+enjoy as he bounded along the brow of the cliffs; while Valancourt often
+stopped to speak with the travellers, and with social feeling to point
+out to them the peculiar objects of his admiration. St. Aubert was
+pleased with him: 'Here is the real ingenuousness and ardour of youth,'
+said he to himself; 'this young man has never been at Paris.'
+
+He was sorry when they came to the spot where the roads parted, and his
+heart took a more affectionate leave of him than is usual after so short
+an acquaintance. Valancourt talked long by the side of the carriage;
+seemed more than once to be going, but still lingered, and appeared to
+search anxiously for topics of conversation to account for his delay. At
+length he took leave. As he went, St. Aubert observed him look with an
+earnest and pensive eye at Emily, who bowed to him with a countenance
+full of timid sweetness, while the carriage drove on. St. Aubert, for
+whatever reason, soon after looked from the window, and saw Valancourt
+standing upon the bank of the road, resting on his pike with folded
+arms, and following the carriage with his eyes. He waved his hand, and
+Valancourt, seeming to awake from his reverie, returned the salute, and
+started away.
+
+The aspect of the country now began to change, and the travellers soon
+found themselves among mountains covered from their base nearly to their
+summits with forests of gloomy pine, except where a rock of granite shot
+up from the vale, and lost its snowy top in the clouds. The rivulet,
+which had hitherto accompanied them, now expanded into a river; and,
+flowing deeply and silently along, reflected, as in a mirror, the
+blackness of the impending shades. Sometimes a cliff was seen lifting
+its bold head above the woods and the vapours, that floated mid-way down
+the mountains; and sometimes a face of perpendicular marble rose from
+the water's edge, over which the larch threw his gigantic arms, here
+scathed with lightning, and there floating in luxuriant foliage.
+
+They continued to travel over a rough and unfrequented road, seeing now
+and then at a distance the solitary shepherd, with his dog, stalking
+along the valley, and hearing only the dashing of torrents, which the
+woods concealed from the eye, the long sullen murmur of the breeze,
+as it swept over the pines, or the notes of the eagle and the vulture,
+which were seen towering round the beetling cliff.
+
+Often, as the carriage moved slowly over uneven ground, St. Aubert
+alighted, and amused himself with examining the curious plants that grew
+on the banks of the road, and with which these regions abound; while
+Emily, wrapt in high enthusiasm, wandered away under the shades,
+listening in deep silence to the lonely murmur of the woods.
+
+Neither village nor hamlet was seen for many leagues; the goat-herd's or
+the hunter's cabin, perched among the cliffs of the rocks, were the only
+human habitations that appeared.
+
+The travellers again took their dinner in the open air, on a pleasant
+spot in the valley, under the spreading shade of cedars; and then set
+forward towards Beaujeu.
+
+The road now began to descend, and, leaving the pine forests behind,
+wound among rocky precipices. The evening twilight again fell over the
+scene, and the travellers were ignorant how far they might yet be from
+Beaujeu. St. Aubert, however, conjectured that the distance could not be
+very great, and comforted himself with the prospect of travelling on a
+more frequented road after reaching that town, where he designed to pass
+the night. Mingled woods, and rocks, and heathy mountains were now seen
+obscurely through the dusk; but soon even these imperfect images faded
+in darkness. Michael proceeded with caution, for he could scarcely
+distinguish the road; his mules, however, seemed to have more sagacity,
+and their steps were sure.
+
+On turning the angle of a mountain, a light appeared at a distance, that
+illumined the rocks, and the horizon to a great extent. It was evidently
+a large fire, but whether accidental, or otherwise, there were no means
+of knowing. St. Aubert thought it was probably kindled by some of the
+numerous banditti, that infested the Pyrenees, and he became watchful
+and anxious to know whether the road passed near this fire. He had arms
+with him, which, on an emergency, might afford some protection, though
+certainly a very unequal one, against a band of robbers, so desperate
+too as those usually were who haunted these wild regions. While many
+reflections rose upon his mind, he heard a voice shouting from the road
+behind, and ordering the muleteer to stop. St. Aubert bade him proceed
+as fast as possible; but either Michael, or his mules were obstinate,
+for they did not quit the old pace. Horses' feet were now heard; a man
+rode up to the carriage, still ordering the driver to stop; and St.
+Aubert, who could no longer doubt his purpose, was with difficulty able
+to prepare a pistol for his defence, when his hand was upon the door of
+the chaise. The man staggered on his horse, the report of the pistol was
+followed by a groan, and St. Aubert's horror may be imagined, when in
+the next instant he thought he heard the faint voice of Valancourt.
+He now himself bade the muleteer stop; and, pronouncing the name of
+Valancourt, was answered in a voice, that no longer suffered him to
+doubt. St. Aubert, who instantly alighted and went to his assistance,
+found him still sitting on his horse, but bleeding profusely, and
+appearing to be in great pain, though he endeavoured to soften the
+terror of St. Aubert by assurances that he was not materially hurt, the
+wound being only in his arm. St. Aubert, with the muleteer, assisted him
+to dismount, and he sat down on the bank of the road, where St. Aubert
+tried to bind up his arm, but his hands trembled so excessively that he
+could not accomplish it; and, Michael being now gone in pursuit of the
+horse, which, on being disengaged from his rider, had galloped off,
+he called Emily to his assistance. Receiving no answer, he went to the
+carriage, and found her sunk on the seat in a fainting fit. Between the
+distress of this circumstance and that of leaving Valancourt bleeding,
+he scarcely knew what he did; he endeavoured, however, to raise her,
+and called to Michael to fetch water from the rivulet that flowed by the
+road, but Michael was gone beyond the reach of his voice. Valancourt,
+who heard these calls, and also the repeated name of Emily, instantly
+understood the subject of his distress; and, almost forgetting his own
+condition, he hastened to her relief. She was reviving when he
+reached the carriage; and then, understanding that anxiety for him had
+occasioned her indisposition, he assured her, in a voice that trembled,
+but not from anguish, that his wound was of no consequence. While he
+said this St. Aubert turned round, and perceiving that he was still
+bleeding, the subject of his alarm changed again, and he hastily formed
+some handkerchiefs into a bandage. This stopped the effusion of the
+blood; but St. Aubert, dreading the consequence of the wound, enquired
+repeatedly how far they were from Beaujeu; when, learning that it was
+at two leagues' distance, his distress increased, since he knew not how
+Valancourt, in his present state, would bear the motion of the carriage,
+and perceived that he was already faint from loss of blood. When he
+mentioned the subject of his anxiety, Valancourt entreated that he would
+not suffer himself to be thus alarmed on his account, for that he had no
+doubt he should be able to support himself very well; and then he talked
+of the accident as a slight one. The muleteer being now returned with
+Valancourt's horse, assisted him into the chaise; and, as Emily was now
+revived, they moved slowly on towards Beaujeu.
+
+St. Aubert, when he had recovered from the terror occasioned him by this
+accident, expressed surprise on seeing Valancourt, who explained
+his unexpected appearance by saying, 'You, sir, renewed my taste for
+society; when you had left the hamlet, it did indeed appear a solitude.
+I determined, therefore, since my object was merely amusement, to change
+the scene; and I took this road, because I knew it led through a more
+romantic tract of mountains than the spot I have left. Besides,' added
+he, hesitating for an instant, 'I will own, and why should I not? that I
+had some hope of overtaking you.'
+
+'And I have made you a very unexpected return for the compliment,'
+said St. Aubert, who lamented again the rashness which had produced
+the accident, and explained the cause of his late alarm. But Valancourt
+seemed anxious only to remove from the minds of his companions every
+unpleasant feeling relative to himself; and, for that purpose, still
+struggled against a sense of pain, and tried to converse with gaiety.
+Emily meanwhile was silent, except when Valancourt particularly
+addressed her, and there was at those times a tremulous tone in his
+voice that spoke much.
+
+They were now so near the fire, which had long flamed at a distance on
+the blackness of night, that it gleamed upon the road, and they could
+distinguish figures moving about the blaze. The way winding still
+nearer, they perceived in the valley one of those numerous bands of
+gipsies, which at that period particularly haunted the wilds of the
+Pyrenees, and lived partly by plundering the traveller. Emily looked
+with some degree of terror on the savage countenances of these people,
+shewn by the fire, which heightened the romantic effects of the scenery,
+as it threw a red dusky gleam upon the rocks and on the foliage of the
+trees, leaving heavy masses of shade and regions of obscurity, which the
+eye feared to penetrate.
+
+They were preparing their supper; a large pot stood by the fire, over
+which several figures were busy. The blaze discovered a rude kind of
+tent, round which many children and dogs were playing, and the whole
+formed a picture highly grotesque. The travellers saw plainly their
+danger. Valancourt was silent, but laid his hand on one of St. Aubert's
+pistols; St. Aubert drew forth another, and Michael was ordered to
+proceed as fast as possible. They passed the place, however,
+without being attacked; the rovers being probably unprepared for the
+opportunity, and too busy about their supper to feel much interest, at
+the moment, in any thing besides.
+
+After a league and a half more, passed in darkness, the travellers
+arrived at Beaujeu, and drove up to the only inn the place afforded;
+which, though superior to any they had seen since they entered the
+mountains, was bad enough.
+
+The surgeon of the town was immediately sent for, if a surgeon he could
+be called, who prescribed for horses as well as for men, and shaved
+faces at least as dexterously as he set bones. After examining
+Valancourt's arm, and perceiving that the bullet had passed through
+the flesh without touching the bone, he dressed it, and left him with
+a solemn prescription of quiet, which his patient was not inclined to
+obey. The delight of ease had now succeeded to pain; for ease may be
+allowed to assume a positive quality when contrasted with anguish; and,
+his spirits thus re-animated, he wished to partake of the conversation
+of St. Aubert and Emily, who, released from so many apprehensions, were
+uncommonly cheerful. Late as it was, however, St. Aubert was obliged to
+go out with the landlord to buy meat for supper; and Emily, who, during
+this interval, had been absent as long as she could, upon excuses of
+looking to their accommodation, which she found rather better than she
+expected, was compelled to return, and converse with Valancourt alone.
+They talked of the character of the scenes they had passed, of the
+natural history of the country, of poetry, and of St. Aubert; a subject
+on which Emily always spoke and listened to with peculiar pleasure.
+
+The travellers passed an agreeable evening; but St. Aubert was fatigued
+with his journey; and, as Valancourt seemed again sensible of pain, they
+separated soon after supper.
+
+In the morning St. Aubert found that Valancourt had passed a restless
+night; that he was feverish, and his wound very painful. The surgeon,
+when he dressed it, advised him to remain quietly at Beaujeu; advice
+which was too reasonable to be rejected. St. Aubert, however, had no
+favourable opinion of this practitioner, and was anxious to commit
+Valancourt into more skilful hands; but learning, upon enquiry, that
+there was no town within several leagues which seemed more likely to
+afford better advice, he altered the plan of his journey, and determined
+to await the recovery of Valancourt, who, with somewhat more ceremony
+than sincerity, made many objections to this delay.
+
+By order of his surgeon, Valancourt did not go out of the house that
+day; but St. Aubert and Emily surveyed with delight the environs of
+the town, situated at the feet of the Pyrenean Alps, that rose, some
+in abrupt precipices, and others swelling with woods of cedar, fir, and
+cypress, which stretched nearly to their highest summits. The cheerful
+green of the beech and mountain-ash was sometimes seen, like a gleam of
+light, amidst the dark verdure of the forest; and sometimes a torrent
+poured its sparkling flood, high among the woods.
+
+Valancourt's indisposition detained the travellers at Beaujeu several
+days, during which interval St. Aubert had observed his disposition and
+his talents with the philosophic inquiry so natural to him. He saw
+a frank and generous nature, full of ardour, highly susceptible of
+whatever is grand and beautiful, but impetuous, wild, and somewhat
+romantic. Valancourt had known little of the world. His perceptions were
+clear, and his feelings just; his indignation of an unworthy, or his
+admiration of a generous action, were expressed in terms of equal
+vehemence. St. Aubert sometimes smiled at his warmth, but seldom checked
+it, and often repeated to himself, 'This young man has never been at
+Paris.' A sigh sometimes followed this silent ejaculation. He determined
+not to leave Valancourt till he should be perfectly recovered; and, as
+he was now well enough to travel, though not able to manage his horse,
+St. Aubert invited him to accompany him for a few days in the carriage.
+This he the more readily did, since he had discovered that Valancourt
+was of a family of the same name in Gascony, with whose respectability
+he was well acquainted. The latter accepted the offer with great
+pleasure, and they again set forward among these romantic wilds about
+Rousillon.
+
+They travelled leisurely; stopping wherever a scene uncommonly grand
+appeared; frequently alighting to walk to an eminence, whither the mules
+could not go, from which the prospect opened in greater magnificence;
+and often sauntering over hillocks covered with lavender, wild thyme,
+juniper, and tamarisc; and under the shades of woods, between those
+boles they caught the long mountain-vista, sublime beyond any thing that
+Emily had ever imagined.
+
+St. Aubert sometimes amused himself with botanizing, while Valancourt
+and Emily strolled on; he pointing out to her notice the objects that
+particularly charmed him, and reciting beautiful passages from such of
+the Latin and Italian poets as he had heard her admire. In the pauses of
+conversation, when he thought himself not observed, he frequently fixed
+his eyes pensively on her countenance, which expressed with so much
+animation the taste and energy of her mind; and when he spoke again,
+there was a peculiar tenderness in the tone of his voice, that defeated
+any attempt to conceal his sentiments. By degrees these silent pauses
+became more frequent; till Emily, only, betrayed an anxiety to interrupt
+them; and she; who had been hitherto reserved, would now talk again,
+and again, of the woods and the vallies and the mountains, to avoid the
+danger of sympathy and silence.
+
+From Beaujeu the road had constantly ascended, conducting the travellers
+into the higher regions of the air, where immense glaciers exhibited
+their frozen horrors, and eternal snow whitened the summits of the
+mountains. They often paused to contemplate these stupendous scenes,
+and, seated on some wild cliff, where only the ilex or the larch could
+flourish, looked over dark forests of fir, and precipices where human
+foot had never wandered, into the glen--so deep, that the thunder of the
+torrent, which was seen to foam along the bottom, was scarcely heard to
+murmur. Over these crags rose others of stupendous height, and fantastic
+shape; some shooting into cones; others impending far over their base,
+in huge masses of granite, along whose broken ridges was often lodged
+a weight of snow, that, trembling even to the vibration of a sound,
+threatened to bear destruction in its course to the vale. Around, on
+every side, far as the eye could penetrate, were seen only forms of
+grandeur--the long perspective of mountain-tops, tinged with ethereal
+blue, or white with snow; vallies of ice, and forests of gloomy fir.
+The serenity and clearness of the air in these high regions were
+particularly delightful to the travellers; it seemed to inspire them
+with a finer spirit, and diffused an indescribable complacency over
+their minds. They had no words to express the sublime emotions they
+felt. A solemn expression characterized the feelings of St. Aubert;
+tears often came to his eyes, and he frequently walked away from his
+companions. Valancourt now and then spoke, to point to Emily's notice
+some feature of the scene. The thinness of the atmosphere, through which
+every object came so distinctly to the eye, surprised and deluded her;
+who could scarcely believe that objects, which appeared so near, were,
+in reality, so distant. The deep silence of these solitudes was broken
+only at intervals by the scream of the vultures, seen cowering round
+some cliff below, or by the cry of the eagle sailing high in the air;
+except when the travellers listened to the hollow thunder that sometimes
+muttered at their feet. While, above, the deep blue of the heavens was
+unobscured by the lightest cloud, half way down the mountains, long
+billows of vapour were frequently seen rolling, now wholly excluding the
+country below, and now opening, and partially revealing its features.
+Emily delighted to observe the grandeur of these clouds as they changed
+in shape and tints, and to watch their various effect on the lower
+world, whose features, partly veiled, were continually assuming new
+forms of sublimity.
+
+After traversing these regions for many leagues, they began to descend
+towards Rousillon, and features of beauty then mingled with the scene.
+Yet the travellers did not look back without some regret to the sublime
+objects they had quitted; though the eye, fatigued with the extension
+of its powers, was glad to repose on the verdure of woods and pastures,
+that now hung on the margin of the river below; to view again the humble
+cottage shaded by cedars, the playful group of mountaineer-children, and
+the flowery nooks that appeared among the hills.
+
+As they descended, they saw at a distance, on the right, one of the
+grand passes of the Pyrenees into Spain, gleaming with its battlements
+and towers to the splendour of the setting rays, yellow tops of woods
+colouring the steeps below, while far above aspired the snowy points of
+the mountains, still reflecting a rosy hue.
+
+St. Aubert began to look out for the little town he had been directed to
+by the people of Beaujeu, and where he meant to pass the night; but no
+habitation yet appeared. Of its distance Valancourt could not assist him
+to judge, for he had never been so far along this chain of Alps before.
+There was, however, a road to guide them; and there could be little
+doubt that it was the right one; for, since they had left Beaujeu, there
+had been no variety of tracks to perplex or mislead.
+
+The sun now gave his last light, and St. Aubert bade the muleteer
+proceed with all possible dispatch. He found, indeed, the lassitude of
+illness return upon him, after a day of uncommon fatigue, both of body
+and mind, and he longed for repose. His anxiety was not soothed by
+observing a numerous train, consisting of men, horses, and loaded
+mules, winding down the steeps of an opposite mountain, appearing and
+disappearing at intervals among the woods, so that its numbers could not
+be judged of. Something bright, like arms, glanced in the setting ray,
+and the military dress was distinguishable upon the men who were in the
+van, and on others scattered among the troop that followed. As these
+wound into the vale, the rear of the party emerged from the woods, and
+exhibited a band of soldiers. St. Aubert's apprehensions now subsided;
+he had no doubt that the train before him consisted of smugglers, who,
+in conveying prohibited goods over the Pyrenees, had been encountered,
+and conquered by a party of troops.
+
+The travellers had lingered so long among the sublimer scenes of
+these mountains, that they found themselves entirely mistaken in their
+calculation that they could reach Montigny at sun-set; but, as they
+wound along the valley, the saw, on a rude Alpine bridge, that united
+two lofty crags of the glen, a group of mountaineer-children, amusing
+themselves with dropping pebbles into a torrent below, and watching the
+stones plunge into the water, that threw up its white spray high in the
+air as it received them, and returned a sullen sound, which the echoes
+of the mountains prolonged. Under the bridge was seen a perspective of
+the valley, with its cataract descending among the rocks, and a cottage
+on a cliff, overshadowed with pines. It appeared, that they could not
+be far from some small town. St. Aubert bade the muleteer stop, and
+then called to the children to enquire if he was near Montigny; but the
+distance, and the roaring of the waters, would not suffer his voice to
+be heard; and the crags, adjoining the bridge, were of such tremendous
+height and steepness, that to have climbed either would have been
+scarcely practicable to a person unacquainted with the ascent. St.
+Aubert, therefore, did not waste more moments in delay. They continued
+to travel long after twilight had obscured the road, which was so
+broken, that, now thinking it safer to walk than to ride, they all
+alighted. The moon was rising, but her light was yet too feeble to
+assist them. While they stepped carefully on, they heard the vesper-bell
+of a convent. The twilight would not permit them to distinguish anything
+like a building, but the sounds seemed to come from some woods, that
+overhung an acclivity to the right. Valancourt proposed to go in
+search of this convent. 'If they will not accommodate us with a night's
+lodging,' said he, 'they may certainly inform us how far we are from
+Montigny, and direct us towards it.' He was bounding forward, without
+waiting St. Aubert's reply, when the latter stopped him. 'I am very
+weary,' said St. Aubert, 'and wish for nothing so much as for immediate
+rest. We will all go to the convent; your good looks would defeat our
+purpose; but when they see mine and Emily's exhausted countenances, they
+will scarcely deny us repose.'
+
+As he said this, he took Emily's arm within his, and, telling Michael to
+wait awhile in the road with the carriage, they began to ascend towards
+the woods, guided by the bell of the convent. His steps were feeble, and
+Valancourt offered him his arm, which he accepted. The moon now threw
+a faint light over their path, and, soon after, enabled them to
+distinguish some towers rising above the tops of the woods. Still
+following the note of the bell, they entered the shade of those woods,
+lighted only by the moonbeams, that glided down between the leaves,
+and threw a tremulous uncertain gleam upon the steep track they were
+winding. The gloom and the silence that prevailed, except when the bell
+returned upon the air, together with the wildness of the surrounding
+scene, struck Emily with a degree of fear, which, however, the voice and
+conversation of Valancourt somewhat repressed. When they had been some
+time ascending, St. Aubert complained of weariness, and they stopped to
+rest upon a little green summit, where the trees opened, and admitted
+the moon-light. He sat down upon the turf, between Emily and Valancourt.
+The bell had now ceased, and the deep repose of the scene was
+undisturbed by any sound, for the low dull murmur of some distant
+torrents might be said to sooth, rather than to interrupt, the silence.
+
+Before them, extended the valley they had quitted; its rocks, and woods
+to the left, just silvered by the rays, formed a contrast to the deep
+shadow, that involved the opposite cliffs, whose fringed summits only
+were tipped with light; while the distant perspective of the valley was
+lost in the yellow mist of moon-light. The travellers sat for some time
+wrapt in the complacency which such scenes inspire.
+
+'These scenes,' said Valancourt, at length, 'soften the heart, like the
+notes of sweet music, and inspire that delicious melancholy which no
+person, who had felt it once, would resign for the gayest pleasures.
+They waken our best and purest feelings, disposing us to benevolence,
+pity, and friendship. Those whom I love--I always seem to love more in
+such an hour as this.' His voice trembled, and he paused.
+
+St. Aubert was silent; Emily perceived a warm tear fall upon the hand he
+held; she knew the object of his thoughts; hers too had, for some time,
+been occupied by the remembrance of her mother. He seemed by an effort
+to rouse himself. 'Yes,' said he, with an half-suppressed sigh, 'the
+memory of those we love--of times for ever past! in such an hour as this
+steals upon the mind, like a strain of distant music in the stillness
+of night;--all tender and harmonious as this landscape, sleeping in the
+mellow moon-light.' After the pause of a moment, St. Aubert added, 'I
+have always fancied, that I thought with more clearness, and precision,
+at such an hour than at any other, and that heart must be insensible
+in a great degree, that does not soften to its influence. But many such
+there are.'
+
+Valancourt sighed.
+
+'Are there, indeed, many such?' said Emily.
+
+'A few years hence, my Emily,' replied St. Aubert, 'and you may smile at
+the recollection of that question--if you do not weep to it. But come, I
+am somewhat refreshed, let us proceed.'
+
+Having emerged from the woods, they saw, upon a turfy hillock above, the
+convent of which they were in search. A high wall, that surrounded it,
+led them to an ancient gate, at which they knocked; and the poor monk,
+who opened it, conducted them into a small adjoining room, where he
+desired they would wait while he informed the superior of their request.
+In this interval, several friars came in separately to look at them;
+and at length the first monk returned, and they followed him to a room,
+where the superior was sitting in an arm-chair, with a large folio
+volume, printed in black letter, open on a desk before him. He received
+them with courtesy, though he did not rise from his seat; and, having
+asked them a few questions, granted their request. After a short
+conversation, formal and solemn on the part of the superior, they
+withdrew to the apartment where they were to sup, and Valancourt, whom
+one of the inferior friars civilly desired to accompany, went to seek
+Michael and his mules. They had not descended half way down the cliffs,
+before they heard the voice of the muleteer echoing far and wide.
+Sometimes he called on St. Aubert, and sometimes on Valancourt; who
+having, at length, convinced him that he had nothing to fear either for
+himself, or his master; and having disposed of him, for the night, in a
+cottage on the skirts of the woods, returned to sup with his friends,
+on such sober fare as the monks thought it prudent to set before them.
+While St. Aubert was too much indisposed to share it, Emily, in her
+anxiety for her father, forgot herself; and Valancourt, silent and
+thoughtful, yet never inattentive to them, appeared particularly
+solicitous to accommodate and relieve St. Aubert, who often observed,
+while his daughter was pressing him to eat, or adjusting the pillow she
+had placed in the back of his arm-chair, that Valancourt fixed on her a
+look of pensive tenderness, which he was not displeased to understand.
+
+They separated at an early hour, and retired to their respective
+apartments. Emily was shown to hers by a nun of the convent, whom she
+was glad to dismiss, for her heart was melancholy, and her attention
+so much abstracted, that conversation with a stranger was painful. She
+thought her father daily declining, and attributed his present fatigue
+more to the feeble state of his frame, than to the difficulty of the
+journey. A train of gloomy ideas haunted her mind, till she fell asleep.
+
+In about two hours after, she was awakened by the chiming of a bell, and
+then heard quick steps pass along the gallery, into which her chamber
+opened. She was so little accustomed to the manners of a convent, as to
+be alarmed by this circumstance; her fears, ever alive for her father,
+suggested that he was very ill, and she rose in haste to go to him.
+Having paused, however, to let the persons in the gallery pass before
+she opened her door, her thoughts, in the mean time, recovered from the
+confusion of sleep, and she understood that the bell was the call of
+the monks to prayers. It had now ceased, and, all being again still,
+she forbore to go to St. Aubert's room. Her mind was not disposed
+for immediate sleep, and the moon-light, that shone into her chamber,
+invited her to open the casement, and look out upon the country.
+
+It was a still and beautiful night, the sky was unobscured by any cloud,
+and scarce a leaf of the woods beneath trembled in the air. As she
+listened, the mid-night hymn of the monks rose softly from a chapel,
+that stood on one of the lower cliffs, an holy strain, that seemed to
+ascend through the silence of night to heaven, and her thoughts ascended
+with it. From the consideration of His works, her mind arose to the
+adoration of the Deity, in His goodness and power; wherever she turned
+her view, whether on the sleeping earth, or to the vast regions of
+space, glowing with worlds beyond the reach of human thought, the
+sublimity of God, and the majesty of His presence appeared. Her eyes
+were filled with tears of awful love and admiration; and she felt that
+pure devotion, superior to all the distinctions of human system, which
+lifts the soul above this world, and seems to expand it into a nobler
+nature; such devotion as can, perhaps, only be experienced, when
+the mind, rescued, for a moment, from the humbleness of earthly
+considerations, aspires to contemplate His power in the sublimity of His
+works, and His goodness in the infinity of His blessings.
+
+     Is it not now the hour,
+ The holy hour, when to the cloudless height
+ Of yon starred concave climbs the full-orbed moon,
+ And to this nether world in solemn stillness,
+ Gives sign, that, to the list'ning ear of Heaven
+ Religion's voice should plead?  The very babe
+ Knows this, and, chance awak'd, his little hands
+ Lifts to the gods, and on his innocent couch
+ Calls down a blessing.*
+     *Caractacus
+
+
+The midnight chant of the monks soon after dropped into silence; but
+Emily remained at the casement, watching the setting moon, and the
+valley sinking into deep shade, and willing to prolong her present state
+of mind. At length she retired to her mattress, and sunk into tranquil
+slumber.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+     While in the rosy vale
+ Love breath'd his infant sighs, from anguish free.
+     Thomson
+
+St. Aubert, sufficiently restored by a night's repose to pursue his
+journey, set out in the morning, with his family and Valancourt, for
+Rousillon, which he hoped to reach before night-fall. The scenes,
+through which they now passed, were as wild and romantic, as any they
+had yet observed, with this difference, that beauty, every now and then,
+softened the landscape into smiles. Little woody recesses appeared among
+the mountains, covered with bright verdure and flowers; or a pastoral
+valley opened its grassy bosom in the shade of the cliffs, with flocks
+and herds loitering along the banks of a rivulet, that refreshed it
+with perpetual green. St. Aubert could not repent the having taken this
+fatiguing road, though he was this day, also, frequently obliged to
+alight, to walk along the rugged precipice, and to climb the steep and
+flinty mountain. The wonderful sublimity and variety of the prospects
+repaid him for all this, and the enthusiasm, with which they were viewed
+by his young companions, heightened his own, and awakened a remembrance
+of all the delightful emotions of his early days, when the sublime
+charms of nature were first unveiled to him. He found great pleasure in
+conversing with Valancourt, and in listening to his ingenuous
+remarks. The fire and simplicity of his manners seemed to render him
+a characteristic figure in the scenes around them; and St. Aubert
+discovered in his sentiments the justness and the dignity of an elevated
+mind, unbiased by intercourse with the world. He perceived, that his
+opinions were formed, rather than imbibed; were more the result of
+thought, than of learning. Of the world he seemed to know nothing; for
+he believed well of all mankind, and this opinion gave him the reflected
+image of his own heart.
+
+St. Aubert, as he sometimes lingered to examine the wild plants in his
+path, often looked forward with pleasure to Emily and Valancourt, as
+they strolled on together; he, with a countenance of animated delight,
+pointing to her attention some grand feature of the scene; and she,
+listening and observing with a look of tender seriousness, that spoke
+the elevation of her mind. They appeared like two lovers who had
+never strayed beyond these their native mountains; whose situation had
+secluded them from the frivolities of common life, whose ideas were
+simple and grand, like the landscapes among which they moved, and who
+knew no other happiness, than in the union of pure and affectionate
+hearts. St. Aubert smiled, and sighed at the romantic picture of
+felicity his fancy drew; and sighed again to think, that nature and
+simplicity were so little known to the world, as that their pleasures
+were thought romantic.
+
+'The world,' said he, pursuing this train of thought, 'ridicules a
+passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, distract
+the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love cannot exist
+in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence. Virtue and taste
+are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and
+the most delicate affections of each combine in real love. How then are
+we to look for love in great cities, where selfishness, dissipation, and
+insincerity supply the place of tenderness, simplicity and truth?'
+
+It was near noon, when the travellers, having arrived at a piece of
+steep and dangerous road, alighted to walk. The road wound up an ascent,
+that was clothed with wood, and, instead of following the carriage, they
+entered the refreshing shade. A dewy coolness was diffused upon the air,
+which, with the bright verdure of turf, that grew under the trees, the
+mingled fragrance of flowers and of balm, thyme, and lavender, that
+enriched it, and the grandeur of the pines, beech, and chestnuts, that
+overshadowed them, rendered this a most delicious retreat. Sometimes,
+the thick foliage excluded all view of the country; at others, it
+admitted some partial catches of the distant scenery, which gave
+hints to the imagination to picture landscapes more interesting, more
+impressive, than any that had been presented to the eye. The wanderers
+often lingered to indulge in these reveries of fancy.
+
+The pauses of silence, such as had formerly interrupted the
+conversations of Valancourt and Emily, were more frequent today than
+ever. Valancourt often dropped suddenly from the most animating vivacity
+into fits of deep musing, and there was, sometimes, an unaffected
+melancholy in his smile, which Emily could not avoid understanding, for
+her heart was interested in the sentiment it spoke.
+
+St. Aubert was refreshed by the shades, and they continued to saunter
+under them, following, as nearly as they could guess, the direction of
+the road, till they perceived that they had totally lost it. They had
+continued near the brow of the precipice, allured by the scenery
+it exhibited, while the road wound far away over the cliff above.
+Valancourt called loudly to Michael, but heard no voice, except his own,
+echoing among the rocks, and his various efforts to regain the road were
+equally unsuccessful. While they were thus circumstanced, they perceived
+a shepherd's cabin, between the boles of the trees at some distance, and
+Valancourt bounded on first to ask assistance. When he reached it, he
+saw only two little children, at play, on the turf before the door. He
+looked into the hut, but no person was there, and the eldest of the boys
+told him that their father was with his flocks, and their mother was
+gone down into the vale, but would be back presently. As he stood,
+considering what was further to be done, on a sudden he heard Michael's
+voice roaring forth most manfully among the cliffs above, till he
+made their echoes ring. Valancourt immediately answered the call, and
+endeavoured to make his way through the thicket that clothed the steeps,
+following the direction of the sound. After much struggle over brambles
+and precipices, he reached Michael, and at length prevailed with him to
+be silent, and to listen to him. The road was at a considerable distance
+from the spot where St. Aubert and Emily were; the carriage could not
+easily return to the entrance of the wood, and, since it would be very
+fatiguing for St. Aubert to climb the long and steep road to the place
+where it now stood, Valancourt was anxious to find a more easy ascent,
+by the way he had himself passed.
+
+Meanwhile St. Aubert and Emily approached the cottage, and rested
+themselves on a rustic bench, fastened between two pines, which
+overshadowed it, till Valancourt, whose steps they had observed, should
+return.
+
+The eldest of the children desisted from his play, and stood still to
+observe the strangers, while the younger continued his little gambols,
+and teased his brother to join in them. St. Aubert looked with pleasure
+upon this picture of infantine simplicity, till it brought to his
+remembrance his own boys, whom he had lost about the age of these, and
+their lamented mother; and he sunk into a thoughtfulness, which Emily
+observing, she immediately began to sing one of those simple and lively
+airs he was so fond of, and which she knew how to give with the most
+captivating sweetness. St. Aubert smiled on her through his tears, took
+her hand and pressed it affectionately, and then tried to dissipate the
+melancholy reflections that lingered in his mind.
+
+While she sung, Valancourt approached, who was unwilling to interrupt
+her, and paused at a little distance to listen. When she had concluded,
+he joined the party, and told them, that he had found Michael, as
+well as a way, by which he thought they could ascend the cliff to
+the carriage. He pointed to the woody steeps above, which St. Aubert
+surveyed with an anxious eye. He was already wearied by his walk, and
+this ascent was formidable to him. He thought, however, it would be less
+toilsome than the long and broken road, and he determined to attempt it;
+but Emily, ever watchful of his ease, proposing that he should rest, and
+dine before they proceeded further, Valancourt went to the carriage for
+the refreshments deposited there.
+
+On his return, he proposed removing a little higher up the mountain, to
+where the woods opened upon a grand and extensive prospect; and
+thither they were preparing to go, when they saw a young woman join the
+children, and caress and weep over them.
+
+The travellers, interested by her distress, stopped to observe her.
+She took the youngest of the children in her arms, and, perceiving the
+strangers, hastily dried her tears, and proceeded to the cottage.
+St. Aubert, on enquiring the occasion of her sorrow, learned that her
+husband, who was a shepherd, and lived here in the summer months to
+watch over the flocks he led to feed upon these mountains, had lost, on
+the preceding night, his little all. A gang of gipsies, who had for some
+time infested the neighbourhood, had driven away several of his master's
+sheep. 'Jacques,' added the shepherd's wife, 'had saved a little money,
+and had bought a few sheep with it, and now they must go to his master
+for those that are stolen; and what is worse than all, his master, when
+he comes to know how it is, will trust him no longer with the care of
+his flocks, for he is a hard man! and then what is to become of our
+children!'
+
+The innocent countenance of the woman, and the simplicity of her manner
+in relating her grievance, inclined St. Aubert to believe her story; and
+Valancourt, convinced that it was true, asked eagerly what was the value
+of the stolen sheep; on hearing which he turned away with a look of
+disappointment. St. Aubert put some money into her hand, Emily too gave
+something from her little purse, and they walked towards the cliff; but
+Valancourt lingered behind, and spoke to the shepherd's wife, who was
+now weeping with gratitude and surprise. He enquired how much money was
+yet wanting to replace the stolen sheep, and found, that it was a
+sum very little short of all he had about him. He was perplexed and
+distressed. 'This sum then,' said he to himself, 'would make this poor
+family completely happy--it is in my power to give it--to make them
+completely happy! But what is to become of me?--how shall I contrive
+to reach home with the little money that will remain?' For a moment he
+stood, unwilling to forego the luxury of raising a family from ruin to
+happiness, yet considering the difficulties of pursuing his journey with
+so small a sum as would be left.
+
+While he was in this state of perplexity, the shepherd himself appeared:
+his children ran to meet him; he took one of them in his arms, and, with
+the other clinging to his coat, came forward with a loitering step. His
+forlorn and melancholy look determined Valancourt at once; he threw down
+all the money he had, except a very few louis, and bounded away
+after St. Aubert and Emily, who were proceeding slowly up the steep.
+Valancourt had seldom felt his heart so light as at this moment; his
+gay spirits danced with pleasure; every object around him appeared more
+interesting, or beautiful, than before. St. Aubert observed the uncommon
+vivacity of his countenance: 'What has pleased you so much?' said he.
+'O what a lovely day,' replied Valancourt, 'how brightly the sun
+shines, how pure is this air, what enchanting scenery!' 'It is indeed
+enchanting,' said St. Aubert, whom early experience had taught to
+understand the nature of Valancourt's present feelings. 'What pity that
+the wealthy, who can command such sunshine, should ever pass their days
+in gloom--in the cold shade of selfishness! For you, my young friend,
+may the sun always shine as brightly as at this moment; may your own
+conduct always give you the sunshine of benevolence and reason united!'
+
+Valancourt, highly flattered by this compliment, could make no reply but
+by a smile of gratitude.
+
+They continued to wind under the woods, between the grassy knolls of the
+mountain, and, as they reached the shady summit, which he had pointed
+out, the whole party burst into an exclamation. Behind the spot
+where they stood, the rock rose perpendicularly in a massy wall to a
+considerable height, and then branched out into overhanging crags. Their
+grey tints were well contrasted by the bright hues of the plants and
+wild flowers, that grew in their fractured sides, and were deepened by
+the gloom of the pines and cedars, that waved above. The steeps below,
+over which the eye passed abruptly to the valley, were fringed with
+thickets of alpine shrubs; and, lower still, appeared the tufted tops of
+the chesnut woods, that clothed their base, among which peeped forth the
+shepherd's cottage, just left by the travellers, with its blueish smoke
+curling high in the air. On every side appeared the majestic summits
+of the Pyrenees, some exhibiting tremendous crags of marble, whose
+appearance was changing every instant, as the varying lights fell upon
+their surface; others, still higher, displaying only snowy points, while
+their lower steeps were covered almost invariably with forests of pine,
+larch, and oak, that stretched down to the vale. This was one of
+the narrow vallies, that open from the Pyrenees into the country of
+Rousillon, and whose green pastures, and cultivated beauty, form a
+decided and wonderful contrast to the romantic grandeur that environs
+it. Through a vista of the mountains appeared the lowlands of Rousillon,
+tinted with the blue haze of distance, as they united with the waters of
+the Mediterranean; where, on a promontory, which marked the boundary of
+the shore, stood a lonely beacon, over which were seen circling flights
+of sea-fowl. Beyond, appeared, now and then, a stealing sail, white with
+the sun-beam, and whose progress was perceivable by its approach to the
+light-house. Sometimes, too, was seen a sail so distant, that it served
+only to mark the line of separation between the sky and the waves.
+
+On the other side of the valley, immediately opposite to the spot where
+the travellers rested, a rocky pass opened toward Gascony. Here no sign
+of cultivation appeared. The rocks of granite, that screened the glen,
+rose abruptly from their base, and stretched their barren points to the
+clouds, unvaried with woods, and uncheered even by a hunter's cabin.
+Sometimes, indeed, a gigantic larch threw its long shade over the
+precipice, and here and there a cliff reared on its brow a monumental
+cross, to tell the traveller the fate of him who had ventured thither
+before. This spot seemed the very haunt of banditti; and Emily, as she
+looked down upon it, almost expected to see them stealing out from
+some hollow cave to look for their prey. Soon after an object not less
+terrific struck her,--a gibbet standing on a point of rock near the
+entrance of the pass, and immediately over one of the crosses she had
+before observed. These were hieroglyphics that told a plain and dreadful
+story. She forbore to point it out to St. Aubert, but it threw a gloom
+over her spirits, and made her anxious to hasten forward, that
+they might with certainty reach Rousillon before night-fall. It was
+necessary, however, that St. Aubert should take some refreshment, and,
+seating themselves on the short dry turf, they opened the basket of
+provisions, while
+
+     by breezy murmurs cool'd,
+ Broad o'er THEIR heads the verdant cedars wave,
+ And high palmetos lift their graceful shade.
+ -----THEY draw
+ Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales
+ Profusely breathing from the piney groves,
+ And vales of fragrance; there at a distance hear
+ The roaring floods, and cataracts.*
+     *Thomson
+
+
+St. Aubert was revived by rest, and by the serene air of this summit;
+and Valancourt was so charmed with all around, and with the conversation
+of his companions, that he seemed to have forgotten he had any further
+to go. Having concluded their simple repast, they gave a long farewell
+look to the scene, and again began to ascend. St. Aubert rejoiced when
+he reached the carriage, which Emily entered with him; but Valancourt,
+willing to take a more extensive view of the enchanting country, into
+which they were about to descend, than he could do from a carriage,
+loosened his dogs, and once more bounded with them along the banks of
+the road. He often quitted it for points that promised a wider prospect,
+and the slow pace, at which the mules travelled, allowed him to overtake
+them with ease. Whenever a scene of uncommon magnificence appeared, he
+hastened to inform St. Aubert, who, though he was too much tired to
+walk himself, sometimes made the chaise wait, while Emily went to the
+neighbouring cliff.
+
+It was evening when they descended the lower alps, that bind Rousillon,
+and form a majestic barrier round that charming country, leaving it open
+only on the east to the Mediterranean. The gay tints of cultivation once
+more beautified the landscape; for the lowlands were coloured with the
+richest hues, which a luxuriant climate, and an industrious people can
+awaken into life. Groves of orange and lemon perfumed the air, their
+ripe fruit glowing among the foliage; while, sloping to the plains,
+extensive vineyards spread their treasures. Beyond these, woods and
+pastures, and mingled towns and hamlets stretched towards the sea, on
+whose bright surface gleamed many a distant sail; while, over the whole
+scene, was diffused the purple glow of evening. This landscape with the
+surrounding alps did, indeed, present a perfect picture of the lovely
+and the sublime, of 'beauty sleeping in the lap of horror.'
+
+The travellers, having reached the plains, proceeded, between hedges
+of flowering myrtle and pomegranate, to the town of Arles, where
+they proposed to rest for the night. They met with simple, but neat
+accommodation, and would have passed a happy evening, after the toils
+and the delights of this day, had not the approaching separation thrown
+a gloom over their spirit. It was St. Aubert's plan to proceed, on the
+morrow, to the borders of the Mediterranean, and travel along its shores
+into Languedoc; and Valancourt, since he was now nearly recovered, and
+had no longer a pretence for continuing with his new friends, resolved
+to leave them here. St. Aubert, who was much pleased with him, invited
+him to go further, but did not repeat the invitation, and Valancourt
+had resolution enough to forego the temptation of accepting it, that
+he might prove himself not unworthy of the favour. On the following
+morning, therefore, they were to part, St. Aubert to pursue his way to
+Languedoc, and Valancourt to explore new scenes among the mountains, on
+his return home. During this evening he was often silent and thoughtful;
+St. Aubert's manner towards him was affectionate, though grave, and
+Emily was serious, though she made frequent efforts to appear cheerful.
+After one of the most melancholy evenings they had yet passed together,
+they separated for the night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+ I care not, Fortune! what you me deny;
+ You cannot rob me of free nature's grace;
+ You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
+ Through which Aurora shews her brightening face;
+ You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
+ The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve:
+ Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
+ And I their toys to the great children leave:
+ Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave.
+     THOMSON
+
+In the morning, Valancourt breakfasted with St. Aubert and Emily,
+neither of whom seemed much refreshed by sleep. The languor of illness
+still hung over St. Aubert, and to Emily's fears his disorder appeared
+to be increasing fast upon him. She watched his looks with anxious
+affection, and their expression was always faithfully reflected in her
+own.
+
+At the commencement of their acquaintance, Valancourt had made known his
+name and family. St. Aubert was not a stranger to either, for the
+family estates, which were now in the possession of an elder brother of
+Valancourt, were little more than twenty miles distant from La
+Vallee, and he had sometimes met the elder Valancourt on visits in the
+neighbourhood. This knowledge had made him more willingly receive his
+present companion; for, though his countenance and manners would have
+won him the acquaintance of St. Aubert, who was very apt to trust to the
+intelligence of his own eyes, with respect to countenances, he would
+not have accepted these, as sufficient introductions to that of his
+daughter.
+
+The breakfast was almost as silent as the supper of the preceding night;
+but their musing was at length interrupted by the sound of the carriage
+wheels, which were to bear away St. Aubert and Emily. Valancourt started
+from his chair, and went to the window; it was indeed the carriage, and
+he returned to his seat without speaking. The moment was now come when
+they must part. St. Aubert told Valancourt, that he hoped he would
+never pass La Vallee without favouring him with a visit; and Valancourt,
+eagerly thanking him, assured him that he never would; as he said which
+he looked timidly at Emily, who tried to smile away the seriousness of
+her spirits. They passed a few minutes in interesting conversation,
+and St. Aubert then led the way to the carriage, Emily and Valancourt
+following in silence. The latter lingered at the door several minutes
+after they were seated, and none of the party seemed to have courage
+enough to say--Farewell. At length, St. Aubert pronounced the melancholy
+word, which Emily passed to Valancourt, who returned it, with a dejected
+smile, and the carriage drove on.
+
+The travellers remained, for some time, in a state of tranquil
+pensiveness, which is not unpleasing. St. Aubert interrupted it by
+observing, 'This is a very promising young man; it is many years since I
+have been so much pleased with any person, on so short an acquaintance.
+He brings back to my memory the days of my youth, when every scene was
+new and delightful!' St. Aubert sighed, and sunk again into a reverie;
+and, as Emily looked back upon the road they had passed, Valancourt was
+seen, at the door of the little inn, following them with his eyes. Her
+perceived her, and waved his hand; and she returned the adieu, till the
+winding road shut her from his sight.
+
+'I remember when I was about his age,' resumed St. Aubert, 'and I
+thought, and felt exactly as he does. The world was opening upon me
+then, now--it is closing.'
+
+'My dear sir, do not think so gloomily,' said Emily in a trembling
+voice, 'I hope you have many, many years to live--for your own sake--for
+MY sake.'
+
+'Ah, my Emily!' replied St. Aubert, 'for thy sake! Well--I hope it is
+so.' He wiped away a tear, that was stealing down his cheek, threw a
+smile upon his countenance, and said in a cheering voice, 'there
+is something in the ardour and ingenuousness of youth, which is
+particularly pleasing to the contemplation of an old man, if his
+feelings have not been entirely corroded by the world. It is cheering
+and reviving, like the view of spring to a sick person; his mind catches
+somewhat of the spirit of the season, and his eyes are lighted up with a
+transient sunshine. Valancourt is this spring to me.'
+
+Emily, who pressed her father's hand affectionately, had never before
+listened with so much pleasure to the praises he bestowed; no, not even
+when he had bestowed them on herself.
+
+They travelled on, among vineyards, woods, and pastures, delighted with
+the romantic beauty of the landscape, which was bounded, on one side, by
+the grandeur of the Pyrenees, and, on the other, by the ocean; and,
+soon after noon, they reached the town of Colioure, situated on the
+Mediterranean. Here they dined, and rested till towards the cool of
+day, when they pursued their way along the shores--those enchanting
+shores!--which extend to Languedoc. Emily gazed with enthusiasm on the
+vastness of the sea, its surface varying, as the lights and shadows
+fell, and on its woody banks, mellowed with autumnal tints.
+
+St. Aubert was impatient to reach Perpignan, where he expected letters
+from M. Quesnel; and it was the expectation of these letters, that
+had induced him to leave Colioure, for his feeble frame had required
+immediate rest. After travelling a few miles, he fell asleep; and Emily,
+who had put two or three books into the carriage, on leaving La Vallee,
+had now the leisure for looking into them. She sought for one, in which
+Valancourt had been reading the day before, and hoped for the pleasure
+of re-tracing a page, over which the eyes of a beloved friend had
+lately passed, of dwelling on the passages, which he had admired, and of
+permitting them to speak to her in the language of his own mind, and to
+bring himself to her presence. On searching for the book, she could find
+it no where, but in its stead perceived a volume of Petrarch's poems,
+that had belonged to Valancourt, whose name was written in it, and from
+which he had frequently read passages to her, with all the pathetic
+expression, that characterized the feelings of the author. She hesitated
+in believing, what would have been sufficiently apparent to almost any
+other person, that he had purposely left this book, instead of the
+one she had lost, and that love had prompted the exchange; but, having
+opened it with impatient pleasure, and observed the lines of his pencil
+drawn along the various passages he had read aloud, and under others
+more descriptive of delicate tenderness than he had dared to trust
+his voice with, the conviction came, at length, to her mind. For some
+moments she was conscious only of being beloved; then, a recollection
+of all the variations of tone and countenance, with which he had recited
+these sonnets, and of the soul, which spoke in their expression, pressed
+to her memory, and she wept over the memorial of his affection.
+
+They arrived at Perpignan soon after sunset, where St. Aubert found,
+as he had expected, letters from M. Quesnel, the contents of which
+so evidently and grievously affected him, that Emily was alarmed,
+and pressed him, as far as her delicacy would permit, to disclose
+the occasion of his concern; but he answered her only by tears, and
+immediately began to talk on other topics. Emily, though she forbore
+to press the one most interesting to her, was greatly affected by her
+father's manner, and passed a night of sleepless solicitude.
+
+In the morning they pursued their journey along the coast towards
+Leucate, another town on the Mediterranean, situated on the borders of
+Languedoc and Rousillon. On the way, Emily renewed the subject of the
+preceding night, and appeared so deeply affected by St. Aubert's silence
+and dejection, that he relaxed from his reserve. 'I was unwilling, my
+dear Emily,' said he, 'to throw a cloud over the pleasure you receive
+from these scenes, and meant, therefore, to conceal, for the present,
+some circumstances, with which, however, you must at length have been
+made acquainted. But your anxiety has defeated my purpose; you suffer as
+much from this, perhaps, as you will do from a knowledge of the facts I
+have to relate. M. Quesnel's visit proved an unhappy one to me; he came
+to tell me part of the news he has now confirmed. You may have heard me
+mention a M. Motteville, of Paris, but you did not know that the
+chief of my personal property was invested in his hands. I had great
+confidence in him, and I am yet willing to believe, that he is not
+wholly unworthy of my esteem. A variety of circumstances have concurred
+to ruin him, and--I am ruined with him.'
+
+St. Aubert paused to conceal his emotion.
+
+'The letters I have just received from M. Quesnel,' resumed he,
+struggling to speak with firmness, 'enclosed others from Motteville,
+which confirmed all I dreaded.'
+
+'Must we then quit La Vallee?' said Emily, after a long pause of
+silence. 'That is yet uncertain,' replied St. Aubert, 'it will depend
+upon the compromise Motteville is able to make with his creditors. My
+income, you know, was never large, and now it will be reduced to
+little indeed! It is for you, Emily, for you, my child, that I am most
+afflicted.' His last words faltered; Emily smiled tenderly upon him
+through her tears, and then, endeavouring to overcome her emotion, 'My
+dear father,' said she, 'do not grieve for me, or for yourself; we may
+yet be happy;--if La Vallee remains for us, we must be happy. We will
+retain only one servant, and you shall scarcely perceive the change in
+your income. Be comforted, my dear sir; we shall not feel the want of
+those luxuries, which others value so highly, since we never had a taste
+for them; and poverty cannot deprive us of many consolations. It cannot
+rob us of the affection we have for each other, or degrade us in our own
+opinion, or in that of any person, whose opinion we ought to value.'
+
+St. Aubert concealed his face with his handkerchief, and was unable
+to speak; but Emily continued to urge to her father the truths, which
+himself had impressed upon her mind.
+
+'Besides, my dear sir, poverty cannot deprive us of intellectual
+delights. It cannot deprive you of the comfort of affording me examples
+of fortitude and benevolence; nor me of the delight of consoling a
+beloved parent. It cannot deaden our taste for the grand, and the
+beautiful, or deny us the means of indulging it; for the scenes
+of nature--those sublime spectacles, so infinitely superior to all
+artificial luxuries! are open for the enjoyment of the poor, as well as
+of the rich. Of what, then, have we to complain, so long as we are not
+in want of necessaries? Pleasures, such as wealth cannot buy, will still
+be ours. We retain, then, the sublime luxuries of nature, and lose only
+the frivolous ones of art.'
+
+St. Aubert could not reply: he caught Emily to his bosom, their tears
+flowed together, but--they were not tears of sorrow. After this language
+of the heart, all other would have been feeble, and they remained silent
+for some time. Then, St. Aubert conversed as before; for, if his mind
+had not recovered its natural tranquillity, it at least assumed the
+appearance of it.
+
+They reached the romantic town of Leucate early in the day, but St.
+Aubert was weary, and they determined to pass the night there. In the
+evening, he exerted himself so far as to walk with his daughter to view
+the environs that overlook the lake of Leucate, the Mediterranean, part
+of Rousillon, with the Pyrenees, and a wide extent of the luxuriant
+province of Languedoc, now blushing with the ripened vintage, which the
+peasants were beginning to gather. St. Aubert and Emily saw the busy
+groups, caught the joyous song, that was wafted on the breeze, and
+anticipated, with apparent pleasure, their next day's journey over this
+gay region. He designed, however, still to wind along the sea-shore.
+To return home immediately was partly his wish, but from this he was
+withheld by a desire to lengthen the pleasure, which the journey gave
+his daughter, and to try the effect of the sea air on his own disorder.
+
+On the following day, therefore, they recommenced their journey through
+Languedoc, winding the shores of the Mediterranean; the Pyrenees still
+forming the magnificent back-ground of their prospects, while on their
+right was the ocean, and, on their left, wide extended plains melting
+into the blue horizon. St. Aubert was pleased, and conversed much with
+Emily, yet his cheerfulness was sometimes artificial, and sometimes a
+shade of melancholy would steal upon his countenance, and betray him.
+This was soon chased away by Emily's smile; who smiled, however, with an
+aching heart, for she saw that his misfortunes preyed upon his mind, and
+upon his enfeebled frame.
+
+It was evening when they reached a small village of Upper Languedoc,
+where they meant to pass the night, but the place could not afford
+them beds; for here, too, it was the time of the vintage, and they
+were obliged to proceed to the next post. The languor of illness and of
+fatigue, which returned upon St. Aubert, required immediate repose,
+and the evening was now far advanced; but from necessity there was no
+appeal, and he ordered Michael to proceed.
+
+The rich plains of Languedoc, which exhibited all the glories of the
+vintage, with the gaieties of a French festival, no longer awakened St.
+Aubert to pleasure, whose condition formed a mournful contrast to the
+hilarity and youthful beauty which surrounded him. As his languid eyes
+moved over the scene, he considered, that they would soon, perhaps, be
+closed for ever on this world. 'Those distant and sublime mountains,'
+said he secretly, as he gazed on a chain of the Pyrenees that stretched
+towards the west, 'these luxuriant plains, this blue vault, the cheerful
+light of day, will be shut from my eyes! The song of the peasant, the
+cheering voice of man--will no longer sound for me!'
+
+The intelligent eyes of Emily seemed to read what passed in the mind of
+her father, and she fixed them on his face, with an expression of such
+tender pity, as recalled his thoughts from every desultory object of
+regret, and he remembered only, that he must leave his daughter without
+protection. This reflection changed regret to agony; he sighed deeply,
+and remained silent, while she seemed to understand that sigh, for
+she pressed his hand affectionately, and then turned to the window to
+conceal her tears. The sun now threw a last yellow gleam on the waves of
+the Mediterranean, and the gloom of twilight spread fast over the scene,
+till only a melancholy ray appeared on the western horizon, marking the
+point where the sun had set amid the vapours of an autumnal evening. A
+cool breeze now came from the shore, and Emily let down the glass; but
+the air, which was refreshing to health, was as chilling to sickness,
+and St. Aubert desired, that the window might be drawn up. Increasing
+illness made him now more anxious than ever to finish the day's journey,
+and he stopped the muleteer to enquire how far they had yet to go to the
+next post. He replied, 'Nine miles.' 'I feel I am unable to proceed much
+further,' said St. Aubert; 'enquire, as you go, if there is any house on
+the road that would accommodate us for the night.' He sunk back in
+the carriage, and Michael, cracking his whip in the air, set off, and
+continued on the full gallop, till St. Aubert, almost fainting, called
+to him to stop. Emily looked anxiously from the window, and saw a
+peasant walking at some little distance on the road, for whom they
+waited, till he came up, when he was asked, if there was any house in
+the neighbourhood that accommodated travellers. He replied, that he knew
+of none. 'There is a chateau, indeed, among those woods on the right,'
+added he, 'but I believe it receives nobody, and I cannot show you the
+way, for I am almost a stranger here.' St. Aubert was going to ask
+him some further question concerning the chateau, but the man abruptly
+passed on. After some consideration, he ordered Michael to proceed
+slowly to the woods. Every moment now deepened the twilight, and
+increased the difficulty of finding the road. Another peasant soon after
+passed. 'Which is the way to the chateau in the woods?' cried Michael.
+
+'The chateau in the woods!' exclaimed the peasant--'Do you mean that
+with the turret, yonder?'
+
+'I don't know as for the turret, as you call it,' said Michael, 'I mean
+that white piece of a building, that we see at a distance there, among
+the trees.'
+
+'Yes, that is the turret; why, who are you, that you are going thither?'
+said the man with surprise.
+
+St. Aubert, on hearing this odd question, and observing the peculiar
+tone in which it was delivered, looked out from the carriage. 'We are
+travellers,' said he, 'who are in search of a house of accommodation for
+the night; is there any hereabout?'
+
+'None, Monsieur, unless you have a mind to try your luck yonder,'
+replied the peasant, pointing to the woods, 'but I would not advise you
+to go there.'
+
+'To whom does the chateau belong?'
+
+'I scarcely know myself, Monsieur.'
+
+'It is uninhabited, then?' 'No, not uninhabited; the steward and
+housekeeper are there, I believe.'
+
+On hearing this, St. Aubert determined to proceed to the chateau, and
+risque the refusal of being accommodated for the night; he therefore
+desired the countryman would shew Michael the way, and bade him expect
+reward for his trouble. The man was for a moment silent, and then said,
+that he was going on other business, but that the road could not be
+missed, if they went up an avenue to the right, to which he pointed. St.
+Aubert was going to speak, but the peasant wished him good night, and
+walked on.
+
+The carriage now moved towards the avenue, which was guarded by a gate,
+and Michael having dismounted to open it, they entered between rows of
+ancient oak and chesnut, whose intermingled branches formed a lofty arch
+above. There was something so gloomy and desolate in the appearance of
+this avenue, and its lonely silence, that Emily almost shuddered as
+she passed along; and, recollecting the manner in which the peasant had
+mentioned the chateau, she gave a mysterious meaning to his words, such
+as she had not suspected when he uttered them. These apprehensions,
+however, she tried to check, considering that they were probably the
+effect of a melancholy imagination, which her father's situation, and
+a consideration of her own circumstances, had made sensible to every
+impression.
+
+They passed slowly on, for they were now almost in darkness, which,
+together with the unevenness of the ground, and the frequent roots of
+old trees, that shot up above the soil, made it necessary to proceed
+with caution. On a sudden Michael stopped the carriage; and, as St.
+Aubert looked from the window to enquire the cause, he perceived a
+figure at some distance moving up the avenue. The dusk would not permit
+him to distinguish what it was, but he bade Michael go on.
+
+'This seems a wild place,' said Michael; 'there is no house hereabout,
+don't your honour think we had better turn back?'
+
+'Go a little farther, and if we see no house then, we will return to the
+road,' replied St. Aubert.
+
+Michael proceeded with reluctance, and the extreme slowness of his pace
+made St. Aubert look again from the window to hasten him, when again he
+saw the same figure. He was somewhat startled: probably the gloominess
+of the spot made him more liable to alarm than usual; however this
+might be, he now stopped Michael, and bade him call to the person in the
+avenue.
+
+'Please your honour, he may be a robber,' said Michael. 'It does not
+please me,' replied St. Aubert, who could not forbear smiling at the
+simplicity of his phrase, 'and we will, therefore, return to the road,
+for I see no probability of meeting here with what we seek.'
+
+Michael turned about immediately, and was retracing his way with
+alacrity, when a voice was heard from among the trees on the left. It
+was not the voice of command, or distress, but a deep hollow tone, which
+seemed to be scarcely human. The man whipped his mules till they went as
+fast as possible, regardless of the darkness, the broken ground, and
+the necks of the whole party, nor once stopped till he reached the gate,
+which opened from the avenue into the high-road, where he went into a
+more moderate pace.
+
+'I am very ill,' said St. Aubert, taking his daughter's hand. 'You are
+worse, then, sir!' said Emily, extremely alarmed by his manner, 'you
+are worse, and here is no assistance. Good God! what is to be done!' He
+leaned his head on her shoulder, while she endeavoured to support him
+with her arm, and Michael was again ordered to stop. When the rattling
+of the wheels had ceased, music was heard on their air; it was to Emily
+the voice of Hope. 'Oh! we are near some human habitation!' said she,
+'help may soon be had.'
+
+She listened anxiously; the sounds were distant, and seemed to come from
+a remote part of the woods that bordered the road; and, as she looked
+towards the spot whence they issued, she perceived in the faint
+moon-light something like a chateau. It was difficult, however, to reach
+this; St. Aubert was now too ill to bear the motion of the carriage;
+Michael could not quit his mules; and Emily, who still supported her
+father, feared to leave him, and also feared to venture alone to such a
+distance, she knew not whither, or to whom. Something, however, it was
+necessary to determine upon immediately; St. Aubert, therefore, told
+Michael to proceed slowly; but they had not gone far, when he fainted,
+and the carriage was again stopped. He lay quite senseless.--'My dear,
+dear father!' cried Emily in great agony, who began to fear that he was
+dying, 'speak, if it is only one word to let me hear the sound of your
+voice!' But no voice spoke in reply. In the agony of terror she bade
+Michael bring water from the rivulet, that flowed along the road;
+and, having received some in the man's hat, with trembling hands she
+sprinkled it over her father's face, which, as the moon's rays now
+fell upon it, seemed to bear the impression of death. Every emotion of
+selfish fear now gave way to a stronger influence, and, committing St.
+Aubert to the care of Michael, who refused to go far from his mules,
+she stepped from the carriage in search of the chateau she had seen at
+a distance. It was a still moon-light night, and the music, which yet
+sounded on the air, directed her steps from the high road, up a shadowy
+lane, that led to the woods. Her mind was for some time so entirely
+occupied by anxiety and terror for her father, that she felt none for
+herself, till the deepening gloom of the overhanging foliage, which now
+wholly excluded the moon-light, and the wildness of the place, recalled
+her to a sense of her adventurous situation. The music had ceased,
+and she had no guide but chance. For a moment she paused in terrified
+perplexity, till a sense of her father's condition again overcoming
+every consideration for herself, she proceeded. The lane terminated in
+the woods, but she looked round in vain for a house, or a human being,
+and as vainly listened for a sound to guide her. She hurried on,
+however, not knowing whither, avoiding the recesses of the woods, and
+endeavouring to keep along their margin, till a rude kind of avenue,
+which opened upon a moon-light spot, arrested her attention. The
+wildness of this avenue brought to her recollection the one leading to
+the turreted chateau, and she was inclined to believe, that this was a
+part of the same domain, and probably led to the same point. While she
+hesitated, whether to follow it or not, a sound of many voices in loud
+merriment burst upon her ear. It seemed not the laugh of cheerfulness,
+but of riot, and she stood appalled. While she paused, she heard a
+distant voice, calling from the way she had come, and not doubting but
+it was that of Michael, her first impulse was to hasten back; but a
+second thought changed her purpose; she believed that nothing less than
+the last extremity could have prevailed with Michael to quit his mules,
+and fearing that her father was now dying, she rushed forward, with a
+feeble hope of obtaining assistance from the people in the woods. Her
+heart beat with fearful expectation, as she drew near the spot whence
+the voices issued, and she often startled when her steps disturbed the
+fallen leaves. The sounds led her towards the moon-light glade she had
+before noticed; at a little distance from which she stopped, and saw,
+between the boles of the trees, a small circular level of green turf,
+surrounded by the woods, on which appeared a group of figures. On
+drawing nearer, she distinguished these, by their dress, to be peasants,
+and perceived several cottages scattered round the edge of the woods,
+which waved loftily over this spot. While she gazed, and endeavoured
+to overcome the apprehensions that withheld her steps, several peasant
+girls came out of a cottage; music instantly struck up, and the dance
+began. It was the joyous music of the vintage! the same she had before
+heard upon the air. Her heart, occupied with terror for her father,
+could not feel the contrast, which this gay scene offered to her own
+distress; she stepped hastily forward towards a group of elder peasants,
+who were seated at the door of a cottage, and, having explained her
+situation, entreated their assistance. Several of them rose with
+alacrity, and, offering any service in their power, followed Emily, who
+seemed to move on the wind, as fast as they could towards the road.
+
+When she reached the carriage she found St. Aubert restored to
+animation. On the recovery of his senses, having heard from Michael
+whither his daughter was gone, anxiety for her overcame every regard for
+himself, and he had sent him in search of her. He was, however, still
+languid, and, perceiving himself unable to travel much farther, he
+renewed his enquiries for an inn, and concerning the chateau in the
+woods. 'The chateau cannot accommodate you, sir,' said a venerable
+peasant who had followed Emily from the woods, 'it is scarcely
+inhabited; but, if you will do me the honour to visit my cottage, you
+shall be welcome to the best bed it affords.'
+
+St. Aubert was himself a Frenchman; he therefore was not surprised at
+French courtesy; but, ill as he was, he felt the value of the offer
+enhanced by the manner which accompanied it. He had too much delicacy
+to apologize, or to appear to hesitate about availing himself of
+the peasant's hospitality, but immediately accepted it with the same
+frankness with which it was offered.
+
+The carriage again moved slowly on; Michael following the peasants up
+the lane, which Emily had just quitted, till they came to the moon-light
+glade. St. Aubert's spirits were so far restored by the courtesy of
+his host, and the near prospect of repose, that he looked with a sweet
+complacency upon the moon-light scene, surrounded by the shadowy
+woods, through which, here and there, an opening admitted the streaming
+splendour, discovering a cottage, or a sparkling rivulet. He listened,
+with no painful emotion, to the merry notes of the guitar and tamborine;
+and, though tears came to his eyes, when he saw the debonnaire dance of
+the peasants, they were not merely tears of mournful regret. With Emily
+it was otherwise; immediate terror for her father had now subsided into
+a gentle melancholy, which every note of joy, by awakening comparison,
+served to heighten.
+
+The dance ceased on the approach of the carriage, which was a phenomenon
+in these sequestered woods, and the peasantry flocked round it with
+eager curiosity. On learning that it brought a sick stranger, several
+girls ran across the turf, and returned with wine and baskets of grapes,
+which they presented to the travellers, each with kind contention
+pressing for a preference. At length, the carriage stopped at a neat
+cottage, and his venerable conductor, having assisted St. Aubert to
+alight, led him and Emily to a small inner room, illuminated only by
+moon-beams, which the open casement admitted. St. Aubert, rejoicing in
+rest, seated himself in an arm-chair, and his senses were refreshed by
+the cool and balmy air, that lightly waved the embowering honeysuckles,
+and wafted their sweet breath into the apartment. His host, who was
+called La Voisin, quitted the room, but soon returned with fruits,
+cream, and all the pastoral luxury his cottage afforded; having set down
+which, with a smile of unfeigned welcome, he retired behind the chair of
+his guest. St. Aubert insisted on his taking a seat at the table, and,
+when the fruit had allayed the fever of his palate, and he found himself
+somewhat revived, he began to converse with his host, who communicated
+several particulars concerning himself and his family, which were
+interesting, because they were spoken from the heart, and delineated
+a picture of the sweet courtesies of family kindness. Emily sat by her
+father, holding his hand, and, while she listened to the old man, her
+heart swelled with the affectionate sympathy he described, and her
+tears fell to the mournful consideration, that death would probably
+soon deprive her of the dearest blessing she then possessed. The soft
+moon-light of an autumnal evening, and the distant music, which now
+sounded a plaintive strain, aided the melancholy of her mind. The old
+man continued to talk of his family, and St. Aubert remained silent.
+'I have only one daughter living,' said La Voisin, 'but she is happily
+married, and is every thing to me. When I lost my wife,' he added with
+a sigh, 'I came to live with Agnes, and her family; she has several
+children, who are all dancing on the green yonder, as merry as
+grasshoppers--and long may they be so! I hope to die among them,
+monsieur. I am old now, and cannot expect to live long, but there is
+some comfort in dying surrounded by one's children.'
+
+'My good friend,' said St. Aubert, while his voice trembled, 'I hope you
+will long live surrounded by them.'
+
+'Ah, sir! at my age I must not expect that!' replied the old man, and he
+paused: 'I can scarcely wish it,' he resumed, 'for I trust that whenever
+I die I shall go to heaven, where my poor wife is gone before me. I can
+sometimes almost fancy I see her of a still moon-light night, walking
+among these shades she loved so well. Do you believe, monsieur, that
+we shall be permitted to revisit the earth, after we have quitted the
+body?'
+
+Emily could no longer stifle the anguish of her heart; her tears fell
+fast upon her father's hand, which she yet held. He made an effort to
+speak, and at length said in a low voice, 'I hope we shall be permitted
+to look down on those we have left on the earth, but I can only hope it.
+Futurity is much veiled from our eyes, and faith and hope are our only
+guides concerning it. We are not enjoined to believe, that disembodied
+spirits watch over the friends they have loved, but we may innocently
+hope it. It is a hope which I will never resign,' continued he, while
+he wiped the tears from his daughter's eyes, 'it will sweeten the bitter
+moments of death!' Tears fell slowly on his cheeks; La Voisin wept too,
+and there was a pause of silence. Then, La Voisin, renewing the subject,
+said, 'But you believe, sir, that we shall meet in another world the
+relations we have loved in this; I must believe this.' 'Then do
+believe it,' replied St. Aubert, 'severe, indeed, would be the pangs of
+separation, if we believed it to be eternal. Look up, my dear Emily,
+we shall meet again!' He lifted his eyes towards heaven, and a gleam
+of moon-light, which fell upon his countenance, discovered peace and
+resignation, stealing on the lines of sorrow.
+
+La Voisin felt that he had pursued the subject too far, and he dropped
+it, saying, 'We are in darkness, I forgot to bring a light.'
+
+'No,' said St. Aubert, 'this is a light I love. Sit down, my good
+friend. Emily, my love, I find myself better than I have been all day;
+this air refreshes me. I can enjoy this tranquil hour, and that music,
+which floats so sweetly at a distance. Let me see you smile. Who touches
+that guitar so tastefully? are there two instruments, or is it an echo I
+hear?'
+
+'It is an echo, monsieur, I fancy. That guitar is often heard at night,
+when all is still, but nobody knows who touches it, and it is sometimes
+accompanied by a voice so sweet, and so sad, one would almost think the
+woods were haunted.' 'They certainly are haunted,' said St. Aubert with
+a smile, 'but I believe it is by mortals.' 'I have sometimes heard it
+at midnight, when I could not sleep,' rejoined La Voisin, not seeming to
+notice this remark, 'almost under my window, and I never heard any music
+like it. It has often made me think of my poor wife till I cried. I have
+sometimes got up to the window to look if I could see anybody, but as
+soon as I opened the casement all was hushed, and nobody to be seen; and
+I have listened, and listened till I have been so timorous, that even
+the trembling of the leaves in the breeze has made me start. They say
+it often comes to warn people of their death, but I have heard it these
+many years, and outlived the warning.'
+
+Emily, though she smiled at the mention of this ridiculous superstition,
+could not, in the present tone of her spirits, wholly resist its
+contagion.
+
+'Well, but, my good friend,' said St. Aubert, 'has nobody had courage to
+follow the sounds? If they had, they would probably have discovered who
+is the musician.' 'Yes, sir, they have followed them some way into the
+woods, but the music has still retreated, and seemed as distant as ever,
+and the people have at last been afraid of being led into harm, and
+would go no further. It is very seldom that I have heard these sounds so
+early in the evening. They usually come about midnight, when that bright
+planet, which is rising above the turret yonder, sets below the woods on
+the left.'
+
+'What turret?' asked St. Aubert with quickness, 'I see none.'
+
+'Your pardon, monsieur, you do see one indeed, for the moon shines full
+upon it;--up the avenue yonder, a long way off; the chateau it belongs
+to is hid among the trees.'
+
+'Yes, my dear sir,' said Emily, pointing, 'don't you see something
+glitter above the dark woods? It is a fane, I fancy, which the rays fall
+upon.'
+
+'O yes, I see what you mean; and who does the chateau belong to?'
+
+'The Marquis de Villeroi was its owner,' replied La Voisin,
+emphatically.
+
+'Ah!' said St. Aubert, with a deep sigh, 'are we then so near Le-Blanc!'
+He appeared much agitated.
+
+'It used to be the Marquis's favourite residence,' resumed La Voisin,
+'but he took a dislike to the place, and has not been there for many
+years. We have heard lately that he is dead, and that it is fallen into
+other hands.' St. Aubert, who had sat in deep musing, was roused by the
+last words. 'Dead!' he exclaimed, 'Good God! when did he die?'
+
+'He is reported to have died about five weeks since,' replied La Voisin.
+'Did you know the Marquis, sir?'
+
+'This is very extraordinary!' said St. Aubert without attending to the
+question. 'Why is it so, my dear sir?' said Emily, in a voice of timid
+curiosity. He made no reply, but sunk again into a reverie; and in a
+few moments, when he seemed to have recovered himself, asked who had
+succeeded to the estates. 'I have forgot his title, monsieur,' said La
+Voisin; 'but my lord resides at Paris chiefly; I hear no talk of his
+coming hither.'
+
+'The chateau is shut up then, still?'
+
+'Why, little better, sir; the old housekeeper, and her husband the
+steward, have the care of it, but they live generally in a cottage hard
+by.'
+
+'The chateau is spacious, I suppose,' said Emily, 'and must be desolate
+for the residence of only two persons.'
+
+'Desolate enough, mademoiselle,' replied La Voisin, 'I would not pass
+one night in the chateau, for the value of the whole domain.'
+
+'What is that?' said St. Aubert, roused again from thoughtfulness. As
+his host repeated his last sentence, a groan escaped from St. Aubert,
+and then, as if anxious to prevent it from being noticed, he hastily
+asked La Voisin how long he had lived in this neighbourhood. 'Almost
+from my childhood, sir,' replied his host.
+
+'You remember the late marchioness, then?' said St. Aubert in an altered
+voice.
+
+'Ah, monsieur!--that I do well. There are many besides me who remember
+her.'
+
+'Yes--' said St. Aubert, 'and I am one of those.'
+
+'Alas, sir! you remember, then, a most beautiful and excellent lady. She
+deserved a better fate.'
+
+Tears stood in St. Aubert's eyes; 'Enough,' said he, in a voice almost
+stifled by the violence of his emotions,--'it is enough, my friend.'
+
+Emily, though extremely surprised by her father's manner, forbore to
+express her feelings by any question. La Voisin began to apologize, but
+St. Aubert interrupted him; 'Apology is quite unnecessary,' said he,
+'let us change the topic. You was speaking of the music we just now
+heard.'
+
+'I was, monsieur--but hark!--it comes again; listen to that voice!' They
+were all silent;
+
+ At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound
+ Rose, like a stream of rich distilled perfumes,
+ And stole upon the air, that even Silence
+ Was took ere she was 'ware, and wished she might
+ Deny her nature, and be never more
+ Still, to be so displaced.*
+     *Milton.
+
+
+In a few moments the voice died into air, and the instrument, which had
+been heard before, sounded in low symphony. St. Aubert now observed,
+that it produced a tone much more full and melodious than that of a
+guitar, and still more melancholy and soft than the lute. They continued
+to listen, but the sounds returned no more. 'This is strange!' said St.
+Aubert, at length interrupting the silence. 'Very strange!' said Emily.
+'It is so,' rejoined La Voisin, and they were again silent.
+
+After a long pause, 'It is now about eighteen years since I first heard
+that music,' said La Voisin; 'I remember it was on a fine summer's
+night, much like this, but later, that I was walking in the woods, and
+alone. I remember, too, that my spirits were very low, for one of my
+boys was ill, and we feared we should lose him. I had been watching at
+his bed-side all the evening while his mother slept; for she had sat
+up with him the night before. I had been watching, and went out for a
+little fresh air, the day had been very sultry. As I walked under the
+shades and mused, I heard music at a distance, and thought it was
+Claude playing upon his flute, as he often did of a fine evening, at
+the cottage door. But, when I came to a place where the trees opened, (I
+shall never forget it!) and stood looking up at the north-lights, which
+shot up the heaven to a great height, I heard all of a sudden such
+sounds!--they came so as I cannot describe. It was like the music of
+angels, and I looked up again almost expecting to see them in the sky.
+When I came home, I told what I had heard, but they laughed at me, and
+said it must be some of the shepherds playing on their pipes, and I
+could not persuade them to the contrary. A few nights after, however, my
+wife herself heard the same sounds, and was as much surprised as I was,
+and Father Denis frightened her sadly by saying, that it was music come
+to warn her of her child's death, and that music often came to houses
+where there was a dying person.'
+
+Emily, on hearing this, shrunk with a superstitious dread entirely new
+to her, and could scarcely conceal her agitation from St. Aubert.
+
+'But the boy lived, monsieur, in spite of Father Denis.'
+
+'Father Denis!' said St. Aubert, who had listened to 'narrative old age'
+with patient attention, 'are we near a convent, then?'
+
+'Yes, sir; the convent of St. Clair stands at no great distance, on the
+sea shore yonder.'
+
+'Ah!' said St. Aubert, as if struck with some sudden remembrance, 'the
+convent of St. Clair!' Emily observed the clouds of grief, mingled with
+a faint expression of horror, gathering on his brow; his countenance
+became fixed, and, touched as it now was by the silver whiteness of
+the moon-light, he resembled one of those marble statues of a monument,
+which seem to bend, in hopeless sorrow, over the ashes of the dead,
+shewn
+
+     by the blunted light
+ That the dim moon through painted casements lends.*
+     * The Emigrants.
+
+
+'But, my dear sir,' said Emily, anxious to dissipate his thoughts, 'you
+forget that repose is necessary to you. If our kind host will give me
+leave, I will prepare your bed, for I know how you like it to be made.'
+St. Aubert, recollecting himself, and smiling affectionately, desired
+she would not add to her fatigue by that attention; and La Voisin, whose
+consideration for his guest had been suspended by the interests
+which his own narrative had recalled, now started from his seat, and,
+apologizing for not having called Agnes from the green, hurried out of
+the room.
+
+In a few moments he returned with his daughter, a young woman of
+pleasing countenance, and Emily learned from her, what she had not
+before suspected, that, for their accommodation, it was necessary
+part of La Voisin's family should leave their beds; she lamented this
+circumstance, but Agnes, by her reply, fully proved that she inherited,
+at least, a share of her father's courteous hospitality. It was settled,
+that some of her children and Michael should sleep in the neighbouring
+cottage.
+
+'If I am better, to-morrow, my dear,' said St. Aubert when Emily
+returned to him, 'I mean to set out at an early hour, that we may rest,
+during the heat of the day, and will travel towards home. In the present
+state of my health and spirits I cannot look on a longer journey with
+pleasure, and I am also very anxious to reach La Vallee.' Emily, though
+she also desired to return, was grieved at her father's sudden wish to
+do so, which she thought indicated a greater degree of indisposition
+than he would acknowledge. St. Aubert now retired to rest, and Emily to
+her little chamber, but not to immediate repose. Her thoughts returned
+to the late conversation, concerning the state of departed spirits; a
+subject, at this time, particularly affecting to her, when she had every
+reason to believe that her dear father would ere long be numbered with
+them. She leaned pensively on the little open casement, and in deep
+thought fixed her eyes on the heaven, whose blue unclouded concave was
+studded thick with stars, the worlds, perhaps, of spirits, unsphered
+of mortal mould. As her eyes wandered along the boundless aether, her
+thoughts rose, as before, towards the sublimity of the Deity, and to the
+contemplation of futurity. No busy note of this world interrupted the
+course of her mind; the merry dance had ceased, and every cottager had
+retired to his home. The still air seemed scarcely to breathe upon the
+woods, and, now and then, the distant sound of a solitary sheep-bell,
+or of a closing casement, was all that broke on silence. At length, even
+this hint of human being was heard no more. Elevated and enwrapt, while
+her eyes were often wet with tears of sublime devotion and solemn awe,
+she continued at the casement, till the gloom of mid-night hung over the
+earth, and the planet, which La Voisin had pointed out, sunk below the
+woods. She then recollected what he had said concerning this planet, and
+the mysterious music; and, as she lingered at the window, half
+hoping and half fearing that it would return, her mind was led to the
+remembrance of the extreme emotion her father had shewn on mention of
+the Marquis La Villeroi's death, and of the fate of the Marchioness,
+and she felt strongly interested concerning the remote cause of this
+emotion. Her surprise and curiosity were indeed the greater, because she
+did not recollect ever to have heard him mention the name of Villeroi.
+
+No music, however, stole on the silence of the night, and Emily,
+perceiving the lateness of the hour, returned to a scene of fatigue,
+remembered that she was to rise early in the morning, and withdrew from
+the window to repose.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+     Let those deplore their doom,
+ Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn.
+ But lofty souls can look beyond the tomb,
+ Can smile at fate, and wonder how they mourn.
+ Shall Spring to these sad scenes no more return?
+ Is yonder wave the sun's eternal bed?--
+ Soon shall the orient with new lustre burn,
+ And Spring shall soon her vital influence shed,
+ Again attune the grove, again adorn the mead!
+     BEATTIE
+
+Emily, called, as she had requested, at an early hour, awoke, little
+refreshed by sleep, for uneasy dreams had pursued her, and marred the
+kindest blessing of the unhappy. But, when she opened her casement,
+looked out upon the woods, bright with the morning sun, and inspired the
+pure air, her mind was soothed. The scene was filled with that cheering
+freshness, which seems to breathe the very spirit of health, and she
+heard only sweet and PICTURESQUE sounds, if such an expression may be
+allowed--the matin-bell of a distant convent, the faint murmur of the
+sea-waves, the song of birds, and the far-off low of cattle, which
+she saw coming slowly on between the trunks of trees. Struck with
+the circumstances of imagery around her, she indulged the pensive
+tranquillity which they inspired; and while she leaned on her window,
+waiting till St. Aubert should descend to breakfast, her ideas arranged
+themselves in the following lines:
+
+THE FIRST HOUR OF MORNING
+
+ How sweet to wind the forest's tangled shade,
+  When early twilight, from the eastern bound,
+ Dawns on the sleeping landscape in the glade,
+  And fades as morning spreads her blush around!
+
+ When ev'ry infant flower, that wept in night,
+  Lifts its chill head soft glowing with a tear,
+ Expands its tender blossom to the light,
+  And gives its incense to the genial air.
+
+ How fresh the breeze that wafts the rich perfume,
+  And swells the melody of waking birds;
+ The hum of bees, beneath the verdant gloom,
+  And woodman's song, and low of distant herds!
+
+ Then, doubtful gleams the mountain's hoary head,
+  Seen through the parting foliage from afar;
+ And, farther still, the ocean's misty bed,
+  With flitting sails, that partial sun-beams share.
+
+ But, vain the sylvan shade--the breath of May,
+  The voice of music floating on the gale,
+ And forms, that beam through morning's dewy veil,
+ If health no longer bid the heart be gay!
+ O balmy hour! 'tis thine her wealth to give,
+ Here spread her blush, and bid the parent live!
+
+Emily now heard persons moving below in the cottage, and presently the
+voice of Michael, who was talking to his mules, as he led them forth
+from a hut adjoining. As she left her room, St. Aubert, who was now
+risen, met her at the door, apparently as little restored by sleep as
+herself. She led him down stairs to the little parlour, in which they
+had supped on the preceding night, where they found a neat breakfast set
+out, while the host and his daughter waited to bid them good-morrow.
+
+'I envy you this cottage, my good friends,' said St. Aubert, as he met
+them, 'it is so pleasant, so quiet, and so neat; and this air, that one
+breathes--if any thing could restore lost health, it would surely be
+this air.'
+
+La Voisin bowed gratefully, and replied, with the gallantry of a
+Frenchman, 'Our cottage may be envied, sir, since you and Mademoiselle
+have honoured it with your presence.' St. Aubert gave him a friendly
+smile for his compliment, and sat down to a table, spread with cream,
+fruit, new cheese, butter, and coffee. Emily, who had observed her
+father with attention and thought he looked very ill, endeavoured to
+persuade him to defer travelling till the afternoon; but he seemed very
+anxious to be at home, and his anxiety he expressed repeatedly, and with
+an earnestness that was unusual with him. He now said, he found himself
+as well as he had been of late, and that he could bear travelling better
+in the cool hour of the morning, than at any other time. But, while
+he was talking with his venerable host, and thanking him for his kind
+attentions, Emily observed his countenance change, and, before she could
+reach him, he fell back in his chair. In a few moments he recovered from
+the sudden faintness that had come over him, but felt so ill, that
+he perceived himself unable to set out, and, having remained a little
+while, struggling against the pressure of indisposition, he begged he
+might be helped up stairs to bed. This request renewed all the terror
+which Emily had suffered on the preceding evening; but, though scarcely
+able to support herself, under the sudden shock it gave her, she tried
+to conceal her apprehensions from St. Aubert, and gave her trembling arm
+to assist him to the door of his chamber.
+
+When he was once more in bed, he desired that Emily, who was then
+weeping in her own room, might be called; and, as she came, he waved his
+hand for every other person to quit the apartment. When they were alone,
+he held out his hand to her, and fixed his eyes upon her countenance,
+with an expression so full of tenderness and grief, that all her
+fortitude forsook her, and she burst into an agony of tears. St. Aubert
+seemed struggling to acquire firmness, but was still unable to speak; he
+could only press her hand, and check the tears that stood trembling in
+his eyes. At length he commanded his voice, 'My dear child,' said he,
+trying to smile through his anguish, 'my dear Emily!'--and paused again.
+He raised his eyes to heaven, as if in prayer, and then, in a firmer
+tone, and with a look, in which the tenderness of the father was
+dignified by the pious solemnity of the saint, he said, 'My dear child,
+I would soften the painful truth I have to tell you, but I find myself
+quite unequal to the art. Alas! I would, at this moment, conceal it from
+you, but that it would be most cruel to deceive you. It cannot be
+long before we must part; let us talk of it, that our thoughts and our
+prayers may prepare us to bear it.' His voice faltered, while Emily,
+still weeping, pressed his hand close to her heart, which swelled with a
+convulsive sigh, but she could not look up.
+
+'Let me not waste these moments,' said St. Aubert, recovering himself,
+'I have much to say. There is a circumstance of solemn consequence,
+which I have to mention, and a solemn promise to obtain from you; when
+this is done I shall be easier. You have observed, my dear, how anxious
+I am to reach home, but know not all my reasons for this. Listen to what
+I am going to say.--Yet stay--before I say more give me this promise, a
+promise made to your dying father!'--St. Aubert was interrupted; Emily,
+struck by his last words, as if for the first time, with a conviction of
+his immediate danger, raised her head; her tears stopped, and, gazing
+at him for a moment with an expression of unutterable anguish, a slight
+convulsion seized her, and she sunk senseless in her chair. St.
+Aubert's cries brought La Voisin and his daughter to the room, and
+they administered every means in their power to restore her, but, for a
+considerable time, without effect. When she recovered, St. Aubert was so
+exhausted by the scene he had witnessed, that it was many minutes
+before he had strength to speak; he was, however, somewhat revived by
+a cordial, which Emily gave him; and, being again alone with her, he
+exerted himself to tranquilize her spirits, and to offer her all the
+comfort of which her situation admitted. She threw herself into his
+arms, wept on his neck, and grief made her so insensible to all he said,
+that he ceased to offer the alleviations, which he himself could not, at
+this moment, feel, and mingled his silent tears with hers. Recalled, at
+length, to a sense of duty, she tried to spare her father from a farther
+view of her suffering; and, quitting his embrace, dried her tears,
+and said something, which she meant for consolation. 'My dear Emily,'
+replied St. Aubert, 'my dear child, we must look up with humble
+confidence to that Being, who has protected and comforted us in every
+danger, and in every affliction we have known; to whose eye every moment
+of our lives has been exposed; he will not, he does not, forsake us now;
+I feel his consolations in my heart. I shall leave you, my child, still
+in his care; and, though I depart from this world, I shall be still in
+his presence. Nay, weep not again, my Emily. In death there is nothing
+new, or surprising, since we all know, that we are born to die; and
+nothing terrible to those, who can confide in an all-powerful God.
+Had my life been spared now, after a very few years, in the course
+of nature, I must have resigned it; old age, with all its train of
+infirmity, its privations and its sorrows, would have been mine; and
+then, at last, death would have come, and called forth the tears you now
+shed. Rather, my child, rejoice, that I am saved from such suffering,
+and that I am permitted to die with a mind unimpaired, and sensible of
+the comforts of faith and resignation.' St. Aubert paused, fatigued with
+speaking. Emily again endeavoured to assume an air of composure; and, in
+replying to what he had said, tried to sooth him with a belief, that he
+had not spoken in vain.
+
+When he had reposed a while, he resumed the conversation. 'Let me
+return,' said he, 'to a subject, which is very near my heart. I said I
+had a solemn promise to receive from you; let me receive it now, before
+I explain the chief circumstance which it concerns; there are others,
+of which your peace requires that you should rest in ignorance. Promise,
+then, that you will perform exactly what I shall enjoin.'
+
+Emily, awed by the earnest solemnity of his manner, dried her tears,
+that had begun again to flow, in spite of her efforts to suppress them;
+and, looking eloquently at St. Aubert, bound herself to do whatever he
+should require by a vow, at which she shuddered, yet knew not why.
+
+He proceeded: 'I know you too well, my Emily, to believe, that you would
+break any promise, much less one thus solemnly given; your assurance
+gives me peace, and the observance of it is of the utmost importance to
+your tranquillity. Hear, then, what I am going to tell you. The closet,
+which adjoins my chamber at La Vallee, has a sliding board in the floor.
+You will know it by a remarkable knot in the wood, and by its being the
+next board, except one, to the wainscot, which fronts the door. At the
+distance of about a yard from that end, nearer the window, you will
+perceive a line across it, as if the plank had been joined;--the way to
+open it is this:--Press your foot upon the line; the end of the board
+will then sink, and you may slide it with ease beneath the other. Below,
+you will see a hollow place.' St. Aubert paused for breath, and Emily
+sat fixed in deep attention. 'Do you understand these directions, my
+dear?' said he. Emily, though scarcely able to speak, assured him that
+she did.
+
+'When you return home, then,' he added with a deep sigh--
+
+At the mention of her return home, all the melancholy circumstances,
+that must attend this return, rushed upon her fancy; she burst into
+convulsive grief, and St. Aubert himself, affected beyond the resistance
+of the fortitude which he had, at first, summoned, wept with her.
+After some moments, he composed himself. 'My dear child,' said he, 'be
+comforted. When I am gone, you will not be forsaken--I leave you only in
+the more immediate care of that Providence, which has never yet forsaken
+me. Do not afflict me with this excess of grief; rather teach me by
+your example to bear my own.' He stopped again, and Emily, the more she
+endeavoured to restrain her emotion, found it the less possible to do
+so.
+
+St. Aubert, who now spoke with pain, resumed the subject. 'That closet,
+my dear,--when you return home, go to it; and, beneath the board I have
+described, you will find a packet of written papers. Attend to me now,
+for the promise you have given particularly relates to what I shall
+direct. These papers you must burn--and, solemnly I command you, WITHOUT
+EXAMINING THEM.'
+
+Emily's surprise, for a moment, overcame her grief, and she ventured to
+ask, why this must be? St. Aubert replied, that, if it had been right
+for him to explain his reasons, her late promise would have been
+unnecessarily exacted. 'It is sufficient for you, my love, to have a
+deep sense of the importance of observing me in this instance.' St.
+Aubert proceeded. 'Under that board you will also find about two hundred
+louis d'ors, wrapped in a silk purse; indeed, it was to secure whatever
+money might be in the chateau, that this secret place was contrived,
+at a time when the province was over-run by troops of men, who took
+advantage of the tumults, and became plunderers.
+
+'But I have yet another promise to receive from you, which is--that
+you will never, whatever may be your future circumstances, SELL the
+chateau.' St. Aubert even enjoined her, whenever she might marry, to
+make it an article in the contract, that the chateau should always
+be hers. He then gave her a more minute account of his present
+circumstances than he had yet done, adding, 'The two hundred louis, with
+what money you will now find in my purse, is all the ready money I have
+to leave you. I have told you how I am circumstanced with M. Motteville,
+at Paris. Ah, my child! I leave you poor--but not destitute,' he added,
+after a long pause. Emily could make no reply to any thing he now said,
+but knelt at the bed-side, with her face upon the quilt, weeping over
+the hand she held there.
+
+After this conversation, the mind of St. Aubert appeared to be much more
+at ease; but, exhausted by the effort of speaking, he sunk into a kind
+of doze, and Emily continued to watch and weep beside him, till a gentle
+tap at the chamber-door roused her. It was La Voisin, come to say, that
+a confessor from the neighbouring convent was below, ready to attend St.
+Aubert. Emily would not suffer her father to be disturbed, but desired,
+that the priest might not leave the cottage. When St. Aubert awoke from
+this doze, his senses were confused, and it was some moments before he
+recovered them sufficiently to know, that it was Emily who sat beside
+him. He then moved his lips, and stretched forth his hand to her; as she
+received which, she sunk back in her chair, overcome by the impression
+of death on his countenance. In a few minutes he recovered his voice,
+and Emily then asked, if he wished to see the confessor; he replied,
+that he did; and, when the holy father appeared, she withdrew. They
+remained alone together above half an hour; when Emily was called in,
+she found St. Aubert more agitated than when she had left him, and she
+gazed, with a slight degree of resentment, at the friar, as the cause
+of this; who, however, looked mildly and mournfully at her, and turned
+away. St. Aubert, in a tremulous voice, said, he wished her to join in
+prayer with him, and asked if La Voisin would do so too. The old man and
+his daughter came; they both wept, and knelt with Emily round the bed,
+while the holy father read in a solemn voice the service for the dying.
+St. Aubert lay with a serene countenance, and seemed to join fervently
+in the devotion, while tears often stole from beneath his closed
+eyelids, and Emily's sobs more than once interrupted the service.
+
+When it was concluded, and extreme unction had been administered,
+the friar withdrew. St. Aubert then made a sign for La Voisin to come
+nearer. He gave him his hand, and was, for a moment, silent. At length,
+he said, in a trembling voice, 'My good friend, our acquaintance has
+been short, but long enough to give you an opportunity of shewing me
+much kind attention. I cannot doubt, that you will extend this kindness
+to my daughter, when I am gone; she will have need of it. I entrust her
+to your care during the few days she will remain here. I need say no
+more--you know the feelings of a father, for you have children; mine
+would be, indeed, severe if I had less confidence in you.' He paused. La
+Voisin assured him, and his tears bore testimony to his sincerity, that
+he would do all he could to soften her affliction, and that, if St.
+Aubert wished it, he would even attend her into Gascony; an offer so
+pleasing to St. Aubert, that he had scarcely words to acknowledge his
+sense of the old man's kindness, or to tell him, that he accepted it.
+The scene, that followed between St. Aubert and Emily, affected La
+Voisin so much, that he quitted the chamber, and she was again left
+alone with her father, whose spirits seemed fainting fast, but neither
+his senses, or his voice, yet failed him; and, at intervals, he employed
+much of these last awful moments in advising his daughter, as to her
+future conduct. Perhaps, he never had thought more justly, or expressed
+himself more clearly, than he did now.
+
+'Above all, my dear Emily,' said he, 'do not indulge in the pride of
+fine feeling, the romantic error of amiable minds. Those, who really
+possess sensibility, ought early to be taught, that it is a dangerous
+quality, which is continually extracting the excess of misery, or
+delight, from every surrounding circumstance. And, since, in our passage
+through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than
+pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than
+our sense of good, we become the victims of our feelings, unless we can
+in some degree command them. I know you will say, (for you are young, my
+Emily) I know you will say, that you are contented sometimes to suffer,
+rather than to give up your refined sense of happiness, at others;
+but, when your mind has been long harassed by vicissitude, you will be
+content to rest, and you will then recover from your delusion. You will
+perceive, that the phantom of happiness is exchanged for the substance;
+for happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult. It is of a
+temperate and uniform nature, and can no more exist in a heart, that is
+continually alive to minute circumstances, than in one that is dead to
+feeling. You see, my dear, that, though I would guard you against the
+dangers of sensibility, I am not an advocate for apathy. At your age
+I should have said THAT is a vice more hateful than all the errors of
+sensibility, and I say so still. I call it a VICE, because it leads to
+positive evil; in this, however, it does no more than an ill-governed
+sensibility, which, by such a rule, might also be called a vice; but
+the evil of the former is of more general consequence. I have exhausted
+myself,' said St. Aubert, feebly, 'and have wearied you, my Emily; but,
+on a subject so important to your future comfort, I am anxious to be
+perfectly understood.'
+
+Emily assured him, that his advice was most precious to her, and that
+she would never forget it, or cease from endeavouring to profit by it.
+St. Aubert smiled affectionately and sorrowfully upon her. 'I repeat
+it,' said he, 'I would not teach you to become insensible, if I could;
+I would only warn you of the evils of susceptibility, and point out
+how you may avoid them. Beware, my love, I conjure you, of that
+self-delusion, which has been fatal to the peace of so many persons;
+beware of priding yourself on the gracefulness of sensibility; if you
+yield to this vanity, your happiness is lost for ever. Always remember
+how much more valuable is the strength of fortitude, than the grace of
+sensibility. Do not, however, confound fortitude with apathy; apathy
+cannot know the virtue. Remember, too, that one act of beneficence,
+one act of real usefulness, is worth all the abstract sentiment in the
+world. Sentiment is a disgrace, instead of an ornament, unless it lead
+us to good actions. The miser, who thinks himself respectable, merely
+because he possesses wealth, and thus mistakes the means of doing good,
+for the actual accomplishment of it, is not more blameable than the man
+of sentiment, without active virtue. You may have observed persons, who
+delight so much in this sort of sensibility to sentiment, which excludes
+that to the calls of any practical virtue, that they turn from
+the distressed, and, because their sufferings are painful to be
+contemplated, do not endeavour to relieve them. How despicable is that
+humanity, which can be contented to pity, where it might assuage!'
+
+St. Aubert, some time after, spoke of Madame Cheron, his sister. 'Let
+me inform you of a circumstance, that nearly affects your welfare,' he
+added. 'We have, you know, had little intercourse for some years, but,
+as she is now your only female relation, I have thought it proper to
+consign you to her care, as you will see in my will, till you are of
+age, and to recommend you to her protection afterwards. She is not
+exactly the person, to whom I would have committed my Emily, but I had
+no alternative, and I believe her to be upon the whole--a good kind of
+woman. I need not recommend it to your prudence, my love, to endeavour
+to conciliate her kindness; you will do this for his sake, who has often
+wished to do so for yours.'
+
+Emily assured him, that, whatever he requested she would religiously
+perform to the utmost of her ability. 'Alas!' added she, in a voice
+interrupted by sighs, 'that will soon be all which remains for me; it
+will be almost my only consolation to fulfil your wishes.'
+
+St. Aubert looked up silently in her face, as if would have spoken, but
+his spirit sunk a while, and his eyes became heavy and dull. She felt
+that look at her heart. 'My dear father!' she exclaimed; and then,
+checking herself, pressed his hand closer, and hid her face with
+her handkerchief. Her tears were concealed, but St. Aubert heard her
+convulsive sobs. His spirits returned. 'O my child!' said he, faintly,
+'let my consolations be yours. I die in peace; for I know, that I
+am about to return to the bosom of my Father, who will still be your
+Father, when I am gone. Always trust in him, my love, and he will
+support you in these moments, as he supports me.'
+
+Emily could only listen, and weep; but the extreme composure of his
+manner, and the faith and hope he expressed, somewhat soothed her
+anguish. Yet, whenever she looked upon his emaciated countenance, and
+saw the lines of death beginning to prevail over it--saw his sunk eyes,
+still bent on her, and their heavy lids pressing to a close, there was a
+pang in her heart, such as defied expression, though it required filial
+virtue, like hers, to forbear the attempt.
+
+He desired once more to bless her; 'Where are you, my dear?' said he,
+as he stretched forth his hands. Emily had turned to the window, that he
+might not perceive her anguish; she now understood, that his sight had
+failed him. When he had given her his blessing, and it seemed to be the
+last effort of expiring life, he sunk back on his pillow. She kissed
+his forehead; the damps of death had settled there, and, forgetting her
+fortitude for a moment, her tears mingled with them. St. Aubert lifted
+up his eyes; the spirit of a father returned to them, but it quickly
+vanished, and he spoke no more.
+
+St. Aubert lingered till about three o'clock in the afternoon, and, thus
+gradually sinking into death, he expired without a struggle, or a sigh.
+
+Emily was led from the chamber by La Voisin and his daughter, who did
+what they could to comfort her. The old man sat and wept with her. Agnes
+was more erroneously officious.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ O'er him, whose doom thy virtues grieve,
+ Aerial forms shall sit at eve,
+ and bend the pensive head.
+     COLLINS
+
+The monk, who had before appeared, returned in the evening to offer
+consolation to Emily, and brought a kind message from the lady abbess,
+inviting her to the convent. Emily, though she did not accept the offer,
+returned an answer expressive of her gratitude. The holy conversation
+of the friar, whose mild benevolence of manners bore some resemblance to
+those of St. Aubert, soothed the violence of her grief, and lifted her
+heart to the Being, who, extending through all place and all eternity,
+looks on the events of this little world as on the shadows of a moment,
+and beholds equally, and in the same instant, the soul that has passed
+the gates of death, and that, which still lingers in the body. 'In the
+sight of God,' said Emily, 'my dear father now exists, as truly as he
+yesterday existed to me; it is to me only that he is dead; to God and to
+himself he yet lives!'
+
+The good monk left her more tranquil than she had been since St. Aubert
+died; and, before she retired to her little cabin for the night, she
+trusted herself so far as to visit the corpse. Silent, and without
+weeping, she stood by its side. The features, placid and serene, told
+the nature of the last sensations, that had lingered in the now deserted
+frame. For a moment she turned away, in horror of the stillness in which
+death had fixed that countenance, never till now seen otherwise
+than animated; then gazed on it with a mixture of doubt and awful
+astonishment. Her reason could scarcely overcome an involuntary and
+unaccountable expectation of seeing that beloved countenance still
+susceptible. She continued to gaze wildly; took up the cold hand;
+spoke; still gazed, and then burst into a transport of grief. La Voisin,
+hearing her sobs, came into the room to lead her away, but she heard
+nothing, and only begged that he would leave her.
+
+Again alone, she indulged her tears, and, when the gloom of evening
+obscured the chamber, and almost veiled from her eyes the object of her
+distress, she still hung over the body; till her spirits, at length,
+were exhausted, and she became tranquil. La Voisin again knocked at the
+door, and entreated that she would come to the common apartment. Before
+she went, she kissed the lips of St. Aubert, as she was wont to do when
+she bade him good night. Again she kissed them; her heart felt as if it
+would break, a few tears of agony started to her eyes, she looked up to
+heaven, then at St. Aubert, and left the room.
+
+Retired to her lonely cabin, her melancholy thoughts still hovered
+round the body of her deceased parent; and, when she sunk into a kind
+of slumber, the images of her waking mind still haunted her fancy. She
+thought she saw her father approaching her with a benign countenance;
+then, smiling mournfully and pointing upwards, his lips moved, but,
+instead of words, she heard sweet music borne on the distant air, and
+presently saw his features glow with the mild rapture of a superior
+being. The strain seemed to swell louder, and she awoke. The vision
+was gone, but music yet came to her ear in strains such as angels might
+breathe. She doubted, listened, raised herself in the bed, and again
+listened. It was music, and not an illusion of her imagination. After
+a solemn steady harmony, it paused; then rose again, in mournful
+sweetness, and then died, in a cadence, that seemed to bear away the
+listening soul to heaven. She instantly remembered the music of the
+preceding night, with the strange circumstances, related by La Voisin,
+and the affecting conversation it had led to, concerning the state of
+departed spirits. All that St. Aubert had said, on that subject, now
+pressed upon her heart, and overwhelmed it. What a change in a few
+hours! He, who then could only conjecture, was now made acquainted with
+truth; was himself become one of the departed! As she listened, she was
+chilled with superstitious awe, her tears stopped; and she rose, and
+went to the window. All without was obscured in shade; but Emily,
+turning her eyes from the massy darkness of the woods, whose waving
+outline appeared on the horizon, saw, on the left, that effulgent
+planet, which the old man had pointed out, setting over the woods. She
+remembered what he had said concerning it, and, the music now coming
+at intervals on the air, she unclosed the casement to listen to the
+strains, that soon gradually sunk to a greater distance, and tried
+to discover whence they came. The obscurity prevented her from
+distinguishing any object on the green platform below; and the sounds
+became fainter and fainter, till they softened into silence. She
+listened, but they returned no more. Soon after, she observed the
+planet trembling between the fringed tops of the woods, and, in the next
+moment, sink behind them. Chilled with a melancholy awe, she retired
+once more to her bed, and, at length, forgot for a while her sorrows in
+sleep.
+
+On the following morning, she was visited by a sister of the convent,
+who came, with kind offices and a second invitation from the lady
+abbess; and Emily, though she could not forsake the cottage, while the
+remains of her father were in it, consented, however painful such a
+visit must be, in the present state of her spirits, to pay her respects
+to the abbess, in the evening.
+
+About an hour before sun-set, La Voisin shewed her the way through the
+woods to the convent, which stood in a small bay of the Mediterranean,
+crowned by a woody amphitheatre; and Emily, had she been less unhappy,
+would have admired the extensive sea view, that appeared from the green
+slope, in front of the edifice, and the rich shores, hung with woods
+and pastures, that extended on either hand. But her thoughts were
+now occupied by one sad idea, and the features of nature were to her
+colourless and without form. The bell for vespers struck, as she passed
+the ancient gate of the convent, and seemed the funereal note for St.
+Aubert. Little incidents affect a mind, enervated by sorrow; Emily
+struggled against the sickening faintness, that came over her, and was
+led into the presence of the abbess, who received her with an air of
+maternal tenderness; an air of such gentle solicitude and consideration,
+as touched her with an instantaneous gratitude; her eyes were filled
+with tears, and the words she would have spoken faltered on her lips.
+The abbess led her to a seat, and sat down beside her, still holding
+her hand and regarding her in silence, as Emily dried her tears and
+attempted to speak. 'Be composed, my daughter,' said the abbess in
+a soothing voice, 'do not speak yet; I know all you would say. Your
+spirits must be soothed. We are going to prayers;--will you attend
+our evening service? It is comfortable, my child, to look up in our
+afflictions to a father, who sees and pities us, and who chastens in his
+mercy.'
+
+Emily's tears flowed again, but a thousand sweet emotions mingled with
+them. The abbess suffered her to weep without interruption, and watched
+over her with a look of benignity, that might have characterized the
+countenance of a guardian angel. Emily, when she became tranquil, was
+encouraged to speak without reserve, and to mention the motive, that
+made her unwilling to quit the cottage, which the abbess did not oppose
+even by a hint; but praised the filial piety of her conduct, and added a
+hope, that she would pass a few days at the convent, before she returned
+to La Vallee. 'You must allow yourself a little time to recover from
+your first shock, my daughter, before you encounter a second; I will not
+affect to conceal from you how much I know your heart must suffer, on
+returning to the scene of your former happiness. Here, you will have
+all, that quiet and sympathy and religion can give, to restore your
+spirits. But come,' added she, observing the tears swell in Emily's
+eyes, 'we will go to the chapel.'
+
+Emily followed to the parlour, where the nuns were assembled, to whom
+the abbess committed her, saying, 'This is a daughter, for whom I have
+much esteem; be sisters to her.'
+
+They passed on in a train to the chapel, where the solemn devotion, with
+which the service was performed, elevated her mind, and brought to it
+the comforts of faith and resignation.
+
+Twilight came on, before the abbess's kindness would suffer Emily to
+depart, when she left the convent, with a heart much lighter than she
+had entered it, and was reconducted by La Voisin through the woods, the
+pensive gloom of which was in unison with the temper of her mind; and
+she pursued the little wild path, in musing silence, till her guide
+suddenly stopped, looked round, and then struck out of the path into the
+high grass, saying he had mistaken the road. He now walked on quickly,
+and Emily, proceeding with difficulty over the obscured and uneven
+ground, was left at some distance, till her voice arrested him, who
+seemed unwilling to stop, and still hurried on. 'If you are in doubt
+about the way,' said Emily, 'had we not better enquire it at the chateau
+yonder, between the trees?'
+
+'No,' replied La Voisin, 'there is no occasion. When we reach that
+brook, ma'amselle, (you see the light upon the water there, beyond the
+woods) when we reach that brook, we shall be at home presently. I don't
+know how I happened to mistake the path; I seldom come this way after
+sun-set.'
+
+'It is solitary enough,' said Emily, 'but you have no banditti here.'
+
+'No, ma'amselle--no banditti.'
+
+'What are you afraid of then, my good friend? you are not
+superstitious?' 'No, not superstitious; but, to tell you the truth,
+lady, nobody likes to go near that chateau, after dusk.' 'By whom is it
+inhabited,' said Emily, 'that it is so formidable?' 'Why, ma'amselle,
+it is scarcely inhabited, for our lord the Marquis, and the lord of all
+these find woods, too, is dead. He had not once been in it, for these
+many years, and his people, who have the care of it, live in a cottage
+close by.' Emily now understood this to be the chateau, which La Voisin
+had formerly pointed out, as having belonged to the Marquis Villeroi, on
+the mention of which her father had appeared so much affected.
+
+'Ah! it is a desolate place now,' continued La Voisin, 'and such a
+grand, fine place, as I remember it!' Emily enquired what had occasioned
+this lamentable change; but the old man was silent, and Emily, whose
+interest was awakened by the fear he had expressed, and above all by
+a recollection of her father's agitation, repeated the question, and
+added, 'If you are neither afraid of the inhabitants, my good friend,
+nor are superstitious, how happens it, that you dread to pass near that
+chateau in the dark?'
+
+'Perhaps, then, I am a little superstitious, ma'amselle; and, if you
+knew what I do, you might be so too. Strange things have happened
+there. Monsieur, your good father, appeared to have known the late
+Marchioness.' 'Pray inform me what did happen?' said Emily, with much
+emotion.
+
+'Alas! ma'amselle,' answered La Voisin, 'enquire no further; it is not
+for me to lay open the domestic secrets of my lord.'--Emily, surprised
+by the old man's words, and his manner of delivering them, forbore to
+repeat her question; a nearer interest, the remembrance of St. Aubert,
+occupied her thoughts, and she was led to recollect the music she heard
+on the preceding night, which she mentioned to La Voisin. 'You was not
+alone, ma'amselle, in this,' he replied, 'I heard it too; but I have so
+often heard it, at the same hour, that I was scarcely surprised.'
+
+'You doubtless believe this music to have some connection with the
+chateau,' said Emily suddenly, 'and are, therefore, superstitious.' 'It
+may be so, ma'amselle, but there are other circumstances, belonging to
+that chateau, which I remember, and sadly too.' A heavy sigh followed:
+but Emily's delicacy restrained the curiosity these words revived, and
+she enquired no further.
+
+On reaching the cottage, all the violence of her grief returned; it
+seemed as if she had escaped its heavy pressure only while she was
+removed from the object of it. She passed immediately to the chamber,
+where the remains of her father were laid, and yielded to all the
+anguish of hopeless grief. La Voisin, at length, persuaded her to
+leave the room, and she returned to her own, where, exhausted by
+the sufferings of the day, she soon fell into deep sleep, and awoke
+considerably refreshed.
+
+When the dreadful hour arrived, in which the remains of St. Aubert were
+to be taken from her for ever, she went alone to the chamber to look
+upon his countenance yet once again, and La Voisin, who had waited
+patiently below stairs, till her despair should subside, with the
+respect due to grief, forbore to interrupt the indulgence of it, till
+surprise, at the length of her stay, and then apprehension overcame his
+delicacy, and he went to lead her from the chamber. Having tapped gently
+at the door, without receiving an answer, he listened attentively, but
+all was still; no sigh, no sob of anguish was heard. Yet more alarmed by
+this silence, he opened the door, and found Emily lying senseless across
+the foot of the bed, near which stood the coffin. His calls procured
+assistance, and she was carried to her room, where proper applications,
+at length, restored her.
+
+During her state of insensibility, La Voisin had given directions for
+the coffin to be closed, and he succeeded in persuading Emily to forbear
+revisiting the chamber. She, indeed, felt herself unequal to this, and
+also perceived the necessity of sparing her spirits, and recollecting
+fortitude sufficient to bear her through the approaching scene. St.
+Aubert had given a particular injunction, that his remains should be
+interred in the church of the convent of St. Clair, and, in mentioning
+the north chancel, near the ancient tomb of the Villerois, had pointed
+out the exact spot, where he wished to be laid. The superior had granted
+this place for the interment, and thither, therefore, the sad procession
+now moved, which was met, at the gates, by the venerable priest,
+followed by a train of friars. Every person, who heard the solemn chant
+of the anthem, and the peal of the organ, that struck up, when the
+body entered the church, and saw also the feeble steps, and the assumed
+tranquillity of Emily, gave her involuntary tears. She shed none,
+but walked, her face partly shaded by a thin black veil, between two
+persons, who supported her, preceded by the abbess, and followed by
+nuns, whose plaintive voices mellowed the swelling harmony of the dirge.
+When the procession came to the grave the music ceased. Emily drew the
+veil entirely over her face, and, in a momentary pause, between the
+anthem and the rest of the service, her sobs were distinctly audible.
+The holy father began the service, and Emily again commanded her
+feelings, till the coffin was let down, and she heard the earth rattle
+on its lid. Then, as she shuddered, a groan burst from her heart, and
+she leaned for support on the person who stood next to her. In a few
+moments she recovered; and, when she heard those affecting and sublime
+words: 'His body is buried in peace, and his soul returns to Him that
+gave it,' her anguish softened into tears.
+
+The abbess led her from the church into her own parlour, and there
+administered all the consolations, that religion and gentle sympathy
+can give. Emily struggled against the pressure of grief; but the abbess,
+observing her attentively, ordered a bed to be prepared, and recommended
+her to retire to repose. She also kindly claimed her promise to remain
+a few days at the convent; and Emily, who had no wish to return to
+the cottage, the scene of all her sufferings, had leisure, now that no
+immediate care pressed upon her attention, to feel the indisposition,
+which disabled her from immediately travelling.
+
+Meanwhile, the maternal kindness of the abbess, and the gentle
+attentions of the nuns did all, that was possible, towards soothing her
+spirits and restoring her health. But the latter was too deeply wounded,
+through the medium of her mind, to be quickly revived. She lingered for
+some weeks at the convent, under the influence of a slow fever, wishing
+to return home, yet unable to go thither; often even reluctant to
+leave the spot where her father's relics were deposited, and sometimes
+soothing herself with the consideration, that, if she died here, her
+remains would repose beside those of St. Aubert. In the meanwhile, she
+sent letters to Madame Cheron and to the old housekeeper, informing them
+of the sad event, that had taken place, and of her own situation.
+From her aunt she received an answer, abounding more in common-place
+condolement, than in traits of real sorrow, which assured her, that a
+servant should be sent to conduct her to La Vallee, for that her
+own time was so much occupied by company, that she had no leisure to
+undertake so long a journey. However Emily might prefer La Vallee to
+Tholouse, she could not be insensible to the indecorous and unkind
+conduct of her aunt, in suffering her to return thither, where she had
+no longer a relation to console and protect her; a conduct, which was
+the more culpable, since St. Aubert had appointed Madame Cheron the
+guardian of his orphan daughter.
+
+Madame Cheron's servant made the attendance of the good La Voisin
+unnecessary; and Emily, who felt sensibly her obligations to him, for
+all his kind attention to her late father, as well as to herself, was
+glad to spare him a long, and what, at his time of life, must have been
+a troublesome journey.
+
+During her stay at the convent, the peace and sanctity that reigned
+within, the tranquil beauty of the scenery without, and the delicate
+attentions of the abbess and the nuns, were circumstances so soothing to
+her mind, that they almost tempted her to leave a world, where she had
+lost her dearest friends, and devote herself to the cloister, in a spot,
+rendered sacred to her by containing the tomb of St. Aubert. The pensive
+enthusiasm, too, so natural to her temper, had spread a beautiful
+illusion over the sanctified retirement of a nun, that almost hid from
+her view the selfishness of its security. But the touches, which a
+melancholy fancy, slightly tinctured with superstition, gave to the
+monastic scene, began to fade, as her spirits revived, and brought once
+more to her heart an image, which had only transiently been banished
+thence. By this she was silently awakened to hope and comfort and sweet
+affections; visions of happiness gleamed faintly at a distance, and,
+though she knew them to be illusions, she could not resolve to shut them
+out for ever. It was the remembrance of Valancourt, of his taste, his
+genius, and of the countenance which glowed with both, that, perhaps,
+alone determined her to return to the world. The grandeur and sublimity
+of the scenes, amidst which they had first met, had fascinated her
+fancy, and had imperceptibly contributed to render Valancourt more
+interesting by seeming to communicate to him somewhat of their own
+character. The esteem, too, which St. Aubert had repeatedly expressed
+for him, sanctioned this kindness; but, though his countenance and
+manner had continually expressed his admiration of her, he had not
+otherwise declared it; and even the hope of seeing him again was so
+distant, that she was scarcely conscious of it, still less that it
+influenced her conduct on this occasion.
+
+It was several days after the arrival of Madame Cheron's servant before
+Emily was sufficiently recovered to undertake the journey to La Vallee.
+On the evening preceding her departure, she went to the cottage to take
+leave of La Voisin and his family, and to make them a return for their
+kindness. The old man she found sitting on a bench at his door, between
+his daughter, and his son-in-law, who was just returned from his daily
+labour, and who was playing upon a pipe, that, in tone, resembled an
+oboe. A flask of wine stood beside the old man, and, before him, a small
+table with fruit and bread, round which stood several of his grandsons,
+fine rosy children, who were taking their supper, as their mother
+distributed it. On the edge of the little green, that spread before
+the cottage, were cattle and a few sheep reposing under the trees. The
+landscape was touched with the mellow light of the evening sun, whose
+long slanting beams played through a vista of the woods, and lighted
+up the distant turrets of the chateau. She paused a moment, before she
+emerged from the shade, to gaze upon the happy group before her--on the
+complacency and ease of healthy age, depictured on the countenance of
+La Voisin; the maternal tenderness of Agnes, as she looked upon her
+children, and the innocency of infantine pleasures, reflected in their
+smiles. Emily looked again at the venerable old man, and at the cottage;
+the memory of her father rose with full force upon her mind, and she
+hastily stepped forward, afraid to trust herself with a longer pause.
+She took an affectionate and affecting leave of La Voisin and his
+family; he seemed to love her as his daughter, and shed tears; Emily
+shed many. She avoided going into the cottage, since she knew it would
+revive emotions, such as she could not now endure.
+
+One painful scene yet awaited her, for she determined to visit again her
+father's grave; and that she might not be interrupted, or observed in
+the indulgence of her melancholy tenderness, she deferred her visit,
+till every inhabitant of the convent, except the nun who promised
+to bring her the key of the church, should be retired to rest. Emily
+remained in her chamber, till she heard the convent bell strike twelve,
+when the nun came, as she had appointed, with the key of a private door,
+that opened into the church, and they descended together the narrow
+winding stair-case, that led thither. The nun offered to accompany Emily
+to the grave, adding, 'It is melancholy to go alone at this hour;' but
+the former, thanking her for the consideration, could not consent to
+have any witness of her sorrow; and the sister, having unlocked the
+door, gave her the lamp. 'You will remember, sister,' said she, 'that in
+the east aisle, which you must pass, is a newly opened grave; hold the
+light to the ground, that you may not stumble over the loose earth.'
+Emily, thanking her again, took the lamp, and, stepping into the church,
+sister Mariette departed. But Emily paused a moment at the door;
+a sudden fear came over her, and she returned to the foot of the
+stair-case, where, as she heard the steps of the nun ascending, and,
+while she held up the lamp, saw her black veil waving over the spiral
+balusters, she was tempted to call her back. While she hesitated, the
+veil disappeared, and, in the next moment, ashamed of her fears, she
+returned to the church. The cold air of the aisles chilled her, and
+their deep silence and extent, feebly shone upon by the moon-light, that
+streamed through a distant gothic window, would at any other time have
+awed her into superstition; now, grief occupied all her attention. She
+scarcely heard the whispering echoes of her own steps, or thought of the
+open grave, till she found herself almost on its brink. A friar of the
+convent had been buried there on the preceding evening, and, as she had
+sat alone in her chamber at twilight, she heard, at distance, the monks
+chanting the requiem for his soul. This brought freshly to her memory
+the circumstances of her father's death; and, as the voices, mingling
+with a low querulous peal of the organ, swelled faintly, gloomy and
+affecting visions had arisen upon her mind. Now she remembered them,
+and, turning aside to avoid the broken ground, these recollections made
+her pass on with quicker steps to the grave of St. Aubert, when in the
+moon-light, that fell athwart a remote part of the aisle, she thought
+she saw a shadow gliding between the pillars. She stopped to listen,
+and, not hearing any footstep, believed that her fancy had deceived her,
+and, no longer apprehensive of being observed, proceeded. St. Aubert was
+buried beneath a plain marble, bearing little more than his name and the
+date of his birth and death, near the foot of the stately monument of
+the Villerois. Emily remained at his grave, till a chime, that called
+the monks to early prayers, warned her to retire; then, she wept over
+it a last farewel, and forced herself from the spot. After this hour of
+melancholy indulgence, she was refreshed by a deeper sleep, than she
+had experienced for a long time, and, on awakening, her mind was more
+tranquil and resigned, than it had been since St. Aubert's death.
+
+But, when the moment of her departure from the convent arrived, all her
+grief returned; the memory of the dead, and the kindness of the living
+attached her to the place; and for the sacred spot, where her father's
+remains were interred, she seemed to feel all those tender affections
+which we conceive for home. The abbess repeated many kind assurances of
+regard at their parting, and pressed her to return, if ever she should
+find her condition elsewhere unpleasant; many of the nuns also expressed
+unaffected regret at her departure, and Emily left the convent with many
+tears, and followed by sincere wishes for her happiness.
+
+She had travelled several leagues, before the scenes of the country,
+through which she passed, had power to rouse her for a moment from the
+deep melancholy, into which she was sunk, and, when they did, it was
+only to remind her, that, on her last view of them, St. Aubert was at
+her side, and to call up to her remembrance the remarks he had delivered
+on similar scenery. Thus, without any particular occurrence, passed
+the day in languor and dejection. She slept that night in a town on the
+skirts of Languedoc, and, on the following morning, entered Gascony.
+
+Towards the close of this day, Emily came within view of the plains in
+the neighbourhood of La Vallee, and the well-known objects of former
+times began to press upon her notice, and with them recollections, that
+awakened all her tenderness and grief. Often, while she looked through
+her tears upon the wild grandeur of the Pyrenees, now varied with the
+rich lights and shadows of evening, she remembered, that, when last she
+saw them, her father partook with her of the pleasure they inspired.
+Suddenly some scene, which he had particularly pointed out to her, would
+present itself, and the sick languor of despair would steal upon her
+heart. 'There!' she would exclaim, 'there are the very cliffs, there the
+wood of pines, which he looked at with such delight, as we passed this
+road together for the last time. There, too, under the crag of that
+mountain, is the cottage, peeping from among the cedars, which he bade
+me remember, and copy with my pencil. O my father, shall I never see you
+more!'
+
+As she drew near the chateau, these melancholy memorials of past times
+multiplied. At length, the chateau itself appeared, amid the glowing
+beauty of St. Aubert's favourite landscape. This was an object, which
+called for fortitude, not for tears; Emily dried hers, and prepared to
+meet with calmness the trying moment of her return to that home, where
+there was no longer a parent to welcome her. 'Yes,' said she, 'let me
+not forget the lessons he has taught me! How often he has pointed out
+the necessity of resisting even virtuous sorrow; how often we have
+admired together the greatness of a mind, that can at once suffer and
+reason! O my father! if you are permitted to look down upon your
+child, it will please you to see, that she remembers, and endeavours to
+practise, the precepts you have given her.'
+
+A turn on the road now allowed a nearer view of the chateau, the
+chimneys, tipped with light, rising from behind St. Aubert's favourite
+oaks, whose foliage partly concealed the lower part of the building.
+Emily could not suppress a heavy sigh. 'This, too, was his favourite
+hour,' said she, as she gazed upon the long evening shadows, stretched
+athwart the landscape. 'How deep the repose, how lovely the scene!
+lovely and tranquil as in former days!'
+
+Again she resisted the pressure of sorrow, till her ear caught the gay
+melody of the dance, which she had so often listened to, as she walked
+with St. Aubert, on the margin of the Garonne, when all her fortitude
+forsook her, and she continued to weep, till the carriage stopped at the
+little gate, that opened upon what was now her own territory. She raised
+her eyes on the sudden stopping of the carriage, and saw her father's
+old housekeeper coming to open the gate. Manchon also came running, and
+barking before her; and when his young mistress alighted, fawned, and
+played round her, gasping with joy.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle!' said Theresa, and paused, and looked as if she
+would have offered something of condolement to Emily, whose tears now
+prevented reply. The dog still fawned and ran round her, and then flew
+towards the carriage, with a short quick bark. 'Ah, ma'amselle!--my
+poor master!' said Theresa, whose feelings were more awakened than her
+delicacy, 'Manchon's gone to look for him.' Emily sobbed aloud; and, on
+looking towards the carriage, which still stood with the door open, saw
+the animal spring into it, and instantly leap out, and then with his
+nose on the ground run round the horses.
+
+'Don't cry so, ma'amselle,' said Theresa, 'it breaks my heart to see
+you.' The dog now came running to Emily, then returned to the carriage,
+and then back again to her, whining and discontented. 'Poor rogue!' said
+Theresa, 'thou hast lost thy master, thou mayst well cry! But come, my
+dear young lady, be comforted. What shall I get to refresh you?' Emily
+gave her hand to the old servant, and tried to restrain her grief,
+while she made some kind enquiries concerning her health. But she still
+lingered in the walk which led to the chateau, for within was no
+person to meet her with the kiss of affection; her own heart no longer
+palpitated with impatient joy to meet again the well-known smile, and
+she dreaded to see objects, which would recall the full remembrance of
+her former happiness. She moved slowly towards the door, paused, went
+on, and paused again. How silent, how forsaken, how forlorn did the
+chateau appear! Trembling to enter it, yet blaming herself for delaying
+what she could not avoid, she, at length, passed into the hall; crossed
+it with a hurried step, as if afraid to look round, and opened the door
+of that room, which she was wont to call her own. The gloom of evening
+gave solemnity to its silent and deserted air. The chairs, the tables,
+every article of furniture, so familiar to her in happier times,
+spoke eloquently to her heart. She seated herself, without immediately
+observing it, in a window, which opened upon the garden, and where St.
+Aubert had often sat with her, watching the sun retire from the rich and
+extensive prospect, that appeared beyond the groves.
+
+Having indulged her tears for some time, she became more composed; and,
+when Theresa, after seeing the baggage deposited in her lady's room,
+again appeared, she had so far recovered her spirits, as to be able to
+converse with her.
+
+'I have made up the green bed for you, ma'amselle,' said Theresa, as she
+set the coffee upon the table. 'I thought you would like it better than
+your own now; but I little thought this day month, that you would come
+back alone. A-well-a-day! the news almost broke my heart, when it did
+come. Who would have believed, that my poor master, when he went
+from home, would never return again!' Emily hid her face with her
+handkerchief, and waved her hand.
+
+'Do taste the coffee,' said Theresa. 'My dear young lady, be
+comforted--we must all die. My dear master is a saint above.' Emily
+took the handkerchief from her face, and raised her eyes full of tears
+towards heaven; soon after she dried them, and, in a calm, but tremulous
+voice, began to enquire concerning some of her late father's pensioners.
+
+'Alas-a-day!' said Theresa, as she poured out the coffee, and handed
+it to her mistress, 'all that could come, have been here every day to
+enquire after you and my master.' She then proceeded to tell, that
+some were dead whom they had left well; and others, who were ill, had
+recovered. 'And see, ma'amselle,' added Theresa, 'there is old Mary
+coming up the garden now; she has looked every day these three years as
+if she would die, yet she is alive still. She has seen the chaise at the
+door, and knows you are come home.'
+
+The sight of this poor old woman would have been too much for Emily, and
+she begged Theresa would go and tell her, that she was too ill to see
+any person that night. 'To-morrow I shall be better, perhaps; but give
+her this token of my remembrance.'
+
+Emily sat for some time, given up to sorrow. Not an object, on which her
+eye glanced, but awakened some remembrance, that led immediately to the
+subject of her grief. Her favourite plants, which St. Aubert had taught
+her to nurse; the little drawings, that adorned the room, which his
+taste had instructed her to execute; the books, that he had selected
+for her use, and which they had read together; her musical instruments,
+whose sounds he loved so well, and which he sometimes awakened
+himself--every object gave new force to sorrow. At length, she roused
+herself from this melancholy indulgence, and, summoning all her
+resolution, stepped forward to go into those forlorn rooms, which,
+though she dreaded to enter, she knew would yet more powerfully affect
+her, if she delayed to visit them.
+
+Having passed through the green-house, her courage for a moment forsook
+her, when she opened the door of the library; and, perhaps, the shade,
+which evening and the foliage of the trees near the windows threw across
+the room, heightened the solemnity of her feelings on entering that
+apartment, where every thing spoke of her father. There was an arm
+chair, in which he used to sit; she shrunk when she observed it, for
+she had so often seen him seated there, and the idea of him rose so
+distinctly to her mind, that she almost fancied she saw him before her.
+But she checked the illusions of a distempered imagination, though she
+could not subdue a certain degree of awe, which now mingled with her
+emotions. She walked slowly to the chair, and seated herself in it;
+there was a reading-desk before it, on which lay a book open, as it
+had been left by her father. It was some moments before she recovered
+courage enough to examine it; and, when she looked at the open page,
+she immediately recollected, that St. Aubert, on the evening before his
+departure from the chateau, had read to her some passages from this
+his favourite author. The circumstance now affected her extremely; she
+looked at the page, wept, and looked again. To her the book appeared
+sacred and invaluable, and she would not have moved it, or closed the
+page, which he had left open, for the treasures of the Indies. Still
+she sat before the desk, and could not resolve to quit it, though the
+increasing gloom, and the profound silence of the apartment, revived
+a degree of painful awe. Her thoughts dwelt on the probable state of
+departed spirits, and she remembered the affecting conversation, which
+had passed between St. Aubert and La Voisin, on the night preceding his
+death.
+
+As she mused she saw the door slowly open, and a rustling sound in a
+remote part of the room startled her. Through the dusk she thought she
+perceived something move. The subject she had been considering, and the
+present tone of her spirits, which made her imagination respond to
+every impression of her senses, gave her a sudden terror of something
+supernatural. She sat for a moment motionless, and then, her dissipated
+reason returning, 'What should I fear?' said she. 'If the spirits of
+those we love ever return to us, it is in kindness.'
+
+The silence, which again reigned, made her ashamed of her late fears,
+and she believed, that her imagination had deluded her, or that she had
+heard one of those unaccountable noises, which sometimes occur in old
+houses. The same sound, however, returned; and, distinguishing something
+moving towards her, and in the next instant press beside her into the
+chair, she shrieked; but her fleeting senses were instantly recalled,
+on perceiving that it was Manchon who sat by her, and who now licked her
+hands affectionately.
+
+Perceiving her spirits unequal to the task she had assigned herself of
+visiting the deserted rooms of the chateau this night, when she left
+the library, she walked into the garden, and down to the terrace, that
+overhung the river. The sun was now set; but, under the dark branches
+of the almond trees, was seen the saffron glow of the west, spreading
+beyond the twilight of middle air. The bat flitted silently by; and,
+now and then, the mourning note of the nightingale was heard. The
+circumstances of the hour brought to her recollection some lines, which
+she had once heard St. Aubert recite on this very spot, and she had now
+a melancholy pleasure in repeating them.
+
+     SONNET
+
+ Now the bat circles on the breeze of eve,
+ That creeps, in shudd'ring fits, along the wave,
+ And trembles 'mid the woods, and through the cave
+ Whose lonely sighs the wanderer deceive;
+ For oft, when melancholy charms his mind,
+ He thinks the Spirit of the rock he hears,
+ Nor listens, but with sweetly-thrilling fears,
+ To the low, mystic murmurs of the wind!
+ Now the bat circles, and the twilight-dew
+ Falls silent round, and, o'er the mountain-cliff,
+ The gleaming wave, and far-discover'd skiff,
+ Spreads the gray veil of soft, harmonious hue.
+ So falls o'er Grief the dew of pity's tear
+ Dimming her lonely visions of despair.
+
+Emily, wandering on, came to St. Aubert's favourite plane-tree, where so
+often, at this hour, they had sat beneath the shade together, and with
+her dear mother so often had conversed on the subject of a future state.
+How often, too, had her father expressed the comfort he derived from
+believing, that they should meet in another world! Emily, overcome by
+these recollections, left the plane-tree, and, as she leaned pensively
+on the wall of the terrace, she observed a group of peasants dancing
+gaily on the banks of the Garonne, which spread in broad expanse below,
+and reflected the evening light. What a contrast they formed to the
+desolate, unhappy Emily! They were gay and debonnaire, as they were wont
+to be when she, too, was gay--when St. Aubert used to listen to their
+merry music, with a countenance beaming pleasure and benevolence. Emily,
+having looked for a moment on this sprightly band, turned away, unable
+to bear the remembrances it excited; but where, alas! could she turn,
+and not meet new objects to give acuteness to grief?
+
+As she walked slowly towards the house, she was met by Theresa. 'Dear
+ma'amselle,' said she, 'I have been seeking you up and down this half
+hour, and was afraid some accident had happened to you. How can you like
+to wander about so in this night air! Do come into the house. Think what
+my poor master would have said, if he could see you. I am sure, when my
+dear lady died, no gentleman could take it more to heart than he did,
+yet you know he seldom shed a tear.'
+
+'Pray, Theresa, cease,' said Emily, wishing to interrupt this
+ill-judged, but well-meaning harangue; Theresa's loquacity, however,
+was not to be silenced so easily. 'And when you used to grieve so,' she
+added, 'he often told you how wrong it was--for that my mistress was
+happy. And, if she was happy, I am sure he is so too; for the prayers of
+the poor, they say, reach heaven.' During this speech, Emily had walked
+silently into the chateau, and Theresa lighted her across the hall
+into the common sitting parlour, where she had laid the cloth, with one
+solitary knife and fork, for supper. Emily was in the room before she
+perceived that it was not her own apartment, but she checked the emotion
+which inclined her to leave it, and seated herself quietly by the little
+supper table. Her father's hat hung upon the opposite wall; while she
+gazed at it, a faintness came over her. Theresa looked at her, and then
+at the object, on which her eyes were settled, and went to remove it;
+but Emily waved her hand--'No,' said she, 'let it remain. I am going
+to my chamber.' 'Nay, ma'amselle, supper is ready.' 'I cannot take it,'
+replied Emily, 'I will go to my room, and try to sleep. Tomorrow I shall
+be better.'
+
+'This is poor doings!' said Theresa. 'Dear lady! do take some food! I
+have dressed a pheasant, and a fine one it is. Old Monsieur Barreaux
+sent it this morning, for I saw him yesterday, and told him you were
+coming. And I know nobody that seemed more concerned, when he heard the
+sad news, then he.'
+
+'Did he?' said Emily, in a tender voice, while she felt her poor heart
+warmed for a moment by a ray of sympathy.
+
+At length, her spirits were entirely overcome, and she retired to her
+room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+  Can Music's voice, can Beauty's eye,
+  Can Painting's glowing hand supply
+  A charm so suited to my mind,
+  As blows this hollow gust of wind?
+  As drops this little weeping rill,
+  Soft tinkling down the moss-grown hill;
+ While, through the west, where sinks the crimson day,
+ Meek Twilight slowly sails, and waves her banners gray?
+     MASON
+
+Emily, some time after her return to La Vallee, received letters from
+her aunt, Madame Cheron, in which, after some common-place condolement
+and advice, she invited her to Tholouse, and added, that, as her late
+brother had entrusted Emily's EDUCATION to her, she should consider
+herself bound to overlook her conduct. Emily, at this time, wished
+only to remain at La Vallee, in the scenes of her early happiness, now
+rendered infinitely dear to her, as the late residence of those, whom
+she had lost for ever, where she could weep unobserved, retrace their
+steps, and remember each minute particular of their manners. But she was
+equally anxious to avoid the displeasure of Madame Cheron.
+
+Though her affection would not suffer her to question, even a moment,
+the propriety of St. Aubert's conduct in appointing Madame Cheron for
+her guardian, she was sensible, that this step had made her happiness
+depend, in a great degree, on the humour of her aunt. In her reply, she
+begged permission to remain, at present, at La Vallee, mentioning the
+extreme dejection of her spirits, and the necessity she felt for quiet
+and retirement to restore them. These she knew were not to be found at
+Madame Cheron's, whose inclinations led her into a life of dissipation,
+which her ample fortune encouraged; and, having given her answer, she
+felt somewhat more at ease.
+
+In the first days of her affliction, she was visited by Monsieur
+Barreaux, a sincere mourner for St. Aubert. 'I may well lament my
+friend,' said he, 'for I shall never meet with his resemblance. If I
+could have found such a man in what is called society, I should not have
+left it.'
+
+M. Barreaux's admiration of her father endeared him extremely to Emily,
+whose heart found almost its first relief in conversing of her parents,
+with a man, whom she so much revered, and who, though with such an
+ungracious appearance, possessed to much goodness of heart and delicacy
+of mind.
+
+Several weeks passed away in quiet retirement, and Emily's affliction
+began to soften into melancholy. She could bear to read the books she
+had before read with her father; to sit in his chair in the library--to
+watch the flowers his hand had planted--to awaken the tones of that
+instrument his fingers had pressed, and sometimes even to play his
+favourite air.
+
+When her mind had recovered from the first shock of affliction,
+perceiving the danger of yielding to indolence, and that activity alone
+could restore its tone, she scrupulously endeavoured to pass all her
+hours in employment. And it was now that she understood the full value
+of the education she had received from St. Aubert, for in cultivating
+her understanding he had secured her an asylum from indolence, without
+recourse to dissipation, and rich and varied amusement and information,
+independent of the society, from which her situation secluded her. Nor
+were the good effects of this education confined to selfish advantages,
+since, St. Aubert having nourished every amiable qualify of her heart,
+it now expanded in benevolence to all around her, and taught her, when
+she could not remove the misfortunes of others, at least to soften them
+by sympathy and tenderness;--a benevolence that taught her to feel for
+all, that could suffer.
+
+Madame Cheron returned no answer to Emily's letter, who began to
+hope, that she should be permitted to remain some time longer in her
+retirement, and her mind had now so far recovered its strength, that she
+ventured to view the scenes, which most powerfully recalled the images
+of past times. Among these was the fishing-house; and, to indulge still
+more the affectionate melancholy of the visit, she took thither her
+lute, that she might again hear there the tones, to which St. Aubert and
+her mother had so often delighted to listen. She went alone, and at that
+still hour of the evening which is so soothing to fancy and to grief.
+The last time she had been here she was in company with Monsieur and
+Madame St. Aubert, a few days preceding that, on which the latter was
+seized with a fatal illness. Now, when Emily again entered the woods,
+that surrounded the building, they awakened so forcibly the memory of
+former times, that her resolution yielded for a moment to excess of
+grief. She stopped, leaned for support against a tree, and wept for some
+minutes, before she had recovered herself sufficiently to proceed. The
+little path, that led to the building, was overgrown with grass and the
+flowers which St. Aubert had scattered carelessly along the border
+were almost choked with weeds--the tall thistle--the fox-glove, and the
+nettle. She often paused to look on the desolate spot, now so silent and
+forsaken, and when, with a trembling hand, she opened the door of the
+fishing-house, 'Ah!' said she, 'every thing--every thing remains as when
+I left it last--left it with those who never must return!' She went to
+a window, that overhung the rivulet, and, leaning over it, with her eyes
+fixed on the current, was soon lost in melancholy reverie. The lute
+she had brought lay forgotten beside her; the mournful sighing of the
+breeze, as it waved the high pines above, and its softer whispers among
+the osiers, that bowed upon the banks below, was a kind of music more
+in unison with her feelings. It did not vibrate on the chords of
+unhappy memory, but was soothing to the heart as the voice of Pity. She
+continued to muse, unconscious of the gloom of evening, and that the
+sun's last light trembled on the heights above, and would probably have
+remained so much longer, if a sudden footstep, without the building,
+had not alarmed her attention, and first made her recollect that she was
+unprotected. In the next moment, a door opened, and a stranger appeared,
+who stopped on perceiving Emily, and then began to apologize for his
+intrusion. But Emily, at the sound of his voice, lost her fear in a
+stronger emotion: its tones were familiar to her ear, and, though she
+could not readily distinguish through the dusk the features of the
+person who spoke, she felt a remembrance too strong to be distrusted.
+
+He repeated his apology, and Emily then said something in reply, when
+the stranger eagerly advancing, exclaimed, 'Good God! can it be--surely
+I am not mistaken--ma'amselle St. Aubert?--is it not?'
+
+'It is indeed,' said Emily, who was confirmed in her first conjecture,
+for she now distinguished the countenance of Valancourt, lighted up with
+still more than its usual animation. A thousand painful recollections
+crowded to her mind, and the effort, which she made to support herself,
+only served to increase her agitation. Valancourt, meanwhile, having
+enquired anxiously after her health, and expressed his hopes, that M.
+St. Aubert had found benefit from travelling, learned from the flood of
+tears, which she could no longer repress, the fatal truth. He led her
+to a seat, and sat down by her, while Emily continued to weep, and
+Valancourt to hold the hand, which she was unconscious he had taken,
+till it was wet with the tears, which grief for St. Aubert and sympathy
+for herself had called forth.
+
+'I feel,' said he at length, 'I feel how insufficient all attempt at
+consolation must be on this subject. I can only mourn with you, for I
+cannot doubt the source of your tears. Would to God I were mistaken!'
+
+Emily could still answer only by tears, till she rose, and begged they
+might leave the melancholy spot, when Valancourt, though he saw her
+feebleness, could not offer to detain her, but took her arm within his,
+and led her from the fishing-house. They walked silently through the
+woods, Valancourt anxious to know, yet fearing to ask any particulars
+concerning St. Aubert; and Emily too much distressed to converse.
+After some time, however, she acquired fortitude enough to speak of her
+father, and to give a brief account of the manner of his death; during
+which recital Valancourt's countenance betrayed strong emotion, and,
+when he heard that St. Aubert had died on the road, and that Emily
+had been left among strangers, he pressed her hand between his, and
+involuntarily exclaimed, 'Why was I not there!' but in the next moment
+recollected himself, for he immediately returned to the mention of her
+father; till, perceiving that her spirits were exhausted, he gradually
+changed the subject, and spoke of himself. Emily thus learned that,
+after they had parted, he had wandered, for some time, along the shores
+of the Mediterranean, and had then returned through Languedoc into
+Gascony, which was his native province, and where he usually resided.
+
+When he had concluded his little narrative, he sunk into a silence,
+which Emily was not disposed to interrupt, and it continued, till they
+reached the gate of the chateau, when he stopped, as if he had known
+this to be the limit of his walk. Here, saying, that it was his
+intention to return to Estuviere on the following day, he asked her if
+she would permit him to take leave of her in the morning; and Emily,
+perceiving that she could not reject an ordinary civility, without
+expressing by her refusal an expectation of something more, was
+compelled to answer, that she should be at home.
+
+She passed a melancholy evening, during which the retrospect of all
+that had happened, since she had seen Valancourt, would rise to her
+imagination; and the scene of her father's death appeared in tints
+as fresh, as if it had passed on the preceding day. She remembered
+particularly the earnest and solemn manner, in which he had required her
+to destroy the manuscript papers, and, awakening from the lethargy,
+in which sorrow had held her, she was shocked to think she had not yet
+obeyed him, and determined, that another day should not reproach her
+with the neglect.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+     Can such things be,
+ And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
+ Without our special wonder?
+     MACBETH
+
+On the next morning, Emily ordered a fire to be lighted in the stove
+of the chamber, where St. Aubert used to sleep; and, as soon as she had
+breakfasted, went thither to burn the papers. Having fastened the
+door to prevent interruption, she opened the closet where they were
+concealed, as she entered which, she felt an emotion of unusual awe,
+and stood for some moments surveying it, trembling, and almost afraid to
+remove the board. There was a great chair in one corner of the closet,
+and, opposite to it, stood the table, at which she had seen her father
+sit, on the evening that preceded his departure, looking over, with so
+much emotion, what she believed to be these very papers.
+
+The solitary life, which Emily had led of late, and the melancholy
+subjects, on which she had suffered her thoughts to dwell, had rendered
+her at times sensible to the 'thick-coming fancies' of a mind greatly
+enervated. It was lamentable, that her excellent understanding should
+have yielded, even for a moment, to the reveries of superstition, or
+rather to those starts of imagination, which deceive the senses into
+what can be called nothing less than momentary madness. Instances of
+this temporary failure of mind had more than once occurred since her
+return home; particularly when, wandering through this lonely mansion in
+the evening twilight, she had been alarmed by appearances, which would
+have been unseen in her more cheerful days. To this infirm state of her
+nerves may be attributed what she imagined, when, her eyes glancing
+a second time on the arm-chair, which stood in an obscure part of the
+closet, the countenance of her dead father appeared there. Emily stood
+fixed for a moment to the floor, after which she left the closet.
+Her spirits, however, soon returned; she reproached herself with the
+weakness of thus suffering interruption in an act of serious importance,
+and again opened the door. By the directions which St. Aubert had given
+her, she readily found the board he had described in an opposite corner
+of the closet, near the window; she distinguished also the line he
+had mentioned, and, pressing it as he had bade her, it slid down, and
+disclosed the bundle of papers, together with some scattered ones, and
+the purse of louis. With a trembling hand she removed them, replaced the
+board, paused a moment, and was rising from the floor, when, on looking
+up, there appeared to her alarmed fancy the same countenance in the
+chair. The illusion, another instance of the unhappy effect which
+solitude and grief had gradually produced upon her mind, subdued her
+spirits; she rushed forward into the chamber, and sunk almost senseless
+into a chair. Returning reason soon overcame the dreadful, but pitiable
+attack of imagination, and she turned to the papers, though still with
+so little recollection, that her eyes involuntarily settled on the
+writing of some loose sheets, which lay open; and she was unconscious,
+that she was transgressing her father's strict injunction, till a
+sentence of dreadful import awakened her attention and her memory
+together. She hastily put the papers from her; but the words, which had
+roused equally her curiosity and terror, she could not dismiss from her
+thoughts. So powerfully had they affected her, that she even could not
+resolve to destroy the papers immediately; and the more she dwelt on the
+circumstance, the more it inflamed her imagination. Urged by the most
+forcible, and apparently the most necessary, curiosity to enquire
+farther, concerning the terrible and mysterious subject, to which she
+had seen an allusion, she began to lament her promise to destroy the
+papers. For a moment, she even doubted, whether it could justly be
+obeyed, in contradiction to such reasons as there appeared to be for
+further information. But the delusion was momentary.
+
+'I have given a solemn promise,' said she, 'to observe a solemn
+injunction, and it is not my business to argue, but to obey. Let me
+hasten to remove the temptation, that would destroy my innocence, and
+embitter my life with the consciousness of irremediable guilt, while I
+have strength to reject it.'
+
+Thus re-animated with a sense of her duty, she completed the triumph
+of her integrity over temptation, more forcible than any she had ever
+known, and consigned the papers to the flames. Her eyes watched them as
+they slowly consumed, she shuddered at the recollection of the sentence
+she had just seen, and at the certainty, that the only opportunity of
+explaining it was then passing away for ever.
+
+It was long after this, that she recollected the purse; and as she was
+depositing it, unopened, in a cabinet, perceiving that it contained
+something of a size larger than coin, she examined it. 'His hand
+deposited them here,' said she, as she kissed some pieces of the coin,
+and wetted them with her tears, 'his hand--which is now dust!' At the
+bottom of the purse was a small packet, having taken out which, and
+unfolded paper after paper, she found to be an ivory case, containing
+the miniature of a--lady! She started--'The same,' said she, 'my father
+wept over!' On examining the countenance she could recollect no person
+that it resembled. It was of uncommon beauty, and was characterized
+by an expression of sweetness, shaded with sorrow, and tempered by
+resignation.
+
+St. Aubert had given no directions concerning this picture, nor had even
+named it; she, therefore, thought herself justified in preserving
+it. More than once remembering his manner, when he had spoken of the
+Marchioness of Villeroi, she felt inclined to believe that this was her
+resemblance; yet there appeared no reason why he should have preserved a
+picture of that lady, or, having preserved it, why he should lament over
+it in a manner so striking and affecting as she had witnessed on the
+night preceding his departure.
+
+Emily still gazed on the countenance, examining its features, but she
+knew not where to detect the charm that captivated her attention,
+and inspired sentiments of such love and pity. Dark brown hair played
+carelessly along the open forehead; the nose was rather inclined to
+aquiline; the lips spoke in a smile, but it was a melancholy one; the
+eyes were blue, and were directed upwards with an expression of peculiar
+meekness, while the soft cloud of the brow spoke of the fine sensibility
+of the temper.
+
+Emily was roused from the musing mood into which the picture had thrown
+her, by the closing of the garden gate; and, on turning her eyes to
+the window, she saw Valancourt coming towards the chateau. Her spirits
+agitated by the subjects that had lately occupied her mind, she felt
+unprepared to see him, and remained a few moments in the chamber to
+recover herself.
+
+When she met him in the parlour, she was struck with the change that
+appeared in his air and countenance since they had parted in Rousillon,
+which twilight and the distress she suffered on the preceding evening
+had prevented her from observing. But dejection and languor disappeared,
+for a moment, in the smile that now enlightened his countenance, on
+perceiving her. 'You see,' said he, 'I have availed myself of the
+permission with which you honoured me--of bidding YOU farewell, whom I
+had the happiness of meeting only yesterday.'
+
+Emily smiled faintly, and, anxious to say something, asked if he had
+been long in Gascony. 'A few days only,' replied Valancourt, while a
+blush passed over his cheek. 'I engaged in a long ramble after I had the
+misfortune of parting with the friends who had made my wanderings among
+the Pyrenees so delightful.'
+
+A tear came to Emily's eye, as Valancourt said this, which he observed;
+and, anxious to draw off her attention from the remembrance that had
+occasioned it, as well as shocked at his own thoughtlessness, he began
+to speak on other subjects, expressing his admiration of the chateau,
+and its prospects. Emily, who felt somewhat embarrassed how to support
+a conversation, was glad of such an opportunity to continue it on
+indifferent topics. They walked down to the terrace, where Valancourt
+was charmed with the river scenery, and the views over the opposite
+shores of Guienne.
+
+As he leaned on the wall of the terrace, watching the rapid current of
+the Garonne, 'I was a few weeks ago,' said he, 'at the source of this
+noble river; I had not then the happiness of knowing you, or I should
+have regretted your absence--it was a scene so exactly suited to
+your taste. It rises in a part of the Pyrenees, still wilder and more
+sublime, I think, than any we passed in the way to Rousillon.' He then
+described its fall among the precipices of the mountains, where its
+waters, augmented by the streams that descend from the snowy summits
+around, rush into the Vallee d'Aran, between whose romantic heights it
+foams along, pursuing its way to the north west till it emerges upon the
+plains of Languedoc. Then, washing the walls of Tholouse, and turning
+again to the north west, it assumes a milder character, as it fertilizes
+the pastures of Gascony and Guienne, in its progress to the Bay of
+Biscay.
+
+Emily and Valancourt talked of the scenes they had passed among
+the Pyrenean Alps; as he spoke of which there was often a tremulous
+tenderness in his voice, and sometimes he expatiated on them with all
+the fire of genius, sometimes would appear scarcely conscious of the
+topic, though he continued to speak. This subject recalled forcibly to
+Emily the idea of her father, whose image appeared in every landscape,
+which Valancourt particularized, whose remarks dwelt upon her memory,
+and whose enthusiasm still glowed in her heart. Her silence, at length,
+reminded Valancourt how nearly his conversation approached to the
+occasion of her grief, and he changed the subject, though for one
+scarcely less affecting to Emily. When he admired the grandeur of the
+plane-tree, that spread its wide branches over the terrace, and under
+whose shade they now sat, she remembered how often she had sat thus with
+St. Aubert, and heard him express the same admiration.
+
+'This was a favourite tree with my dear father,' said she; 'he used to
+love to sit under its foliage with his family about him, in the fine
+evenings of summer.'
+
+Valancourt understood her feelings, and was silent; had she raised her
+eyes from the ground she would have seen tears in his. He rose, and
+leaned on the wall of the terrace, from which, in a few moments, he
+returned to his seat, then rose again, and appeared to be greatly
+agitated; while Emily found her spirits so much depressed, that several
+of her attempts to renew the conversation were ineffectual. Valancourt
+again sat down, but was still silent, and trembled. At length he said,
+with a hesitating voice, 'This lovely scene!--I am going to leave--to
+leave you--perhaps for ever! These moments may never return; I cannot
+resolve to neglect, though I scarcely dare to avail myself of them. Let
+me, however, without offending the delicacy of your sorrow, venture to
+declare the admiration I must always feel of your goodness--O! that at
+some future period I might be permitted to call it love!'
+
+Emily's emotion would not suffer her to reply; and Valancourt, who now
+ventured to look up, observing her countenance change, expected to see
+her faint, and made an involuntary effort to support her, which recalled
+Emily to a sense of her situation, and to an exertion of her spirits.
+Valancourt did not appear to notice her indisposition, but, when he
+spoke again, his voice told the tenderest love. 'I will not presume,' he
+added, 'to intrude this subject longer upon your attention at this time,
+but I may, perhaps, be permitted to mention, that these parting moments
+would lose much of their bitterness if I might be allowed to hope the
+declaration I have made would not exclude me from your presence in
+future.'
+
+Emily made another effort to overcome the confusion of her thoughts,
+and to speak. She feared to trust the preference her heart acknowledged
+towards Valancourt, and to give him any encouragement for hope, on so
+short an acquaintance. For though in this narrow period she had observed
+much that was admirable in his taste and disposition, and though these
+observations had been sanctioned by the opinion of her father, they were
+not sufficient testimonies of his general worth to determine her upon a
+subject so infinitely important to her future happiness as that, which
+now solicited her attention. Yet, though the thought of dismissing
+Valancourt was so very painful to her, that she could scarcely endure to
+pause upon it, the consciousness of this made her fear the partiality of
+her judgment, and hesitate still more to encourage that suit, for which
+her own heart too tenderly pleaded. The family of Valancourt, if not
+his circumstances, had been known to her father, and known to be
+unexceptionable. Of his circumstances, Valancourt himself hinted as far
+as delicacy would permit, when he said he had at present little else to
+offer but an heart, that adored her. He had solicited only for a distant
+hope, and she could not resolve to forbid, though she scarcely dared to
+permit it; at length, she acquired courage to say, that she must think
+herself honoured by the good opinion of any person, whom her father had
+esteemed.
+
+'And was I, then, thought worthy of his esteem?' said Valancourt, in
+a voice trembling with anxiety; then checking himself, he added, 'But
+pardon the question; I scarcely know what I say. If I might dare to
+hope, that you think me not unworthy such honour, and might be permitted
+sometimes to enquire after your health, I should now leave you with
+comparative tranquillity.'
+
+Emily, after a moment's silence, said, 'I will be ingenuous with you,
+for I know you will understand, and allow for my situation; you will
+consider it as a proof of my--my esteem that I am so. Though I live
+here in what was my father's house, I live here alone. I have, alas! no
+longer a parent--a parent, whose presence might sanction your visits.
+It is unnecessary for me to point out the impropriety of my receiving
+them.'
+
+'Nor will I affect to be insensible of this,' replied Valancourt, adding
+mournfully--'but what is to console me for my candour? I distress you,
+and would now leave the subject, if I might carry with me a hope of
+being some time permitted to renew it, of being allowed to make myself
+known to your family.'
+
+Emily was again confused, and again hesitated what to reply; she felt
+most acutely the difficulty--the forlornness of her situation, which did
+not allow her a single relative, or friend, to whom she could turn
+for even a look, that might support and guide her in the present
+embarrassing circumstances. Madame Cheron, who was her only relative,
+and ought to have been this friend, was either occupied by her own
+amusements, or so resentful of the reluctance her niece had shewn to
+quit La Vallee, that she seemed totally to have abandoned her.
+
+'Ah! I see,' said Valancourt, after a long pause, during which Emily had
+begun, and left unfinished two or three sentences, 'I see that I have
+nothing to hope; my fears were too just, you think me unworthy of your
+esteem. That fatal journey! which I considered as the happiest period of
+my life--those delightful days were to embitter all my future ones. How
+often I have looked back to them with hope and fear--yet never till
+this moment could I prevail with myself to regret their enchanting
+influence.'
+
+His voice faltered, and he abruptly quitted his seat and walked on the
+terrace. There was an expression of despair on his countenance, that
+affected Emily. The pleadings of her heart overcame, in some degree, her
+extreme timidity, and, when he resumed his seat, she said, in an accent
+that betrayed her tenderness, 'You do both yourself and me injustice
+when you say I think you unworthy of my esteem; I will acknowledge that
+you have long possessed it, and--and--'
+
+Valancourt waited impatiently for the conclusion of the sentence,
+but the words died on her lips. Her eyes, however, reflected all the
+emotions of her heart. Valancourt passed, in an instant, from the
+impatience of despair, to that of joy and tenderness. 'O Emily!' he
+exclaimed, 'my own Emily--teach me to sustain this moment! Let me seal
+it as the most sacred of my life!'
+
+He pressed her hand to his lips, it was cold and trembling; and, raising
+her eyes, he saw the paleness of her countenance. Tears came to her
+relief, and Valancourt watched in anxious silence over her. In a few
+moments, she recovered herself, and smiling faintly through her tears,
+said, 'Can you excuse this weakness? My spirits have not yet, I believe,
+recovered from the shock they lately received.'
+
+'I cannot excuse myself,' said Valancourt, 'but I will forbear to renew
+the subject, which may have contributed to agitate them, now that I can
+leave you with the sweet certainty of possessing your esteem.'
+
+Then, forgetting his resolution, he again spoke of himself. 'You know
+not,' said he, 'the many anxious hours I have passed near you lately,
+when you believed me, if indeed you honoured me with a thought, far
+away. I have wandered, near the chateau, in the still hours of the
+night, when no eye could observe me. It was delightful to know I was so
+near you, and there was something particularly soothing in the thought,
+that I watched round your habitation, while you slept. These grounds are
+not entirely new to me. Once I ventured within the fence, and spent one
+of the happiest, and yet most melancholy hours of my life in walking
+under what I believed to be your window.'
+
+Emily enquired how long Valancourt had been in the neighbourhood.
+'Several days,' he replied. 'It was my design to avail myself of the
+permission M. St. Aubert had given me. I scarcely know how to account
+for it; but, though I anxiously wished to do this, my resolution always
+failed, when the moment approached, and I constantly deferred my visit.
+I lodged in a village at some distance, and wandered with my dogs, among
+the scenes of this charming country, wishing continually to meet you,
+yet not daring to visit you.'
+
+Having thus continued to converse, without perceiving the flight of
+time, Valancourt, at length, seemed to recollect himself. 'I must go,'
+said he mournfully, 'but it is with the hope of seeing you again, of
+being permitted to pay my respects to your family; let me hear this hope
+confirmed by your voice.' 'My family will be happy to see any friend
+of my dear father,' said Emily. Valancourt kissed her hand, and still
+lingered, unable to depart, while Emily sat silently, with her eyes bent
+on the ground; and Valancourt, as he gazed on her, considered that it
+would soon be impossible for him to recall, even to his memory, the
+exact resemblance of the beautiful countenance he then beheld; at this
+moment an hasty footstep approached from behind the plane-tree, and,
+turning her eyes, Emily saw Madame Cheron. She felt a blush steal upon
+her cheek, and her frame trembled with the emotion of her mind; but she
+instantly rose to meet her visitor. 'So, niece!' said Madame Cheron,
+casting a look of surprise and enquiry on Valancourt, 'so niece, how
+do you do? But I need not ask, your looks tell me you have already
+recovered your loss.'
+
+'My looks do me injustice then, Madame, my loss I know can never be
+recovered.'
+
+'Well--well! I will not argue with you; I see you have exactly your
+father's disposition; and let me tell you it would have been much
+happier for him, poor man! if it had been a different one.'
+
+A look of dignified displeasure, with which Emily regarded Madame
+Cheron, while she spoke, would have touched almost any other heart;
+she made no other reply, but introduced Valancourt, who could scarcely
+stifle the resentment he felt, and whose bow Madame Cheron returned with
+a slight curtsy, and a look of supercilious examination. After a few
+moments he took leave of Emily, in a manner, that hastily expressed his
+pain both at his own departure, and at leaving her to the society of
+Madame Cheron.
+
+'Who is that young man?' said her aunt, in an accent which equally
+implied inquisitiveness and censure. 'Some idle admirer of yours I
+suppose; but I believed niece you had a greater sense of propriety, than
+to have received the visits of any young man in your present unfriended
+situation. Let me tell you the world will observe those things, and it
+will talk, aye and very freely too.'
+
+Emily, extremely shocked at this coarse speech, attempted to interrupt
+it; but Madame Cheron would proceed, with all the self-importance of a
+person, to whom power is new.
+
+'It is very necessary you should be under the eye of some person more
+able to guide you than yourself. I, indeed, have not much leisure for
+such a task; however, since your poor father made it his last request,
+that I should overlook your conduct--I must even take you under my care.
+But this let me tell you niece, that, unless you will determine to be
+very conformable to my direction, I shall not trouble myself longer
+about you.'
+
+Emily made no attempt to interrupt Madame Cheron a second time, grief
+and the pride of conscious innocence kept her silent, till her aunt
+said, 'I am now come to take you with me to Tholouse; I am sorry
+to find, that your poor father died, after all, in such indifferent
+circumstances; however, I shall take you home with me. Ah! poor man, he
+was always more generous than provident, or he would not have left his
+daughter dependent on his relations.'
+
+'Nor has he done so, I hope, madam,' said Emily calmly, 'nor did his
+pecuniary misfortunes arise from that noble generosity, which always
+distinguished him. The affairs of M. de Motteville may, I trust, yet
+be settled without deeply injuring his creditors, and in the meantime I
+should be very happy to remain at La Vallee.'
+
+'No doubt you would,' replied Madame Cheron, with a smile of irony, 'and
+I shall no doubt consent to this, since I see how necessary tranquillity
+and retirement are to restore your spirits. I did not think you capable
+of so much duplicity, niece; when you pleaded this excuse for remaining
+here, I foolishly believed it to be a just one, nor expected to have
+found with you so agreeable a companion as this M. La Val--, I forget
+his name.'
+
+Emily could no longer endure these cruel indignities. 'It was a just
+one, madam,' said she; 'and now, indeed, I feel more than ever the value
+of the retirement I then solicited; and, if the purport of your visit
+is only to add insult to the sorrows of your brother's child, she could
+well have spared it.'
+
+'I see that I have undertaken a very troublesome task,' said Madame
+Cheron, colouring highly. 'I am sure, madam,' said Emily mildly, and
+endeavouring to restrain her tears, 'I am sure my father did not mean it
+should be such. I have the happiness to reflect, that my conduct under
+his eye was such as he often delighted to approve. It would be very
+painful to me to disobey the sister of such a parent, and, if you
+believe the task will really be so troublesome, I must lament, that it
+is yours.'
+
+'Well! niece, fine speaking signifies little. I am willing, in
+consideration of my poor brother, to overlook the impropriety of your
+late conduct, and to try what your future will be.'
+
+Emily interrupted her, to beg she would explain what was the impropriety
+she alluded to.
+
+'What impropriety! why that of receiving the visits of a lover unknown
+to your family,' replied Madame Cheron, not considering the impropriety
+of which she had herself been guilty, in exposing her niece to the
+possibility of conduct so erroneous.
+
+A faint blush passed over Emily's countenance; pride and anxiety
+struggled in her breast; and, till she recollected, that appearances
+did, in some degree, justify her aunt's suspicions, she could not
+resolve to humble herself so far as to enter into the defence of a
+conduct, which had been so innocent and undesigning on her part. She
+mentioned the manner of Valancourt's introduction to her father; the
+circumstances of his receiving the pistol-shot, and of their afterwards
+travelling together; with the accidental way, in which she had met him,
+on the preceding evening. She owned he had declared a partiality for
+her, and that he had asked permission to address her family.
+
+'And who is this young adventurer, pray?' said Madame Cheron, 'and what
+are his pretensions?' 'These he must himself explain, madam,' replied
+Emily. 'Of his family my father was not ignorant, and I believe it is
+unexceptionable.' She then proceeded to mention what she knew concerning
+it.
+
+'Oh, then, this it seems is a younger brother,' exclaimed her aunt, 'and
+of course a beggar. A very fine tale indeed! And so my brother took a
+fancy to this young man after only a few days acquaintance!--but that
+was so like him! In his youth he was always taking these likes and
+dislikes, when no other person saw any reason for them at all; nay,
+indeed, I have often thought the people he disapproved were much more
+agreeable than those he admired;--but there is no accounting for tastes.
+He was always so much influenced by people's countenances; now I, for my
+part, have no notion of this, it is all ridiculous enthusiasm. What has
+a man's face to do with his character? Can a man of good character
+help having a disagreeable face?'--which last sentence Madame Cheron
+delivered with the decisive air of a person who congratulates herself
+on having made a grand discovery, and believes the question to be
+unanswerably settled.
+
+Emily, desirous of concluding the conversation, enquired if her aunt
+would accept some refreshment, and Madame Cheron accompanied her to the
+chateau, but without desisting from a topic, which she discussed with so
+much complacency to herself, and severity to her niece.
+
+'I am sorry to perceive, niece,' said she, in allusion to somewhat that
+Emily had said, concerning physiognomy, 'that you have a great many of
+your father's prejudices, and among them those sudden predilections for
+people from their looks. I can perceive, that you imagine yourself to be
+violently in love with this young adventurer, after an acquaintance of
+only a few days. There was something, too, so charmingly romantic in the
+manner of your meeting!'
+
+Emily checked the tears, that trembled in her eyes, while she said,
+'When my conduct shall deserve this severity, madam, you will do well
+to exercise it; till then justice, if not tenderness, should surely
+restrain it. I have never willingly offended you; now I have lost my
+parents, you are the only person to whom I can look for kindness. Let me
+not lament more than ever the loss of such parents.' The last words were
+almost stifled by her emotions, and she burst into tears. Remembering
+the delicacy and the tenderness of St. Aubert, the happy, happy days
+she had passed in these scenes, and contrasting them with the coarse
+and unfeeling behaviour of Madame Cheron, and from the future hours
+of mortification she must submit to in her presence--a degree of grief
+seized her, that almost reached despair. Madame Cheron, more offended
+by the reproof which Emily's words conveyed, than touched by the
+sorrow they expressed, said nothing, that might soften her grief; but,
+notwithstanding an apparent reluctance to receive her niece, she desired
+her company. The love of sway was her ruling passion, and she knew it
+would be highly gratified by taking into her house a young orphan, who
+had no appeal from her decisions, and on whom she could exercise without
+controul the capricious humour of the moment.
+
+On entering the chateau, Madame Cheron expressed a desire, that she
+would put up what she thought necessary to take to Tholouse, as she
+meant to set off immediately. Emily now tried to persuade her to defer
+the journey, at least till the next day, and, at length, with much
+difficulty, prevailed.
+
+The day passed in the exercise of petty tyranny on the part of Madame
+Cheron, and in mournful regret and melancholy anticipation on that of
+Emily, who, when her aunt retired to her apartment for the night, went
+to take leave of every other room in this her dear native home, which
+she was now quitting for she knew not how long, and for a world, to
+which she was wholly a stranger. She could not conquer a presentiment,
+which frequently occurred to her, this night--that she should never more
+return to La Vallee. Having passed a considerable time in what had been
+her father's study, having selected some of his favourite authors, to
+put up with her clothes, and shed many tears, as she wiped the dust from
+their covers, she seated herself in his chair before the reading desk,
+and sat lost in melancholy reflection, till Theresa opened the door to
+examine, as was her custom before she went to bed, if was all safe. She
+started, on observing her young lady, who bade her come in, and then
+gave her some directions for keeping the chateau in readiness for her
+reception at all times.
+
+'Alas-a-day! that you should leave it!' said Theresa, 'I think you would
+be happier here than where you are going, if one may judge.' Emily made
+no reply to this remark; the sorrow Theresa proceeded to express at
+her departure affected her, but she found some comfort in the simple
+affection of this poor old servant, to whom she gave such directions as
+might best conduce to her comfort during her own absence.
+
+Having dismissed Theresa to bed, Emily wandered through every lonely
+apartment of the chateau, lingering long in what had been her father's
+bed-room, indulging melancholy, yet not unpleasing, emotions, and,
+having often returned within the door to take another look at it, she
+withdrew to her own chamber. From her window she gazed upon the
+garden below, shewn faintly by the moon, rising over the tops of the
+palm-trees, and, at length, the calm beauty of the night increased a
+desire of indulging the mournful sweetness of bidding farewel to the
+beloved shades of her childhood, till she was tempted to descend.
+Throwing over her the light veil, in which she usually walked, she
+silently passed into the garden, and, hastening towards the distant
+groves, was glad to breathe once more the air of liberty, and to sigh
+unobserved. The deep repose of the scene, the rich scents, that floated
+on the breeze, the grandeur of the wide horizon and of the clear
+blue arch, soothed and gradually elevated her mind to that sublime
+complacency, which renders the vexations of this world so insignificant
+and mean in our eyes, that we wonder they have had power for a moment to
+disturb us. Emily forgot Madame Cheron and all the circumstances of
+her conduct, while her thoughts ascended to the contemplation of those
+unnumbered worlds, that lie scattered in the depths of aether, thousands
+of them hid from human eyes, and almost beyond the flight of human
+fancy. As her imagination soared through the regions of space, and
+aspired to that Great First Cause, which pervades and governs all being,
+the idea of her father scarcely ever left her; but it was a pleasing
+idea, since she resigned him to God in the full confidence of a pure and
+holy faith. She pursued her way through the groves to the terrace,
+often pausing as memory awakened the pang of affection, and as reason
+anticipated the exile, into which she was going.
+
+And now the moon was high over the woods, touching their summits with
+yellow light, and darting between the foliage long level beams; while on
+the rapid Garonne below the trembling radiance was faintly obscured by
+the lightest vapour. Emily long watched the playing lustre, listened to
+the soothing murmur of the current, and the yet lighter sounds of the
+air, as it stirred, at intervals, the lofty palm-trees. 'How delightful
+is the sweet breath of these groves,' said she. 'This lovely scene!--how
+often shall I remember and regret it, when I am far away. Alas!
+what events may occur before I see it again! O, peaceful, happy
+shades!--scenes of my infant delights, of parental tenderness now lost
+for ever!--why must I leave ye!--In your retreats I should still find
+safety and repose. Sweet hours of my childhood--I am now to leave even
+your last memorials! No objects, that would revive your impressions,
+will remain for me!'
+
+Then drying her tears and looking up, her thoughts rose again to the
+sublime subject she had contemplated; the same divine complacency stole
+over her heart, and, hushing its throbs, inspired hope and confidence
+and resignation to the will of the Deity, whose works filled her mind
+with adoration.
+
+Emily gazed long on the plane-tree, and then seated herself, for the
+last time, on the bench under its shade, where she had so often sat with
+her parents, and where, only a few hours before, she had conversed
+with Valancourt, at the remembrance of whom, thus revived, a mingled
+sensation of esteem, tenderness and anxiety rose in her breast. With
+this remembrance occurred a recollection of his late confession--that he
+had often wandered near her habitation in the night, having even passed
+the boundary of the garden, and it immediately occurred to her, that
+he might be at this moment in the grounds. The fear of meeting him,
+particularly after the declaration he had made, and of incurring a
+censure, which her aunt might so reasonably bestow, if it was known,
+that she was met by her lover, at this hour, made her instantly leave
+her beloved plane-tree, and walk towards the chateau. She cast an
+anxious eye around, and often stopped for a moment to examine the
+shadowy scene before she ventured to proceed, but she passed on without
+perceiving any person, till, having reached a clump of almond trees, not
+far from the house, she rested to take a retrospect of the garden, and
+to sigh forth another adieu. As her eyes wandered over the landscape she
+thought she perceived a person emerge from the groves, and pass slowly
+along a moon-light alley that led between them; but the distance, and
+the imperfect light would not suffer her to judge with any degree of
+certainty whether this was fancy or reality. She continued to gaze for
+some time on the spot, till on the dead stillness of the air she heard
+a sudden sound, and in the next instant fancied she distinguished
+footsteps near her. Wasting not another moment in conjecture, she
+hurried to the chateau, and, having reached it, retired to her chamber,
+where, as she closed her window she looked upon the garden, and then
+again thought she distinguished a figure, gliding between the almond
+trees she had just left. She immediately withdrew from the casement,
+and, though much agitated, sought in sleep the refreshment of a short
+oblivion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+     I leave that flowery path for eye
+ Of childhood, where I sported many a day,
+ Warbling and sauntering carelessly along;
+ Where every face was innocent and gay,
+ Each vale romantic, tuneful every tongue,
+ Sweet, wild, and artless all.
+     THE MINSTREL
+
+At an early hour, the carriage, which was to take Emily and Madame
+Cheron to Tholouse, appeared at the door of the chateau, and Madame was
+already in the breakfast-room, when her niece entered it. The repast
+was silent and melancholy on the part of Emily; and Madame Cheron, whose
+vanity was piqued on observing her dejection, reproved her in a manner
+that did not contribute to remove it. It was with much reluctance, that
+Emily's request to take with her the dog, which had been a favourite
+of her father, was granted. Her aunt, impatient to be gone, ordered the
+carriage to draw up; and, while she passed to the hall door, Emily gave
+another look into the library, and another farewell glance over the
+garden, and then followed. Old Theresa stood at the door to take leave
+of her young lady. 'God for ever keep you, ma'amselle!' said she, while
+Emily gave her hand in silence, and could answer only with a pressure of
+her hand, and a forced smile.
+
+At the gate, which led out of the grounds, several of her father's
+pensioners were assembled to bid her farewell, to whom she would have
+spoken, if her aunt would have suffered the driver to stop; and, having
+distributed to them almost all the money she had about her, she sunk
+back in the carriage, yielding to the melancholy of her heart. Soon
+after, she caught, between the steep banks of the road, another view of
+the chateau, peeping from among the high trees, and surrounded by green
+slopes and tufted groves, the Garonne winding its way beneath their
+shades, sometimes lost among the vineyards, and then rising in greater
+majesty in the distant pastures. The towering precipices of the
+Pyrenees, that rose to the south, gave Emily a thousand interesting
+recollections of her late journey; and these objects of her former
+enthusiastic admiration, now excited only sorrow and regret. Having
+gazed on the chateau and its lovely scenery, till the banks again closed
+upon them, her mind became too much occupied by mournful reflections, to
+permit her to attend to the conversation, which Madame Cheron had begun
+on some trivial topic, so that they soon travelled in profound silence.
+
+Valancourt, mean while, was returned to Estuviere, his heart occupied
+with the image of Emily; sometimes indulging in reveries of future
+happiness, but more frequently shrinking with dread of the opposition
+he might encounter from her family. He was the younger son of an ancient
+family of Gascony; and, having lost his parents at an early period
+of his life, the care of his education and of his small portion had
+devolved to his brother, the Count de Duvarney, his senior by nearly
+twenty years. Valancourt had been educated in all the accomplishments
+of his age, and had an ardour of spirit, and a certain grandeur of
+mind, that gave him particular excellence in the exercises then thought
+heroic. His little fortune had been diminished by the necessary expences
+of his education; but M. La Valancourt, the elder, seemed to think that
+his genius and accomplishments would amply supply the deficiency of his
+inheritance. They offered flattering hopes of promotion in the military
+profession, in those times almost the only one in which a gentleman
+could engage without incurring a stain on his name; and La Valancourt
+was of course enrolled in the army. The general genius of his mind was
+but little understood by his brother. That ardour for whatever is great
+and good in the moral world, as well as in the natural one, displayed
+itself in his infant years; and the strong indignation, which he felt
+and expressed at a criminal, or a mean action, sometimes drew upon him
+the displeasure of his tutor; who reprobated it under the general
+term of violence of temper; and who, when haranguing on the virtues of
+mildness and moderation, seemed to forget the gentleness and compassion,
+which always appeared in his pupil towards objects of misfortune.
+
+He had now obtained leave of absence from his regiment when he made the
+excursion into the Pyrenees, which was the means of introducing him to
+St. Aubert; and, as this permission was nearly expired, he was the more
+anxious to declare himself to Emily's family, from whom he reasonably
+apprehended opposition, since his fortune, though, with a moderate
+addition from hers, it would be sufficient to support them, would not
+satisfy the views, either of vanity, or ambition. Valancourt was not
+without the latter, but he saw golden visions of promotion in the army;
+and believed, that with Emily he could, in the mean time, be delighted
+to live within the limits of his humble income. His thoughts were now
+occupied in considering the means of making himself known to her family,
+to whom, however, he had yet no address, for he was entirely ignorant of
+Emily's precipitate departure from La Vallee, of whom he hoped to obtain
+it.
+
+Meanwhile, the travellers pursued their journey; Emily making frequent
+efforts to appear cheerful, and too often relapsing into silence and
+dejection. Madame Cheron, attributing her melancholy solely to the
+circumstance of her being removed to a distance from her lover, and
+believing, that the sorrow, which her niece still expressed for the
+loss of St. Aubert, proceeded partly from an affectation of sensibility,
+endeavoured to make it appear ridiculous to her, that such deep regret
+should continue to be felt so long after the period usually allowed for
+grief.
+
+At length, these unpleasant lectures were interrupted by the arrival of
+the travellers at Tholouse; and Emily, who had not been there for many
+years, and had only a very faint recollection of it, was surprised at
+the ostentatious style exhibited in her aunt's house and furniture; the
+more so, perhaps, because it was so totally different from the modest
+elegance, to which she had been accustomed. She followed Madame Cheron
+through a large hall, where several servants in rich liveries appeared,
+to a kind of saloon, fitted up with more shew than taste; and her aunt,
+complaining of fatigue, ordered supper immediately. 'I am glad to find
+myself in my own house again,' said she, throwing herself on a large
+settee, 'and to have my own people about me. I detest travelling;
+though, indeed, I ought to like it, for what I see abroad always makes
+me delighted to return to my own chateau. What makes you so silent,
+child?--What is it that disturbs you now?'
+
+Emily suppressed a starting tear, and tried to smile away the expression
+of an oppressed heart; she was thinking of HER home, and felt too
+sensibly the arrogance and ostentatious vanity of Madame Cheron's
+conversation. 'Can this be my father's sister!' said she to herself; and
+then the conviction that she was so, warming her heart with something
+like kindness towards her, she felt anxious to soften the harsh
+impression her mind had received of her aunt's character, and to shew
+a willingness to oblige her. The effort did not entirely fail; she
+listened with apparent cheerfulness, while Madame Cheron expatiated
+on the splendour of her house, told of the numerous parties she
+entertained, and what she should expect of Emily, whose diffidence
+assumed the air of a reserve, which her aunt, believing it to be that
+of pride and ignorance united, now took occasion to reprehend. She knew
+nothing of the conduct of a mind, that fears to trust its own powers;
+which, possessing a nice judgment, and inclining to believe, that every
+other person perceives still more critically, fears to commit itself
+to censure, and seeks shelter in the obscurity of silence. Emily had
+frequently blushed at the fearless manners, which she had seen admired,
+and the brilliant nothings, which she had heard applauded; yet this
+applause, so far from encouraging her to imitate the conduct that had
+won it, rather made her shrink into the reserve, that would protect her
+from such absurdity.
+
+Madame Cheron looked on her niece's diffidence with a feeling very near
+to contempt, and endeavoured to overcome it by reproof, rather than to
+encourage it by gentleness.
+
+The entrance of supper somewhat interrupted the complacent discourse of
+Madame Cheron and the painful considerations, which it had forced
+upon Emily. When the repast, which was rendered ostentatious by the
+attendance of a great number of servants, and by a profusion of plate,
+was over, Madame Cheron retired to her chamber, and a female servant
+came to shew Emily to hers. Having passed up a large stair-case, and
+through several galleries, they came to a flight of back stairs, which
+led into a short passage in a remote part of the chateau, and there
+the servant opened the door of a small chamber, which she said was
+Ma'amselle Emily's, who, once more alone, indulged the tears she had
+long tried to restrain.
+
+Those, who know, from experience, how much the heart becomes attached
+even to inanimate objects, to which it has been long accustomed, how
+unwillingly it resigns them; how with the sensations of an old friend it
+meets them, after temporary absence, will understand the forlornness
+of Emily's feelings, of Emily shut out from the only home she had
+known from her infancy, and thrown upon a scene, and among persons,
+disagreeable for more qualities than their novelty. Her father's
+favourite dog, now in the chamber, thus seemed to acquire the character
+and importance of a friend; and, as the animal fawned over her when she
+wept, and licked her hands, 'Ah, poor Manchon!' said she, 'I have nobody
+now to love me--but you!' and she wept the more. After some time, her
+thoughts returning to her father's injunctions, she remembered how often
+he had blamed her for indulging useless sorrow; how often he had pointed
+out to her the necessity of fortitude and patience, assuring her, that
+the faculties of the mind strengthen by exertion, till they finally
+unnerve affliction, and triumph over it. These recollections dried her
+tears, gradually soothed her spirits, and inspired her with the sweet
+emulation of practising precepts, which her father had so frequently
+inculcated.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+ Some pow'r impart the spear and shield,
+ At which the wizard passions fly,
+ By which the giant follies die.
+     COLLINS
+
+Madame Cheron's house stood at a little distance from the city of
+Tholouse, and was surrounded by extensive gardens, in which Emily, who
+had risen early, amused herself with wandering before breakfast. From a
+terrace, that extended along the highest part of them, was a wide view
+over Languedoc. On the distant horizon to the south, she discovered
+the wild summits of the Pyrenees, and her fancy immediately painted
+the green pastures of Gascony at their feet. Her heart pointed to her
+peaceful home--to the neighbourhood where Valancourt was--where St.
+Aubert had been; and her imagination, piercing the veil of distance,
+brought that home to her eyes in all its interesting and romantic
+beauty. She experienced an inexpressible pleasure in believing, that she
+beheld the country around it, though no feature could be distinguished,
+except the retiring chain of the Pyrenees; and, inattentive to the scene
+immediately before her, and to the flight of time, she continued to lean
+on the window of a pavilion, that terminated the terrace, with her eyes
+fixed on Gascony, and her mind occupied with the interesting ideas which
+the view of it awakened, till a servant came to tell her breakfast
+was ready. Her thoughts thus recalled to the surrounding objects,
+the straight walks, square parterres, and artificial fountains of the
+garden, could not fail, as she passed through it, to appear the worse,
+opposed to the negligent graces, and natural beauties of the grounds of
+La Vallee, upon which her recollection had been so intensely employed.
+
+'Whither have you been rambling so early?' said Madame Cheron, as her
+niece entered the breakfast-room. 'I don't approve of these solitary
+walks;' and Emily was surprised, when, having informed her aunt, that
+she had been no further than the gardens, she understood these to be
+included in the reproof. 'I desire you will not walk there again at
+so early an hour unattended,' said Madame Cheron; 'my gardens are very
+extensive; and a young woman, who can make assignations by moon-light,
+at La Vallee, is not to be trusted to her own inclinations elsewhere.'
+
+Emily, extremely surprised and shocked, had scarcely power to beg an
+explanation of these words, and, when she did, her aunt absolutely
+refused to give it, though, by her severe looks, and half sentences,
+she appeared anxious to impress Emily with a belief, that she was well
+informed of some degrading circumstances of her conduct. Conscious
+innocence could not prevent a blush from stealing over Emily's cheek;
+she trembled, and looked confusedly under the bold eye of Madame Cheron,
+who blushed also; but hers was the blush of triumph, such as sometimes
+stains the countenance of a person, congratulating himself on the
+penetration which had taught him to suspect another, and who loses both
+pity for the supposed criminal, and indignation of his guilt, in the
+gratification of his own vanity.
+
+Emily, not doubting that her aunt's mistake arose from the having
+observed her ramble in the garden on the night preceding her departure
+from La Vallee, now mentioned the motive of it, at which Madame Cheron
+smiled contemptuously, refusing either to accept this explanation, or
+to give her reasons for refusing it; and, soon after, she concluded the
+subject by saying, 'I never trust people's assertions, I always judge
+of them by their actions; but I am willing to try what will be your
+behaviour in future.'
+
+Emily, less surprised by her aunt's moderation and mysterious silence,
+than by the accusation she had received, deeply considered the latter,
+and scarcely doubted, that it was Valancourt whom she had seen at night
+in the gardens of La Vallee, and that he had been observed there by
+Madame Cheron; who now passing from one painful topic only to revive
+another almost equally so, spoke of the situation of her niece's
+property, in the hands of M. Motteville. While she thus talked with
+ostentatious pity of Emily's misfortunes, she failed not to inculcate
+the duties of humility and gratitude, or to render Emily fully sensible
+of every cruel mortification, who soon perceived, that she was to be
+considered as a dependant, not only by her aunt, but by her aunt's
+servants.
+
+She was now informed, that a large party were expected to dinner, on
+which account Madame Cheron repeated the lesson of the preceding night,
+concerning her conduct in company, and Emily wished, that she might have
+courage enough to practise it. Her aunt then proceeded to examine the
+simplicity of her dress, adding, that she expected to see her attired
+with gaiety and taste; after which she condescended to shew Emily the
+splendour of her chateau, and to point out the particular beauty, or
+elegance, which she thought distinguished each of her numerous suites of
+apartments. She then withdrew to her toilet, the throne of her homage,
+and Emily to her chamber, to unpack her books, and to try to charm her
+mind by reading, till the hour of dressing.
+
+When the company arrived, Emily entered the saloon with an air of
+timidity, which all her efforts could not overcome, and which was
+increased by the consciousness of Madame Cheron's severe observation.
+Her mourning dress, the mild dejection of her beautiful countenance, and
+the retiring diffidence of her manner, rendered her a very interesting
+object to many of the company; among whom she distinguished Signor
+Montoni, and his friend Cavigni, the late visitors at M. Quesnel's, who
+now seemed to converse with Madame Cheron with the familiarity of old
+acquaintance, and she to attend to them with particular pleasure.
+
+This Signor Montoni had an air of conscious superiority, animated
+by spirit, and strengthened by talents, to which every person seemed
+involuntarily to yield. The quickness of his perceptions was strikingly
+expressed on his countenance, yet that countenance could submit
+implicitly to occasion; and, more than once in this day, the triumph of
+art over nature might have been discerned in it. His visage was long,
+and rather narrow, yet he was called handsome; and it was, perhaps,
+the spirit and vigour of his soul, sparkling through his features, that
+triumphed for him. Emily felt admiration, but not the admiration that
+leads to esteem; for it was mixed with a degree of fear she knew not
+exactly wherefore.
+
+Cavigni was gay and insinuating as formerly; and, though he paid almost
+incessant attention to Madame Cheron, he found some opportunities of
+conversing with Emily, to whom he directed, at first, the sallies of his
+wit, but now and then assumed an air of tenderness, which she observed,
+and shrunk from. Though she replied but little, the gentleness and
+sweetness of her manners encouraged him to talk, and she felt relieved
+when a young lady of the party, who spoke incessantly, obtruded herself
+on his notice. This lady, who possessed all the sprightliness of
+a Frenchwoman, with all her coquetry, affected to understand every
+subject, or rather there was no affectation in the case; for, never
+looking beyond the limits of her own ignorance, she believed she had
+nothing to learn. She attracted notice from all; amused some, disgusted
+others for a moment, and was then forgotten.
+
+This day passed without any material occurrence; and Emily, though
+amused by the characters she had seen, was glad when she could retire to
+the recollections, which had acquired with her the character of duties.
+
+A fortnight passed in a round of dissipation and company, and Emily, who
+attended Madame Cheron in all her visits, was sometimes entertained, but
+oftener wearied. She was struck by the apparent talents and knowledge
+displayed in the various conversations she listened to, and it was long
+before she discovered, that the talents were for the most part those of
+imposture, and the knowledge nothing more than was necessary to assist
+them. But what deceived her most, was the air of constant gaiety and
+good spirits, displayed by every visitor, and which she supposed to
+arise from content as constant, and from benevolence as ready. At
+length, from the over-acting of some, less accomplished than the others,
+she could perceive, that, though contentment and benevolence are
+the only sure sources of cheerfulness, the immoderate and feverish
+animation, usually exhibited in large parties, results partly from an
+insensibility to the cares, which benevolence must sometimes derive
+from the sufferings of others, and partly from a desire to display the
+appearance of that prosperity, which they know will command submission
+and attention to themselves.
+
+Emily's pleasantest hours were passed in the pavilion of the terrace, to
+which she retired, when she could steal from observation, with a book to
+overcome, or a lute to indulge, her melancholy. There, as she sat
+with her eyes fixed on the far-distant Pyrenees, and her thoughts on
+Valancourt and the beloved scenes of Gascony, she would play the sweet
+and melancholy songs of her native province--the popular songs she had
+listened to from her childhood.
+
+One evening, having excused herself from accompanying her aunt abroad,
+she thus withdrew to the pavilion, with books and her lute. It was
+the mild and beautiful evening of a sultry day, and the windows, which
+fronted the west, opened upon all the glory of a setting sun. Its rays
+illuminated, with strong splendour, the cliffs of the Pyrenees, and
+touched their snowy tops with a roseate hue, that remained, long after
+the sun had sunk below the horizon, and the shades of twilight had
+stolen over the landscape. Emily touched her lute with that fine
+melancholy expression, which came from her heart. The pensive hour and
+the scene, the evening light on the Garonne, that flowed at no great
+distance, and whose waves, as they passed towards La Vallee, she often
+viewed with a sigh,--these united circumstances disposed her mind to
+tenderness, and her thoughts were with Valancourt, of whom she had heard
+nothing since her arrival at Tholouse, and now that she was removed from
+him, and in uncertainty, she perceived all the interest he held in her
+heart. Before she saw Valancourt she had never met a mind and taste so
+accordant with her own, and, though Madame Cheron told her much of the
+arts of dissimulation, and that the elegance and propriety of thought,
+which she so much admired in her lover, were assumed for the purpose of
+pleasing her, she could scarcely doubt their truth. This possibility,
+however, faint as it was, was sufficient to harass her mind with
+anxiety, and she found, that few conditions are more painful than that
+of uncertainty, as to the merit of a beloved object; an uncertainty,
+which she would not have suffered, had her confidence in her own
+opinions been greater.
+
+She was awakened from her musing by the sound of horses' feet along
+a road, that wound under the windows of the pavilion, and a gentleman
+passed on horseback, whose resemblance to Valancourt, in air and figure,
+for the twilight did not permit a view of his features, immediately
+struck her. She retired hastily from the lattice, fearing to be seen,
+yet wishing to observe further, while the stranger passed on without
+looking up, and, when she returned to the lattice, she saw him faintly
+through the twilight, winding under the high trees, that led to
+Tholouse. This little incident so much disturbed her spirits, that the
+temple and its scenery were no longer interesting to her, and, after
+walking awhile on the terrace, she returned to the chateau.
+
+Madame Cheron, whether she had seen a rival admired, had lost at play,
+or had witnessed an entertainment more splendid than her own, was
+returned from her visit with a temper more than usually discomposed; and
+Emily was glad, when the hour arrived, in which she could retire to the
+solitude of her own apartment.
+
+On the following morning, she was summoned to Madame Cheron, whose
+countenance was inflamed with resentment, and, as Emily advanced, she
+held out a letter to her.
+
+'Do you know this hand?' said she, in a severe tone, and with a look
+that was intended to search her heart, while Emily examined the letter
+attentively, and assured her, that she did not.
+
+'Do not provoke me,' said her aunt; 'you do know it, confess the truth
+immediately. I insist upon your confessing the truth instantly.'
+
+Emily was silent, and turned to leave the room, but Madame called her
+back. 'O you are guilty, then,' said she, 'you do know the hand.' 'If
+you was before in doubt of this, madam,' replied Emily calmly, 'why did
+you accuse me of having told a falsehood.' Madame Cheron did not
+blush; but her niece did, a moment after, when she heard the name of
+Valancourt. It was not, however, with the consciousness of deserving
+reproof, for, if she ever had seen his hand-writing, the present
+characters did not bring it to her recollection.
+
+'It is useless to deny it,' said Madame Cheron, 'I see in your
+countenance, that you are no stranger to this letter; and, I dare say,
+you have received many such from this impertinent young man, without my
+knowledge, in my own house.'
+
+Emily, shocked at the indelicacy of this accusation, still more than
+by the vulgarity of the former, instantly forgot the pride, that
+had imposed silence, and endeavoured to vindicate herself from the
+aspersion, but Madame Cheron was not to be convinced.
+
+'I cannot suppose,' she resumed, 'that this young man would have taken
+the liberty of writing to me, if you had not encouraged him to do so,
+and I must now'--'You will allow me to remind you, madam,' said Emily
+timidly, 'of some particulars of a conversation we had at La Vallee.
+I then told you truly, that I had only not forbade Monsieur Valancourt
+from addressing my family.'
+
+'I will not be interrupted,' said Madame Cheron, interrupting her niece,
+'I was going to say--I--I-have forgot what I was going to say. But
+how happened it that you did not forbid him?' Emily was silent. 'How
+happened it that you encouraged him to trouble me with this letter?--A
+young man that nobody knows;--an utter stranger in the place,--a young
+adventurer, no doubt, who is looking out for a good fortune. However, on
+that point he has mistaken his aim.'
+
+'His family was known to my father,' said Emily modestly, and without
+appearing to be sensible of the last sentence.
+
+'O! that is no recommendation at all,' replied her aunt, with her usual
+readiness upon this topic; 'he took such strange fancies to people! He
+was always judging persons by their countenances, and was continually
+deceived.' 'Yet it was but now, madam, that you judged me guilty by my
+countenance,' said Emily, with a design of reproving Madame Cheron, to
+which she was induced by this disrespectful mention of her father.
+
+'I called you here,' resumed her aunt, colouring, 'to tell you, that
+I will not be disturbed in my own house by any letters, or visits from
+young men, who may take a fancy to flatter you. This M. de Valantine--I
+think you call him, has the impertinence to beg I will permit him to
+pay his respects to me! I shall send him a proper answer. And for you,
+Emily, I repeat it once for all--if you are not contented to conform
+to my directions, and to my way of live, I shall give up the task of
+overlooking your conduct--I shall no longer trouble myself with your
+education, but shall send you to board in a convent.'
+
+'Dear madam,' said Emily, bursting into tears, and overcome by the rude
+suspicions her aunt had expressed, 'how have I deserved these reproofs?'
+She could say no more; and so very fearful was she of acting with any
+degree of impropriety in the affair itself, that, at the present moment,
+Madame Cheron might perhaps have prevailed with her to bind herself by
+a promise to renounce Valancourt for ever. Her mind, weakened by her
+terrors, would no longer suffer her to view him as she had formerly
+done; she feared the error of her own judgment, not that of Madame
+Cheron, and feared also, that, in her former conversation with him, at
+La Vallee, she had not conducted herself with sufficient reserve. She
+knew, that she did not deserve the coarse suspicions, which her aunt had
+thrown out, but a thousand scruples rose to torment her, such as would
+never have disturbed the peace of Madame Cheron. Thus rendered anxious
+to avoid every opportunity of erring, and willing to submit to any
+restrictions, that her aunt should think proper, she expressed an
+obedience, to which Madame Cheron did not give much confidence, and
+which she seemed to consider as the consequence of either fear, or
+artifice.
+
+'Well, then,' said she, 'promise me that you will neither see this young
+man, nor write to him without my consent.' 'Dear madam,' replied Emily,
+'can you suppose I would do either, unknown to you!' 'I don't know
+what to suppose; there is no knowing how young women will act. It is
+difficult to place any confidence in them, for they have seldom sense
+enough to wish for the respect of the world.'
+
+'Alas, madam!' said Emily, 'I am anxious for my own respect; my father
+taught me the value of that; he said if I deserved my own esteem, that
+the world would follow of course.'
+
+'My brother was a good kind of a man,' replied Madame Cheron, 'but he
+did not know the world. I am sure I have always felt a proper respect
+for myself, yet--' she stopped, but she might have added, that the world
+had not always shewn respect to her, and this without impeaching its
+judgment.
+
+'Well!' resumed Madame Cheron, 'you have not give me the promise,
+though, that I demand.' Emily readily gave it, and, being then suffered
+to withdraw, she walked in the garden; tried to compose her spirits,
+and, at length, arrived at her favourite pavilion at the end of the
+terrace, where, seating herself at one of the embowered windows, that
+opened upon a balcony, the stillness and seclusion of the scene allowed
+her to recollect her thoughts, and to arrange them so as to form a
+clearer judgment of her former conduct. She endeavoured to review with
+exactness all the particulars of her conversation with Valancourt at La
+Vallee, had the satisfaction to observe nothing, that could alarm her
+delicate pride, and thus to be confirmed in the self-esteem, which was
+so necessary to her peace. Her mind then became tranquil, and she saw
+Valancourt amiable and intelligent, as he had formerly appeared, and
+Madame Cheron neither the one, or the other. The remembrance of her
+lover, however, brought with it many very painful emotions, for it by no
+means reconciled her to the thought of resigning him; and, Madame Cheron
+having already shewn how highly she disapproved of the attachment, she
+foresaw much suffering from the opposition of interests; yet with all
+this was mingled a degree of delight, which, in spite of reason, partook
+of hope. She determined, however, that no consideration should induce
+her to permit a clandestine correspondence, and to observe in her
+conversation with Valancourt, should they ever meet again, the same
+nicety of reserve, which had hitherto marked her conduct. As she
+repeated the words--'should we ever meet again!' she shrunk as if this
+was a circumstance, which had never before occurred to her, and tears
+came to her eyes, which she hastily dried, for she heard footsteps
+approaching, and then the door of the pavilion open, and, on turning,
+she saw--Valancourt. An emotion of mingled pleasure, surprise and
+apprehension pressed so suddenly upon her heart as almost to overcome
+her spirits; the colour left her cheeks, then returned brighter than
+before, and she was for a moment unable to speak, or to rise from her
+chair. His countenance was the mirror, in which she saw her own emotions
+reflected, and it roused her to self-command. The joy, which had
+animated his features, when he entered the pavilion, was suddenly
+repressed, as, approaching, he perceived her agitation, and, in a
+tremulous voice, enquired after her health. Recovered from her first
+surprise, she answered him with a tempered smile; but a variety of
+opposite emotions still assailed her heart, and struggled to subdue
+the mild dignity of her manner. It was difficult to tell which
+predominated--the joy of seeing Valancourt, or the terror of her aunt's
+displeasure, when she should hear of this meeting. After some short and
+embarrassed conversation, she led him into the gardens, and enquired if
+he had seen Madame Cheron. 'No,' said he, 'I have not yet seen her, for
+they told me she was engaged, and as soon as I learned that you were in
+the gardens, I came hither.' He paused a moment, in great agitation, and
+then added, 'May I venture to tell you the purport of my visit, without
+incurring your displeasure, and to hope, that you will not accuse me of
+precipitation in now availing myself of the permission you once gave
+me of addressing your family?' Emily, who knew not what to reply, was
+spared from further perplexity, and was sensible only of fear, when on
+raising her eyes, she saw Madame Cheron turn into the avenue. As the
+consciousness of innocence returned, this fear was so far dissipated as
+to permit her to appear tranquil, and, instead of avoiding her aunt, she
+advanced with Valancourt to meet her. The look of haughty and impatient
+displeasure, with which Madame Cheron regarded them, made Emily shrink,
+who understood from a single glance, that this meeting was believed to
+have been more than accidental: having mentioned Valancourt's name, she
+became again too much agitated to remain with them, and returned into
+the chateau; where she awaited long, in a state of trembling anxiety,
+the conclusion of the conference. She knew not how to account for
+Valancourt's visit to her aunt, before he had received the permission
+he solicited, since she was ignorant of a circumstance, which would have
+rendered the request useless, even if Madame Cheron had been inclined to
+grant it. Valancourt, in the agitation of his spirits, had forgotten to
+date his letter, so that it was impossible for Madame Cheron to return
+an answer; and, when he recollected this circumstance, he was, perhaps,
+not so sorry for the omission as glad of the excuse it allowed him for
+waiting on her before she could send a refusal.
+
+Madame Cheron had a long conversation with Valancourt, and, when she
+returned to the chateau, her countenance expressed ill-humour, but not
+the degree of severity, which Emily had apprehended. 'I have dismissed
+this young man, at last,' said she, 'and I hope my house will never
+again be disturbed with similar visits. He assures me, that your
+interview was not preconcerted.'
+
+'Dear madam!' said Emily in extreme emotion, 'you surely did not ask him
+the question!' 'Most certainly I did; you could not suppose I should be
+so imprudent as to neglect it.'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed Emily, 'what an opinion must he form of me, since
+you, Madam, could express a suspicion of such ill conduct!'
+
+'It is of very little consequence what opinion he may form of you,'
+replied her aunt, 'for I have put an end to the affair; but I believe
+he will not form a worse opinion of me for my prudent conduct. I let him
+see, that I was not to be trifled with, and that I had more delicacy,
+than to permit any clandestine correspondence to be carried on in my
+house.'
+
+Emily had frequently heard Madame Cheron use the word delicacy, but she
+was now more than usually perplexed to understand how she meant to apply
+it in this instance, in which her whole conduct appeared to merit the
+very reverse of the term.
+
+'It was very inconsiderate of my brother,' resumed Madame Cheron, 'to
+leave the trouble of overlooking your conduct to me; I wish you was well
+settled in life. But if I find, that I am to be further troubled with
+such visitors as this M. Valancourt, I shall place you in a convent at
+once;--so remember the alternative. This young man has the impertinence
+to own to me,--he owns it! that his fortune is very small, and that he
+is chiefly dependent on an elder brother and on the profession he has
+chosen! He should have concealed these circumstances, at least, if he
+expected to succeed with me. Had he the presumption to suppose I would
+marry my niece to a person such as he describes himself!'
+
+Emily dried her tears when she heard of the candid confession of
+Valancourt; and, though the circumstances it discovered were afflicting
+to her hopes, his artless conduct gave her a degree of pleasure, that
+overcame every other emotion. But she was compelled, even thus early
+in life, to observe, that good sense and noble integrity are not always
+sufficient to cope with folly and narrow cunning; and her heart was pure
+enough to allow her, even at this trying moment, to look with more pride
+on the defeat of the former, than with mortification on the conquests of
+the latter.
+
+Madame Cheron pursued her triumph. 'He has also thought proper to tell
+me, that he will receive his dismission from no person but yourself;
+this favour, however, I have absolutely refused him. He shall learn,
+that it is quite sufficient, that I disapprove him. And I take this
+opportunity of repeating,--that if you concert any means of interview
+unknown to me, you shall leave my house immediately.'
+
+'How little do you know me, madam, that you should think such an
+injunction necessary!' said Emily, trying to suppress her emotion, 'how
+little of the dear parents, who educated me!'
+
+Madame Cheron now went to dress for an engagement, which she had made
+for the evening; and Emily, who would gladly have been excused from
+attending her aunt, did not ask to remain at home lest her request
+should be attributed to an improper motive. When she retired to her own
+room, the little fortitude, which had supported her in the presence of
+her relation, forsook her; she remembered only that Valancourt, whose
+character appeared more amiable from every circumstance, that unfolded
+it, was banished from her presence, perhaps, for ever, and she passed
+the time in weeping, which, according to her aunt's direction, she ought
+to have employed in dressing. This important duty was, however, quickly
+dispatched; though, when she joined Madame Cheron at table, her eyes
+betrayed, that she had been in tears, and drew upon her a severe
+reproof.
+
+Her efforts to appear cheerful did not entirely fail when she joined the
+company at the house of Madame Clairval, an elderly widow lady, who had
+lately come to reside at Tholouse, on an estate of her late husband. She
+had lived many years at Paris in a splendid style; had naturally a gay
+temper, and, since her residence at Tholouse, had given some of the most
+magnificent entertainments, that had been seen in that neighbourhood.
+
+These excited not only the envy, but the trifling ambition of Madame
+Cheron, who, since she could not rival the splendour of her festivities,
+was desirous of being ranked in the number of her most intimate friends.
+For this purpose she paid her the most obsequious attention, and made
+a point of being disengaged, whenever she received an invitation from
+Madame Clairval, of whom she talked, wherever she went, and derived much
+self-consequence from impressing a belief on her general acquaintance,
+that they were on the most familiar footing.
+
+The entertainments of this evening consisted of a ball and supper; it
+was a fancy ball, and the company danced in groups in the gardens,
+which were very extensive. The high and luxuriant trees, under which the
+groups assembled, were illuminated with a profusion of lamps, disposed
+with taste and fancy. The gay and various dresses of the company, some
+of whom were seated on the turf, conversing at their ease, observing
+the cotillons, taking refreshments, and sometimes touching sportively a
+guitar; the gallant manners of the gentlemen, the exquisitely capricious
+air of the ladies; the light fantastic steps of their dances; the
+musicians, with the lute, the hautboy, and the tabor, seated at the foot
+of an elm, and the sylvan scenery of woods around were circumstances,
+that unitedly formed a characteristic and striking picture of French
+festivity. Emily surveyed the gaiety of the scene with a melancholy kind
+of pleasure, and her emotion may be imagined when, as she stood with her
+aunt, looking at one of the groups, she perceived Valancourt; saw him
+dancing with a young and beautiful lady, saw him conversing with her
+with a mixture of attention and familiarity, such as she had seldom
+observed in his manner. She turned hastily from the scene, and attempted
+to draw away Madame Cheron, who was conversing with Signor Cavigni,
+and neither perceived Valancourt, or was willing to be interrupted. A
+faintness suddenly came over Emily, and, unable to support herself, she
+sat down on a turf bank beneath the trees, where several other persons
+were seated. One of these, observing the extreme paleness of her
+countenance, enquired if she was ill, and begged she would allow him to
+fetch her a glass of water, for which politeness she thanked him, but
+did not accept it. Her apprehension lest Valancourt should observe her
+emotion made her anxious to overcome it, and she succeeded so far as
+to re-compose her countenance. Madame Cheron was still conversing with
+Cavigni; and the Count Bauvillers, who had addressed Emily, made some
+observations upon the scene, to which she answered almost unconsciously,
+for her mind was still occupied with the idea of Valancourt, to whom
+it was with extreme uneasiness that she remained so near. Some remarks,
+however, which the Count made upon the dance obliged her to turn her
+eyes towards it, and, at that moment, Valancourt's met hers. Her colour
+faded again, she felt, that she was relapsing into faintness, and
+instantly averted her looks, but not before she had observed the altered
+countenance of Valancourt, on perceiving her. She would have left the
+spot immediately, had she not been conscious, that this conduct would
+have shewn him more obviously the interest he held in her heart; and,
+having tried to attend to the Count's conversation, and to join in
+it, she, at length, recovered her spirits. But, when he made some
+observation on Valancourt's partner, the fear of shewing that she was
+interested in the remark, would have betrayed it to him, had not
+the Count, while he spoke, looked towards the person of whom he was
+speaking. 'The lady,' said he, 'dancing with that young Chevalier, who
+appears to be accomplished in every thing, but in dancing, is ranked
+among the beauties of Tholouse. She is handsome, and her fortune will be
+very large. I hope she will make a better choice in a partner for life
+than she has done in a partner for the dance, for I observe he has just
+put the set into great confusion; he does nothing but commit blunders. I
+am surprised, that, with his air and figure, he has not taken more care
+to accomplish himself in dancing.'
+
+Emily, whose heart trembled at every word, that was now uttered,
+endeavoured to turn the conversation from Valancourt, by enquiring
+the name of the lady, with whom he danced; but, before the Count could
+reply, the dance concluded, and Emily, perceiving that Valancourt was
+coming towards her, rose and joined Madame Cheron.
+
+'Here is the Chevalier Valancourt, madam,' said she in a whisper, 'pray
+let us go.' Her aunt immediately moved on, but not before Valancourt had
+reached them, who bowed lowly to Madame Cheron, and with an earnest and
+dejected look to Emily, with whom, notwithstanding all her effort, an
+air of more than common reserve prevailed. The presence of Madame
+Cheron prevented Valancourt from remaining, and he passed on with a
+countenance, whose melancholy reproached her for having increased it.
+Emily was called from the musing fit, into which she had fallen, by the
+Count Bauvillers, who was known to her aunt.
+
+'I have your pardon to beg, ma'amselle,' said he, 'for a rudeness, which
+you will readily believe was quite unintentional. I did not know, that
+the Chevalier was your acquaintance, when I so freely criticised his
+dancing.' Emily blushed and smiled, and Madame Cheron spared her the
+difficulty of replying. 'If you mean the person, who has just passed
+us,' said she, 'I can assure you he is no acquaintance of either mine,
+or ma'amselle St. Aubert's: I know nothing of him.'
+
+'O! that is the Chevalier Valancourt,' said Cavigni carelessly, and
+looking back. 'You know him then?' said Madame Cheron. 'I am not
+acquainted with him,' replied Cavigni. 'You don't know, then, the reason
+I have to call him impertinent;--he has had the presumption to admire my
+niece!'
+
+'If every man deserves the title of impertinent, who admires
+ma'amselle St. Aubert,' replied Cavigni, 'I fear there are a great many
+impertinents, and I am willing to acknowledge myself one of the number.'
+
+'O Signor!' said Madame Cheron, with an affected smile, 'I perceive you
+have learnt the art of complimenting, since you came into France. But it
+is cruel to compliment children, since they mistake flattery for truth.'
+
+Cavigni turned away his face for a moment, and then said with a studied
+air, 'Whom then are we to compliment, madam? for it would be absurd to
+compliment a woman of refined understanding; SHE is above all praise.'
+As he finished the sentence he gave Emily a sly look, and the smile,
+that had lurked in his eye, stole forth. She perfectly understood it,
+and blushed for Madame Cheron, who replied, 'You are perfectly right,
+signor, no woman of understanding can endure compliment.'
+
+'I have heard Signor Montoni say,' rejoined Cavigni, 'that he never knew
+but one woman who deserved it.'
+
+'Well!' exclaimed Madame Cheron, with a short laugh, and a smile of
+unutterable complacency, 'and who could she be?'
+
+'O!' replied Cavigni, 'it is impossible to mistake her, for certainly
+there is not more than one woman in the world, who has both the merit to
+deserve compliment and the wit to refuse it. Most women reverse the case
+entirely.' He looked again at Emily, who blushed deeper than before for
+her aunt, and turned from him with displeasure.
+
+'Well, signor!' said Madame Cheron, 'I protest you are a Frenchman; I
+never heard a foreigner say any thing half so gallant as that!'
+
+'True, madam,' said the Count, who had been some time silent, and with a
+low bow, 'but the gallantry of the compliment had been utterly lost, but
+for the ingenuity that discovered the application.'
+
+Madame Cheron did not perceive the meaning of this too satirical
+sentence, and she, therefore, escaped the pain, which Emily felt on
+her account. 'O! here comes Signor Montoni himself,' said her aunt, 'I
+protest I will tell him all the fine things you have been saying to me.'
+The Signor, however, passed at this moment into another walk. 'Pray, who
+is it, that has so much engaged your friend this evening?' asked Madame
+Cheron, with an air of chagrin, 'I have not seen him once.'
+
+'He had a very particular engagement with the Marquis La Riviere,'
+replied Cavigni, 'which has detained him, I perceive, till this moment,
+or he would have done himself the honour of paying his respects to you,
+madam, sooner, as he commissioned me to say. But, I know not how it
+is--your conversation is so fascinating--that it can charm even memory,
+I think, or I should certainly have delivered my friend's apology
+before.'
+
+'The apology, sir, would have been more satisfactory from himself,' said
+Madame Cheron, whose vanity was more mortified by Montoni's neglect,
+than flattered by Cavigni's compliment. Her manner, at this moment, and
+Cavigni's late conversation, now awakened a suspicion in Emily's mind,
+which, notwithstanding that some recollections served to confirm it,
+appeared preposterous. She thought she perceived, that Montoni was
+paying serious addresses to her aunt, and that she not only accepted
+them, but was jealously watchful of any appearance of neglect on his
+part.--That Madame Cheron at her years should elect a second husband was
+ridiculous, though her vanity made it not impossible; but that Montoni,
+with his discernment, his figure, and pretensions, should make a choice
+of Madame Cheron--appeared most wonderful. Her thoughts, however, did
+not dwell long on the subject; nearer interests pressed upon them;
+Valancourt, rejected of her aunt, and Valancourt dancing with a gay and
+beautiful partner, alternately tormented her mind. As she passed along
+the gardens she looked timidly forward, half fearing and half hoping
+that he might appear in the crowd; and the disappointment she felt on
+not seeing him, told her, that she had hoped more than she had feared.
+
+Montoni soon after joined the party. He muttered over some short speech
+about regret for having been so long detained elsewhere, when he knew
+he should have the pleasure of seeing Madame Cheron here; and she,
+receiving the apology with the air of a pettish girl, addressed herself
+entirely to Cavigni, who looked archly at Montoni, as if he would have
+said, 'I will not triumph over you too much; I will have the goodness to
+bear my honours meekly; but look sharp, Signor, or I shall certainly run
+away with your prize.'
+
+The supper was served in different pavilions in the gardens, as well as
+in one large saloon of the chateau, and with more of taste, than either
+of splendour, or even of plenty. Madame Cheron and her party supped with
+Madame Clairval in the saloon, and Emily, with difficulty, disguised her
+emotion, when she saw Valancourt placed at the same table with herself.
+There, Madame Cheron having surveyed him with high displeasure, said to
+some person who sat next to her, 'Pray, who IS that young man?' 'It is
+the Chevalier Valancourt,' was the answer. 'Yes, I am not ignorant
+of his name, but who is this Chevalier Valancourt that thus intrudes
+himself at this table?' The attention of the person, who whom she spoke,
+was called off before she received a second reply. The table, at which
+they sat, was very long, and, Valancourt being seated, with his partner,
+near the bottom, and Emily near the top, the distance between them may
+account for his not immediately perceiving her. She avoided looking to
+that end of the table, but whenever her eyes happened to glance towards
+it, she observed him conversing with his beautiful companion, and the
+observation did not contribute to restore her peace, any more than the
+accounts she heard of the fortune and accomplishments of this same lady.
+
+Madame Cheron, to whom these remarks were sometimes addressed, because
+they supported topics for trivial conversation, seemed indefatigable
+in her attempts to depreciate Valancourt, towards whom she felt all the
+petty resentment of a narrow pride. 'I admire the lady,' said she, 'but
+I must condemn her choice of a partner.' 'Oh, the Chevalier Valancourt
+is one of the most accomplished young men we have,' replied the lady,
+to whom this remark was addressed: 'it is whispered, that Mademoiselle
+D'Emery, and her large fortune, are to be his.'
+
+'Impossible!' exclaimed Madame Cheron, reddening with vexation, 'it is
+impossible that she can be so destitute of taste; he has so little the
+air of a person of condition, that, if I did not see him at the table
+of Madame Clairval, I should never have suspected him to be one. I have
+besides particular reasons for believing the report to be erroneous.'
+
+'I cannot doubt the truth of it,' replied the lady gravely, disgusted
+by the abrupt contradiction she had received, concerning her opinion of
+Valancourt's merit. 'You will, perhaps, doubt it,' said Madame Cheron,
+'when I assure you, that it was only this morning that I rejected his
+suit.' This was said without any intention of imposing the meaning it
+conveyed, but simply from a habit of considering herself to be the most
+important person in every affair that concerned her niece, and because
+literally she had rejected Valancourt. 'Your reasons are indeed such as
+cannot be doubted,' replied the lady, with an ironical smile. 'Any more
+than the discernment of the Chevalier Valancourt,' added Cavigni, who
+stood by the chair of Madame Cheron, and had heard her arrogate to
+herself, as he thought, a distinction which had been paid to her niece.
+'His discernment MAY be justly questioned, Signor,' said Madame Cheron,
+who was not flattered by what she understood to be an encomium on Emily.
+
+'Alas!' exclaimed Cavigni, surveying Madame Cheron with affected
+ecstasy, 'how vain is that assertion, while that face--that shape--that
+air--combine to refute it! Unhappy Valancourt! his discernment has been
+his destruction.'
+
+Emily looked surprised and embarrassed; the lady, who had lately
+spoke, astonished, and Madame Cheron, who, though she did not perfectly
+understand this speech, was very ready to believe herself complimented
+by it, said smilingly, 'O Signor! you are very gallant; but those, who
+hear you vindicate the Chevalier's discernment, will suppose that I am
+the object of it.'
+
+'They cannot doubt it,' replied Cavigni, bowing low.
+
+'And would not that be very mortifying, Signor?'
+
+'Unquestionably it would,' said Cavigni.
+
+'I cannot endure the thought,' said Madame Cheron.
+
+'It is not to be endured,' replied Cavigni.
+
+'What can be done to prevent so humiliating a mistake?' rejoined Madame
+Cheron.
+
+'Alas! I cannot assist you,' replied Cavigni, with a deliberating
+air. 'Your only chance of refuting the calumny, and of making people
+understand what you wish them to believe, is to persist in your
+first assertion; for, when they are told of the Chevalier's want of
+discernment, it is possible they may suppose he never presumed to
+distress you with his admiration.--But then again--that diffidence,
+which renders you so insensible to your own perfections--they will
+consider this, and Valancourt's taste will not be doubted, though you
+arraign it. In short, they will, in spite of your endeavours, continue
+to believe, what might very naturally have occurred to them without any
+hint of mine--that the Chevalier has taste enough to admire a beautiful
+woman.'
+
+'All this is very distressing!' said Madame Cheron, with a profound
+sigh.
+
+'May I be allowed to ask what is so distressing?' said Madame Clairval,
+who was struck with the rueful countenance and doleful accent, with
+which this was delivered.
+
+'It is a delicate subject,' replied Madame Cheron, 'a very mortifying
+one to me.' 'I am concerned to hear it,' said Madame Clairval, 'I hope
+nothing has occurred, this evening, particularly to distress you?'
+'Alas, yes! within this half hour; and I know not where the report may
+end;--my pride was never so shocked before, but I assure you the report
+is totally void of foundation.' 'Good God!' exclaimed Madame Clairval,'
+what can be done? Can you point out any way, by which I can assist, or
+console you?'
+
+'The only way, by which you can do either,' replied Madame Cheron, 'is
+to contradict the report wherever you go.'
+
+'Well! but pray inform me what I am to contradict.'
+
+'It is so very humiliating, that I know not how to mention it,'
+continued Madame Cheron, 'but you shall judge. Do you observe that
+young man seated near the bottom of the table, who is conversing with
+Mademoiselle D'Emery?' 'Yes, I perceive whom you mean.' 'You observe how
+little he has the air of a person of condition; I was saying just now,
+that I should not have thought him a gentleman, if I had not seen him
+at this table.' 'Well! but the report,' said Madame Clairval, 'let
+me understand the subject of your distress.' 'Ah! the subject of my
+distress,' replied Madame Cheron; 'this person, whom nobody knows--(I
+beg pardon, madam, I did not consider what I said)--this impertinent
+young man, having had the presumption to address my niece, has, I fear,
+given rise to a report, that he had declared himself my admirer. Now
+only consider how very mortifying such a report must be! You, I
+know, will feel for my situation. A woman of my condition!--think how
+degrading even the rumour of such an alliance must be.'
+
+'Degrading indeed, my poor friend!' said Madame Clairval. 'You may rely
+upon it I will contradict the report wherever I go;' as she said which,
+she turned her attention upon another part of the company; and Cavigni,
+who had hitherto appeared a grave spectator of the scene, now fearing
+he should be unable to smother the laugh, that convulsed him, walked
+abruptly away.
+
+'I perceive you do not know,' said the lady who sat near Madame Cheron,
+'that the gentleman you have been speaking of is Madame Clairval's
+nephew!' 'Impossible!' exclaimed Madame Cheron, who now began to
+perceive, that she had been totally mistaken in her judgment of
+Valancourt, and to praise him aloud with as much servility, as she had
+before censured him with frivolous malignity.
+
+Emily, who, during the greater part of this conversation, had been so
+absorbed in thought as to be spared the pain of hearing it, was now
+extremely surprised by her aunt's praise of Valancourt, with whose
+relationship to Madame Clairval she was unacquainted; but she was
+not sorry when Madame Cheron, who, though she now tried to appear
+unconcerned, was really much embarrassed, prepared to withdraw
+immediately after supper. Montoni then came to hand Madame Cheron to her
+carriage, and Cavigni, with an arch solemnity of countenance, followed
+with Emily, who, as she wished them good night, and drew up the glass,
+saw Valancourt among the crowd at the gates. Before the carriage drove
+off, he disappeared. Madame Cheron forbore to mention him to Emily, and,
+as soon as they reached the chateau, they separated for the night.
+
+On the following morning, as Emily sat at breakfast with her aunt, a
+letter was brought to her, of which she knew the handwriting upon the
+cover; and, as she received it with a trembling hand, Madame Cheron
+hastily enquired from whom it came. Emily, with her leave, broke the
+seal, and, observing the signature of Valancourt, gave it unread to her
+aunt, who received it with impatience; and, as she looked it over, Emily
+endeavoured to read on her countenance its contents. Having returned
+the letter to her niece, whose eyes asked if she might examine it, 'Yes,
+read it, child,' said Madame Cheron, in a manner less severe than she
+had expected, and Emily had, perhaps, never before so willingly obeyed
+her aunt. In this letter Valancourt said little of the interview of the
+preceding day, but concluded with declaring, that he would accept his
+dismission from Emily only, and with entreating, that she would allow
+him to wait upon her, on the approaching evening. When she read this,
+she was astonished at the moderation of Madame Cheron, and looked at
+her with timid expectation, as she said sorrowfully--'What am I to say,
+madam?'
+
+'Why--we must see the young man, I believe,' replied her aunt, 'and hear
+what he has further to say for himself. You may tell him he may come.'
+Emily dared scarcely credit what she heard. 'Yet, stay,' added Madame
+Cheron, 'I will tell him so myself.' She called for pen and ink; Emily
+still not daring to trust the emotions she felt, and almost sinking
+beneath them. Her surprise would have been less had she overheard,
+on the preceding evening, what Madame Cheron had not forgotten--that
+Valancourt was the nephew of Madame Clairval.
+
+What were the particulars of her aunt's note Emily did not learn, but
+the result was a visit from Valancourt in the evening, whom Madame
+Cheron received alone, and they had a long conversation before Emily
+was called down. When she entered the room, her aunt was conversing with
+complacency, and she saw the eyes of Valancourt, as he impatiently rose,
+animated with hope.
+
+'We have been talking over this affair,' said Madame Cheron, 'the
+chevalier has been telling me, that the late Monsieur Clairval was the
+brother of the Countess de Duvarney, his mother. I only wish he had
+mentioned his relationship to Madame Clairval before; I certainly should
+have considered that circumstance as a sufficient introduction to my
+house.' Valancourt bowed, and was going to address Emily, but her aunt
+prevented him. 'I have, therefore, consented that you shall receive his
+visits; and, though I will not bind myself by any promise, or say, that
+I shall consider him as my nephew, yet I shall permit the intercourse,
+and shall look forward to any further connection as an event, which may
+possibly take place in a course of years, provided the chevalier rises
+in his profession, or any circumstance occurs, which may make it prudent
+for him to take a wife. But Mons. Valancourt will observe, and you too,
+Emily, that, till that happens, I positively forbid any thoughts of
+marrying.'
+
+Emily's countenance, during this coarse speech, varied every instant,
+and, towards its conclusion, her distress had so much increased,
+that she was on the point of leaving the room. Valancourt, meanwhile,
+scarcely less embarrassed, did not dare to look at her, for whom he
+was thus distressed; but, when Madame Cheron was silent, he said,
+'Flattering, madam, as your approbation is to me--highly as I am
+honoured by it--I have yet so much to fear, that I scarcely dare to
+hope.' 'Pray, sir, explain yourself,' said Madame Cheron; an unexpected
+requisition, which embarrassed Valancourt again, and almost overcame him
+with confusion, at circumstances, on which, had he been only a spectator
+of the scene, he would have smiled.
+
+'Till I receive Mademoiselle St. Aubert's permission to accept your
+indulgence,' said he, falteringly--'till she allows me to hope--'
+
+'O! is that all?' interrupted Madame Cheron. 'Well, I will take upon me
+to answer for her. But at the same time, sir, give me leave to observe
+to you, that I am her guardian, and that I expect, in every instance,
+that my will is hers.'
+
+As she said this, she rose and quitted the room, leaving Emily and
+Valancourt in a state of mutual embarrassment; and, when Valancourt's
+hopes enabled him to overcome his fears, and to address her with the
+zeal and sincerity so natural to him, it was a considerable time
+before she was sufficiently recovered to hear with distinctness his
+solicitations and inquiries.
+
+The conduct of Madame Cheron in this affair had been entirely governed
+by selfish vanity. Valancourt, in his first interview, had with great
+candour laid open to her the true state of his present circumstances,
+and his future expectancies, and she, with more prudence than humanity,
+had absolutely and abruptly rejected his suit. She wished her niece to
+marry ambitiously, not because she desired to see her in possession of
+the happiness, which rank and wealth are usually believed to bestow, but
+because she desired to partake the importance, which such an alliance
+would give. When, therefore, she discovered that Valancourt was the
+nephew of a person of so much consequence as Madame Clairval, she became
+anxious for the connection, since the prospect it afforded of future
+fortune and distinction for Emily, promised the exaltation she coveted
+for herself. Her calculations concerning fortune in this alliance were
+guided rather by her wishes, than by any hint of Valancourt, or strong
+appearance of probability; and, when she rested her expectation on the
+wealth of Madame Clairval, she seemed totally to have forgotten, that
+the latter had a daughter. Valancourt, however, had not forgotten this
+circumstance, and the consideration of it had made him so modest in
+his expectations from Madame Clairval, that he had not even named the
+relationship in his first conversation with Madame Cheron. But, whatever
+might be the future fortune of Emily, the present distinction, which the
+connection would afford for herself, was certain, since the splendour of
+Madame Clairval's establishment was such as to excite the general envy
+and partial imitation of the neighbourhood. Thus had she consented to
+involve her niece in an engagement, to which she saw only a distant and
+uncertain conclusion, with as little consideration of her happiness,
+as when she had so precipitately forbade it: for though she herself
+possessed the means of rendering this union not only certain, but
+prudent, yet to do so was no part of her present intention.
+
+From this period Valancourt made frequent visits to Madame Cheron, and
+Emily passed in his society the happiest hours she had known since the
+death of her father. They were both too much engaged by the present
+moments to give serious consideration to the future. They loved and were
+beloved, and saw not, that the very attachment, which formed the delight
+of their present days, might possibly occasion the sufferings of years.
+Meanwhile, Madame Cheron's intercourse with Madame Clairval became
+more frequent than before, and her vanity was already gratified by
+the opportunity of proclaiming, wherever she went, the attachment that
+subsisted between their nephew and niece.
+
+Montoni was now also become a daily guest at the chateau, and Emily
+was compelled to observe, that he really was a suitor, and a favoured
+suitor, to her aunt.
+
+Thus passed the winter months, not only in peace, but in happiness,
+to Valancourt and Emily; the station of his regiment being so near
+Tholouse, as to allow this frequent intercourse. The pavilion on the
+terrace was the favourite scene of their interviews, and there Emily,
+with Madame Cheron, would work, while Valancourt read aloud works of
+genius and taste, listened to her enthusiasm, expressed his own, and
+caught new opportunities of observing, that their minds were formed to
+constitute the happiness of each other, the same taste, the same noble
+and benevolent sentiments animating each.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+  As when a shepherd of the Hebrid-Isles,
+  Placed far amid the melancholy main,
+  (Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles,
+  Or that aerial beings sometimes deign
+  To stand embodied to our senses plain)
+  Sees on the naked hill, or valley low,
+  The whilst in ocean Phoebus dips his wain,
+  A vast assembly moving to and fro,
+ Then all at once in air dissolves the wondrous show.
+     CASTLE OF INDOLENCE
+
+Madame Cheron's avarice at length yielded to her vanity. Some very
+splendid entertainments, which Madame Clairval had given, and the
+general adulation, which was paid her, made the former more anxious than
+before to secure an alliance, that would so much exalt her in her own
+opinion and in that of the world. She proposed terms for the immediate
+marriage of her niece, and offered to give Emily a dower, provided
+Madame Clairval observed equal terms, on the part of her nephew. Madame
+Clairval listened to the proposal, and, considering that Emily was the
+apparent heiress of her aunt's wealth, accepted it. Meanwhile, Emily
+knew nothing of the transaction, till Madame Cheron informed her, that
+she must make preparation for the nuptials, which would be celebrated
+without further delay; then, astonished and wholly unable to account for
+this sudden conclusion, which Valancourt had not solicited (for he was
+ignorant of what had passed between the elder ladies, and had not
+dared to hope such good fortune), she decisively objected to it. Madame
+Cheron, however, quite as jealous of contradiction now, as she had been
+formerly, contended for a speedy marriage with as much vehemence as she
+had formerly opposed whatever had the most remote possibility of leading
+to it; and Emily's scruples disappeared, when she again saw Valancourt,
+who was now informed of the happiness, designed for him, and came to
+claim a promise of it from herself.
+
+While preparations were making for these nuptials, Montoni became the
+acknowledged lover of Madame Cheron; and, though Madame Clairval was
+much displeased, when she heard of the approaching connection, and was
+willing to prevent that of Valancourt with Emily, her conscience told
+her, that she had no right thus to trifle with their peace, and Madame
+Clairval, though a woman of fashion, was far less advanced than
+her friend in the art of deriving satisfaction from distinction and
+admiration, rather than from conscience.
+
+Emily observed with concern the ascendancy, which Montoni had acquired
+over Madame Cheron, as well as the increasing frequency of his visits;
+and her own opinion of this Italian was confirmed by that of Valancourt,
+who had always expressed a dislike of him. As she was, one morning,
+sitting at work in the pavilion, enjoying the pleasant freshness of
+spring, whose colours were now spread upon the landscape, and listening
+to Valancourt, who was reading, but who often laid aside the book to
+converse, she received a summons to attend Madame Cheron immediately,
+and had scarcely entered the dressing-room, when she observed with
+surprise the dejection of her aunt's countenance, and the contrasted
+gaiety of her dress. 'So, niece!'--said Madame, and she stopped under
+some degree of embarrassment.--'I sent for you--I--I wished to see you;
+I have news to tell you. From this hour you must consider the Signor
+Montoni as your uncle--we were married this morning.'
+
+Astonished--not so much at the marriage, as at the secrecy with which
+it had been concluded, and the agitation with which it was announced,
+Emily, at length, attributed the privacy to the wish of Montoni, rather
+than of her aunt. His wife, however, intended, that the contrary should
+be believed, and therefore added, 'you see I wished to avoid a bustle;
+but now the ceremony is over I shall do so no longer; and I wish to
+announce to my servants that they must receive the Signor Montoni for
+their master.' Emily made a feeble attempt to congratulate her on these
+apparently imprudent nuptials. 'I shall now celebrate my marriage with
+some splendour,' continued Madame Montoni, 'and to save time I shall
+avail myself of the preparation that has been made for yours, which
+will, of course, be delayed a little while. Such of your wedding clothes
+as are ready I shall expect you will appear in, to do honour to this
+festival. I also wish you to inform Monsieur Valancourt, that I have
+changed my name, and he will acquaint Madame Clairval. In a few days
+I shall give a grand entertainment, at which I shall request their
+presence.'
+
+Emily was so lost in surprise and various thought, that she made Madame
+Montoni scarcely any reply, but, at her desire, she returned to inform
+Valancourt of what had passed. Surprise was not his predominant emotion
+on hearing of these hasty nuptials; and, when he learned, that they were
+to be the means of delaying his own, and that the very ornaments of the
+chateau, which had been prepared to grace the nuptial day of his Emily,
+were to be degraded to the celebration of Madame Montoni's, grief and
+indignation agitated him alternately. He could conceal neither from the
+observation of Emily, whose efforts to abstract him from these serious
+emotions, and to laugh at the apprehensive considerations, that assailed
+him, were ineffectual; and, when, at length, he took leave, there was an
+earnest tenderness in his manner, that extremely affected her; she even
+shed tears, when he disappeared at the end of the terrace, yet knew not
+exactly why she should do so.
+
+Montoni now took possession of the chateau, and the command of its
+inhabitants, with the ease of a man, who had long considered it to be
+his own. His friend Cavigni, who had been extremely serviceable,
+in having paid Madame Cheron the attention and flattery, which she
+required, but from which Montoni too often revolted, had apartments
+assigned to him, and received from the domestics an equal degree of
+obedience with the master of the mansion.
+
+Within a few days, Madame Montoni, as she had promised, gave a
+magnificent entertainment to a very numerous company, among whom was
+Valancourt; but at which Madame Clairval excused herself from attending.
+There was a concert, ball and supper. Valancourt was, of course, Emily's
+partner, and though, when he gave a look to the decorations of the
+apartments, he could not but remember, that they were designed for
+other festivities, than those they now contributed to celebrate, he
+endeavoured to check his concern by considering, that a little
+while only would elapse before they would be given to their original
+destination. During this evening, Madame Montoni danced, laughed
+and talked incessantly; while Montoni, silent, reserved and somewhat
+haughty, seemed weary of the parade, and of the frivolous company it had
+drawn together.
+
+This was the first and the last entertainment, given in celebration
+of their nuptials. Montoni, though the severity of his temper and the
+gloominess of his pride prevented him from enjoying such festivities,
+was extremely willing to promote them. It was seldom, that he could meet
+in any company a man of more address, and still seldomer one of more
+understanding, than himself; the balance of advantage in such parties,
+or in the connections, which might arise from them, must, therefore, be
+on his side; and, knowing, as he did, the selfish purposes, for which
+they are generally frequented, he had no objection to measure his
+talents of dissimulation with those of any other competitor for
+distinction and plunder. But his wife, who, when her own interest was
+immediately concerned, had sometimes more discernment than vanity,
+acquired a consciousness of her inferiority to other women, in personal
+attractions, which, uniting with the jealousy natural to the discovery,
+counteracted his readiness for mingling with all the parties Tholouse
+could afford. Till she had, as she supposed, the affections of an
+husband to lose, she had no motive for discovering the unwelcome truth,
+and it had never obtruded itself upon her; but, now that it influenced
+her policy, she opposed her husband's inclination for company, with the
+more eagerness, because she believed him to be really as well received
+in the female society of the place, as, during his addresses to her, he
+had affected to be.
+
+A few weeks only had elapsed, since the marriage, when Madame Montoni
+informed Emily, that the Signor intended to return to Italy, as soon as
+the necessary preparation could be made for so long a journey. 'We shall
+go to Venice,' said she, 'where the Signor has a fine mansion, and from
+thence to his estate in Tuscany. Why do you look so grave, child?--You,
+who are so fond of a romantic country and fine views, will doubtless be
+delighted with this journey.'
+
+'Am I then to be of the party, madam?' said Emily, with extreme surprise
+and emotion. 'Most certainly,' replied her aunt, 'how could you imagine
+we should leave you behind? But I see you are thinking of the Chevalier;
+he is not yet, I believe, informed of the journey, but he very soon
+will be so. Signor Montoni is gone to acquaint Madame Clairval of our
+journey, and to say, that the proposed connection between the families
+must from this time be thought of no more.'
+
+The unfeeling manner, in which Madame Montoni thus informed her niece,
+that she must be separated, perhaps for ever, from the man, with whom
+she was on the point of being united for life, added to the dismay,
+which she must otherwise have suffered at such intelligence. When
+she could speak, she asked the cause of the sudden change in Madame's
+sentiments towards Valancourt, but the only reply she could obtain was,
+that the Signor had forbade the connection, considering it to be greatly
+inferior to what Emily might reasonably expect.
+
+'I now leave the affair entirely to the Signor,' added Madame Montoni,
+'but I must say, that M. Valancourt never was a favourite with me, and
+I was overpersuaded, or I should not have given my consent to the
+connection. I was weak enough--I am so foolish sometimes!--to suffer
+other people's uneasiness to affect me, and so my better judgment
+yielded to your affliction. But the Signor has very properly pointed out
+the folly of this, and he shall not have to reprove me a second time. I
+am determined, that you shall submit to those, who know how to guide you
+better than yourself--I am determined, that you shall be conformable.'
+
+Emily would have been astonished at the assertions of this eloquent
+speech, had not her mind been so overwhelmed by the sudden shock it had
+received, that she scarcely heard a word of what was latterly addressed
+to her. Whatever were the weaknesses of Madame Montoni, she might have
+avoided to accuse herself with those of compassion and tenderness to the
+feelings of others, and especially to those of Emily. It was the same
+ambition, that lately prevailed upon her to solicit an alliance with
+Madame Clairval's family, which induced her to withdraw from it, now
+that her marriage with Montoni had exalted her self-consequence, and,
+with it, her views for her niece.
+
+Emily was, at this time, too much affected to employ either
+remonstrance, or entreaty on this topic; and when, at length, she
+attempted the latter, her emotion overcame her speech, and she retired
+to her apartment, to think, if in the present state of her mind to think
+was possible, upon this sudden and overwhelming subject. It was very
+long, before her spirits were sufficiently composed to permit the
+reflection, which, when it came, was dark and even terrible. She saw,
+that Montoni sought to aggrandise himself in his disposal of her, and
+it occurred, that his friend Cavigni was the person, for whom he was
+interested. The prospect of going to Italy was still rendered darker,
+when she considered the tumultuous situation of that country, then
+torn by civil commotion, where every petty state was at war with its
+neighbour, and even every castle liable to the attack of an invader.
+She considered the person, to whose immediate guidance she would
+be committed, and the vast distance, that was to separate her from
+Valancourt, and, at the recollection of him, every other image vanished
+from her mind, and every thought was again obscured by grief.
+
+In this perturbed state she passed some hours, and, when she was
+summoned to dinner, she entreated permission to remain in her own
+apartment; but Madame Montoni was alone, and the request was refused.
+Emily and her aunt said little during the repast; the one occupied
+by her griefs, the other engrossed by the disappointment, which the
+unexpected absence of Montoni occasioned; for not only was her vanity
+piqued by the neglect, but her jealousy alarmed by what she considered
+as a mysterious engagement. When the cloth was drawn and they were
+alone, Emily renewed the mention of Valancourt; but her aunt, neither
+softened to pity, or awakened to remorse, became enraged, that her will
+should be opposed, and the authority of Montoni questioned, though this
+was done by Emily with her usual gentleness, who, after a long, and
+torturing conversation, retired in tears.
+
+As she crossed the hall, a person entered it by the great door, whom, as
+her eyes hastily glanced that way, she imagined to be Montoni, and she
+was passing on with quicker steps, when she heard the well-known voice
+of Valancourt.
+
+'Emily, O! my Emily!' cried he in a tone faltering with impatience,
+while she turned, and, as he advanced, was alarmed at the expression of
+his countenance and the eager desperation of his air. 'In tears, Emily!
+I would speak with you,' said he, 'I have much to say; conduct me to
+where we may converse. But you tremble--you are ill! Let me lead you to
+a seat.'
+
+He observed the open door of an apartment, and hastily took her hand
+to lead her thither; but she attempted to withdraw it, and said, with a
+languid smile, 'I am better already; if you wish to see my aunt she
+is in the dining-parlour.' 'I must speak with YOU, my Emily,' replied
+Valancourt, 'Good God! is it already come to this? Are you indeed so
+willing to resign me?' But this is an improper place--I am overheard.
+Let me entreat your attention, if only for a few minutes.'--'When you
+have seen my aunt,' said Emily. 'I was wretched enough when I came
+hither,' exclaimed Valancourt, 'do not increase my misery by this
+coldness--this cruel refusal.'
+
+The despondency, with which he spoke this, affected her almost to tears,
+but she persisted in refusing to hear him, till he had conversed with
+Madame Montoni. 'Where is her husband, where, then, is Montoni?' said
+Valancourt, in an altered tone: 'it is he, to whom I must speak.'
+
+Emily, terrified for the consequence of the indignation, that flashed
+in his eyes, tremblingly assured him, that Montoni was not at home,
+and entreated he would endeavour to moderate his resentment. At the
+tremulous accents of her voice, his eyes softened instantly from
+wildness into tenderness. 'You are ill, Emily,' said he, 'they will
+destroy us both! Forgive me, that I dared to doubt your affection.'
+
+Emily no longer opposed him, as he led her into an adjoining parlour;
+the manner, in which he had named Montoni, had so much alarmed her
+for his own safety, that she was now only anxious to prevent the
+consequences of his just resentment. He listened to her entreaties,
+with attention, but replied to them only with looks of despondency and
+tenderness, concealing, as much as possible, the sentiments he
+felt towards Montoni, that he might soothe the apprehensions, which
+distressed her. But she saw the veil he had spread over his resentment,
+and, his assumed tranquillity only alarming her more, she urged, at
+length, the impolicy of forcing an interview with Montoni, and of
+taking any measure, which might render their separation irremediable.
+Valancourt yielded to these remonstrances, and her affecting entreaties
+drew from him a promise, that, however Montoni might persist in his
+design of disuniting them, he would not seek to redress his wrongs by
+violence. 'For my sake,' said Emily, 'let the consideration of what I
+should suffer deter you from such a mode of revenge!' 'For your sake,
+Emily,' replied Valancourt, his eyes filling with tears of tenderness
+and grief, while he gazed upon her. 'Yes--yes--I shall subdue myself.
+But, though I have given you my solemn promise to do this, do not
+expect, that I can tamely submit to the authority of Montoni; if I
+could, I should be unworthy of you. Yet, O Emily! how long may he
+condemn me to live without you,--how long may it be before you return to
+France!'
+
+Emily endeavoured to sooth him with assurances of her unalterable
+affection, and by representing, that, in little more than a year, she
+should be her own mistress, as far as related to her aunt, from whose
+guardianship her age would then release her; assurances, which gave
+little consolation to Valancourt, who considered, that she would then
+be in Italy and in the power of those, whose dominion over her would not
+cease with their rights; but he affected to be consoled by them.
+Emily, comforted by the promise she had obtained, and by his apparent
+composure, was about to leave him, when her aunt entered the room.
+She threw a glance of sharp reproof upon her niece, who immediately
+withdrew, and of haughty displeasure upon Valancourt.
+
+'This is not the conduct I should have expected from you, sir;' said
+she, 'I did not expect to see you in my house, after you had been
+informed, that your visits were no longer agreeable, much less, that
+you would seek a clandestine interview with my niece, and that she would
+grant one.'
+
+Valancourt, perceiving it necessary to vindicate Emily from such a
+design, explained, that the purpose of his own visit had been to request
+an interview with Montoni, and he then entered upon the subject of it,
+with the tempered spirit which the sex, rather than the respectability,
+of Madame Montoni, demanded.
+
+His expostulations were answered with severe rebuke; she lamented again,
+that her prudence had ever yielded to what she termed compassion, and
+added, that she was so sensible of the folly of her former consent,
+that, to prevent the possibility of a repetition, she had committed the
+affair entirely to the conduct of Signor Montoni.
+
+The feeling eloquence of Valancourt, however, at length, made her
+sensible in some measure of her unworthy conduct, and she became
+susceptible to shame, but not remorse: she hated Valancourt, who
+awakened her to this painful sensation, and, in proportion as she grew
+dissatisfied with herself, her abhorrence of him increased. This was
+also the more inveterate, because his tempered words and manner were
+such as, without accusing her, compelled her to accuse herself, and
+neither left her a hope, that the odious portrait was the caricature
+of his prejudice, or afforded her an excuse for expressing the violent
+resentment, with which she contemplated it. At length, her anger rose
+to such an height, that Valancourt was compelled to leave the house
+abruptly, lest he should forfeit his own esteem by an intemperate reply.
+He was then convinced, that from Madame Montoni he had nothing to hope,
+for what of either pity, or justice could be expected from a person, who
+could feel the pain of guilt, without the humility of repentance?
+
+To Montoni he looked with equal despondency, since it was nearly
+evident, that this plan of separation originated with him, and it was
+not probable, that he would relinquish his own views to entreaties, or
+remonstrances, which he must have foreseen and have been prepared to
+resist. Yet, remembering his promise to Emily, and more solicitous,
+concerning his love, than jealous of his consequence, Valancourt was
+careful to do nothing that might unnecessarily irritate Montoni, he
+wrote to him, therefore, not to demand an interview, but to solicit one,
+and, having done this, he endeavoured to wait with calmness his reply.
+
+Madame Clairval was passive in the affair. When she gave her approbation
+to Valancourt's marriage, it was in the belief, that Emily would be the
+heiress of Madame Montoni's fortune; and, though, upon the nuptials
+of the latter, when she perceived the fallacy of this expectation, her
+conscience had withheld her from adopting any measure to prevent the
+union, her benevolence was not sufficiently active to impel her towards
+any step, that might now promote it. She was, on the contrary, secretly
+pleased, that Valancourt was released from an engagement, which she
+considered to be as inferior, in point of fortune, to his merit, as
+his alliance was thought by Montoni to be humiliating to the beauty of
+Emily; and, though her pride was wounded by this rejection of a member
+of her family, she disdained to shew resentment otherwise, than by
+silence.
+
+Montoni, in his reply to Valancourt, said, that as an interview could
+neither remove the objections of the one, or overcome the wishes of the
+other, it would serve only to produce useless altercation between them.
+He, therefore, thought proper to refuse it.
+
+In consideration of the policy, suggested by Emily, and of his promise
+to her, Valancourt restrained the impulse, that urged him to the house
+of Montoni, to demand what had been denied to his entreaties. He only
+repeated his solicitations to see him; seconding them with all the
+arguments his situation could suggest. Thus several days passed, in
+remonstrance, on one side, and inflexible denial, on the other; for,
+whether it was fear, or shame, or the hatred, which results from both,
+that made Montoni shun the man he had injured, he was peremptory in
+his refusal, and was neither softened to pity by the agony, which
+Valancourt's letters pourtrayed, or awakened to a repentance of his
+own injustice by the strong remonstrances he employed. At length,
+Valancourt's letters were returned unopened, and then, in the first
+moments of passionate despair, he forgot every promise to Emily, except
+the solemn one, which bound him to avoid violence, and hastened to
+Montoni's chateau, determined to see him by whatever other means might
+be necessary. Montoni was denied, and Valancourt, when he afterwards
+enquired for Madame, and Ma'amselle St. Aubert, was absolutely refused
+admittance by the servants. Not choosing to submit himself to a contest
+with these, he, at length, departed, and, returning home in a state of
+mind approaching to frenzy, wrote to Emily of what had passed, expressed
+without restraint all the agony of his heart, and entreated, that, since
+he must not otherwise hope to see her immediately, she would allow him
+an interview unknown to Montoni. Soon after he had dispatched this, his
+passions becoming more temperate, he was sensible of the error he had
+committed in having given Emily a new subject of distress in the strong
+mention of his own suffering, and would have given half the world, had
+it been his, to recover the letter. Emily, however, was spared the
+pain she must have received from it by the suspicious policy of Madame
+Montoni, who had ordered, that all letters, addressed to her niece,
+should be delivered to herself, and who, after having perused this and
+indulged the expressions of resentment, which Valancourt's mention of
+Montoni provoked, had consigned it to the flames.
+
+Montoni, meanwhile, every day more impatient to leave France, gave
+repeated orders for dispatch to the servants employed in preparations
+for the journey, and to the persons, with whom he was transacting some
+particular business. He preserved a steady silence to the letters in
+which Valancourt, despairing of greater good, and having subdued the
+passion, that had transgressed against his policy, solicited only the
+indulgence of being allowed to bid Emily farewell. But, when the latter
+[Valancourt] learned, that she was really to set out in a very few days,
+and that it was designed he should see her no more, forgetting every
+consideration of prudence, he dared, in a second letter to Emily, to
+propose a clandestine marriage. This also was transmitted to Madame
+Montoni, and the last day of Emily's stay at Tholouse arrived, without
+affording Valancourt even a line to sooth his sufferings, or a hope,
+that he should be allowed a parting interview.
+
+During this period of torturing suspense to Valancourt, Emily was sunk
+into that kind of stupor, with which sudden and irremediable misfortune
+sometimes overwhelms the mind. Loving him with the tenderest affection,
+and having long been accustomed to consider him as the friend and
+companion of all her future days, she had no ideas of happiness, that
+were not connected with him. What, then, must have been her suffering,
+when thus suddenly they were to be separated, perhaps, for ever,
+certainly to be thrown into distant parts of the world, where they could
+scarcely hear of each other's existence; and all this in obedience to
+the will of a stranger, for such as Montoni, and of a person, who had
+but lately been anxious to hasten their nuptials! It was in vain, that
+she endeavoured to subdue her grief, and resign herself to an event,
+which she could not avoid. The silence of Valancourt afflicted more than
+it surprised her, since she attributed it to its just occasion; but,
+when the day, preceding that, on which she was to quit Tholouse,
+arrived, and she had heard no mention of his being permitted to take
+leave of her, grief overcame every consideration, that had made her
+reluctant to speak of him, and she enquired of Madame Montoni, whether
+this consolation had been refused. Her aunt informed her that it had,
+adding, that, after the provocation she had herself received from
+Valancourt, in their last interview, and the persecution, which the
+Signor had suffered from his letters, no entreaties should avail to
+procure it.
+
+'If the Chevalier expected this favour from us,' said she, 'he should
+have conducted himself in a very different manner; he should have waited
+patiently, till he knew whether we were disposed to grant it, and not
+have come and reproved me, because I did not think proper to bestow
+my niece upon him,--and then have persisted in troubling the Signor,
+because he did not think proper to enter into any dispute about
+so childish an affair. His behaviour throughout has been extremely
+presumptuous and impertinent, and I desire, that I may never hear his
+name repeated, and that you will get the better of those foolish sorrows
+and whims, and look like other people, and not appear with that dismal
+countenance, as if you were ready to cry. For, though you say nothing,
+you cannot conceal your grief from my penetration. I can see you are
+ready to cry at this moment, though I am reproving you for it; aye, even
+now, in spite of my commands.'
+
+Emily, having turned away to hide her tears, quitted the room to indulge
+them, and the day was passed in an intensity of anguish, such as she
+had, perhaps, never known before. When she withdrew to her chamber for
+the night, she remained in the chair where she had placed herself, on
+entering the room, absorbed in her grief, till long after every member
+of the family, except herself, was retired to rest. She could not divest
+herself of a belief, that she had parted with Valancourt to meet no
+more; a belief, which did not arise merely from foreseen circumstances,
+for, though the length of the journey she was about to commence,
+the uncertainty as to the period of her return, together with the
+prohibitions she had received, seemed to justify it, she yielded also to
+an impression, which she mistook for a pre-sentiment, that she was going
+from Valancourt for ever. How dreadful to her imagination, too, was the
+distance that would separate them--the Alps, those tremendous barriers!
+would rise, and whole countries extend between the regions where each
+must exist! To live in adjoining provinces, to live even in the same
+country, though without seeing him, was comparative happiness to the
+conviction of this dreadful length of distance.
+
+Her mind was, at length, so much agitated by the consideration of her
+state, and the belief, that she had seen Valancourt for the last time,
+that she suddenly became very faint, and, looking round the chamber for
+something, that might revive her, she observed the casements, and had
+just strength to throw one open, near which she seated herself. The air
+recalled her spirits, and the still moon-light, that fell upon the
+elms of a long avenue, fronting the window, somewhat soothed them,
+and determined her to try whether exercise and the open air would not
+relieve the intense pain that bound her temples. In the chateau all was
+still; and, passing down the great stair-case into the hall, from whence
+a passage led immediately to the garden, she softly and unheard, as she
+thought, unlocked the door, and entered the avenue. Emily passed on with
+steps now hurried, and now faltering, as, deceived by the shadows
+among the trees, she fancied she saw some person move in the distant
+perspective, and feared, that it was a spy of Madame Montoni. Her
+desire, however, to re-visit the pavilion, where she had passed so many
+happy hours with Valancourt, and had admired with him the extensive
+prospect over Languedoc and her native Gascony, overcame her
+apprehension of being observed, and she moved on towards the terrace,
+which, running along the upper garden, commanded the whole of the
+lower one, and communicated with it by a flight of marble steps, that
+terminated the avenue.
+
+Having reached these steps, she paused a moment to look round, for her
+distance from the chateau now increased the fear, which the stillness
+and obscurity of the hour had awakened. But, perceiving nothing that
+could justify it, she ascended to the terrace, where the moon-light
+shewed the long broad walk, with the pavilion at its extremity, while
+the rays silvered the foliage of the high trees and shrubs, that
+bordered it on the right, and the tufted summits of those, that rose
+to a level with the balustrade on the left, from the garden below. Her
+distance from the chateau again alarming her, she paused to listen; the
+night was so calm, that no sound could have escaped her, but she heard
+only the plaintive sweetness of the nightingale, with the light shiver
+of the leaves, and she pursued her way towards the pavilion, having
+reached which, its obscurity did not prevent the emotion, that a fuller
+view of its well-known scene would have excited. The lattices were
+thrown back, and shewed beyond their embowered arch the moon-light
+landscape, shadowy and soft; its groves, and plains extending gradually
+and indistinctly to the eye, its distant mountains catching a stronger
+gleam, and the nearer river reflecting the moon, and trembling to her
+rays.
+
+Emily, as she approached the lattice, was sensible of the features of
+this scene only as they served to bring Valancourt more immediately to
+her fancy. 'Ah!' said she, with a heavy sigh, as she threw herself
+into a chair by the window, 'how often have we sat together in this
+spot--often have looked upon that landscape! Never, never more shall we
+view it together--never--never more, perhaps, shall we look upon each
+other!'
+
+Her tears were suddenly stopped by terror--a voice spoke near her in
+the pavilion; she shrieked--it spoke again, and she distinguished the
+well-known tones of Valancourt. It was indeed Valancourt who supported
+her in his arms! For some moments their emotion would not suffer either
+to speak. 'Emily,' said Valancourt at length, as he pressed her hand in
+his. 'Emily!' and he was again silent, but the accent, in which he had
+pronounced her name, expressed all his tenderness and sorrow.
+
+'O my Emily!' he resumed, after a long pause, 'I do then see you once
+again, and hear again the sound of that voice! I have haunted this
+place--these gardens, for many--many nights, with a faint, very faint
+hope of seeing you. This was the only chance that remained to me, and
+thank heaven! it has at length succeeded--I am not condemned to absolute
+despair!'
+
+Emily said something, she scarcely knew what, expressive of her
+unalterable affection, and endeavoured to calm the agitation of
+his mind; but Valancourt could for some time only utter incoherent
+expressions of his emotions; and, when he was somewhat more composed, he
+said, 'I came hither, soon after sun-set, and have been watching in the
+gardens, and in this pavilion ever since; for, though I had now given up
+all hope of seeing you, I could not resolve to tear myself from a place
+so near to you, and should probably have lingered about the chateau till
+morning dawned. O how heavily the moments have passed, yet with what
+various emotion have they been marked, as I sometimes thought I heard
+footsteps, and fancied you were approaching, and then again--perceived
+only a dead and dreary silence! But, when you opened the door of the
+pavilion, and the darkness prevented my distinguishing with certainty,
+whether it was my love--my heart beat so strongly with hopes and fears,
+that I could not speak. The instant I heard the plaintive accents of
+your voice, my doubts vanished, but not my fears, till you spoke of
+me; then, losing the apprehension of alarming you in the excess of my
+emotion, I could no longer be silent. O Emily! these are moments, in
+which joy and grief struggle so powerfully for pre-eminence, that the
+heart can scarcely support the contest!'
+
+Emily's heart acknowledged the truth of this assertion, but the joy
+she felt on thus meeting Valancourt, at the very moment when she was
+lamenting, that they must probably meet no more, soon melted into grief,
+as reflection stole over her thoughts, and imagination prompted visions
+of the future. She struggled to recover the calm dignity of mind, which
+was necessary to support her through this last interview, and which
+Valancourt found it utterly impossible to attain, for the transports of
+his joy changed abruptly into those of suffering, and he expressed in
+the most impassioned language his horror of this separation, and his
+despair of their ever meeting again. Emily wept silently as she listened
+to him, and then, trying to command her own distress, and to sooth his,
+she suggested every circumstance that could lead to hope. But the energy
+of his fears led him instantly to detect the friendly fallacies, which
+she endeavoured to impose on herself and him, and also to conjure up
+illusions too powerful for his reason.
+
+'You are going from me,' said he, 'to a distant country, O how
+distant!--to new society, new friends, new admirers, with people too,
+who will try to make you forget me, and to promote new connections! How
+can I know this, and not know, that you will never return for me--never
+can be mine.' His voice was stifled by sighs.
+
+'You believe, then,' said Emily, 'that the pangs I suffer proceed from a
+trivial and temporary interest; you believe--'
+
+'Suffer!' interrupted Valancourt, 'suffer for me! O Emily--how
+sweet--how bitter are those words; what comfort, what anguish do they
+give! I ought not to doubt the steadiness of your affection, yet such
+is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion,
+however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object
+of its interest, and thus it is, that I always feel revived, as by a
+new conviction, when your words tell me I am dear to you; and, wanting
+these, I relapse into doubt, and too often into despondency.' Then
+seeming to recollect himself, he exclaimed, 'But what a wretch am I,
+thus to torture you, and in these moments, too! I, who ought to support
+and comfort you!'
+
+This reflection overcame Valancourt with tenderness, but, relapsing into
+despondency, he again felt only for himself, and lamented again this
+cruel separation, in a voice and words so impassioned, that Emily
+could no longer struggle to repress her own grief, or to sooth his.
+Valancourt, between these emotions of love and pity, lost the power, and
+almost the wish, of repressing his agitation; and, in the intervals of
+convulsive sobs, he, at one moment, kissed away her tears, then told
+her cruelly, that possibly she might never again weep for him, and then
+tried to speak more calmly, but only exclaimed, 'O Emily--my heart will
+break!--I cannot--cannot leave you! Now--I gaze upon that countenance,
+now I hold you in my arms! a little while, and all this will appear a
+dream. I shall look, and cannot see you; shall try to recollect your
+features--and the impression will be fled from my imagination;--to hear
+the tones of your voice, and even memory will be silent!--I cannot,
+cannot leave you! why should we confide the happiness of our whole lives
+to the will of people, who have no right to interrupt, and, except in
+giving you to me, have no power to promote it? O Emily! venture to trust
+your own heart, venture to be mine for ever!' His voice trembled, and
+he was silent; Emily continued to weep, and was silent also, when
+Valancourt proceeded to propose an immediate marriage, and that at an
+early hour on the following morning, she should quit Madame Montoni's
+house, and be conducted by him to the church of the Augustines, where a
+friar should await to unite them.
+
+The silence, with which she listened to a proposal, dictated by love and
+despair, and enforced at a moment, when it seemed scarcely possible
+for her to oppose it;--when her heart was softened by the sorrows of
+a separation, that might be eternal, and her reason obscured by the
+illusions of love and terror, encouraged him to hope, that it would not
+be rejected. 'Speak, my Emily!' said Valancourt eagerly, 'let me hear
+your voice, let me hear you confirm my fate.' she spoke not; her cheek
+was cold, and her senses seemed to fail her, but she did not faint. To
+Valancourt's terrified imagination she appeared to be dying; he called
+upon her name, rose to go to the chateau for assistance, and then,
+recollecting her situation, feared to go, or to leave her for a moment.
+
+After a few minutes, she drew a deep sigh, and began to revive. The
+conflict she had suffered, between love and the duty she at present owed
+to her father's sister; her repugnance to a clandestine marriage,
+her fear of emerging on the world with embarrassments, such as
+might ultimately involve the object of her affection in misery and
+repentance;--all this various interest was too powerful for a mind,
+already enervated by sorrow, and her reason had suffered a transient
+suspension. But duty, and good sense, however hard the conflict, at
+length, triumphed over affection and mournful presentiment; above all,
+she dreaded to involve Valancourt in obscurity and vain regret, which
+she saw, or thought she saw, must be the too certain consequence of a
+marriage in their present circumstances; and she acted, perhaps, with
+somewhat more than female fortitude, when she resolved to endure a
+present, rather than provoke a distant misfortune.
+
+With a candour, that proved how truly she esteemed and loved him,
+and which endeared her to him, if possible, more than ever, she told
+Valancourt all her reasons for rejecting his proposals. Those, which
+influenced her concerning his future welfare, he instantly refuted, or
+rather contradicted; but they awakened tender considerations for her,
+which the frenzy of passion and despair had concealed before, and love,
+which had but lately prompted him to propose a clandestine and immediate
+marriage, now induced him to renounce it. The triumph was almost too
+much for his heart; for Emily's sake, he endeavoured to stifle his
+grief, but the swelling anguish would not be restrained. 'O Emily!' said
+he, 'I must leave you--I MUST leave you, and I know it is for ever!'
+
+Convulsive sobs again interrupted his words, and they wept together in
+silence, till Emily, recollecting the danger of being discovered, and
+the impropriety of prolonging an interview, which might subject her to
+censure, summoned all her fortitude to utter a last farewell.
+
+'Stay!' said Valancourt, 'I conjure you stay, for I have much to tell
+you. The agitation of my mind has hitherto suffered me to speak only
+on the subject that occupied it;--I have forborne to mention a doubt of
+much importance, partly, lest it should appear as if I told it with
+an ungenerous view of alarming you into a compliance with my late
+proposal.'
+
+Emily, much agitated, did not leave Valancourt, but she led him from the
+pavilion, and, as they walked upon the terrace, he proceeded as follows:
+
+'This Montoni: I have heard some strange hints concerning him. Are you
+certain he is of Madame Quesnel's family, and that his fortune is what
+it appears to be?'
+
+'I have no reason to doubt either,' replied Emily, in a voice of alarm.
+'Of the first, indeed, I cannot doubt, but I have no certain means
+of judging of the latter, and I entreat you will tell me all you have
+heard.'
+
+'That I certainly will, but it is very imperfect, and unsatisfactory
+information. I gathered it by accident from an Italian, who was speaking
+to another person of this Montoni. They were talking of his marriage;
+the Italian said, that if he was the person he meant, he was not likely
+to make Madame Cheron happy. He proceeded to speak of him in general
+terms of dislike, and then gave some particular hints, concerning his
+character, that excited my curiosity, and I ventured to ask him a few
+questions. He was reserved in his replies, but, after hesitating for
+some time, he owned, that he had understood abroad, that Montoni was a
+man of desperate fortune and character. He said something of a castle
+of Montoni's, situated among the Apennines, and of some strange
+circumstances, that might be mentioned, as to his former mode of life.
+I pressed him to inform me further, but I believe the strong interest I
+felt was visible in my manner, and alarmed him; for no entreaties could
+prevail with him to give any explanation of the circumstances he had
+alluded to, or to mention any thing further concerning Montoni. I
+observed to him, that, if Montoni was possessed of a castle in the
+Apennines, it appeared from such a circumstance, that he was of some
+family, and also seemed to contradict the report, that he was a man of
+entirely broken fortunes. He shook his head, and looked as if he could
+have said a great deal, but made no reply.
+
+'A hope of learning something more satisfactory, or more positive,
+detained me in his company a considerable time, and I renewed the
+subject repeatedly, but the Italian wrapped himself up in reserve,
+said--that what he had mentioned he had caught only from a floating
+report, and that reports frequently arose from personal malice, and were
+very little to be depended upon. I forbore to press the subject farther,
+since it was obvious that he was alarmed for the consequence of what
+he had already said, and I was compelled to remain in uncertainty on a
+point where suspense is almost intolerable. Think, Emily, what I must
+suffer to see you depart for a foreign country, committed to the power
+of a man of such doubtful character as is this Montoni! But I will not
+alarm you unnecessarily;--it is possible, as the Italian said, at first,
+that this is not the Montoni he alluded to. Yet, Emily, consider well
+before you resolve to commit yourself to him. O! I must not trust
+myself to speak--or I shall renounce all the motives, which so lately
+influenced me to resign the hope of your becoming mine immediately.'
+
+Valancourt walked upon the terrace with hurried steps, while Emily
+remained leaning on the balustrade in deep thought. The information she
+had just received excited, perhaps, more alarm than it could justify,
+and raised once more the conflict of contrasted interests. She had never
+liked Montoni. The fire and keenness of his eye, its proud exultation,
+its bold fierceness, its sullen watchfulness, as occasion, and even
+slight occasion, had called forth the latent soul, she had often
+observed with emotion; while from the usual expression of his
+countenance she had always shrunk. From such observations she was the
+more inclined to believe, that it was this Montoni, of whom the Italian
+had uttered his suspicious hints. The thought of being solely in his
+power, in a foreign land, was terrifying to her, but it was not
+by terror alone that she was urged to an immediate marriage with
+Valancourt. The tenderest love had already pleaded his cause, but had
+been unable to overcome her opinion, as to her duty, her disinterested
+considerations for Valancourt, and the delicacy, which made her revolt
+from a clandestine union. It was not to be expected, that a vague terror
+would be more powerful, than the united influence of love and grief. But
+it recalled all their energy, and rendered a second conquest necessary.
+
+With Valancourt, whose imagination was now awake to the suggestion of
+every passion; whose apprehensions for Emily had acquired strength by
+the mere mention of them, and became every instant more powerful, as
+his mind brooded over them--with Valancourt no second conquest was
+attainable. He thought he saw in the clearest light, and love assisted
+the fear, that this journey to Italy would involve Emily in misery; he
+determined, therefore, to persevere in opposing it, and in conjuring her
+to bestow upon him the title of her lawful protector.
+
+'Emily!' said he, with solemn earnestness, 'this is no time for
+scrupulous distinctions, for weighing the dubious and comparatively
+trifling circumstances, that may affect our future comfort. I now see,
+much more clearly than before, the train of serious dangers you are
+going to encounter with a man of Montoni's character. Those dark
+hints of the Italian spoke much, but not more than the idea I have of
+Montoni's disposition, as exhibited even in his countenance. I think I
+see at this moment all that could have been hinted, written there. He is
+the Italian, whom I fear, and I conjure you for your own sake, as well
+as for mine, to prevent the evils I shudder to foresee. O Emily! let my
+tenderness, my arms withhold you from them--give me the right to defend
+you!'
+
+Emily only sighed, while Valancourt proceeded to remonstrate and to
+entreat with all the energy that love and apprehension could inspire.
+But, as his imagination magnified to her the possible evils she was
+going to meet, the mists of her own fancy began to dissipate, and
+allowed her to distinguish the exaggerated images, which imposed on his
+reason. She considered, that there was no proof of Montoni being the
+person, whom the stranger had meant; that, even if he was so, the
+Italian had noticed his character and broken fortunes merely from
+report; and that, though the countenance of Montoni seemed to give
+probability to a part of the rumour, it was not by such circumstances
+that an implicit belief of it could be justified. These considerations
+would probably not have arisen so distinctly to her mind, at this
+time, had not the terrors of Valancourt presented to her such obvious
+exaggerations of her danger, as incited her to distrust the fallacies of
+passion. But, while she endeavoured in the gentlest manner to convince
+him of his error, she plunged him into a new one. His voice and
+countenance changed to an expression of dark despair. 'Emily!' said
+he, 'this, this moment is the bitterest that is yet come to me. You
+do not--cannot love me!--It would be impossible for you to reason thus
+coolly, thus deliberately, if you did. I, _I_ am torn with anguish at
+the prospect of our separation, and of the evils that may await you in
+consequence of it; I would encounter any hazards to prevent it--to save
+you. No! Emily, no!--you cannot love me.'
+
+'We have now little time to waste in exclamation, or assertion,' said
+Emily, endeavouring to conceal her emotion: 'if you are yet to learn how
+dear you are, and ever must be, to my heart, no assurances of mine can
+give you conviction.'
+
+The last words faltered on her lips, and her tears flowed fast. These
+words and tears brought, once more, and with instantaneous force,
+conviction of her love to Valancourt. He could only exclaim, 'Emily!
+Emily!' and weep over the hand he pressed to his lips; but she, after
+some moments, again roused herself from the indulgence of sorrow, and
+said, 'I must leave you; it is late, and my absence from the chateau may
+be discovered. Think of me--love me--when I am far away; the belief of
+this will be my comfort!'
+
+'Think of you!--love you!' exclaimed Valancourt.
+
+'Try to moderate these transports,' said Emily, 'for my sake, try.'
+
+'For your sake!'
+
+'Yes, for my sake,' replied Emily, in a tremulous voice, 'I cannot leave
+you thus!'
+
+'Then do not leave me!' said Valancourt, with quickness. 'Why should we
+part, or part for longer than till to-morrow?'
+
+'I am, indeed I am, unequal to these moments,' replied Emily, 'you tear
+my heart, but I never can consent to this hasty, imprudent proposal!'
+
+'If we could command our time, my Emily, it should not be thus hasty; we
+must submit to circumstances.'
+
+'We must indeed! I have already told you all my heart--my spirits are
+gone. You allowed the force of my objections, till your tenderness
+called up vague terrors, which have given us both unnecessary anguish.
+Spare me! do not oblige me to repeat the reasons I have already urged.'
+
+'Spare you!' cried Valancourt, 'I am a wretch--a very wretch, that have
+felt only for myself!--I! who ought to have shewn the fortitude of a
+man, who ought to have supported you, I! have increased your sufferings
+by the conduct of a child! Forgive me, Emily! think of the distraction
+of my mind now that I am about to part with all that is dear to me--and
+forgive me! When you are gone, I shall recollect with bitter remorse
+what I have made you suffer, and shall wish in vain that I could see
+you, if only for a moment, that I might sooth your grief.'
+
+Tears again interrupted his voice, and Emily wept with him. 'I will shew
+myself more worthy of your love,' said Valancourt, at length; 'I will
+not prolong these moments. My Emily--my own Emily! never forget me! God
+knows when we shall meet again! I resign you to his care.--O God!--O
+God!--protect and bless her!'
+
+He pressed her hand to his heart. Emily sunk almost lifeless on his
+bosom, and neither wept, nor spoke. Valancourt, now commanding his own
+distress, tried to comfort and re-assure her, but she appeared totally
+unaffected by what he said, and a sigh, which she uttered, now and then,
+was all that proved she had not fainted.
+
+He supported her slowly towards the chateau, weeping and speaking to
+her; but she answered only in sighs, till, having reached the gate, that
+terminated the avenue, she seemed to have recovered her consciousness,
+and, looking round, perceived how near they were to the chateau. 'We
+must part here,' said she, stopping, 'Why prolong these moments? Teach
+me the fortitude I have forgot.'
+
+Valancourt struggled to assume a composed air. 'Farewell, my love!' said
+he, in a voice of solemn tenderness--'trust me we shall meet again--meet
+for each other--meet to part no more!' His voice faltered, but,
+recovering it, he proceeded in a firmer tone. 'You know not what I shall
+suffer, till I hear from you; I shall omit no opportunity of conveying
+to you my letters, yet I tremble to think how few may occur. And trust
+me, love, for your dear sake, I will try to bear this absence with
+fortitude. O how little I have shewn to-night!'
+
+'Farewell!' said Emily faintly. 'When you are gone, I shall think of
+many things I would have said to you.' 'And I of many--many!' said
+Valancourt; 'I never left you yet, that I did not immediately remember
+some question, or some entreaty, or some circumstance, concerning my
+love, that I earnestly wished to mention, and feel wretched because I
+could not. O Emily! this countenance, on which I now gaze--will, in a
+moment, be gone from my eyes, and not all the efforts of fancy will be
+able to recall it with exactness. O! what an infinite difference between
+this moment and the next! NOW, I am in your presence, can behold you!
+THEN, all will be a dreary blank--and I shall be a wanderer, exiled from
+my only home!'
+
+Valancourt again pressed her to his heart, and held her there in
+silence, weeping. Tears once again calmed her oppressed mind. They again
+bade each other farewell, lingered a moment, and then parted. Valancourt
+seemed to force himself from the spot; he passed hastily up the avenue,
+and Emily, as she moved slowly towards the chateau, heard his distant
+steps. She listened to the sounds, as they sunk fainter and fainter,
+till the melancholy stillness of night alone remained; and then
+hurried to her chamber, to seek repose, which, alas! was fled from her
+wretchedness.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 2
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+ Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
+ My heart untravell'd still shall turn to thee.
+     GOLDSMITH
+
+The carriages were at the gates at an early hour; the bustle of the
+domestics, passing to and fro in the galleries, awakened Emily from
+harassing slumbers: her unquiet mind had, during the night, presented
+her with terrific images and obscure circumstances, concerning her
+affection and her future life. She now endeavoured to chase away the
+impressions they had left on her fancy; but from imaginary evils she
+awoke to the consciousness of real ones. Recollecting that she had
+parted with Valancourt, perhaps for ever, her heart sickened as memory
+revived. But she tried to dismiss the dismal forebodings that crowded on
+her mind, and to restrain the sorrow which she could not subdue;
+efforts which diffused over the settled melancholy of her countenance
+an expression of tempered resignation, as a thin veil, thrown over
+the features of beauty, renders them more interesting by a partial
+concealment. But Madame Montoni observed nothing in this countenance
+except its usual paleness, which attracted her censure. She told her
+niece, that she had been indulging in fanciful sorrows, and begged she
+would have more regard for decorum, than to let the world see that she
+could not renounce an improper attachment; at which Emily's pale cheek
+became flushed with crimson, but it was the blush of pride, and she made
+no answer. Soon after, Montoni entered the breakfast room, spoke little,
+and seemed impatient to be gone.
+
+The windows of this room opened upon the garden. As Emily passed them,
+she saw the spot where she had parted with Valancourt on the preceding
+night: the remembrance pressed heavily on her heart, and she turned
+hastily away from the object that had awakened it.
+
+The baggage being at length adjusted, the travellers entered their
+carriages, and Emily would have left the chateau without one sigh of
+regret, had it not been situated in the neighbourhood of Valancourt's
+residence.
+
+From a little eminence she looked back upon Tholouse, and the far-seen
+plains of Gascony, beyond which the broken summits of the Pyrenees
+appeared on the distant horizon, lighted up by a morning sun. 'Dear
+pleasant mountains!' said she to herself, 'how long may it be ere I see
+ye again, and how much may happen to make me miserable in the interval!
+Oh, could I now be certain, that I should ever return to ye, and find
+that Valancourt still lived for me, I should go in peace! He will still
+gaze on ye, gaze when I am far away!'
+
+The trees, that impended over the high banks of the road and formed a
+line of perspective with the distant country, now threatened to exclude
+the view of them; but the blueish mountains still appeared beyond the
+dark foliage, and Emily continued to lean from the coach window, till at
+length the closing branches shut them from her sight.
+
+Another object soon caught her attention. She had scarcely looked at
+a person who walked along the bank, with his hat, in which was the
+military feather, drawn over his eyes, before, at the sound of wheels,
+he suddenly turned, and she perceived that it was Valancourt himself,
+who waved his hand, sprung into the road, and through the window of the
+carriage put a letter into her hand. He endeavoured to smile through
+the despair that overspread his countenance as she passed on. The
+remembrance of that smile seemed impressed on Emily's mind for ever.
+She leaned from the window, and saw him on a knoll of the broken bank,
+leaning against the high trees that waved over him, and pursuing the
+carriage with his eyes. He waved his hand, and she continued to gaze
+till distance confused his figure, and at length another turn of the
+road entirely separated him from her sight.
+
+Having stopped to take up Signor Cavigni at a chateau on the road,
+the travellers, of whom Emily was disrespectfully seated with Madame
+Montoni's woman in a second carriage, pursued their way over the plains
+of Languedoc. The presence of this servant restrained Emily from reading
+Valancourt's letter, for she did not choose to expose the emotions it
+might occasion to the observation of any person. Yet such was her wish
+to read this his last communication, that her trembling hand was every
+moment on the point of breaking the seal.
+
+At length they reached the village, where they staid only to change
+horses, without alighting, and it was not till they stopped to dine,
+that Emily had an opportunity of reading the letter. Though she had
+never doubted the sincerity of Valancourt's affection, the fresh
+assurances she now received of it revived her spirits; she wept over his
+letter in tenderness, laid it by to be referred to when they should be
+particularly depressed, and then thought of him with much less anguish
+than she had done since they parted. Among some other requests, which
+were interesting to her, because expressive of his tenderness, and
+because a compliance with them seemed to annihilate for a while the pain
+of absence, he entreated she would always think of him at sunset. 'You
+will then meet me in thought,' said he; 'I shall constantly watch the
+sun-set, and I shall be happy in the belief, that your eyes are fixed
+upon the same object with mine, and that our minds are conversing. You
+know not, Emily, the comfort I promise myself from these moments; but I
+trust you will experience it.'
+
+It is unnecessary to say with what emotion Emily, on this evening,
+watched the declining sun, over a long extent of plains, on which she
+saw it set without interruption, and sink towards the province which
+Valancourt inhabited. After this hour her mind became far more tranquil
+and resigned, than it had been since the marriage of Montoni and her
+aunt.
+
+During several days the travellers journeyed over the plains of
+Languedoc; and then entering Dauphiny, and winding for some time among
+the mountains of that romantic province, they quitted their carriages
+and began to ascend the Alps. And here such scenes of sublimity opened
+upon them as no colours of language must dare to paint! Emily's mind was
+even so much engaged with new and wonderful images, that they sometimes
+banished the idea of Valancourt, though they more frequently revived
+it. These brought to her recollection the prospects among the Pyrenees,
+which they had admired together, and had believed nothing could excel
+in grandeur. How often did she wish to express to him the new emotions
+which this astonishing scenery awakened, and that he could partake
+of them! Sometimes too she endeavoured to anticipate his remarks, and
+almost imagined him present. She seemed to have arisen into another
+world, and to have left every trifling thought, every trifling
+sentiment, in that below; those only of grandeur and sublimity now
+dilated her mind, and elevated the affections of her heart.
+
+With what emotions of sublimity, softened by tenderness, did she meet
+Valancourt in thought, at the customary hour of sun-set, when, wandering
+among the Alps, she watched the glorious orb sink amid their summits,
+his last tints die away on their snowy points, and a solemn obscurity
+steal over the scene! And when the last gleam had faded, she turned
+her eyes from the west with somewhat of the melancholy regret that is
+experienced after the departure of a beloved friend; while these lonely
+feelings were heightened by the spreading gloom, and by the low sounds,
+heard only when darkness confines attention, which make the general
+stillness more impressive--leaves shook by the air, the last sigh of the
+breeze that lingers after sun-set, or the murmur of distant streams.
+
+During the first days of this journey among the Alps, the scenery
+exhibited a wonderful mixture of solitude and inhabitation, of
+cultivation and barrenness. On the edge of tremendous precipices, and
+within the hollow of the cliffs, below which the clouds often floated,
+were seen villages, spires, and convent towers; while green pastures
+and vineyards spread their hues at the feet of perpendicular rocks
+of marble, or of granite, whose points, tufted with alpine shrubs, or
+exhibiting only massy crags, rose above each other, till they terminated
+in the snow-topt mountain, whence the torrent fell, that thundered along
+the valley.
+
+The snow was not yet melted on the summit of Mount Cenis, over which
+the travellers passed; but Emily, as she looked upon its clear lake and
+extended plain, surrounded by broken cliffs, saw, in imagination, the
+verdant beauty it would exhibit when the snows should be gone, and the
+shepherds, leading up the midsummer flocks from Piedmont, to pasture on
+its flowery summit, should add Arcadian figures to Arcadian landscape.
+
+As she descended on the Italian side, the precipices became still more
+tremendous, and the prospects still more wild and majestic, over which
+the shifting lights threw all the pomp of colouring. Emily delighted to
+observe the snowy tops of the mountains under the passing influence of
+the day, blushing with morning, glowing with the brightness of noon, or
+just tinted with the purple evening. The haunt of man could now only be
+discovered by the simple hut of the shepherd and the hunter, or by the
+rough pine bridge thrown across the torrent, to assist the latter in his
+chase of the chamois over crags where, but for this vestige of man, it
+would have been believed only the chamois or the wolf dared to venture.
+As Emily gazed upon one of these perilous bridges, with the cataract
+foaming beneath it, some images came to her mind, which she afterwards
+combined in the following
+
+     STORIED SONNET
+
+ The weary traveller, who, all night long,
+ Has climb'd among the Alps' tremendous steeps,
+ Skirting the pathless precipice, where throng
+ Wild forms of danger; as he onward creeps
+ If, chance, his anxious eye at distance sees
+ The mountain-shepherd's solitary home,
+ Peeping from forth the moon-illumin'd trees,
+ What sudden transports to his bosom come!
+ But, if between some hideous chasm yawn,
+ Where the cleft pine a doubtful bridge displays,
+ In dreadful silence, on the brink, forlorn
+ He stands, and views in the faint rays
+ Far, far below, the torrent's rising surge,
+ And listens to the wild impetuous roar;
+ Still eyes the depth, still shudders on the verge,
+ Fears to return, nor dares to venture o'er.
+ Desperate, at length the tottering plank he tries,
+ His weak steps slide, he shrieks, he sinks--he dies!
+
+Emily, often as she travelled among the clouds, watched in silent awe
+their billowy surges rolling below; sometimes, wholly closing upon the
+scene, they appeared like a world of chaos, and, at others, spreading
+thinly, they opened and admitted partial catches of the landscape--the
+torrent, whose astounding roar had never failed, tumbling down the rocky
+chasm, huge cliffs white with snow, or the dark summits of the pine
+forests, that stretched mid-way down the mountains. But who may describe
+her rapture, when, having passed through a sea of vapour, she caught
+a first view of Italy; when, from the ridge of one of those tremendous
+precipices that hang upon Mount Cenis and guard the entrance of that
+enchanting country, she looked down through the lower clouds, and, as
+they floated away, saw the grassy vales of Piedmont at her feet, and,
+beyond, the plains of Lombardy extending to the farthest distance, at
+which appeared, on the faint horizon, the doubtful towers of Turin?
+
+The solitary grandeur of the objects that immediately surrounded her,
+the mountain-region towering above, the deep precipices that fell
+beneath, the waving blackness of the forests of pine and oak, which
+skirted their feet, or hung within their recesses, the headlong torrents
+that, dashing among their cliffs, sometimes appeared like a cloud of
+mist, at others like a sheet of ice--these were features which received
+a higher character of sublimity from the reposing beauty of the Italian
+landscape below, stretching to the wide horizon, where the same melting
+blue tint seemed to unite earth and sky.
+
+Madame Montoni only shuddered as she looked down precipices near whose
+edge the chairmen trotted lightly and swiftly, almost, as the chamois
+bounded, and from which Emily too recoiled; but with her fears were
+mingled such various emotions of delight, such admiration, astonishment,
+and awe, as she had never experienced before.
+
+Meanwhile the carriers, having come to a landing-place, stopped to rest,
+and the travellers being seated on the point of a cliff, Montoni and
+Cavigni renewed a dispute concerning Hannibal's passage over the Alps,
+Montoni contending that he entered Italy by way of Mount Cenis, and
+Cavigni, that he passed over Mount St. Bernard. The subject brought
+to Emily's imagination the disasters he had suffered in this bold and
+perilous adventure. She saw his vast armies winding among the defiles,
+and over the tremendous cliffs of the mountains, which at night were
+lighted up by his fires, or by the torches which he caused to be carried
+when he pursued his indefatigable march. In the eye of fancy, she
+perceived the gleam of arms through the duskiness of night, the glitter
+of spears and helmets, and the banners floating dimly on the twilight;
+while now and then the blast of a distant trumpet echoed along the
+defile, and the signal was answered by a momentary clash of arms. She
+looked with horror upon the mountaineers, perched on the higher cliffs,
+assailing the troops below with broken fragments of the mountain; on
+soldiers and elephants tumbling headlong down the lower precipices; and,
+as she listened to the rebounding rocks, that followed their fall,
+the terrors of fancy yielded to those of reality, and she shuddered to
+behold herself on the dizzy height, whence she had pictured the descent
+of others.
+
+Madame Montoni, meantime, as she looked upon Italy, was contemplating in
+imagination the splendour of palaces and the grandeur of castles, such
+as she believed she was going to be mistress of at Venice and in the
+Apennine, and she became, in idea, little less than a princess. Being
+no longer under the alarms which had deterred her from giving
+entertainments to the beauties of Tholouse, whom Montoni had mentioned
+with more eclat to his own vanity than credit to their discretion, or
+regard to truth, she determined to give concerts, though she had neither
+ear nor taste for music; conversazioni, though she had no talents for
+conversation; and to outvie, if possible, in the gaieties of her parties
+and the magnificence of her liveries, all the noblesse of Venice. This
+blissful reverie was somewhat obscured, when she recollected the Signor,
+her husband, who, though he was not averse to the profit which sometimes
+results from such parties, had always shewn a contempt of the frivolous
+parade that sometimes attends them; till she considered that his pride
+might be gratified by displaying, among his own friends, in his native
+city, the wealth which he had neglected in France; and she courted again
+the splendid illusions that had charmed her before.
+
+The travellers, as they descended, gradually, exchanged the region of
+winter for the genial warmth and beauty of spring. The sky began to
+assume that serene and beautiful tint peculiar to the climate of Italy;
+patches of young verdure, fragrant shrubs and flowers looked gaily among
+the rocks, often fringing their rugged brows, or hanging in tufts
+from their broken sides; and the buds of the oak and mountain ash were
+expanding into foliage. Descending lower, the orange and the myrtle,
+every now and then, appeared in some sunny nook, with their yellow
+blossoms peeping from among the dark green of their leaves, and mingling
+with the scarlet flowers of the pomegranate and the paler ones of the
+arbutus, that ran mantling to the crags above; while, lower still,
+spread the pastures of Piedmont, where early flocks were cropping the
+luxuriant herbage of spring.
+
+The river Doria, which, rising on the summit of Mount Cenis, had dashed
+for many leagues over the precipices that bordered the road, now began
+to assume a less impetuous, though scarcely less romantic character, as
+it approached the green vallies of Piedmont, into which the travellers
+descended with the evening sun; and Emily found herself once more amid
+the tranquil beauty of pastoral scenery; among flocks and herds, and
+slopes tufted with woods of lively verdure and with beautiful shrubs,
+such as she had often seen waving luxuriantly over the alps above. The
+verdure of the pasturage, now varied with the hues of early flowers,
+among which were yellow ranunculuses and pansey violets of delicious
+fragrance, she had never seen excelled.--Emily almost wished to become
+a peasant of Piedmont, to inhabit one of the pleasant embowered cottages
+which she saw peeping beneath the cliffs, and to pass her careless hours
+among these romantic landscapes. To the hours, the months, she was to
+pass under the dominion of Montoni, she looked with apprehension; while
+those which were departed she remembered with regret and sorrow.
+
+In the present scenes her fancy often gave her the figure of Valancourt,
+whom she saw on a point of the cliffs, gazing with awe and admiration
+on the imagery around him; or wandering pensively along the vale
+below, frequently pausing to look back upon the scenery, and then,
+his countenance glowing with the poet's fire, pursuing his way to some
+overhanging heights. When she again considered the time and the distance
+that were to separate them, that every step she now took lengthened this
+distance, her heart sunk, and the surrounding landscape charmed her no
+more.
+
+The travellers, passing Novalesa, reached, after the evening had closed,
+the small and antient town of Susa, which had formerly guarded this pass
+of the Alps into Piedmont. The heights which command it had, since the
+invention of artillery, rendered its fortifications useless; but these
+romantic heights, seen by moon-light, with the town below, surrounded
+by its walls and watchtowers, and partially illumined, exhibited an
+interesting picture to Emily. Here they rested for the night at an inn,
+which had little accommodation to boast of; but the travellers brought
+with them the hunger that gives delicious flavour to the coarsest
+viands, and the weariness that ensures repose; and here Emily first
+caught a strain of Italian music, on Italian ground. As she sat after
+supper at a little window, that opened upon the country, observing an
+effect of the moon-light on the broken surface of the mountains, and
+remembering that on such a night as this she once had sat with her
+father and Valancourt, resting upon a cliff of the Pyrenees, she heard
+from below the long-drawn notes of a violin, of such tone and delicacy
+of expression, as harmonized exactly with the tender emotions she was
+indulging, and both charmed and surprised her. Cavigni, who approached
+the window, smiled at her surprise. 'This is nothing extraordinary,'
+said he, 'you will hear the same, perhaps, at every inn on our way. It
+is one of our landlord's family who plays, I doubt not,' Emily, as she
+listened, thought he could be scarcely less than a professor of music
+whom she heard; and the sweet and plaintive strains soon lulled her into
+a reverie, from which she was very unwillingly roused by the raillery
+of Cavigni, and by the voice of Montoni, who gave orders to a servant to
+have the carriages ready at an early hour on the following morning; and
+added, that he meant to dine at Turin.
+
+Madame Montoni was exceedingly rejoiced to be once more on level ground;
+and, after giving a long detail of the various terrors she had suffered,
+which she forgot that she was describing to the companions of her
+dangers, she added a hope, that she should soon be beyond the view of
+these horrid mountains, 'which all the world,' said she, 'should not
+tempt me to cross again.' Complaining of fatigue she soon retired to
+rest, and Emily withdrew to her own room, when she understood from
+Annette, her aunt's woman, that Cavigni was nearly right in his
+conjecture concerning the musician, who had awakened the violin with
+so much taste, for that he was the son of a peasant inhabiting the
+neighbouring valley. 'He is going to the Carnival at Venice,' added
+Annette, 'for they say he has a fine hand at playing, and will get a
+world of money; and the Carnival is just going to begin: but for my
+part, I should like to live among these pleasant woods and hills, better
+than in a town; and they say Ma'moiselle, we shall see no woods, or
+hills, or fields, at Venice, for that it is built in the very middle of
+the sea.'
+
+Emily agreed with the talkative Annette, that this young man was making
+a change for the worse, and could not forbear silently lamenting, that
+he should be drawn from the innocence and beauty of these scenes, to the
+corrupt ones of that voluptuous city.
+
+When she was alone, unable to sleep, the landscapes of her native home,
+with Valancourt, and the circumstances of her departure, haunted her
+fancy; she drew pictures of social happiness amidst the grand simplicity
+of nature, such as she feared she had bade farewel to for ever; and
+then, the idea of this young Piedmontese, thus ignorantly sporting with
+his happiness, returned to her thoughts, and, glad to escape awhile from
+the pressure of nearer interests, she indulged her fancy in composing
+the following lines.
+
+     THE PIEDMONTESE
+
+ Ah, merry swain, who laugh'd along the vales,
+ And with your gay pipe made the mountains ring,
+ Why leave your cot, your woods, and thymy gales,
+ And friends belov'd, for aught that wealth can bring?
+ He goes to wake o'er moon-light seas the string,
+ Venetian gold his untaught fancy hails!
+ Yet oft of home his simple carols sing,
+ And his steps pause, as the last Alp he scales.
+ Once more he turns to view his native scene--
+ Far, far below, as roll the clouds away,
+ He spies his cabin 'mid the pine-tops green,
+ The well-known woods, clear brook, and pastures gay;
+ And thinks of friends and parents left behind,
+ Of sylvan revels, dance, and festive song;
+ And hears the faint reed swelling in the wind;
+ And his sad sighs the distant notes prolong!
+ Thus went the swain, till mountain-shadows fell,
+ And dimm'd the landscape to his aching sight;
+ And must he leave the vales he loves so well!
+ Can foreign wealth, and shows, his heart delight?
+ No, happy vales! your wild rocks still shall hear
+ His pipe, light sounding on the morning breeze;
+ Still shall he lead the flocks to streamlet clear,
+ And watch at eve beneath the western trees.
+ Away, Venetian gold--your charm is o'er!
+ And now his swift step seeks the lowland bow'rs,
+ Where, through the leaves, his cottage light ONCE MORE
+ Guides him to happy friends, and jocund hours.
+ Ah, merry swain! that laugh along the vales,
+ And with your gay pipe make the mountains ring,
+ Your cot, your woods, your thymy-scented gales--
+ And friends belov'd--more joy than wealth can bring!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+ TITANIA.  If you will patiently dance in our round,
+  And see our moon-light revels, go with us.
+     MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
+
+Early on the following morning, the travellers set out for Turin.
+The luxuriant plain, that extends from the feet of the Alps to that
+magnificent city, was not then, as now, shaded by an avenue of trees
+nine miles in length; but plantations of olives, mulberry and palms,
+festooned with vines, mingled with the pastoral scenery, through with
+the rapid Po, after its descent from the mountains, wandered to meet
+the humble Doria at Turin. As they advanced towards this city, the Alps,
+seen at some distance, began to appear in all their awful sublimity;
+chain rising over chain in long succession, their higher points darkened
+by the hovering clouds, sometimes hid, and at others seen shooting up
+far above them; while their lower steeps, broken into fantastic forms,
+were touched with blue and purplish tints, which, as they changed in
+light and shade, seemed to open new scenes to the eye. To the east
+stretched the plains of Lombardy, with the towers of Turin rising at a
+distance; and beyond, the Apennines, bounding the horizon.
+
+The general magnificence of that city, with its vistas of churches and
+palaces, branching from the grand square, each opening to a landscape of
+the distant Alps or Apennines, was not only such as Emily had never seen
+in France, but such as she had never imagined.
+
+Montoni, who had been often at Turin, and cared little about views of
+any kind, did not comply with his wife's request, that they might survey
+some of the palaces; but staying only till the necessary refreshments
+could be obtained, they set forward for Venice with all possible
+rapidity. Montoni's manner, during this journey, was grave, and even
+haughty; and towards Madame Montoni he was more especially reserved; but
+it was not the reserve of respect so much as of pride and discontent.
+Of Emily he took little notice. With Cavigni his conversations were
+commonly on political or military topics, such as the convulsed state
+of their country rendered at this time particularly interesting, Emily
+observed, that, at the mention of any daring exploit, Montoni's eyes
+lost their sullenness, and seemed instantaneously to gleam with fire;
+yet they still retained somewhat of a lurking cunning, and she sometimes
+thought that their fire partook more of the glare of malice than the
+brightness of valour, though the latter would well have harmonized with
+the high chivalric air of his figure, in which Cavigni, with all his gay
+and gallant manners, was his inferior.
+
+On entering the Milanese, the gentlemen exchanged their French hats for
+the Italian cap of scarlet cloth, embroidered; and Emily was somewhat
+surprised to observe, that Montoni added to his the military plume,
+while Cavigni retained only the feather: which was usually worn with
+such caps: but she at length concluded, that Montoni assumed this ensign
+of a soldier for convenience, as a means of passing with more safety
+through a country over-run with parties of the military.
+
+Over the beautiful plains of this country the devastations of war
+were frequently visible. Where the lands had not been suffered to lie
+uncultivated, they were often tracked with the steps of the spoiler;
+the vines were torn down from the branches that had supported them, the
+olives trampled upon the ground, and even the groves of mulberry trees
+had been hewn by the enemy to light fires that destroyed the hamlets and
+villages of their owners. Emily turned her eyes with a sigh from
+these painful vestiges of contention, to the Alps of the Grison, that
+overlooked them to the north, whose awful solitudes seemed to offer to
+persecuted man a secure asylum.
+
+The travellers frequently distinguished troops of soldiers moving at
+a distance; and they experienced, at the little inns on the road, the
+scarcity of provision and other inconveniences, which are a part of
+the consequence of intestine war; but they had never reason to be much
+alarmed for their immediate safety, and they passed on to Milan with
+little interruption of any kind, where they staid not to survey the
+grandeur of the city, or even to view its vast cathedral, which was then
+building.
+
+Beyond Milan, the country wore the aspect of a ruder devastation; and
+though every thing seemed now quiet, the repose was like that of
+death, spread over features, which retain the impression of the last
+convulsions.
+
+It was not till they had passed the eastern limits of the Milanese, that
+the travellers saw any troops since they had left Milan, when, as the
+evening was drawing to a close, they descried what appeared to be an
+army winding onward along the distant plains, whose spears and other
+arms caught the last rays of the sun. As the column advanced through
+a part of the road, contracted between two hillocks, some of the
+commanders, on horseback, were distinguished on a small eminence,
+pointing and making signals for the march; while several of the officers
+were riding along the line directing its progress, according to the
+signs communicated by those above; and others, separating from the
+vanguard, which had emerged from the pass, were riding carelessly along
+the plains at some distance to the right of the army.
+
+As they drew nearer, Montoni, distinguishing the feathers that waved
+in their caps, and the banners and liveries of the bands that followed
+them, thought he knew this to be the small army commanded by the famous
+captain Utaldo, with whom, as well as with some of the other chiefs, he
+was personally acquainted. He, therefore, gave orders that the carriages
+should draw up by the side of the road, to await their arrival, and
+give them the pass. A faint strain of martial music now stole by, and,
+gradually strengthening as the troops approached, Emily distinguished
+the drums and trumpets, with the clash of cymbals and of arms, that were
+struck by a small party, in time to the march.
+
+Montoni being now certain that these were the bands of the victorious
+Utaldo, leaned from the carriage window, and hailed their general
+by waving his cap in the air; which compliment the chief returned by
+raising his spear, and then letting it down again suddenly, while some
+of his officers, who were riding at a distance from the troops, came up
+to the carriage, and saluted Montoni as an old acquaintance. The captain
+himself soon after arriving, his bands halted while he conversed with
+Montoni, whom he appeared much rejoiced to see; and from what he said,
+Emily understood that this was a victorious army, returning into their
+own principality; while the numerous waggons, that accompanied them,
+contained the rich spoils of the enemy, their own wounded soldiers, and
+the prisoners they had taken in battle, who were to be ransomed when
+the peace, then negociating between the neighbouring states, should be
+ratified. The chiefs on the following day were to separate, and each,
+taking his share of the spoil, was to return with his own band to his
+castle. This was therefore to be an evening of uncommon and general
+festivity, in commemoration of the victory they had accomplished
+together, and of the farewell which the commanders were about to take of
+each other.
+
+Emily, as these officers conversed with Montoni, observed with
+admiration, tinctured with awe, their high martial air, mingled with
+the haughtiness of the nobless of those days, and heightened by the
+gallantry of their dress, by the plumes towering on their caps, the
+armorial coat, Persian sash, and ancient Spanish cloak. Utaldo, telling
+Montoni that his army were going to encamp for the night near a village
+at only a few miles distance, invited him to turn back and partake
+of their festivity, assuring the ladies also, that they should be
+pleasantly accommodated; but Montoni excused himself, adding, that
+it was his design to reach Verona that evening; and, after some
+conversation concerning the state of the country towards that city, they
+parted.
+
+The travellers proceeded without any interruption; but it was some hours
+after sun-set before they arrived at Verona, whose beautiful environs
+were therefore not seen by Emily till the following morning; when,
+leaving that pleasant town at an early hour, they set off for Padua,
+where they embarked on the Brenta for Venice. Here the scene was
+entirely changed; no vestiges of war, such as had deformed the plains of
+the Milanese, appeared; on the contrary, all was peace and elegance. The
+verdant banks of the Brenta exhibited a continued landscape of beauty,
+gaiety, and splendour. Emily gazed with admiration on the villas of the
+Venetian noblesse, with their cool porticos and colonnades, overhung
+with poplars and cypresses of majestic height and lively verdure; on
+their rich orangeries, whose blossoms perfumed the air, and on the
+luxuriant willows, that dipped their light leaves in the wave, and
+sheltered from the sun the gay parties whose music came at intervals on
+the breeze. The Carnival did, indeed, appear to extend from Venice along
+the whole line of these enchanting shores; the river was gay with boats
+passing to that city, exhibiting the fantastic diversity of a masquerade
+in the dresses of the people within them; and, towards evening, groups
+of dancers frequently were seen beneath the trees.
+
+Cavigni, meanwhile, informed her of the names of the noblemen to whom
+the several villas they passed belonged, adding light sketches of their
+characters, such as served to amuse rather than to inform, exhibiting
+his own wit instead of the delineation of truth. Emily was sometimes
+diverted by his conversation; but his gaiety did not entertain Madame
+Montoni, as it had formerly done; she was frequently grave, and Montoni
+retained his usual reserve.
+
+Nothing could exceed Emily's admiration on her first view of Venice,
+with its islets, palaces, and towers rising out of the sea, whose clear
+surface reflected the tremulous picture in all its colours. The sun,
+sinking in the west, tinted the waves and the lofty mountains of Friuli,
+which skirt the northern shores of the Adriatic, with a saffron glow,
+while on the marble porticos and colonnades of St. Mark were thrown
+the rich lights and shades of evening. As they glided on, the grander
+features of this city appeared more distinctly: its terraces, crowned
+with airy yet majestic fabrics, touched, as they now were, with the
+splendour of the setting sun, appeared as if they had been called up
+from the ocean by the wand of an enchanter, rather than reared by mortal
+hands.
+
+The sun, soon after, sinking to the lower world, the shadow of the earth
+stole gradually over the waves, and then up the towering sides of the
+mountains of Friuli, till it extinguished even the last upward beams
+that had lingered on their summits, and the melancholy purple of evening
+drew over them, like a thin veil. How deep, how beautiful was the
+tranquillity that wrapped the scene! All nature seemed to repose; the
+finest emotions of the soul were alone awake. Emily's eyes filled with
+tears of admiration and sublime devotion, as she raised them over the
+sleeping world to the vast heavens, and heard the notes of solemn
+music, that stole over the waters from a distance. She listened in still
+rapture, and no person of the party broke the charm by an enquiry. The
+sounds seemed to grow on the air; for so smoothly did the barge glide
+along, that its motion was not perceivable, and the fairy city appeared
+approaching to welcome the strangers. They now distinguished a female
+voice, accompanied by a few instruments, singing a soft and mournful
+air; and its fine expression, as sometimes it seemed pleading with the
+impassioned tenderness of love, and then languishing into the cadence
+of hopeless grief, declared, that it flowed from no feigned sensibility.
+Ah! thought Emily, as she sighed and remembered Valancourt, those
+strains come from the heart!
+
+She looked round, with anxious enquiry; the deep twilight, that had
+fallen over the scene, admitted only imperfect images to the eye, but,
+at some distance on the sea, she thought she perceived a gondola: a
+chorus of voices and instruments now swelled on the air--so sweet, so
+solemn! it seemed like the hymn of angels descending through the silence
+of night! Now it died away, and fancy almost beheld the holy choir
+reascending towards heaven; then again it swelled with the breeze,
+trembled awhile, and again died into silence. It brought to Emily's
+recollection some lines of her late father, and she repeated in a low
+voice,
+
+     Oft I hear,
+ Upon the silence of the midnight air,
+ Celestial voices swell in holy chorus
+ That bears the soul to heaven!
+
+The deep stillness, that succeeded, was as expressive as the strain
+that had just ceased. It was uninterrupted for several minutes, till
+a general sigh seemed to release the company from their enchantment.
+Emily, however, long indulged the pleasing sadness, that had stolen
+upon her spirits; but the gay and busy scene that appeared, as the barge
+approached St. Mark's Place, at length roused her attention. The rising
+moon, which threw a shadowy light upon the terraces, and illumined
+the porticos and magnificent arcades that crowned them, discovered the
+various company, whose light steps, soft guitars, and softer voices,
+echoed through the colonnades.
+
+The music they heard before now passed Montoni's barge, in one of the
+gondolas, of which several were seen skimming along the moon-light sea,
+full of gay parties, catching the cool breeze. Most of these had music,
+made sweeter by the waves over which it floated, and by the measured
+sound of oars, as they dashed the sparkling tide. Emily gazed, and
+listened, and thought herself in a fairy scene; even Madame Montoni was
+pleased; Montoni congratulated himself on his return to Venice, which
+he called the first city in the world, and Cavigni was more gay and
+animated than ever.
+
+The barge passed on to the grand canal, where Montoni's mansion was
+situated. And here, other forms of beauty and of grandeur, such as her
+imagination had never painted, were unfolded to Emily in the palaces of
+Sansovino and Palladio, as she glided along the waves. The air bore no
+sounds, but those of sweetness, echoing along each margin of the canal,
+and from gondolas on its surface, while groups of masks were seen
+dancing on the moon-light terraces, and seemed almost to realize the
+romance of fairyland.
+
+The barge stopped before the portico of a large house, from whence
+a servant of Montoni crossed the terrace, and immediately the party
+disembarked. From the portico they passed a noble hall to a stair-case
+of marble, which led to a saloon, fitted up in a style of magnificence
+that surprised Emily. The walls and ceilings were adorned with
+historical and allegorical paintings, in fresco; silver tripods,
+depending from chains of the same metal, illumined the apartment, the
+floor of which was covered with Indian mats painted in a variety of
+colours and devices; the couches and drapery of the lattices were of
+pale green silk, embroidered and fringed with green and gold. Balcony
+lattices opened upon the grand canal, whence rose a confusion of voices
+and of musical instruments, and the breeze that gave freshness to the
+apartment. Emily, considering the gloomy temper of Montoni, looked upon
+the splendid furniture of this house with surprise, and remembered the
+report of his being a man of broken fortune, with astonishment. 'Ah!'
+said she to herself, 'if Valancourt could but see this mansion, what
+peace would it give him! He would then be convinced that the report was
+groundless.'
+
+Madame Montoni seemed to assume the air of a princess; but Montoni was
+restless and discontented, and did not even observe the civility of
+bidding her welcome to her home.
+
+Soon after his arrival, he ordered his gondola, and, with Cavigni, went
+out to mingle in the scenes of the evening. Madame then became serious
+and thoughtful. Emily, who was charmed with every thing she saw,
+endeavoured to enliven her; but reflection had not, with Madame Montoni,
+subdued caprice and ill-humour, and her answers discovered so much of
+both, that Emily gave up the attempt of diverting her, and withdrew to
+a lattice, to amuse herself with the scene without, so new and so
+enchanting.
+
+The first object that attracted her notice was a group of dancers on the
+terrace below, led by a guitar and some other instruments. The girl, who
+struck the guitar, and another, who flourished a tambourine, passed
+on in a dancing step, and with a light grace and gaiety of heart, that
+would have subdued the goddess of spleen in her worst humour. After
+these came a group of fantastic figures, some dressed as gondolieri,
+others as minstrels, while others seemed to defy all description. They
+sung in parts, their voices accompanied by a few soft instruments. At a
+little distance from the portico they stopped, and Emily distinguished
+the verses of Ariosto. They sung of the wars of the Moors against
+Charlemagne, and then of the woes of Orlando: afterwards the measure
+changed, and the melancholy sweetness of Petrarch succeeded. The
+magic of his grief was assisted by all that Italian music and Italian
+expression, heightened by the enchantments of Venetian moonlight, could
+give.
+
+Emily, as she listened, caught the pensive enthusiasm; her tears flowed
+silently, while her fancy bore her far away to France and to Valancourt.
+Each succeeding sonnet, more full of charming sadness than the last,
+seemed to bind the spell of melancholy: with extreme regret she saw the
+musicians move on, and her attention followed the strain till the
+last faint warble died in air. She then remained sunk in that pensive
+tranquillity which soft music leaves on the mind--a state like that
+produced by the view of a beautiful landscape by moon-light, or by the
+recollection of scenes marked with the tenderness of friends lost for
+ever, and with sorrows, which time has mellowed into mild regret. Such
+scenes are indeed, to the mind, like 'those faint traces which the
+memory bears of music that is past'.
+
+Other sounds soon awakened her attention: it was the solemn harmony of
+horns, that swelled from a distance; and, observing the gondolas arrange
+themselves along the margin of the terraces, she threw on her veil, and,
+stepping into the balcony, discerned, in the distant perspective of the
+canal, something like a procession, floating on the light surface of
+the water: as it approached, the horns and other instruments mingled
+sweetly, and soon after the fabled deities of the city seemed to have
+arisen from the ocean; for Neptune, with Venice personified as
+his queen, came on the undulating waves, surrounded by tritons and
+sea-nymphs. The fantastic splendour of this spectacle, together with the
+grandeur of the surrounding palaces, appeared like the vision of a poet
+suddenly embodied, and the fanciful images, which it awakened in Emily's
+mind, lingered there long after the procession had passed away. She
+indulged herself in imagining what might be the manners and delights of
+a sea-nymph, till she almost wished to throw off the habit of mortality,
+and plunge into the green wave to participate them.
+
+'How delightful,' said she, 'to live amidst the coral bowers and crystal
+caverns of the ocean, with my sister nymphs, and listen to the sounding
+waters above, and to the soft shells of the tritons! and then, after
+sun-set, to skim on the surface of the waves round wild rocks and along
+sequestered shores, where, perhaps, some pensive wanderer comes to weep!
+Then would I soothe his sorrows with my sweet music, and offer him from
+a shell some of the delicious fruit that hangs round Neptune's palace.'
+
+She was recalled from her reverie to a mere mortal supper, and could
+not forbear smiling at the fancies she had been indulging, and at her
+conviction of the serious displeasure, which Madame Montoni would have
+expressed, could she have been made acquainted with them.
+
+After supper, her aunt sat late, but Montoni did not return, and she
+at length retired to rest. If Emily had admired the magnificence of the
+saloon, she was not less surprised, on observing the half-furnished
+and forlorn appearance of the apartments she passed in the way to her
+chamber, whither she went through long suites of noble rooms, that
+seemed, from their desolate aspect, to have been unoccupied for many
+years. On the walls of some were the faded remains of tapestry; from
+others, painted in fresco, the damps had almost withdrawn both colours
+and design. At length she reached her own chamber, spacious, desolate,
+and lofty, like the rest, with high lattices that opened towards the
+Adriatic. It brought gloomy images to her mind, but the view of the
+Adriatic soon gave her others more airy, among which was that of the
+sea-nymph, whose delights she had before amused herself with picturing;
+and, anxious to escape from serious reflections, she now endeavoured
+to throw her fanciful ideas into a train, and concluded the hour with
+composing the following lines:
+
+     THE SEA-NYMPH
+
+ Down, down a thousand fathom deep,
+ Among the sounding seas I go;
+ Play round the foot of ev'ry steep
+ Whose cliffs above the ocean grow.
+
+ There, within their secret cares,
+ I hear the mighty rivers roar;
+ And guide their streams through Neptune's waves
+ To bless the green earth's inmost shore:
+
+ And bid the freshen'd waters glide,
+ For fern-crown'd nymphs of lake, or brook,
+ Through winding woods and pastures wide,
+ And many a wild, romantic nook.
+
+ For this the nymphs, at fall of eave,
+ Oft dance upon the flow'ry banks,
+ And sing my name, and garlands weave
+ To bear beneath the wave their thanks.
+
+ In coral bow'rs I love to lie,
+ And hear the surges roll above,
+ And through the waters view on high
+ The proud ships sail, and gay clouds move.
+
+ And oft at midnight's stillest hour,
+ When summer seas the vessel lave,
+ I love to prove my charmful pow'r
+ While floating on the moon-light wave.
+
+ And when deep sleep the crew has bound,
+ And the sad lover musing leans
+ O'er the ship's side, I breathe around
+ Such strains as speak no mortal means!
+
+ O'er the dim waves his searching eye
+ Sees but the vessel's lengthen'd shade;
+ Above--the moon and azure sky;
+ Entranc'd he hears, and half afraid!
+
+ Sometimes, a single note I swell,
+ That, softly sweet, at distance dies;
+ Then wake the magic of my shell,
+ And choral voices round me rise!
+
+ The trembling youth, charm'd by my strain,
+ Calls up the crew, who, silent, bend
+ O'er the high deck, but list in vain;
+ My song is hush'd, my wonders end!
+
+ Within the mountain's woody bay,
+ Where the tall bark at anchor rides,
+ At twilight hour, with tritons gay,
+ I dance upon the lapsing tides:
+
+ And with my sister-nymphs I sport,
+ Till the broad sun looks o'er the floods;
+ Then, swift we seek our crystal court,
+ Deep in the wave, 'mid Neptune's woods.
+
+ In cool arcades and glassy halls
+ We pass the sultry hours of noon,
+ Beyond wherever sun-beam falls,
+ Weaving sea-flowers in gay festoon.
+
+ The while we chant our ditties sweet
+ To some soft shell that warbles near;
+ Join'd by the murmuring currents, fleet,
+ That glide along our halls so clear.
+
+ There, the pale pearl and sapphire blue,
+ And ruby red, and em'rald green,
+ Dart from the domes a changing hue,
+ And sparry columns deck the scene.
+
+ When the dark storm scowls o'er the deep,
+ And long, long peals of thunder sound,
+ On some high cliff my watch I keep
+ O'er all the restless seas around:
+
+ Till on the ridgy wave afar
+ Comes the lone vessel, labouring slow,
+ Spreading the white foam in the air,
+ With sail and top-mast bending low.
+
+ Then, plunge I 'mid the ocean's roar,
+ My way by quiv'ring lightnings shewn,
+ To guide the bark to peaceful shore,
+ And hush the sailor's fearful groan.
+
+ And if too late I reach its side
+ To save it from the 'whelming surge,
+ I call my dolphins o'er the tide,
+ To bear the crew where isles emerge.
+
+ Their mournful spirits soon I cheer,
+ While round the desert coast I go,
+ With warbled songs they faintly hear,
+ Oft as the stormy gust sinks low.
+
+ My music leads to lofty groves,
+ That wild upon the sea-bank wave;
+ Where sweet fruits bloom, and fresh spring roves,
+ And closing boughs the tempest brave.
+
+ Then, from the air spirits obey
+ My potent voice they love so well,
+ And, on the clouds, paint visions gay,
+ While strains more sweet at distance swell.
+
+ And thus the lonely hours I cheat,
+ Soothing the ship-wreck'd sailor's heart,
+ Till from the waves the storms retreat,
+ And o'er the east the day-beams dart.
+
+ Neptune for this oft binds me fast
+ To rocks below, with coral chain,
+ Till all the tempest's over-past,
+ And drowning seamen cry in vain.
+
+ Whoe'er ye are that love my lay,
+ Come, when red sun-set tints the wave,
+ To the still sands, where fairies play;
+ There, in cool seas, I love to lave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+ He is a great observer, and he looks
+ Quite through the deeds of men:  he loves no plays,
+     he hears no music;
+ Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,
+ As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
+ that could be mov'd to smile at any thing.
+ Such men as he be never at heart's ease,
+ While they behold a greater than themselves.
+     JULIUS CAESAR
+
+Montoni and his companion did not return home, till many hours after the
+dawn had blushed upon the Adriatic. The airy groups, which had danced
+all night along the colonnade of St. Mark, dispersed before the morning,
+like so many spirits. Montoni had been otherwise engaged; his soul was
+little susceptible of light pleasures. He delighted in the energies of
+the passions; the difficulties and tempests of life, which wreck the
+happiness of others, roused and strengthened all the powers of his
+mind, and afforded him the highest enjoyments, of which his nature was
+capable. Without some object of strong interest, life was to him little
+more than a sleep; and, when pursuits of real interest failed, he
+substituted artificial ones, till habit changed their nature, and they
+ceased to be unreal. Of this kind was the habit of gaming, which he had
+adopted, first, for the purpose of relieving him from the languor of
+inaction, but had since pursued with the ardour of passion. In this
+occupation he had passed the night with Cavigni and a party of young
+men, who had more money than rank, and more vice than either. Montoni
+despised the greater part of these for the inferiority of their talents,
+rather than for their vicious inclinations, and associated with them
+only to make them the instruments of his purposes. Among these, however,
+were some of superior abilities, and a few whom Montoni admitted to
+his intimacy, but even towards these he still preserved a decisive and
+haughty air, which, while it imposed submission on weak and timid minds,
+roused the fierce hatred of strong ones. He had, of course, many and
+bitter enemies; but the rancour of their hatred proved the degree of his
+power; and, as power was his chief aim, he gloried more in such hatred,
+than it was possible he could in being esteemed. A feeling so tempered
+as that of esteem, he despised, and would have despised himself also had
+he thought himself capable of being flattered by it.
+
+Among the few whom he distinguished, were the Signors Bertolini,
+Orsino, and Verezzi. The first was a man of gay temper, strong passions,
+dissipated, and of unbounded extravagance, but generous, brave, and
+unsuspicious. Orsino was reserved, and haughty; loving power more than
+ostentation; of a cruel and suspicious temper; quick to feel an injury,
+and relentless in avenging it; cunning and unsearchable in contrivance,
+patient and indefatigable in the execution of his schemes. He had a
+perfect command of feature and of his passions, of which he had scarcely
+any, but pride, revenge and avarice; and, in the gratification of these,
+few considerations had power to restrain him, few obstacles to withstand
+the depth of his stratagems. This man was the chief favourite of
+Montoni. Verezzi was a man of some talent, of fiery imagination, and the
+slave of alternate passions. He was gay, voluptuous, and daring; yet had
+neither perseverance or true courage, and was meanly selfish in all his
+aims. Quick to form schemes, and sanguine in his hope of success, he
+was the first to undertake, and to abandon, not only his own plans,
+but those adopted from other persons. Proud and impetuous, he revolted
+against all subordination; yet those who were acquainted with his
+character, and watched the turn of his passions, could lead him like a
+child.
+
+Such were the friends whom Montoni introduced to his family and his
+table, on the day after his arrival at Venice. There were also of the
+party a Venetian nobleman, Count Morano, and a Signora Livona, whom
+Montoni had introduced to his wife, as a lady of distinguished merit,
+and who, having called in the morning to welcome her to Venice, had been
+requested to be of the dinner party.
+
+Madame Montoni received with a very ill grace, the compliments of
+the Signors. She disliked them, because they were the friends of her
+husband; hated them, because she believed they had contributed to detain
+him abroad till so late an hour of the preceding morning; and envied
+them, since, conscious of her own want of influence, she was convinced,
+that he preferred their society to her own. The rank of Count Morano
+procured him that distinction which she refused to the rest of the
+company. The haughty sullenness of her countenance and manner, and the
+ostentatious extravagance of her dress, for she had not yet adopted
+the Venetian habit, were strikingly contrasted by the beauty, modesty,
+sweetness and simplicity of Emily, who observed, with more attention
+than pleasure, the party around her. The beauty and fascinating manners
+of Signora Livona, however, won her involuntary regard; while the
+sweetness of her accents and her air of gentle kindness awakened with
+Emily those pleasing affections, which so long had slumbered.
+
+In the cool of the evening the party embarked in Montoni's gondola, and
+rowed out upon the sea. The red glow of sun-set still touched the waves,
+and lingered in the west, where the melancholy gleam seemed slowly
+expiring, while the dark blue of the upper aether began to twinkle with
+stars. Emily sat, given up to pensive and sweet emotions. The smoothness
+of the water, over which she glided, its reflected images--a new heaven
+and trembling stars below the waves, with shadowy outlines of towers and
+porticos, conspired with the stillness of the hour, interrupted only by
+the passing wave, or the notes of distant music, to raise those emotions
+to enthusiasm. As she listened to the measured sound of the oars, and to
+the remote warblings that came in the breeze, her softened mind returned
+to the memory of St. Aubert and to Valancourt, and tears stole to her
+eyes. The rays of the moon, strengthening as the shadows deepened,
+soon after threw a silvery gleam upon her countenance, which was partly
+shaded by a thin black veil, and touched it with inimitable softness.
+Hers was the CONTOUR of a Madona, with the sensibility of a Magdalen;
+and the pensive uplifted eye, with the tear that glittered on her cheek,
+confirmed the expression of the character.
+
+The last strain of distant music now died in air, for the gondola was
+far upon the waves, and the party determined to have music of their own.
+The Count Morano, who sat next to Emily, and who had been observing her
+for some time in silence, snatched up a lute, and struck the chords
+with the finger of harmony herself, while his voice, a fine tenor,
+accompanied them in a rondeau full of tender sadness. To him, indeed,
+might have been applied that beautiful exhortation of an English poet,
+had it then existed:
+
+     Strike up, my master,
+ But touch the strings with a religious softness!
+ Teach sounds to languish through the night's dull ear
+ Till Melancholy starts from off her couch,
+ And Carelessness grows concert to attention!
+
+With such powers of expression the Count sung the following
+
+     RONDEAU
+
+ Soft as yon silver ray, that sleeps
+ Upon the ocean's trembling tide;
+ Soft as the air, that lightly sweeps
+ Yon sad, that swells in stately pride:
+
+ Soft as the surge's stealing note,
+ That dies along the distant shores,
+ Or warbled strain, that sinks remote--
+ So soft the sigh my bosom pours!
+
+ True as the wave to Cynthia's ray,
+ True as the vessel to the breeze,
+ True as the soul to music's sway,
+ Or music to Venetian seas:
+
+ Soft as yon silver beams, that sleep
+ Upon the ocean's trembling breast;
+ So soft, so true, fond Love shall weep,
+ So soft, so true, with THEE shall rest.
+
+The cadence with which he returned from the last stanza to a repetition
+of the first; the fine modulation in which his voice stole upon the
+first line, and the pathetic energy with which it pronounced the last,
+were such as only exquisite taste could give. When he had concluded,
+he gave the lute with a sigh to Emily, who, to avoid any appearance of
+affectation, immediately began to play. She sung a melancholy little
+air, one of the popular songs of her native province, with a simplicity
+and pathos that made it enchanting. But its well-known melody brought
+so forcibly to her fancy the scenes and the persons, among which she had
+often heard it, that her spirits were overcome, her voice trembled and
+ceased--and the strings of the lute were struck with a disordered hand;
+till, ashamed of the emotion she had betrayed, she suddenly passed on
+to a song so gay and airy, that the steps of the dance seemed almost
+to echo to the notes. BRAVISSIMO! burst instantly from the lips of her
+delighted auditors, and she was compelled to repeat the air. Among
+the compliments that followed, those of the Count were not the least
+audible, and they had not concluded, when Emily gave the instrument to
+Signora Livona, whose voice accompanied it with true Italian taste.
+
+Afterwards, the Count, Emily, Cavigni, and the Signora, sung
+canzonettes, accompanied by a couple of lutes and a few other
+instruments. Sometimes the instruments suddenly ceased, and the voices
+dropped from the full swell of harmony into a low chant; then, after a
+deep pause, they rose by degrees, the instruments one by one striking
+up, till the loud and full chorus soared again to heaven!
+
+Meanwhile, Montoni, who was weary of this harmony, was considering how
+he might disengage himself from his party, or withdraw with such of it
+as would be willing to play, to a Casino. In a pause of the music, he
+proposed returning to shore, a proposal which Orsino eagerly seconded,
+but which the Count and the other gentlemen as warmly opposed.
+
+Montoni still meditated how he might excuse himself from longer
+attendance upon the Count, for to him only he thought excuse necessary,
+and how he might get to land, till the gondolieri of an empty boat,
+returning to Venice, hailed his people. Without troubling himself longer
+about an excuse, he seized this opportunity of going thither, and,
+committing the ladies to the care of his friends, departed with Orsino,
+while Emily, for the first time, saw him go with regret; for she
+considered his presence a protection, though she knew not what she
+should fear. He landed at St. Mark's, and, hurrying to a Casino, was
+soon lost amidst a crowd of gamesters.
+
+Meanwhile, the Count having secretly dispatched a servant in Montoni's
+boat, for his own gondola and musicians, Emily heard, without knowing
+his project, the gay song of gondolieri approaching, as they sat on the
+stern of the boat, and saw the tremulous gleam of the moon-light
+wave, which their oars disturbed. Presently she heard the sound of
+instruments, and then a full symphony swelled on the air, and, the boats
+meeting, the gondolieri hailed each other. The count then explaining
+himself, the party removed into his gondola, which was embellished with
+all that taste could bestow.
+
+While they partook of a collation of fruits and ice, the whole band,
+following at a distance in the other boat, played the most sweet and
+enchanting strains, and the Count, who had again seated himself by
+Emily, paid her unremitted attention, and sometimes, in a low
+but impassioned voice, uttered compliments which she could not
+misunderstand. To avoid them she conversed with Signora Livona, and her
+manner to the Count assumed a mild reserve, which, though dignified, was
+too gentle to repress his assiduities: he could see, hear, speak to no
+person, but Emily while Cavigni observed him now and then, with a look
+of displeasure, and Emily, with one of uneasiness. She now wished for
+nothing so much as to return to Venice, but it was near mid-night before
+the gondolas approached St. Mark's Place, where the voice of gaiety
+and song was loud. The busy hum of mingling sounds was heard at a
+considerable distance on the water, and, had not a bright moon-light
+discovered the city, with its terraces and towers, a stranger would
+almost have credited the fabled wonders of Neptune's court, and
+believed, that the tumult arose from beneath the waves.
+
+They landed at St. Mark's, where the gaiety of the colonnades and the
+beauty of the night, made Madame Montoni willingly submit to the Count's
+solicitations to join the promenade, and afterwards to take a supper
+with the rest of the party, at his Casino. If any thing could have
+dissipated Emily's uneasiness, it would have been the grandeur, gaiety,
+and novelty of the surrounding scene, adorned with Palladio's palaces,
+and busy with parties of masqueraders.
+
+At length they withdrew to the Casino, which was fitted up with infinite
+taste, and where a splendid banquet was prepared; but here Emily's
+reserve made the Count perceive, that it was necessary for his interest
+to win the favour of Madame Montoni, which, from the condescension she
+had already shewn to him, appeared to be an achievement of no great
+difficulty. He transferred, therefore, part of his attention from Emily
+to her aunt, who felt too much flattered by the distinction even to
+disguise her emotion; and before the party broke up, he had entirely
+engaged the esteem of Madame Montoni. Whenever he addressed her, her
+ungracious countenance relaxed into smiles, and to whatever he proposed
+she assented. He invited her, with the rest of the party, to take
+coffee, in his box at the opera, on the following evening, and Emily
+heard the invitation accepted, with strong anxiety, concerning the means
+of excusing herself from attending Madame Montoni thither.
+
+It was very late before their gondola was ordered, and Emily's surprise
+was extreme, when, on quitting the Casino, she beheld the broad sun
+rising out of the Adriatic, while St. Mark's Place was yet crowded with
+company. Sleep had long weighed heavily on her eyes, but now the fresh
+sea-breeze revived her, and she would have quitted the scene with
+regret, had not the Count been present, performing the duty, which he
+had imposed upon himself, of escorting them home. There they heard that
+Montoni was not yet returned; and his wife, retiring in displeasure
+to her apartment, at length released Emily from the fatigue of further
+attendance.
+
+Montoni came home late in the morning, in a very ill humour, having lost
+considerably at play, and, before he withdrew to rest, had a private
+conference with Cavigni, whose manner, on the following day, seemed to
+tell, that the subject of it had not been pleasing to him.
+
+In the evening, Madame Montoni, who, during the day, had observed a
+sullen silence towards her husband, received visits from some Venetian
+ladies, with whose sweet manners Emily was particularly charmed. They
+had an air of ease and kindness towards the strangers, as if they had
+been their familiar friends for years; and their conversation was by
+turns tender, sentimental and gay. Madame, though she had no taste
+for such conversation, and whose coarseness and selfishness sometimes
+exhibited a ludicrous contrast to their excessive refinement, could not
+remain wholly insensible to the captivations of their manner.
+
+In a pause of conversation, a lady who was called Signora Herminia took
+up a lute, and began to play and sing, with as much easy gaiety, as if
+she had been alone. Her voice was uncommonly rich in tone, and various
+in expression; yet she appeared to be entirely unconscious of its
+powers, and meant nothing less than to display them. She sung from the
+gaiety of her heart, as she sat with her veil half thrown back, holding
+gracefully the lute, under the spreading foliage and flowers of some
+plants, that rose from baskets, and interlaced one of the lattices of
+the saloon. Emily, retiring a little from the company, sketched
+her figure, with the miniature scenery around her, and drew a very
+interesting picture, which, though it would not, perhaps, have borne
+criticism, had spirit and taste enough to awaken both the fancy and
+the heart. When she had finished it, she presented it to the beautiful
+original, who was delighted with the offering, as well as the sentiment
+it conveyed, and assured Emily, with a smile of captivating sweetness,
+that she should preserve it as a pledge of her friendship.
+
+In the evening Cavigni joined the ladies, but Montoni had other
+engagements; and they embarked in the gondola for St. Mark's, where the
+same gay company seemed to flutter as on the preceding night. The cool
+breeze, the glassy sea, the gentle sound of its waves, and the sweeter
+murmur of distant music; the lofty porticos and arcades, and the happy
+groups that sauntered beneath them; these, with every feature and
+circumstance of the scene, united to charm Emily, no longer teased by
+the officious attentions of Count Morano. But, as she looked upon the
+moon-light sea, undulating along the walls of St. Mark, and, lingering
+for a moment over those walls, caught the sweet and melancholy song of
+some gondolier as he sat in his boat below, waiting for his master, her
+softened mind returned to the memory of her home, of her friends, and of
+all that was dear in her native country.
+
+After walking some time, they sat down at the door of a Casino, and,
+while Cavigni was accommodating them with coffee and ice, were joined
+by Count Morano. He sought Emily with a look of impatient delight, who,
+remembering all the attention he had shewn her on the preceding evening,
+was compelled, as before, to shrink from his assiduities into a timid
+reserve, except when she conversed with Signora Herminia and the other
+ladies of her party.
+
+It was near midnight before they withdrew to the opera, where Emily
+was not so charmed but that, when she remembered the scene she had just
+quitted, she felt how infinitely inferior all the splendour of art is
+to the sublimity of nature. Her heart was not now affected, tears
+of admiration did not start to her eyes, as when she viewed the vast
+expanse of ocean, the grandeur of the heavens, and listened to the
+rolling waters, and to the faint music that, at intervals, mingled
+with their roar. Remembering these, the scene before her faded into
+insignificance.
+
+Of the evening, which passed on without any particular incident, she
+wished the conclusion, that she might escape from the attentions of the
+Count; and, as opposite qualities frequently attract each other in
+our thoughts, thus Emily, when she looked on Count Morano, remembered
+Valancourt, and a sigh sometimes followed the recollection.
+
+Several weeks passed in the course of customary visits, during which
+nothing remarkable occurred. Emily was amused by the manners and scenes
+that surrounded her, so different from those of France, but where Count
+Morano, too frequently for her comfort, contrived to introduce himself.
+His manner, figure and accomplishments, which were generally admired,
+Emily would, perhaps, have admired also, had her heart been disengaged
+from Valancourt, and had the Count forborne to persecute her with
+officious attentions, during which she observed some traits in his
+character, that prejudiced her against whatever might otherwise be good
+in it.
+
+Soon after his arrival at Venice, Montoni received a packet from M.
+Quesnel, in which the latter mentioned the death of his wife's uncle,
+at his villa on the Brenta; and that, in consequence of this event, he
+should hasten to take possession of that estate and of other effects
+bequeathed to him. This uncle was the brother of Madame Quesnel's late
+mother; Montoni was related to her by the father's side, and though
+he could have had neither claim nor expectation concerning these
+possessions, he could scarcely conceal the envy which M. Quesnel's
+letter excited.
+
+Emily had observed with concern, that, since they left France, Montoni
+had not even affected kindness towards her aunt, and that, after
+treating her, at first, with neglect, he now met her with uniform
+ill-humour and reserve. She had never supposed, that her aunt's foibles
+could have escaped the discernment of Montoni, or that her mind or
+figure were of a kind to deserve his attention. Her surprise, therefore,
+at this match, had been extreme; but since he had made the choice, she
+did not suspect that he would so openly have discovered his contempt of
+it. But Montoni, who had been allured by the seeming wealth of Madame
+Cheron, was now severely disappointed by her comparative poverty, and
+highly exasperated by the deceit she had employed to conceal it, till
+concealment was no longer necessary. He had been deceived in an affair,
+wherein he meant to be the deceiver; out-witted by the superior
+cunning of a woman, whose understanding he despised, and to whom he had
+sacrificed his pride and his liberty, without saving himself from the
+ruin, which had impended over his head. Madame Montoni had contrived
+to have the greatest part of what she really did possess, settled upon
+herself: what remained, though it was totally inadequate both to her
+husband's expectations, and to his necessities, he had converted into
+money, and brought with him to Venice, that he might a little longer
+delude society, and make a last effort to regain the fortunes he had
+lost.
+
+The hints which had been thrown out to Valancourt, concerning Montoni's
+character and condition, were too true; but it was now left to time and
+occasion, to unfold the circumstances, both of what had, and of what had
+not been hinted, and to time and occasion we commit them.
+
+Madame Montoni was not of a nature to bear injuries with meekness, or to
+resent them with dignity: her exasperated pride displayed itself in all
+the violence and acrimony of a little, or at least of an ill-regulated
+mind. She would not acknowledge, even to herself, that she had in any
+degree provoked contempt by her duplicity, but weakly persisted in
+believing, that she alone was to be pitied, and Montoni alone to be
+censured; for, as her mind had naturally little perception of moral
+obligation, she seldom understood its force but when it happened to be
+violated towards herself: her vanity had already been severely shocked
+by a discovery of Montoni's contempt; it remained to be farther reproved
+by a discovery of his circumstances. His mansion at Venice, though its
+furniture discovered a part of the truth to unprejudiced persons, told
+nothing to those who were blinded by a resolution to believe whatever
+they wished. Madame Montoni still thought herself little less than
+a princess, possessing a palace at Venice, and a castle among the
+Apennines. To the castle di Udolpho, indeed, Montoni sometimes talked of
+going for a few weeks to examine into its condition, and to receive some
+rents; for it appeared that he had not been there for two years, and
+that, during this period, it had been inhabited only by an old servant,
+whom he called his steward.
+
+Emily listened to the mention of this journey with pleasure, for she
+not only expected from it new ideas, but a release from the persevering
+assiduities of Count Morano. In the country, too, she would have leisure
+to think of Valancourt, and to indulge the melancholy, which his image,
+and a recollection of the scenes of La Vallee, always blessed with the
+memory of her parents, awakened. The ideal scenes were dearer, and more
+soothing to her heart, than all the splendour of gay assemblies; they
+were a kind of talisman that expelled the poison of temporary evils,
+and supported her hopes of happy days: they appeared like a beautiful
+landscape, lighted up by a gleam of sun-shine, and seen through a
+perspective of dark and rugged rocks.
+
+But Count Morano did not long confine himself to silent assiduities;
+he declared his passion to Emily, and made proposals to Montoni, who
+encouraged, though Emily rejected, him: with Montoni for his friend,
+and an abundance of vanity to delude him, he did not despair of success.
+Emily was astonished and highly disgusted at his perseverance, after she
+had explained her sentiments with a frankness that would not allow him
+to misunderstand them.
+
+He now passed the greater part of his time at Montoni's, dining there
+almost daily, and attending Madame and Emily wherever they went; and all
+this, notwithstanding the uniform reserve of Emily, whose aunt seemed
+as anxious as Montoni to promote this marriage; and would never dispense
+with her attendance at any assembly where the Count proposed to be
+present.
+
+Montoni now said nothing of his intended journey, of which Emily waited
+impatiently to hear; and he was seldom at home but when the Count, or
+Signor Orsino, was there, for between himself and Cavigni a coolness
+seemed to subsist, though the latter remained in his house. With Orsino,
+Montoni was frequently closeted for hours together, and, whatever
+might be the business, upon which they consulted, it appeared to be of
+consequence, since Montoni often sacrificed to it his favourite passion
+for play, and remained at home the whole night. There was somewhat of
+privacy, too, in the manner of Orsino's visits, which had never before
+occurred, and which excited not only surprise, but some degree of alarm
+in Emily's mind, who had unwillingly discovered much of his character
+when he had most endeavoured to disguise it. After these visits, Montoni
+was often more thoughtful than usual; sometimes the deep workings of his
+mind entirely abstracted him from surrounding objects, and threw a gloom
+over his visage that rendered it terrible; at others, his eyes seemed
+almost to flash fire, and all the energies of his soul appeared to
+be roused for some great enterprise. Emily observed these written
+characters of his thoughts with deep interest, and not without some
+degree of awe, when she considered that she was entirely in his power;
+but forbore even to hint her fears, or her observations, to Madame
+Montoni, who discerned nothing in her husband, at these times, but his
+usual sternness.
+
+A second letter from M. Quesnel announced the arrival of himself and
+his lady at the Villa Miarenti; stated several circumstances of his
+good fortune, respecting the affair that had brought him into Italy; and
+concluded with an earnest request to see Montoni, his wife and niece, at
+his new estate.
+
+Emily received, about the same period, a much more interesting letter,
+and which soothed for a while every anxiety of her heart. Valancourt,
+hoping she might be still at Venice, had trusted a letter to the
+ordinary post, that told her of his health, and of his unceasing and
+anxious affection. He had lingered at Tholouse for some time after her
+departure, that he might indulge the melancholy pleasure of wandering
+through the scenes where he had been accustomed to behold her, and had
+thence gone to his brother's chateau, which was in the neighbourhood of
+La Vallee. Having mentioned this, he added, 'If the duty of attending
+my regiment did not require my departure, I know not when I should have
+resolution enough to quit the neighbourhood of a place which is endeared
+by the remembrance of you. The vicinity to La Vallee has alone detained
+me thus long at Estuviere: I frequently ride thither early in the
+morning, that I may wander, at leisure, through the day, among scenes,
+which were once your home, where I have been accustomed to see you, and
+to hear you converse. I have renewed my acquaintance with the good old
+Theresa, who rejoiced to see me, that she might talk of you: I need
+not say how much this circumstance attached me to her, or how eagerly
+I listened to her upon her favourite subject. You will guess the motive
+that first induced me to make myself known to Theresa: it was, indeed,
+no other than that of gaining admittance into the chateau and gardens,
+which my Emily had so lately inhabited: here, then, I wander, and meet
+your image under every shade: but chiefly I love to sit beneath the
+spreading branches of your favourite plane, where once, Emily, we sat
+together; where I first ventured to tell you, that I loved. O Emily!
+the remembrance of those moments overcomes me--I sit lost in reverie--I
+endeavour to see you dimly through my tears, in all the heaven of
+peace and innocence, such as you then appeared to me; to hear again the
+accents of that voice, which then thrilled my heart with tenderness and
+hope. I lean on the wall of the terrace, where we together watched the
+rapid current of the Garonne below, while I described the wild scenery
+about its source, but thought only of you. O Emily! are these moments
+passed for ever--will they never more return?'
+
+In another part of his letter he wrote thus. 'You see my letter is dated
+on many different days, and, if you look back to the first, you will
+perceive, that I began to write soon after your departure from France.
+To write was, indeed, the only employment that withdrew me from my own
+melancholy, and rendered your absence supportable, or rather, it seemed
+to destroy absence; for, when I was conversing with you on paper,
+and telling you every sentiment and affection of my heart, you almost
+appeared to be present. This employment has been from time to time my
+chief consolation, and I have deferred sending off my packet, merely
+for the comfort of prolonging it, though it was certain, that what I
+had written, was written to no purpose till you received it. Whenever my
+mind has been more than usually depressed I have come to pour forth its
+sorrows to you, and have always found consolation; and, when any little
+occurrence has interested my heart, and given a gleam of joy to my
+spirits, I have hastened to communicate it to you, and have received
+reflected satisfaction. Thus, my letter is a kind of picture of my life
+and of my thoughts for the last month, and thus, though it has been
+deeply interesting to me, while I wrote it, and I dare hope will, for
+the same reason, be not indifferent to you, yet to other readers it
+would seem to abound only in frivolities. Thus it is always, when we
+attempt to describe the finer movements of the heart, for they are too
+fine to be discerned, they can only be experienced, and are therefore
+passed over by the indifferent observer, while the interested one feels,
+that all description is imperfect and unnecessary, except as it may
+prove the sincerity of the writer, and sooth his own sufferings. You
+will pardon all this egotism--for I am a lover.'
+
+'I have just heard of a circumstance, which entirely destroys all my
+fairy paradise of ideal delight, and which will reconcile me to the
+necessity of returning to my regiment, for I must no longer wander
+beneath the beloved shades, where I have been accustomed to meet you
+in thought.--La Vallee is let! I have reason to believe this is without
+your knowledge, from what Theresa told me this morning, and, therefore,
+I mention the circumstance. She shed tears, while she related, that she
+was going to leave the service of her dear mistress, and the chateau
+where she had lived so many happy years; and all this, added she,
+without even a letter from Mademoiselle to soften the news; but it is
+all Mons. Quesnel's doings, and I dare say she does not even know what
+is going forward.'
+
+'Theresa added, That she had received a letter from him, informing
+her the chateau was let, and that, as her services would no longer be
+required, she must quit the place, on that day week, when the new tenant
+would arrive.'
+
+'Theresa had been surprised by a visit from M. Quesnel, some time before
+the receipt of this letter, who was accompanied by a stranger that
+viewed the premises with much curiosity.'
+
+Towards the conclusion of his letter, which is dated a week after this
+sentence, Valancourt adds, 'I have received a summons from my regiment,
+and I join it without regret, since I am shut out from the scenes that
+are so interesting to my heart. I rode to La Vallee this morning, and
+heard that the new tenant was arrived, and that Theresa was gone. I
+should not treat the subject thus familiarly if I did not believe you
+to be uninformed of this disposal of your house; for your satisfaction I
+have endeavoured to learn something of the character and fortune of your
+tenant, but without success. He is a gentleman, they say, and this is
+all I can hear. The place, as I wandered round the boundaries, appeared
+more melancholy to my imagination, than I had ever seen it. I wished
+earnestly to have got admittance, that I might have taken another leave
+of your favourite plane-tree, and thought of you once more beneath
+its shade: but I forbore to tempt the curiosity of strangers: the
+fishing-house in the woods, however, was still open to me; thither I
+went, and passed an hour, which I cannot even look back upon without
+emotion. O Emily! surely we are not separated for ever--surely we shall
+live for each other!'
+
+This letter brought many tears to Emily's eyes; tears of tenderness and
+satisfaction on learning that Valancourt was well, and that time and
+absence had in no degree effaced her image from his heart. There were
+passages in this letter which particularly affected her, such as those
+describing his visits to La Vallee, and the sentiments of delicate
+affection that its scenes had awakened. It was a considerable time
+before her mind was sufficiently abstracted from Valancourt to feel
+the force of his intelligence concerning La Vallee. That Mons. Quesnel
+should let it, without even consulting her on the measure, both
+surprised and shocked her, particularly as it proved the absolute
+authority he thought himself entitled to exercise in her affairs. It is
+true, he had proposed, before she left France, that the chateau should
+be let, during her absence, and to the oeconomical prudence of this she
+had nothing to object; but the committing what had been her father's
+villa to the power and caprice of strangers, and the depriving herself
+of a sure home, should any unhappy circumstances make her look back to
+her home as an asylum, were considerations that made her, even then,
+strongly oppose the measure. Her father, too, in his last hour, had
+received from her a solemn promise never to dispose of La Vallee; and
+this she considered as in some degree violated if she suffered the place
+to be let. But it was now evident with how little respect M. Quesnel
+had regarded these objections, and how insignificant he considered every
+obstacle to pecuniary advantage. It appeared, also, that he had not even
+condescended to inform Montoni of the step he had taken, since no motive
+was evident for Montoni's concealing the circumstance from her, if it
+had been made known to him: this both displeased and surprised her; but
+the chief subjects of her uneasiness were--the temporary disposal of
+La Vallee, and the dismission of her father's old and faithful
+servant.--'Poor Theresa,' said Emily, 'thou hadst not saved much in thy
+servitude, for thou wast always tender towards the poor, and believd'st
+thou shouldst die in the family, where thy best years had been spent.
+Poor Theresa!--now thou art turned out in thy old age to seek thy
+bread!'
+
+Emily wept bitterly as these thoughts passed over her mind, and she
+determined to consider what could be done for Theresa, and to talk very
+explicitly to M. Quesnel on the subject; but she much feared that his
+cold heart could feel only for itself. She determined also to enquire
+whether he had made any mention of her affairs, in his letter to
+Montoni, who soon gave her the opportunity she sought, by desiring
+that she would attend him in his study. She had little doubt, that the
+interview was intended for the purpose of communicating to her a part
+of M. Quesnel's letter concerning the transactions at La Vallee, and she
+obeyed him immediately. Montoni was alone.
+
+'I have just been writing to Mons. Quesnel,' said he when Emily
+appeared, 'in reply to the letter I received from him a few days ago,
+and I wished to talk to you upon a subject that occupied part of it.'
+
+'I also wished to speak with you on this topic, sir,' said Emily.
+
+'It is a subject of some interest to you, undoubtedly,' rejoined
+Montoni, 'and I think you must see it in the light that I do; indeed
+it will not bear any other. I trust you will agree with me, that any
+objection founded on sentiment, as they call it, ought to yield to
+circumstances of solid advantage.'
+
+'Granting this, sir,' replied Emily, modestly, 'those of humanity ought
+surely to be attended to. But I fear it is now too late to deliberate
+upon this plan, and I must regret, that it is no longer in my power to
+reject it.'
+
+'It is too late,' said Montoni; 'but since it is so, I am pleased to
+observe, that you submit to reason and necessity without indulging
+useless complaint. I applaud this conduct exceedingly, the more,
+perhaps, since it discovers a strength of mind seldom observable in your
+sex. When you are older you will look back with gratitude to the friends
+who assisted in rescuing you from the romantic illusions of sentiment,
+and will perceive, that they are only the snares of childhood, and
+should be vanquished the moment you escape from the nursery. I have not
+closed my letter, and you may add a few lines to inform your uncle of
+your acquiescence. You will soon see him, for it is my intention to take
+you, with Madame Montoni, in a few days to Miarenti, and you can then
+talk over the affair.'
+
+Emily wrote on the opposite page of the paper as follows:
+
+'It is now useless, sir, for me to remonstrate upon the circumstances
+of which Signor Montoni informs me that he has written. I could
+have wished, at least, that the affair had been concluded with
+less precipitation, that I might have taught myself to subdue some
+prejudices, as the Signor calls them, which still linger in my heart. As
+it is, I submit. In point of prudence nothing certainly can be objected;
+but, though I submit, I have yet much to say on some other points of the
+subject, when I shall have the honour of seeing you. In the meantime I
+entreat you will take care of Theresa, for the sake of,     Sir,
+     Your affectionate niece,
+     EMILY ST. AUBERT.'
+
+Montoni smiled satirically at what Emily had written, but did not object
+to it, and she withdrew to her own apartment, where she sat down to
+begin a letter to Valancourt, in which she related the particulars
+of her journey, and her arrival at Venice, described some of the most
+striking scenes in the passage over the Alps; her emotions on her first
+view of Italy; the manners and characters of the people around her, and
+some few circumstances of Montoni's conduct. But she avoided even naming
+Count Morano, much more the declaration he had made, since she well knew
+how tremblingly alive to fear is real love, how jealously watchful of
+every circumstance that may affect its interest; and she scrupulously
+avoided to give Valancourt even the slightest reason for believing he
+had a rival.
+
+On the following day Count Morano dined again at Montoni's. He was in
+an uncommon flow of spirits, and Emily thought there was somewhat of
+exultation in his manner of addressing her, which she had never observed
+before. She endeavoured to repress this by more than her usual reserve,
+but the cold civility of her air now seemed rather to encourage than to
+depress him. He appeared watchful of an opportunity of speaking with her
+alone, and more than once solicited this; but Emily always replied, that
+she could hear nothing from him which he would be unwilling to repeat
+before the whole company.
+
+In the evening, Madame Montoni and her party went out upon the sea, and
+as the Count led Emily to his zendaletto, he carried her hand to his
+lips, and thanked her for the condescension she had shown him. Emily,
+in extreme surprise and displeasure, hastily withdrew her hand, and
+concluded that he had spoken ironically; but, on reaching the steps
+of the terrace, and observing by the livery, that it was the Count's
+zendaletto which waited below, while the rest of the party, having
+arranged themselves in the gondolas, were moving on, she determined
+not to permit a separate conversation, and, wishing him a good evening,
+returned to the portico. The Count followed to expostulate and entreat,
+and Montoni, who then came out, rendered solicitation unnecessary, for,
+without condescending to speak, he took her hand, and led her to the
+zendaletto. Emily was not silent; she entreated Montoni, in a low voice,
+to consider the impropriety of these circumstances, and that he would
+spare her the mortification of submitting to them; he, however, was
+inflexible.
+
+'This caprice is intolerable,' said he, 'and shall not be indulged:
+there is no impropriety in the case.'
+
+At this moment, Emily's dislike of Count Morano rose to abhorrence. That
+he should, with undaunted assurance, thus pursue her, notwithstanding
+all she had expressed on the subject of his addresses, and think, as it
+was evident he did, that her opinion of him was of no consequence, so
+long as his pretensions were sanctioned by Montoni, added indignation to
+the disgust which she had felt towards him. She was somewhat relieved by
+observing that Montoni was to be of the party, who seated himself on one
+side of her, while Morano placed himself on the other. There was a
+pause for some moments as the gondolieri prepared their oars, and Emily
+trembled from apprehension of the discourse that might follow this
+silence. At length she collected courage to break it herself, in the
+hope of preventing fine speeches from Morano, and reproof from Montoni.
+To some trivial remark which she made, the latter returned a short
+and disobliging reply; but Morano immediately followed with a general
+observation, which he contrived to end with a particular compliment,
+and, though Emily passed it without even the notice of a smile, he was
+not discouraged.
+
+'I have been impatient,' said he, addressing Emily, 'to express my
+gratitude; to thank you for your goodness; but I must also thank Signor
+Montoni, who has allowed me this opportunity of doing so.'
+
+Emily regarded the Count with a look of mingled astonishment and
+displeasure.
+
+'Why,' continued he, 'should you wish to diminish the delight of this
+moment by that air of cruel reserve?--Why seek to throw me again into
+the perplexities of doubt, by teaching your eyes to contradict the
+kindness of your late declaration? You cannot doubt the sincerity,
+the ardour of my passion; it is therefore unnecessary, charming
+Emily! surely unnecessary, any longer to attempt a disguise of your
+sentiments.'
+
+'If I ever had disguised them, sir,' said Emily, with recollected
+spirit, 'it would certainly be unnecessary any longer to do so. I had
+hoped, sir, that you would have spared me any farther necessity of
+alluding to them; but, since you do not grant this, hear me declare, and
+for the last time, that your perseverance has deprived you even of the
+esteem, which I was inclined to believe you merited.'
+
+'Astonishing!' exclaimed Montoni: 'this is beyond even my expectation,
+though I have hitherto done justice to the caprice of the sex! But
+you will observe, Mademoiselle Emily, that I am no lover, though Count
+Morano is, and that I will not be made the amusement of your capricious
+moments. Here is the offer of an alliance, which would do honour to any
+family; yours, you will recollect, is not noble; you long resisted my
+remonstrances, but my honour is now engaged, and it shall not be trifled
+with.--You shall adhere to the declaration, which you have made me an
+agent to convey to the Count.'
+
+'I must certainly mistake you, sir,' said Emily; 'my answers on the
+subject have been uniform; it is unworthy of you to accuse me of
+caprice. If you have condescended to be my agent, it is an honour I
+did not solicit. I myself have constantly assured Count Morano, and you
+also, sir, that I never can accept the honour he offers me, and I now
+repeat the declaration.'
+
+The Count looked with an air of surprise and enquiry at Montoni, whose
+countenance also was marked with surprise, but it was surprise mingled
+with indignation.
+
+'Here is confidence, as well as caprice!' said the latter. 'Will you
+deny your own words, Madam?'
+
+'Such a question is unworthy of an answer, sir;' said Emily blushing;
+'you will recollect yourself, and be sorry that you have asked it.'
+
+'Speak to the point,' rejoined Montoni, in a voice of increasing
+vehemence. 'Will you deny your own words; will you deny, that you
+acknowledged, only a few hours ago, that it was too late to recede from
+your engagements, and that you accepted the Count's hand?'
+
+'I will deny all this, for no words of mine ever imported it.'
+
+'Astonishing! Will you deny what you wrote to Mons. Quesnel, your uncle?
+if you do, your own hand will bear testimony against you. What have you
+now to say?' continued Montoni, observing the silence and confusion of
+Emily.
+
+'I now perceive, sir, that you are under a very great error, and that I
+have been equally mistaken.'
+
+'No more duplicity, I entreat; be open and candid, if it be possible.'
+
+'I have always been so, sir; and can claim no merit in such conduct, for
+I have had nothing to conceal.'
+
+'How is this, Signor?' cried Morano, with trembling emotion.
+
+'Suspend your judgment, Count,' replied Montoni, 'the wiles of a female
+heart are unsearchable. Now, Madame, your EXPLANATION.'
+
+'Excuse me, sir, if I withhold my explanation till you appear willing
+to give me your confidence; assertion as present can only subject me to
+insult.'
+
+'Your explanation, I entreat you!' said Morano.
+
+'Well, well,' rejoined Montoni, 'I give you my confidence; let us hear
+this explanation.'
+
+'Let me lead to it then, by asking a question.'
+
+'As many as you please,' said Montoni, contemptuously.
+
+'What, then, was the subject of your letter to Mons. Quesnel?'
+
+'The same that was the subject of your note to him, certainly. You did
+well to stipulate for my confidence before you demanded that question.'
+
+'I must beg you will be more explicit, sir; what was that subject?'
+
+'What could it be, but the noble offer of Count Morano,' said Montoni.
+
+'Then, sir, we entirely misunderstood each other,' replied Emily.
+
+'We entirely misunderstood each other too, I suppose,' rejoined Montoni,
+'in the conversation which preceded the writing of that note? I must do
+you the justice to own, that you are very ingenious at this same art of
+misunderstanding.'
+
+Emily tried to restrain the tears that came to her eyes, and to answer
+with becoming firmness. 'Allow me, sir, to explain myself fully, or to
+be wholly silent.'
+
+'The explanation may now be dispensed with; it is anticipated. If Count
+Morano still thinks one necessary, I will give him an honest one--You
+have changed your intention since our last conversation; and, if he
+can have patience and humility enough to wait till to-morrow, he will
+probably find it changed again: but as I have neither the patience or
+the humility, which you expect from a lover, I warn you of the effect of
+my displeasure!'
+
+'Montoni, you are too precipitate,' said the Count, who had listened
+to this conversation in extreme agitation and impatience;--'Signora, I
+entreat your own explanation of this affair!'
+
+'Signor Montoni has said justly,' replied Emily, 'that all explanation
+may now be dispensed with; after what has passed I cannot suffer myself
+to give one. It is sufficient for me, and for you, sir, that I repeat my
+late declaration; let me hope this is the last time it will be necessary
+for me to repeat it--I never can accept the honour of your alliance.'
+
+'Charming Emily!' exclaimed the Count in an impassioned tone, 'let
+not resentment make you unjust; let me not suffer for the offence of
+Montoni!--Revoke--'
+
+'Offence!' interrupted Montoni--'Count, this language is ridiculous,
+this submission is childish!--speak as becomes a man, not as the slave
+of a pretty tyrant.'
+
+'You distract me, Signor; suffer me to plead my own cause; you have
+already proved insufficient to it.'
+
+'All conversation on this subject, sir,' said Emily, 'is worse than
+useless, since it can bring only pain to each of us: if you would oblige
+me, pursue it no farther.'
+
+'It is impossible, Madam, that I can thus easily resign the object of
+a passion, which is the delight and torment of my life.--I must still
+love--still pursue you with unremitting ardour;--when you shall be
+convinced of the strength and constancy of my passion, your heart must
+soften into pity and repentance.'
+
+'Is this generous, sir? is this manly? can it either deserve or obtain
+the esteem you solicit, thus to continue a persecution from which I have
+no present means of escaping?'
+
+A gleam of moonlight that fell upon Morano's countenance, revealed the
+strong emotions of his soul; and, glancing on Montoni discovered the
+dark resentment, which contrasted his features.
+
+'By heaven this is too much!' suddenly exclaimed the Count; 'Signor
+Montoni, you treat me ill; it is from you that I shall look for
+explanation.'
+
+'From me, sir! you shall have it;' muttered Montoni, 'if your
+discernment is indeed so far obscured by passion, as to make explanation
+necessary. And for you, Madam, you should learn, that a man of honour is
+not to be trifled with, though you may, perhaps, with impunity, treat a
+BOY like a puppet.'
+
+This sarcasm roused the pride of Morano, and the resentment which he
+had felt at the indifference of Emily, being lost in indignation of the
+insolence of Montoni, he determined to mortify him, by defending her.
+
+'This also,' said he, replying to Montoni's last words, 'this also,
+shall not pass unnoticed. I bid you learn, sir, that you have a stronger
+enemy than a woman to contend with: I will protect Signora St. Aubert
+from your threatened resentment. You have misled me, and would revenge
+your disappointed views upon the innocent.'
+
+'Misled you!' retorted Montoni with quickness, 'is my conduct--my
+word'--then pausing, while he seemed endeavouring to restrain the
+resentment, that flashed in his eyes, in the next moment he added, in a
+subdued voice, 'Count Morano, this is a language, a sort of conduct to
+which I am not accustomed: it is the conduct of a passionate boy--as
+such, I pass it over in contempt.'
+
+'In contempt, Signor?'
+
+'The respect I owe myself,' rejoined Montoni, 'requires, that I should
+converse more largely with you upon some points of the subject in
+dispute. Return with me to Venice, and I will condescend to convince you
+of your error.'
+
+'Condescend, sir! but I will not condescend to be so conversed with.'
+
+Montoni smiled contemptuously; and Emily, now terrified for the
+consequences of what she saw and heard, could no longer be silent. She
+explained the whole subject upon which she had mistaken Montoni in the
+morning, declaring, that she understood him to have consulted her solely
+concerning the disposal of La Vallee, and concluding with entreating,
+that he would write immediately to M. Quesnel, and rectify the mistake.
+
+But Montoni either was, or affected to be, still incredulous; and
+Count Morano was still entangled in perplexity. While she was speaking,
+however, the attention of her auditors had been diverted from the
+immediate occasion of their resentment, and their passion consequently
+became less. Montoni desired the Count would order his servants to row
+back to Venice, that he might have some private conversation with him;
+and Morano, somewhat soothed by his softened voice and manner, and eager
+to examine into the full extent of his difficulties, complied.
+
+Emily, comforted by this prospect of release, employed the present
+moments in endeavouring, with conciliating care, to prevent any fatal
+mischief between the persons who so lately had persecuted and insulted
+her.
+
+Her spirits revived, when she heard once more the voice of song and
+laughter, resounding from the grand canal, and at length entered
+again between its stately piazzas. The zendaletto stopped at Montoni's
+mansion, and the Count hastily led her into the hall, where Montoni took
+his arm, and said something in a low voice, on which Morano kissed
+the hand he held, notwithstanding Emily's effort to disengage it,
+and, wishing her a good evening, with an accent and look she could not
+misunderstand, returned to his zendaletto with Montoni.
+
+Emily, in her own apartment, considered with intense anxiety all the
+unjust and tyrannical conduct of Montoni, the dauntless perseverance
+of Morano, and her own desolate situation, removed from her friends and
+country. She looked in vain to Valancourt, confined by his profession
+to a distant kingdom, as her protector; but it gave her comfort to know,
+that there was, at least, one person in the world, who would sympathize
+in her afflictions, and whose wishes would fly eagerly to release her.
+Yet she determined not to give him unavailing pain by relating the
+reasons she had to regret the having rejected his better judgment
+concerning Montoni; reasons, however, which could not induce her to
+lament the delicacy and disinterested affection that had made her reject
+his proposal for a clandestine marriage. The approaching interview with
+her uncle she regarded with some degree of hope, for she determined to
+represent to him the distresses of her situation, and to entreat that he
+would allow her to return to France with him and Madame Quesnel. Then,
+suddenly remembering that her beloved La Vallee, her only home, was no
+longer at her command, her tears flowed anew, and she feared that she
+had little pity to expect from a man who, like M. Quesnel, could dispose
+of it without deigning to consult with her, and could dismiss an aged
+and faithful servant, destitute of either support or asylum. But, though
+it was certain, that she had herself no longer a home in France, and
+few, very few friends there, she determined to return, if possible,
+that she might be released from the power of Montoni, whose particularly
+oppressive conduct towards herself, and general character as to others,
+were justly terrible to her imagination. She had no wish to reside with
+her uncle, M. Quesnel, since his behaviour to her late father and to
+herself, had been uniformly such as to convince her, that in flying to
+him she could only obtain an exchange of oppressors; neither had she the
+slightest intention of consenting to the proposal of Valancourt for an
+immediate marriage, though this would give her a lawful and a generous
+protector, for the chief reasons, which had formerly influenced her
+conduct, still existed against it, while others, which seemed to justify
+the step, would not be done away; and his interest, his fame were at all
+times too dear to her, to suffer her to consent to a union, which, at
+this early period of their lives, would probably defeat both. One sure,
+and proper asylum, however, would still be open to her in France.
+She knew that she could board in the convent, where she had formerly
+experienced so much kindness, and which had an affecting and solemn
+claim upon her heart, since it contained the remains of her late father.
+Here she could remain in safety and tranquillity, till the term, for
+which La Vallee might be let, should expire; or, till the arrangement
+of M. Motteville's affairs enabled her so far to estimate the remains of
+her fortune, as to judge whether it would be prudent for her to reside
+there.
+
+Concerning Montoni's conduct with respect to his letters to M. Quesnel,
+she had many doubts; however he might be at first mistaken on the
+subject, she much suspected that he wilfully persevered in his error, as
+a means of intimidating her into a compliance with his wishes of uniting
+her to Count Morano. Whether this was or was not the fact, she was
+extremely anxious to explain the affair to M. Quesnel, and looked
+forward with a mixture of impatience, hope and fear, to her approaching
+visit.
+
+On the following day, Madame Montoni, being alone with Emily, introduced
+the mention of Count Morano, by expressing her surprise, that she had
+not joined the party on the water the preceding evening, and at
+her abrupt departure to Venice. Emily then related what had passed,
+expressed her concern for the mutual mistake that had occurred between
+Montoni and herself, and solicited her aunt's kind offices in urging him
+to give a decisive denial to the count's further addresses; but she
+soon perceived, that Madame Montoni had not been ignorant of the late
+conversation, when she introduced the present.
+
+'You have no encouragement to expect from me,' said her aunt, 'in these
+notions. I have already given my opinion on the subject, and think
+Signor Montoni right in enforcing, by any means, your consent. If young
+persons will be blind to their interest, and obstinately oppose it, why,
+the greatest blessings they can have are friends, who will oppose their
+folly. Pray what pretensions of any kind do you think you have to such a
+match as is now offered you?'
+
+'Not any whatever, Madam,' replied Emily, 'and, therefore, at least,
+suffer me to be happy in my humility.'
+
+'Nay, niece, it cannot be denied, that you have pride enough; my poor
+brother, your father, had his share of pride too; though, let me add,
+his fortune did not justify it.'
+
+Emily, somewhat embarrassed by the indignation, which this malevolent
+allusion to her father excited, and by the difficulty of rendering her
+answer as temperate as it should be reprehensive, hesitated for some
+moments, in a confusion, which highly gratified her aunt. At length she
+said, 'My father's pride, Madam, had a noble object--the happiness which
+he knew could be derived only from goodness, knowledge and charity.
+As it never consisted in his superiority, in point of fortune, to some
+persons, it was not humbled by his inferiority, in that respect, to
+others. He never disdained those, who were wretched by poverty
+and misfortune; he did sometimes despise persons, who, with many
+opportunities of happiness, rendered themselves miserable by vanity,
+ignorance and cruelty. I shall think it my highest glory to emulate such
+pride.'
+
+'I do not pretend to understand any thing of these high-flown
+sentiments, niece; you have all that glory to yourself: I would teach
+you a little plain sense, and not have you so wise as to despise
+happiness.'
+
+'That would indeed not be wisdom, but folly,' said Emily, 'for wisdom
+can boast no higher attainment than happiness; but you will allow,
+Madam, that our ideas of happiness may differ. I cannot doubt, that you
+wish me to be happy, but I must fear you are mistaken in the means of
+making me so.'
+
+'I cannot boast of a learned education, niece, such as your father
+thought proper to give you, and, therefore, do not pretend to understand
+all these fine speeches about happiness. I must be contented to
+understand only common sense, and happy would it have been for you and
+your father, if that had been included in his education.'
+
+Emily was too much shocked by these reflections on her father's memory,
+to despise this speech as it deserved.
+
+Madame Montoni was about to speak, but Emily quitted the room, and
+retired to her own, where the little spirit she had lately exerted
+yielded to grief and vexation, and left her only to her tears. From
+every review of her situation she could derive, indeed, only new sorrow.
+To the discovery, which had just been forced upon her, of Montoni's
+unworthiness, she had now to add, that of the cruel vanity, for the
+gratification of which her aunt was about to sacrifice her; of the
+effrontery and cunning, with which, at the time that she meditated the
+sacrifice, she boasted of her tenderness, or insulted her victim; and of
+the venomous envy, which, as it did not scruple to attack her father's
+character, could scarcely be expected to withhold from her own.
+
+During the few days that intervened between this conversation and the
+departure for Miarenti, Montoni did not once address himself to Emily.
+His looks sufficiently declared his resentment; but that he should
+forbear to renew a mention of the subject of it, exceedingly surprised
+her, who was no less astonished, that, during three days, Count Morano
+neither visited Montoni, or was named by him. Several conjectures arose
+in her mind. Sometimes she feared that the dispute between them had been
+revived, and had ended fatally to the Count. Sometimes she was inclined
+to hope, that weariness, or disgust at her firm rejection of his suit
+had induced him to relinquish it; and, at others, she suspected that
+he had now recourse to stratagem, and forbore his visits, and prevailed
+with Montoni to forbear the repetition of his name, in the expectation
+that gratitude and generosity would prevail with her to give him the
+consent, which he could not hope from love.
+
+Thus passed the time in vain conjecture, and alternate hopes and fears,
+till the day arrived when Montoni was to set out for the villa of
+Miarenti, which, like the preceding ones, neither brought the Count, or
+the mention of him.
+
+Montoni having determined not to leave Venice, till towards evening,
+that he might avoid the heats, and catch the cool breezes of night,
+embarked about an hour before sun-set, with his family, in a barge, for
+the Brenta. Emily sat alone near the stern of the vessel, and, as it
+floated slowly on, watched the gay and lofty city lessening from her
+view, till its palaces seemed to sink in the distant waves, while its
+loftier towers and domes, illumined by the declining sun, appeared on
+the horizon, like those far-seen clouds which, in more northern climes,
+often linger on the western verge, and catch the last light of a
+summer's evening. Soon after, even these grew dim, and faded in distance
+from her sight; but she still sat gazing on the vast scene of
+cloudless sky, and mighty waters, and listening in pleasing awe to
+the deep-sounding waves, while, as her eyes glanced over the Adriatic,
+towards the opposite shores, which were, however, far beyond the reach
+of sight, she thought of Greece, and, a thousand classical remembrances
+stealing to her mind, she experienced that pensive luxury which is felt
+on viewing the scenes of ancient story, and on comparing their present
+state of silence and solitude with that of their former grandeur and
+animation. The scenes of the Illiad illapsed in glowing colours to her
+fancy--scenes, once the haunt of heroes--now lonely, and in ruins;
+but which still shone, in the poet's strain, in all their youthful
+splendour.
+
+As her imagination painted with melancholy touches, the deserted plains
+of Troy, such as they appeared in this after-day, she reanimated the
+landscape with the following little story.
+
+     STANZAS
+
+ O'er Ilion's plains, where once the warrior bled,
+ And once the poet rais'd his deathless strain,
+ O'er Ilion's plains a weary driver led
+ His stately camels:  For the ruin'd fane
+
+ Wide round the lonely scene his glance he threw,
+ For now the red cloud faded in the west,
+ And twilight o'er the silent landscape drew
+ Her deep'ning veil; eastward his course he prest:
+
+ There, on the grey horizon's glimm'ring bound,
+ Rose the proud columns of deserted Troy,
+ And wandering shepherds now a shelter found
+ Within those walls, where princes wont to joy.
+
+ Beneath a lofty porch the driver pass'd,
+ Then, from his camels heav'd the heavy load;
+ Partook with them the simple, cool repast,
+ And in short vesper gave himself to God.
+
+ From distant lands with merchandise he came,
+ His all of wealth his patient servants bore;
+ Oft deep-drawn sighs his anxious wish proclaim
+ To reach, again, his happy cottage door;
+
+ For there, his wife, his little children, dwell;
+ Their smiles shall pay the toil of many an hour:
+ Ev'n now warm tears to expectation swell,
+ As fancy o'er his mind extends her pow'r.
+
+ A death-like stillness reign'd, where once the song,
+ The song of heroes, wak'd the midnight air,
+ Save, when a solemn murmur roll'd along,
+ That seem'd to say--'for future worlds prepare.'
+
+ For Time's imperious voice was frequent heard
+ Shaking the marble temple to its fall,
+ (By hands he long had conquer'd, vainly rear'd),
+ And distant ruins answer'd to his call.
+
+ While Hamet slept, his camels round him lay,
+ Beneath him, all his store of wealth was piled;
+ And here, his cruse and empty wallet lay,
+ And there, the flute that chear'd him in the wild.
+
+ The robber Tartar on his slumber stole,
+ For o'er the waste, at eve, he watch'd his train;
+ Ah! who his thirst of plunder shall control?
+ Who calls on him for mercy--calls in vain!
+
+ A poison'd poignard in his belt he wore,
+ A crescent sword depended at his side,
+ The deathful quiver at his back he bore,
+ And infants--at his very look had died!
+
+ The moon's cold beam athwart the temple fell,
+ And to his sleeping prey the Tartar led;
+ But soft!--a startled camel shook his bell,
+ Then stretch'd his limbs, and rear'd his drowsy head.
+
+ Hamet awoke! the poignard glitter'd high!
+ Swift from his couch he sprung, and 'scap'd the blow;
+ When from an unknown hand the arrows fly,
+ That lay the ruffian, in his vengeance, low.
+
+ He groan'd, he died! from forth a column'd gate
+ A fearful shepherd, pale and silent, crept,
+ Who, as he watch'd his folded flock star-late,
+ Had mark'd the robber steal where Hamet slept.
+
+ He fear'd his own, and sav'd a stranger's life!
+ Poor Hamet clasp'd him to his grateful heart;
+ Then, rous'd his camels for the dusty strife,
+ And, with the shepherd, hasten'd to depart.
+
+ And now, aurora breathes her fresh'ning gale,
+ And faintly trembles on the eastern cloud;
+ And now, the sun, from under twilight's veil,
+ Looks gaily forth, and melts her airy shroud.
+
+ Wide o'er the level plains, his slanting beams
+ Dart their long lines on Ilion's tower'd site;
+ The distant Hellespont with morning gleams,
+ And old Scamander winds his waves in light.
+
+ All merry sound the camel bells, so gay,
+ And merry beats fond Hamet's heart, for he,
+ E'er the dim evening steals upon the day,
+ His children, wife and happy home shall see.
+
+As Emily approached the shores of Italy she began to discriminate the
+rich features and varied colouring of the landscape--the purple hills,
+groves of orange pine and cypress, shading magnificent villas, and towns
+rising among vineyards and plantations. The noble Brenta, pouring its
+broad waves into the sea, now appeared, and, when she reached its mouth,
+the barge stopped, that the horses might be fastened which were now to
+tow it up the stream. This done, Emily gave a last look to the Adriatic,
+and to the dim sail,
+
+     that from the sky-mix'd wave
+ Dawns on the sight,
+
+and the barge slowly glided between the green and luxuriant slopes
+of the river. The grandeur of the Palladian villas, that adorn these
+shores, was considerably heightened by the setting rays, which threw
+strong contrasts of light and shade upon the porticos and long arcades,
+and beamed a mellow lustre upon the orangeries and the tall groves of
+pine and cypress, that overhung the buildings. The scent of oranges, of
+flowering myrtles, and other odoriferous plants was diffused upon the
+air, and often, from these embowered retreats, a strain of music stole
+on the calm, and 'softened into silence.'
+
+The sun now sunk below the horizon, twilight fell over the landscape,
+and Emily, wrapt in musing silence, continued to watch its features
+gradually vanishing into obscurity. She remembered her many happy
+evenings, when with St. Aubert she had observed the shades of twilight
+steal over a scene as beautiful as this, from the gardens of La Vallee,
+and a tear fell to the memory of her father. Her spirits were softened
+into melancholy by the influence of the hour, by the low murmur of
+the wave passing under the vessel, and the stillness of the air, that
+trembled only at intervals with distant music:--why else should she, at
+these moments, have looked on her attachment to Valancourt with presages
+so very afflicting, since she had but lately received letters from him,
+that had soothed for a while all her anxieties? It now seemed to her
+oppressed mind, that she had taken leave of him for ever, and that the
+countries, which separated them, would never more be re-traced by her.
+She looked upon Count Morano with horror, as in some degree the cause
+of this; but apart from him, a conviction, if such that may be called,
+which arises from no proof, and which she knew not how to account for,
+seized her mind--that she should never see Valancourt again. Though she
+knew, that neither Morano's solicitations, nor Montoni's commands
+had lawful power to enforce her obedience, she regarded both with a
+superstitious dread, that they would finally prevail.
+
+Lost in this melancholy reverie, and shedding frequent tears, Emily was
+at length roused by Montoni, and she followed him to the cabin, where
+refreshments were spread, and her aunt was seated alone. The countenance
+of Madame Montoni was inflamed with resentment, that appeared to be
+the consequence of some conversation she had held with her husband, who
+regarded her with a kind of sullen disdain, and both preserved, for some
+time, a haughty silence. Montoni then spoke to Emily of Mons. Quesnel:
+'You will not, I hope, persist in disclaiming your knowledge of the
+subject of my letter to him?'
+
+'I had hoped, sir, that it was no longer necessary for me to disclaim
+it,' said Emily, 'I had hoped, from your silence, that you was convinced
+of your error.'
+
+'You have hoped impossibilities then,' replied Montoni; 'I might as
+reasonably have expected to find sincerity and uniformity of conduct in
+one of your sex, as you to convict me of error in this affair.'
+
+Emily blushed, and was silent; she now perceived too clearly, that she
+had hoped an impossibility, for, where no mistake had been committed no
+conviction could follow; and it was evident, that Montoni's conduct had
+not been the consequence of mistake, but of design.
+
+Anxious to escape from conversation, which was both afflicting and
+humiliating to her, she soon returned to the deck, and resumed her
+station near the stern, without apprehension of cold, for no vapour rose
+from the water, and the air was dry and tranquil; here, at least, the
+benevolence of nature allowed her the quiet which Montoni had denied her
+elsewhere. It was now past midnight. The stars shed a kind of twilight,
+that served to shew the dark outline of the shores on either hand, and
+the grey surface of the river; till the moon rose from behind a high
+palm grove, and shed her mellow lustre over the scene. The vessel glided
+smoothly on: amid the stillness of the hour Emily heard, now and then,
+the solitary voice of the barge-men on the bank, as they spoke to their
+horses; while, from a remote part of the vessel, with melancholy song,
+
+     The sailor sooth'd,
+ Beneath the trembling moon, the midnight wave.
+
+Emily, meanwhile, anticipated her reception by Mons, and Madame Quesnel;
+considered what she should say on the subject of La Vallee; and then, to
+with-hold her mind from more anxious topics, tried to amuse herself by
+discriminating the faint-drawn features of the landscape, reposing in
+the moon-light. While her fancy thus wandered, she saw, at a distance,
+a building peeping between the moon-light trees, and, as the barge
+approached, heard voices speaking, and soon distinguished the lofty
+portico of a villa, overshadowed by groves of pine and sycamore, which
+she recollected to be the same, that had formerly been pointed out to
+her, as belonging to Madame Quesnel's relative.
+
+The barge stopped at a flight of marble steps, which led up the bank to
+a lawn. Lights appeared between some pillars beyond the portico. Montoni
+sent forward his servant, and then disembarked with his family. They
+found Mons. and Madame Quesnel, with a few friends, seated on sofas in
+the portico, enjoying the cool breeze of the night, and eating fruits
+and ices, while some of their servants at a little distance, on
+the river's bank, were performing a simple serenade. Emily was now
+accustomed to the way of living in this warm country, and was not
+surprised to find Mons. and Madame Quesnel in their portico, two hours
+after midnight.
+
+The usual salutations being over, the company seated themselves in the
+portico, and refreshments were brought them from the adjoining hall,
+where a banquet was spread, and servants attended. When the bustle
+of this meeting had subsided, and Emily had recovered from the little
+flutter into which it had thrown her spirits, she was struck with the
+singular beauty of the hall, so perfectly accommodated to the luxuries
+of the season. It was of white marble, and the roof, rising into an
+open cupola, was supported by columns of the same material. Two opposite
+sides of the apartment, terminating in open porticos, admitted to the
+hall a full view of the gardens, and of the river scenery; in the centre
+a fountain continually refreshed the air, and seemed to heighten the
+fragrance, that breathed from the surrounding orangeries, while its
+dashing waters gave an agreeable and soothing sound. Etruscan lamps,
+suspended from the pillars, diffused a brilliant light over the interior
+part of the hall, leaving the remoter porticos to the softer lustre of
+the moon.
+
+Mons. Quesnel talked apart to Montoni of his own affairs, in his usual
+strain of self-importance; boasted of his new acquisitions, and
+then affected to pity some disappointments, which Montoni had lately
+sustained. Meanwhile, the latter, whose pride at least enabled him to
+despise such vanity as this, and whose discernment at once detected
+under this assumed pity, the frivolous malignity of Quesnel's mind,
+listened to him in contemptuous silence, till he named his niece, and
+then they left the portico, and walked away into the gardens.
+
+Emily, however, still attended to Madame Quesnel, who spoke of France
+(for even the name of her native country was dear to her) and she found
+some pleasure in looking at a person, who had lately been in it. That
+country, too, was inhabited by Valancourt, and she listened to the
+mention of it, with a faint hope, that he also would be named. Madame
+Quesnel, who, when she was in France, had talked with rapture of Italy,
+now, that she was in Italy, talked with equal praise of France, and
+endeavoured to excite the wonder and the envy of her auditors by
+accounts of places, which they had not been happy enough to see. In
+these descriptions she not only imposed upon them, but upon herself, for
+she never thought a present pleasure equal to one, that was passed;
+and thus the delicious climate, the fragrant orangeries and all the
+luxuries, which surrounded her, slept unnoticed, while her fancy
+wandered over the distant scenes of a northern country.
+
+Emily listened in vain for the name of Valancourt. Madame Montoni spoke
+in her turn of the delights of Venice, and of the pleasure she expected
+from visiting the fine castle of Montoni, on the Apennine; which latter
+mention, at least, was merely a retaliating boast, for Emily well knew,
+that her aunt had no taste for solitary grandeur, and, particularly,
+for such as the castle of Udolpho promised. Thus the party continued to
+converse, and, as far as civility would permit, to torture each other
+by mutual boasts, while they reclined on sofas in the portico, and were
+environed with delights both from nature and art, by which any honest
+minds would have been tempered to benevolence, and happy imaginations
+would have been soothed into enchantment.
+
+The dawn, soon after, trembled in the eastern horizon, and the light
+tints of morning, gradually expanding, shewed the beautifully declining
+forms of the Italian mountains and the gleaming landscapes, stretched
+at their feet. Then the sun-beams, shooting up from behind the hills,
+spread over the scene that fine saffron tinge, which seems to impart
+repose to all it touches. The landscape no longer gleamed; all its
+glowing colours were revealed, except that its remoter features were
+still softened and united in the mist of distance, whose sweet effect
+was heightened to Emily by the dark verdure of the pines and cypresses,
+that over-arched the foreground of the river.
+
+The market people, passing with their boats to Venice, now formed a
+moving picture on the Brenta. Most of these had little painted awnings,
+to shelter their owners from the sun-beams, which, together with
+the piles of fruit and flowers, displayed beneath, and the tasteful
+simplicity of the peasant girls, who watched the rural treasures,
+rendered them gay and striking objects. The swift movement of the boats
+down the current, the quick glance of oars in the water, and now and
+then the passing chorus of peasants, who reclined under the sail of
+their little bark, or the tones of some rustic instrument, played by
+a girl, as she sat near her sylvan cargo, heightened the animation and
+festivity of the scene.
+
+When Montoni and M. Quesnel had joined the ladies, the party left
+the portico for the gardens, where the charming scenery soon withdrew
+Emily's thoughts from painful subjects. The majestic forms and rich
+verdure of cypresses she had never seen so perfect before: groves of
+cedar, lemon, and orange, the spiry clusters of the pine and poplar, the
+luxuriant chesnut and oriental plane, threw all their pomp of shade over
+these gardens; while bowers of flowering myrtle and other spicy shrubs
+mingled their fragrance with that of flowers, whose vivid and various
+colouring glowed with increased effect beneath the contrasted umbrage of
+the groves. The air also was continually refreshed by rivulets, which,
+with more taste than fashion, had been suffered to wander among the
+green recesses.
+
+Emily often lingered behind the party, to contemplate the distant
+landscape, that closed a vista, or that gleamed beneath the dark foliage
+of the foreground;--the spiral summits of the mountains, touched with
+a purple tint, broken and steep above, but shelving gradually to their
+base; the open valley, marked by no formal lines of art; and the tall
+groves of cypress, pine and poplar, sometimes embellished by a ruined
+villa, whose broken columns appeared between the branches of a pine,
+that seemed to droop over their fall.
+
+From other parts of the gardens, the character of the view was entirely
+changed, and the fine solitary beauty of the landscape shifted for the
+crowded features and varied colouring of inhabitation.
+
+The sun was now gaining fast upon the sky, and the party quitted the
+gardens, and retired to repose.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+ And poor Misfortune feels the lash of Vice.
+     THOMSON
+
+Emily seized the first opportunity of conversing alone with Mons.
+Quesnel, concerning La Vallee. His answers to her enquiries were
+concise, and delivered with the air of a man, who is conscious of
+possessing absolute power and impatient of hearing it questioned. He
+declared, that the disposal of the place was a necessary measure; and
+that she might consider herself indebted to his prudence for even the
+small income that remained for her. 'But, however,' added he, 'when
+this Venetian Count (I have forgot his name) marries you, your present
+disagreeable state of dependence will cease. As a relation to you I
+rejoice in the circumstance, which is so fortunate for you, and, I may
+add, so unexpected by your friends.' For some moments Emily was chilled
+into silence by this speech; and, when she attempted to undeceive him,
+concerning the purport of the note she had inclosed in Montoni's letter,
+he appeared to have some private reason for disbelieving her assertion,
+and, for a considerable time, persevered in accusing her of capricious
+conduct. Being, at length, however, convinced that she really disliked
+Morano and had positively rejected his suit, his resentment was
+extravagant, and he expressed it in terms equally pointed and inhuman;
+for, secretly flattered by the prospect of a connection with a nobleman,
+whose title he had affected to forget, he was incapable of feeling
+pity for whatever sufferings of his niece might stand in the way of his
+ambition.
+
+Emily saw at once in his manner all the difficulties, that awaited
+her, and, though no oppression could have power to make her renounce
+Valancourt for Morano, her fortitude now trembled at an encounter with
+the violent passions of her uncle.
+
+She opposed his turbulence and indignation only by the mild dignity of
+a superior mind; but the gentle firmness of her conduct served to
+exasperate still more his resentment, since it compelled him to feel
+his own inferiority, and, when he left her, he declared, that, if she
+persisted in her folly, both himself and Montoni would abandon her to
+the contempt of the world.
+
+The calmness she had assumed in his presence failed Emily, when alone,
+and she wept bitterly, and called frequently upon the name of her
+departed father, whose advice to her from his death-bed she then
+remembered. 'Alas!' said she, 'I do indeed perceive how much more
+valuable is the strength of fortitude than the grace of sensibility,
+and I will also endeavour to fulfil the promise I then made; I will
+not indulge in unavailing lamentation, but will try to endure, with
+firmness, the oppression I cannot elude.'
+
+Somewhat soothed by the consciousness of performing a part of St.
+Aubert's last request, and of endeavouring to pursue the conduct which
+he would have approved, she overcame her tears, and, when the company
+met at dinner, had recovered her usual serenity of countenance.
+
+In the cool of the evening, the ladies took the FRESCO along the bank of
+the Brenta in Madame Quesnel's carriage. The state of Emily's mind was
+in melancholy contrast with the gay groups assembled beneath the shades
+that overhung this enchanting stream. Some were dancing under the trees,
+and others reclining on the grass, taking ices and coffee and calmly
+enjoying the effect of a beautiful evening, on a luxuriant landscape.
+Emily, when she looked at the snow-capt Apennines, ascending in the
+distance, thought of Montoni's castle, and suffered some terror, lest he
+should convey her thither, for the purpose of enforcing her obedience;
+but the thought vanished, when she considered, that she was as much in
+his power at Venice as she could be elsewhere.
+
+It was moonlight before the party returned to the villa, where supper
+was spread in the airy hall, which had so much enchanted Emily's fancy,
+on the preceding night. The ladies seated themselves in the portico,
+till Mons. Quesnel, Montoni, and other gentlemen should join them at
+table, and Emily endeavoured to resign herself to the tranquillity of
+the hour. Presently, a barge stopped at the steps that led into the
+gardens, and, soon after, she distinguished the voices of Montoni and
+Quesnel, and then that of Morano, who, in the next moment, appeared. His
+compliments she received in silence, and her cold air seemed at first to
+discompose him; but he soon recovered his usual gaiety of manner,
+though the officious kindness of M. and Madame Quesnel Emily perceived
+disgusted him. Such a degree of attention she had scarcely believed
+could be shewn by M. Quesnel, for she had never before seen him
+otherwise than in the presence of his inferiors or equals.
+
+When she could retire to her own apartment, her mind almost
+involuntarily dwelt on the most probable means of prevailing with the
+Count to withdraw his suit, and to her liberal mind none appeared more
+probable, than that of acknowledging to him a prior attachment and
+throwing herself upon his generosity for a release. When, however,
+on the following day, he renewed his addresses, she shrunk from the
+adoption of the plan she had formed. There was something so repugnant to
+her just pride, in laying open the secret of her heart to such a man
+as Morano, and in suing to him for compassion, that she impatiently
+rejected this design and wondered, that she could have paused upon
+it for a moment. The rejection of his suit she repeated in the most
+decisive terms she could select, mingling with it a severe censure
+of his conduct; but, though the Count appeared mortified by this, he
+persevered in the most ardent professions of admiration, till he was
+interrupted and Emily released by the presence of Madame Quesnel.
+
+During her stay at this pleasant villa, Emily was thus rendered
+miserable by the assiduities of Morano, together with the cruelly
+exerted authority of M. Quesnel and Montoni, who, with her aunt, seemed
+now more resolutely determined upon this marriage than they had even
+appeared to be at Venice. M. Quesnel, finding, that both argument and
+menace were ineffectual in enforcing an immediate conclusion to it, at
+length relinquished his endeavours, and trusted to the power of Montoni
+and to the course of events at Venice. Emily, indeed, looked to Venice
+with hope, for there she would be relieved in some measure from the
+persecution of Morano, who would no longer be an inhabitant of the same
+house with herself, and from that of Montoni, whose engagements would
+not permit him to be continually at home. But amidst the pressure of her
+own misfortunes, she did not forget those of poor Theresa, for whom she
+pleaded with courageous tenderness to Quesnel, who promised, in slight
+and general terms, that she should not be forgotten.
+
+Montoni, in a long conversation with M. Quesnel, arranged the plan to
+be pursued respecting Emily, and M. Quesnel proposed to be at Venice, as
+soon as he should be informed, that the nuptials were concluded.
+
+It was new to Emily to part with any person, with whom she was
+connected, without feeling of regret; the moment, however, in which she
+took leave of M. and Madame Quesnel, was, perhaps, the only satisfactory
+one she had known in their presence.
+
+Morano returned in Montoni's barge, and Emily, as she watched her
+gradual approach to that magic city, saw at her side the only person,
+who occasioned her to view it with less than perfect delight. They
+arrived there about midnight, when Emily was released from the presence
+of the Count, who, with Montoni, went to a Casino, and she was suffered
+to retire to her own apartment.
+
+On the following day, Montoni, in a short conversation, which he held
+with Emily, informed her, that he would no longer be TRIFLED with, and
+that, since her marriage with the Count would be so highly advantageous
+to her, that folly only could object to it, and folly of such extent
+as was incapable of conviction, it should be celebrated without further
+delay, and, if that was necessary, without her consent.
+
+Emily, who had hitherto tried remonstrance, had now recourse to
+supplication, for distress prevented her from foreseeing, that, with a
+man of Montoni's disposition, supplication would be equally useless. She
+afterwards enquired by what right he exerted this unlimited authority
+over her? a question, which her better judgment would have with-held
+her, in a calmer moment, from making, since it could avail her nothing,
+and would afford Montoni another opportunity of triumphing over her
+defenceless condition.
+
+'By what right!' cried Montoni, with a malicious smile, 'by the right of
+my will; if you can elude that, I will not inquire by what right you do
+so. I now remind you, for the last time, that you are a stranger, in a
+foreign country, and that it is your interest to make me your friend;
+you know the means; if you compel me to become your enemy--I will
+venture to tell you, that the punishment shall exceed your expectation.
+You may know _I_ am not to be trifled with.'
+
+Emily continued, for some time after Montoni had left her, in a state of
+despair, or rather stupefaction; a consciousness of misery was all that
+remained in her mind. In this situation Madame Montoni found her, at the
+sound of whose voice Emily looked up, and her aunt, somewhat softened by
+the expression of despair, that fixed her countenance, spoke in a manner
+more kind than she had ever yet done. Emily's heart was touched; she
+shed tears, and, after weeping for some time, recovered sufficient
+composure to speak on the subject of her distress, and to endeavour to
+interest Madame Montoni in her behalf. But, though the compassion of her
+aunt had been surprised, her ambition was not to be overcome, and
+her present object was to be the aunt of a Countess. Emily's efforts,
+therefore, were as unsuccessful as they had been with Montoni, and she
+withdrew to her apartment to think and weep alone. How often did she
+remember the parting scene with Valancourt, and wish, that the Italian
+had mentioned Montoni's character with less reserve! When her mind,
+however, had recovered from the first shock of this behaviour, she
+considered, that it would be impossible for him to compel her alliance
+with Morano, if she persisted in refusing to repeat any part of the
+marriage ceremony; and she persevered in her resolution to await
+Montoni's threatened vengeance rather than give herself for life to a
+man, whom she must have despised for his present conduct, had she never
+even loved Valancourt; yet she trembled at the revenge she thus resolved
+to brave.
+
+An affair, however, soon after occurred, which somewhat called off
+Montoni's attention from Emily. The mysterious visits of Orsino were
+renewed with more frequency since the return of the former to Venice.
+There were others, also, besides Orsino, admitted to these midnight
+councils, and among them Cavigni and Verezzi. Montoni became more
+reserved and austere in his manner than ever; and Emily, if her own
+interests had not made her regardless of his, might have perceived, that
+something extraordinary was working in his mind.
+
+One night, on which a council was not held, Orsino came in great
+agitation of spirits, and dispatched his confidential servant to
+Montoni, who was at a Casino, desiring that he would return home
+immediately; but charging the servant not to mention his name. Montoni
+obeyed the summons, and, on meeting Orsino, was informed of the
+circumstances, that occasioned his visit and his visible alarm, with a
+part of which he was already acquainted.
+
+A Venetian nobleman, who had, on some late occasion, provoked the hatred
+of Orsino, had been way-laid and poniarded by hired assassins: and, as
+the murdered person was of the first connections, the Senate had
+taken up the affair. One of the assassins was now apprehended, who had
+confessed, that Orsino was his employer in the atrocious deed; and the
+latter, informed of his danger, had now come to Montoni to consult on
+the measures necessary to favour his escape. He knew, that, at this
+time, the officers of the police were upon the watch for him, all over
+the city; to leave it, at present, therefore, was impracticable, and
+Montoni consented to secrete him for a few days till the vigilance of
+justice should relax, and then to assist him in quitting Venice. He knew
+the danger he himself incurred by permitting Orsino to remain in his
+house, but such was the nature of his obligations to this man, that he
+did not think it prudent to refuse him an asylum.
+
+Such was the person whom Montoni had admitted to his confidence, and for
+whom he felt as much friendship as was compatible with his character.
+
+While Orsino remained concealed in his house, Montoni was unwilling to
+attract public observation by the nuptials of Count Morano; but this
+obstacle was, in a few days, overcome by the departure of his criminal
+visitor, and he then informed Emily, that her marriage was to be
+celebrated on the following morning. To her repeated assurances, that
+it should not take place, he replied only by a malignant smile; and,
+telling her that the Count and a priest would be at his house, early
+in the morning, he advised her no further to dare his resentment, by
+opposition to his will and to her own interest. 'I am now going out for
+the evening,' said he, 'remember, that I shall give your hand to Count
+Morano in the morning.' Emily, having, ever since his late threats,
+expected, that her trials would at length arrive to this crisis, was
+less shocked by the declaration, that she otherwise would have been,
+and she endeavoured to support herself by the belief, that the marriage
+could not be valid, so long as she refused before the priest to repeat
+any part of the ceremony. Yet, as the moment of trial approached, her
+long-harassed spirits shrunk almost equally from the encounter of his
+vengeance, and from the hand of Count Morano. She was not even perfectly
+certain of the consequence of her steady refusal at the altar, and
+she trembled, more than ever, at the power of Montoni, which seemed
+unlimited as his will, for she saw, that he would not scruple to
+transgress any law, if, by so doing, he could accomplish his project.
+
+While her mind was thus suffering and in a state little short of
+distraction, she was informed that Morano asked permission to see
+her, and the servant had scarcely departed with an excuse, before she
+repented that she had sent one. In the next moment, reverting to
+her former design, and determining to try, whether expostulation and
+entreaty would not succeed, where a refusal and a just disdain had
+failed, she recalled the servant, and, sending a different message,
+prepared to go down to the Count.
+
+The dignity and assumed composure with which she met him, and the
+kind of pensive resignation, that softened her countenance, were
+circumstances not likely to induce him to relinquish her, serving,
+as they did, to heighten a passion, which had already intoxicated his
+judgment. He listened to all she said with an appearance of complacency
+and of a wish to oblige her; but his resolution remained invariably the
+same, and he endeavoured to win her admiration by every insinuating art
+he so well knew how to practise. Being, at length, assured, that she
+had nothing to hope from his justice, she repeated, in a solemn and
+impressive manner, her absolute rejection of his suit, and quitted him
+with an assurance, that her refusal would be effectually maintained
+against every circumstance, that could be imagined for subduing it. A
+just pride had restrained her tears in his presence, but now they flowed
+from the fulness of her heart. She often called upon the name of her
+late father, and often dwelt with unutterable anguish on the idea of
+Valancourt.
+
+She did not go down to supper, but remained alone in her apartment,
+sometimes yielding to the influence of grief and terror, and, at others,
+endeavouring to fortify her mind against them, and to prepare herself
+to meet, with composed courage, the scene of the following morning, when
+all the stratagem of Morano and the violence of Montoni would be united
+against her.
+
+The evening was far advanced, when Madame Montoni came to her chamber
+with some bridal ornaments, which the Count had sent to Emily. She
+had, this day, purposely avoided her niece; perhaps, because her usual
+insensibility failed her, and she feared to trust herself with a view of
+Emily's distress; or possibly, though her conscience was seldom audible,
+it now reproached her with her conduct to her brother's orphan child,
+whose happiness had been entrusted to her care by a dying father.
+
+Emily could not look at these presents, and made a last, though almost
+hopeless, effort to interest the compassion of Madame Montoni, who, if
+she did feel any degree of pity, or remorse, successfully concealed it,
+and reproached her niece with folly in being miserable, concerning a
+marriage, which ought only to make her happy. 'I am sure,' said she, 'if
+I was unmarried, and the Count had proposed to me, I should have been
+flattered by the distinction: and if I should have been so, I am sure,
+niece, you, who have no fortune, ought to feel yourself highly honoured,
+and shew a proper gratitude and humility towards the Count, for his
+condescension. I am often surprised, I must own, to observe how humbly
+he deports himself to you, notwithstanding the haughty airs you give
+yourself; I wonder he has patience to humour you so: if I was he,
+I know, I should often be ready to reprehend you, and make you know
+yourself a little better. I would not have flattered you, I can tell
+you, for it is this absurd flattery that makes you fancy yourself of
+so much consequence, that you think nobody can deserve you, and I often
+tell the Count so, for I have no patience to hear him pay you such
+extravagant compliments, which you believe every word of!'
+
+'Your patience, madam, cannot suffer more cruelly on such occasions,
+than my own,' said Emily.
+
+'O! that is all mere affectation,' rejoined her aunt. 'I know that his
+flattery delights you, and makes you so vain, that you think you may
+have the whole world at your feet. But you are very much mistaken; I
+can assure you, niece, you will not meet with many such suitors as the
+Count: every other person would have turned upon his heel, and left you
+to repent at your leisure, long ago.'
+
+'O that the Count had resembled every other person, then!' said Emily,
+with a heavy sigh.
+
+'It is happy for you, that he does not,' rejoined Madame Montoni;
+'and what I am now saying is from pure kindness. I am endeavouring to
+convince you of your good fortune, and to persuade you to submit to
+necessity with a good grace. It is nothing to me, you know, whether you
+like this marriage or not, for it must be; what I say, therefore, is
+from pure kindness. I wish to see you happy, and it is your own fault if
+you are not so. I would ask you, now, seriously and calmly, what kind of
+a match you can expect, since a Count cannot content your ambition?'
+
+'I have no ambition whatever, madam,' replied Emily, 'my only wish is to
+remain in my present station.'
+
+'O! that is speaking quite from the purpose,' said her aunt, 'I see
+you are still thinking of Mons. Valancourt. Pray get rid of all
+those fantastic notions about love, and this ridiculous pride, and be
+something like a reasonable creature. But, however, this is nothing to
+the purpose--for your marriage with the Count takes place tomorrow, you
+know, whether you approve it or not. The Count will be trifled with no
+longer.'
+
+Emily made no attempt to reply to this curious speech; she felt it
+would be mean, and she knew it would be useless. Madame Montoni laid the
+Count's presents upon the table, on which Emily was leaning, and then,
+desiring she would be ready early in the morning, bade her good-night.
+'Good-night, madam,' said Emily, with a deep sigh, as the door closed
+upon her aunt, and she was left once more to her own sad reflections.
+For some time she sat so lost in thought, as to be wholly unconscious
+where she was; at length, raising her head, and looking round the room,
+its gloom and profound stillness awed her. She fixed her eyes on the
+door, through which her aunt had disappeared, and listened anxiously for
+some sound, that might relieve the deep dejection of her spirits; but it
+was past midnight, and all the family except the servant, who sat up for
+Montoni, had retired to bed. Her mind, long harassed by distress, now
+yielded to imaginary terrors; she trembled to look into the obscurity
+of her spacious chamber, and feared she knew not what; a state of mind,
+which continued so long, that she would have called up Annette, her
+aunt's woman, had her fears permitted her to rise from her chair, and to
+cross the apartment.
+
+These melancholy illusions at length began to disperse, and she retired
+to her bed, not to sleep, for that was scarcely possible, but to try, at
+least, to quiet her disturbed fancy, and to collect strength of spirits
+sufficient to bear her through the scene of the approaching morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+ Dark power! with shudd'ring, meek submitted thought
+ Be mine to read the visions old
+ Which thy awak'ning bards have told,
+ And, lest they meet my blasted view,
+ Hold each strange tale devoutly true.
+     COLLINS' ODE TO FEAR
+
+Emily was recalled from a kind of slumber, into which she had, at
+length, sunk, by a quick knocking at her chamber door. She started up
+in terror, for Montoni and Count Morano instantly came to her mind; but,
+having listened in silence for some time, and recognizing the voice
+of Annette, she rose and opened the door. 'What brings you hither so
+early?' said Emily, trembling excessively. She was unable to support
+herself, and sat down on the bed.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle!' said Annette, 'do not look so pale. I am quite
+frightened to see you. Here is a fine bustle below stairs, all the
+servants running to and fro, and none of them fast enough! Here is a
+bustle, indeed, all of a sudden, and nobody knows for what!'
+
+'Who is below besides them?' said Emily, 'Annette, do not trifle with
+me!'
+
+'Not for the world, ma'amselle, I would not trifle for the world; but
+one cannot help making one's remarks, and there is the Signor in such
+a bustle, as I never saw him before; and he has sent me to tell you,
+ma'am, to get ready immediately.'
+
+'Good God support me!' cried Emily, almost fainting, 'Count Morano is
+below, then!'
+
+'No, ma'amselle, he is not below that I know of,' replied Annette, 'only
+his excellenza sent me to desire you would get ready directly to leave
+Venice, for that the gondolas would be at the steps of the canal in a
+few minutes: but I must hurry back to my lady, who is just at her wits
+end, and knows not which way to turn for haste.'
+
+'Explain, Annette, explain the meaning of all this before you go,' said
+Emily, so overcome with surprise and timid hope, that she had scarcely
+breath to speak.
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, that is more than I can do. I only know that the
+Signor is just come home in a very ill humour, that he has had us
+all called out of our beds, and tells us we are all to leave Venice
+immediately.'
+
+'Is Count Morano to go with the signor?' said Emily, 'and whither are we
+going?'
+
+'I know neither, ma'am, for certain; but I heard Ludovico say something
+about going, after we get to terra-firma, to the signor's castle among
+some mountains, that he talked of.'
+
+'The Apennines!' said Emily, eagerly, 'O! then I have little to hope!'
+
+'That is the very place, ma'am. But cheer up, and do not take it so much
+to heart, and think what a little time you have to get ready in, and how
+impatient the Signor is. Holy St. Mark! I hear the oars on the canal;
+and now they come nearer, and now they are dashing at the steps below;
+it is the gondola, sure enough.'
+
+Annette hastened from the room; and Emily prepared for this unexpected
+flight, as fast as her trembling hands would permit, not perceiving,
+that any change in her situation could possibly be for the worse. She
+had scarcely thrown her books and clothes into her travelling
+trunk, when, receiving a second summons, she went down to her aunt's
+dressing-room, where she found Montoni impatiently reproving his wife
+for delay. He went out, soon after, to give some further orders to his
+people, and Emily then enquired the occasion of this hasty journey; but
+her aunt appeared to be as ignorant as herself, and to undertake the
+journey with more reluctance.
+
+The family at length embarked, but neither Count Morano, nor Cavigni,
+was of the party. Somewhat revived by observing this, Emily, when the
+gondolieri dashed their oars in the water, and put off from the steps
+of the portico, felt like a criminal, who receives a short reprieve. Her
+heart beat yet lighter, when they emerged from the canal into the ocean,
+and lighter still, when they skimmed past the walls of St. Mark, without
+having stopped to take up Count Morano.
+
+The dawn now began to tint the horizon, and to break upon the shores of
+the Adriatic. Emily did not venture to ask any questions of Montoni, who
+sat, for some time, in gloomy silence, and then rolled himself up in his
+cloak, as if to sleep, while Madame Montoni did the same; but Emily, who
+could not sleep, undrew one of the little curtains of the gondola,
+and looked out upon the sea. The rising dawn now enlightened the
+mountain-tops of Friuli, but their lower sides, and the distant waves,
+that rolled at their feet, were still in deep shadow. Emily, sunk in
+tranquil melancholy, watched the strengthening light spreading upon the
+ocean, shewing successively Venice and her islets, and the shores of
+Italy, along which boats, with their pointed latin sails, began to move.
+
+The gondolieri were frequently hailed, at this early hour, by the
+market-people, as they glided by towards Venice, and the lagune
+soon displayed a gay scene of innumerable little barks, passing from
+terra-firma with provisions. Emily gave a last look to that splendid
+city, but her mind was then occupied by considering the probable events,
+that awaited her, in the scenes, to which she was removing, and with
+conjectures, concerning the motive of this sudden journey. It appeared,
+upon calmer consideration, that Montoni was removing her to his secluded
+castle, because he could there, with more probability of success,
+attempt to terrify her into obedience; or, that, should its gloomy and
+sequestered scenes fail of this effect, her forced marriage with the
+Count could there be solemnized with the secrecy, which was necessary
+to the honour of Montoni. The little spirit, which this reprieve had
+recalled, now began to fail, and, when Emily reached the shore, her mind
+had sunk into all its former depression.
+
+Montoni did not embark on the Brenta, but pursued his way in carriages
+across the country, towards the Apennine; during which journey, his
+manner to Emily was so particularly severe, that this alone would have
+confirmed her late conjecture, had any such confirmation been necessary.
+Her senses were now dead to the beautiful country, through which she
+travelled. Sometimes she was compelled to smile at the naivete of
+Annette, in her remarks on what she saw, and sometimes to sigh, as a
+scene of peculiar beauty recalled Valancourt to her thoughts, who was
+indeed seldom absent from them, and of whom she could never hope to hear
+in the solitude, to which she was hastening.
+
+At length, the travellers began to ascend among the Apennines. The
+immense pine-forests, which, at that period, overhung these mountains,
+and between which the road wound, excluded all view but of the cliffs
+aspiring above, except, that, now and then, an opening through the dark
+woods allowed the eye a momentary glimpse of the country below. The
+gloom of these shades, their solitary silence, except when the breeze
+swept over their summits, the tremendous precipices of the mountains,
+that came partially to the eye, each assisted to raise the solemnity of
+Emily's feelings into awe; she saw only images of gloomy grandeur, or of
+dreadful sublimity, around her; other images, equally gloomy and equally
+terrible, gleamed on her imagination. She was going she scarcely
+knew whither, under the dominion of a person, from whose arbitrary
+disposition she had already suffered so much, to marry, perhaps, a man
+who possessed neither her affection, or esteem; or to endure, beyond the
+hope of succour, whatever punishment revenge, and that Italian revenge,
+might dictate.--The more she considered what might be the motive of the
+journey, the more she became convinced, that it was for the purpose of
+concluding her nuptials with Count Morano, with that secrecy, which
+her resolute resistance had made necessary to the honour, if not to
+the safety, of Montoni. From the deep solitudes, into which she was
+immerging, and from the gloomy castle, of which she had heard
+some mysterious hints, her sick heart recoiled in despair, and she
+experienced, that, though her mind was already occupied by peculiar
+distress, it was still alive to the influence of new and local
+circumstance; why else did she shudder at the idea of this desolate
+castle?
+
+As the travellers still ascended among the pine forests, steep rose over
+steep, the mountains seemed to multiply, as they went, and what was the
+summit of one eminence proved to be only the base of another. At length,
+they reached a little plain, where the drivers stopped to rest the
+mules, whence a scene of such extent and magnificence opened below, as
+drew even from Madame Montoni a note of admiration. Emily lost, for a
+moment, her sorrows, in the immensity of nature. Beyond the amphitheatre
+of mountains, that stretched below, whose tops appeared as numerous
+almost, as the waves of the sea, and whose feet were concealed by the
+forests--extended the campagna of Italy, where cities and rivers, and
+woods and all the glow of cultivation were mingled in gay confusion. The
+Adriatic bounded the horizon, into which the Po and the Brenta, after
+winding through the whole extent of the landscape, poured their fruitful
+waves. Emily gazed long on the splendours of the world she was quitting,
+of which the whole magnificence seemed thus given to her sight only to
+increase her regret on leaving it; for her, Valancourt alone was in that
+world; to him alone her heart turned, and for him alone fell her bitter
+tears.
+
+From this sublime scene the travellers continued to ascend among the
+pines, till they entered a narrow pass of the mountains, which shut out
+every feature of the distant country, and, in its stead, exhibited only
+tremendous crags, impending over the road, where no vestige of humanity,
+or even of vegetation, appeared, except here and there the trunk and
+scathed branches of an oak, that hung nearly headlong from the rock,
+into which its strong roots had fastened. This pass, which led into the
+heart of the Apennine, at length opened to day, and a scene of mountains
+stretched in long perspective, as wild as any the travellers had yet
+passed. Still vast pine-forests hung upon their base, and crowned the
+ridgy precipice, that rose perpendicularly from the vale, while, above,
+the rolling mists caught the sun-beams, and touched their cliffs
+with all the magical colouring of light and shade. The scene seemed
+perpetually changing, and its features to assume new forms, as the
+winding road brought them to the eye in different attitudes; while the
+shifting vapours, now partially concealing their minuter beauties and
+now illuminating them with splendid tints, assisted the illusions of the
+sight.
+
+Though the deep vallies between these mountains were, for the most part,
+clothed with pines, sometimes an abrupt opening presented a perspective
+of only barren rocks, with a cataract flashing from their summit among
+broken cliffs, till its waters, reaching the bottom, foamed along with
+unceasing fury; and sometimes pastoral scenes exhibited their 'green
+delights' in the narrow vales, smiling amid surrounding horror. There
+herds and flocks of goats and sheep, browsing under the shade of hanging
+woods, and the shepherd's little cabin, reared on the margin of a clear
+stream, presented a sweet picture of repose.
+
+Wild and romantic as were these scenes, their character had far less
+of the sublime, that had those of the Alps, which guard the entrance
+of Italy. Emily was often elevated, but seldom felt those emotions
+of indescribable awe which she had so continually experienced, in her
+passage over the Alps.
+
+Towards the close of day, the road wound into a deep valley. Mountains,
+whose shaggy steeps appeared to be inaccessible, almost surrounded
+it. To the east, a vista opened, that exhibited the Apennines in their
+darkest horrors; and the long perspective of retiring summits, rising
+over each other, their ridges clothed with pines, exhibited a stronger
+image of grandeur, than any that Emily had yet seen. The sun had just
+sunk below the top of the mountains she was descending, whose long
+shadow stretched athwart the valley, but his sloping rays, shooting
+through an opening of the cliffs, touched with a yellow gleam the
+summits of the forest, that hung upon the opposite steeps, and streamed
+in full splendour upon the towers and battlements of a castle, that
+spread its extensive ramparts along the brow of a precipice above. The
+splendour of these illumined objects was heightened by the contrasted
+shade, which involved the valley below.
+
+'There,' said Montoni, speaking for the first time in several hours, 'is
+Udolpho.'
+
+Emily gazed with melancholy awe upon the castle, which she understood to
+be Montoni's; for, though it was now lighted up by the setting sun, the
+gothic greatness of its features, and its mouldering walls of dark grey
+stone, rendered it a gloomy and sublime object. As she gazed, the light
+died away on its walls, leaving a melancholy purple tint, which spread
+deeper and deeper, as the thin vapour crept up the mountain, while the
+battlements above were still tipped with splendour. From those, too,
+the rays soon faded, and the whole edifice was invested with the solemn
+duskiness of evening. Silent, lonely, and sublime, it seemed to stand
+the sovereign of the scene, and to frown defiance on all, who dared to
+invade its solitary reign. As the twilight deepened, its features
+became more awful in obscurity, and Emily continued to gaze, till its
+clustering towers were alone seen, rising over the tops of the woods,
+beneath whose thick shade the carriages soon after began to ascend.
+
+The extent and darkness of these tall woods awakened terrific images in
+her mind, and she almost expected to see banditti start up from under
+the trees. At length, the carriages emerged upon a heathy rock, and,
+soon after, reached the castle gates, where the deep tone of the portal
+bell, which was struck upon to give notice of their arrival, increased
+the fearful emotions, that had assailed Emily. While they waited till
+the servant within should come to open the gates, she anxiously
+surveyed the edifice: but the gloom, that overspread it, allowed her to
+distinguish little more than a part of its outline, with the massy walls
+of the ramparts, and to know, that it was vast, ancient and dreary. From
+the parts she saw, she judged of the heavy strength and extent of the
+whole. The gateway before her, leading into the courts, was of gigantic
+size, and was defended by two round towers, crowned by overhanging
+turrets, embattled, where, instead of banners, now waved long grass and
+wild plants, that had taken root among the mouldering stones, and which
+seemed to sigh, as the breeze rolled past, over the desolation around
+them. The towers were united by a curtain, pierced and embattled also,
+below which appeared the pointed arch of a huge portcullis, surmounting
+the gates: from these, the walls of the ramparts extended to other
+towers, overlooking the precipice, whose shattered outline, appearing on
+a gleam, that lingered in the west, told of the ravages of war.--Beyond
+these all was lost in the obscurity of evening.
+
+While Emily gazed with awe upon the scene, footsteps were heard within
+the gates, and the undrawing of bolts; after which an ancient servant of
+the castle appeared, forcing back the huge folds of the portal, to admit
+his lord. As the carriage-wheels rolled heavily under the portcullis,
+Emily's heart sunk, and she seemed, as if she was going into her prison;
+the gloomy court, into which she passed, served to confirm the idea,
+and her imagination, ever awake to circumstance, suggested even more
+terrors, than her reason could justify.
+
+Another gate delivered them into the second court, grass-grown, and more
+wild than the first, where, as she surveyed through the twilight its
+desolation--its lofty walls, overtopt with briony, moss and nightshade,
+and the embattled towers that rose above,--long-suffering and murder
+came to her thoughts. One of those instantaneous and unaccountable
+convictions, which sometimes conquer even strong minds, impressed her
+with its horror. The sentiment was not diminished, when she entered an
+extensive gothic hall, obscured by the gloom of evening, which a light,
+glimmering at a distance through a long perspective of arches, only
+rendered more striking. As a servant brought the lamp nearer partial
+gleams fell upon the pillars and the pointed arches, forming a strong
+contrast with their shadows, that stretched along the pavement and the
+walls.
+
+The sudden journey of Montoni had prevented his people from making any
+other preparations for his reception, than could be had in the short
+interval, since the arrival of the servant, who had been sent forward
+from Venice; and this, in some measure, may account for the air of
+extreme desolation, that everywhere appeared.
+
+The servant, who came to light Montoni, bowed in silence, and the
+muscles of his countenance relaxed with no symptom of joy.--Montoni
+noticed the salutation by a slight motion of his hand, and passed on,
+while his lady, following, and looking round with a degree of surprise
+and discontent, which she seemed fearful of expressing, and Emily,
+surveying the extent and grandeur of the hall in timid wonder,
+approached a marble stair-case. The arches here opened to a lofty vault,
+from the centre of which hung a tripod lamp, which a servant was hastily
+lighting; and the rich fret-work of the roof, a corridor, leading into
+several upper apartments, and a painted window, stretching nearly from
+the pavement to the ceiling of the hall, became gradually visible.
+
+Having crossed the foot of the stair-case, and passed through an
+ante-room, they entered a spacious apartment, whose walls, wainscoted
+with black larch-wood, the growth of the neighbouring mountains, were
+scarcely distinguishable from darkness itself. 'Bring more light,'
+said Montoni, as he entered. The servant, setting down his lamp, was
+withdrawing to obey him, when Madame Montoni observing, that the evening
+air of this mountainous region was cold, and that she should like a
+fire, Montoni ordered that wood might be brought.
+
+While he paced the room with thoughtful steps, and Madame Montoni sat
+silently on a couch, at the upper end of it, waiting till the servant
+returned, Emily was observing the singular solemnity and desolation of
+the apartment, viewed, as it now was, by the glimmer of the single lamp,
+placed near a large Venetian mirror, that duskily reflected the scene,
+with the tall figure of Montoni passing slowly along, his arms folded,
+and his countenance shaded by the plume, that waved in his hat.
+
+From the contemplation of this scene, Emily's mind proceeded to the
+apprehension of what she might suffer in it, till the remembrance of
+Valancourt, far, far distant! came to her heart, and softened it into
+sorrow. A heavy sigh escaped her: but, trying to conceal her tears, she
+walked away to one of the high windows, that opened upon the ramparts,
+below which, spread the woods she had passed in her approach to the
+castle. But the night-shade sat deeply on the mountains beyond, and
+their indented outline alone could be faintly traced on the horizon,
+where a red streak yet glimmered in the west. The valley between was
+sunk in darkness.
+
+The scene within, upon which Emily turned on the opening of the door,
+was scarcely less gloomy. The old servant, who had received them at the
+gates, now entered, bending under a load of pine-branches, while two of
+Montoni's Venetian servants followed with lights.
+
+'Your excellenza is welcome to the castle,' said the old man, as he
+raised himself from the hearth, where he had laid the wood: 'it has been
+a lonely place a long while; but you will excuse it, Signor, knowing we
+had but short notice. It is near two years, come next feast of St. Mark,
+since your excellenza was within these walls.'
+
+'You have a good memory, old Carlo,' said Montoni: 'it is there-about;
+and how hast thou contrived to live so long?'
+
+'A-well-a-day, sir, with much ado; the cold winds, that blow through the
+castle in winter, are almost too much for me; and I thought sometimes of
+asking your excellenza to let me leave the mountains, and go down into
+the lowlands. But I don't know how it is--I am loth to quit these old
+walls I have lived in so long.'
+
+'Well, how have you gone on in the castle, since I left it?' said
+Montoni.
+
+'Why much as usual, Signor, only it wants a good deal of repairing.
+There is the north tower--some of the battlements have tumbled down, and
+had liked one day to have knocked my poor wife (God rest her soul!) on
+the head. Your excellenza must know'--
+
+'Well, but the repairs,' interrupted Montoni.
+
+'Aye, the repairs,' said Carlo: 'a part of the roof of the great hall
+has fallen in, and all the winds from the mountains rushed through it
+last winter, and whistled through the whole castle so, that there was no
+keeping one's self warm, be where one would. There, my wife and I used
+to sit shivering over a great fire in one corner of the little hall,
+ready to die with cold, and'--
+
+'But there are no more repairs wanted,' said Montoni, impatiently.
+
+'O Lord! Your excellenza, yes--the wall of the rampart has tumbled down
+in three places; then, the stairs, that lead to the west gallery, have
+been a long time so bad, that it is dangerous to go up them; and the
+passage leading to the great oak chamber, that overhangs the north
+rampart--one night last winter I ventured to go there by myself, and
+your excellenza'--
+
+'Well, well, enough of this,' said Montoni, with quickness: 'I will talk
+more with thee to-morrow.'
+
+The fire was now lighted; Carlo swept the hearth, placed chairs, wiped
+the dust from a large marble table that stood near it, and then left the
+room.
+
+Montoni and his family drew round the fire. Madame Montoni made several
+attempts at conversation, but his sullen answers repulsed her, while
+Emily sat endeavouring to acquire courage enough to speak to him. At
+length, in a tremulous voice, she said, 'May I ask, sir, the motive
+of this sudden journey?'--After a long pause, she recovered sufficient
+courage to repeat the question.
+
+'It does not suit me to answer enquiries,' said Montoni, 'nor does it
+become you to make them; time may unfold them all: but I desire I may
+be no further harassed, and I recommend it to you to retire to your
+chamber, and to endeavour to adopt a more rational conduct, than that
+of yielding to fancies, and to a sensibility, which, to call it by the
+gentlest name, is only a weakness.'
+
+Emily rose to withdraw. 'Good night, madam,' said she to her aunt, with
+an assumed composure, that could not disguise her emotion.
+
+'Good night, my dear,' said Madame Montoni, in a tone of kindness, which
+her niece had never before heard from her; and the unexpected endearment
+brought tears to Emily's eyes. She curtsied to Montoni, and was
+retiring; 'But you do not know the way to your chamber,' said her aunt.
+Montoni called the servant, who waited in the ante-room, and bade
+him send Madame Montoni's woman, with whom, in a few minutes, Emily
+withdrew.
+
+'Do you know which is my room?' said she to Annette, as they crossed the
+hall.
+
+'Yes, I believe I do, ma'amselle; but this is such a strange rambling
+place! I have been lost in it already: they call it the double chamber,
+over the south rampart, and I went up this great stair-case to it. My
+lady's room is at the other end of the castle.'
+
+Emily ascended the marble staircase, and came to the corridor, as they
+passed through which, Annette resumed her chat--'What a wild lonely
+place this is, ma'am! I shall be quite frightened to live in it. How
+often, and often have I wished myself in France again! I little thought,
+when I came with my lady to see the world, that I should ever be shut up
+in such a place as this, or I would never have left my own country!
+This way, ma'amselle, down this turning. I can almost believe in giants
+again, and such like, for this is just like one of their castles; and,
+some night or other, I suppose I shall see fairies too, hopping about
+in that great old hall, that looks more like a church, with its huge
+pillars, than any thing else.'
+
+'Yes,' said Emily, smiling, and glad to escape from more serious
+thought, 'if we come to the corridor, about midnight, and look down into
+the hall, we shall certainly see it illuminated with a thousand lamps,
+and the fairies tripping in gay circles to the sound of delicious music;
+for it is in such places as this, you know, that they come to hold
+their revels. But I am afraid, Annette, you will not be able to pay the
+necessary penance for such a sight: and, if once they hear your voice,
+the whole scene will vanish in an instant.'
+
+'O! if you will bear me company, ma'amselle, I will come to the
+corridor, this very night, and I promise you I will hold my tongue; it
+shall not be my fault if the show vanishes.--But do you think they will
+come?'
+
+'I cannot promise that with certainty, but I will venture to say, it
+will not be your fault if the enchantment should vanish.'
+
+'Well, ma'amselle, that is saying more than I expected of you: but I am
+not so much afraid of fairies, as of ghosts, and they say there are a
+plentiful many of them about the castle: now I should be frightened to
+death, if I should chance to see any of them. But hush! ma'amselle, walk
+softly! I have thought, several times, something passed by me.'
+
+'Ridiculous!' said Emily, 'you must not indulge such fancies.'
+
+'O ma'am! they are not fancies, for aught I know; Benedetto says these
+dismal galleries and halls are fit for nothing but ghosts to live
+in; and I verily believe, if I LIVE long in them I shall turn to one
+myself!'
+
+'I hope,' said Emily, 'you will not suffer Signor Montoni to hear of
+these weak fears; they would highly displease him.'
+
+'What, you know then, ma'amselle, all about it!' rejoined Annette. 'No,
+no, I do know better than to do so; though, if the Signor can sleep
+sound, nobody else in the castle has any right to lie awake, I am sure.'
+Emily did not appear to notice this remark.
+
+'Down this passage, ma'amselle; this leads to a back stair-case. O! if I
+see any thing, I shall be frightened out of my wits!'
+
+'That will scarcely be possible,' said Emily smiling, as she followed
+the winding of the passage, which opened into another gallery: and then
+Annette, perceiving that she had missed her way, while she had been
+so eloquently haranguing on ghosts and fairies, wandered about through
+other passages and galleries, till, at length, frightened by their
+intricacies and desolation, she called aloud for assistance: but they
+were beyond the hearing of the servants, who were on the other side of
+the castle, and Emily now opened the door of a chamber on the left.
+
+'O! do not go in there, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'you will only lose
+yourself further.'
+
+'Bring the light forward,' said Emily, 'we may possibly find our way
+through these rooms.'
+
+Annette stood at the door, in an attitude of hesitation, with the light
+held up to shew the chamber, but the feeble rays spread through not half
+of it. 'Why do you hesitate?' said Emily, 'let me see whither this room
+leads.'
+
+Annette advanced reluctantly. It opened into a suite of spacious and
+ancient apartments, some of which were hung with tapestry, and others
+wainscoted with cedar and black larch-wood. What furniture there was,
+seemed to be almost as old as the rooms, and retained an appearance
+of grandeur, though covered with dust, and dropping to pieces with the
+damps, and with age.
+
+'How cold these rooms are, ma'amselle!' said Annette: 'nobody has lived
+in them for many, many years, they say. Do let us go.'
+
+'They may open upon the great stair-case, perhaps,' said Emily, passing
+on till she came to a chamber, hung with pictures, and took the light
+to examine that of a soldier on horseback in a field of battle.--He was
+darting his spear upon a man, who lay under the feet of the horse, and
+who held up one hand in a supplicating attitude. The soldier,
+whose beaver was up, regarded him with a look of vengeance, and the
+countenance, with that expression, struck Emily as resembling Montoni.
+She shuddered, and turned from it. Passing the light hastily over
+several other pictures, she came to one concealed by a veil of black
+silk. The singularity of the circumstance struck her, and she stopped
+before it, wishing to remove the veil, and examine what could thus
+carefully be concealed, but somewhat wanting courage. 'Holy Virgin! what
+can this mean?' exclaimed Annette. 'This is surely the picture they told
+me of at Venice.'
+
+'What picture?' said Emily. 'Why a picture--a picture,' replied Annette,
+hesitatingly--'but I never could make out exactly what it was about,
+either.'
+
+'Remove the veil, Annette.'
+
+'What! I, ma'amselle!--I! not for the world!' Emily, turning round, saw
+Annette's countenance grow pale. 'And pray, what have you heard of
+this picture, to terrify you so, my good girl?' said she. 'Nothing,
+ma'amselle: I have heard nothing, only let us find our way out.'
+
+'Certainly: but I wish first to examine the picture; take the light,
+Annette, while I lift the veil.' Annette took the light, and immediately
+walked away with it, disregarding Emily's call to stay, who, not
+choosing to be left alone in the dark chamber, at length followed her.
+'What is the reason of this, Annette?' said Emily, when she overtook
+her, 'what have you heard concerning that picture, which makes you so
+unwilling to stay when I bid you?'
+
+'I don't know what is the reason, ma'amselle, replied Annette, 'nor
+any thing about the picture, only I have heard there is something very
+dreadful belonging to it--and that it has been covered up in black EVER
+SINCE--and that nobody has looked at it for a great many years--and it
+somehow has to do with the owner of this castle before Signor Montoni
+came to the possession of it--and'---
+
+'Well, Annette,' said Emily, smiling, 'I perceive it is as you say--that
+you know nothing about the picture.'
+
+'No, nothing, indeed, ma'amselle, for they made me promise never to
+tell:--but'--
+
+'Well,' rejoined Emily, who observed that she was struggling between
+her inclination to reveal a secret, and her apprehension for the
+consequence, 'I will enquire no further'---
+
+'No, pray, ma'am, do not.'
+
+'Lest you should tell all,' interrupted Emily.
+
+Annette blushed, and Emily smiled, and they passed on to the extremity
+of this suite of apartments, and found themselves, after some further
+perplexity, once more at the top of the marble stair-case, where Annette
+left Emily, while she went to call one of the servants of the castle to
+shew them to the chamber, for which they had been seeking.
+
+While she was absent, Emily's thoughts returned to the picture; an
+unwillingness to tamper with the integrity of a servant, had checked her
+enquiries on this subject, as well as concerning some alarming hints,
+which Annette had dropped respecting Montoni; though her curiosity
+was entirely awakened, and she had perceived, that her questions might
+easily be answered. She was now, however, inclined to go back to the
+apartment and examine the picture; but the loneliness of the hour and
+of the place, with the melancholy silence that reigned around her,
+conspired with a certain degree of awe, excited by the mystery attending
+this picture, to prevent her. She determined, however, when day-light
+should have re-animated her spirits, to go thither and remove the veil.
+As she leaned from the corridor, over the stair-case, and her eyes
+wandered round, she again observed, with wonder, the vast strength of
+the walls, now somewhat decayed, and the pillars of solid marble, that
+rose from the hall, and supported the roof.
+
+A servant now appeared with Annette, and conducted Emily to her chamber,
+which was in a remote part of the castle, and at the very end of the
+corridor, from whence the suite of apartments opened, through which they
+had been wandering. The lonely aspect of her room made Emily unwilling
+that Annette should leave her immediately, and the dampness of it
+chilled her with more than fear. She begged Caterina, the servant of the
+castle, to bring some wood and light a fire.
+
+'Aye, lady, it's many a year since a fire was lighted here,' said
+Caterina.
+
+'You need not tell us that, good woman,' said Annette; 'every room in
+the castle feels like a well. I wonder how you contrive to live here;
+for my part, I wish myself at Venice again.' Emily waved her hand for
+Caterina to fetch the wood.
+
+'I wonder, ma'am, why they call this the double chamber?' said Annette,
+while Emily surveyed it in silence and saw that it was lofty and
+spacious, like the others she had seen, and, like many of them, too, had
+its walls lined with dark larch-wood. The bed and other furniture was
+very ancient, and had an air of gloomy grandeur, like all that she
+had seen in the castle. One of the high casements, which she opened,
+overlooked a rampart, but the view beyond was hid in darkness.
+
+In the presence of Annette, Emily tried to support her spirits, and to
+restrain the tears, which, every now and then, came to her eyes. She
+wished much to enquire when Count Morano was expected at the castle,
+but an unwillingness to ask unnecessary questions, and to mention family
+concerns to a servant, withheld her. Meanwhile, Annette's thoughts were
+engaged upon another subject: she dearly loved the marvellous, and
+had heard of a circumstance, connected with the castle, that highly
+gratified this taste. Having been enjoined not to mention it, her
+inclination to tell it was so strong, that she was every instant on the
+point of speaking what she had heard. Such a strange circumstance, too,
+and to be obliged to conceal it, was a severe punishment; but she knew,
+that Montoni might impose one much severer, and she feared to incur it
+by offending him.
+
+Caterina now brought the wood, and its bright blaze dispelled, for a
+while, the gloom of the chamber. She told Annette, that her lady
+had enquired for her, and Emily was once again left to her own sad
+reflections. Her heart was not yet hardened against the stern manners
+of Montoni, and she was nearly as much shocked now, as she had been when
+she first witnessed them. The tenderness and affection, to which she had
+been accustomed, till she lost her parents, had made her particularly
+sensible to any degree of unkindness, and such a reverse as this no
+apprehension had prepared her to support.
+
+To call off her attention from subjects, that pressed heavily on her
+spirits, she rose and again examined her room and its furniture. As
+she walked round it, she passed a door, that was not quite shut, and,
+perceiving, that it was not the one, through which she entered, she
+brought the light forward to discover whither it led. She opened it,
+and, going forward, had nearly fallen down a steep, narrow stair-case
+that wound from it, between two stone walls. She wished to know to what
+it led, and was the more anxious, since it communicated so immediately
+with her apartment; but, in the present state of her spirits, she wanted
+courage to venture into the darkness alone. Closing the door, therefore,
+she endeavoured to fasten it, but, upon further examination, perceived,
+that it had no bolts on the chamber side, though it had two on the
+other. By placing a heavy chair against it, she in some measure remedied
+the defect; yet she was still alarmed at the thought of sleeping in this
+remote room alone, with a door opening she knew not whither, and which
+could not be perfectly fastened on the inside. Sometimes she wished to
+entreat of Madame Montoni, that Annette might have leave to remain with
+her all night, but was deterred by an apprehension of betraying what
+would be thought childish fears, and by an unwillingness to increase the
+apt terrors of Annette.
+
+Her gloomy reflections were, soon after, interrupted by a footstep in
+the corridor, and she was glad to see Annette enter with some supper,
+sent by Madame Montoni. Having a table near the fire, she made the good
+girl sit down and sup with her; and, when their little repast was over,
+Annette, encouraged by her kindness and stirring the wood into a blaze,
+drew her chair upon the hearth, nearer to Emily, and said--'Did you ever
+hear, ma'amselle, of the strange accident, that made the Signor lord of
+this castle?'
+
+'What wonderful story have you now to tell?' said Emily, concealing the
+curiosity, occasioned by the mysterious hints she had formerly heard on
+that subject.
+
+'I have heard all about it, ma'amselle,' said Annette, looking round
+the chamber and drawing closer to Emily; 'Benedetto told it me as we
+travelled together: says he, "Annette, you don't know about this castle
+here, that we are going to?" No, says I, Mr. Benedetto, pray what do you
+know? But, ma'amselle, you can keep a secret, or I would not tell it
+you for the world; for I promised never to tell, and they say, that the
+Signor does not like to have it talked of.'
+
+'If you promised to keep this secret,' said Emily, 'you do right not to
+mention it.'
+
+Annette paused a moment, and then said, 'O, but to you, ma'amselle, to
+you I may tell it safely, I know.'
+
+Emily smiled, 'I certainly shall keep it as faithful as yourself,
+Annette.'
+
+Annette replied very gravely, that would do, and proceeded--'This
+castle, you must know, ma'amselle, is very old, and very strong, and
+has stood out many sieges as they say. Now it was not Signor Montoni's
+always, nor his father's; no; but, by some law or other, it was to come
+to the Signor, if the lady died unmarried.'
+
+'What lady?' said Emily.
+
+'I am not come to that yet,' replied Annette, 'it is the lady I am going
+to tell you about, ma'amselle: but, as I was saying, this lady lived in
+the castle, and had everything very grand about her, as you may suppose,
+ma'amselle. The Signor used often to come to see her, and was in love
+with her, and offered to marry her; for, though he was somehow related,
+that did not signify. But she was in love with somebody else, and would
+not have him, which made him very angry, as they say, and you know,
+ma'amselle, what an ill-looking gentleman he is, when he is angry.
+Perhaps she saw him in a passion, and therefore would not have him. But,
+as I was saying, she was very melancholy and unhappy, and all that, for
+a long while, and--Holy Virgin! what noise is that? did not you hear a
+sound, ma'amselle?'
+
+'It was only the wind,' said Emily, 'but do come to the end of your
+story.'
+
+'As I was saying--O, where was I?--as I was saying--she was very
+melancholy and unhappy a long while, and used to walk about upon the
+terrace, there, under the windows, by herself, and cry so! it would have
+done your heart good to hear her. That is--I don't mean good, but it
+would have made you cry too, as they tell me.'
+
+'Well, but, Annette, do tell me the substance of your tale.'
+
+'All in good time, ma'am; all this I heard before at Venice, but what is
+to come I never heard till to-day. This happened a great many years ago,
+when Signor Montoni was quite a young man. The lady--they called her
+Signora Laurentini, was very handsome, but she used to be in great
+passions, too, sometimes, as well as the Signor. Finding he could not
+make her listen to him--what does he do, but leave the castle, and never
+comes near it for a long time! but it was all one to her; she was just
+as unhappy whether he was here or not, till one evening, Holy St. Peter!
+ma'amselle,' cried Annette, 'look at that lamp, see how blue it burns!'
+She looked fearfully round the chamber. 'Ridiculous girl!' said Emily,
+'why will you indulge those fancies? Pray let me hear the end of your
+story, I am weary.'
+
+Annette still kept her eyes on the lamp, and proceeded in a lower voice.
+'It was one evening, they say, at the latter end of the year, it
+might be about the middle of September, I suppose, or the beginning of
+October; nay, for that matter, it might be November, for that, too, is
+the latter end of the year, but that I cannot say for certain, because
+they did not tell me for certain themselves. However, it was at the
+latter end of the year, this grand lady walked out of the castle into
+the woods below, as she had often done before, all alone, only her maid
+was with her. The wind blew cold, and strewed the leaves about, and
+whistled dismally among those great old chesnut trees, that we passed,
+ma'amselle, as we came to the castle--for Benedetto shewed me the
+trees as he was talking--the wind blew cold, and her woman would have
+persuaded her to return: but all would not do, for she was fond of
+walking in the woods, at evening time, and, if the leaves were falling
+about her, so much the better.
+
+'Well, they saw her go down among the woods, but night came, and she
+did not return: ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock came, and no
+lady! Well, the servants thought to be sure, some accident had befallen
+her, and they went out to seek her. They searched all night long, but
+could not find her, or any trace of her; and, from that day to this,
+ma'amselle, she has never been heard of.'
+
+'Is this true, Annette?' said Emily, in much surprise.
+
+'True, ma'am!' said Annette, with a look of horror, 'yes, it is true,
+indeed. But they do say,' she added, lowering her voice, 'they do say,
+that the Signora has been seen, several times since, walking in the
+woods and about the castle in the night: several of the old servants,
+who remained here some time after, declare they saw her; and, since
+then, she has been seen by some of the vassals, who have happened to be
+in the castle, at night. Carlo, the old steward, could tell such things,
+they say, if he would.'
+
+'How contradictory is this, Annette!' said Emily, 'you say nothing has
+been since known of her, and yet she has been seen!'
+
+'But all this was told me for a great secret,' rejoined Annette, without
+noticing the remark, 'and I am sure, ma'am, you would not hurt either
+me or Benedetto, so much as to go and tell it again.' Emily remained
+silent, and Annette repeated her last sentence.
+
+'You have nothing to fear from my indiscretion,' replied Emily, 'and let
+me advise you, my good Annette, be discreet yourself, and never mention
+what you have just told me to any other person. Signor Montoni, as
+you say, may be angry if he hears of it. But what inquiries were made
+concerning the lady?'
+
+'O! a great deal, indeed, ma'amselle, for the Signor laid claim to the
+castle directly, as being the next heir, and they said, that is, the
+judges, or the senators, or somebody of that sort, said, he could not
+take possession of it till so many years were gone by, and then, if,
+after all, the lady could not be found, why she would be as good as
+dead, and the castle would be his own; and so it is his own. But the
+story went round, and many strange reports were spread, so very strange,
+ma'amselle, that I shall not tell them.'
+
+'That is stranger still, Annette,' said Emily, smiling, and rousing
+herself from her reverie. 'But, when Signora Laurentini was afterwards
+seen in the castle, did nobody speak to her?'
+
+'Speak--speak to her!' cried Annette, with a look of terror; 'no, to be
+sure.'
+
+'And why not?' rejoined Emily, willing to hear further.
+
+'Holy Mother! speak to a spirit!'
+
+'But what reason had they to conclude it was a spirit, unless they had
+approached, and spoken to it?' 'O ma'amselle, I cannot tell. How can you
+ask such shocking questions? But nobody ever saw it come in, or go out
+of the castle; and it was in one place now, and then the next minute in
+quite another part of the castle; and then it never spoke, and, if it
+was alive, what should it do in the castle if it never spoke? Several
+parts of the castle have never been gone into since, they say, for that
+very reason.'
+
+'What, because it never spoke?' said Emily, trying to laugh away the
+fears that began to steal upon her.--'No, ma'amselle, no;' replied
+Annette, rather angrily 'but because something has been seen there. They
+say, too, there is an old chapel adjoining the west side of the castle,
+where, any time at midnight, you may hear such groans!--it makes one
+shudder to think of them!--and strange sights have been seen there--'
+
+'Pr'ythee, Annette, no more of these silly tales,' said Emily.
+
+'Silly tales, ma'amselle! O, but I will tell you one story about this,
+if you please, that Caterina told me. It was one cold winter's night
+that Caterina (she often came to the castle then, she says, to keep old
+Carlo and his wife company, and so he recommended her afterwards to the
+Signor, and she has lived here ever since) Caterina was sitting with
+them in the little hall, says Carlo, "I wish we had some of those figs
+to roast, that lie in the store-closet, but it is a long way off, and I
+am loath to fetch them; do, Caterina," says he, "for you are young and
+nimble, do bring us some, the fire is in nice trim for roasting them;
+they lie," says he, "in such a corner of the store-room, at the end of
+the north-gallery; here, take the lamp," says he, "and mind, as you go
+up the great stair-case, that the wind, through the roof, does not blow
+it out." So, with that, Caterina took the lamp--Hush! ma'amselle, I
+surely heard a noise!'
+
+Emily, whom Annette had now infected with her own terrors, listened
+attentively; but every thing was still, and Annette proceeded:
+
+'Caterina went to the north-gallery, that is the wide gallery we passed,
+ma'am, before we came to the corridor, here. As she went with the lamp
+in her hand, thinking of nothing at all--There, again!' cried Annette
+suddenly--'I heard it again!--it was not fancy, ma'amselle!'
+
+'Hush!' said Emily, trembling. They listened, and, continuing to sit
+quite still, Emily heard a low knocking against the wall. It came
+repeatedly. Annette then screamed loudly, and the chamber door slowly
+opened.--It was Caterina, come to tell Annette, that her lady wanted
+her. Emily, though she now perceived who it was, could not immediately
+overcome her terror; while Annette, half laughing, half crying, scolded
+Caterina heartily for thus alarming them; and was also terrified lest
+what she had told had been overheard.--Emily, whose mind was deeply
+impressed by the chief circumstance of Annette's relation, was unwilling
+to be left alone, in the present state of her spirits; but, to avoid
+offending Madame Montoni, and betraying her own weakness, she struggled
+to overcome the illusions of fear, and dismissed Annette for the night.
+
+When she was alone, her thoughts recurred to the strange history of
+Signora Laurentini and then to her own strange situation, in the wild
+and solitary mountains of a foreign country, in the castle, and the
+power of a man, to whom, only a few preceding months, she was an entire
+stranger; who had already exercised an usurped authority over her, and
+whose character she now regarded, with a degree of terror, apparently
+justified by the fears of others. She knew, that he had invention equal
+to the conception and talents to the execution of any project, and
+she greatly feared he had a heart too void of feeling to oppose the
+perpetration of whatever his interest might suggest. She had long
+observed the unhappiness of Madame Montoni, and had often been witness
+to the stern and contemptuous behaviour she received from her husband.
+To these circumstances, which conspired to give her just cause for
+alarm, were now added those thousand nameless terrors, which exist only
+in active imaginations, and which set reason and examination equally at
+defiance.
+
+Emily remembered all that Valancourt had told her, on the eve of her
+departure from Languedoc, respecting Montoni, and all that he had said
+to dissuade her from venturing on the journey. His fears had often since
+appeared to her prophetic--now they seemed confirmed. Her heart, as
+it gave her back the image of Valancourt, mourned in vain regret, but
+reason soon came with a consolation which, though feeble at first,
+acquired vigour from reflection. She considered, that, whatever might be
+her sufferings, she had withheld from involving him in misfortune, and
+that, whatever her future sorrows could be, she was, at least, free from
+self-reproach.
+
+Her melancholy was assisted by the hollow sighings of the wind along the
+corridor and round the castle. The cheerful blaze of the wood had long
+been extinguished, and she sat with her eyes fixed on the dying embers,
+till a loud gust, that swept through the corridor, and shook the doors
+and casements, alarmed her, for its violence had moved the chair she had
+placed as a fastening, and the door, leading to the private stair-case
+stood half open. Her curiosity and her fears were again awakened. She
+took the lamp to the top of the steps, and stood hesitating whether to
+go down; but again the profound stillness and the gloom of the place
+awed her, and, determining to enquire further, when day-light might
+assist the search, she closed the door, and placed against it a stronger
+guard.
+
+She now retired to her bed, leaving the lamp burning on the table; but
+its gloomy light, instead of dispelling her fear, assisted it; for,
+by its uncertain rays, she almost fancied she saw shapes flit past her
+curtains and glide into the remote obscurity of her chamber.--The castle
+clock struck one before she closed her eyes to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+      I think it is the weakness of mine eyes,
+ That shapes this monstrous apparition.
+ It comes upon me!
+      JULIUS CAESAR
+
+Daylight dispelled from Emily's mind the glooms of superstition, but
+not those of apprehension. The Count Morano was the first image, that
+occurred to her waking thoughts, and then came a train of anticipated
+evils, which she could neither conquer, nor avoid. She rose, and, to
+relieve her mind from the busy ideas, that tormented it, compelled
+herself to notice external objects. From her casement she looked out
+upon the wild grandeur of the scene, closed nearly on all sides by
+alpine steeps, whose tops, peeping over each other, faded from the eye
+in misty hues, while the promontories below were dark with woods, that
+swept down to their base, and stretched along the narrow vallies. The
+rich pomp of these woods was particularly delightful to Emily; and she
+viewed with astonishment the fortifications of the castle spreading
+along a vast extent of rock, and now partly in decay, the grandeur of
+the ramparts below, and the towers and battlements and various features
+of the fabric above. From these her sight wandered over the cliffs and
+woods into the valley, along which foamed a broad and rapid stream, seen
+falling among the crags of an opposite mountain, now flashing in the
+sun-beams, and now shadowed by over-arching pines, till it was entirely
+concealed by their thick foliage. Again it burst from beneath this
+darkness in one broad sheet of foam, and fell thundering into the vale.
+Nearer, towards the west, opened the mountain-vista, which Emily had
+viewed with such sublime emotion, on her approach to the castle: a thin
+dusky vapour, that rose from the valley, overspread its features with a
+sweet obscurity. As this ascended and caught the sun-beams, it kindled
+into a crimson tint, and touched with exquisite beauty the woods and
+cliffs, over which it passed to the summit of the mountains; then, as
+the veil drew up, it was delightful to watch the gleaming objects, that
+progressively disclosed themselves in the valley--the green turf--dark
+woods--little rocky recesses--a few peasants' huts--the foaming
+stream--a herd of cattle, and various images of pastoral beauty. Then,
+the pine-forests brightened, and then the broad breast of the mountains,
+till, at length, the mist settled round their summit, touching them with
+a ruddy glow. The features of the vista now appeared distinctly, and the
+broad deep shadows, that fell from the lower cliffs, gave strong effect
+to the streaming splendour above; while the mountains, gradually sinking
+in the perspective, appeared to shelve into the Adriatic sea, for such
+Emily imagined to be the gleam of blueish light, that terminated the
+view.
+
+Thus she endeavoured to amuse her fancy, and was not unsuccessful.
+The breezy freshness of the morning, too, revived her. She raised her
+thoughts in prayer, which she felt always most disposed to do, when
+viewing the sublimity of nature, and her mind recovered its strength.
+
+When she turned from the casement, her eyes glanced upon the door she
+had so carefully guarded, on the preceding night, and she now determined
+to examine whither it led; but, on advancing to remove the chairs,
+she perceived, that they were already moved a little way. Her surprise
+cannot be easily imagined, when, in the next minute, she perceived that
+the door was fastened.--She felt, as if she had seen an apparition. The
+door of the corridor was locked as she had left it, but this door, which
+could be secured only on the outside, must have been bolted, during the
+night. She became seriously uneasy at the thought of sleeping again in
+a chamber, thus liable to intrusion, so remote, too, as it was from
+the family, and she determined to mention the circumstance to Madame
+Montoni, and to request a change.
+
+After some perplexity she found her way into the great hall, and to the
+room, which she had left, on the preceding night, where breakfast was
+spread, and her aunt was alone, for Montoni had been walking over the
+environs of the castle, examining the condition of its fortifications,
+and talking for some time with Carlo. Emily observed that her aunt had
+been weeping, and her heart softened towards her, with an affection,
+that shewed itself in her manner, rather than in words, while she
+carefully avoided the appearance of having noticed, that she was
+unhappy. She seized the opportunity of Montoni's absence to mention the
+circumstance of the door, to request that she might be allowed another
+apartment, and to enquire again, concerning the occasion of their
+sudden journey. On the first subject her aunt referred her to Montoni,
+positively refusing to interfere in the affair; on the last, she
+professed utter ignorance.
+
+Emily, then, with a wish of making her aunt more reconciled to her
+situation, praised the grandeur of the castle and the surrounding
+scenery, and endeavoured to soften every unpleasing circumstance
+attending it. But, though misfortune had somewhat conquered the
+asperities of Madame Montoni's temper, and, by increasing her cares
+for herself, had taught her to feel in some degree for others, the
+capricious love of rule, which nature had planted and habit had
+nourished in her heart, was not subdued. She could not now deny herself
+the gratification of tyrannizing over the innocent and helpless Emily,
+by attempting to ridicule the taste she could not feel.
+
+Her satirical discourse was, however, interrupted by the entrance of
+Montoni, and her countenance immediately assumed a mingled expression of
+fear and resentment, while he seated himself at the breakfast-table, as
+if unconscious of there being any person but himself in the room.
+
+Emily, as she observed him in silence, saw, that his countenance was
+darker and sterner than usual. 'O could I know,' said she to herself,
+'what passes in that mind; could I know the thoughts, that are known
+there, I should no longer be condemned to this torturing suspense!'
+Their breakfast passed in silence, till Emily ventured to request, that
+another apartment might be allotted to her, and related the circumstance
+which made her wish it.
+
+'I have no time to attend to these idle whims,' said Montoni, 'that
+chamber was prepared for you, and you must rest contented with it. It
+is not probable, that any person would take the trouble of going to that
+remote stair-case, for the purpose of fastening a door. If it was not
+fastened, when you entered the chamber, the wind, perhaps, shook the
+door and made the bolts slide. But I know not why I should undertake to
+account for so trifling an occurrence.'
+
+This explanation was by no means satisfactory to Emily, who had
+observed, that the bolts were rusted, and consequently could not be thus
+easily moved; but she forbore to say so, and repeated her request.
+
+
+'If you will not release yourself from the slavery of these fears,' said
+Montoni, sternly, 'at least forbear to torment others by the mention
+of them. Conquer such whims, and endeavour to strengthen your mind. No
+existence is more contemptible than that, which is embittered by fear.'
+As he said this, his eye glanced upon Madame Montoni, who coloured
+highly, but was still silent. Emily, wounded and disappointed, thought
+her fears were, in this instance, too reasonable to deserve ridicule;
+but, perceiving, that, however they might oppress her, she must endure
+them, she tried to withdraw her attention from the subject.
+
+Carlo soon after entered with some fruit:
+
+'Your excellenza is tired after your long ramble,' said he, as he set
+the fruit upon the table; 'but you have more to see after breakfast.
+There is a place in the vaulted passage leading to--'
+
+Montoni frowned upon him, and waved his hand for him to leave the
+room. Carlo stopped, looked down, and then added, as he advanced to the
+breakfast-table, and took up the basket of fruit, 'I made bold, your
+excellenza, to bring some cherries, here, for my honoured lady and
+my young mistress. Will your ladyship taste them, madam?' said Carlo,
+presenting the basket, 'they are very fine ones, though I gathered them
+myself, and from an old tree, that catches all the south sun; they are
+as big as plums, your ladyship.'
+
+'Very well, old Carlo,' said Madame Montoni; 'I am obliged to you.'
+
+'And the young Signora, too, she may like some of them,' rejoined Carlo,
+turning with the basket to Emily, 'it will do me good to see her eat
+some.'
+
+'Thank you, Carlo,' said Emily, taking some cherries, and smiling
+kindly.
+
+'Come, come,' said Montoni, impatiently, 'enough of this. Leave the
+room, but be in waiting. I shall want you presently.'
+
+Carlo obeyed, and Montoni, soon after, went out to examine further into
+the state of the castle; while Emily remained with her aunt, patiently
+enduring her ill humour, and endeavouring, with much sweetness, to
+soothe her affliction, instead of resenting its effect.
+
+When Madame Montoni retired to her dressing-room, Emily endeavoured to
+amuse herself by a view of the castle. Through a folding door she passed
+from the great hall to the ramparts, which extended along the brow of
+the precipice, round three sides of the edifice; the fourth was guarded
+by the high walls of the courts, and by the gateway, through which
+she had passed, on the preceding evening. The grandeur of the broad
+ramparts, and the changing scenery they overlooked, excited her high
+admiration; for the extent of the terraces allowed the features of the
+country to be seen in such various points of view, that they appeared to
+form new landscapes. She often paused to examine the gothic magnificence
+of Udolpho, its proud irregularity, its lofty towers and battlements,
+its high-arched casements, and its slender watch-towers, perched upon
+the corners of turrets. Then she would lean on the wall of the terrace,
+and, shuddering, measure with her eye the precipice below, till the
+dark summits of the woods arrested it. Wherever she turned, appeared
+mountain-tops, forests of pine and narrow glens, opening among the
+Apennines and retiring from the sight into inaccessible regions.
+
+While she thus leaned, Montoni, followed by two men, appeared, ascending
+a winding path, cut in the rock below. He stopped upon a cliff, and,
+pointing to the ramparts, turned to his followers, and talked with much
+eagerness of gesticulation.--Emily perceived, that one of these men was
+Carlo; the other was in the dress of a peasant, and he alone seemed to
+be receiving the directions of Montoni.
+
+She withdrew from the walls, and pursued her walk, till she heard at
+a distance the sound of carriage wheels, and then the loud bell of
+the portal, when it instantly occurred to her, that Count Morano was
+arrived. As she hastily passed the folding doors from the terrace,
+towards her own apartment, several persons entered the hall by an
+opposite door. She saw them at the extremities of the arcades, and
+immediately retreated; but the agitation of her spirits, and the extent
+and duskiness of the hall, had prevented her from distinguishing the
+persons of the strangers. Her fears, however, had but one object, and
+they had called up that object to her fancy:--she believed that she had
+seen Count Morano.
+
+When she thought that they had passed the hall, she ventured again to
+the door, and proceeded, unobserved, to her room, where she remained,
+agitated with apprehensions, and listening to every distant sound. At
+length, hearing voices on the rampart, she hastened to her window,
+and observed Montoni, with Signor Cavigni, walking below, conversing
+earnestly, and often stopping and turning towards each other, at which
+time their discourse seemed to be uncommonly interesting.
+
+Of the several persons who had appeared in the hall, here was Cavigni
+alone: but Emily's alarm was soon after heightened by the steps of some
+one in the corridor, who, she apprehended, brought a message from the
+Count. In the next moment, Annette appeared.
+
+'Ah! ma'amselle,' said she, 'here is the Signor Cavigni arrived! I am
+sure I rejoiced to see a christian person in this place; and then he is
+so good natured too, he always takes so much notice of me!--And here is
+also Signor Verezzi, and who do you think besides, ma'amselle?'
+
+'I cannot guess, Annette; tell me quickly.'
+
+'Nay, ma'am, do guess once.'
+
+'Well, then,' said Emily, with assumed composure, 'it is--Count Morano,
+I suppose.'
+
+'Holy Virgin!' cried Annette, 'are you ill, ma'amselle? you are going to
+faint! let me get some water.'
+
+Emily sunk into a chair. 'Stay, Annette,' said she, feebly, 'do not
+leave me--I shall soon be better; open the casement.--The Count, you
+say--he is come, then?'
+
+'Who, I!--the Count! No, ma'amselle, I did not say so.' 'He is NOT come
+then?' said Emily eagerly. 'No, ma'amselle.'
+
+'You are sure of it?'
+
+'Lord bless me!' said Annette, 'you recover very suddenly, ma'am! why, I
+thought you was dying, just now.'
+
+'But the Count--you are sure, is not come?'
+
+'O yes, quite sure of that, ma'amselle. Why, I was looking out through
+the grate in the north turret, when the carriages drove into the
+court-yard, and I never expected to see such a goodly sight in this
+dismal old castle! but here are masters and servants, too, enough to
+make the place ring again. O! I was ready to leap through the rusty old
+bars for joy!--O! who would ever have thought of seeing a christian
+face in this huge dreary house? I could have kissed the very horses that
+brought them.'
+
+'Well, Annette, well, I am better now.'
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, I see you are. O! all the servants will lead merry
+lives here, now; we shall have singing and dancing in the little hall,
+for the Signor cannot hear us there--and droll stories--Ludovico's come,
+ma'am; yes, there is Ludovico come with them! You remember Ludovico,
+ma'am--a tall, handsome young man--Signor Cavigni's lacquey--who always
+wears his cloak with such a grace, thrown round his left arm, and his
+hat set on so smartly, all on one side, and--'
+
+'No,' said Emily, who was wearied by her loquacity.
+
+'What, ma'amselle, don't you remember Ludovico--who rowed the
+Cavaliero's gondola, at the last regatta, and won the prize? And
+who used to sing such sweet verses about Orlandos and about the
+Black-a-moors, too; and Charly--Charly--magne, yes, that was the name,
+all under my lattice, in the west portico, on the moon-light nights at
+Venice? O! I have listened to him!'---
+
+'I fear, to thy peril, my good Annette,' said Emily; 'for it seems his
+verses have stolen thy heart. But let me advise you; if it is so, keep
+the secret; never let him know it.'
+
+'Ah--ma'amselle!--how can one keep such a secret as that?'
+
+'Well, Annette, I am now so much better, that you may leave me.'
+
+'O, but, ma'amselle, I forgot to ask--how did you sleep in this
+dreary old chamber last night?'--'As well as usual.'--'Did you hear
+no noises?'--'None.'--'Nor see anything?'--'Nothing.'--'Well, that is
+surprising!'--'Not in the least: and now tell me, why you ask these
+questions.'
+
+'O, ma'amselle! I would not tell you for the world, nor all I have heard
+about this chamber, either; it would frighten you so.'
+
+'If that is all, you have frightened me already, and may therefore tell
+me what you know, without hurting your conscience.'
+
+'O Lord! they say the room is haunted, and has been so these many
+years.'
+
+'It is by a ghost, then, who can draw bolts,' said Emily, endeavouring
+to laugh away her apprehensions; 'for I left the door open, last night,
+and found it fastened this morning.'
+
+Annette turned pale, and said not a word.
+
+'Do you know whether any of the servants fastened this door in the
+morning, before I rose?'
+
+'No, ma'am, that I will be bound they did not; but I don't know: shall
+I go and ask, ma'amselle?' said Annette, moving hastily towards the
+corridor.
+
+'Stay, Annette, I have another question to ask; tell me what you have
+heard concerning this room, and whither that stair-case leads.'
+
+'I will go and ask it all directly, ma'am; besides, I am sure my lady
+wants me. I cannot stay now, indeed, ma'am.'
+
+She hurried from the room, without waiting Emily's reply, whose heart,
+lightened by the certainty, that Morano was not arrived, allowed her
+to smile at the superstitious terror, which had seized on Annette; for,
+though she sometimes felt its influence herself, she could smile at it,
+when apparent in other persons.
+
+Montoni having refused Emily another chamber, she determined to bear
+with patience the evil she could not remove, and, in order to make the
+room as comfortable as possible, unpacked her books, her sweet delight
+in happier days, and her soothing resource in the hours of moderate
+sorrow: but there were hours when even these failed of their effect;
+when the genius, the taste, the enthusiasm of the sublimest writers were
+felt no longer.
+
+Her little library being arranged on a high chest, part of the furniture
+of the room, she took out her drawing utensils, and was tranquil enough
+to be pleased with the thought of sketching the sublime scenes, beheld
+from her windows; but she suddenly checked this pleasure, remembering
+how often she had soothed herself by the intention of obtaining
+amusement of this kind, and had been prevented by some new circumstance
+of misfortune.
+
+'How can I suffer myself to be deluded by hope,' said she, 'and, because
+Count Morano is not yet arrived, feel a momentary happiness? Alas! what
+is it to me, whether he is here to-day, or to-morrow, if he comes at
+all?--and that he will come--it were weakness to doubt.'
+
+To withdraw her thoughts, however, from the subject of her misfortunes,
+she attempted to read, but her attention wandered from the page, and,
+at length, she threw aside the book, and determined to explore the
+adjoining chambers of the castle. Her imagination was pleased with the
+view of ancient grandeur, and an emotion of melancholy awe awakened all
+its powers, as she walked through rooms, obscure and desolate, where no
+footsteps had passed probably for many years, and remembered the strange
+history of the former possessor of the edifice. This brought to her
+recollection the veiled picture, which had attracted her curiosity,
+on the preceding night, and she resolved to examine it. As she passed
+through the chambers, that led to this, she found herself somewhat
+agitated; its connection with the late lady of the castle, and the
+conversation of Annette, together with the circumstance of the veil,
+throwing a mystery over the subject, that excited a faint degree of
+terror. But a terror of this nature, as it occupies and expands the
+mind, and elevates it to high expectation, is purely sublime, and leads
+us, by a kind of fascination, to seek even the object, from which we
+appear to shrink.
+
+Emily passed on with faltering steps, and having paused a moment at
+the door, before she attempted to open it, she then hastily entered the
+chamber, and went towards the picture, which appeared to be enclosed
+in a frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the room.
+She paused again, and then, with a timid hand, lifted the veil; but
+instantly let it fall--perceiving that what it had concealed was no
+picture, and, before she could leave the chamber, she dropped senseless
+on the floor.
+
+When she recovered her recollection, the remembrance of what she had
+seen had nearly deprived her of it a second time. She had scarcely
+strength to remove from the room, and regain her own; and, when arrived
+there, wanted courage to remain alone. Horror occupied her mind, and
+excluded, for a time, all sense of past, and dread of future misfortune:
+she seated herself near the casement, because from thence she heard
+voices, though distant, on the terrace, and might see people pass, and
+these, trifling as they were, were reviving circumstances. When her
+spirits had recovered their tone, she considered, whether she should
+mention what she had seen to Madame Montoni, and various and important
+motives urged her to do so, among which the least was the hope of the
+relief, which an overburdened mind finds in speaking of the subject of
+its interest. But she was aware of the terrible consequences, which such
+a communication might lead to; and, dreading the indiscretion of her
+aunt, at length, endeavoured to arm herself with resolution to observe a
+profound silence, on the subject. Montoni and Verezzi soon after passed
+under the casement, speaking cheerfully, and their voices revived her.
+Presently the Signors Bertolini and Cavigni joined the party on the
+terrace, and Emily, supposing that Madame Montoni was then alone, went
+to seek her; for the solitude of her chamber, and its proximity to that
+where she had received so severe a shock, again affected her spirit.
+
+She found her aunt in her dressing-room, preparing for dinner. Emily's
+pale and affrighted countenance alarmed even Madame Montoni; but she had
+sufficient strength of mind to be silent on the subject, that still made
+her shudder, and which was ready to burst from her lips. In her aunt's
+apartment she remained, till they both descended to dinner. There she
+met the gentlemen lately arrived, who had a kind of busy seriousness in
+their looks, which was somewhat unusual with them, while their thoughts
+seemed too much occupied by some deep interest, to suffer them to bestow
+much attention either on Emily, or Madame Montoni. They spoke little,
+and Montoni less. Emily, as she now looked on him, shuddered. The horror
+of the chamber rushed on her mind. Several times the colour faded from
+her cheeks, and she feared, that illness would betray her emotions,
+and compel her to leave the room; but the strength of her resolution
+remedied the weakness of her frame; she obliged herself to converse, and
+even tried to look cheerful.
+
+Montoni evidently laboured under some vexation, such as would probably
+have agitated a weaker mind, or a more susceptible heart, but which
+appeared, from the sternness of his countenance, only to bend up his
+faculties to energy and fortitude.
+
+It was a comfortless and silent meal. The gloom of the castle seemed to
+have spread its contagion even over the gay countenance of Cavigni, and
+with this gloom was mingled a fierceness, such as she had seldom seen
+him indicate. Count Morano was not named, and what conversation there
+was, turned chiefly upon the wars, which at that time agitated the
+Italian states, the strength of the Venetian armies, and the characters
+of their generals.
+
+After dinner, when the servants had withdrawn, Emily learned, that the
+cavalier, who had drawn upon himself the vengeance of Orsino, had since
+died of his wounds, and that strict search was still making for his
+murderer. The intelligence seemed to disturb Montoni, who mused, and
+then enquired, where Orsino had concealed himself. His guests, who all,
+except Cavigni, were ignorant, that Montoni had himself assisted him
+to escape from Venice, replied, that he had fled in the night with such
+precipitation and secrecy, that his most intimate companions knew not
+whither. Montoni blamed himself for having asked the question, for a
+second thought convinced him, that a man of Orsino's suspicious temper
+was not likely to trust any of the persons present with the knowledge
+of his asylum. He considered himself, however, as entitled to his utmost
+confidence, and did not doubt, that he should soon hear of him.
+
+Emily retired with Madame Montoni, soon after the cloth was withdrawn,
+and left the cavaliers to their secret councils, but not before the
+significant frowns of Montoni had warned his wife to depart, who passed
+from the hall to the ramparts, and walked, for some time, in silence,
+which Emily did not interrupt, for her mind was also occupied by
+interests of its own. It required all her resolution, to forbear
+communicating to Madame Montoni the terrible subject, which still
+thrilled her every nerve with horror; and sometimes she was on the point
+of doing so, merely to obtain the relief of a moment; but she knew
+how wholly she was in the power of Montoni, and, considering, that the
+indiscretion of her aunt might prove fatal to them both, she compelled
+herself to endure a present and an inferior evil, rather than to tempt a
+future and a heavier one. A strange kind of presentiment frequently, on
+this day, occurred to her;--it seemed as if her fate rested here, and
+was by some invisible means connected with this castle.
+
+'Let me not accelerate it,' said she to herself: 'for whatever I may be
+reserved, let me, at least, avoid self-reproach.'
+
+As she looked on the massy walls of the edifice, her melancholy spirits
+represented it to be her prison; and she started as at a new suggestion,
+when she considered how far distant she was from her native country,
+from her little peaceful home, and from her only friend--how remote was
+her hope of happiness, how feeble the expectation of again seeing him!
+Yet the idea of Valancourt, and her confidence in his faithful love, had
+hitherto been her only solace, and she struggled hard to retain them.
+A few tears of agony started to her eyes, which she turned aside to
+conceal.
+
+While she afterwards leaned on the wall of the rampart, some peasants,
+at a little distance, were seen examining a breach, before which lay
+a heap of stones, as if to repair it, and a rusty old cannon, that
+appeared to have fallen from its station above. Madame Montoni stopped
+to speak to the men, and enquired what they were going to do. 'To repair
+the fortifications, your ladyship,' said one of them; a labour which
+she was somewhat surprised, that Montoni should think necessary,
+particularly since he had never spoken of the castle, as of a place, at
+which he meant to reside for any considerable time; but she passed on
+towards a lofty arch, that led from the south to the east rampart,
+and which adjoined the castle, on one side, while, on the other, it
+supported a small watch-tower, that entirely commanded the deep valley
+below. As she approached this arch, she saw, beyond it, winding along
+the woody descent of a distant mountain, a long troop of horse and foot,
+whom she knew to be soldiers, only by the glitter of their pikes and
+other arms, for the distance did not allow her to discover the colour
+of their liveries. As she gazed, the vanguard issued from the woods into
+the valley, but the train still continued to pour over the remote
+summit of the mountain, in endless succession; while, in the front,
+the military uniform became distinguishable, and the commanders, riding
+first, and seeming, by their gestures, to direct the march of those that
+followed, at length, approached very near to the castle.
+
+Such a spectacle, in these solitary regions, both surprised and alarmed
+Madame Montoni, and she hastened towards some peasants, who were
+employed in raising bastions before the south rampart, where the rock
+was less abrupt than elsewhere. These men could give no satisfactory
+answers to her enquiries, but, being roused by them, gazed in stupid
+astonishment upon the long cavalcade. Madame Montoni, then thinking it
+necessary to communicate further the object of her alarm, sent Emily to
+say, that she wished to speak to Montoni; an errand her niece did not
+approve, for she dreaded his frowns, which she knew this message would
+provoke; but she obeyed in silence.
+
+As she drew near the apartment, in which he sat with his guests,
+she heard them in earnest and loud dispute, and she paused a moment,
+trembling at the displeasure, which her sudden interruption would
+occasion. In the next, their voices sunk all together; she then ventured
+to open the door, and, while Montoni turned hastily and looked at her,
+without speaking, she delivered her message.
+
+'Tell Madam Montoni I am engaged,' said he.
+
+Emily then thought it proper to mention the subject of her alarm.
+Montoni and his companions rose instantly and went to the windows, but,
+these not affording them a view of the troops, they at length proceeded
+to the ramparts, where Cavigni conjectured it to be a legion of
+condottieri, on their march towards Modena.
+
+One part of the cavalcade now extended along the valley, and another
+wound among the mountains towards the north, while some troops still
+lingered on the woody precipices, where the first had appeared, so that
+the great length of the procession seemed to include an whole army.
+While Montoni and his family watched its progress, they heard the sound
+of trumpets and the clash of cymbals in the vale, and then others,
+answering from the heights. Emily listened with emotion to the shrill
+blast, that woke the echoes of the mountains, and Montoni explained the
+signals, with which he appeared to be well acquainted, and which meant
+nothing hostile. The uniforms of the troops, and the kind of arms
+they bore, confirmed to him the conjecture of Cavigni, and he had the
+satisfaction to see them pass by, without even stopping to gaze upon his
+castle. He did not, however, leave the rampart, till the bases of
+the mountains had shut them from his view, and the last murmur of the
+trumpet floated away on the wind. Cavigni and Verezzi were inspirited
+by this spectacle, which seemed to have roused all the fire of their
+temper; Montoni turned into the castle in thoughtful silence.
+
+Emily's mind had not yet sufficiently recovered from its late shock,
+to endure the loneliness of her chamber, and she remained upon the
+ramparts; for Madame Montoni had not invited her to her dressing-room,
+whither she had gone evidently in low spirits, and Emily, from her
+late experience, had lost all wish to explore the gloomy and mysterious
+recesses of the castle. The ramparts, therefore, were almost her only
+retreat, and here she lingered, till the gray haze of evening was again
+spread over the scene.
+
+The cavaliers supped by themselves, and Madame Montoni remained in her
+apartment, whither Emily went, before she retired to her own. She found
+her aunt weeping, and in much agitation. The tenderness of Emily was
+naturally so soothing, that it seldom failed to give comfort to the
+drooping heart: but Madame Montoni's was torn, and the softest accents
+of Emily's voice were lost upon it. With her usual delicacy, she did
+not appear to observe her aunt's distress, but it gave an involuntary
+gentleness to her manners, and an air of solicitude to her countenance,
+which Madame Montoni was vexed to perceive, who seemed to feel the pity
+of her niece to be an insult to her pride, and dismissed her as soon
+as she properly could. Emily did not venture to mention again the
+reluctance she felt to her gloomy chamber, but she requested that
+Annette might be permitted to remain with her till she retired to rest;
+and the request was somewhat reluctantly granted. Annette, however, was
+now with the servants, and Emily withdrew alone.
+
+With light and hasty steps she passed through the long galleries, while
+the feeble glimmer of the lamp she carried only shewed the gloom
+around her, and the passing air threatened to extinguish it. The lonely
+silence, that reigned in this part of the castle, awed her; now and
+then, indeed, she heard a faint peal of laughter rise from a remote part
+of the edifice, where the servants were assembled, but it was soon lost,
+and a kind of breathless stillness remained. As she passed the suite of
+rooms which she had visited in the morning, her eyes glanced fearfully
+on the door, and she almost fancied she heard murmuring sounds within,
+but she paused not a moment to enquire.
+
+Having reached her own apartment, where no blazing wood on the
+hearth dissipated the gloom, she sat down with a book, to enliven her
+attention, till Annette should come, and a fire could be kindled. She
+continued to read till her light was nearly expired, but Annette did not
+appear, and the solitude and obscurity of her chamber again affected her
+spirits, the more, because of its nearness to the scene of horror, that
+she had witnessed in the morning. Gloomy and fantastic images came to
+her mind. She looked fearfully towards the door of the stair-case, and
+then, examining whether it was still fastened, found that it was so.
+Unable to conquer the uneasiness she felt at the prospect of sleeping
+again in this remote and insecure apartment, which some person seemed to
+have entered during the preceding night, her impatience to see Annette,
+whom she had bidden to enquire concerning this circumstance, became
+extremely painful. She wished also to question her, as to the object,
+which had excited so much horror in her own mind, and which Annette on
+the preceding evening had appeared to be in part acquainted with, though
+her words were very remote from the truth, and it appeared plainly to
+Emily, that the girl had been purposely misled by a false report: above
+all she was surprised, that the door of the chamber, which contained
+it, should be left unguarded. Such an instance of negligence almost
+surpassed belief. But her light was now expiring; the faint flashes it
+threw upon the walls called up all the terrors of fancy, and she rose
+to find her way to the habitable part of the castle, before it was quite
+extinguished. As she opened the chamber door, she heard remote voices,
+and, soon after, saw a light issue upon the further end of the corridor,
+which Annette and another servant approached. 'I am glad you are
+come,' said Emily: 'what has detained you so long? Pray light me a fire
+immediately.'
+
+'My lady wanted me, ma'amselle,' replied Annette in some confusion; 'I
+will go and get the wood.'
+
+'No,' said Caterina, 'that is my business,' and left the room instantly,
+while Annette would have followed; but, being called back, she began
+to talk very loud, and laugh, and seemed afraid to trust a pause of
+silence.
+
+Caterina soon returned with the wood, and then, when the cheerful blaze
+once more animated the room, and this servant had withdrawn, Emily
+asked Annette, whether she had made the enquiry she bade her. 'Yes,
+ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'but not a soul knows any thing about the
+matter: and old Carlo--I watched him well, for they say he knows strange
+things--old Carlo looked so as I don't know how to tell, and he asked me
+again and again, if I was sure the door was ever unfastened. Lord, says
+I--am I sure I am alive? And as for me, ma'am, I am all astounded, as
+one may say, and would no more sleep in this chamber, than I would on
+the great cannon at the end of the east rampart.'
+
+'And what objection have you to that cannon, more than to any of the
+rest?' said Emily smiling: 'the best would be rather a hard bed.'
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, any of them would be hard enough for that matter; but
+they do say, that something has been seen in the dead of night, standing
+beside the great cannon, as if to guard it.'
+
+'Well! my good Annette, the people who tell such stories, are happy in
+having you for an auditor, for I perceive you believe them all.'
+
+'Dear ma'amselle! I will shew you the very cannon; you can see it from
+these windows!'
+
+'Well,' said Emily, 'but that does not prove, that an apparition guards
+it.'
+
+'What! not if I shew you the very cannon! Dear ma'am, you will believe
+nothing.'
+
+'Nothing probably upon this subject, but what I see,' said
+Emily.--'Well, ma'am, but you shall see it, if you will only step this
+way to the casement.'--Emily could not forbear laughing, and Annette
+looked surprised. Perceiving her extreme aptitude to credit the
+marvellous, Emily forbore to mention the subject she had intended, lest
+it should overcome her with idle terrors, and she began to speak on a
+lively topic--the regattas of Venice.
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle, those rowing matches,' said Annette, 'and the fine
+moon-light nights, are all, that are worth seeing in Venice. To be sure
+the moon is brighter than any I ever saw; and then to hear such sweet
+music, too, as Ludovico has often and often sung under the lattice by
+the west portico! Ma'amselle, it was Ludovico, that told me about that
+picture, which you wanted so to look at last night, and---'
+
+'What picture?' said Emily, wishing Annette to explain herself.
+
+'O! that terrible picture with the black veil over it.'
+
+'You never saw it, then?' said Emily.
+
+'Who, I!--No, ma'amselle, I never did. But this morning,' continued
+Annette, lowering her voice, and looking round the room, 'this morning,
+as it was broad daylight, do you know, ma'am, I took a strange fancy to
+see it, as I had heard such odd hints about it, and I got as far as the
+door, and should have opened it, if it had not been locked!'
+
+Emily, endeavouring to conceal the emotion this circumstance occasioned,
+enquired at what hour she went to the chamber, and found, that it was
+soon after herself had been there. She also asked further questions, and
+the answers convinced her, that Annette, and probably her informer, were
+ignorant of the terrible truth, though in Annette's account something
+very like the truth, now and then, mingled with the falsehood. Emily now
+began to fear, that her visit to the chamber had been observed, since
+the door had been closed, so immediately after her departure; and
+dreaded lest this should draw upon her the vengeance of Montoni. Her
+anxiety, also, was excited to know whence, and for what purpose, the
+delusive report, which had been imposed upon Annette, had originated,
+since Montoni could only have wished for silence and secrecy; but she
+felt, that the subject was too terrible for this lonely hour, and she
+compelled herself to leave it, to converse with Annette, whose chat,
+simple as it was, she preferred to the stillness of total solitude.
+
+Thus they sat, till near midnight, but not without many hints from
+Annette, that she wished to go. The embers were now nearly burnt out;
+and Emily heard, at a distance, the thundering sound of the hall doors,
+as they were shut for the night. She, therefore, prepared for rest, but
+was still unwilling that Annette should leave her. At this instant, the
+great bell of the portal sounded. They listened in fearful expectation,
+when, after a long pause of silence, it sounded again. Soon after, they
+heard the noise of carriage wheels in the court-yard. Emily sunk almost
+lifeless in her chair; 'It is the Count,' said she.
+
+'What, at this time of night, ma'am!' said Annette: 'no, my dear lady.
+But, for that matter, it is a strange time of night for any body to
+come!'
+
+'Nay, pr'ythee, good Annette, stay not talking,' said Emily in a voice
+of agony--'Go, pr'ythee, go, and see who it is.'
+
+Annette left the room, and carried with her the light, leaving Emily in
+darkness, which a few moments before would have terrified her in this
+room, but was now scarcely observed by her. She listened and waited, in
+breathless expectation, and heard distant noises, but Annette did not
+return. Her patience, at length, exhausted, she tried to find her way
+to the corridor, but it was long before she could touch the door of the
+chamber, and, when she had opened it, the total darkness without made
+her fear to proceed. Voices were now heard, and Emily even thought she
+distinguished those of Count Morano, and Montoni. Soon after, she
+heard steps approaching, and then a ray of light streamed through the
+darkness, and Annette appeared, whom Emily went to meet.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle,' said she, 'you was right, it is the Count sure
+enough.'
+
+'It is he!' exclaimed Emily, lifting her eyes towards heaven and
+supporting herself by Annette's arm.
+
+'Good Lord! my dear lady, don't be in such a FLUSTER, and look so pale,
+we shall soon hear more.'
+
+'We shall, indeed!' said Emily, moving as fast as she was able towards
+her apartment. 'I am not well; give me air.' Annette opened a casement,
+and brought water. The faintness soon left Emily, but she desired
+Annette would not go till she heard from Montoni.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle! he surely will not disturb you at this time of night;
+why he must think you are asleep.'
+
+'Stay with me till I am so, then,' said Emily, who felt temporary relief
+from this suggestion, which appeared probable enough, though her fears
+had prevented its occurring to her. Annette, with secret reluctance,
+consented to stay, and Emily was now composed enough to ask her some
+questions; among others, whether she had seen the Count.
+
+'Yes, ma'am, I saw him alight, for I went from hence to the grate in the
+north turret, that overlooks the inner court-yard, you know. There I
+saw the Count's carriage, and the Count in it, waiting at the great
+door,--for the porter was just gone to bed--with several men on
+horseback all by the light of the torches they carried.' Emily was
+compelled to smile. 'When the door was opened, the Count said something,
+that I could not make out, and then got out, and another gentleman with
+him. I thought, to be sure, the Signor was gone to bed, and I hastened
+away to my lady's dressing-room, to see what I could hear. But in the
+way I met Ludovico, and he told me that the Signor was up, counselling
+with his master and the other Signors, in the room at the end of the
+north gallery; and Ludovico held up his finger, and laid it on his lips,
+as much as to say--There is more going on, than you think of, Annette,
+but you must hold your tongue. And so I did hold my tongue, ma'amselle,
+and came away to tell you directly.'
+
+Emily enquired who the cavalier was, that accompanied the Count, and how
+Montoni received them; but Annette could not inform her.
+
+'Ludovico,' she added, 'had just been to call Signor Montoni's valet,
+that he might tell him they were arrived, when I met him.'
+
+Emily sat musing, for some time, and then her anxiety was so much
+increased, that she desired Annette would go to the servants' hall,
+where it was possible she might hear something of the Count's intention,
+respecting his stay at the castle.
+
+'Yes, ma'am,' said Annette with readiness; 'but how am I to find the
+way, if I leave the lamp with you?'
+
+Emily said she would light her, and they immediately quitted the
+chamber. When they had reached the top of the great stair-case, Emily
+recollected, that she might be seen by the Count, and, to avoid the
+great hall, Annette conducted her through some private passages to a
+back stair-case, which led directly to that of the servants.
+
+As she returned towards her chamber, Emily began to fear, that she
+might again lose herself in the intricacies of the castle, and again
+be shocked by some mysterious spectacle; and, though she was already
+perplexed by the numerous turnings, she feared to open one of the many
+doors that offered. While she stepped thoughtfully along, she fancied,
+that she heard a low moaning at no great distance, and, having paused a
+moment, she heard it again and distinctly. Several doors appeared on the
+right hand of the passage. She advanced, and listened. When she came to
+the second, she heard a voice, apparently in complaint, within, to which
+she continued to listen, afraid to open the door, and unwilling to
+leave it. Convulsive sobs followed, and then the piercing accents of an
+agonizing spirit burst forth. Emily stood appalled, and looked through
+the gloom, that surrounded her, in fearful expectation. The lamentations
+continued. Pity now began to subdue terror; it was possible she might
+administer comfort to the sufferer, at least, by expressing sympathy,
+and she laid her hand on the door. While she hesitated she thought
+she knew this voice, disguised as it was by tones of grief. Having,
+therefore, set down the lamp in the passage, she gently opened the door,
+within which all was dark, except that from an inner apartment a partial
+light appeared; and she stepped softly on. Before she reached it, the
+appearance of Madame Montoni, leaning on her dressing-table, weeping,
+and with a handkerchief held to her eyes, struck her, and she paused.
+
+Some person was seated in a chair by the fire, but who it was she could
+not distinguish. He spoke, now and then, in a low voice, that did not
+allow Emily to hear what was uttered, but she thought, that Madame
+Montoni, at those times, wept the more, who was too much occupied by her
+own distress, to observe Emily, while the latter, though anxious to know
+what occasioned this, and who was the person admitted at so late an
+hour to her aunt's dressing-room, forbore to add to her sufferings by
+surprising her, or to take advantage of her situation, by listening to a
+private discourse. She, therefore, stepped softly back, and, after
+some further difficulty, found the way to her own chamber, where nearer
+interests, at length, excluded the surprise and concern she had felt,
+respecting Madame Montoni.
+
+Annette, however, returned without satisfactory intelligence, for the
+servants, among whom she had been, were either entirely ignorant, or
+affected to be so, concerning the Count's intended stay at the castle.
+They could talk only of the steep and broken road they had just passed,
+and of the numerous dangers they had escaped and express wonder how
+their lord could choose to encounter all these, in the darkness of
+night; for they scarcely allowed, that the torches had served for any
+other purpose but that of shewing the dreariness of the mountains.
+Annette, finding she could gain no information, left them, making noisy
+petitions, for more wood on the fire and more supper on the table.
+
+'And now, ma'amselle,' added she, 'I am so sleepy!--I am sure, if you
+was so sleepy, you would not desire me to sit up with you.'
+
+Emily, indeed, began to think it was cruel to wish it; she had also
+waited so long, without receiving a summons from Montoni, that it
+appeared he did not mean to disturb her, at this late hour, and she
+determined to dismiss Annette. But, when she again looked round her
+gloomy chamber, and recollected certain circumstances, fear seized her
+spirits, and she hesitated.
+
+'And yet it were cruel of me to ask you to stay, till I am asleep,
+Annette,' said she, 'for I fear it will be very long before I forget
+myself in sleep.'
+
+'I dare say it will be very long, ma'amselle,' said Annette.
+
+'But, before you go,' rejoined Emily, 'let me ask you--Had Signor
+Montoni left Count Morano, when you quitted the hall?'
+
+'O no, ma'am, they were alone together.'
+
+'Have you been in my aunt's dressing-room, since you left me?'
+
+'No, ma'amselle, I called at the door as I passed, but it was fastened;
+so I thought my lady was gone to bed.'
+
+'Who, then, was with your lady just now?' said Emily, forgetting, in
+surprise, her usual prudence.
+
+'Nobody, I believe, ma'am,' replied Annette, 'nobody has been with her,
+I believe, since I left you.'
+
+Emily took no further notice of the subject, and, after some struggle
+with imaginary fears, her good nature prevailed over them so far, that
+she dismissed Annette for the night. She then sat, musing upon her own
+circumstances and those of Madame Montoni, till her eye rested on the
+miniature picture, which she had found, after her father's death, among
+the papers he had enjoined her to destroy. It was open upon the table,
+before her, among some loose drawings, having, with them, been taken out
+of a little box by Emily, some hours before. The sight of it called
+up many interesting reflections, but the melancholy sweetness of the
+countenance soothed the emotions, which these had occasioned. It was
+the same style of countenance as that of her late father, and, while
+she gazed on it with fondness on this account, she even fancied
+a resemblance in the features. But this tranquillity was suddenly
+interrupted, when she recollected the words in the manuscript, that had
+been found with this picture, and which had formerly occasioned her
+so much doubt and horror. At length, she roused herself from the deep
+reverie, into which this remembrance had thrown her; but, when she rose
+to undress, the silence and solitude, to which she was left, at this
+midnight hour, for not even a distant sound was now heard, conspired
+with the impression the subject she had been considering had given to
+her mind, to appall her. Annette's hints, too, concerning this chamber,
+simple as they were, had not failed to affect her, since they followed
+a circumstance of peculiar horror, which she herself had witnessed, and
+since the scene of this was a chamber nearly adjoining her own.
+
+The door of the stair-case was, perhaps, a subject of more reasonable
+alarm, and she now began to apprehend, such was the aptitude of her
+fears, that this stair-case had some private communication with the
+apartment, which she shuddered even to remember. Determined not to
+undress, she lay down to sleep in her clothes, with her late father's
+dog, the faithful MANCHON, at the foot of the bed, whom she considered
+as a kind of guard.
+
+Thus circumstanced, she tried to banish reflection, but her busy fancy
+would still hover over the subjects of her interest, and she heard the
+clock of the castle strike two, before she closed her eyes.
+
+From the disturbed slumber, into which she then sunk, she was soon
+awakened by a noise, which seemed to arise within her chamber; but the
+silence, that prevailed, as she fearfully listened, inclined her to
+believe, that she had been alarmed by such sounds as sometimes occur in
+dreams, and she laid her head again upon the pillow.
+
+A return of the noise again disturbed her; it seemed to come from that
+part of the room, which communicated with the private stair-case, and
+she instantly remembered the odd circumstance of the door having been
+fastened, during the preceding night, by some unknown hand. Her late
+alarming suspicion, concerning its communication, also occurred to her.
+Her heart became faint with terror. Half raising herself from the bed,
+and gently drawing aside the curtain, she looked towards the door of the
+stair-case, but the lamp, that burnt on the hearth, spread so feeble a
+light through the apartment, that the remote parts of it were lost in
+shadow. The noise, however, which, she was convinced, came from the
+door, continued. It seemed like that made by the undrawing of rusty
+bolts, and often ceased, and was then renewed more gently, as if the
+hand, that occasioned it, was restrained by a fear of discovery.
+
+While Emily kept her eyes fixed on the spot, she saw the door move,
+and then slowly open, and perceived something enter the room, but the
+extreme duskiness prevented her distinguishing what it was. Almost
+fainting with terror, she had yet sufficient command over herself, to
+check the shriek, that was escaping from her lips, and, letting the
+curtain drop from her hand, continued to observe in silence the motions
+of the mysterious form she saw. It seemed to glide along the remote
+obscurity of the apartment, then paused, and, as it approached the
+hearth, she perceived, in the stronger light, what appeared to be a
+human figure. Certain remembrances now struck upon her heart, and almost
+subdued the feeble remains of her spirits; she continued, however, to
+watch the figure, which remained for some time motionless, but then,
+advancing slowly towards the bed, stood silently at the feet, where
+the curtains, being a little open, allowed her still to see it; terror,
+however, had now deprived her of the power of discrimination, as well as
+of that of utterance.
+
+Having continued there a moment, the form retreated towards the hearth,
+when it took the lamp, held it up, surveyed the chamber, for a few
+moments, and then again advanced towards the bed. The light at that
+instant awakening the dog, that had slept at Emily's feet, he barked
+loudly, and, jumping to the floor, flew at the stranger, who struck the
+animal smartly with a sheathed sword, and, springing towards the bed,
+Emily discovered--Count Morano!
+
+She gazed at him for a moment in speechless affright, while he, throwing
+himself on his knee at the bed-side, besought her to fear nothing,
+and, having thrown down his sword, would have taken her hand, when the
+faculties, that terror had suspended, suddenly returned, and she
+sprung from the bed, in the dress, which surely a kind of prophetic
+apprehension had prevented her, on this night, from throwing aside.
+
+Morano rose, followed her to the door, through which he had entered,
+and caught her hand, as she reached the top of the stair-case, but not
+before she had discovered, by the gleam of a lamp, another man half-way
+down the steps. She now screamed in despair, and, believing herself
+given up by Montoni, saw, indeed, no possibility of escape.
+
+The Count, who still held her hand, led her back into the chamber.
+
+'Why all this terror?' said he, in a tremulous voice. 'Hear me, Emily: I
+come not to alarm you; no, by Heaven! I love you too well--too well for
+my own peace.'
+
+Emily looked at him for a moment, in fearful doubt.
+
+'Then leave me, sir,' said she, 'leave me instantly.'
+
+'Hear me, Emily,' resumed Morano, 'hear me! I love, and am in
+despair--yes--in despair. How can I gaze upon you, and know, that it
+is, perhaps, for the last time, without suffering all the phrensy of
+despair? But it shall not be so; you shall be mine, in spite of Montoni
+and all his villany.'
+
+'In spite of Montoni!' cried Emily eagerly: 'what is it I hear?'
+
+'You hear, that Montoni is a villain,' exclaimed Morano with
+vehemence,--'a villain who would have sold you to my love!--Who---'
+
+'And is he less, who would have bought me?' said Emily, fixing on the
+Count an eye of calm contempt. 'Leave the room, sir, instantly,' she
+continued in a voice, trembling between joy and fear, 'or I will alarm
+the family, and you may receive that from Signor Montoni's vengeance,
+which I have vainly supplicated from his pity.' But Emily knew, that she
+was beyond the hearing of those, who might protect her.
+
+'You can never hope any thing from his pity,' said Morano, 'he has used
+me infamously, and my vengeance shall pursue him. And for you, Emily,
+for you, he has new plans more profitable than the last, no doubt.'
+The gleam of hope, which the Count's former speech had revived, was
+now nearly extinguished by the latter; and, while Emily's countenance
+betrayed the emotions of her mind, he endeavoured to take advantage of
+the discovery.
+
+'I lose time,' said he: 'I came not to exclaim against Montoni; I came
+to solicit, to plead--to Emily; to tell her all I suffer, to entreat
+her to save me from despair, and herself from destruction. Emily! the
+schemes of Montoni are insearchable, but, I warn you, they are terrible;
+he has no principle, when interest, or ambition leads. Can I love you,
+and abandon you to his power? Fly, then, fly from this gloomy prison,
+with a lover, who adores you! I have bribed a servant of the castle to
+open the gates, and, before tomorrow's dawn, you shall be far on the way
+to Venice.'
+
+Emily, overcome by the sudden shock she had received, at the moment,
+too, when she had begun to hope for better days, now thought she saw
+destruction surround her on every side. Unable to reply, and almost to
+think, she threw herself into a chair, pale and breathless. That Montoni
+had formerly sold her to Morano, was very probable; that he had now
+withdrawn his consent to the marriage, was evident from the Count's
+present conduct; and it was nearly certain, that a scheme of stronger
+interest only could have induced the selfish Montoni to forego a plan,
+which he had hitherto so strenuously pursued. These reflections made her
+tremble at the hints, which Morano had just given, which she no longer
+hesitated to believe; and, while she shrunk from the new scenes of
+misery and oppression, that might await her in the castle of Udolpho,
+she was compelled to observe, that almost her only means of escaping
+them was by submitting herself to the protection of this man, with whom
+evils more certain and not less terrible appeared,--evils, upon which
+she could not endure to pause for an instant.
+
+Her silence, though it was that of agony, encouraged the hopes of
+Morano, who watched her countenance with impatience, took again the
+resisting hand she had withdrawn, and, as he pressed it to his heart,
+again conjured her to determine immediately. 'Every moment we lose, will
+make our departure more dangerous,' said he: 'these few moments lost may
+enable Montoni to overtake us.'
+
+'I beseech you, sir, be silent,' said Emily faintly: 'I am indeed very
+wretched, and wretched I must remain. Leave me--I command you, leave me
+to my fate.'
+
+'Never!' cried the Count vehemently: 'let me perish first! But forgive
+my violence! the thought of losing you is madness. You cannot
+be ignorant of Montoni's character, you may be ignorant of his
+schemes--nay, you must be so, or you would not hesitate between my love
+and his power.'
+
+'Nor do I hesitate,' said Emily.
+
+'Let us go, then,' said Morano, eagerly kissing her hand, and rising,
+'my carriage waits, below the castle walls.'
+
+'You mistake me, sir,' said Emily. 'Allow me to thank you for the
+interest you express in my welfare, and to decide by my own choice. I
+shall remain under the protection of Signor Montoni.'
+
+'Under his protection!' exclaimed Morano, proudly, 'his PROTECTION!
+Emily, why will you suffer yourself to be thus deluded? I have already
+told you what you have to expect from his PROTECTION.'
+
+'And pardon me, sir, if, in this instance, I doubt mere assertion, and,
+to be convinced, require something approaching to proof.'
+
+'I have now neither the time, or the means of adducing proof,' replied
+the Count.
+
+'Nor have I, sir, the inclination to listen to it, if you had.'
+
+'But you trifle with my patience and my distress,' continued Morano. 'Is
+a marriage with a man, who adores you, so very terrible in your eyes,
+that you would prefer to it all the misery, to which Montoni may
+condemn you in this remote prison? Some wretch must have stolen those
+affections, which ought to be mine, or you would not thus obstinately
+persist in refusing an offer, that would place you beyond the reach
+of oppression.' Morano walked about the room, with quick steps, and a
+disturbed air.
+
+'This discourse, Count Morano, sufficiently proves, that my affections
+ought not to be yours,' said Emily, mildly, 'and this conduct, that
+I should not be placed beyond the reach of oppression, so long as I
+remained in your power. If you wish me to believe otherwise, cease to
+oppress me any longer by your presence. If you refuse this, you will
+compel me to expose you to the resentment of Signor Montoni.'
+
+'Yes, let him come,' cried Morano furiously, 'and brave MY resentment!
+Let him dare to face once more the man he has so courageously injured;
+danger shall teach him morality, and vengeance justice--let him come,
+and receive my sword in his heart!'
+
+The vehemence, with which this was uttered, gave Emily new cause of
+alarm, who arose from her chair, but her trembling frame refused to
+support her, and she resumed her seat;--the words died on her lips, and,
+when she looked wistfully towards the door of the corridor, which was
+locked, she considered it was impossible for her to leave the apartment,
+before Morano would be apprised of, and able to counteract, her
+intention.
+
+Without observing her agitation, he continued to pace the room in the
+utmost perturbation of spirits. His darkened countenance expressed
+all the rage of jealousy and revenge; and a person, who had seen his
+features under the smile of ineffable tenderness, which he so lately
+assumed, would now scarcely have believed them to be the same.
+
+'Count Morano,' said Emily, at length recovering her voice, 'calm, I
+entreat you, these transports, and listen to reason, if you will not to
+pity. You have equally misplaced your love, and your hatred.--I never
+could have returned the affection, with which you honour me, and
+certainly have never encouraged it; neither has Signor Montoni injured
+you, for you must have known, that he had no right to dispose of my
+hand, had he even possessed the power to do so. Leave, then, leave
+the castle, while you may with safety. Spare yourself the dreadful
+consequences of an unjust revenge, and the remorse of having prolonged
+to me these moments of suffering.'
+
+'Is it for mine, or for Montoni's safety, that you are thus alarmed?'
+said Morano, coldly, and turning towards her with a look of acrimony.
+
+'For both,' replied Emily, in a trembling voice.
+
+'Unjust revenge!' cried the Count, resuming the abrupt tones of passion.
+'Who, that looks upon that face, can imagine a punishment adequate to
+the injury he would have done me? Yes, I will leave the castle; but it
+shall not be alone. I have trifled too long. Since my prayers and my
+sufferings cannot prevail, force shall. I have people in waiting, who
+shall convey you to my carriage. Your voice will bring no succour; it
+cannot be heard from this remote part of the castle; submit, therefore,
+in silence, to go with me.'
+
+This was an unnecessary injunction, at present; for Emily was too
+certain, that her call would avail her nothing; and terror had so
+entirely disordered her thoughts, that she knew not how to plead to
+Morano, but sat, mute and trembling, in her chair, till he advanced
+to lift her from it, when she suddenly raised herself, and, with a
+repulsive gesture, and a countenance of forced serenity, said, 'Count
+Morano! I am now in your power; but you will observe, that this is not
+the conduct which can win the esteem you appear so solicitous to obtain,
+and that you are preparing for yourself a load of remorse, in the
+miseries of a friendless orphan, which can never leave you. Do you
+believe your heart to be, indeed, so hardened, that you can look without
+emotion on the suffering, to which you would condemn me?'---
+
+Emily was interrupted by the growling of the dog, who now came again
+from the bed, and Morano looked towards the door of the stair-case,
+where no person appearing, he called aloud, 'Cesario!'
+
+'Emily,' said the Count, 'why will you reduce me to adopt this conduct?
+How much more willingly would I persuade, than compel you to become my
+wife! but, by Heaven! I will not leave you to be sold by Montoni. Yet a
+thought glances across my mind, that brings madness with it. I know not
+how to name it. It is preposterous--it cannot be.--Yet you tremble--you
+grow pale! It is! it is so;--you--you--love Montoni!' cried Morano,
+grasping Emily's wrist, and stamping his foot on the floor.
+
+An involuntary air of surprise appeared on her countenance. 'If you have
+indeed believed so,' said she, 'believe so still.'
+
+'That look, those words confirm it,' exclaimed Morano, furiously. 'No,
+no, no, Montoni had a richer prize in view, than gold. But he shall not
+live to triumph over me!--This very instant---'
+
+He was interrupted by the loud barking of the dog.
+
+'Stay, Count Morano,' said Emily, terrified by his words, and by the
+fury expressed in his eyes, 'I will save you from this error.--Of all
+men, Signor Montoni is not your rival; though, if I find all other means
+of saving myself vain, I will try whether my voice may not arouse his
+servants to my succour.'
+
+'Assertion,' replied Morano, 'at such a moment, is not to be depended
+upon. How could I suffer myself to doubt, even for an instant, that he
+could see you, and not love?--But my first care shall be to convey you
+from the castle. Cesario! ho,--Cesario!'
+
+A man now appeared at the door of the stair-case, and other steps were
+heard ascending. Emily uttered a loud shriek, as Morano hurried her
+across the chamber, and, at the same moment, she heard a noise at the
+door, that opened upon the corridor. The Count paused an instant, as if
+his mind was suspended between love and the desire of vengeance; and,
+in that instant, the door gave way, and Montoni, followed by the old
+steward and several other persons, burst into the room.
+
+'Draw!' cried Montoni to the Count, who did not pause for a second
+bidding, but, giving Emily into the hands of the people, that appeared
+from the stair-case, turned fiercely round. 'This in thine heart,
+villain!' said he, as he made a thrust at Montoni with his sword, who
+parried the blow, and aimed another, while some of the persons, who
+had followed him into the room, endeavoured to part the combatants, and
+others rescued Emily from the hands of Morano's servants.
+
+'Was it for this, Count Morano,' said Montoni, in a cool sarcastic tone
+of voice, 'that I received you under my roof, and permitted you, though
+my declared enemy, to remain under it for the night? Was it, that you
+might repay my hospitality with the treachery of a fiend, and rob me of
+my niece?'
+
+'Who talks of treachery?' said Morano, in a tone of unrestrained
+vehemence. 'Let him that does, shew an unblushing face of innocence.
+Montoni, you are a villain! If there is treachery in this affair, look
+to yourself as the author of it. IF--do I say? I--whom you have wronged
+with unexampled baseness, whom you have injured almost beyond redress!
+But why do I use words?--Come on, coward, and receive justice at my
+hands!'
+
+'Coward!' cried Montoni, bursting from the people who held him, and
+rushing on the Count, when they both retreated into the corridor, where
+the fight continued so desperately, that none of the spectators dared
+approach them, Montoni swearing, that the first who interfered, should
+fall by his sword.
+
+Jealousy and revenge lent all their fury to Morano, while the superior
+skill and the temperance of Montoni enabled him to wound his adversary,
+whom his servants now attempted to seize, but he would not be
+restrained, and, regardless of his wound, continued to fight. He seemed
+to be insensible both of pain and loss of blood, and alive only to the
+energy of his passions. Montoni, on the contrary, persevered in the
+combat, with a fierce, yet wary, valour; he received the point of
+Morano's sword on his arm, but, almost in the same instant, severely
+wounded and disarmed him. The Count then fell back into the arms of his
+servant, while Montoni held his sword over him, and bade him ask his
+life. Morano, sinking under the anguish of his wound, had scarcely
+replied by a gesture, and by a few words, feebly articulated, that he
+would not--when he fainted; and Montoni was then going to have plunged
+the sword into his breast, as he lay senseless, but his arm was arrested
+by Cavigni. To the interruption he yielded without much difficulty, but
+his complexion changed almost to blackness, as he looked upon his fallen
+adversary, and ordered, that he should be carried instantly from the
+castle.
+
+In the mean time, Emily, who had been with-held from leaving the chamber
+during the affray, now came forward into the corridor, and pleaded a
+cause of common humanity, with the feelings of the warmest benevolence,
+when she entreated Montoni to allow Morano the assistance in the castle,
+which his situation required. But Montoni, who had seldom listened to
+pity, now seemed rapacious of vengeance, and, with a monster's cruelty,
+again ordered his defeated enemy to be taken from the castle, in
+his present state, though there were only the woods, or a solitary
+neighbouring cottage, to shelter him from the night.
+
+The Count's servants having declared, that they would not move him till
+he revived, Montoni's stood inactive, Cavigni remonstrating, and Emily,
+superior to Montoni's menaces, giving water to Morano, and directing the
+attendants to bind up his wound. At length, Montoni had leisure to feel
+pain from his own hurt, and he withdrew to examine it.
+
+The Count, meanwhile, having slowly recovered, the first object he saw,
+on raising his eyes, was Emily, bending over him with a countenance
+strongly expressive of solicitude. He surveyed her with a look of
+anguish.
+
+'I have deserved this,' said he, 'but not from Montoni. It is from you,
+Emily, that I have deserved punishment, yet I receive only pity!' He
+paused, for he had spoken with difficulty. After a moment, he proceeded.
+'I must resign you, but not to Montoni. Forgive me the sufferings I have
+already occasioned you! But for THAT villain--his infamy shall not go
+unpunished. Carry me from this place,' said he to his servants. 'I am
+in no condition to travel: you must, therefore, take me to the nearest
+cottage, for I will not pass the night under his roof, although I may
+expire on the way from it.'
+
+Cesario proposed to go out, and enquire for a cottage, that might
+receive his master, before he attempted to remove him: but Morano was
+impatient to be gone; the anguish of his mind seemed to be even greater
+than that of his wound, and he rejected, with disdain, the offer of
+Cavigni to entreat Montoni, that he might be suffered to pass the night
+in the castle. Cesario was now going to call up the carriage to the
+great gate, but the Count forbade him. 'I cannot bear the motion of a
+carriage,' said he: 'call some others of my people, that they may assist
+in bearing me in their arms.'
+
+At length, however, Morano submitted to reason, and consented, that
+Cesario should first prepare some cottage to receive him. Emily,
+now that he had recovered his senses, was about to withdraw from the
+corridor, when a message from Montoni commanded her to do so, and also
+that the Count, if he was not already gone, should quit the castle
+immediately. Indignation flashed from Morano's eyes, and flushed his
+cheeks.
+
+'Tell Montoni,' said he, 'that I shall go when it suits my own
+convenience; that I quit the castle, he dares to call his, as I would
+the nest of a serpent, and that this is not the last he shall hear from
+me. Tell him, I will not leave ANOTHER murder on his conscience, if I
+can help it.'
+
+'Count Morano! do you know what you say?' said Cavigni.
+
+'Yes, Signor, I know well what I say, and he will understand well what I
+mean. His conscience will assist his understanding, on this occasion.'
+
+'Count Morano,' said Verezzi, who had hitherto silently observed him,
+'dare again to insult my friend, and I will plunge this sword in your
+body.'
+
+'It would be an action worthy the friend of a villain!' said Morano, as
+the strong impulse of his indignation enabled him to raise himself from
+the arms of his servants; but the energy was momentary, and he sunk
+back, exhausted by the effort. Montoni's people, meanwhile, held
+Verezzi, who seemed inclined, even in this instant, to execute his
+threat; and Cavigni, who was not so depraved as to abet the cowardly
+malignity of Verezzi, endeavoured to withdraw him from the corridor;
+and Emily, whom a compassionate interest had thus long detained, was
+now quitting it in new terror, when the supplicating voice of Morano
+arrested her, and, by a feeble gesture, he beckoned her to draw
+nearer. She advanced with timid steps, but the fainting languor of his
+countenance again awakened her pity, and overcame her terror.
+
+'I am going from hence for ever,' said he: 'perhaps, I shall never see
+you again. I would carry with me your forgiveness, Emily; nay more--I
+would also carry your good wishes.'
+
+'You have my forgiveness, then,' said Emily, 'and my sincere wishes for
+your recovery.'
+
+'And only for my recovery?' said Morano, with a sigh. 'For your general
+welfare,' added Emily.
+
+'Perhaps I ought to be contented with this,' he resumed; 'I certainly
+have not deserved more; but I would ask you, Emily, sometimes to think
+of me, and, forgetting my offence, to remember only the passion which
+occasioned it. I would ask, alas! impossibilities: I would ask you to
+love me! At this moment, when I am about to part with you, and that,
+perhaps, for ever, I am scarcely myself. Emily--may you never know the
+torture of a passion like mine! What do I say? O, that, for me, you
+might be sensible of such a passion!'
+
+Emily looked impatient to be gone. 'I entreat you, Count, to consult
+your own safety,' said she, 'and linger here no longer. I tremble
+for the consequences of Signor Verezzi's passion, and of Montoni's
+resentment, should he learn that you are still here.'
+
+Morano's face was overspread with a momentary crimson, his eyes
+sparkled, but he seemed endeavouring to conquer his emotion, and replied
+in a calm voice, 'Since you are interested for my safety, I will regard
+it, and be gone. But, before I go, let me again hear you say, that you
+wish me well,' said he, fixing on her an earnest and mournful look.
+
+Emily repeated her assurances. He took her hand, which she scarcely
+attempted to withdraw, and put it to his lips. 'Farewell, Count Morano!'
+said Emily; and she turned to go, when a second message arrived from
+Montoni, and she again conjured Morano, as he valued his life, to quit
+the castle immediately. He regarded her in silence, with a look of fixed
+despair. But she had no time to enforce her compassionate entreaties,
+and, not daring to disobey the second command of Montoni, she left the
+corridor, to attend him.
+
+He was in the cedar parlour, that adjoined the great hall, laid upon
+a couch, and suffering a degree of anguish from his wound, which few
+persons could have disguised, as he did. His countenance, which was
+stern, but calm, expressed the dark passion of revenge, but no symptom
+of pain; bodily pain, indeed, he had always despised, and had yielded
+only to the strong and terrible energies of the soul. He was attended by
+old Carlo and by Signor Bertolini, but Madame Montoni was not with him.
+
+Emily trembled, as she approached and received his severe rebuke,
+for not having obeyed his first summons; and perceived, also, that
+he attributed her stay in the corridor to a motive, that had not even
+occurred to her artless mind.
+
+'This is an instance of female caprice,' said he, 'which I ought to have
+foreseen. Count Morano, whose suit you obstinately rejected, so long as
+it was countenanced by me, you favour, it seems, since you find I have
+dismissed him.'
+
+Emily looked astonished. 'I do not comprehend you, sir,' said she: 'You
+certainly do not mean to imply, that the design of the Count to visit
+the double-chamber, was founded upon any approbation of mine.'
+
+'To that I reply nothing,' said Montoni; 'but it must certainly be a
+more than common interest, that made you plead so warmly in his cause,
+and that could detain you thus long in his presence, contrary to my
+express order--in the presence of a man, whom you have hitherto, on all
+occasions, most scrupulously shunned!'
+
+'I fear, sir, it was a more than common interest, that detained me,'
+said Emily calmly; 'for of late I have been inclined to think, that of
+compassion is an uncommon one. But how could I, could YOU, sir, witness
+Count Morano's deplorable condition, and not wish to relieve it?'
+
+'You add hypocrisy to caprice,' said Montoni, frowning, 'and an attempt
+at satire, to both; but, before you undertake to regulate the morals
+of other persons, you should learn and practise the virtues, which
+are indispensable to a woman--sincerity, uniformity of conduct and
+obedience.'
+
+Emily, who had always endeavoured to regulate her conduct by the nicest
+laws, and whose mind was finely sensible, not only of what is just
+in morals, but of whatever is beautiful in the female character, was
+shocked by these words; yet, in the next moment, her heart swelled with
+the consciousness of having deserved praise, instead of censure, and she
+was proudly silent. Montoni, acquainted with the delicacy of her mind,
+knew how keenly she would feel his rebuke; but he was a stranger to the
+luxury of conscious worth, and, therefore, did not foresee the energy of
+that sentiment, which now repelled his satire. Turning to a servant who
+had lately entered the room, he asked whether Morano had quitted the
+castle. The man answered, that his servants were then removing him, on
+a couch, to a neighbouring cottage. Montoni seemed somewhat appeased,
+on hearing this; and, when Ludovico appeared, a few moments after,
+and said, that Morano was gone, he told Emily she might retire to her
+apartment.
+
+She withdrew willingly from his presence; but the thought of passing the
+remainder of the night in a chamber, which the door from the stair-case
+made liable to the intrusion of any person, now alarmed her more than
+ever, and she determined to call at Madame Montoni's room, and request,
+that Annette might be permitted to be with her.
+
+On reaching the great gallery, she heard voices seemingly in
+dispute, and, her spirits now apt to take alarm, she paused, but soon
+distinguished some words of Cavigni and Verezzi, and went towards them,
+in the hope of conciliating their difference. They were alone. Verezzi's
+face was still flushed with rage; and, as the first object of it was
+now removed from him, he appeared willing to transfer his resentment
+to Cavigni, who seemed to be expostulating, rather than disputing, with
+him.
+
+Verezzi was protesting, that he would instantly inform Montoni of the
+insult, which Morano had thrown out against him, and above all, that,
+wherein he had accused him of murder.
+
+'There is no answering,' said Cavigni, 'for the words of a man in a
+passion; little serious regard ought to be paid to them. If you persist
+in your resolution, the consequences may be fatal to both. We have now
+more serious interests to pursue, than those of a petty revenge.'
+
+Emily joined her entreaties to Cavigni's arguments, and they, at length,
+prevailed so far, as that Verezzi consented to retire, without seeing
+Montoni.
+
+On calling at her aunt's apartment, she found it fastened. In a few
+minutes, however, it was opened by Madame Montoni herself.
+
+It may be remembered, that it was by a door leading into the bedroom
+from a back passage, that Emily had secretly entered a few hours
+preceding. She now conjectured, by the calmness of Madame Montoni's
+air, that she was not apprised of the accident, which had befallen her
+husband, and was beginning to inform her of it, in the tenderest manner
+she could, when her aunt interrupted her, by saying, she was acquainted
+with the whole affair.
+
+Emily knew indeed, that she had little reason to love Montoni, but could
+scarcely have believed her capable of such perfect apathy, as she now
+discovered towards him; having obtained permission, however, for Annette
+to sleep in her chamber, she went thither immediately.
+
+A track of blood appeared along the corridor, leading to it; and on
+the spot, where the Count and Montoni had fought, the whole floor was
+stained. Emily shuddered, and leaned on Annette, as she passed. When she
+reached her apartment, she instantly determined, since the door of the
+stair-case had been left open, and that Annette was now with her, to
+explore whither it led,--a circumstance now materially connected with
+her own safety. Annette accordingly, half curious and half afraid,
+proposed to descend the stairs; but, on approaching the door, they
+perceived, that it was already fastened without, and their care was then
+directed to the securing it on the inside also, by placing against it as
+much of the heavy furniture of the room, as they could lift. Emily then
+retired to bed, and Annette continued on a chair by the hearth, where
+some feeble embers remained.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+ Of aery tongues, that syllable men's names
+ On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.
+      MILTON
+
+It is now necessary to mention some circumstances, which could not be
+related amidst the events of Emily's hasty departure from Venice, or
+together with those, which so rapidly succeeded to her arrival in the
+castle.
+
+On the morning of her journey, Count Morano had gone at the appointed
+hour to the mansion of Montoni, to demand his bride. When he reached
+it, he was somewhat surprised by the silence and solitary air of the
+portico, where Montoni's lacqueys usually loitered; but surprise
+was soon changed to astonishment, and astonishment to the rage of
+disappointment, when the door was opened by an old woman, who told his
+servants, that her master and his family had left Venice, early in the
+morning, for terra-firma. Scarcely believing what his servants told, he
+left his gondola, and rushed into the hall to enquire further. The old
+woman, who was the only person left in care of the mansion, persisted in
+her story, which the silent and deserted apartments soon convinced him
+was no fiction. He then seized her with a menacing air, as if he meant
+to wreak all his vengeance upon her, at the same time asking her twenty
+questions in a breath, and all these with a gesticulation so furious,
+that she was deprived of the power of answering them; then suddenly
+letting her go, he stamped about the hall, like a madman, cursing
+Montoni and his own folly.
+
+When the good woman was at liberty, and had somewhat recovered from her
+fright, she told him all she knew of the affair, which was, indeed, very
+little, but enough to enable Morano to discover, that Montoni was gone
+to his castle on the Apennine. Thither he followed, as soon as his
+servants could complete the necessary preparation for the journey,
+accompanied by a friend, and attended by a number of his people,
+determined to obtain Emily, or a full revenge on Montoni. When his mind
+had recovered from the first effervescence of rage, and his
+thoughts became less obscured, his conscience hinted to him certain
+circumstances, which, in some measure, explained the conduct of Montoni:
+but how the latter could have been led to suspect an intention, which,
+he had believed, was known only to himself, he could not even guess. On
+this occasion, however, he had been partly betrayed by that sympathetic
+intelligence, which may be said to exist between bad minds, and which
+teaches one man to judge what another will do in the same circumstances.
+Thus it was with Montoni, who had now received indisputable proof of a
+truth, which he had some time suspected--that Morano's circumstances,
+instead of being affluent, as he had been bidden to believe, were
+greatly involved. Montoni had been interested in his suit, by motives
+entirely selfish, those of avarice and pride; the last of which would
+have been gratified by an alliance with a Venetian nobleman, the former
+by Emily's estate in Gascony, which he had stipulated, as the price of
+his favour, should be delivered up to him from the day of her marriage.
+In the meantime, he had been led to suspect the consequence of the
+Count's boundless extravagance; but it was not till the evening,
+preceding the intended nuptials, that he obtained certain information
+of his distressed circumstances. He did not hesitate then to infer,
+that Morano designed to defraud him of Emily's estate; and in this
+supposition he was confirmed, and with apparent reason, by the
+subsequent conduct of the Count, who, after having appointed to meet him
+on that night, for the purpose of signing the instrument, which was to
+secure to him his reward, failed in his engagement. Such a circumstance,
+indeed, in a man of Morano's gay and thoughtless character, and at a
+time when his mind was engaged by the bustle of preparation for his
+nuptials, might have been attributed to a cause less decisive, than
+design; but Montoni did not hesitate an instant to interpret it his own
+way, and, after vainly waiting the Count's arrival, for several hours,
+he gave orders for his people to be in readiness to set off at a
+moment's notice. By hastening to Udolpho he intended to remove Emily
+from the reach of Morano, as well as to break off the affair, without
+submitting himself to useless altercation: and, if the Count meant what
+he called honourably, he would doubtless follow Emily, and sign the
+writings in question. If this was done, so little consideration had
+Montoni for her welfare, that he would not have scrupled to sacrifice
+her to a man of ruined fortune, since by that means he could enrich
+himself; and he forbore to mention to her the motive of his sudden
+journey, lest the hope it might revive should render her more
+intractable, when submission would be required.
+
+With these considerations, he had left Venice; and, with others totally
+different, Morano had, soon after, pursued his steps across the rugged
+Apennines. When his arrival was announced at the castle, Montoni did
+not believe, that he would have presumed to shew himself, unless he had
+meant to fulfil his engagement, and he, therefore, readily admitted him;
+but the enraged countenance and expressions of Morano, as he entered the
+apartment, instantly undeceived him; and, when Montoni had explained, in
+part, the motives of his abrupt departure from Venice, the Count still
+persisted in demanding Emily, and reproaching Montoni, without even
+naming the former stipulation.
+
+Montoni, at length, weary of the dispute, deferred the settling of
+it till the morrow, and Morano retired with some hope, suggested by
+Montoni's apparent indecision. When, however, in the silence of his own
+apartment, he began to consider the past conversation, the character of
+Montoni, and some former instances of his duplicity, the hope, which
+he had admitted, vanished, and he determined not to neglect the present
+possibility of obtaining Emily by other means. To his confidential
+valet he told his design of carrying away Emily, and sent him back to
+Montoni's servants to find out one among them, who might enable him to
+execute it. The choice of this person he entrusted to the fellow's own
+discernment, and not imprudently; for he discovered a man, whom Montoni
+had, on some former occasion, treated harshly, and who was now ready
+to betray him. This man conducted Cesario round the castle, through a
+private passage, to the stair-case, that led to Emily's chamber; then
+shewed him a short way out of the building, and afterwards procured him
+the keys, that would secure his retreat. The man was well rewarded for
+his trouble; how the Count was rewarded for his treachery, had already
+appeared.
+
+Meanwhile, old Carlo had overheard two of Morano's servants, who had
+been ordered to be in waiting with the carriage, beyond the castle
+walls, expressing their surprise at their master's sudden, and secret
+departure, for the valet had entrusted them with no more of Morano's
+designs, than it was necessary for them to execute. They, however,
+indulged themselves in surmises, and in expressing them to each other;
+and from these Carlo had drawn a just conclusion. But, before he
+ventured to disclose his apprehensions to Montoni, he endeavoured to
+obtain further confirmation of them, and, for this purpose, placed
+himself, with one of his fellow-servants, at the door of Emily's
+apartment, that opened upon the corridor. He did not watch long in vain,
+though the growling of the dog had once nearly betrayed him. When he was
+convinced, that Morano was in the room, and had listened long enough
+to his conversation, to understand his scheme, he immediately alarmed
+Montoni, and thus rescued Emily from the designs of the Count.
+
+Montoni, on the following morning, appeared as usual, except that
+he wore his wounded arm in a sling; he went out upon the ramparts;
+overlooked the men employed in repairing them; gave orders for
+additional workmen, and then came into the castle to give audience
+to several persons, who were just arrived, and who were shewn into a
+private apartment, where he communicated with them, for near an hour.
+Carlo was then summoned, and ordered to conduct the strangers to a part
+of the castle, which, in former times, had been occupied by the upper
+servants of the family, and to provide them with every necessary
+refreshment.--When he had done this, he was bidden to return to his
+master.
+
+Meanwhile, the Count remained in a cottage in the skirts of the woods
+below, suffering under bodily and mental pain, and meditating deep
+revenge against Montoni. His servant, whom he had dispatched for a
+surgeon to the nearest town, which was, however, at a considerable
+distance, did not return till the following day, when, his wounds being
+examined and dressed, the practitioner refused to deliver any positive
+opinion, concerning the degree of danger attending them; but giving his
+patient a composing draught and ordering him to be quiet, remained at
+the cottage to watch the event.
+
+Emily, for the remainder of the late eventful night, had been suffered
+to sleep, undisturbed; and, when her mind recovered from the confusion
+of slumber, and she remembered, that she was now released from the
+addresses of Count Morano, her spirits were suddenly relieved from a
+part of the terrible anxiety, that had long oppressed them; that which
+remained, arose chiefly from a recollection of Morano's assertions,
+concerning the schemes of Montoni. He had said, that plans of the
+latter, concerning Emily, were insearchable, yet that he knew them to
+be terrible. At the time he uttered this, she almost believed it to be
+designed for the purpose of prevailing with her to throw herself into
+his protection, and she still thought it might be chiefly so accounted
+for; but his assertions had left an impression on her mind, which a
+consideration of the character and former conduct of Montoni did not
+contribute to efface. She, however, checked her propensity to anticipate
+evil; and, determined to enjoy this respite from actual misfortune,
+tried to dismiss thought, took her instruments for drawing, and placed
+herself at a window, to select into a landscape some features of the
+scenery without.
+
+As she was thus employed, she saw, walking on the rampart below, the
+men, who had so lately arrived at the castle. The sight of strangers
+surprised her, but still more, of strangers such as these. There was a
+singularity in their dress, and a certain fierceness in their air, that
+fixed all her attention. She withdrew from the casement, while they
+passed, but soon returned to observe them further. Their figures seemed
+so well suited to the wildness of the surrounding objects, that, as they
+stood surveying the castle, she sketched them for banditti, amid the
+mountain-view of her picture, when she had finished which, she was
+surprised to observe the spirit of her group. But she had copied from
+nature.
+
+Carlo, when he had placed refreshment before these men in the apartment
+assigned to them, returned, as he was ordered, to Montoni, who was
+anxious to discover by what servant the keys of the castle had been
+delivered to Morano, on the preceding night. But this man, though he was
+too faithful to his master quietly to see him injured, would not
+betray a fellow-servant even to justice; he, therefore, pretended to be
+ignorant who it was, that had conspired with Count Morano, and related,
+as before, that he had only overheard some of the strangers describing
+the plot.
+
+Montoni's suspicions naturally fell upon the porter, whom he ordered now
+to attend. Carlo hesitated, and then with slow steps went to seek him.
+
+Barnardine, the porter, denied the accusation with a countenance so
+steady and undaunted, that Montoni could scarcely believe him guilty,
+though he knew not how to think him innocent. At length, the man was
+dismissed from his presence, and, though the real offender, escaped
+detection.
+
+Montoni then went to his wife's apartment, whither Emily followed soon
+after, but, finding them in high dispute, was instantly leaving the
+room, when her aunt called her back, and desired her to stay.--'You
+shall be a witness,' said she, 'of my opposition. Now, sir, repeat the
+command, I have so often refused to obey.'
+
+Montoni turned, with a stern countenance, to Emily, and bade her quit
+the apartment, while his wife persisted in desiring, that she would
+stay. Emily was eager to escape from this scene of contention, and
+anxious, also, to serve her aunt; but she despaired of conciliating
+Montoni, in whose eyes the rising tempest of his soul flashed terribly.
+
+'Leave the room,' said he, in a voice of thunder. Emily obeyed, and,
+walking down to the rampart, which the strangers had now left, continued
+to meditate on the unhappy marriage of her father's sister, and on her
+own desolate situation, occasioned by the ridiculous imprudence of her,
+whom she had always wished to respect and love. Madame Montoni's conduct
+had, indeed, rendered it impossible for Emily to do either; but
+her gentle heart was touched by her distress, and, in the pity thus
+awakened, she forgot the injurious treatment she had received from her.
+
+As she sauntered on the rampart, Annette appeared at the hall door,
+looked cautiously round, and then advanced to meet her.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle, I have been looking for you all over the castle,' said
+she. 'If you will step this way, I will shew you a picture.'
+
+'A picture!' exclaimed Emily, and shuddered.
+
+'Yes, ma'am, a picture of the late lady of this place. Old Carlo just
+now told me it was her, and I thought you would be curious to see it. As
+to my lady, you know, ma'amselle, one cannot talk about such things to
+her.'--
+
+'And so,' said Emily smilingly, 'as you must talk of them to somebody--'
+
+'Why, yes, ma'amselle; what can one do in such a place as this, if one
+must not talk? If I was in a dungeon, if they would let me talk--it
+would be some comfort; nay, I would talk, if it was only to the walls.
+But come, ma'amselle, we lose time--let me shew you to the picture.'
+
+'Is it veiled?' said Emily, pausing.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle!' said Annette, fixing her eyes on Emily's face, 'what
+makes you look so pale?--are you ill?'
+
+'No, Annette, I am well enough, but I have no desire to see this
+picture; return into the hall.'
+
+'What! ma'am, not to see the lady of this castle?' said the girl--'the
+lady, who disappeared to strangely? Well! now, I would have run to the
+furthest mountain we can see, yonder, to have got a sight of such a
+picture; and, to speak my mind, that strange story is all, that makes
+me care about this old castle, though it makes me thrill all over, as it
+were, whenever I think of it.'
+
+'Yes, Annette, you love the wonderful; but do you know, that, unless you
+guard against this inclination, it will lead you into all the misery of
+superstition?'
+
+Annette might have smiled in her turn, at this sage observation of
+Emily, who could tremble with ideal terrors, as much as herself, and
+listen almost as eagerly to the recital of a mysterious story. Annette
+urged her request.
+
+'Are you sure it is a picture?' said Emily, 'Have you seen it?--Is it
+veiled?'
+
+'Holy Maria! ma'amselle, yes, no, yes. I am sure it is a picture--I have
+seen it, and it is not veiled!'
+
+The tone and look of surprise, with which this was uttered, recalled
+Emily's prudence; who concealed her emotion under a smile, and bade
+Annette lead her to the picture. It was in an obscure chamber, adjoining
+that part of the castle, allotted to the servants. Several other
+portraits hung on the walls, covered, like this, with dust and cobweb.
+
+'That is it, ma'amselle,' said Annette, in a low voice, and pointing.
+Emily advanced, and surveyed the picture. It represented a lady in the
+flower of youth and beauty; her features were handsome and noble, full
+of strong expression, but had little of the captivating sweetness, that
+Emily had looked for, and still less of the pensive mildness she loved.
+It was a countenance, which spoke the language of passion, rather than
+that of sentiment; a haughty impatience of misfortune--not the placid
+melancholy of a spirit injured, yet resigned.
+
+'How many years have passed, since this lady disappeared, Annette?' said
+Emily.
+
+'Twenty years, ma'amselle, or thereabout, as they tell me; I know it is
+a long while ago.' Emily continued to gaze upon the portrait.
+
+'I think,' resumed Annette, 'the Signor would do well to hang it in a
+better place, than this old chamber. Now, in my mind, he ought to place
+the picture of a lady, who gave him all these riches, in the handsomest
+room in the castle. But he may have good reasons for what he does:
+and some people do say that he has lost his riches, as well as his
+gratitude. But hush, ma'am, not a word!' added Annette, laying her
+finger on her lips. Emily was too much absorbed in thought, to hear what
+she said.
+
+''Tis a handsome lady, I am sure,' continued Annette: 'the Signor need
+not be ashamed to put her in the great apartment, where the veiled
+picture hangs.' Emily turned round. 'But for that matter, she would be
+as little seen there, as here, for the door is always locked, I find.'
+
+'Let us leave this chamber,' said Emily: 'and let me caution you again,
+Annette; be guarded in your conversation, and never tell, that you know
+any thing of that picture.'
+
+'Holy Mother!' exclaimed Annette, 'it is no secret; why all the servants
+have seen it already!'
+
+Emily started. 'How is this?' said she--'Have seen it! When?--how?'
+
+'Dear, ma'amselle, there is nothing surprising in that; we had all a
+little more CURIOUSNESS than you had.'
+
+'I thought you told me, the door was kept locked?' said Emily.
+
+'If that was the case, ma'amselle,' replied Annette, looking about her,
+'how could we get here?'
+
+'Oh, you mean THIS picture,' said Emily, with returning calmness. 'Well,
+Annette, here is nothing more to engage my attention; we will go.'
+
+Emily, as she passed to her own apartment, saw Montoni go down to the
+hall, and she turned into her aunt's dressing-room, whom she found
+weeping and alone, grief and resentment struggling on her countenance.
+Pride had hitherto restrained complaint. Judging of Emily's disposition
+from her own, and from a consciousness of what her treatment of her
+deserved, she had believed, that her griefs would be cause of triumph
+to her niece, rather than of sympathy; that she would despise, not pity
+her. But she knew not the tenderness and benevolence of Emily's heart,
+that had always taught her to forget her own injuries in the misfortunes
+of her enemy. The sufferings of others, whoever they might be, called
+forth her ready compassion, which dissipated at once every obscuring
+cloud to goodness, that passion or prejudice might have raised in her
+mind.
+
+Madame Montoni's sufferings, at length, rose above her pride, and, when
+Emily had before entered the room, she would have told them all, had not
+her husband prevented her; now that she was no longer restrained by his
+presence, she poured forth all her complaints to her niece.
+
+'O Emily!' she exclaimed, 'I am the most wretched of women--I am
+indeed cruelly treated! Who, with my prospects of happiness, could have
+foreseen such a wretched fate as this?--who could have thought, when I
+married such a man as the Signor, I should ever have to bewail my lot?
+But there is no judging what is for the best--there is no knowing what
+is for our good! The most flattering prospects often change--the best
+judgments may be deceived--who could have foreseen, when I married the
+Signor, that I should ever repent my GENEROSITY?'
+
+Emily thought she might have foreseen it, but this was not a thought
+of triumph. She placed herself in a chair near her aunt, took her
+hand, and, with one of those looks of soft compassion, which might
+characterize the countenance of a guardian angel, spoke to her in
+the tenderest accents. But these did not sooth Madame Montoni, whom
+impatience to talk made unwilling to listen. She wanted to complain, not
+to be consoled; and it was by exclamations of complaint only, that Emily
+learned the particular circumstances of her affliction.
+
+'Ungrateful man!' said Madame Montoni, 'he has deceived me in every
+respect; and now he has taken me from my country and friends, to shut
+me up in this old castle; and, here he thinks he can compel me to do
+whatever he designs! But he shall find himself mistaken, he shall find
+that no threats can alter--But who would have believed! who would have
+supposed, that a man of his family and apparent wealth had absolutely
+no fortune?--no, scarcely a sequin of his own! I did all for the best;
+I thought he was a man of consequence, of great property, or I am sure
+I would never have married him,--ungrateful, artful man!' She paused to
+take breath.
+
+'Dear Madam, be composed,' said Emily: 'the Signor may not be so rich as
+you had reason to expect, but surely he cannot be very poor, since
+this castle and the mansion at Venice are his. May I ask what are the
+circumstances, that particularly affect you?'
+
+'What are the circumstances!' exclaimed Madame Montoni with resentment:
+'why is it not sufficient, that he had long ago ruined his own fortune
+by play, and that he has since lost what I brought him--and that now he
+would compel me to sign away my settlement (it was well I had the chief
+of my property settled on myself!) that he may lose this also, or throw
+it away in wild schemes, which nobody can understand but himself? And,
+and--is not all this sufficient?'
+
+'It is, indeed,' said Emily, 'but you must recollect, dear madam, that I
+knew nothing of all this.'
+
+'Well, and is it not sufficient,' rejoined her aunt, 'that he is also
+absolutely ruined, that he is sunk deeply in debt, and that neither
+this castle, or the mansion at Venice, is his own, if all his debts,
+honourable and dishonourable, were paid!'
+
+'I am shocked by what you tell me, madam,' said Emily.
+
+'And is it not enough,' interrupted Madame Montoni, 'that he has treated
+me with neglect, with cruelty, because I refused to relinquish my
+settlements, and, instead of being frightened by his menaces, resolutely
+defied him, and upbraided him with his shameful conduct? But I bore all
+meekly,--you know, niece, I never uttered a word of complaint, till now;
+no! That such a disposition as mine should be so imposed upon! That I,
+whose only faults are too much kindness, too much generosity, should be
+chained for life to such a vile, deceitful, cruel monster!'
+
+Want of breath compelled Madame Montoni to stop. If any thing could have
+made Emily smile in these moments, it would have been this speech of
+her aunt, delivered in a voice very little below a scream, and with a
+vehemence of gesticulation and of countenance, that turned the whole
+into burlesque. Emily saw, that her misfortunes did not admit of real
+consolation, and, contemning the commonplace terms of superficial
+comfort, she was silent; while Madame Montoni, jealous of her own
+consequence, mistook this for the silence of indifference, or of
+contempt, and reproached her with want of duty and feeling.
+
+'O! I suspected what all this boasted sensibility would prove to be!'
+rejoined she; 'I thought it would not teach you to feel either duty,
+or affection, for your relations, who have treated you like their own
+daughter!'
+
+'Pardon me, madam,' said Emily, mildly, 'it is not natural to me to
+boast, and if it was, I am sure I would not boast of sensibility--a
+quality, perhaps, more to be feared, than desired.'
+
+'Well, well, niece, I will not dispute with you. But, as I said, Montoni
+threatens me with violence, if I any longer refuse to sign away my
+settlements, and this was the subject of our contest, when you came into
+the room before. Now, I am determined no power on earth shall make me
+do this. Neither will I bear all this tamely. He shall hear his true
+character from me; I will tell him all he deserves, in spite of his
+threats and cruel treatment.'
+
+Emily seized a pause of Madame Montoni's voice, to speak. 'Dear madam,'
+said she, 'but will not this serve to irritate the Signor unnecessarily?
+will it not provoke the harsh treatment you dread?'
+
+'I do not care,' replied Madame Montoni, 'it does not signify: I will
+not submit to such usage. You would have me give up my settlements, too,
+I suppose!'
+
+'No, madam, I do not exactly mean that.'
+
+'What is it you do mean then?'
+
+'You spoke of reproaching the Signor,'--said Emily, with hesitation.
+'Why, does he not deserve reproaches?' said her aunt.
+
+'Certainly he does; but will it be prudent in you, madam, to make them?'
+
+'Prudent!' exclaimed Madame Montoni. 'Is this a time to talk of
+prudence, when one is threatened with all sorts of violence?'
+
+'It is to avoid that violence, that prudence is necessary.' said Emily.
+
+'Of prudence!' continued Madame Montoni, without attending to her, 'of
+prudence towards a man, who does not scruple to break all the common
+ties of humanity in his conduct to me! And is it for me to consider
+prudence in my behaviour towards him! I am not so mean.'
+
+'It is for your own sake, not for the Signor's, madam,' said Emily
+modestly, 'that you should consult prudence. Your reproaches, however
+just, cannot punish him, but they may provoke him to further violence
+against you.'
+
+'What! would you have me submit, then, to whatever he commands--would
+you have me kneel down at his feet, and thank him for his cruelties?
+Would you have me give up my settlements?'
+
+'How much you mistake me, madam!' said Emily, 'I am unequal to advise
+you on a point so important as the last: but you will pardon me for
+saying, that, if you consult your own peace, you will try to conciliate
+Signor Montoni, rather than to irritate him by reproaches.'
+
+'Conciliate indeed! I tell you, niece, it is utterly impossible; I
+disdain to attempt it.'
+
+Emily was shocked to observe the perverted understanding and obstinate
+temper of Madame Montoni; but, not less grieved for her sufferings,
+she looked round for some alleviating circumstance to offer her. 'Your
+situation is, perhaps, not so desperate, dear madam,' said Emily, 'as
+you may imagine. The Signor may represent his affairs to be worse than
+they are, for the purpose of pleading a stronger necessity for his
+possession of your settlement. Besides, so long as you keep this, you
+may look forward to it as a resource, at least, that will afford you
+a competence, should the Signor's future conduct compel you to sue for
+separation.'
+
+Madame Montoni impatiently interrupted her. 'Unfeeling, cruel girl!'
+said she, 'and so you would persuade me, that I have no reason to
+complain; that the Signor is in very flourishing circumstances, that my
+future prospects promise nothing but comfort, and that my griefs are
+as fanciful and romantic as your own! Is it the way to console me, to
+endeavour to persuade me out of my senses and my feelings, because you
+happen to have no feelings yourself? I thought I was opening my heart
+to a person, who could sympathize in my distress, but I find, that your
+people of sensibility can feel for nobody but themselves! You may retire
+to your chamber.'
+
+Emily, without replying, immediately left the room, with a mingled
+emotion of pity and contempt, and hastened to her own, where she yielded
+to the mournful reflections, which a knowledge of her aunt's situation
+had occasioned. The conversation of the Italian with Valancourt, in
+France, again occurred to her. His hints, respecting the broken fortunes
+of Montoni, were now completely justified; those, also, concerning his
+character, appeared not less so, though the particular circumstances,
+connected with his fame, to which the stranger had alluded, yet remained
+to be explained. Notwithstanding, that her own observations and the
+words of Count Morano had convinced her, that Montoni's situation was
+not what it formerly appeared to be, the intelligence she had just
+received from her aunt on this point, struck her with all the force of
+astonishment, which was not weakened, when she considered the present
+style of Montoni's living, the number of servants he maintained, and the
+new expences he was incurring, by repairing and fortifying his castle.
+Her anxiety for her aunt and for herself increased with reflection.
+Several assertions of Morano, which, on the preceding night, she
+had believed were prompted either by interest, or by resentment, now
+returned to her mind with the strength of truth. She could not doubt,
+that Montoni had formerly agreed to give her to the Count, for a
+pecuniary reward;--his character, and his distressed circumstances
+justified the belief; these, also, seemed to confirm Morano's assertion,
+that he now designed to dispose of her, more advantageously for himself,
+to a richer suitor.
+
+Amidst the reproaches, which Morano had thrown out against Montoni,
+he had said--he would not quit the castle HE DARED TO CALL HIS, nor
+willingly leave ANOTHER murder on his conscience--hints, which might
+have no other origin than the passion of the moment: but Emily was now
+inclined to account for them more seriously, and she shuddered to think,
+that she was in the hands of a man, to whom it was even possible they
+could apply. At length, considering, that reflection could neither
+release her from her melancholy situation, or enable her to bear it with
+greater fortitude, she tried to divert her anxiety, and took down from
+her little library a volume of her favourite Ariosto; but his wild
+imagery and rich invention could not long enchant her attention; his
+spells did not reach her heart, and over her sleeping fancy they played,
+without awakening it.
+
+She now put aside the book, and took her lute, for it was seldom that
+her sufferings refused to yield to the magic of sweet sounds; when they
+did so, she was oppressed by sorrow, that came from excess of tenderness
+and regret; and there were times, when music had increased such sorrow
+to a degree, that was scarcely endurable; when, if it had not suddenly
+ceased, she might have lost her reason. Such was the time, when she
+mourned for her father, and heard the midnight strains, that floated by
+her window near the convent in Languedoc, on the night that followed his
+death.
+
+She continued to play, till Annette brought dinner into her chamber,
+at which Emily was surprised, and enquired whose order she obeyed. 'My
+lady's, ma'amselle,' replied Annette: 'the Signor ordered her dinner to
+be carried to her own apartment, and so she has sent you yours. There
+have been sad doings between them, worse than ever, I think.'
+
+Emily, not appearing to notice what she said, sat down to the little
+table, that was spread for her. But Annette was not to be silenced thus
+easily. While she waited, she told of the arrival of the men, whom
+Emily had observed on the ramparts, and expressed much surprise at their
+strange appearance, as well as at the manner, in which they had been
+attended by Montoni's order. 'Do they dine with the Signor, then?' said
+Emily.
+
+'No, ma'amselle, they dined long ago, in an apartment at the north end
+of the castle, but I know not when they are to go, for the Signor told
+old Carlo to see them provided with every thing necessary. They have
+been walking all about the castle, and asking questions of the workmen
+on the ramparts. I never saw such strange-looking men in my life; I am
+frightened whenever I see them.'
+
+Emily enquired, if she had heard of Count Morano, and whether he was
+likely to recover: but Annette only knew, that he was lodged in a
+cottage in the wood below, and that every body said he must die. Emily's
+countenance discovered her emotion.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'to see how young ladies will disguise
+themselves, when they are in love! I thought you hated the Count, or I
+am sure I would not have told you; and I am sure you have cause enough
+to hate him.'
+
+'I hope I hate nobody,' replied Emily, trying to smile; 'but certainly
+I do not love Count Morano. I should be shocked to hear of any person
+dying by violent means.'
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, but it is his own fault.'
+
+Emily looked displeased; and Annette, mistaking the cause of her
+displeasure, immediately began to excuse the Count, in her way. 'To
+be sure, it was very ungenteel behaviour,' said she, 'to break into a
+lady's room, and then, when he found his discoursing was not agreeable
+to her, to refuse to go; and then, when the gentleman of the castle
+comes to desire him to walk about his business--to turn round, and draw
+his sword, and swear he'll run him through the body!--To be sure it was
+very ungenteel behaviour, but then he was disguised in love, and so did
+not know what he was about.'
+
+'Enough of this,' said Emily, who now smiled without an effort; and
+Annette returned to a mention of the disagreement between Montoni, and
+her lady. 'It is nothing new,' said she: 'we saw and heard enough of
+this at Venice, though I never told you of it, ma'amselle.'
+
+'Well, Annette, it was very prudent of you not to mention it then: be as
+prudent now; the subject is an unpleasant one.'
+
+'Ah dear, ma'amselle!--to see now how considerate you can be about
+some folks, who care so little about you! I cannot bear to see you so
+deceived, and I must tell you. But it is all for your own good, and not
+to spite my lady, though, to speak truth, I have little reason to love
+her; but--'
+
+'You are not speaking thus of my aunt, I hope, Annette?' said Emily,
+gravely.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, but I am, though; and if you knew as much as I do, you
+would not look so angry. I have often, and often, heard the Signor and
+her talking over your marriage with the Count, and she always advised
+him never to give up to your foolish whims, as she was pleased to call
+them, but to be resolute, and compel you to be obedient, whether you
+would, or no. And I am sure, my heart has ached a thousand times, and
+I have thought, when she was so unhappy herself, she might have felt a
+little for other people, and--'
+
+'I thank you for your pity, Annette,' said Emily, interrupting her: 'but
+my aunt was unhappy then, and that disturbed her temper perhaps, or I
+think--I am sure--You may take away, Annette, I have done.'
+
+'Dear ma'amselle, you have eat nothing at all! Do try, and take a
+little bit more. Disturbed her temper truly! why, her temper is always
+disturbed, I think. And at Tholouse too I have heard my lady talking of
+you and Mons. Valancourt to Madame Merveille and Madame Vaison, often
+and often, in a very ill-natured way, as I thought, telling them what
+a deal of trouble she had to keep you in order, and what a fatigue and
+distress it was to her, and that she believed you would run away with
+Mons. Valancourt, if she was not to watch you closely; and that you
+connived at his coming about the house at night, and--'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed Emily, blushing deeply, 'it is surely impossible
+my aunt could thus have represented me!'
+
+'Indeed, ma'am, I say nothing more than the truth, and not all of
+that. But I thought, myself, she might have found something better to
+discourse about, than the faults of her own niece, even if you had been
+in fault, ma'amselle; but I did not believe a word of what she said. But
+my lady does not care what she says against any body, for that matter.'
+
+'However that may be, Annette,' interrupted Emily, recovering her
+composure, 'it does not become you to speak of the faults of my aunt to
+me. I know you have meant well, but--say no more.--I have quite dined.'
+
+Annette blushed, looked down, and then began slowly to clear the table.
+
+'Is this, then, the reward of my ingenuousness?' said Emily, when she
+was alone; 'the treatment I am to receive from a relation--an
+aunt--who ought to have been the guardian, not the slanderer of my
+reputation,--who, as a woman, ought to have respected the delicacy of
+female honour, and, as a relation, should have protected mine! But, to
+utter falsehoods on so nice a subject--to repay the openness, and, I
+may say with honest pride, the propriety of my conduct, with
+slanders--required a depravity of heart, such as I could scarcely
+have believed existed, such as I weep to find in a relation. O! what a
+contrast does her character present to that of my beloved father;
+while envy and low cunning form the chief traits of hers, his was
+distinguished by benevolence and philosophic wisdom! But now, let me
+only remember, if possible, that she is unfortunate.'
+
+Emily threw her veil over her, and went down to walk upon the ramparts,
+the only walk, indeed, which was open to her, though she often wished,
+that she might be permitted to ramble among the woods below, and
+still more, that she might sometimes explore the sublime scenes of the
+surrounding country. But, as Montoni would not suffer her to pass the
+gates of the castle, she tried to be contented with the romantic views
+she beheld from the walls. The peasants, who had been employed on the
+fortifications, had left their work, and the ramparts were silent and
+solitary. Their lonely appearance, together with the gloom of a lowering
+sky, assisted the musings of her mind, and threw over it a kind of
+melancholy tranquillity, such as she often loved to indulge. She turned
+to observe a fine effect of the sun, as his rays, suddenly streaming
+from behind a heavy cloud, lighted up the west towers of the castle,
+while the rest of the edifice was in deep shade, except, that, through
+a lofty gothic arch, adjoining the tower, which led to another terrace,
+the beams darted in full splendour, and shewed the three strangers
+she had observed in the morning. Perceiving them, she started, and a
+momentary fear came over her, as she looked up the long rampart, and saw
+no other persons. While she hesitated, they approached. The gate at the
+end of the terrace, whither they were advancing, she knew, was always
+locked, and she could not depart by the opposite extremity, without
+meeting them; but, before she passed them, she hastily drew a thin
+veil over her face, which did, indeed, but ill conceal her beauty. They
+looked earnestly at her, and spoke to each other in bad Italian,
+of which she caught only a few words; but the fierceness of their
+countenances, now that she was near enough to discriminate them, struck
+her yet more than the wild singularity of their air and dress had
+formerly done. It was the countenance and figure of him, who walked
+between the other two, that chiefly seized her attention, which
+expressed a sullen haughtiness and a kind of dark watchful villany, that
+gave a thrill of horror to her heart. All this was so legibly written on
+his features, as to be seen by a single glance, for she passed the group
+swiftly, and her timid eyes scarcely rested on them a moment. Having
+reached the terrace, she stopped, and perceived the strangers standing
+in the shadow of one of the turrets, gazing after her, and seemingly, by
+their action, in earnest conversation. She immediately left the rampart,
+and retired to her apartment.
+
+In the evening, Montoni sat late, carousing with his guests in the cedar
+chamber. His recent triumph over Count Morano, or, perhaps, some other
+circumstance, contributed to elevate his spirits to an unusual height.
+He filled the goblet often, and gave a loose to merriment and talk. The
+gaiety of Cavigni, on the contrary, was somewhat clouded by anxiety. He
+kept a watchful eye upon Verezzi, whom, with the utmost difficulty,
+he had hitherto restrained from exasperating Montoni further against
+Morano, by a mention of his late taunting words.
+
+One of the company exultingly recurred to the event of the preceding
+evening. Verezzi's eyes sparkled. The mention of Morano led to that of
+Emily, of whom they were all profuse in the praise, except Montoni, who
+sat silent, and then interrupted the subject.
+
+When the servants had withdrawn, Montoni and his friends entered into
+close conversation, which was sometimes checked by the irascible temper
+of Verezzi, but in which Montoni displayed his conscious superiority,
+by that decisive look and manner, which always accompanied the vigour
+of his thought, and to which most of his companions submitted, as to
+a power, that they had no right to question, though of each
+other's self-importance they were jealously scrupulous. Amidst this
+conversation, one of them imprudently introduced again the name of
+Morano; and Verezzi, now more heated by wine, disregarded the expressive
+looks of Cavigni, and gave some dark hints of what had passed on the
+preceding night. These, however, Montoni did not appear to understand,
+for he continued silent in his chair, without discovering any emotion,
+while, the choler of Verezzi increasing with the apparent insensibility
+of Montoni, he at length told the suggestion of Morano, that this castle
+did not lawfully belong to him, and that he would not willingly leave
+another murder on his conscience.
+
+'Am I to be insulted at my own table, and by my own friends?' said
+Montoni, with a countenance pale in anger. 'Why are the words of that
+madman repeated to me?' Verezzi, who had expected to hear Montoni's
+indignation poured forth against Morano, and answered by thanks to
+himself, looked with astonishment at Cavigni, who enjoyed his confusion.
+'Can you be weak enough to credit the assertions of a madman?' rejoined
+Montoni, 'or, what is the same thing, a man possessed by the spirit of
+vengeance? But he has succeeded too well; you believe what he said.'
+
+'Signor,' said Verezzi, 'we believe only what we know.'--'How!'
+interrupted Montoni, sternly: 'produce your proof.'
+
+'We believe only what we know,' repeated Verezzi, 'and we know nothing
+of what Morano asserts.' Montoni seemed to recover himself. 'I am hasty,
+my friends,' said he, 'with respect to my honour; no man shall question
+it with impunity--you did not mean to question it. These foolish words
+are not worth your remembrance, or my resentment. Verezzi, here is to
+your first exploit.'
+
+'Success to your first exploit,' re-echoed the whole company.
+
+'Noble Signor,' replied Verezzi, glad to find he had escaped Montoni's
+resentment, 'with my good will, you shall build your ramparts of gold.'
+
+'Pass the goblet,' cried Montoni. 'We will drink to Signora St. Aubert,'
+said Cavigni. 'By your leave we will first drink to the lady of the
+castle.' said Bertolini.--Montoni was silent. 'To the lady of the
+castle,' said his guests. He bowed his head.
+
+'It much surprises me, Signor,' said Bertolini, 'that you have so long
+neglected this castle; it is a noble edifice.'
+
+'It suits our purpose,' replied Montoni, 'and IS a noble edifice. You
+know not, it seems, by what mischance it came to me.'
+
+'It was a lucky mischance, be it what it may, Signor,' replied
+Bertolini, smiling. 'I would, that one so lucky had befallen me.'
+
+Montoni looked gravely at him. 'If you will attend to what I say,' he
+resumed, 'you shall hear the story.'
+
+The countenances of Bertolini and Verezzi expressed something more than
+curiosity; Cavigni, who seemed to feel none, had probably heard the
+relation before.
+
+'It is now near twenty years,' said Montoni, 'since this castle came
+into my possession. I inherit it by the female line. The lady, my
+predecessor, was only distantly related to me; I am the last of her
+family. She was beautiful and rich; I wooed her; but her heart was fixed
+upon another, and she rejected me. It is probable, however, that she
+was herself rejected of the person, whoever he might be, on whom she
+bestowed her favour, for a deep and settled melancholy took possession
+of her; and I have reason to believe she put a period to her own life.
+I was not at the castle at the time; but, as there are some singular and
+mysterious circumstances attending that event, I shall repeat them.'
+
+'Repeat them!' said a voice.
+
+Montoni was silent; the guests looked at each other, to know who spoke;
+but they perceived, that each was making the same enquiry. Montoni, at
+length, recovered himself. 'We are overheard,' said he: 'we will finish
+this subject another time. Pass the goblet.'
+
+The cavaliers looked round the wide chamber.
+
+'Here is no person, but ourselves,' said Verezzi: 'pray, Signor,
+proceed.'
+
+'Did you hear any thing?' said Montoni.
+
+'We did,' said Bertolini.
+
+'It could be only fancy,' said Verezzi, looking round again. 'We see no
+person besides ourselves; and the sound I thought I heard seemed within
+the room. Pray, Signor, go on.'
+
+Montoni paused a moment, and then proceeded in a lowered voice, while
+the cavaliers drew nearer to attend.
+
+'Ye are to know, Signors, that the Lady Laurentini had for some months
+shewn symptoms of a dejected mind, nay, of a disturbed imagination. Her
+mood was very unequal; sometimes she was sunk in calm melancholy, and,
+at others, as I have been told, she betrayed all the symptoms of
+frantic madness. It was one night in the month of October, after she had
+recovered from one of those fits of excess, and had sunk again into her
+usual melancholy, that she retired alone to her chamber, and forbade all
+interruption. It was the chamber at the end of the corridor, Signors,
+where we had the affray, last night. From that hour, she was seen no
+more.'
+
+'How! seen no more!' said Bertolini, 'was not her body found in the
+chamber?'
+
+'Were her remains never found?' cried the rest of the company all
+together.
+
+'Never!' replied Montoni.
+
+'What reasons were there to suppose she destroyed herself, then?' said
+Bertolini.--'Aye, what reasons?' said Verezzi.--'How happened it, that
+her remains were never found? Although she killed herself, she could
+not bury herself.' Montoni looked indignantly at Verezzi, who began to
+apologize. 'Your pardon, Signor,' said he: 'I did not consider, that the
+lady was your relative, when I spoke of her so lightly.'
+
+Montoni accepted the apology.
+
+'But the Signor will oblige us with the reasons, which urged him to
+believe, that the lady committed suicide.'
+
+'Those I will explain hereafter,' said Montoni: 'at present let me
+relate a most extraordinary circumstance. This conversation goes no
+further, Signors. Listen, then, to what I am going to say.'
+
+'Listen!' said a voice.
+
+They were all again silent, and the countenance of Montoni changed.
+'This is no illusion of the fancy,' said Cavigni, at length breaking the
+profound silence.--'No,' said Bertolini; 'I heard it myself, now. Yet
+here is no person in the room but ourselves!'
+
+'This is very extraordinary,' said Montoni, suddenly rising. 'This is
+not to be borne; here is some deception, some trick. I will know what it
+means.'
+
+All the company rose from their chairs in confusion.
+
+'It is very odd!' said Bertolini. 'Here is really no stranger in the
+room. If it is a trick, Signor, you will do well to punish the author of
+it severely.'
+
+'A trick! what else can it be?' said Cavigni, affecting a laugh.
+
+The servants were now summoned, and the chamber was searched, but
+no person was found. The surprise and consternation of the company
+increased. Montoni was discomposed. 'We will leave this room,' said he,
+'and the subject of our conversation also; it is too solemn.' His guests
+were equally ready to quit the apartment; but the subject had roused
+their curiosity, and they entreated Montoni to withdraw to another
+chamber, and finish it; no entreaties could, however, prevail with
+him. Notwithstanding his efforts to appear at ease, he was visibly and
+greatly disordered.
+
+'Why, Signor, you are not superstitious,' cried Verezzi, jeeringly;
+'you, who have so often laughed at the credulity of others!'
+
+'I am not superstitious,' replied Montoni, regarding him with stern
+displeasure, 'though I know how to despise the common-place sentences,
+which are frequently uttered against superstition. I will enquire
+further into this affair.' He then left the room; and his guests,
+separating for the night, retired to their respective apartments.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ He wears the rose of youth upon his cheek.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+We now return to Valancourt, who, it may be remembered, remained
+at Tholouse, some time after the departure of Emily, restless and
+miserable. Each morrow that approached, he designed should carry
+him from thence; yet to-morrow and to-morrow came, and still saw him
+lingering in the scene of his former happiness. He could not immediately
+tear himself from the spot, where he had been accustomed to converse
+with Emily, or from the objects they had viewed together, which appeared
+to him memorials of her affection, as well as a kind of surety for its
+faithfulness; and, next to the pain of bidding her adieu, was that of
+leaving the scenes which so powerfully awakened her image. Sometimes he
+had bribed a servant, who had been left in the care of Madame Montoni's
+chateau, to permit him to visit the gardens, and there he would wander,
+for hours together, rapt in a melancholy, not unpleasing. The terrace,
+and the pavilion at the end of it, where he had taken leave of Emily, on
+the eve of her departure from Tholouse, were his most favourite haunts.
+There, as he walked, or leaned from the window of the building, he would
+endeavour to recollect all she had said, on that night; to catch the
+tones of her voice, as they faintly vibrated on his memory, and to
+remember the exact expression of her countenance, which sometimes came
+suddenly to his fancy, like a vision; that beautiful countenance, which
+awakened, as by instantaneous magic, all the tenderness of his heart,
+and seemed to tell with irresistible eloquence--that he had lost her
+forever! At these moments, his hurried steps would have discovered to a
+spectator the despair of his heart. The character of Montoni, such as
+he had received from hints, and such as his fears represented it, would
+rise to his view, together with all the dangers it seemed to threaten
+to Emily and to his love. He blamed himself, that he had not urged these
+more forcibly to her, while it might have been in his power to detain
+her, and that he had suffered an absurd and criminal delicacy, as he
+termed it, to conquer so soon the reasonable arguments he had opposed to
+this journey. Any evil, that might have attended their marriage, seemed
+so inferior to those, which now threatened their love, or even to the
+sufferings, that absence occasioned, that he wondered how he could have
+ceased to urge his suit, till he had convinced her of its propriety; and
+he would certainly now have followed her to Italy, if he could have been
+spared from his regiment for so long a journey. His regiment, indeed,
+soon reminded him, that he had other duties to attend, than those of
+love.
+
+A short time after his arrival at his brother's house, he was summoned
+to join his brother officers, and he accompanied a battalion to Paris;
+where a scene of novelty and gaiety opened upon him, such as, till then,
+he had only a faint idea of. But gaiety disgusted, and company fatigued,
+his sick mind; and he became an object of unceasing raillery to his
+companions, from whom, whenever he could steal an opportunity, he
+escaped, to think of Emily. The scenes around him, however, and the
+company with whom he was obliged to mingle, engaged his attention,
+though they failed to amuse his fancy, and thus gradually weakened the
+habit of yielding to lamentation, till it appeared less a duty to his
+love to indulge it. Among his brother-officers were many, who added
+to the ordinary character of a French soldier's gaiety some of those
+fascinating qualities, which too frequently throw a veil over folly, and
+sometimes even soften the features of vice into smiles. To these men
+the reserved and thoughtful manners of Valancourt were a kind of tacit
+censure on their own, for which they rallied him when present, and
+plotted against him when absent; they gloried in the thought of reducing
+him to their own level, and, considering it to be a spirited frolic,
+determined to accomplish it.
+
+Valancourt was a stranger to the gradual progress of scheme and
+intrigue, against which he could not be on his guard. He had not been
+accustomed to receive ridicule, and he could ill endure its sting; he
+resented it, and this only drew upon him a louder laugh. To escape from
+such scenes, he fled into solitude, and there the image of Emily met
+him, and revived the pangs of love and despair. He then sought to renew
+those tasteful studies, which had been the delight of his early years;
+but his mind had lost the tranquillity, which is necessary for their
+enjoyment. To forget himself and the grief and anxiety, which the idea
+of her recalled, he would quit his solitude, and again mingle in the
+crowd--glad of a temporary relief, and rejoicing to snatch amusement for
+the moment.
+
+Thus passed weeks after weeks, time gradually softening his sorrow, and
+habit strengthening his desire of amusement, till the scenes around him
+seemed to awaken into a new character, and Valancourt, to have fallen
+among them from the clouds.
+
+His figure and address made him a welcome visitor, wherever he had been
+introduced, and he soon frequented the most gay and fashionable circles
+of Paris. Among these, was the assembly of the Countess Lacleur, a woman
+of eminent beauty and captivating manners. She had passed the spring of
+youth, but her wit prolonged the triumph of its reign, and they mutually
+assisted the fame of each other; for those, who were charmed by her
+loveliness, spoke with enthusiasm of her talents; and others, who
+admired her playful imagination, declared, that her personal graces were
+unrivalled. But her imagination was merely playful, and her wit, if such
+it could be called, was brilliant, rather than just; it dazzled, and its
+fallacy escaped the detection of the moment; for the accents, in which
+she pronounced it, and the smile, that accompanied them, were a spell
+upon the judgment of the auditors. Her petits soupers were the most
+tasteful of any in Paris, and were frequented by many of the second
+class of literati. She was fond of music, was herself a scientific
+performer, and had frequently concerts at her house. Valancourt, who
+passionately loved music, and who sometimes assisted at these concerts,
+admired her execution, but remembered with a sigh the eloquent
+simplicity of Emily's songs and the natural expression of her manner,
+which waited not to be approved by the judgment, but found their way at
+once to the heart.
+
+Madame La Comtesse had often deep play at her house, which she affected
+to restrain, but secretly encouraged; and it was well known among her
+friends, that the splendour of her establishment was chiefly supplied
+from the profits of her tables. But her petits soupers were the most
+charming imaginable! Here were all the delicacies of the four quarters
+of the world, all the wit and the lighter efforts of genius, all the
+graces of conversation--the smiles of beauty, and the charm of music;
+and Valancourt passed his pleasantest, as well as most dangerous hours
+in these parties.
+
+His brother, who remained with his family in Gascony, had contented
+himself with giving him letters of introduction to such of his
+relations, residing at Paris, as the latter was not already known to.
+All these were persons of some distinction; and, as neither the person,
+mind, or manners of Valancourt the younger threatened to disgrace their
+alliance, they received him with as much kindness as their nature,
+hardened by uninterrupted prosperity, would admit of; but their
+attentions did not extend to acts of real friendship; for they were too
+much occupied by their own pursuits, to feel any interest in his; and
+thus he was set down in the midst of Paris, in the pride of youth, with
+an open, unsuspicious temper and ardent affections, without one friend,
+to warn him of the dangers, to which he was exposed. Emily, who, had
+she been present, would have saved him from these evils by awakening
+his heart, and engaging him in worthy pursuits, now only increased
+his danger;--it was to lose the grief, which the remembrance of her
+occasioned, that he first sought amusement; and for this end he pursued
+it, till habit made it an object of abstract interest.
+
+There was also a Marchioness Champfort, a young widow, at whose
+assemblies he passed much of his time. She was handsome, still more
+artful, gay and fond of intrigue. The society, which she drew round her,
+was less elegant and more vicious, than that of the Countess Lacleur:
+but, as she had address enough to throw a veil, though but a slight
+one, over the worst part of her character, she was still visited by many
+persons of what is called distinction. Valancourt was introduced to her
+parties by two of his brother officers, whose late ridicule he had now
+forgiven so far, that he could sometimes join in the laugh, which a
+mention of his former manners would renew.
+
+The gaiety of the most splendid court in Europe, the magnificence of
+the palaces, entertainments, and equipages, that surrounded him--all
+conspired to dazzle his imagination, and re-animate his spirits, and
+the example and maxims of his military associates to delude his mind.
+Emily's image, indeed, still lived there; but it was no longer the
+friend, the monitor, that saved him from himself, and to which he
+retired to weep the sweet, yet melancholy, tears of tenderness. When
+he had recourse to it, it assumed a countenance of mild reproach, that
+wrung his soul, and called forth tears of unmixed misery; his only
+escape from which was to forget the object of it, and he endeavoured,
+therefore, to think of Emily as seldom as he could.
+
+Thus dangerously circumstanced was Valancourt, at the time, when Emily
+was suffering at Venice, from the persecuting addresses of Count Morano,
+and the unjust authority of Montoni; at which period we leave him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+ The image of a wicked, heinous fault
+ Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his
+ Does shew the mood of a much-troubled breast.
+     KING JOHN
+
+Leaving the gay scenes of Paris, we return to those of the gloomy
+Apennine, where Emily's thoughts were still faithful to Valancourt.
+Looking to him as to her only hope, she recollected, with jealous
+exactness, every assurance and every proof she had witnessed of his
+affection; read again and again the letters she had received from him;
+weighed, with intense anxiety, the force of every word, that spoke of
+his attachment; and dried her tears, as she trusted in his truth.
+
+Montoni, meanwhile, had made strict enquiry concerning the strange
+circumstance of his alarm, without obtaining information; and was, at
+length, obliged to account for it by the reasonable supposition, that
+it was a mischievous trick played off by one of his domestics. His
+disagreements with Madame Montoni, on the subject of her settlements,
+were now more frequent than ever; he even confined her entirely to her
+own apartment, and did not scruple to threaten her with much greater
+severity, should she persevere in a refusal.
+
+Reason, had she consulted it, would now have perplexed her in the choice
+of a conduct to be adopted. It would have pointed out the danger of
+irritating by further opposition a man, such as Montoni had proved
+himself to be, and to whose power she had so entirely committed herself;
+and it would also have told her, of what extreme importance to her
+future comfort it was, to reserve for herself those possessions, which
+would enable her to live independently of Montoni, should she ever
+escape from his immediate controul. But she was directed by a more
+decisive guide than reason--the spirit of revenge, which urged her to
+oppose violence to violence, and obstinacy to obstinacy.
+
+Wholly confined to the solitude of her apartment, she was now reduced
+to solicit the society she had lately rejected; for Emily was the only
+person, except Annette, with whom she was permitted to converse.
+
+Generously anxious for her peace, Emily, therefore, tried to persuade,
+when she could not convince, and sought by every gentle means to induce
+her to forbear that asperity of reply, which so greatly irritated
+Montoni. The pride of her aunt did sometimes soften to the soothing
+voice of Emily, and there even were moments, when she regarded her
+affectionate attentions with goodwill.
+
+The scenes of terrible contention, to which Emily was frequently
+compelled to be witness, exhausted her spirits more than any
+circumstances, that had occurred since her departure from Tholouse. The
+gentleness and goodness of her parents, together with the scenes of her
+early happiness, often stole on her mind, like the visions of a higher
+world; while the characters and circumstances, now passing beneath her
+eye, excited both terror and surprise. She could scarcely have
+imagined, that passions so fierce and so various, as those which Montoni
+exhibited, could have been concentrated in one individual; yet what
+more surprised her, was, that, on great occasions, he could bend these
+passions, wild as they were, to the cause of his interest, and generally
+could disguise in his countenance their operation on his mind; but she
+had seen him too often, when he had thought it unnecessary to conceal
+his nature, to be deceived on such occasions.
+
+Her present life appeared like the dream of a distempered imagination,
+or like one of those frightful fictions, in which the wild genius of
+the poets sometimes delighted. Reflection brought only regret, and
+anticipation terror. How often did she wish to 'steal the lark's wing,
+and mount the swiftest gale,' that Languedoc and repose might once more
+be hers!
+
+Of Count Morano's health she made frequent enquiry; but Annette heard
+only vague reports of his danger, and that his surgeon had said he would
+never leave the cottage alive; while Emily could not but be shocked to
+think, that she, however innocently, might be the means of his death;
+and Annette, who did not fail to observe her emotion, interpreted it in
+her own way.
+
+But a circumstance soon occurred, which entirely withdrew Annette's
+attention from this subject, and awakened the surprise and curiosity so
+natural to her. Coming one day to Emily's apartment, with a countenance
+full of importance, 'What can all this mean, ma'amselle?' said she.
+'Would I was once safe in Languedoc again, they should never catch me
+going on my travels any more! I must think it a fine thing, truly, to
+come abroad, and see foreign parts! I little thought I was coming to be
+catched up in a old castle, among such dreary mountains, with the chance
+of being murdered, or, what is as good, having my throat cut!'
+
+'What can all this mean, indeed, Annette?' said Emily, in astonishment.
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle, you may look surprised; but you won't believe it,
+perhaps, till they have murdered you, too. You would not believe about
+the ghost I told you of, though I shewed you the very place, where it
+used to appear!--You will believe nothing, ma'amselle.'
+
+'Not till you speak more reasonably, Annette; for Heaven's sake, explain
+your meaning. You spoke of murder!'
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle, they are coming to murder us all, perhaps; but what
+signifies explaining?--you will not believe.'
+
+Emily again desired her to relate what she had seen, or heard.
+
+'O, I have seen enough, ma'am, and heard too much, as Ludovico can
+prove. Poor soul! they will murder him, too! I little thought, when
+he sung those sweet verses under my lattice, at Venice!'--Emily looked
+impatient and displeased. 'Well, ma'amselle, as I was saying, these
+preparations about the castle, and these strange-looking people, that
+are calling here every day, and the Signor's cruel usage of my lady, and
+his odd goings-on--all these, as I told Ludovico, can bode no good. And
+he bid me hold my tongue. So, says I, the Signor's strangely altered,
+Ludovico, in this gloomy castle, to what he was in France; there, all so
+gay! Nobody so gallant to my lady, then; and he could smile, too, upon
+a poor servant, sometimes, and jeer her, too, good-naturedly enough.
+I remember once, when he said to me, as I was going out of my lady's
+dressing-room--Annette, says he--'
+
+'Never mind what the Signor said,' interrupted Emily; 'but tell me, at
+once, the circumstance, which has thus alarmed you.'
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle,' rejoined Annette, 'that is just what Ludovico said:
+says he, Never mind what the Signor says to you. So I told him what I
+thought about the Signor. He is so strangely altered, said I: for now he
+is so haughty, and so commanding, and so sharp with my lady; and, if he
+meets one, he'll scarcely look at one, unless it be to frown. So much
+the better, says Ludovico, so much the better. And to tell you the
+truth, ma'amselle, I thought this was a very ill-natured speech of
+Ludovico: but I went on. And then, says I, he is always knitting his
+brows; and if one speaks to him, he does not hear; and then he sits up
+counselling so, of a night, with the other Signors--there they are, till
+long past midnight, discoursing together! Aye, but says Ludovico,
+you don't know what they are counselling about. No, said I, but I
+can guess--it is about my young lady. Upon that, Ludovico burst out
+a-laughing, quite loud; so he put me in a huff, for I did not like that
+either I or you, ma'amselle, should be laughed at; and I turned away
+quick, but he stopped me. "Don't be affronted, Annette," said he, "but I
+cannot help laughing;" and with that he laughed again. "What!" says he,
+"do you think the Signors sit up, night after night, only to counsel
+about thy young lady! No, no, there is something more in the wind than
+that. And these repairs about the castle, and these preparations about
+the ramparts--they are not making about young ladies." Why, surely, said
+I, the Signor, my master, is not going to make war? "Make war!" said
+Ludovico, "what, upon the mountains and the woods? for here is no living
+soul to make war upon that I see."
+
+'What are these preparations for, then? said I; why surely nobody
+is coming to take away my master's castle! "Then there are so many
+ill-looking fellows coming to the castle every day," says Ludovico,
+without answering my question, "and the Signor sees them all, and talks
+with them all, and they all stay in the neighbourhood! By holy St.
+Marco! some of them are the most cut-throat-looking dogs I ever set my
+eyes upon."
+
+'I asked Ludovico again, if he thought they were coming to take away my
+master's castle; and he said, No, he did not think they were, but he did
+not know for certain. "Then yesterday," said he, but you must not tell
+this, ma'amselle, "yesterday, a party of these men came, and left all
+their horses in the castle stables, where, it seems, they are to
+stay, for the Signor ordered them all to be entertained with the
+best provender in the manger; but the men are, most of them, in the
+neighbouring cottages."
+
+'So, ma'amselle, I came to tell you all this, for I never heard any
+thing so strange in my life. But what can these ill-looking men be come
+about, if it is not to murder us? And the Signor knows this, or why
+should he be so civil to them? And why should he fortify the castle, and
+counsel so much with the other Signors, and be so thoughtful?'
+
+'Is this all you have to tell, Annette?' said Emily. 'Have you heard
+nothing else, that alarms you?'
+
+'Nothing else, ma'amselle!' said Annette; 'why, is not this enough?'
+'Quite enough for my patience, Annette, but not quite enough to convince
+me we are all to be murdered, though I acknowledge here is sufficient
+food for curiosity.' She forbore to speak her apprehensions, because
+she would not encourage Annette's wild terrors; but the present
+circumstances of the castle both surprised, and alarmed her. Annette,
+having told her tale, left the chamber, on the wing for new wonders.
+
+In the evening, Emily had passed some melancholy hours with Madame
+Montoni, and was retiring to rest, when she was alarmed by a strange and
+loud knocking at her chamber door, and then a heavy weight fell against
+it, that almost burst it open. She called to know who was there, and
+receiving no answer, repeated the call; but a chilling silence followed.
+It occurred to her--for, at this moment, she could not reason on the
+probability of circumstances--that some one of the strangers, lately
+arrived at the castle, had discovered her apartment, and was come with
+such intent, as their looks rendered too possible--to rob, perhaps to
+murder, her. The moment she admitted this possibility, terror supplied
+the place of conviction, and a kind of instinctive remembrance of her
+remote situation from the family heightened it to a degree, that almost
+overcame her senses. She looked at the door, which led to the staircase,
+expecting to see it open, and listening, in fearful silence, for a
+return of the noise, till she began to think it had proceeded from this
+door, and a wish of escaping through the opposite one rushed upon her
+mind. She went to the gallery door, and then, fearing to open it, lest
+some person might be silently lurking for her without, she stopped,
+but with her eyes fixed in expectation upon the opposite door of the
+stair-case. As thus she stood, she heard a faint breathing near her, and
+became convinced, that some person was on the other side of the door,
+which was already locked. She sought for other fastening, but there was
+none.
+
+While she yet listened, the breathing was distinctly heard, and her
+terror was not soothed, when, looking round her wide and lonely chamber,
+she again considered her remote situation. As she stood hesitating
+whether to call for assistance, the continuance of the stillness
+surprised her; and her spirits would have revived, had she not continued
+to hear the faint breathing, that convinced her, the person, whoever it
+was, had not quitted the door.
+
+At length, worn out with anxiety, she determined to call loudly for
+assistance from her casement, and was advancing to it, when, whether the
+terror of her mind gave her ideal sounds, or that real ones did come,
+she thought footsteps were ascending the private stair-case; and,
+expecting to see its door unclose, she forgot all other cause of alarm,
+and retreated towards the corridor. Here she endeavoured to make her
+escape, but, on opening the door, was very near falling over a person,
+who lay on the floor without. She screamed, and would have passed, but
+her trembling frame refused to support her; and the moment, in which she
+leaned against the wall of the gallery, allowed her leisure to observe
+the figure before her, and to recognise the features of Annette. Fear
+instantly yielded to surprise. She spoke in vain to the poor girl, who
+remained senseless on the floor, and then, losing all consciousness of
+her own weakness, hurried to her assistance.
+
+When Annette recovered, she was helped by Emily into the chamber, but
+was still unable to speak, and looked round her, as if her eyes followed
+some person in the room. Emily tried to sooth her disturbed spirits, and
+forbore, at present, to ask her any questions; but the faculty of speech
+was never long with-held from Annette, and she explained, in broken
+sentences, and in her tedious way, the occasion of her disorder. She
+affirmed, and with a solemnity of conviction, that almost staggered
+the incredulity of Emily, that she had seen an apparition, as she was
+passing to her bedroom, through the corridor.
+
+'I had heard strange stories of that chamber before,' said Annette:
+'but as it was so near yours, ma'amselle, I would not tell them to you,
+because they would frighten you. The servants had told me, often and
+often, that it was haunted, and that was the reason why it was shut up:
+nay, for that matter, why the whole string of these rooms, here, are
+shut up. I quaked whenever I went by, and I must say, I did sometimes
+think I heard odd noises within it. But, as I said, as I was passing
+along the corridor, and not thinking a word about the matter, or even
+of the strange voice that the Signors heard the other night, all of a
+sudden comes a great light, and, looking behind me, there was a tall
+figure, (I saw it as plainly, ma'amselle, as I see you at this moment),
+a tall figure gliding along (Oh! I cannot describe how!) into the room,
+that is always shut up, and nobody has the key of it but the Signor, and
+the door shut directly.'
+
+'Then it doubtless was the Signor,' said Emily.
+
+'O no, ma'amselle, it could not be him, for I left him busy
+a-quarrelling in my lady's dressing-room!'
+
+'You bring me strange tales, Annette,' said Emily: 'it was but this
+morning, that you would have terrified me with the apprehension of
+murder; and now you would persuade me, you have seen a ghost! These
+wonderful stories come too quickly.'
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, I will say no more, only, if I had not been
+frightened, I should not have fainted dead away, so. I ran as fast as I
+could, to get to your door; but, what was worst of all, I could not call
+out; then I thought something must be strangely the matter with me, and
+directly I dropt down.'
+
+'Was it the chamber where the black veil hangs?' said Emily. 'O! no,
+ma'amselle, it was one nearer to this. What shall I do, to get to my
+room? I would not go out into the corridor again, for the whole world!'
+Emily, whose spirits had been severely shocked, and who, therefore,
+did not like the thought of passing the night alone, told her she might
+sleep where she was. 'O, no, ma'amselle,' replied Annette, 'I would not
+sleep in the room, now, for a thousand sequins!'
+
+Wearied and disappointed, Emily first ridiculed, though she shared, her
+fears, and then tried to sooth them; but neither attempt succeeded, and
+the girl persisted in believing and affirming, that what she had seen
+was nothing human. It was not till some time after Emily had recovered
+her composure, that she recollected the steps she had heard on the
+stair-case--a remembrance, however, which made her insist that Annette
+should pass the night with her, and, with much difficulty, she, at
+length, prevailed, assisted by that part of the girl's fear, which
+concerned the corridor.
+
+Early on the following morning, as Emily crossed the hall to the
+ramparts, she heard a noisy bustle in the court-yard, and the clatter of
+horses' hoofs. Such unusual sounds excited her curiosity; and, instead
+of going to the ramparts, she went to an upper casement, from whence
+she saw, in the court below, a large party of horsemen, dressed in a
+singular, but uniform, habit, and completely, though variously, armed.
+They wore a kind of short jacket, composed of black and scarlet, and
+several of them had a cloak, of plain black, which, covering the person
+entirely, hung down to the stirrups. As one of these cloaks glanced
+aside, she saw, beneath, daggers, apparently of different sizes, tucked
+into the horseman's belt. She further observed, that these were carried,
+in the same manner, by many of the horsemen without cloaks, most of whom
+bore also pikes, or javelins. On their heads, were the small Italian
+caps, some of which were distinguished by black feathers. Whether these
+caps gave a fierce air to the countenance, or that the countenances
+they surmounted had naturally such an appearance, Emily thought she had
+never, till then, seen an assemblage of faces so savage and terrific.
+While she gazed, she almost fancied herself surrounded by banditti; and
+a vague thought glanced athwart her fancy--that Montoni was the captain
+of the group before her, and that this castle was to be the place of
+rendezvous. The strange and horrible supposition was but momentary,
+though her reason could supply none more probable, and though she
+discovered, among the band, the strangers she had formerly noticed with
+so much alarm, who were now distinguished by the black plume.
+
+While she continued gazing, Cavigni, Verezzi, and Bertolini came forth
+from the hall, habited like the rest, except that they wore hats, with
+a mixed plume of black and scarlet, and that their arms differed from
+those of the rest of the party. As they mounted their horses, Emily was
+struck with the exulting joy, expressed on the visage of Verezzi, while
+Cavigni was gay, yet with a shade of thought on his countenance; and, as
+he managed his horse with dexterity, his graceful and commanding figure,
+which exhibited the majesty of a hero, had never appeared to more
+advantage. Emily, as she observed him, thought he somewhat resembled
+Valancourt, in the spirit and dignity of his person; but she looked in
+vain for the noble, benevolent countenance--the soul's intelligence,
+which overspread the features of the latter.
+
+As she was hoping, she scarcely knew why, that Montoni would accompany
+the party, he appeared at the hall door, but un-accoutred. Having
+carefully observed the horsemen, conversed awhile with the cavaliers,
+and bidden them farewel, the band wheeled round the court, and, led by
+Verezzi, issued forth under the portcullis; Montoni following to the
+portal, and gazing after them for some time. Emily then retired from
+the casement, and, now certain of being unmolested, went to walk on the
+ramparts, from whence she soon after saw the party winding among the
+mountains to the west, appearing and disappearing between the woods,
+till distance confused their figures, consolidated their numbers, and
+only a dingy mass appeared moving along the heights.
+
+Emily observed, that no workmen were on the ramparts, and that the
+repairs of the fortifications seemed to be completed. While she
+sauntered thoughtfully on, she heard distant footsteps, and, raising her
+eyes, saw several men lurking under the castle walls, who were evidently
+not workmen, but looked as if they would have accorded well with the
+party, which was gone. Wondering where Annette had hid herself so
+long, who might have explained some of the late circumstances, and then
+considering that Madame Montoni was probably risen, she went to her
+dressing-room, where she mentioned what had occurred; but Madame Montoni
+either would not, or could not, give any explanation of the event. The
+Signor's reserve to his wife, on this subject, was probably nothing
+more than usual; yet, to Emily, it gave an air of mystery to the whole
+affair, that seemed to hint, there was danger, if not villany, in his
+schemes.
+
+Annette presently came, and, as usual, was full of alarm; to her lady's
+eager enquiries of what she had heard among the servants, she replied:
+
+'Ah, madam! nobody knows what it is all about, but old Carlo; he knows
+well enough, I dare say, but he is as close as his master. Some say the
+Signor is going out to frighten the enemy, as they call it: but where is
+the enemy? Then others say, he is going to take away some body's castle:
+but I am sure he has room enough in his own, without taking other
+people's; and I am sure I should like it a great deal better, if there
+were more people to fill it.'
+
+'Ah! you will soon have your wish, I fear,' replied Madame Montoni.
+
+'No, madam, but such ill-looking fellows are not worth having. I mean
+such gallant, smart, merry fellows as Ludovico, who is always telling
+droll stories, to make one laugh. It was but yesterday, he told me such
+a HUMOURSOME tale! I can't help laughing at it now.--Says he--'
+
+'Well, we can dispense with the story,' said her lady. 'Ah!' continued
+Annette, 'he sees a great way further than other people! Now he sees
+into all the Signor's meaning, without knowing a word about the matter!'
+
+'How is that?' said Madame Montoni.
+
+'Why he says--but he made me promise not to tell, and I would not
+disoblige him for the world.'
+
+'What is it he made you promise not to tell?' said her lady, sternly. 'I
+insist upon knowing immediately--what is it he made you promise?'
+
+'O madam,' cried Annette, 'I would not tell for the universe!' 'I insist
+upon your telling this instant,' said Madame Montoni. 'O dear madam!
+I would not tell for a hundred sequins! You would not have me forswear
+myself madam!' exclaimed Annette.
+
+'I will not wait another moment,' said Madame Montoni. Annette was
+silent.
+
+'The Signor shall be informed of this directly,' rejoined her mistress:
+'he will make you discover all.'
+
+'It is Ludovico, who has discovered,' said Annette: 'but for mercy's
+sake, madam, don't tell the Signor, and you shall know all directly.'
+Madame Montoni said, that she would not.
+
+'Well then, madam, Ludovico says, that the Signor, my master,
+is--is--that is, he only thinks so, and any body, you know, madam, is
+free to think--that the Signor, my master, is--is--'
+
+'Is what?' said her lady, impatiently.
+
+'That the Signor, my master, is going to be--a great robber--that is--he
+is going to rob on his own account;--to be, (but I am sure I don't
+understand what he means) to be a--captain of--robbers.'
+
+'Art thou in thy senses, Annette?' said Madame Montoni; 'or is this a
+trick to deceive me? Tell me, this instant, what Ludovico DID say to
+thee;--no equivocation;--this instant.'
+
+'Nay, madam,' cried Annette, 'if this is all I am to get for having
+told the secret'--Her mistress thus continued to insist, and Annette to
+protest, till Montoni, himself, appeared, who bade the latter leave the
+room, and she withdrew, trembling for the fate of her story. Emily also
+was retiring, but her aunt desired she would stay; and Montoni had so
+often made her a witness of their contention, that he no longer had
+scruples on that account.
+
+'I insist upon knowing this instant, Signor, what all this means:' said
+his wife--'what are all these armed men, whom they tell me of, gone
+out about?' Montoni answered her only with a look of scorn; and Emily
+whispered something to her. 'It does not signify,' said her aunt: 'I
+will know; and I will know, too, what the castle has been fortified
+for.'
+
+'Come, come,' said Montoni, 'other business brought me here. I must
+be trifled with no longer. I have immediate occasion for what I
+demand--those estates must be given up, without further contention; or I
+may find a way--'
+
+'They never shall be given up,' interrupted Madame Montoni: 'they never
+shall enable you to carry on your wild schemes;--but what are these?
+I will know. Do you expect the castle to be attacked? Do you expect
+enemies? Am I to be shut up here, to be killed in a siege?'
+
+'Sign the writings,' said Montoni, 'and you shall know more.'
+
+'What enemy can be coming?' continued his wife. 'Have you entered into
+the service of the state? Am I to be blocked up here to die?'
+
+'That may possibly happen,' said Montoni, 'unless you yield to my
+demand: for, come what may, you shall not quit the castle till then.'
+Madame Montoni burst into loud lamentation, which she as suddenly
+checked, considering, that her husband's assertions might be only
+artifices, employed to extort her consent. She hinted this suspicion,
+and, in the next moment, told him also, that his designs were not so
+honourable as to serve the state, and that she believed he had only
+commenced a captain of banditti, to join the enemies of Venice, in
+plundering and laying waste the surrounding country.
+
+Montoni looked at her for a moment with a steady and stern countenance;
+while Emily trembled, and his wife, for once, thought she had said too
+much. 'You shall be removed, this night,' said he, 'to the east turret:
+there, perhaps, you may understand the danger of offending a man, who
+has an unlimited power over you.'
+
+Emily now fell at his feet, and, with tears of terror, supplicated for
+her aunt, who sat, trembling with fear, and indignation; now ready to
+pour forth execrations, and now to join the intercessions of Emily.
+Montoni, however, soon interrupted these entreaties with an horrible
+oath; and, as he burst from Emily, leaving his cloak, in her hand, she
+fell to the floor, with a force, that occasioned her a severe blow on
+the forehead. But he quitted the room, without attempting to raise her,
+whose attention was called from herself, by a deep groan from Madame
+Montoni, who continued otherwise unmoved in her chair, and had not
+fainted. Emily, hastening to her assistance, saw her eyes rolling, and
+her features convulsed.
+
+Having spoken to her, without receiving an answer, she brought
+water, and supported her head, while she held it to her lips; but the
+increasing convulsions soon compelled Emily to call for assistance. On
+her way through the hall, in search of Annette, she met Montoni, whom
+she told what had happened, and conjured to return and comfort her aunt;
+but he turned silently away, with a look of indifference, and went out
+upon the ramparts. At length she found old Carlo and Annette, and they
+hastened to the dressing-room, where Madame Montoni had fallen on the
+floor, and was lying in strong convulsions. Having lifted her into the
+adjoining room, and laid her on the bed, the force of her disorder still
+made all their strength necessary to hold her, while Annette trembled
+and sobbed, and old Carlo looked silently and piteously on, as his
+feeble hands grasped those of his mistress, till, turning his eyes upon
+Emily, he exclaimed, 'Good God! Signora, what is the matter?'
+
+Emily looked calmly at him, and saw his enquiring eyes fixed on her: and
+Annette, looking up, screamed loudly; for Emily's face was stained
+with blood, which continued to fall slowly from her forehead: but her
+attention had been so entirely occupied by the scene before her, that
+she had felt no pain from the wound. She now held an handkerchief to
+her face, and, notwithstanding her faintness, continued to watch Madame
+Montoni, the violence of whose convulsions was abating, till at length
+they ceased, and left her in a kind of stupor.
+
+'My aunt must remain quiet,' said Emily. 'Go, good Carlo; if we should
+want your assistance, I will send for you. In the mean time, if you have
+an opportunity, speak kindly of your mistress to your master.'
+
+'Alas!' said Carlo, 'I have seen too much! I have little influence with
+the Signor. But do, dear young lady, take some care of yourself; that is
+an ugly wound, and you look sadly.'
+
+'Thank you, my friend, for your consideration,' said Emily, smiling
+kindly: 'the wound is trifling, it came by a fall.'
+
+Carlo shook his head, and left the room; and Emily, with Annette,
+continued to watch by her aunt. 'Did my lady tell the Signor what
+Ludovico said, ma'amselle?' asked Annette in a whisper; but Emily
+quieted her fears on the subject.
+
+'I thought what this quarrelling would come to,' continued Annette: 'I
+suppose the Signor has been beating my lady.'
+
+'No, no, Annette, you are totally mistaken, nothing extra-ordinary has
+happened.'
+
+'Why, extraordinary things happen here so often, ma'amselle, that there
+is nothing in them. Here is another legion of those ill-looking fellows,
+come to the castle, this morning.'
+
+'Hush! Annette, you will disturb my aunt; we will talk of that by and
+bye.'
+
+They continued watching silently, till Madame Montoni uttered a low
+sigh, when Emily took her hand, and spoke soothingly to her; but the
+former gazed with unconscious eyes, and it was long before she knew her
+niece. Her first words then enquired for Montoni; to which Emily replied
+by an entreaty, that she would compose her spirits, and consent to be
+kept quiet, adding, that, if she wished any message to be conveyed to
+him, she would herself deliver it. 'No,' said her aunt faintly, 'no--I
+have nothing new to tell him. Does he persist in saying I shall be
+removed from my chamber?'
+
+Emily replied, that he had not spoken, on the subject, since Madame
+Montoni heard him; and then she tried to divert her attention to some
+other topic; but her aunt seemed to be inattentive to what she said, and
+lost in secret thoughts. Emily, having brought her some refreshment, now
+left her to the care of Annette, and went in search of Montoni, whom she
+found on a remote part of the rampart, conversing among a group of
+the men described by Annette. They stood round him with fierce, yet
+subjugated, looks, while he, speaking earnestly, and pointing to the
+walls, did not perceive Emily, who remained at some distance, waiting
+till he should be at leisure, and observing involuntarily the appearance
+of one man, more savage than his fellows, who stood resting on his pike,
+and looking, over the shoulders of a comrade, at Montoni, to whom he
+listened with uncommon earnestness. This man was apparently of low
+condition; yet his looks appeared not to acknowledge the superiority of
+Montoni, as did those of his companions; and sometimes they even assumed
+an air of authority, which the decisive manner of the Signor could not
+repress. Some few words of Montoni then passed in the wind; and, as the
+men were separating, she heard him say, 'This evening, then, begin the
+watch at sun-set.'
+
+'At sun-set, Signor,' replied one or two of them, and walked away; while
+Emily approached Montoni, who appeared desirous of avoiding her: but,
+though she observed this, she had courage to proceed. She endeavoured to
+intercede once more for her aunt, represented to him her sufferings,
+and urged the danger of exposing her to a cold apartment in her present
+state. 'She suffers by her own folly,' said Montoni, 'and is not to be
+pitied;--she knows how she may avoid these sufferings in future--if she
+is removed to the turret, it will be her own fault. Let her be obedient,
+and sign the writings you heard of, and I will think no more of it.'
+
+When Emily ventured still to plead, he sternly silenced and rebuked her
+for interfering in his domestic affairs, but, at length, dismissed her
+with this concession--That he would not remove Madame Montoni, on the
+ensuing night, but allow her till the next to consider, whether she
+would resign her settlements, or be imprisoned in the east turret of
+the castle, 'where she shall find,' he added, 'a punishment she may not
+expect.'
+
+Emily then hastened to inform her aunt of this short respite and of the
+alternative, that awaited her, to which the latter made no reply,
+but appeared thoughtful, while Emily, in consideration of her extreme
+languor, wished to sooth her mind by leading it to less interesting
+topics: and, though these efforts were unsuccessful, and Madame Montoni
+became peevish, her resolution, on the contended point, seemed somewhat
+to relax, and Emily recommended, as her only means of safety, that she
+should submit to Montoni's demand. 'You know not what you advise,' said
+her aunt. 'Do you understand, that these estates will descend to you at
+my death, if I persist in a refusal?'
+
+'I was ignorant of that circumstance, madam,' replied Emily, 'but the
+knowledge of it cannot with-hold me from advising you to adopt the
+conduct, which not only your peace, but, I fear, your safety requires,
+and I entreat, that you will not suffer a consideration comparatively so
+trifling, to make you hesitate a moment in resigning them.'
+
+'Are you sincere, niece?' 'Is it possible you can doubt it, madam?' Her
+aunt appeared to be affected. 'You are not unworthy of these estates,
+niece,' said she: 'I would wish to keep them for your sake--you shew a
+virtue I did not expect.'
+
+'How have I deserved this reproof, madam?' said Emily sorrowfully.
+
+'Reproof!' replied Madame Montoni: 'I meant to praise your virtue.'
+
+'Alas! here is no exertion of virtue,' rejoined Emily, 'for here is no
+temptation to be overcome.'
+
+'Yet Monsieur Valancourt'--said her aunt. 'O, madam!' interrupted Emily,
+anticipating what she would have said, 'do not let me glance on that
+subject: do not let my mind be stained with a wish so shockingly
+self-interested.' She immediately changed the topic, and continued with
+Madame Montoni, till she withdrew to her apartment for the night.
+
+At that hour, the castle was perfectly still, and every inhabitant of
+it, except herself, seemed to have retired to rest. As she passed along
+the wide and lonely galleries, dusky and silent, she felt forlorn
+and apprehensive of--she scarcely knew what; but when, entering the
+corridor, she recollected the incident of the preceding night, a dread
+seized her, lest a subject of alarm, similar to that, which had befallen
+Annette, should occur to her, and which, whether real, or ideal, would,
+she felt, have an almost equal effect upon her weakened spirits. The
+chamber, to which Annette had alluded, she did not exactly know, but
+understood it to be one of those she must pass in the way to her own;
+and, sending a fearful look forward into the gloom, she stepped lightly
+and cautiously along, till, coming to a door, from whence issued a low
+sound, she hesitated and paused; and, during the delay of that moment,
+her fears so much increased, that she had no power to move from the
+spot. Believing, that she heard a human voice within, she was somewhat
+revived; but, in the next moment, the door was opened, and a person,
+whom she conceived to be Montoni, appeared, who instantly started back,
+and closed it, though not before she had seen, by the light that burned
+in the chamber, another person, sitting in a melancholy attitude by the
+fire. Her terror vanished, but her astonishment only began, which was
+now roused by the mysterious secrecy of Montoni's manner, and by
+the discovery of a person, whom he thus visited at midnight, in an
+apartment, which had long been shut up, and of which such extraordinary
+reports were circulated.
+
+While she thus continued hesitating, strongly prompted to watch
+Montoni's motions, yet fearing to irritate him by appearing to notice
+them, the door was again opened cautiously, and as instantly closed as
+before. She then stepped softly to her chamber, which was the next
+but one to this, but, having put down her lamp, returned to an obscure
+corner of the corridor, to observe the proceedings of this half-seen
+person, and to ascertain, whether it was indeed Montoni.
+
+Having waited in silent expectation for a few minutes, with her eyes
+fixed on the door, it was again opened, and the same person appeared,
+whom she now knew to be Montoni. He looked cautiously round, without
+perceiving her, then, stepping forward, closed the door, and left the
+corridor. Soon after, Emily heard the door fastened on the inside, and
+she withdrew to her chamber, wondering at what she had witnessed.
+
+It was now twelve o'clock. As she closed her casement, she heard
+footsteps on the terrace below, and saw imperfectly, through the gloom,
+several persons advancing, who passed under the casement. She then
+heard the clink of arms, and, in the next moment, the watch-word; when,
+recollecting the command she had overheard from Montoni, and the hour
+of the night, she understood, that these men were, for the first time,
+relieving guard in the castle. Having listened till all was again still,
+she retired to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+ And shall no lay of death
+ With pleasing murmur sooth
+ Her parted soul?
+ Shall no tear wet her grave?
+     SAYERS
+
+On the following morning, Emily went early to the apartment of Madame
+Montoni, who had slept well, and was much recovered. Her spirits had
+also returned with her health, and her resolution to oppose Montoni's
+demands revived, though it yet struggled with her fears, which Emily,
+who trembled for the consequence of further opposition, endeavoured to
+confirm.
+
+Her aunt, as has been already shewn, had a disposition, which delighted
+in contradiction, and which taught her, when unpleasant circumstances
+were offered to her understanding, not to enquire into their truth, but
+to seek for arguments, by which she might make them appear false. Long
+habit had so entirely confirmed this natural propensity, that she
+was not conscious of possessing it. Emily's remonstrances and
+representations, therefore, roused her pride, instead of alarming, or
+convincing her judgment, and she still relied upon the discovery of
+some means, by which she might yet avoid submitting to the demand of her
+husband. Considering, that, if she could once escape from his castle,
+she might defy his power, and, obtaining a decisive separation, live in
+comfort on the estates, that yet remained for her, she mentioned this to
+her niece, who accorded with her in the wish, but differed from her, as
+to the probability of its completion. She represented the impossibility
+of passing the gates, secured and guarded as they were, and the extreme
+danger of committing her design to the discretion of a servant, who
+might either purposely betray, or accidentally disclose it.--Montoni's
+vengeance would also disdain restraint, if her intention was detected:
+and, though Emily wished, as fervently as she could do, to regain her
+freedom, and return to France, she consulted only Madame Montoni's
+safety, and persevered in advising her to relinquish her settlement,
+without braving further outrage.
+
+The struggle of contrary emotions, however, continued to rage in her
+aunt's bosom, and she still brooded over the chance of effecting an
+escape. While she thus sat, Montoni entered the room, and, without
+noticing his wife's indisposition, said, that he came to remind her of
+the impolicy of trifling with him, and that he gave her only till the
+evening to determine, whether she would consent to his demand, or compel
+him, by a refusal, to remove her to the east turret. He added, that a
+party of cavaliers would dine with him, that day, and that he expected
+that she would sit at the head of the table, where Emily, also, must
+be present. Madame Montoni was now on the point of uttering an absolute
+refusal, but, suddenly considering, that her liberty, during this
+entertainment, though circumscribed, might favour her further plans, she
+acquiesced, with seeming reluctance, and Montoni, soon after, left the
+apartment. His command struck Emily with surprise and apprehension, who
+shrank from the thought of being exposed to the gaze of strangers, such
+as her fancy represented these to be, and the words of Count Morano, now
+again recollected, did not sooth her fears.
+
+When she withdrew to prepare for dinner, she dressed herself with even
+more simplicity than usual, that she might escape observation--a policy,
+which did not avail her, for, as she re-passed to her aunt's apartment,
+she was met by Montoni, who censured what he called her prudish
+appearance, and insisted, that she should wear the most splendid dress
+she had, even that, which had been prepared for her intended nuptials
+with Count Morano, and which, it now appeared, her aunt had carefully
+brought with her from Venice. This was made, not in the Venetian, but,
+in the Neapolitan fashion, so as to set off the shape and figure, to the
+utmost advantage. In it, her beautiful chestnut tresses were negligently
+bound up in pearls, and suffered to fall back again on her neck. The
+simplicity of a better taste, than Madame Montoni's, was conspicuous in
+this dress, splendid as it was, and Emily's unaffected beauty never had
+appeared more captivatingly. She had now only to hope, that Montoni's
+order was prompted, not by any extraordinary design, but by an
+ostentation of displaying his family, richly attired, to the eyes
+of strangers; yet nothing less than his absolute command could have
+prevailed with her to wear a dress, that had been designed for such an
+offensive purpose, much less to have worn it on this occasion. As she
+descended to dinner, the emotion of her mind threw a faint blush over
+her countenance, and heightened its interesting expression; for timidity
+had made her linger in her apartment, till the utmost moment, and,
+when she entered the hall, in which a kind of state dinner was spread,
+Montoni and his guests were already seated at the table. She was then
+going to place herself by her aunt; but Montoni waved his hand, and two
+of the cavaliers rose, and seated her between them.
+
+The eldest of these was a tall man, with strong Italian features, an
+aquiline nose, and dark penetrating eyes, that flashed with fire, when
+his mind was agitated, and, even in its state of rest, retained somewhat
+of the wildness of the passions. His visage was long and narrow, and his
+complexion of a sickly yellow.
+
+The other, who appeared to be about forty, had features of a different
+cast, yet Italian, and his look was slow, subtle and penetrating; his
+eyes, of a dark grey, were small, and hollow; his complexion was a
+sun-burnt brown, and the contour of his face, though inclined to oval,
+was irregular and ill-formed.
+
+Eight other guests sat round the table, who were all dressed in an
+uniform, and had all an expression, more or less, of wild fierceness,
+of subtle design, or of licentious passions. As Emily timidly surveyed
+them, she remembered the scene of the preceding morning, and again
+almost fancied herself surrounded by banditti; then, looking back to
+the tranquillity of her early life, she felt scarcely less astonishment,
+than grief, at her present situation. The scene, in which they sat,
+assisted the illusion; it was an antient hall, gloomy from the style
+of its architecture, from its great extent, and because almost the only
+light it received was from one large gothic window, and from a pair of
+folding doors, which, being open, admitted likewise a view of the west
+rampart, with the wild mountains of the Apennine beyond.
+
+The middle compartment of this hall rose into a vaulted roof, enriched
+with fretwork, and supported, on three sides, by pillars of marble;
+beyond these, long colonnades retired in gloomy grandeur, till their
+extent was lost in twilight. The lightest footsteps of the servants,
+as they advanced through these, were returned in whispering echoes,
+and their figures, seen at a distance imperfectly through the dusk,
+frequently awakened Emily's imagination. She looked alternately
+at Montoni, at his guests and on the surrounding scene; and then,
+remembering her dear native province, her pleasant home and the
+simplicity and goodness of the friends, whom she had lost, grief and
+surprise again occupied her mind.
+
+When her thoughts could return from these considerations, she fancied
+she observed an air of authority towards his guests, such as she had
+never before seen him assume, though he had always been distinguished
+by an haughty carriage; there was something also in the manners of the
+strangers, that seemed perfectly, though not servilely, to acknowledge
+his superiority.
+
+During dinner, the conversation was chiefly on war and politics. They
+talked with energy of the state of Venice, its dangers, the character of
+the reigning Doge and of the chief senators; and then spoke of the state
+of Rome. When the repast was over, they rose, and, each filling his
+goblet with wine from the gilded ewer, that stood beside him, drank
+'Success to our exploits!' Montoni was lifting his goblet to his lips to
+drink this toast, when suddenly the wine hissed, rose to the brim, and,
+as he held the glass from him, it burst into a thousand pieces.
+
+To him, who constantly used that sort of Venice glass, which had the
+quality of breaking, upon receiving poisoned liquor, a suspicion, that
+some of his guests had endeavoured to betray him, instantly occurred,
+and he ordered all the gates to be closed, drew his sword, and, looking
+round on them, who stood in silent amazement, exclaimed, 'Here is a
+traitor among us; let those, that are innocent, assist in discovering
+the guilty.'
+
+Indignation flashed from the eyes of the cavaliers, who all drew their
+swords; and Madame Montoni, terrified at what might ensue, was hastening
+from the hall, when her husband commanded her to stay; but his further
+words could not now be distinguished, for the voice of every person rose
+together. His order, that all the servants should appear, was at length
+obeyed, and they declared their ignorance of any deceit--a protestation
+which could not be believed; for it was evident, that, as Montoni's
+liquor, and his only, had been poisoned, a deliberate design had been
+formed against his life, which could not have been carried so far
+towards its accomplishment, without the connivance of the servant, who
+had the care of the wine ewers.
+
+This man, with another, whose face betrayed either the consciousness
+of guilt, or the fear of punishment, Montoni ordered to be chained
+instantly, and confined in a strong room, which had formerly been used
+as a prison. Thither, likewise, he would have sent all his guests,
+had he not foreseen the consequence of so bold and unjustifiable a
+proceeding. As to those, therefore, he contented himself with swearing,
+that no man should pass the gates, till this extraordinary affair
+had been investigated, and then sternly bade his wife retire to her
+apartment, whither he suffered Emily to attend her.
+
+In about half an hour, he followed to the dressing-room; and Emily
+observed, with horror, his dark countenance and quivering lip, and heard
+him denounce vengeance on her aunt.
+
+'It will avail you nothing,' said he to his wife, 'to deny the fact;
+I have proof of your guilt. Your only chance of mercy rests on a full
+confession;--there is nothing to hope from sullenness, or falsehood;
+your accomplice has confessed all.'
+
+Emily's fainting spirits were roused by astonishment, as she heard her
+aunt accused of a crime so atrocious, and she could not, for a moment,
+admit the possibility of her guilt. Meanwhile Madame Montoni's agitation
+did not permit her to reply; alternately her complexion varied from
+livid paleness to a crimson flush; and she trembled,--but, whether with
+fear, or with indignation, it were difficult to decide.
+
+'Spare your words,' said Montoni, seeing her about to speak, 'your
+countenance makes full confession of your crime.--You shall be instantly
+removed to the east turret.'
+
+'This accusation,' said Madame Montoni, speaking with difficulty, 'is
+used only as an excuse for your cruelty; I disdain to reply to it. You
+do not believe me guilty.'
+
+'Signor!' said Emily solemnly, 'this dreadful charge, I would answer
+with my life, is false. Nay, Signor,' she added, observing the severity
+of his countenance, 'this is no moment for restraint, on my part; I do
+not scruple to tell you, that you are deceived--most wickedly deceived,
+by the suggestion of some person, who aims at the ruin of my aunt:--it
+is impossible, that you could yourself have imagined a crime so
+hideous.'
+
+Montoni, his lips trembling more than before, replied only, 'If you
+value your own safety,' addressing Emily, 'you will be silent. I shall
+know how to interpret your remonstrances, should you persevere in them.'
+
+Emily raised her eyes calmly to heaven. 'Here is, indeed, then, nothing
+to hope!' said she.
+
+'Peace!' cried Montoni, 'or you shall find there is something to fear.'
+
+He turned to his wife, who had now recovered her spirits, and who
+vehemently and wildly remonstrated upon this mysterious suspicion: but
+Montoni's rage heightened with her indignation, and Emily, dreading
+the event of it, threw herself between them, and clasped his knees in
+silence, looking up in his face with an expression, that might have
+softened the heart of a fiend. Whether his was hardened by a conviction
+of Madame Montoni's guilt, or that a bare suspicion of it made him
+eager to exercise vengeance, he was totally and alike insensible to the
+distress of his wife, and to the pleading looks of Emily, whom he made
+no attempt to raise, but was vehemently menacing both, when he was
+called out of the room by some person at the door. As he shut the door,
+Emily heard him turn the lock and take out the key; so that Madame
+Montoni and herself were now prisoners; and she saw that his designs
+became more and more terrible. Her endeavours to explain his motives
+for this circumstance were almost as ineffectual as those to sooth the
+distress of her aunt, whose innocence she could not doubt; but she, at
+length, accounted for Montoni's readiness to suspect his wife by his own
+consciousness of cruelty towards her, and for the sudden violence of
+his present conduct against both, before even his suspicions could be
+completely formed, by his general eagerness to effect suddenly whatever
+he was led to desire and his carelessness of justice, or humanity, in
+accomplishing it.
+
+Madame Montoni, after some time, again looked round, in search of a
+possibility of escape from the castle, and conversed with Emily on the
+subject, who was now willing to encounter any hazard, though she forbore
+to encourage a hope in her aunt, which she herself did not admit. How
+strongly the edifice was secured, and how vigilantly guarded, she knew
+too well; and trembled to commit their safety to the caprice of
+the servant, whose assistance they must solicit. Old Carlo was
+compassionate, but he seemed to be too much in his master's interest to
+be trusted by them; Annette could of herself do little, and Emily knew
+Ludovico only from her report. At present, however, these considerations
+were useless, Madame Montoni and her niece being shut up from all
+intercourse, even with the persons, whom there might be these reasons to
+reject.
+
+In the hall, confusion and tumult still reigned. Emily, as she listened
+anxiously to the murmur, that sounded along the gallery, sometimes
+fancied she heard the clashing of swords, and, when she considered the
+nature of the provocation, given by Montoni, and his impetuosity, it
+appeared probable, that nothing less than arms would terminate the
+contention. Madame Montoni, having exhausted all her expressions of
+indignation, and Emily, hers of comfort, they remained silent, in that
+kind of breathless stillness, which, in nature, often succeeds to the
+uproar of conflicting elements; a stillness, like the morning, that
+dawns upon the ruins of an earthquake.
+
+An uncertain kind of terror pervaded Emily's mind; the circumstances
+of the past hour still came dimly and confusedly to her memory; and her
+thoughts were various and rapid, though without tumult.
+
+From this state of waking visions she was recalled by a knocking at the
+chamber-door, and, enquiring who was there, heard the whispering voice
+of Annette.
+
+'Dear madam, let me come in, I have a great deal to say,' said the poor
+girl.
+
+'The door is locked,' answered the lady.
+
+'Yes, ma'am, but do pray open it.'
+
+'The Signor has the key,' said Madame Montoni.
+
+'O blessed Virgin! what will become of us?' exclaimed Annette.
+
+'Assist us to escape,' said her mistress. 'Where is Ludovico?'
+
+'Below in the hall, ma'am, amongst them all, fighting with the best of
+them!'
+
+'Fighting! Who are fighting?' cried Madame Montoni.
+
+'Why the Signor, ma'am, and all the Signors, and a great many more.'
+
+'Is any person much hurt?' said Emily, in a tremulous voice. 'Hurt!
+Yes, ma'amselle,--there they lie bleeding, and the swords are clashing,
+and--O holy saints! Do let me in, ma'am, they are coming this way--I
+shall be murdered!'
+
+'Fly!' cried Emily, 'fly! we cannot open the door.'
+
+Annette repeated, that they were coming, and in the same moment fled.
+
+'Be calm, madam,' said Emily, turning to her aunt, 'I entreat you to be
+calm, I am not frightened--not frightened in the least, do not you be
+alarmed.'
+
+'You can scarcely support yourself,' replied her aunt; 'Merciful God!
+what is it they mean to do with us?'
+
+'They come, perhaps, to liberate us,' said Emily, 'Signor Montoni
+perhaps is--is conquered.'
+
+The belief of his death gave her spirits a sudden shock, and she grew
+faint as she saw him in imagination, expiring at her feet.
+
+'They are coming!' cried Madame Montoni--'I hear their steps--they are
+at the door!'
+
+Emily turned her languid eyes to the door, but terror deprived her of
+utterance. The key sounded in the lock; the door opened, and Montoni
+appeared, followed by three ruffian-like men. 'Execute your orders,'
+said he, turning to them, and pointing to his wife, who shrieked, but
+was immediately carried from the room; while Emily sunk, senseless, on
+a couch, by which she had endeavoured to support herself. When she
+recovered, she was alone, and recollected only, that Madame Montoni had
+been there, together with some unconnected particulars of the preceding
+transaction, which were, however, sufficient to renew all her terror.
+She looked wildly round the apartment, as if in search of some means of
+intelligence, concerning her aunt, while neither her own danger, or an
+idea of escaping from the room, immediately occurred.
+
+When her recollection was more complete, she raised herself and went,
+but with only a faint hope, to examine whether the door was unfastened.
+It was so, and she then stepped timidly out into the gallery, but paused
+there, uncertain which way she should proceed. Her first wish was to
+gather some information, as to her aunt, and she, at length, turned her
+steps to go to the lesser hall, where Annette and the other servants
+usually waited.
+
+Every where, as she passed, she heard, from a distance, the uproar of
+contention, and the figures and faces, which she met, hurrying along the
+passages, struck her mind with dismay. Emily might now have appeared,
+like an angel of light, encompassed by fiends. At length, she reached
+the lesser hall, which was silent and deserted, but, panting for breath,
+she sat down to recover herself. The total stillness of this place was
+as awful as the tumult, from which she had escaped: but she had now time
+to recall her scattered thoughts, to remember her personal danger, and
+to consider of some means of safety. She perceived, that it was useless
+to seek Madame Montoni, through the wide extent and intricacies of the
+castle, now, too, when every avenue seemed to be beset by ruffians; in
+this hall she could not resolve to stay, for she knew not how soon it
+might become their place of rendezvous; and, though she wished to go to
+her chamber, she dreaded again to encounter them on the way.
+
+Thus she sat, trembling and hesitating, when a distant murmur broke on
+the silence, and grew louder and louder, till she distinguished voices
+and steps approaching. She then rose to go, but the sounds came along
+the only passage, by which she could depart, and she was compelled to
+await in the hall, the arrival of the persons, whose steps she heard.
+As these advanced, she distinguished groans, and then saw a man borne
+slowly along by four others. Her spirits faltered at the sight, and she
+leaned against the wall for support. The bearers, meanwhile, entered the
+hall, and, being too busily occupied to detain, or even notice Emily,
+she attempted to leave it, but her strength failed, and she again sat
+down on the bench. A damp chillness came over her; her sight became
+confused; she knew not what had passed, or where she was, yet the groans
+of the wounded person still vibrated on her heart. In a few moments, the
+tide of life seemed again to flow; she began to breathe more freely, and
+her senses revived. She had not fainted, nor had ever totally lost her
+consciousness, but had contrived to support herself on the bench; still
+without courage to turn her eyes upon the unfortunate object, which
+remained near her, and about whom the men were yet too much engaged to
+attend to her.
+
+When her strength returned, she rose, and was suffered to leave
+the hall, though her anxiety, having produced some vain enquiries,
+concerning Madame Montoni, had thus made a discovery of herself. Towards
+her chamber she now hastened, as fast as her steps would bear her, for
+she still perceived, upon her passage, the sounds of confusion at a
+distance, and she endeavoured, by taking her way through some obscure
+rooms, to avoid encountering the persons, whose looks had terrified her
+before, as well as those parts of the castle, where the tumult might
+still rage.
+
+At length, she reached her chamber, and, having secured the door of the
+corridor, felt herself, for a moment, in safety. A profound stillness
+reigned in this remote apartment, which not even the faint murmur of
+the most distant sounds now reached. She sat down, near one of the
+casements, and, as she gazed on the mountain-view beyond, the deep
+repose of its beauty struck her with all the force of contrast, and she
+could scarcely believe herself so near a scene of savage discord. The
+contending elements seemed to have retired from their natural spheres,
+and to have collected themselves into the minds of men, for there alone
+the tempest now reigned.
+
+Emily tried to tranquillize her spirits, but anxiety made her constantly
+listen for some sound, and often look out upon the ramparts, where all,
+however, was lonely and still. As a sense of her own immediate danger
+had decreased, her apprehension concerning Madame Montoni heightened,
+who, she remembered, had been fiercely threatened with confinement in
+the east turret, and it was possible, that her husband had satisfied his
+present vengeance with this punishment. She, therefore, determined, when
+night should return, and the inhabitants of the castle should be asleep,
+to explore the way to the turret, which, as the direction it stood in
+was mentioned, appeared not very difficult to be done. She knew, indeed,
+that although her aunt might be there, she could afford her no effectual
+assistance, but it might give her some comfort even to know, that she
+was discovered, and to hear the sound of her niece's voice; for
+herself, any certainty, concerning Madame Montoni's fate, appeared more
+tolerable, than this exhausting suspense.
+
+Meanwhile, Annette did not appear, and Emily was surprised, and somewhat
+alarmed for her, whom, in the confusion of the late scene, various
+accidents might have befallen, and it was improbable, that she would
+have failed to come to her apartment, unless something unfortunate had
+happened.
+
+Thus the hours passed in solitude, in silence, and in anxious
+conjecturing. Being not once disturbed by a message, or a sound, it
+appeared, that Montoni had wholly forgotten her, and it gave her some
+comfort to find, that she could be so unnoticed. She endeavoured to
+withdraw her thoughts from the anxiety, that preyed upon them, but they
+refused controul; she could neither read, or draw, and the tones of her
+lute were so utterly discordant with the present state of her feelings,
+that she could not endure them for a moment.
+
+The sun, at length, set behind the western mountains; his fiery beams
+faded from the clouds, and then a dun melancholy purple drew over them,
+and gradually involved the features of the country below. Soon after,
+the sentinels passed on the rampart to commence the watch.
+
+Twilight had now spread its gloom over every object; the dismal
+obscurity of her chamber recalled fearful thoughts, but she remembered,
+that to procure a light she must pass through a great extent of the
+castle, and, above all, through the halls, where she had already
+experienced so much horror. Darkness, indeed, in the present state of
+her spirits, made silence and solitude terrible to her; it would also
+prevent the possibility of her finding her way to the turret, and
+condemn her to remain in suspense, concerning the fate of her aunt; yet
+she dared not to venture forth for a lamp.
+
+Continuing at the casement, that she might catch the last lingering
+gleam of evening, a thousand vague images of fear floated on her fancy.
+'What if some of these ruffians,' said she, 'should find out the private
+stair-case, and in the darkness of night steal into my chamber!' Then,
+recollecting the mysterious inhabitant of the neighbouring apartment,
+her terror changed its object. 'He is not a prisoner,' said she, 'though
+he remains in one chamber, for Montoni did not fasten the door, when he
+left it; the unknown person himself did this; it is certain, therefore,
+he can come out when he pleases.'
+
+She paused, for, notwithstanding the terrors of darkness, she considered
+it to be very improbable, whoever he was, that he could have any
+interest in intruding upon her retirement; and again the subject of her
+emotion changed, when, remembering her nearness to the chamber, where
+the veil had formerly disclosed a dreadful spectacle, she doubted
+whether some passage might not communicate between it and the insecure
+door of the stair-case.
+
+It was now entirely dark, and she left the casement. As she sat with
+her eyes fixed on the hearth, she thought she perceived there a spark
+of light; it twinkled and disappeared, and then again was visible. At
+length, with much care, she fanned the embers of a wood fire, that had
+been lighted in the morning, into flame, and, having communicated it to
+a lamp, which always stood in her room, felt a satisfaction not to be
+conceived, without a review of her situation. Her first care was to
+guard the door of the stair-case, for which purpose she placed against
+it all the furniture she could move, and she was thus employed, for
+some time, at the end of which she had another instance how much more
+oppressive misfortune is to the idle, than to the busy; for, having then
+leisure to think over all the circumstances of her present afflictions,
+she imagined a thousand evils for futurity, and these real and ideal
+subjects of distress alike wounded her mind.
+
+Thus heavily moved the hours till midnight, when she counted the sullen
+notes of the great clock, as they rolled along the rampart, unmingled
+with any sound, except the distant foot-fall of a sentinel, who came
+to relieve guard. She now thought she might venture towards the turret,
+and, having gently opened the chamber door to examine the corridor, and
+to listen if any person was stirring in the castle, found all around
+in perfect stillness. Yet no sooner had she left the room, than she
+perceived a light flash on the walls of the corridor, and, without
+waiting to see by whom it was carried, she shrunk back, and closed her
+door. No one approaching, she conjectured, that it was Montoni going to
+pay his mid-night visit to her unknown neighbour, and she determined to
+wait, till he should have retired to his own apartment.
+
+When the chimes had tolled another half hour, she once more opened
+the door, and, perceiving that no person was in the corridor, hastily
+crossed into a passage, that led along the south side of the castle
+towards the stair-case, whence she believed she could easily find her
+way to the turret. Often pausing on her way, listening apprehensively to
+the murmurs of the wind, and looking fearfully onward into the gloom of
+the long passages, she, at length, reached the stair-case; but there her
+perplexity began. Two passages appeared, of which she knew not how to
+prefer one, and was compelled, at last, to decide by chance, rather than
+by circumstances. That she entered, opened first into a wide gallery,
+along which she passed lightly and swiftly; for the lonely aspect of the
+place awed her, and she started at the echo of her own steps.
+
+On a sudden, she thought she heard a voice, and, not distinguishing
+from whence it came, feared equally to proceed, or to return. For some
+moments, she stood in an attitude of listening expectation, shrinking
+almost from herself and scarcely daring to look round her. The voice
+came again, but, though it was now near her, terror did not allow her to
+judge exactly whence it proceeded. She thought, however, that it was the
+voice of complaint, and her belief was soon confirmed by a low moaning
+sound, that seemed to proceed from one of the chambers, opening into
+the gallery. It instantly occurred to her, that Madame Montoni might be
+there confined, and she advanced to the door to speak, but was checked
+by considering, that she was, perhaps, going to commit herself to a
+stranger, who might discover her to Montoni; for, though this person,
+whoever it was, seemed to be in affliction, it did not follow, that he
+was a prisoner.
+
+While these thoughts passed over her mind, and left her still in
+hesitation, the voice spoke again, and, calling 'Ludovico,' she then
+perceived it to be that of Annette; on which, no longer hesitating, she
+went in joy to answer her.
+
+'Ludovico!' cried Annette, sobbing--'Ludovico!'
+
+'It is not Ludovico, it is I--Mademoiselle Emily.'
+
+Annette ceased sobbing, and was silent.
+
+'If you can open the door, let me in,' said Emily, 'here is no person to
+hurt you.'
+
+'Ludovico!--O, Ludovico!' cried Annette.
+
+Emily now lost her patience, and her fear of being overheard increasing,
+she was even nearly about to leave the door, when she considered, that
+Annette might, possibly, know something of the situation of Madame
+Montoni, or direct her to the turret. At length, she obtained a reply,
+though little satisfactory, to her questions, for Annette knew nothing
+of Madame Montoni, and only conjured Emily to tell her what was become
+of Ludovico. Of him she had no information to give, and she again asked
+who had shut Annette up.
+
+'Ludovico,' said the poor girl, 'Ludovico shut me up. When I ran away
+from the dressing-room door to-day, I went I scarcely knew where, for
+safety; and, in this gallery, here, I met Ludovico, who hurried me into
+this chamber, and locked me up to keep me out of harm, as he said. But
+he was in such a hurry himself, he hardly spoke ten words, but he told
+me he would come, and let me out, when all was quiet, and he took away
+the key with him. Now all these hours are passed, and I have neither
+seen, or heard a word of him; they have murdered him--I know they have!'
+
+Emily suddenly remembered the wounded person, whom she had seen borne
+into the servants' hall, and she scarcely doubted, that he was Ludovico,
+but she concealed the circumstance from Annette, and endeavoured to
+comfort her. Then, impatient to learn something of her aunt, she again
+enquired the way to the turret.
+
+'O! you are not going, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'for Heaven's sake, do
+not go, and leave me here by myself.'
+
+'Nay, Annette, you do not think I can wait in the gallery all night,'
+replied Emily. 'Direct me to the turret; in the morning I will endeavour
+to release you.'
+
+'O holy Mary!' exclaimed Annette, 'am I to stay here by myself all
+night! I shall be frightened out of my senses, and I shall die of
+hunger; I have had nothing to eat since dinner!'
+
+Emily could scarcely forbear smiling at the heterogeneous distresses of
+Annette, though she sincerely pitied them, and said what she could to
+sooth her. At length, she obtained something like a direction to the
+east turret, and quitted the door, from whence, after many intricacies
+and perplexities, she reached the steep and winding stairs of the
+turret, at the foot of which she stopped to rest, and to re-animate her
+courage with a sense of her duty. As she surveyed this dismal place, she
+perceived a door on the opposite side of the stair-case, and, anxious
+to know whether it would lead her to Madame Montoni, she tried to undraw
+the bolts, which fastened it. A fresher air came to her face, as she
+unclosed the door, which opened upon the east rampart, and the sudden
+current had nearly extinguished her light, which she now removed to a
+distance; and again, looking out upon the obscure terrace, she perceived
+only the faint outline of the walls and of some towers, while, above,
+heavy clouds, borne along the wind, seemed to mingle with the stars, and
+wrap the night in thicker darkness. As she gazed, now willing to defer
+the moment of certainty, from which she expected only confirmation of
+evil, a distant footstep reminded her, that she might be observed by
+the men on watch, and, hastily closing the door, she took her lamp,
+and passed up the stair-case. Trembling came upon her, as she ascended
+through the gloom. To her melancholy fancy this seemed to be a place of
+death, and the chilling silence, that reigned, confirmed its character.
+Her spirits faltered. 'Perhaps,' said she, 'I am come hither only to
+learn a dreadful truth, or to witness some horrible spectacle; I feel
+that my senses would not survive such an addition of horror.'
+
+The image of her aunt murdered--murdered, perhaps, by the hand of
+Montoni, rose to her mind; she trembled, gasped for breath--repented
+that she had dared to venture hither, and checked her steps. But, after
+she had paused a few minutes, the consciousness of her duty returned,
+and she went on. Still all was silent. At length a track of blood, upon
+a stair, caught her eye; and instantly she perceived, that the wall and
+several other steps were stained. She paused, again struggled to support
+herself, and the lamp almost fell from her trembling hand. Still
+no sound was heard, no living being seemed to inhabit the turret; a
+thousand times she wished herself again in her chamber; dreaded to
+enquire farther--dreaded to encounter some horrible spectacle, and
+yet could not resolve, now that she was so near the termination of her
+efforts, to desist from them. Having again collected courage to proceed,
+after ascending about half way up the turret, she came to another door,
+but here again she stopped in hesitation; listened for sounds within,
+and then, summoning all her resolution, unclosed it, and entered a
+chamber, which, as her lamp shot its feeble rays through the darkness,
+seemed to exhibit only dew-stained and deserted walls. As she stood
+examining it, in fearful expectation of discovering the remains of her
+unfortunate aunt, she perceived something lying in an obscure corner of
+the room, and, struck with an horrible conviction, she became, for
+an instant, motionless and nearly insensible. Then, with a kind of
+desperate resolution, she hurried towards the object that excited her
+terror, when, perceiving the clothes of some person, on the floor,
+she caught hold of them, and found in her grasp the old uniform of a
+soldier, beneath which appeared a heap of pikes and other arms. Scarcely
+daring to trust her sight, she continued, for some moments, to gaze
+on the object of her late alarm, and then left the chamber, so much
+comforted and occupied by the conviction, that her aunt was not there,
+that she was going to descend the turret, without enquiring farther;
+when, on turning to do so, she observed upon some steps on the second
+flight an appearance of blood, and remembering, that there was yet
+another chamber to be explored, she again followed the windings of
+the ascent. Still, as she ascended, the track of blood glared upon the
+stairs.
+
+It led her to the door of a landing-place, that terminated them, but she
+was unable to follow it farther. Now that she was so near the sought-for
+certainty, she dreaded to know it, even more than before, and had not
+fortitude sufficient to speak, or to attempt opening the door.
+
+Having listened, in vain, for some sound, that might confirm, or destroy
+her fears, she, at length, laid her hand on the lock, and, finding it
+fastened, called on Madame Montoni; but only a chilling silence ensued.
+
+'She is dead!' she cried,--'murdered!--her blood is on the stairs!'
+
+Emily grew very faint; could support herself no longer, and had scarcely
+presence of mind to set down the lamp, and place herself on a step.
+
+When her recollection returned, she spoke again at the door, and again
+attempted to open it, and, having lingered for some time, without
+receiving any answer, or hearing a sound, she descended the turret,
+and, with all the swiftness her feebleness would permit, sought her own
+apartment.
+
+As she turned into the corridor, the door of a chamber opened, from
+whence Montoni came forth; but Emily, more terrified than ever to behold
+him, shrunk back into the passage soon enough to escape being noticed,
+and heard him close the door, which she had perceived was the same she
+formerly observed. Having here listened to his departing steps, till
+their faint sound was lost in distance, she ventured to her apartment,
+and, securing it once again, retired to her bed, leaving the lamp
+burning on the hearth. But sleep was fled from her harassed mind, to
+which images of horror alone occurred. She endeavoured to think it
+possible, that Madame Montoni had not been taken to the turret; but,
+when she recollected the former menaces of her husband and the terrible
+spirit of vengeance, which he had displayed on a late occasion; when she
+remembered his general character, the looks of the men, who had forced
+Madame Montoni from her apartment, and the written traces on the stairs
+of the turret--she could not doubt, that her aunt had been carried
+thither, and could scarcely hope, that she had not been carried to be
+murdered.
+
+The grey of morning had long dawned through her casements, before Emily
+closed her eyes in sleep; when wearied nature, at length, yielded her a
+respite from suffering.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+ Who rears the bloody hand?
+     SAYERS
+
+Emily remained in her chamber, on the following morning, without
+receiving any notice from Montoni, or seeing a human being, except the
+armed men, who sometimes passed on the terrace below. Having tasted no
+food since the dinner of the preceding day, extreme faintness made her
+feel the necessity of quitting the asylum of her apartment to obtain
+refreshment, and she was also very anxious to procure liberty for
+Annette. Willing, however, to defer venturing forth, as long as
+possible, and considering, whether she should apply to Montoni, or to
+the compassion of some other person, her excessive anxiety concerning
+her aunt, at length, overcame her abhorrence of his presence, and she
+determined to go to him, and to entreat, that he would suffer her to see
+Madame Montoni.
+
+Meanwhile, it was too certain, from the absence of Annette, that some
+accident had befallen Ludovico, and that she was still in confinement;
+Emily, therefore, resolved also to visit the chamber, where she had
+spoken to her, on the preceding night, and, if the poor girl was yet
+there, to inform Montoni of her situation.
+
+It was near noon, before she ventured from her apartment, and went
+first to the south gallery, whither she passed without meeting a single
+person, or hearing a sound, except, now and then, the echo of a distant
+footstep.
+
+It was unnecessary to call Annette, whose lamentations were audible
+upon the first approach to the gallery, and who, bewailing her own and
+Ludovico's fate, told Emily, that she should certainly be starved to
+death, if she was not let out immediately. Emily replied, that she
+was going to beg her release of Montoni; but the terrors of hunger now
+yielded to those of the Signor, and, when Emily left her, she was loudly
+entreating, that her place of refuge might be concealed from him.
+
+As Emily drew near the great hall, the sounds she heard and the people
+she met in the passages renewed her alarm. The latter, however, were
+peaceable, and did not interrupt her, though they looked earnestly at
+her, as she passed, and sometimes spoke. On crossing the hall towards
+the cedar room, where Montoni usually sat, she perceived, on the
+pavement, fragments of swords, some tattered garments stained with
+blood, and almost expected to have seen among them a dead body; but
+from such a spectacle she was, at present, spared. As she approached
+the room, the sound of several voices issued from within, and a dread
+of appearing before many strangers, as well as of irritating Montoni
+by such an intrusion, made her pause and falter from her purpose. She
+looked up through the long arcades of the hall, in search of a servant,
+who might bear a message, but no one appeared, and the urgency of what
+she had to request made her still linger near the door. The voices
+within were not in contention, though she distinguished those of several
+of the guests of the preceding day; but still her resolution failed,
+whenever she would have tapped at the door, and she had determined to
+walk in the hall, till some person should appear, who might call Montoni
+from the room, when, as she turned from the door, it was suddenly opened
+by himself. Emily trembled, and was confused, while he almost started
+with surprise, and all the terrors of his countenance unfolded
+themselves. She forgot all she would have said, and neither enquired for
+her aunt, or entreated for Annette, but stood silent and embarrassed.
+
+After closing the door he reproved her for a meanness, of which she had
+not been guilty, and sternly questioned her what she had overheard; an
+accusation, which revived her recollection so far, that she assured
+him she had not come thither with an intention to listen to his
+conversation, but to entreat his compassion for her aunt, and for
+Annette. Montoni seemed to doubt this assertion, for he regarded her
+with a scrutinizing look; and the doubt evidently arose from no trifling
+interest. Emily then further explained herself, and concluded with
+entreating him to inform her, where her aunt was placed, and to permit,
+that she might visit her; but he looked upon her only with a malignant
+smile, which instantaneously confirmed her worst fears for her aunt,
+and, at that moment, she had not courage to renew her entreaties.
+
+'For Annette,' said he,--'if you go to Carlo, he will release the
+girl; the foolish fellow, who shut her up, died yesterday.' Emily
+shuddered.--'But my aunt, Signor'--said she, 'O tell me of my aunt!'
+
+'She is taken care of,' replied Montoni hastily, 'I have no time to
+answer idle questions.'
+
+He would have passed on, but Emily, in a voice of agony, that could not
+be wholly resisted, conjured him to tell her, where Madame Montoni was;
+while he paused, and she anxiously watched his countenance, a trumpet
+sounded, and, in the next moment, she heard the heavy gates of the
+portal open, and then the clattering of horses' hoofs in the court, with
+the confusion of many voices. She stood for a moment hesitating whether
+she should follow Montoni, who, at the sound of the trumpet, had passed
+through the hall, and, turning her eyes whence it came, she saw through
+the door, that opened beyond a long perspective of arches into the
+courts, a party of horsemen, whom she judged, as well as the distance
+and her embarrassment would allow, to be the same she had seen depart, a
+few days before. But she staid not to scrutinize, for, when the trumpet
+sounded again, the chevaliers rushed out of the cedar room, and men came
+running into the hall from every quarter of the castle. Emily once more
+hurried for shelter to her own apartment. Thither she was still pursued
+by images of horror. She re-considered Montoni's manner and words, when
+he had spoken of his wife, and they served only to confirm her most
+terrible suspicions. Tears refused any longer to relieve her distress,
+and she had sat for a considerable time absorbed in thought, when a
+knocking at the chamber door aroused her, on opening which she found old
+Carlo.
+
+'Dear young lady,' said he, 'I have been so flurried, I never once
+thought of you till just now. I have brought you some fruit and wine,
+and I am sure you must stand in need of them by this time.'
+
+'Thank you, Carlo,' said Emily, 'this is very good of you Did the Signor
+remind you of me?'
+
+'No, Signora,' replied Carlo, 'his excellenza has business enough on his
+hands.' Emily then renewed her enquiries, concerning Madame Montoni, but
+Carlo had been employed at the other end of the castle, during the time,
+that she was removed, and he had heard nothing since, concerning her.
+
+While he spoke, Emily looked steadily at him, for she scarcely knew
+whether he was really ignorant, or concealed his knowledge of the truth
+from a fear of offending his master. To several questions, concerning
+the contentions of yesterday, he gave very limited answers; but told,
+that the disputes were now amicably settled, and that the Signor
+believed himself to have been mistaken in his suspicions of his guests.
+'The fighting was about that, Signora,' said Carlo; 'but I trust I shall
+never see such another day in this castle, though strange things are
+about to be done.'
+
+On her enquiring his meaning, 'Ah, Signora!' added he, 'it is not for me
+to betray secrets, or tell all I think, but time will tell.'
+
+She then desired him to release Annette, and, having described the
+chamber in which the poor girl was confined, he promised to obey her
+immediately, and was departing, when she remembered to ask who were the
+persons just arrived. Her late conjecture was right; it was Verezzi,
+with his party.
+
+Her spirits were somewhat soothed by this short conversation with Carlo;
+for, in her present circumstances, it afforded some comfort to hear the
+accents of compassion, and to meet the look of sympathy.
+
+An hour passed before Annette appeared, who then came weeping and
+sobbing. 'O Ludovico--Ludovico!' cried she.
+
+'My poor Annette!' said Emily, and made her sit down.
+
+'Who could have foreseen this, ma'amselle? O miserable, wretched,
+day--that ever I should live to see it!' and she continued to moan and
+lament, till Emily thought it necessary to check her excess of grief.
+'We are continually losing dear friends by death,' said she, with
+a sigh, that came from her heart. 'We must submit to the will of
+Heaven--our tears, alas! cannot recall the dead!'
+
+Annette took the handkerchief from her face.
+
+'You will meet Ludovico in a better world, I hope,' added Emily.
+
+'Yes--yes,--ma'amselle,' sobbed Annette, 'but I hope I shall meet him
+again in this--though he is so wounded!'
+
+'Wounded!' exclaimed Emily, 'does he live?'
+
+'Yes, ma'am, but--but he has a terrible wound, and could not come to
+let me out. They thought him dead, at first, and he has not been rightly
+himself, till within this hour.'
+
+'Well, Annette, I rejoice to hear he lives.'
+
+'Lives! Holy Saints! why he will not die, surely!'
+
+Emily said she hoped not, but this expression of hope Annette thought
+implied fear, and her own increased in proportion, as Emily endeavoured
+to encourage her. To enquiries, concerning Madame Montoni, she could
+give no satisfactory answers.
+
+'I quite forgot to ask among the servants, ma'amselle,' said she, 'for I
+could think of nobody but poor Ludovico.'
+
+Annette's grief was now somewhat assuaged, and Emily sent her to make
+enquiries, concerning her lady, of whom, however, she could obtain no
+intelligence, some of the people she spoke with being really ignorant of
+her fate, and others having probably received orders to conceal it.
+
+This day passed with Emily in continued grief and anxiety for her aunt;
+but she was unmolested by any notice from Montoni; and, now that Annette
+was liberated, she obtained food, without exposing herself to danger, or
+impertinence.
+
+Two following days passed in the same manner, unmarked by any
+occurrence, during which she obtained no information of Madame Montoni.
+On the evening of the second, having dismissed Annette, and retired to
+bed, her mind became haunted by the most dismal images, such as her long
+anxiety, concerning her aunt, suggested; and, unable to forget herself,
+for a moment, or to vanquish the phantoms, that tormented her, she
+rose from her bed, and went to one of the casements of her chamber, to
+breathe a freer air.
+
+All without was silent and dark, unless that could be called light,
+which was only the faint glimmer of the stars, shewing imperfectly
+the outline of the mountains, the western towers of the castle and the
+ramparts below, where a solitary sentinel was pacing. What an image of
+repose did this scene present! The fierce and terrible passions, too,
+which so often agitated the inhabitants of this edifice, seemed now
+hushed in sleep;--those mysterious workings, that rouse the elements of
+man's nature into tempest--were calm. Emily's heart was not so; but her
+sufferings, though deep, partook of the gentle character of her mind.
+Hers was a silent anguish, weeping, yet enduring; not the wild energy of
+passion, inflaming imagination, bearing down the barriers of reason and
+living in a world of its own.
+
+The air refreshed her, and she continued at the casement, looking on the
+shadowy scene, over which the planets burned with a clear light, amid
+the deep blue aether, as they silently moved in their destined course.
+She remembered how often she had gazed on them with her dear father, how
+often he had pointed out their way in the heavens, and explained their
+laws; and these reflections led to others, which, in an almost equal
+degree, awakened her grief and astonishment.
+
+They brought a retrospect of all the strange and mournful events, which
+had occurred since she lived in peace with her parents. And to Emily,
+who had been so tenderly educated, so tenderly loved, who once knew
+only goodness and happiness--to her, the late events and her present
+situation--in a foreign land--in a remote castle--surrounded by vice
+and violence--seemed more like the visions of a distempered imagination,
+than the circumstances of truth. She wept to think of what her parents
+would have suffered, could they have foreseen the events of her future
+life.
+
+While she raised her streaming eyes to heaven, she observed the same
+planet, which she had seen in Languedoc, on the night, preceding her
+father's death, rise above the eastern towers of the castle, while she
+remembered the conversation, which has passed, concerning the probable
+state of departed souls; remembered, also, the solemn music she had
+heard, and to which the tenderness of her spirits had, in spite of her
+reason, given a superstitious meaning. At these recollections she wept
+again, and continued musing, when suddenly the notes of sweet music
+passed on the air. A superstitious dread stole over her; she stood
+listening, for some moments, in trembling expectation, and then
+endeavoured to re-collect her thoughts, and to reason herself into
+composure; but human reason cannot establish her laws on subjects, lost
+in the obscurity of imagination, any more than the eye can ascertain the
+form of objects, that only glimmer through the dimness of night.
+
+Her surprise, on hearing such soothing and delicious sounds, was, at
+least, justifiable; for it was long--very long, since she had listened
+to any thing like melody. The fierce trumpet and the shrill fife were
+the only instruments she had heard, since her arrival at Udolpho.
+
+When her mind was somewhat more composed, she tried to ascertain from
+what quarter the sounds proceeded, and thought they came from below; but
+whether from a room of the castle, or from the terrace, she could not
+with certainty judge. Fear and surprise now yielded to the enchantment
+of a strain, that floated on the silent night, with the most soft
+and melancholy sweetness. Suddenly, it seemed removed to a distance,
+trembled faintly, and then entirely ceased.
+
+She continued to listen, sunk in that pleasing repose, which soft music
+leaves on the mind--but it came no more. Upon this strange circumstance
+her thoughts were long engaged, for strange it certainly was to hear
+music at midnight, when every inhabitant of the castle had long since
+retired to rest, and in a place, where nothing like harmony had been
+heard before, probably, for many years. Long-suffering had made her
+spirits peculiarly sensible to terror, and liable to be affected by the
+illusions of superstition.--It now seemed to her, as if her dead father
+had spoken to her in that strain, to inspire her with comfort and
+confidence, on the subject, which had then occupied her mind. Yet reason
+told her, that this was a wild conjecture, and she was inclined to
+dismiss it; but, with the inconsistency so natural, when imagination
+guides the thoughts, she then wavered towards a belief as wild. She
+remembered the singular event, connected with the castle, which had
+given it into the possession of its present owner; and, when she
+considered the mysterious manner, in which its late possessor had
+disappeared, and that she had never since been heard of, her mind was
+impressed with an high degree of solemn awe; so that, though there
+appeared no clue to connect that event with the late music, she was
+inclined fancifully to think they had some relation to each other. At
+this conjecture, a sudden chillness ran through her frame; she looked
+fearfully upon the duskiness of her chamber, and the dead silence, that
+prevailed there, heightened to her fancy its gloomy aspect.
+
+At length, she left the casement, but her steps faltered, as she
+approached the bed, and she stopped and looked round. The single lamp,
+that burned in her spacious chamber, was expiring; for a moment, she
+shrunk from the darkness beyond; and then, ashamed of the weakness,
+which, however, she could not wholly conquer, went forward to the bed,
+where her mind did not soon know the soothings of sleep. She still mused
+on the late occurrence, and looked with anxiety to the next night, when,
+at the same hour, she determined to watch whether the music returned.
+'If those sounds were human,' said she, 'I shall probably hear them
+again.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+  Then, oh, you blessed ministers above,
+ Keep me in patience; and, in ripen'd time,
+ Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up
+ In countenance.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+Annette came almost breathless to Emily's apartment in the morning. 'O
+ma'amselle!' said she, in broken sentences, 'what news I have to tell! I
+have found out who the prisoner is--but he was no prisoner, neither;--he
+that was shut up in the chamber I told you of. I must think him a ghost,
+forsooth!'
+
+'Who was the prisoner?' enquired Emily, while her thoughts glanced back
+to the circumstance of the preceding night.
+
+'You mistake, ma'am,' said Annette; 'he was not a prisoner, after all.'
+
+'Who is the person, then?'
+
+'Holy Saints!' rejoined Annette; 'How I was surprised! I met him just
+now, on the rampart below, there. I never was so surprised in my life!
+Ah! ma'amselle! this is a strange place! I should never have done
+wondering, if I was to live here an hundred years. But, as I was saying,
+I met him just now on the rampart, and I was thinking of nobody less
+than of him.'
+
+'This trifling is insupportable,' said Emily; 'prythee, Annette, do not
+torture my patience any longer.'
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, guess--guess who it was; it was somebody you know very
+well.'
+
+'I cannot guess,' said Emily impatiently.
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, I'll tell you something to guess by--A tall Signor,
+with a longish face, who walks so stately, and used to wear such a high
+feather in his hat; and used often to look down upon the ground, when
+people spoke to him; and to look at people from under his eyebrows, as
+it were, all so dark and frowning. You have seen him, often and often,
+at Venice, ma'am. Then he was so intimate with the Signor, too. And, now
+I think of it, I wonder what he could be afraid of in this lonely old
+castle, that he should shut himself up for. But he is come abroad now,
+for I met him on the rampart just this minute. I trembled when I saw
+him, for I always was afraid of him, somehow; but I determined I would
+not let him see it; so I went up to him, and made him a low curtesy,
+"You are welcome to the castle, Signor Orsino," said I.'
+
+'O, it was Signor Orsino, then!' said Emily.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, Signor Orsino, himself, who caused that Venetian
+gentleman to be killed, and has been popping about from place to place,
+ever since, as I hear.'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed Emily, recovering from the shock of this
+intelligence; 'and is HE come to Udolpho! He does well to endeavour to
+conceal himself.'
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, but if that was all, this desolate place would conceal
+him, without his shutting himself up in one room. Who would think of
+coming to look for him here? I am sure I should as soon think of going
+to look for any body in the other world.'
+
+'There is some truth in that,' said Emily, who would now have concluded
+it was Orsino's music, which she had heard, on the preceding night,
+had she not known, that he had neither taste, or skill in the art. But,
+though she was unwilling to add to the number of Annette's surprises, by
+mentioning the subject of her own, she enquired, whether any person in
+the castle played on a musical instrument?
+
+'O yes, ma'amselle! there is Benedetto plays the great drum to
+admiration; and then, there is Launcelot the trumpeter; nay, for that
+matter, Ludovico himself can play on the trumpet;--but he is ill now. I
+remember once'--
+
+Emily interrupted her; 'Have you heard no other music since you came to
+the castle--none last night?'
+
+'Why, did YOU hear any last night, ma'amselle?'
+
+Emily evaded this question, by repeating her own.
+
+'Why, no, ma'am,' replied Annette; 'I never heard any music here, I
+must say, but the drums and the trumpet; and, as for last night, I did
+nothing but dream I saw my late lady's ghost.'
+
+'Your LATE lady's,' said Emily in a tremulous voice; 'you have heard
+more, then. Tell me--tell me all, Annette, I entreat; tell me the worst
+at once.'
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, you know the worst already.'
+
+'I know nothing,' said Emily.
+
+'Yes, you do, ma'amselle; you know, that nobody knows any thing about
+her; and it is plain, therefore, she is gone, the way of the first lady
+of the castle--nobody ever knew any thing about her.'
+
+Emily leaned her head upon her hand, and was, for some time, silent;
+then, telling Annette she wished to be alone, the latter left the room.
+
+The remark of Annette had revived Emily's terrible suspicion, concerning
+the fate of Madame Montoni; and she resolved to make another effort to
+obtain certainty on this subject, by applying to Montoni once more.
+
+When Annette returned, a few hours after, she told Emily, that the
+porter of the castle wished very much to speak with her, for that he had
+something of importance to say; her spirits had, however, of late been
+so subject to alarm, that any new circumstance excited it; and this
+message from the porter, when her first surprise was over, made her look
+round for some lurking danger, the more suspiciously, perhaps, because
+she had frequently remarked the unpleasant air and countenance of this
+man. She now hesitated, whether to speak with him, doubting even, that
+this request was only a pretext to draw her into some danger; but a
+little reflection shewed her the improbability of this, and she blushed
+at her weak fears.
+
+'I will speak to him, Annette,' said she; 'desire him to come to the
+corridor immediately.'
+
+Annette departed, and soon after returned.
+
+'Barnardine, ma'amselle,' said she, 'dare not come to the corridor, lest
+he should be discovered, it is so far from his post; and he dare not
+even leave the gates for a moment now; but, if you will come to him
+at the portal, through some roundabout passages he told me of, without
+crossing the courts, he has that to tell, which will surprise you. But
+you must not come through the courts, lest the Signor should see you.'
+
+Emily, neither approving these 'roundabout passage,' nor the other part
+of the request, now positively refused to go. 'Tell him,' said she,
+'if he has any thing of consequence to impart, I will hear him in the
+corridor, whenever he has an opportunity of coming thither.'
+
+Annette went to deliver this message, and was absent a considerable
+time. When she returned, 'It won't do, ma'amselle,' said she.
+'Barnardine has been considering all this time what can be done, for it
+is as much as his place is worth to leave his post now. But, if you will
+come to the east rampart in the dusk of the evening, he can, perhaps,
+steal away, and tell you all he has to say.'
+
+Emily was surprised and alarmed, at the secrecy which this man seemed
+to think so necessary, and hesitated whether to meet him, till,
+considering, that he might mean to warn her of some serious danger, she
+resolved to go.
+
+'Soon after sun-set,' said she, 'I will be at the end of the east
+rampart. But then the watch will be set,' she added, recollecting
+herself, 'and how can Barnardine pass unobserved?'
+
+'That is just what I said to him, ma'am, and he answered me, that he had
+the key of the gate, at the end of the rampart, that leads towards
+the courts, and could let himself through that way; and as for the
+sentinels, there were none at this end of the terrace, because the place
+is guarded enough by the high walls of the castle, and the east turret;
+and he said those at the other end were too far off to see him, if it
+was pretty duskyish.'
+
+'Well,' said Emily, 'I must hear what he has to tell; and, therefore,
+desire you will go with me to the terrace, this evening.'
+
+'He desired it might be pretty duskyish, ma'amselle,' repeated Annette,
+'because of the watch.'
+
+Emily paused, and then said she would be on the terrace, an hour after
+sun-set;--'and tell Barnardine,' she added, 'to be punctual to the
+time; for that I, also, may be observed by Signor Montoni. Where is the
+Signor? I would speak with him.'
+
+'He is in the cedar chamber, ma'am, counselling with the other Signors.
+He is going to give them a sort of treat to-day, to make up for what
+passed at the last, I suppose; the people are all very busy in the
+kitchen.'
+
+Emily now enquired, if Montoni expected any new guests? and Annette
+believed that he did not. 'Poor Ludovico!' added she, 'he would be as
+merry as the best of them, if he was well; but he may recover yet. Count
+Morano was wounded as bad, as he, and he is got well again, and is gone
+back to Venice.'
+
+'Is he so?' said Emily, 'when did you hear this?'
+
+'I heard it, last night, ma'amselle, but I forgot to tell it.'
+
+Emily asked some further questions, and then, desiring Annette would
+observe and inform her, when Montoni was alone, the girl went to deliver
+her message to Barnardine.
+
+Montoni was, however, so much engaged, during the whole day, that Emily
+had no opportunity of seeking a release from her terrible suspense,
+concerning her aunt. Annette was employed in watching his steps, and in
+attending upon Ludovico, whom she, assisted by Caterina, nursed with
+the utmost care; and Emily was, of course, left much alone. Her
+thoughts dwelt often on the message of the porter, and were employed
+in conjecturing the subject, that occasioned it, which she sometimes
+imagined concerned the fate of Madame Montoni; at others, that it
+related to some personal danger, which threatened herself. The cautious
+secrecy which Barnardine observed in his conduct, inclined her to
+believe the latter.
+
+As the hour of appointment drew near, her impatience increased. At
+length, the sun set; she heard the passing steps of the sentinels going
+to their posts; and waited only for Annette to accompany her to the
+terrace, who, soon after, came, and they descended together. When Emily
+expressed apprehensions of meeting Montoni, or some of his guests, 'O,
+there is no fear of that, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'they are all set
+in to feasting yet, and that Barnardine knows.'
+
+They reached the first terrace, where the sentinels demanded who passed;
+and Emily, having answered, walked on to the east rampart, at the
+entrance of which they were again stopped; and, having again replied,
+were permitted to proceed. But Emily did not like to expose herself to
+the discretion of these men, at such an hour; and, impatient to withdraw
+from the situation, she stepped hastily on in search of Barnardine. He
+was not yet come. She leaned pensively on the wall of the rampart,
+and waited for him. The gloom of twilight sat deep on the surrounding
+objects, blending in soft confusion the valley, the mountains, and the
+woods, whose tall heads, stirred by the evening breeze, gave the only
+sounds, that stole on silence, except a faint, faint chorus of distant
+voices, that arose from within the castle.
+
+'What voices are those?' said Emily, as she fearfully listened.
+
+'It is only the Signor and his guests, carousing,' replied Annette.
+
+'Good God!' thought Emily, 'can this man's heart be so gay, when he has
+made another being so wretched; if, indeed, my aunt is yet suffered to
+feel her wretchedness? O! whatever are my own sufferings, may my heart
+never, never be hardened against those of others!'
+
+She looked up, with a sensation of horror, to the east turret, near
+which she then stood; a light glimmered through the grates of the lower
+chamber, but those of the upper one were dark. Presently, she perceived
+a person moving with a lamp across the lower room; but this circumstance
+revived no hope, concerning Madame Montoni, whom she had vainly
+sought in that apartment, which had appeared to contain only soldiers'
+accoutrements. Emily, however, determined to attempt the outer door
+of the turret, as soon as Barnardine should withdraw; and, if it was
+unfastened, to make another effort to discover her aunt.
+
+The moments passed, but still Barnardine did not appear; and Emily,
+becoming uneasy, hesitated whether to wait any longer. She would have
+sent Annette to the portal to hasten him, but feared to be left alone,
+for it was now almost dark, and a melancholy streak of red, that still
+lingered in the west, was the only vestige of departed day. The strong
+interest, however, which Barnardine's message had awakened, overcame
+other apprehensions, and still detained her.
+
+While she was conjecturing with Annette what could thus occasion his
+absence, they heard a key turn in the lock of the gate near them, and
+presently saw a man advancing. It was Barnardine, of whom Emily hastily
+enquired what he had to communicate, and desired, that he would tell her
+quickly, 'for I am chilled with this evening air,' said she.
+
+'You must dismiss your maid, lady,' said the man in a voice, the deep
+tone of which shocked her, 'what I have to tell is to you only.'
+
+Emily, after some hesitation, desired Annette to withdraw to a little
+distance. 'Now, my friend, what would you say?'
+
+He was silent a moment, as if considering, and then said,--
+
+'That which would cost me my place, at least, if it came to the Signor's
+ears. You must promise, lady, that nothing shall ever make you tell a
+syllable of the matter; I have been trusted in this affair, and, if it
+was known, that I betrayed my trust, my life, perhaps, might answer
+it. But I was concerned for you, lady, and I resolved to tell you.' He
+paused.--
+
+Emily thanked him, assured him that he might repose on her discretion,
+and entreated him to dispatch.
+
+'Annette told us in the hall how unhappy you was about Signora Montoni,
+and how much you wished to know what was become of her.'
+
+'Most true,' said Emily eagerly, 'and you can inform me. I conjure you
+tell me the worst, without hesitation.' She rested her trembling arm
+upon the wall.
+
+'I can tell you,' said Barnardine, and paused.--
+
+Emily had no power to enforce her entreaties.
+
+'I CAN tell you,' resumed Barnardine,--'but'--
+
+'But what?' exclaimed Emily, recovering her resolution.
+
+'Here I am, ma'amselle,' said Annette, who, having heard the eager tone,
+in which Emily pronounced these words, came running towards her.
+
+'Retire!' said Barnardine, sternly; 'you are not wanted;' and, as Emily
+said nothing, Annette obeyed.
+
+'I CAN tell you,' repeated the porter,--'but I know not how--you was
+afflicted before.'--
+
+'I am prepared for the worst, my friend,' said Emily, in a firm and
+solemn voice. 'I can support any certainty better than this suspense.'
+
+'Well, Signora, if that is the case, you shall hear.--You know, I
+suppose, that the Signor and his lady used sometimes to disagree. It is
+none of my concerns to enquire what it was about, but I believe you know
+it was so.'
+
+'Well,' said Emily, 'proceed.'
+
+'The Signor, it seems, had lately been very wrath against her. I saw
+all, and heard all,--a great deal more than people thought for; but it
+was none of my business, so I said nothing. A few days ago, the Signor
+sent for me. "Barnardine," says he, "you are--an honest man, I think I
+can trust you." I assured his excellenza that he could. "Then," says he,
+as near as I can remember, "I have an affair in hand, which I want you
+to assist me in."--Then he told me what I was to do; but that I shall
+say nothing about--it concerned only the Signora.'
+
+'O Heavens!' exclaimed Emily--'what have you done?'
+
+Barnardine hesitated, and was silent.
+
+'What fiend could tempt him, or you, to such an act!' cried Emily,
+chilled with horror, and scarcely able to support her fainting spirits.
+
+'It was a fiend,' said Barnardine in a gloomy tone of voice. They
+were now both silent;--Emily had not courage to enquire further, and
+Barnardine seemed to shrink from telling more. At length he said, 'It
+is of no use to think of the past; the Signor was cruel enough, but he
+would be obeyed. What signified my refusing? He would have found others,
+who had no scruples.'
+
+'You have murdered her, then!' said Emily, in a hollow and inward
+voice--'I am talking with a murderer!' Barnardine stood silent; while
+Emily turned from him, and attempted to leave the place.
+
+'Stay, lady!' said he, 'You deserve to think so still--since you can
+believe me capable of such a deed.'
+
+'If you are innocent, tell me quickly,' said Emily, in faint accents,
+'for I feel I shall not be able to hear you long.'
+
+'I will tell you no more,' said he, and walked away. Emily had just
+strength enough to bid him stay, and then to call Annette, on whose arm
+she leaned, and they walked slowly up the rampart, till they heard steps
+behind them. It was Barnardine again.
+
+'Send away the girl,' said he, 'and I will tell you more.'
+
+'She must not go,' said Emily; 'what you have to say, she may hear.'
+
+'May she so, lady?' said he. 'You shall know no more, then;' and he was
+going, though slowly, when Emily's anxiety, overcoming the resentment
+and fear, which the man's behaviour had roused, she desired him to stay,
+and bade Annette retire.
+
+'The Signora is alive,' said he, 'for me. She is my prisoner, though;
+his excellenza has shut her up in the chamber over the great gates of
+the court, and I have the charge of her. I was going to have told you,
+you might see her--but now--'
+
+Emily, relieved from an unutterable load of anguish by this speech, had
+now only to ask Barnardine's forgiveness, and to conjure, that he would
+let her visit her aunt.
+
+He complied with less reluctance, than she expected, and told her, that,
+if she would repair, on the following night, when the Signor was retired
+to rest, to the postern-gate of the castle, she should, perhaps, see
+Madame Montoni.
+
+Amid all the thankfulness, which Emily felt for this concession,
+she thought she observed a malicious triumph in his manner, when he
+pronounced the last words; but, in the next moment, she dismissed the
+thought, and, having again thanked him, commended her aunt to his
+pity, and assured him, that she would herself reward him, and would
+be punctual to her appointment, she bade him good night, and retired,
+unobserved, to her chamber. It was a considerable time, before
+the tumult of joy, which Barnardine's unexpected intelligence had
+occasioned, allowed Emily to think with clearness, or to be conscious of
+the real dangers, that still surrounded Madame Montoni and herself.
+When this agitation subsided, she perceived, that her aunt was yet the
+prisoner of a man, to whose vengeance, or avarice, she might fall a
+sacrifice; and, when she further considered the savage aspect of the
+person, who was appointed to guard Madame Montoni, her doom appeared to
+be already sealed, for the countenance of Barnardine seemed to bear the
+stamp of a murderer; and, when she had looked upon it, she felt inclined
+to believe, that there was no deed, however black, which he might not be
+prevailed upon to execute. These reflections brought to her remembrance
+the tone of voice, in which he had promised to grant her request to
+see his prisoner; and she mused upon it long in uneasiness and doubt.
+Sometimes, she even hesitated, whether to trust herself with him at the
+lonely hour he had appointed; and once, and only once, it struck her,
+that Madame Montoni might be already murdered, and that this ruffian was
+appointed to decoy herself to some secret place, where her life also
+was to be sacrificed to the avarice of Montoni, who then would claim
+securely the contested estates in Languedoc. The consideration of the
+enormity of such guilt did, at length, relieve her from the belief
+of its probability, but not from all the doubts and fears, which a
+recollection of Barnardine's manner had occasioned. From these subjects,
+her thoughts, at length, passed to others; and, as the evening advanced,
+she remembered, with somewhat more than surprise, the music she had
+heard, on the preceding night, and now awaited its return, with more
+than curiosity.
+
+She distinguished, till a late hour, the distant carousals of Montoni
+and his companions--the loud contest, the dissolute laugh and the choral
+song, that made the halls re-echo. At length, she heard the heavy gates
+of the castle shut for the night, and those sounds instantly sunk into
+a silence, which was disturbed only by the whispering steps of persons,
+passing through the galleries to their remote rooms. Emily now judging
+it to be about the time, when she had heard the music, on the preceding
+night, dismissed Annette, and gently opened the casement to watch
+for its return. The planet she had so particularly noticed, at the
+recurrence of the music, was not yet risen; but, with superstitious
+weakness, she kept her eyes fixed on that part of the hemisphere, where
+it would rise, almost expecting, that, when it appeared, the sounds
+would return. At length, it came, serenely bright, over the eastern
+towers of the castle. Her heart trembled, when she perceived it, and she
+had scarcely courage to remain at the casement, lest the returning
+music should confirm her terror, and subdue the little strength she yet
+retained. The clock soon after struck one, and, knowing this to be about
+the time, when the sounds had occurred, she sat down in a chair, near
+the casement, and endeavoured to compose her spirits; but the anxiety
+of expectation yet disturbed them. Every thing, however, remained still;
+she heard only the solitary step of a sentinel, and the lulling murmur
+of the woods below, and she again leaned from the casement, and again
+looked, as if for intelligence, to the planet, which was now risen high
+above the towers.
+
+Emily continued to listen, but no music came. 'Those were surely no
+mortal sounds!' said she, recollecting their entrancing melody. 'No
+inhabitant of this castle could utter such; and, where is the feeling,
+that could modulate such exquisite expression? We all know, that it
+has been affirmed celestial sounds have sometimes been heard on earth.
+Father Pierre and Father Antoine declared, that they had sometimes heard
+them in the stillness of night, when they alone were waking to offer
+their orisons to heaven. Nay, my dear father himself, once said, that,
+soon after my mother's death, as he lay watchful in grief, sounds of
+uncommon sweetness called him from his bed; and, on opening his window,
+he heard lofty music pass along the midnight air. It soothed him, he
+said; he looked up with confidence to heaven, and resigned her to his
+God.'
+
+Emily paused to weep at this recollection. 'Perhaps,' resumed she,
+'perhaps, those strains I heard were sent to comfort,--to encourage me!
+Never shall I forget those I heard, at this hour, in Languedoc!
+Perhaps, my father watches over me, at this moment!' She wept again in
+tenderness. Thus passed the hour in watchfulness and solemn thought; but
+no sounds returned; and, after remaining at the casement, till the
+light tint of dawn began to edge the mountain-tops and steal upon the
+night-shade, she concluded, that they would not return, and retired
+reluctantly to repose.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 3
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+ I will advise you where to plant yourselves;
+ Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
+ The moment on 't; for 't must be done to-night.
+     MACBETH
+
+Emily was somewhat surprised, on the following day, to find that Annette
+had heard of Madame Montoni's confinement in the chamber over the
+portal, as well as of her purposed visit there, on the approaching
+night. That the circumstance, which Barnardine had so solemnly enjoined
+her to conceal, he had himself told to so indiscreet an hearer as
+Annette, appeared very improbable, though he had now charged her with
+a message, concerning the intended interview. He requested, that Emily
+would meet him, unattended, on the terrace, at a little after midnight,
+when he himself would lead her to the place he had promised; a proposal,
+from which she immediately shrunk, for a thousand vague fears darted
+athwart her mind, such as had tormented her on the preceding night,
+and which she neither knew how to trust, or to dismiss. It frequently
+occurred to her, that Barnardine might have deceived her, concerning
+Madame Montoni, whose murderer, perhaps, he really was; and that he had
+deceived her by order of Montoni, the more easily to draw her into some
+of the desperate designs of the latter. The terrible suspicion, that
+Madame Montoni no longer lived, thus came, accompanied by one not less
+dreadful for herself. Unless the crime, by which the aunt had suffered,
+was instigated merely by resentment, unconnected with profit, a motive,
+upon which Montoni did not appear very likely to act, its object must be
+unattained, till the niece was also dead, to whom Montoni knew that
+his wife's estates must descend. Emily remembered the words, which had
+informed her, that the contested estates in France would devolve to her,
+if Madame Montoni died, without consigning them to her husband, and the
+former obstinate perseverance of her aunt made it too probable, that
+she had, to the last, withheld them. At this instant, recollecting
+Barnardine's manner, on the preceding night, she now believed, what she
+had then fancied, that it expressed malignant triumph. She shuddered at
+the recollection, which confirmed her fears, and determined not to
+meet him on the terrace. Soon after, she was inclined to consider these
+suspicions as the extravagant exaggerations of a timid and harassed
+mind, and could not believe Montoni liable to such preposterous
+depravity as that of destroying, from one motive, his wife and her
+niece. She blamed herself for suffering her romantic imagination to
+carry her so far beyond the bounds of probability, and determined to
+endeavour to check its rapid flights, lest they should sometimes extend
+into madness. Still, however, she shrunk from the thought of meeting
+Barnardine, on the terrace, at midnight; and still the wish to be
+relieved from this terrible suspense, concerning her aunt, to see her,
+and to sooth her sufferings, made her hesitate what to do.
+
+'Yet how is it possible, Annette, I can pass to the terrace at that
+hour?' said she, recollecting herself, 'the sentinels will stop me, and
+Signor Montoni will hear of the affair.'
+
+'O ma'amselle! that is well thought of,' replied Annette. 'That is
+what Barnardine told me about. He gave me this key, and bade me say it
+unlocks the door at the end of the vaulted gallery, that opens near the
+end of the east rampart, so that you need not pass any of the men on
+watch. He bade me say, too, that his reason for requesting you to come
+to the terrace was, because he could take you to the place you want
+to go to, without opening the great doors of the hall, which grate so
+heavily.'
+
+Emily's spirits were somewhat calmed by this explanation, which seemed
+to be honestly given to Annette. 'But why did he desire I would come
+alone, Annette?' said she.
+
+'Why that was what I asked him myself, ma'amselle. Says I, Why is my
+young lady to come alone?--Surely I may come with her!--What harm can I
+do? But he said "No--no--I tell you not," in his gruff way. Nay, says I,
+I have been trusted in as great affairs as this, I warrant, and it's a
+hard matter if _I_ can't keep a secret now. Still he would say nothing
+but--"No--no--no." Well, says I, if you will only trust me, I will
+tell you a great secret, that was told me a month ago, and I have never
+opened my lips about it yet--so you need not be afraid of telling me.
+But all would not do. Then, ma'amselle, I went so far as to offer him a
+beautiful new sequin, that Ludovico gave me for a keep sake, and I would
+not have parted with it for all St. Marco's Place; but even that would
+not do! Now what can be the reason of this? But I know, you know, ma'am,
+who you are going to see.'
+
+'Pray did Barnardine tell you this?'
+
+'He! No, ma'amselle, that he did not.'
+
+Emily enquired who did, but Annette shewed, that she COULD keep a
+secret.
+
+During the remainder of the day, Emily's mind was agitated with doubts
+and fears and contrary determinations, on the subject of meeting this
+Barnardine on the rampart, and submitting herself to his guidance,
+she scarcely knew whither. Pity for her aunt and anxiety for herself
+alternately swayed her determination, and night came, before she
+had decided upon her conduct. She heard the castle clock strike
+eleven--twelve--and yet her mind wavered. The time, however, was now
+come, when she could hesitate no longer: and then the interest she felt
+for her aunt overcame other considerations, and, bidding Annette follow
+her to the outer door of the vaulted gallery, and there await her
+return, she descended from her chamber. The castle was perfectly
+still, and the great hall, where so lately she had witnessed a scene of
+dreadful contention, now returned only the whispering footsteps of the
+two solitary figures gliding fearfully between the pillars, and gleamed
+only to the feeble lamp they carried. Emily, deceived by the long
+shadows of the pillars and by the catching lights between, often
+stopped, imagining she saw some person, moving in the distant obscurity
+of the perspective; and, as she passed these pillars, she feared to turn
+her eyes toward them, almost expecting to see a figure start out from
+behind their broad shaft. She reached, however, the vaulted gallery,
+without interruption, but unclosed its outer door with a trembling hand,
+and, charging Annette not to quit it and to keep it a little open, that
+she might be heard if she called, she delivered to her the lamp, which
+she did not dare to take herself because of the men on watch, and,
+alone, stepped out upon the dark terrace. Every thing was so still,
+that she feared, lest her own light steps should be heard by the distant
+sentinels, and she walked cautiously towards the spot, where she had
+before met Barnardine, listening for a sound, and looking onward through
+the gloom in search of him. At length, she was startled by a deep voice,
+that spoke near her, and she paused, uncertain whether it was his, till
+it spoke again, and she then recognized the hollow tones of Barnardine,
+who had been punctual to the moment, and was at the appointed place,
+resting on the rampart wall. After chiding her for not coming sooner,
+and saying, that he had been waiting nearly half an hour, he desired
+Emily, who made no reply, to follow him to the door, through which he
+had entered the terrace.
+
+While he unlocked it, she looked back to that she had left, and,
+observing the rays of the lamp stream through a small opening, was
+certain, that Annette was still there. But her remote situation could
+little befriend Emily, after she had quitted the terrace; and, when
+Barnardine unclosed the gate, the dismal aspect of the passage beyond,
+shewn by a torch burning on the pavement, made her shrink from following
+him alone, and she refused to go, unless Annette might accompany her.
+This, however, Barnardine absolutely refused to permit, mingling at the
+same time with his refusal such artful circumstances to heighten the
+pity and curiosity of Emily towards her aunt, that she, at length,
+consented to follow him alone to the portal.
+
+He then took up the torch, and led her along the passage, at the
+extremity of which he unlocked another door, whence they descended,
+a few steps, into a chapel, which, as Barnardine held up the torch
+to light her, Emily observed to be in ruins, and she immediately
+recollected a former conversation of Annette, concerning it, with very
+unpleasant emotions. She looked fearfully on the almost roofless walls,
+green with damps, and on the gothic points of the windows, where the ivy
+and the briony had long supplied the place of glass, and ran mantling
+among the broken capitals of some columns, that had once supported the
+roof. Barnardine stumbled over the broken pavement, and his voice, as he
+uttered a sudden oath, was returned in hollow echoes, that made it more
+terrific. Emily's heart sunk; but she still followed him, and he turned
+out of what had been the principal aisle of the chapel. 'Down these
+steps, lady,' said Barnardine, as he descended a flight, which appeared
+to lead into the vaults; but Emily paused on the top, and demanded, in a
+tremulous tone, whither he was conducting her.
+
+'To the portal,' said Barnardine.
+
+'Cannot we go through the chapel to the portal?' said Emily.
+
+'No, Signora, that leads to the inner court, which I don't choose to
+unlock. This way, and we shall reach the outer court presently.'
+
+Emily still hesitated; fearing not only to go on, but, since she had
+gone thus far, to irritate Barnardine by refusing to go further.
+
+'Come, lady,' said the man, who had nearly reached the bottom of the
+flight, 'make a little haste; I cannot wait here all night.'
+
+'Whither do these steps lead?' said Emily, yet pausing.
+
+'To the portal,' repeated Barnardine, in an angry tone, 'I will wait no
+longer.' As he said this, he moved on with the light, and Emily, fearing
+to provoke him by further delay, reluctantly followed. From the steps,
+they proceeded through a passage, adjoining the vaults, the walls of
+which were dropping with unwholesome dews, and the vapours, that crept
+along the ground, made the torch burn so dimly, that Emily expected
+every moment to see it extinguished, and Barnardine could scarcely find
+his way. As they advanced, these vapours thickened, and Barnardine,
+believing the torch was expiring, stopped for a moment to trim it. As he
+then rested against a pair of iron gates, that opened from the passage,
+Emily saw, by uncertain flashes of light, the vaults beyond, and, near
+her, heaps of earth, that seemed to surround an open grave. Such an
+object, in such a scene, would, at any time, have disturbed her; but
+now she was shocked by an instantaneous presentiment, that this was the
+grave of her unfortunate aunt, and that the treacherous Barnardine was
+leading herself to destruction. The obscure and terrible place, to which
+he had conducted her, seemed to justify the thought; it was a place
+suited for murder, a receptacle for the dead, where a deed of horror
+might be committed, and no vestige appear to proclaim it. Emily was so
+overwhelmed with terror, that, for a moment, she was unable to determine
+what conduct to pursue. She then considered, that it would be vain to
+attempt an escape from Barnardine, by flight, since the length and the
+intricacy of the way she had passed would soon enable him to overtake
+her, who was unacquainted with the turnings, and whose feebleness
+would not suffer her to run long with swiftness. She feared equally
+to irritate him by a disclosure of her suspicions, which a refusal to
+accompany him further certainly would do; and, since she was already
+as much in his power as it was possible she could be, if she proceeded,
+she, at length, determined to suppress, as far as she could, the
+appearance of apprehension, and to follow silently whither he designed
+to lead her. Pale with horror and anxiety, she now waited till
+Barnardine had trimmed the torch, and, as her sight glanced again upon
+the grave, she could not forbear enquiring, for whom it was prepared.
+He took his eyes from the torch, and fixed them upon her face without
+speaking. She faintly repeated the question, but the man, shaking the
+torch, passed on; and she followed, trembling, to a second flight of
+steps, having ascended which, a door delivered them into the first court
+of the castle. As they crossed it, the light shewed the high black walls
+around them, fringed with long grass and dank weeds, that found a scanty
+soil among the mouldering stones; the heavy buttresses, with, here and
+there, between them, a narrow grate, that admitted a freer circulation
+of air to the court, the massy iron gates, that led to the castle, whose
+clustering turrets appeared above, and, opposite, the huge towers and
+arch of the portal itself. In this scene the large, uncouth person of
+Barnardine, bearing the torch, formed a characteristic figure. This
+Barnardine was wrapt in a long dark cloak, which scarcely allowed
+the kind of half-boots, or sandals, that were laced upon his legs, to
+appear, and shewed only the point of a broad sword, which he usually
+wore, slung in a belt across his shoulders. On his head was a heavy flat
+velvet cap, somewhat resembling a turban, in which was a short feather;
+the visage beneath it shewed strong features, and a countenance furrowed
+with the lines of cunning and darkened by habitual discontent.
+
+The view of the court, however, reanimated Emily, who, as she crossed
+silently towards the portal, began to hope, that her own fears, and not
+the treachery of Barnardine, had deceived her. She looked anxiously
+up at the first casement, that appeared above the lofty arch of the
+portcullis; but it was dark, and she enquired, whether it belonged to
+the chamber, where Madame Montoni was confined. Emily spoke low, and
+Barnardine, perhaps, did not hear her question, for he returned no
+answer; and they, soon after, entered the postern door of the gate-way,
+which brought them to the foot of a narrow stair-case, that wound up one
+of the towers.
+
+'Up this stair-case the Signora lies,' said Barnardine.
+
+'Lies!' repeated Emily faintly, as she began to ascend.
+
+'She lies in the upper chamber,' said Barnardine.
+
+As they passed up, the wind, which poured through the narrow cavities in
+the wall, made the torch flare, and it threw a stronger gleam upon the
+grim and sallow countenance of Barnardine, and discovered more fully the
+desolation of the place--the rough stone walls, the spiral stairs, black
+with age, and a suit of antient armour, with an iron visor, that hung
+upon the walls, and appeared a trophy of some former victory.
+
+Having reached a landing-place, 'You may wait here, lady,' said he,
+applying a key to the door of a chamber, 'while I go up, and tell the
+Signora you are coming.'
+
+'That ceremony is unnecessary,' replied Emily, 'my aunt will rejoice to
+see me.'
+
+'I am not so sure of that,' said Barnardine, pointing to the room he had
+opened: 'Come in here, lady, while I step up.'
+
+Emily, surprised and somewhat shocked, did not dare to oppose him
+further, but, as he was turning away with the torch, desired he would
+not leave her in darkness. He looked around, and, observing a tripod
+lamp, that stood on the stairs, lighted and gave it to Emily, who
+stepped forward into a large old chamber, and he closed the door. As
+she listened anxiously to his departing steps, she thought he descended,
+instead of ascending, the stairs; but the gusts of wind, that whistled
+round the portal, would not allow her to hear distinctly any other
+sound. Still, however, she listened, and, perceiving no step in the
+room above, where he had affirmed Madame Montoni to be, her anxiety
+increased, though she considered, that the thickness of the floor in
+this strong building might prevent any sound reaching her from the upper
+chamber. The next moment, in a pause of the wind, she distinguished
+Barnardine's step descending to the court, and then thought she heard
+his voice; but, the rising gust again overcoming other sounds, Emily, to
+be certain on this point, moved softly to the door, which, on attempting
+to open it, she discovered was fastened. All the horrid apprehensions,
+that had lately assailed her, returned at this instant with redoubled
+force, and no longer appeared like the exaggerations of a timid spirit,
+but seemed to have been sent to warn her of her fate. She now did not
+doubt, that Madame Montoni had been murdered, perhaps in this very
+chamber; or that she herself was brought hither for the same purpose.
+The countenance, the manners and the recollected words of Barnardine,
+when he had spoken of her aunt, confirmed her worst fears. For some
+moments, she was incapable of considering of any means, by which she
+might attempt an escape. Still she listened, but heard footsteps neither
+on the stairs, or in the room above; she thought, however, that she
+again distinguished Barnardine's voice below, and went to a grated
+window, that opened upon the court, to enquire further. Here, she
+plainly heard his hoarse accents, mingling with the blast, that swept
+by, but they were lost again so quickly, that their meaning could not be
+interpreted; and then the light of a torch, which seemed to issue from
+the portal below, flashed across the court, and the long shadow of a
+man, who was under the arch-way, appeared upon the pavement. Emily,
+from the hugeness of this sudden portrait, concluded it to be that
+of Barnardine; but other deep tones, which passed in the wind, soon
+convinced her he was not alone, and that his companion was not a person
+very liable to pity.
+
+When her spirits had overcome the first shock of her situation, she
+held up the lamp to examine, if the chamber afforded a possibility of an
+escape. It was a spacious room, whose walls, wainscoted with rough oak,
+shewed no casement but the grated one, which Emily had left, and no
+other door than that, by which she had entered. The feeble rays of the
+lamp, however, did not allow her to see at once its full extent; she
+perceived no furniture, except, indeed, an iron chair, fastened in the
+centre of the chamber, immediately over which, depending on a chain from
+the ceiling, hung an iron ring. Having gazed upon these, for some time,
+with wonder and horror, she next observed iron bars below, made for the
+purpose of confining the feet, and on the arms of the chair were rings
+of the same metal. As she continued to survey them, she concluded, that
+they were instruments of torture, and it struck her, that some poor
+wretch had once been fastened in this chair, and had there been starved
+to death. She was chilled by the thought; but, what was her agony, when,
+in the next moment, it occurred to her, that her aunt might have been
+one of these victims, and that she herself might be the next! An acute
+pain seized her head, she was scarcely able to hold the lamp, and,
+looking round for support, was seating herself, unconsciously, in the
+iron chair itself; but suddenly perceiving where she was, she started
+from it in horror, and sprung towards a remote end of the room. Here
+again she looked round for a seat to sustain her, and perceived only a
+dark curtain, which, descending from the ceiling to the floor, was drawn
+along the whole side of the chamber. Ill as she was, the appearance of
+this curtain struck her, and she paused to gaze upon it, in wonder and
+apprehension.
+
+It seemed to conceal a recess of the chamber; she wished, yet dreaded,
+to lift it, and to discover what it veiled: twice she was withheld by
+a recollection of the terrible spectacle her daring hand had formerly
+unveiled in an apartment of the castle, till, suddenly conjecturing,
+that it concealed the body of her murdered aunt, she seized it, in a fit
+of desperation, and drew it aside. Beyond, appeared a corpse, stretched
+on a kind of low couch, which was crimsoned with human blood, as was
+the floor beneath. The features, deformed by death, were ghastly and
+horrible, and more than one livid wound appeared in the face. Emily,
+bending over the body, gazed, for a moment, with an eager, frenzied eye;
+but, in the next, the lamp dropped from her hand, and she fell senseless
+at the foot of the couch.
+
+When her senses returned, she found herself surrounded by men, among
+whom was Barnardine, who were lifting her from the floor, and then bore
+her along the chamber. She was sensible of what passed, but the extreme
+languor of her spirits did not permit her to speak, or move, or even to
+feel any distinct fear. They carried her down the stair-case, by which
+she had ascended; when, having reached the arch-way, they stopped, and
+one of the men, taking the torch from Barnardine, opened a small door,
+that was cut in the great gate, and, as he stepped out upon the road,
+the light he bore shewed several men on horseback, in waiting. Whether
+it was the freshness of the air, that revived Emily, or that the objects
+she now saw roused the spirit of alarm, she suddenly spoke, and made an
+ineffectual effort to disengage herself from the grasp of the ruffians,
+who held her.
+
+Barnardine, meanwhile, called loudly for the torch, while distant voices
+answered, and several persons approached, and, in the same instant, a
+light flashed upon the court of the castle. Again he vociferated for the
+torch, and the men hurried Emily through the gate. At a short distance,
+under the shelter of the castle walls, she perceived the fellow, who had
+taken the light from the porter, holding it to a man, busily employed
+in altering the saddle of a horse, round which were several horsemen,
+looking on, whose harsh features received the full glare of the torch;
+while the broken ground beneath them, the opposite walls, with the
+tufted shrubs, that overhung their summits, and an embattled watch-tower
+above, were reddened with the gleam, which, fading gradually away, left
+the remoter ramparts and the woods below to the obscurity of night.
+
+'What do you waste time for, there?' said Barnardine with an oath, as he
+approached the horsemen. 'Dispatch--dispatch!'
+
+'The saddle will be ready in a minute,' replied the man who was buckling
+it, at whom Barnardine now swore again, for his negligence, and Emily,
+calling feebly for help, was hurried towards the horses, while the
+ruffians disputed on which to place her, the one designed for her not
+being ready. At this moment a cluster of lights issued from the great
+gates, and she immediately heard the shrill voice of Annette above
+those of several other persons, who advanced. In the same moment, she
+distinguished Montoni and Cavigni, followed by a number of ruffian-faced
+fellows, to whom she no longer looked with terror, but with hope, for,
+at this instant, she did not tremble at the thought of any dangers, that
+might await her within the castle, whence so lately, and so anxiously
+she had wished to escape. Those, which threatened her from without, had
+engrossed all her apprehensions.
+
+A short contest ensued between the parties, in which that of Montoni,
+however, were presently victors, and the horsemen, perceiving that
+numbers were against them, and being, perhaps, not very warmly
+interested in the affair they had undertaken, galloped off, while
+Barnardine had run far enough to be lost in the darkness, and Emily was
+led back into the castle. As she re-passed the courts, the remembrance
+of what she had seen in the portal-chamber came, with all its horror, to
+her mind; and when, soon after, she heard the gate close, that shut
+her once more within the castle walls, she shuddered for herself, and,
+almost forgetting the danger she had escaped, could scarcely think, that
+any thing less precious than liberty and peace was to be found beyond
+them.
+
+Montoni ordered Emily to await him in the cedar parlour, whither he soon
+followed, and then sternly questioned her on this mysterious affair.
+Though she now viewed him with horror, as the murderer of her aunt, and
+scarcely knew what she said in reply to his impatient enquiries, her
+answers and her manner convinced him, that she had not taken a voluntary
+part in the late scheme, and he dismissed her upon the appearance of his
+servants, whom he had ordered to attend, that he might enquire further
+into the affair, and discover those, who had been accomplices in it.
+
+Emily had been some time in her apartment, before the tumult of her mind
+allowed her to remember several of the past circumstances. Then, again,
+the dead form, which the curtain in the portal-chamber had disclosed,
+came to her fancy, and she uttered a groan, which terrified Annette the
+more, as Emily forbore to satisfy her curiosity, on the subject of
+it, for she feared to trust her with so fatal a secret, lest her
+indiscretion should call down the immediate vengeance of Montoni on
+herself.
+
+Thus compelled to bear within her own mind the whole horror of the
+secret, that oppressed it, her reason seemed to totter under the
+intolerable weight. She often fixed a wild and vacant look on Annette,
+and, when she spoke, either did not hear her, or answered from the
+purpose. Long fits of abstraction succeeded; Annette spoke repeatedly,
+but her voice seemed not to make any impression on the sense of the long
+agitated Emily, who sat fixed and silent, except that, now and then, she
+heaved a heavy sigh, but without tears.
+
+Terrified at her condition, Annette, at length, left the room, to inform
+Montoni of it, who had just dismissed his servants, without having made
+any discoveries on the subject of his enquiry. The wild description,
+which this girl now gave of Emily, induced him to follow her immediately
+to the chamber.
+
+At the sound of his voice, Emily turned her eyes, and a gleam of
+recollection seemed to shoot athwart her mind, for she immediately rose
+from her seat, and moved slowly to a remote part of the room. He spoke
+to her in accents somewhat softened from their usual harshness, but
+she regarded him with a kind of half curious, half terrified look,
+and answered only 'yes,' to whatever he said. Her mind still seemed to
+retain no other impression, than that of fear.
+
+Of this disorder Annette could give no explanation, and Montoni, having
+attempted, for some time, to persuade Emily to talk, retired, after
+ordering Annette to remain with her, during the night, and to inform
+him, in the morning, of her condition.
+
+When he was gone, Emily again came forward, and asked who it was, that
+had been there to disturb her. Annette said it was the Signor-Signor
+Montoni. Emily repeated the name after her, several times, as if she
+did not recollect it, and then suddenly groaned, and relapsed into
+abstraction.
+
+With some difficulty, Annette led her to the bed, which Emily examined
+with an eager, frenzied eye, before she lay down, and then, pointing,
+turned with shuddering emotion, to Annette, who, now more terrified,
+went towards the door, that she might bring one of the female servants
+to pass the night with them; but Emily, observing her going, called her
+by name, and then in the naturally soft and plaintive tone of her voice,
+begged, that she, too, would not forsake her.--'For since my father
+died,' added she, sighing, 'every body forsakes me.'
+
+'Your father, ma'amselle!' said Annette, 'he was dead before you knew
+me.'
+
+'He was, indeed!' rejoined Emily, and her tears began to flow. She now
+wept silently and long, after which, becoming quite calm, she at length
+sunk to sleep, Annette having had discretion enough not to interrupt
+her tears. This girl, as affectionate as she was simple, lost in these
+moments all her former fears of remaining in the chamber, and watched
+alone by Emily, during the whole night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+     unfold
+ What worlds, or what vast regions, hold
+ Th' immortal mind, that hath forsook
+ Her mansion in this fleshly nook!
+     IL PENSEROSO
+
+Emily's mind was refreshed by sleep. On waking in the morning, she
+looked with surprise on Annette, who sat sleeping in a chair beside the
+bed, and then endeavoured to recollect herself; but the circumstances of
+the preceding night were swept from her memory, which seemed to retain
+no trace of what had passed, and she was still gazing with surprise on
+Annette, when the latter awoke.
+
+'O dear ma'amselle! do you know me?' cried she.
+
+'Know you! Certainly,' replied Emily, 'you are Annette; but why are you
+sitting by me thus?'
+
+'O you have been very ill, ma'amselle,--very ill indeed! and I am sure I
+thought--'
+
+'This is very strange!' said Emily, still trying to recollect the
+past.--'But I think I do remember, that my fancy has been haunted by
+frightful dreams. Good God!' she added, suddenly starting--'surely it
+was nothing more than a dream!'
+
+She fixed a terrified look upon Annette, who, intending to quiet her,
+said 'Yes, ma'amselle, it was more than a dream, but it is all over
+now.'
+
+'She IS murdered, then!' said Emily in an inward voice, and shuddering
+instantaneously. Annette screamed; for, being ignorant of the
+circumstance to which Emily referred, she attributed her manner to a
+disordered fancy; but, when she had explained to what her own speech
+alluded, Emily, recollecting the attempt that had been made to carry her
+off, asked if the contriver of it had been discovered. Annette replied,
+that he had not, though he might easily be guessed at; and then told
+Emily she might thank her for her deliverance, who, endeavouring to
+command the emotion, which the remembrance of her aunt had occasioned,
+appeared calmly to listen to Annette, though, in truth, she heard
+scarcely a word that was said.
+
+'And so, ma'amselle,' continued the latter, 'I was determined to be even
+with Barnardine for refusing to tell me the secret, by finding it out
+myself; so I watched you, on the terrace, and, as soon as he had opened
+the door at the end, I stole out from the castle, to try to follow you;
+for, says I, I am sure no good can be planned, or why all this secrecy?
+So, sure enough, he had not bolted the door after him, and, when I
+opened it, I saw, by the glimmer of the torch, at the other end of the
+passage, which way you were going. I followed the light, at a distance,
+till you came to the vaults of the chapel, and there I was afraid to go
+further, for I had heard strange things about these vaults. But then,
+again, I was afraid to go back, all in darkness, by myself; so by the
+time Barnardine had trimmed the light, I had resolved to follow you, and
+I did so, till you came to the great court, and there I was afraid he
+would see me; so I stopped at the door again, and watched you across to
+the gates, and, when you was gone up the stairs, I whipt after. There,
+as I stood under the gate-way, I heard horses' feet without, and several
+men talking; and I heard them swearing at Barnardine for not bringing
+you out, and just then, he had like to have caught me, for he came down
+the stairs again, and I had hardly time to get out of his way. But I had
+heard enough of his secret now, and I determined to be even with him,
+and to save you, too, ma'amselle, for I guessed it to be some new scheme
+of Count Morano, though he was gone away. I ran into the castle, but I
+had hard work to find my way through the passage under the chapel, and
+what is very strange, I quite forgot to look for the ghosts they had
+told me about, though I would not go into that place again by myself for
+all the world! Luckily the Signor and Signor Cavigni were up, so we had
+soon a train at our heels, sufficient to frighten that Barnardine and
+his rogues, all together.'
+
+Annette ceased to speak, but Emily still appeared to listen. At length
+she said, suddenly, 'I think I will go to him myself;--where is he?'
+
+Annette asked who was meant.
+
+'Signor Montoni,' replied Emily. 'I would speak with him;' and Annette,
+now remembering the order he had given, on the preceding night,
+respecting her young lady, rose, and said she would seek him herself.
+
+This honest girl's suspicions of Count Morano were perfectly just;
+Emily, too, when she thought on the scheme, had attributed it to
+him; and Montoni, who had not a doubt on this subject, also, began
+to believe, that it was by the direction of Morano, that poison had
+formerly been mingled with his wine.
+
+The professions of repentance, which Morano had made to Emily, under the
+anguish of his wound, was sincere at the moment he offered them; but
+he had mistaken the subject of his sorrow, for, while he thought he was
+condemning the cruelty of his late design, he was lamenting only the
+state of suffering, to which it had reduced him. As these sufferings
+abated, his former views revived, till, his health being re-established,
+he again found himself ready for enterprise and difficulty. The porter
+of the castle, who had served him, on a former occasion, willingly
+accepted a second bribe; and, having concerted the means of drawing
+Emily to the gates, Morano publicly left the hamlet, whither he had been
+carried after the affray, and withdrew with his people to another
+at several miles distance. From thence, on a night agreed upon by
+Barnardine, who had discovered from the thoughtless prattle of Annette,
+the most probable means of decoying Emily, the Count sent back his
+servants to the castle, while he awaited her arrival at the hamlet, with
+an intention of carrying her immediately to Venice. How this, his second
+scheme, was frustrated, has already appeared; but the violent, and
+various passions with which this Italian lover was now agitated, on his
+return to that city, can only be imagined.
+
+Annette having made her report to Montoni of Emily's health and of her
+request to see him, he replied, that she might attend him in the cedar
+room, in about an hour. It was on the subject, that pressed so heavily
+on her mind, that Emily wished to speak to him, yet she did not
+distinctly know what good purpose this could answer, and sometimes
+she even recoiled in horror from the expectation of his presence. She
+wished, also, to petition, though she scarcely dared to believe the
+request would be granted, that he would permit her, since her aunt was
+no more, to return to her native country.
+
+As the moment of interview approached, her agitation increased so much,
+that she almost resolved to excuse herself under what could scarcely
+be called a pretence of illness; and, when she considered what could
+be said, either concerning herself, or the fate of her aunt, she was
+equally hopeless as to the event of her entreaty, and terrified as
+to its effect upon the vengeful spirit of Montoni. Yet, to pretend
+ignorance of her death, appeared, in some degree, to be sharing its
+criminality, and, indeed, this event was the only ground, on which Emily
+could rest her petition for leaving Udolpho.
+
+While her thoughts thus wavered, a message was brought, importing, that
+Montoni could not see her, till the next day; and her spirits were
+then relieved, for a moment, from an almost intolerable weight of
+apprehension. Annette said, she fancied the Chevaliers were going out
+to the wars again, for the court-yard was filled with horses, and she
+heard, that the rest of the party, who went out before, were expected at
+the castle. 'And I heard one of the soldiers, too,' added she, 'say
+to his comrade, that he would warrant they'd bring home a rare deal of
+booty.--So, thinks I, if the Signor can, with a safe conscience, send
+his people out a-robbing--why it is no business of mine. I only wish
+I was once safe out of this castle; and, if it had not been for poor
+Ludovico's sake, I would have let Count Morano's people run away with
+us both, for it would have been serving you a good turn, ma'amselle, as
+well as myself.'
+
+Annette might have continued thus talking for hours for any interruption
+she would have received from Emily, who was silent, inattentive,
+absorbed in thought, and passed the whole of this day in a kind
+of solemn tranquillity, such as is often the result of faculties
+overstrained by suffering.
+
+When night returned, Emily recollected the mysterious strains of music,
+that she had lately heard, in which she still felt some degree of
+interest, and of which she hoped to hear again the soothing sweetness.
+The influence of superstition now gained on the weakness of her
+long-harassed mind; she looked, with enthusiastic expectation, to the
+guardian spirit of her father, and, having dismissed Annette for the
+night, determined to watch alone for their return. It was not yet,
+however, near the time when she had heard the music on a former night,
+and anxious to call off her thoughts from distressing subjects, she sat
+down with one of the few books, that she had brought from France; but
+her mind, refusing controul, became restless and agitated, and she went
+often to the casement to listen for a sound. Once, she thought she heard
+a voice, but then, every thing without the casement remaining still, she
+concluded, that her fancy had deceived her.
+
+Thus passed the time, till twelve o'clock, soon after which the distant
+sounds, that murmured through the castle, ceased, and sleep seemed to
+reign over all. Emily then seated herself at the casement, where she
+was soon recalled from the reverie, into which she sunk, by very unusual
+sounds, not of music, but like the low mourning of some person in
+distress. As she listened, her heart faltered in terror, and she became
+convinced, that the former sound was more than imaginary. Still,
+at intervals, she heard a kind of feeble lamentation, and sought to
+discover whence it came. There were several rooms underneath, adjoining
+the rampart, which had been long shut up, and, as the sound probably
+rose from one of these, she leaned from the casement to observe, whether
+any light was visible there. The chambers, as far as she could perceive,
+were quite dark, but, at a little distance, on the rampart below, she
+thought she saw something moving.
+
+The faint twilight, which the stars shed, did not enable her to
+distinguish what it was; but she judged it to be a sentinel, on watch,
+and she removed her light to a remote part of the chamber, that she
+might escape notice, during her further observation.
+
+The same object still appeared. Presently, it advanced along the
+rampart, towards her window, and she then distinguished something like
+a human form, but the silence, with which it moved, convinced her it
+was no sentinel. As it drew near, she hesitated whether to retire; a
+thrilling curiosity inclined her to stay, but a dread of she scarcely
+knew what warned her to withdraw.
+
+While she paused, the figure came opposite to her casement, and was
+stationary. Every thing remained quiet; she had not heard even a
+foot-fall; and the solemnity of this silence, with the mysterious form
+she saw, subdued her spirits, so that she was moving from the casement,
+when, on a sudden, she observed the figure start away, and glide down
+the rampart, after which it was soon lost in the obscurity of night.
+Emily continued to gaze, for some time, on the way it had passed, and
+then retired within her chamber, musing on this strange circumstance,
+and scarcely doubting, that she had witnessed a supernatural appearance.
+
+When her spirits recovered composure, she looked round for some other
+explanation. Remembering what she had heard of the daring enterprises of
+Montoni, it occurred to her, that she had just seen some unhappy
+person, who, having been plundered by his banditti, was brought hither a
+captive; and that the music she had formerly heard, came from him.
+Yet, if they had plundered him, it still appeared improbable, that they
+should have brought him to the castle, and it was also more consistent
+with the manners of banditti to murder those they rob, than to make them
+prisoners. But what, more than any other circumstance, contradicted
+the supposition, that it was a prisoner, was that it wandered on the
+terrace, without a guard: a consideration, which made her dismiss
+immediately her first surmise.
+
+Afterwards, she was inclined to believe, that Count Morano had obtained
+admittance into the castle; but she soon recollected the difficulties
+and dangers, that must have opposed such an enterprise, and that, if he
+had so far succeeded, to come alone and in silence to her casement at
+midnight was not the conduct he would have adopted, particularly since
+the private stair-case, communicating with her apartment, was known to
+him; neither would he have uttered the dismal sounds she had heard.
+
+Another suggestion represented, that this might be some person, who had
+designs upon the castle; but the mournful sounds destroyed, also, that
+probability. Thus, enquiry only perplexed her. Who, or what, it could be
+that haunted this lonely hour, complaining in such doleful accents and
+in such sweet music (for she was still inclined to believe, that the
+former strains and the late appearance were connected,) she had no means
+of ascertaining; and imagination again assumed her empire, and roused
+the mysteries of superstition.
+
+She determined, however, to watch on the following night, when her
+doubts might, perhaps, be cleared up; and she almost resolved to address
+the figure, if it should appear again.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+ Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp,
+ Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres,
+ Lingering, and sitting, by a new-made grave.
+     MILTON
+
+On the following day, Montoni sent a second excuse to Emily, who was
+surprised at the circumstance. 'This is very strange!' said she to
+herself. 'His conscience tells him the purport of my visit, and he
+defers it, to avoid an explanation.' She now almost resolved to throw
+herself in his way, but terror checked the intention, and this day
+passed, as the preceding one, with Emily, except that a degree of awful
+expectation, concerning the approaching night, now somewhat disturbed
+the dreadful calmness that had pervaded her mind.
+
+Towards evening, the second part of the band, which had made the first
+excursion among the mountains, returned to the castle, where, as they
+entered the courts, Emily, in her remote chamber, heard their loud
+shouts and strains of exultation, like the orgies of furies over
+some horrid sacrifice. She even feared they were about to commit some
+barbarous deed; a conjecture from which, however, Annette soon relieved
+her, by telling, that the people were only exulting over the plunder
+they had brought with them. This circumstance still further confirmed
+her in the belief, that Montoni had really commenced to be a captain of
+banditti, and meant to retrieve his broken fortunes by the plunder of
+travellers! Indeed, when she considered all the circumstances of his
+situation--in an armed, and almost inaccessible castle, retired far
+among the recesses of wild and solitary mountains, along whose distant
+skirts were scattered towns, and cities, whither wealthy travellers were
+continually passing--this appeared to be the situation of all others
+most suited for the success of schemes of rapine, and she yielded to
+the strange thought, that Montoni was become a captain of robbers. His
+character also, unprincipled, dauntless, cruel and enterprising, seemed
+to fit him for the situation. Delighting in the tumult and in the
+struggles of life, he was equally a stranger to pity and to fear; his
+very courage was a sort of animal ferocity; not the noble impulse of
+a principle, such as inspirits the mind against the oppressor, in the
+cause of the oppressed; but a constitutional hardiness of nerve, that
+cannot feel, and that, therefore, cannot fear.
+
+Emily's supposition, however natural, was in part erroneous, for she was
+a stranger to the state of this country and to the circumstances, under
+which its frequent wars were partly conducted. The revenues of the many
+states of Italy being, at that time, insufficient to the support of
+standing armies, even during the short periods, which the turbulent
+habits both of the governments and the people permitted to pass in
+peace, an order of men arose not known in our age, and but faintly
+described in the history of their own. Of the soldiers, disbanded at
+the end of every war, few returned to the safe, but unprofitable
+occupations, then usual in peace. Sometimes they passed into other
+countries, and mingled with armies, which still kept the field.
+Sometimes they formed themselves into bands of robbers, and occupied
+remote fortresses, where their desperate character, the weakness of the
+governments which they offended, and the certainty, that they could
+be recalled to the armies, when their presence should be again wanted,
+prevented them from being much pursued by the civil power; and,
+sometimes, they attached themselves to the fortunes of a popular chief,
+by whom they were led into the service of any state, which could settle
+with him the price of their valour. From this latter practice arose
+their name--CONDOTTIERI; a term formidable all over Italy, for a period,
+which concluded in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, but of
+which it is not so easy to ascertain the commencement.
+
+Contests between the smaller states were then, for the most part,
+affairs of enterprize alone, and the probabilities of success were
+estimated, not from the skill, but from the personal courage of the
+general, and the soldiers. The ability, which was necessary to the
+conduct of tedious operations, was little valued. It was enough to
+know how a party might be led towards their enemies, with the greatest
+secrecy, or conducted from them in the compactest order. The officer was
+to precipitate himself into a situation, where, but for his example,
+the soldiers might not have ventured; and, as the opposed parties knew
+little of each other's strength, the event of the day was frequently
+determined by the boldness of the first movements. In such services the
+condottieri were eminent, and in these, where plunder always followed
+success, their characters acquired a mixture of intrepidity and
+profligacy, which awed even those whom they served.
+
+When they were not thus engaged, their chief had usually his own
+fortress, in which, or in its neighbourhood, they enjoyed an irksome
+rest; and, though their wants were, at one time, partly supplied from
+the property of the inhabitants, the lavish distribution of their
+plunder at others, prevented them from being obnoxious; and the peasants
+of such districts gradually shared the character of their warlike
+visitors. The neighbouring governments sometimes professed, but seldom
+endeavoured, to suppress these military communities; both because it was
+difficult to do so, and because a disguised protection of them ensured,
+for the service of their wars, a body of men, who could not otherwise
+be so cheaply maintained, or so perfectly qualified. The commanders
+sometimes even relied so far upon this policy of the several powers, as
+to frequent their capitals; and Montoni, having met them in the gaming
+parties of Venice and Padua, conceived a desire to emulate their
+characters, before his ruined fortunes tempted him to adopt their
+practices. It was for the arrangement of his present plan of life, that
+the midnight councils were held at his mansion in Venice, and at which
+Orsino and some other members of the present community then assisted
+with suggestions, which they had since executed with the wreck of their
+fortunes.
+
+On the return of night, Emily resumed her station at the casement. There
+was now a moon; and, as it rose over the tufted woods, its yellow light
+served to shew the lonely terrace and the surrounding objects, more
+distinctly, than the twilight of the stars had done, and promised Emily
+to assist her observations, should the mysterious form return. On this
+subject, she again wavered in conjecture, and hesitated whether to speak
+to the figure, to which a strong and almost irresistible interest urged
+her; but terror, at intervals, made her reluctant to do so.
+
+'If this is a person who has designs upon the castle,' said she, 'my
+curiosity may prove fatal to me; yet the mysterious music, and the
+lamentations I heard, must surely have proceeded from him: if so, he
+cannot be an enemy.'
+
+She then thought of her unfortunate aunt, and, shuddering with grief
+and horror, the suggestions of imagination seized her mind with all
+the force of truth, and she believed, that the form she had seen was
+supernatural. She trembled, breathed with difficulty, an icy coldness
+touched her cheeks, and her fears for a while overcame her judgment.
+Her resolution now forsook her, and she determined, if the figure should
+appear, not to speak to it.
+
+Thus the time passed, as she sat at her casement, awed by expectation,
+and by the gloom and stillness of midnight; for she saw obscurely in
+the moon-light only the mountains and woods, a cluster of towers, that
+formed the west angle of the castle, and the terrace below; and heard
+no sound, except, now and then, the lonely watch-word, passed by the
+centinels on duty, and afterwards the steps of the men who came to
+relieve guard, and whom she knew at a distance on the rampart by their
+pikes, that glittered in the moonbeam, and then, by the few short words,
+in which they hailed their fellows of the night. Emily retired within
+her chamber, while they passed the casement. When she returned to
+it, all was again quiet. It was now very late, she was wearied with
+watching, and began to doubt the reality of what she had seen on the
+preceding night; but she still lingered at the window, for her mind was
+too perturbed to admit of sleep. The moon shone with a clear lustre,
+that afforded her a complete view of the terrace; but she saw only a
+solitary centinel, pacing at one end of it; and, at length, tired with
+expectation, she withdrew to seek rest.
+
+Such, however, was the impression, left on her mind by the music, and
+the complaining she had formerly heard, as well as by the figure, which
+she fancied she had seen, that she determined to repeat the watch, on
+the following night.
+
+Montoni, on the next day, took no notice of Emily's appointed visit, but
+she, more anxious than before to see him, sent Annette to enquire, at
+what hour he would admit her. He mentioned eleven o'clock, and Emily
+was punctual to the moment; at which she called up all her fortitude
+to support the shock of his presence and the dreadful recollections it
+enforced. He was with several of his officers, in the cedar room;
+on observing whom she paused; and her agitation increased, while he
+continued to converse with them, apparently not observing her, till some
+of his officers, turning round, saw Emily, and uttered an exclamation.
+She was hastily retiring, when Montoni's voice arrested her, and, in a
+faultering accent, she said,--'I would speak with you, Signor Montoni,
+if you are at leisure.'
+
+'These are my friends,' he replied, 'whatever you would say, they may
+hear.'
+
+Emily, without replying, turned from the rude gaze of the chevaliers,
+and Montoni then followed her to the hall, whence he led her to a small
+room, of which he shut the door with violence. As she looked on his dark
+countenance, she again thought she saw the murderer of her aunt; and
+her mind was so convulsed with horror, that she had not power to recall
+thought enough to explain the purport of her visit; and to trust herself
+with the mention of Madame Montoni was more than she dared.
+
+Montoni at length impatiently enquired what she had to say? 'I have no
+time for trifling,' he added, 'my moments are important.'
+
+Emily then told him, that she wished to return to France, and came to
+beg, that he would permit her to do so.--But when he looked surprised,
+and enquired for the motive of the request, she hesitated, became paler
+than before, trembled, and had nearly sunk at his feet. He observed
+her emotion, with apparent indifference, and interrupted the silence
+by telling her, he must be gone. Emily, however, recalled her spirits
+sufficiently to enable her to repeat her request. And, when Montoni
+absolutely refused it, her slumbering mind was roused.
+
+'I can no longer remain here with propriety, sir,' said she, 'and I may
+be allowed to ask, by what right you detain me.'
+
+'It is my will that you remain here,' said Montoni, laying his hand on
+the door to go; 'let that suffice you.'
+
+Emily, considering that she had no appeal from this will, forbore to
+dispute his right, and made a feeble effort to persuade him to be
+just. 'While my aunt lived, sir,' said she, in a tremulous voice, 'my
+residence here was not improper; but now, that she is no more, I may
+surely be permitted to depart. My stay cannot benefit you, sir, and will
+only distress me.'
+
+'Who told you, that Madame Montoni was dead?' said Montoni, with an
+inquisitive eye. Emily hesitated, for nobody had told her so, and
+she did not dare to avow the having seen that spectacle in the
+portal-chamber, which had compelled her to the belief.
+
+'Who told you so?' he repeated, more sternly.
+
+'Alas! I know it too well,' replied Emily: 'spare me on this terrible
+subject!'
+
+She sat down on a bench to support herself.
+
+'If you wish to see her,' said Montoni, 'you may; she lies in the east
+turret.'
+
+He now left the room, without awaiting her reply, and returned to the
+cedar chamber, where such of the chevaliers as had not before seen
+Emily, began to rally him, on the discovery they had made; but Montoni
+did not appear disposed to bear this mirth, and they changed the
+subject.
+
+Having talked with the subtle Orsino, on the plan of an excursion, which
+he meditated for a future day, his friend advised, that they should lie
+in wait for the enemy, which Verezzi impetuously opposed, reproached
+Orsino with want of spirit, and swore, that, if Montoni would let him
+lead on fifty men, he would conquer all that should oppose him.
+
+Orsino smiled contemptuously; Montoni smiled too, but he also listened.
+Verezzi then proceeded with vehement declamation and assertion, till he
+was stopped by an argument of Orsino, which he knew not how to answer
+better than by invective. His fierce spirit detested the cunning caution
+of Orsino, whom he constantly opposed, and whose inveterate, though
+silent, hatred he had long ago incurred. And Montoni was a calm observer
+of both, whose different qualifications he knew, and how to bend their
+opposite character to the perfection of his own designs. But Verezzi,
+in the heat of opposition, now did not scruple to accuse Orsino of
+cowardice, at which the countenance of the latter, while he made no
+reply, was overspread with a livid paleness; and Montoni, who watched
+his lurking eye, saw him put his hand hastily into his bosom. But
+Verezzi, whose face, glowing with crimson, formed a striking contrast to
+the complexion of Orsino, remarked not the action, and continued boldly
+declaiming against cowards to Cavigni, who was slily laughing at his
+vehemence, and at the silent mortification of Orsino, when the latter,
+retiring a few steps behind, drew forth a stilletto to stab his
+adversary in the back. Montoni arrested his half-extended arm, and, with
+a significant look, made him return the poinard into his bosom, unseen
+by all except himself; for most of the party were disputing at a
+distant window, on the situation of a dell where they meant to form an
+ambuscade.
+
+When Verezzi had turned round, the deadly hatred, expressed on the
+features of his opponent, raising, for the first time, a suspicion
+of his intention, he laid his hand on his sword, and then, seeming to
+recollect himself, strode up to Montoni.
+
+'Signor,' said he, with a significant look at Orsino, 'we are not a
+band of assassins; if you have business for brave men employ me on this
+expedition: you shall have the last drop of my blood; if you have
+only work for cowards--keep him,' pointing to Orsino, 'and let me quit
+Udolpho.'
+
+Orsino, still more incensed, again drew forth his stilletto, and rushed
+towards Verezzi, who, at the same instant, advanced with his sword, when
+Montoni and the rest of the party interfered and separated them.
+
+'This is the conduct of a boy,' said Montoni to Verezzi, 'not of a man:
+be more moderate in your speech.'
+
+'Moderation is the virtue of cowards,' retorted Verezzi; 'they are
+moderate in every thing--but in fear.'
+
+'I accept your words,' said Montoni, turning upon him with a fierce and
+haughty look, and drawing his sword out of the scabbard.
+
+'With all my heart,' cried Verezzi, 'though I did not mean them for
+you.'
+
+He directed a pass at Montoni; and, while they fought, the villain
+Orsino made another attempt to stab Verezzi, and was again prevented.
+
+The combatants were, at length, separated; and, after a very long and
+violent dispute, reconciled. Montoni then left the room with Orsino,
+whom he detained in private consultation for a considerable time.
+
+Emily, meanwhile, stunned by the last words of Montoni, forgot, for the
+moment, his declaration, that she should continue in the castle, while
+she thought of her unfortunate aunt, who, he had said, was laid in
+the east turret. In suffering the remains of his wife to lie thus long
+unburied, there appeared a degree of brutality more shocking than she
+had suspected even Montoni could practise.
+
+After a long struggle, she determined to accept his permission to visit
+the turret, and to take a last look of her ill-fated aunt: with which
+design she returned to her chamber, and, while she waited for Annette
+to accompany her, endeavoured to acquire fortitude sufficient to support
+her through the approaching scene; for, though she trembled to encounter
+it, she knew that to remember the performance of this last act of duty
+would hereafter afford her consoling satisfaction.
+
+Annette came, and Emily mentioned her purpose, from which the former
+endeavoured to dissuade her, though without effect, and Annette was,
+with much difficulty, prevailed upon to accompany her to the turret; but
+no consideration could make her promise to enter the chamber of death.
+
+They now left the corridor, and, having reached the foot of the
+stair-case, which Emily had formerly ascended, Annette declared she
+would go no further, and Emily proceeded alone. When she saw the track
+of blood, which she had before observed, her spirits fainted, and, being
+compelled to rest on the stairs, she almost determined to proceed no
+further. The pause of a few moments restored her resolution, and she
+went on.
+
+As she drew near the landing-place, upon which the upper chamber opened,
+she remembered, that the door was formerly fastened, and apprehended,
+that it might still be so. In this expectation, however, she was
+mistaken; for the door opened at once, into a dusky and silent chamber,
+round which she fearfully looked, and then slowly advanced, when a
+hollow voice spoke. Emily, who was unable to speak, or to move from
+the spot, uttered no sound of terror. The voice spoke again; and, then,
+thinking that it resembled that of Madame Montoni, Emily's spirits were
+instantly roused; she rushed towards a bed, that stood in a remote part
+of the room, and drew aside the curtains. Within, appeared a pale and
+emaciated face. She started back, then again advanced, shuddered as she
+took up the skeleton hand, that lay stretched upon the quilt; then let
+it drop, and then viewed the face with a long, unsettled gaze. It
+was that of Madame Montoni, though so changed by illness, that the
+resemblance of what it had been, could scarcely be traced in what it now
+appeared. She was still alive, and, raising her heavy eyes, she turned
+them on her niece.
+
+'Where have you been so long?' said she, in the same tone, 'I
+thought you had forsaken me.'
+
+'Do you indeed live,' said Emily, at length, 'or is this but a terrible
+apparition?' she received no answer, and again she snatched up the hand.
+'This is substance,' she exclaimed, 'but it is cold--cold as marble!'
+She let it fall. 'O, if you really live, speak!' said Emily, in a voice
+of desperation, 'that I may not lose my senses--say you know me!'
+
+'I do live,' replied Madame Montoni, 'but--I feel that I am about to
+die.'
+
+Emily clasped the hand she held, more eagerly, and groaned. They were
+both silent for some moments. Then Emily endeavoured to soothe her, and
+enquired what had reduced her to this present deplorable state.
+
+Montoni, when he removed her to the turret under the improbable
+suspicion of having attempted his life, had ordered the men employed on
+the occasion, to observe a strict secrecy concerning her. To this he was
+influenced by a double motive. He meant to debar her from the comfort
+of Emily's visits, and to secure an opportunity of privately dispatching
+her, should any new circumstances occur to confirm the present
+suggestions of his suspecting mind. His consciousness of the hatred he
+deserved it was natural enough should at first led him to attribute to
+her the attempt that had been made upon his life; and, though there
+was no other reason to believe that she was concerned in that atrocious
+design, his suspicions remained; he continued to confine her in the
+turret, under a strict guard; and, without pity or remorse, had suffered
+her to lie, forlorn and neglected, under a raging fever, till it had
+reduced her to the present state.
+
+The track of blood, which Emily had seen on the stairs, had flowed from
+the unbound wound of one of the men employed to carry Madame Montoni,
+and which he had received in the late affray. At night these men, having
+contented themselves with securing the door of their prisoner's room,
+had retired from guard; and then it was, that Emily, at the time of her
+first enquiry, had found the turret so silent and deserted.
+
+When she had attempted to open the door of the chamber, her aunt was
+sleeping, and this occasioned the silence, which had contributed to
+delude her into a belief, that she was no more; yet had her terror
+permitted her to persevere longer in the call, she would probably
+have awakened Madame Montoni, and have been spared much suffering. The
+spectacle in the portal-chamber, which afterwards confirmed Emily's
+horrible suspicion, was the corpse of a man, who had fallen in the
+affray, and the same which had been borne into the servants' hall, where
+she took refuge from the tumult. This man had lingered under his wounds
+for some days; and, soon after his death, his body had been removed
+on the couch, on which he died, for interment in the vault beneath the
+chapel, through which Emily and Barnardine had passed to the chamber.
+
+Emily, after asking Madame Montoni a thousand questions concerning
+herself, left her, and sought Montoni; for the more solemn interest
+she felt for her aunt, made her now regardless of the resentment her
+remonstrances might draw upon herself, and of the improbability of his
+granting what she meant to entreat.
+
+'Madame Montoni is now dying, sir,' said Emily, as soon as she saw
+him--'Your resentment, surely will not pursue her to the last moment!
+Suffer her to be removed from that forlorn room to her own apartment,
+and to have necessary comforts administered.'
+
+'Of what service will that be, if she is dying?' said Montoni, with
+apparent indifference.
+
+'The service, at leave, of saving you, sir, from a few of those pangs
+of conscience you must suffer, when you shall be in the same situation,'
+said Emily, with imprudent indignation, of which Montoni soon made her
+sensible, by commanding her to quit his presence. Then, forgetting her
+resentment, and impressed only by compassion for the piteous state of
+her aunt, dying without succour, she submitted to humble herself to
+Montoni, and to adopt every persuasive means, that might induce him to
+relent towards his wife.
+
+For a considerable time he was proof against all she said, and all she
+looked; but at length the divinity of pity, beaming in Emily's eyes,
+seemed to touch his heart. He turned away, ashamed of his better
+feelings, half sullen and half relenting; but finally consented, that
+his wife should be removed to her own apartment, and that Emily should
+attend her. Dreading equally, that this relief might arrive too late,
+and that Montoni might retract his concession, Emily scarcely staid to
+thank him for it, but, assisted by Annette, she quickly prepared Madame
+Montoni's bed, and they carried her a cordial, that might enable her
+feeble frame to sustain the fatigue of a removal.
+
+Madame was scarcely arrived in her own apartment, when an order was
+given by her husband, that she should remain in the turret; but Emily,
+thankful that she had made such dispatch, hastened to inform him of it,
+as well as that a second removal would instantly prove fatal, and he
+suffered his wife to continue where she was.
+
+During this day, Emily never left Madame Montoni, except to prepare such
+little nourishing things as she judged necessary to sustain her, and
+which Madame Montoni received with quiet acquiescence, though she seemed
+sensible that they could not save her from approaching dissolution, and
+scarcely appeared to wish for life. Emily meanwhile watched over her
+with the most tender solicitude, no longer seeing her imperious aunt in
+the poor object before her, but the sister of her late beloved father,
+in a situation that called for all her compassion and kindness. When
+night came, she determined to sit up with her aunt, but this the latter
+positively forbade, commanding her to retire to rest, and Annette alone
+to remain in her chamber. Rest was, indeed, necessary to Emily, whose
+spirits and frame were equally wearied by the occurrences and exertions
+of the day; but she would not leave Madame Montoni, till after the turn
+of midnight, a period then thought so critical by the physicians.
+
+Soon after twelve, having enjoined Annette to be wakeful, and to call
+her, should any change appear for the worse, Emily sorrowfully bade
+Madame Montoni good night, and withdrew to her chamber. Her spirits were
+more than usually depressed by the piteous condition of her aunt, whose
+recovery she scarcely dared to expect. To her own misfortunes she saw no
+period, inclosed as she was, in a remote castle, beyond the reach of any
+friends, had she possessed such, and beyond the pity even of strangers;
+while she knew herself to be in the power of a man capable of any
+action, which his interest, or his ambition, might suggest.
+
+Occupied by melancholy reflections and by anticipations as sad, she
+did not retire immediately to rest, but leaned thoughtfully on her open
+casement. The scene before her of woods and mountains, reposing in the
+moon-light, formed a regretted contrast with the state of her mind;
+but the lonely murmur of these woods, and the view of this sleeping
+landscape, gradually soothed her emotions and softened her to tears.
+
+She continued to weep, for some time, lost to every thing, but to
+a gentle sense of her misfortunes. When she, at length, took the
+handkerchief from her eyes, she perceived, before her, on the terrace
+below, the figure she had formerly observed, which stood fixed and
+silent, immediately opposite to her casement. On perceiving it, she
+started back, and terror for some time overcame curiosity;--at length,
+she returned to the casement, and still the figure was before it, which
+she now compelled herself to observe, but was utterly unable to speak,
+as she had formerly intended. The moon shone with a clear light, and
+it was, perhaps, the agitation of her mind, that prevented her
+distinguishing, with any degree of accuracy, the form before her. It
+was still stationary, and she began to doubt, whether it was really
+animated.
+
+Her scattered thoughts were now so far returned as to remind her, that
+her light exposed her to dangerous observation, and she was stepping
+back to remove it, when she perceived the figure move, and then wave
+what seemed to be its arm, as if to beckon her; and, while she gazed,
+fixed in fear, it repeated the action. She now attempted to speak, but
+the words died on her lips, and she went from the casement to remove her
+light; as she was doing which, she heard, from without, a faint groan.
+Listening, but not daring to return, she presently heard it repeated.
+
+'Good God!--what can this mean!' said she.
+
+Again she listened, but the sound came no more; and, after a long
+interval of silence, she recovered courage enough to go to the casement,
+when she again saw the same appearance! It beckoned again, and again
+uttered a low sound.
+
+'That groan was surely human!' said she. 'I WILL speak.' 'Who is it,'
+cried Emily in a faint voice, 'that wanders at this late hour?'
+
+The figure raised its head but suddenly started away, and glided down
+the terrace. She watched it, for a long while, passing swiftly in
+the moon-light, but heard no footstep, till a sentinel from the other
+extremity of the rampart walked slowly along. The man stopped under
+her window, and, looking up, called her by name. She was retiring
+precipitately, but, a second summons inducing her to reply, the
+soldier then respectfully asked if she had seen any thing pass. On
+her answering, that she had; he said no more, but walked away down the
+terrace, Emily following him with her eyes, till he was lost in the
+distance. But, as he was on guard, she knew he could not go beyond the
+rampart, and, therefore, resolved to await his return.
+
+Soon after, his voice was heard, at a distance, calling loudly; and
+then a voice still more distant answered, and, in the next moment, the
+watch-word was given, and passed along the terrace. As the soldiers
+moved hastily under the casement, she called to enquire what had
+happened, but they passed without regarding her.
+
+Emily's thoughts returning to the figure she had seen, 'It cannot be a
+person, who has designs upon the castle,' said she; 'such an one would
+conduct himself very differently. He would not venture where sentinels
+were on watch, nor fix himself opposite to a window, where he perceived
+he must be observed; much less would he beckon, or utter a sound of
+complaint. Yet it cannot be a prisoner, for how could he obtain the
+opportunity to wander thus?'
+
+If she had been subject to vanity, she might have supposed this figure
+to be some inhabitant of the castle, who wandered under her casement in
+the hope of seeing her, and of being allowed to declare his admiration;
+but this opinion never occurred to Emily, and, if it had, she would have
+dismissed it as improbable, on considering, that, when the opportunity
+of speaking had occurred, it had been suffered to pass in silence; and
+that, even at the moment in which she had spoken, the form had abruptly
+quitted the place.
+
+While she mused, two sentinels walked up the rampart in earnest
+conversation, of which she caught a few words, and learned from these,
+that one of their comrades had fallen down senseless. Soon after, three
+other soldiers appeared slowly advancing from the bottom of the terrace,
+but she heard only a low voice, that came at intervals. As they drew
+near, she perceived this to be the voice of him, who walked in the
+middle, apparently supported by his comrades; and she again called
+to them, enquiring what had happened. At the sound of her voice, they
+stopped, and looked up, while she repeated her question, and was told,
+that Roberto, their fellow of the watch, had been seized with a fit, and
+that his cry, as he fell, had caused a false alarm.
+
+'Is he subject to fits?' said Emily.
+
+'Yes, Signora,' replied Roberto; 'but if I had not, what I saw was
+enough to have frightened the Pope himself.'
+
+'What was it?' enquired Emily, trembling.
+
+'I cannot tell what it was, lady, or what I saw, or how it vanished,'
+replied the soldier, who seemed to shudder at the recollection.
+
+'Was it the person, whom you followed down the rampart, that has
+occasioned you this alarm?' said Emily, endeavouring to conceal her own.
+
+'Person!' exclaimed the man,--'it was the devil, and this is not the
+first time I have seen him!'
+
+'Nor will it be the last,' observed one of his comrades, laughing.
+
+'No, no, I warrant not,' said another.
+
+'Well,' rejoined Roberto, 'you may be as merry now, as you please; you
+was none so jocose the other night, Sebastian, when you was on watch
+with Launcelot.'
+
+'Launcelot need not talk of that,' replied Sebastian, 'let him remember
+how he stood trembling, and unable to give the WORD, till the man was
+gone, If the man had not come so silently upon us, I would have seized
+him, and soon made him tell who he was.'
+
+'What man?' enquired Emily.
+
+'It was no man, lady,' said Launcelot, who stood by, 'but the devil
+himself, as my comrade says. What man, who does not live in the castle,
+could get within the walls at midnight? Why, I might just as well
+pretend to march to Venice, and get among all the Senators, when they
+are counselling; and I warrant I should have more chance of getting
+out again alive, than any fellow, that we should catch within the gates
+after dark. So I think I have proved plainly enough, that this can be
+nobody that lives out of the castle; and now I will prove, that it can
+be nobody that lives in the castle--for, if he did--why should he be
+afraid to be seen? So after this, I hope nobody will pretend to tell
+me it was anybody. No, I say again, by holy Pope! it was the devil, and
+Sebastian, there, knows this is not the first time we have seen him.'
+
+'When did you see the figure, then, before?' said Emily half smiling,
+who, though she thought the conversation somewhat too much, felt an
+interest, which would not permit her to conclude it.
+
+'About a week ago, lady,' said Sebastian, taking up the story.
+
+'And where?'
+
+'On the rampart, lady, higher up.'
+
+'Did you pursue it, that it fled?'
+
+'No, Signora. Launcelot and I were on watch together, and every thing
+was so still, you might have heard a mouse stir, when, suddenly,
+Launcelot says--Sebastian! do you see nothing? I turned my head a
+little to the left, as it might be--thus. No, says I. Hush! said
+Launcelot,--look yonder--just by the last cannon on the rampart! I
+looked, and then thought I did see something move; but there being no
+light, but what the stars gave, I could not be certain. We stood quite
+silent, to watch it, and presently saw something pass along the castle
+wall just opposite to us!'
+
+'Why did you not seize it, then?' cried a soldier, who had scarcely
+spoken till now.
+
+'Aye, why did you not seize it?' said Roberto.
+
+'You should have been there to have done that,' replied Sebastian. 'You
+would have been bold enough to have taken it by the throat, though it
+had been the devil himself; we could not take such a liberty, perhaps,
+because we are not so well acquainted with him, as you are. But, as I
+was saying, it stole by us so quickly, that we had not time to get rid
+of our surprise, before it was gone. Then, we knew it was in vain to
+follow. We kept constant watch all that night, but we saw it no more.
+Next morning, we told some of our comrades, who were on duty on other
+parts of the ramparts, what we had seen; but they had seen nothing, and
+laughed at us, and it was not till to-night, that the same figure walked
+again.'
+
+'Where did you lose it, friend?' said Emily to Roberto.
+
+'When I left you, lady,' replied the man, 'you might see me go down the
+rampart, but it was not till I reached the east terrace, that I saw
+any thing. Then, the moon shining bright, I saw something like a shadow
+flitting before me, as it were, at some distance. I stopped, when I
+turned the corner of the east tower, where I had seen this figure not
+a moment before,--but it was gone! As I stood, looking through the
+old arch, which leads to the east rampart, and where I am sure it had
+passed, I heard, all of a sudden, such a sound!--it was not like a
+groan, or a cry, or a shout, or any thing I ever heard in my life. I
+heard it only once, and that was enough for me; for I know nothing that
+happened after, till I found my comrades, here, about me.'
+
+'Come,' said Sebastian, 'let us go to our posts--the moon is setting.
+Good night, lady!'
+
+'Aye, let us go,' rejoined Roberto. 'Good night, lady.'
+
+'Good night; the holy mother guard you!' said Emily, as she closed her
+casement and retired to reflect upon the strange circumstance that had
+just occurred, connecting which with what had happened on former nights,
+she endeavoured to derive from the whole something more positive, than
+conjecture. But her imagination was inflamed, while her judgment was not
+enlightened, and the terrors of superstition again pervaded her mind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+     There is one within,
+ Besides the things, that we have heard and seen,
+ Recounts most horrid sights, seen by the watch.
+     JULIUS CAESAR
+
+In the morning, Emily found Madame Montoni nearly in the same condition,
+as on the preceding night; she had slept little, and that little had
+not refreshed her; she smiled on her niece, and seemed cheered by her
+presence, but spoke only a few words, and never named Montoni, who,
+however, soon after, entered the room. His wife, when she understood
+that he was there, appeared much agitated, but was entirely silent, till
+Emily rose from a chair at the bed-side, when she begged, in a feeble
+voice, that she would not leave her.
+
+The visit of Montoni was not to sooth his wife, whom he knew to be
+dying, or to console, or to ask her forgiveness, but to make a last
+effort to procure that signature, which would transfer her estates in
+Languedoc, after her death, to him rather than to Emily. This was a
+scene, that exhibited, on his part, his usual inhumanity, and, on that
+of Madame Montoni, a persevering spirit, contending with a feeble frame;
+while Emily repeatedly declared to him her willingness to resign all
+claim to those estates, rather than that the last hours of her aunt
+should be disturbed by contention. Montoni, however, did not leave the
+room, till his wife, exhausted by the obstinate dispute, had fainted,
+and she lay so long insensible, that Emily began to fear that the spark
+of life was extinguished. At length, she revived, and, looking feebly
+up at her niece, whose tears were falling over her, made an effort to
+speak, but her words were unintelligible, and Emily again apprehended
+she was dying. Afterwards, however, she recovered her speech, and, being
+somewhat restored by a cordial, conversed for a considerable time, on
+the subject of her estates in France, with clearness and precision. She
+directed her niece where to find some papers relative to them, which she
+had hitherto concealed from the search of Montoni, and earnestly charged
+her never to suffer these papers to escape her.
+
+Soon after this conversation, Madame Montoni sunk into a dose, and
+continued slumbering, till evening, when she seemed better than she
+had been since her removal from the turret. Emily never left her, for a
+moment, till long after midnight, and even then would not have quitted
+the room, had not her aunt entreated, that she would retire to rest. She
+then obeyed, the more willingly, because her patient appeared somewhat
+recruited by sleep; and, giving Annette the same injunction, as on the
+preceding night, she withdrew to her own apartment. But her spirits
+were wakeful and agitated, and, finding it impossible to sleep, she
+determined to watch, once more, for the mysterious appearance, that had
+so much interested and alarmed her.
+
+It was now the second watch of the night, and about the time when
+the figure had before appeared. Emily heard the passing steps of the
+sentinels, on the rampart, as they changed guard; and, when all was
+again silent, she took her station at the casement, leaving her lamp in
+a remote part of the chamber, that she might escape notice from without.
+The moon gave a faint and uncertain light, for heavy vapours surrounded
+it, and, often rolling over the disk, left the scene below in total
+darkness. It was in one of these moments of obscurity, that she observed
+a small and lambent flame, moving at some distance on the terrace. While
+she gazed, it disappeared, and, the moon again emerging from the lurid
+and heavy thunder clouds, she turned her attention to the heavens, where
+the vivid lightnings darted from cloud to cloud, and flashed silently on
+the woods below. She loved to catch, in the momentary gleam, the gloomy
+landscape. Sometimes, a cloud opened its light upon a distant mountain,
+and, while the sudden splendour illumined all its recesses of rock and
+wood, the rest of the scene remained in deep shadow; at others, partial
+features of the castle were revealed by the glimpse--the antient arch
+leading to the east rampart, the turret above, or the fortifications
+beyond; and then, perhaps, the whole edifice with all its towers, its
+dark massy walls and pointed casements would appear, and vanish in an
+instant.
+
+Emily, looking again upon the rampart, perceived the flame she had
+seen before; it moved onward; and, soon after, she thought she heard a
+footstep. The light appeared and disappeared frequently, while, as she
+watched, it glided under her casements, and, at the same instant, she
+was certain, that a footstep passed, but the darkness did not permit her
+to distinguish any object except the flame. It moved away, and then, by
+a gleam of lightning, she perceived some person on the terrace. All the
+anxieties of the preceding night returned. This person advanced, and the
+playing flame alternately appeared and vanished. Emily wished to speak,
+to end her doubts, whether this figure were human or supernatural; but
+her courage failed as often as she attempted utterance, till the light
+moved again under the casement, and she faintly demanded, who passed.
+
+'A friend,' replied a voice.
+
+'What friend?' said Emily, somewhat encouraged 'who are you, and what is
+that light you carry?'
+
+'I am Anthonio, one of the Signor's soldiers,' replied the voice.
+
+'And what is that tapering light you bear?' said Emily, 'see how it
+darts upwards,--and now it vanishes!'
+
+'This light, lady,' said the soldier, 'has appeared to-night as you see
+it, on the point of my lance, ever since I have been on watch; but what
+it means I cannot tell.'
+
+'This is very strange!' said Emily.
+
+'My fellow-guard,' continued the man, 'has the same flame on his arms;
+he says he has sometimes seen it before. I never did; I am but lately
+come to the castle, for I have not been long a soldier.'
+
+'How does your comrade account for it?' said Emily.
+
+'He says it is an omen, lady, and bodes no good.'
+
+'And what harm can it bode?' rejoined Emily.
+
+'He knows not so much as that, lady.'
+
+Whether Emily was alarmed by this omen, or not, she certainly was
+relieved from much terror by discovering this man to be only a soldier
+on duty, and it immediately occurred to her, that it might be he,
+who had occasioned so much alarm on the preceding night. There were,
+however, some circumstances, that still required explanation. As far
+as she could judge by the faint moon-light, that had assisted her
+observation, the figure she had seen did not resemble this man either
+in shape or size; besides, she was certain it had carried no arms. The
+silence of its steps, if steps it had, the moaning sounds, too, which
+it had uttered, and its strange disappearance, were circumstances of
+mysterious import, that did not apply, with probability, to a soldier
+engaged in the duty of his guard.
+
+She now enquired of the sentinel, whether he had seen any person besides
+his fellow watch, walking on the terrace, about midnight; and then
+briefly related what she had herself observed.
+
+'I was not on guard that night, lady,' replied the man, 'but I heard of
+what happened. There are amongst us, who believe strange things. Strange
+stories, too, have long been told of this castle, but it is no business
+of mine to repeat them; and, for my part, I have no reason to complain;
+our Chief does nobly by us.'
+
+'I commend your prudence,' said Emily. 'Good night, and accept this from
+me,' she added, throwing him a small piece of coin, and then closing the
+casement to put an end to the discourse.
+
+When he was gone, she opened it again, listened with a gloomy pleasure
+to the distant thunder, that began to murmur among the mountains, and
+watched the arrowy lightnings, which broke over the remoter scene. The
+pealing thunder rolled onward, and then, reverbed by the mountains,
+other thunder seemed to answer from the opposite horizon; while the
+accumulating clouds, entirely concealing the moon, assumed a red
+sulphureous tinge, that foretold a violent storm.
+
+Emily remained at her casement, till the vivid lightning, that now,
+every instant, revealed the wide horizon and the landscape below, made
+it no longer safe to do so, and she went to her couch; but, unable
+to compose her mind to sleep, still listened in silent awe to the
+tremendous sounds, that seemed to shake the castle to its foundation.
+
+She had continued thus for a considerable time, when, amidst the uproar
+of the storm, she thought she heard a voice, and, raising herself to
+listen, saw the chamber door open, and Annette enter with a countenance
+of wild affright.
+
+'She is dying, ma'amselle, my lady is dying!' said she.
+
+Emily started up, and ran to Madame Montoni's room. When she entered,
+her aunt appeared to have fainted, for she was quite still, and
+insensible; and Emily with a strength of mind, that refused to yield to
+grief, while any duty required her activity, applied every means that
+seemed likely to restore her. But the last struggle was over--she was
+gone for ever.
+
+When Emily perceived, that all her efforts were ineffectual, she
+interrogated the terrified Annette, and learned, that Madame Montoni
+had fallen into a doze soon after Emily's departure, in which she had
+continued, until a few minutes before her death.
+
+'I wondered, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'what was the reason my lady did
+not seem frightened at the thunder, when I was so terrified, and I went
+often to the bed to speak to her, but she appeared to be asleep; till
+presently I heard a strange noise, and, on going to her, saw she was
+dying.'
+
+Emily, at this recital, shed tears. She had no doubt but that the
+violent change in the air, which the tempest produced, had effected this
+fatal one, on the exhausted frame of Madame Montoni.
+
+After some deliberation, she determined that Montoni should not be
+informed of this event till the morning, for she considered, that he
+might, perhaps, utter some inhuman expressions, such as in the present
+temper of her spirits she could not bear. With Annette alone, therefore,
+whom she encouraged by her own example, she performed some of the last
+solemn offices for the dead, and compelled herself to watch during the
+night, by the body of her deceased aunt. During this solemn period,
+rendered more awful by the tremendous storm that shook the air, she
+frequently addressed herself to Heaven for support and protection, and
+her pious prayers, we may believe, were accepted of the God, that giveth
+comfort.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+ The midnight clock has toll'd; and hark, the bell
+ Of Death beats slow! heard ye the note profound?
+ It pauses now; and now, with rising knell,
+ Flings to the hollow gale its sullen sound.
+     MASON
+
+When Montoni was informed of the death of his wife, and considered
+that she had died without giving him the signature so necessary to
+the accomplishment of his wishes, no sense of decency restrained the
+expression of his resentment. Emily anxiously avoided his presence, and
+watched, during two days and two nights, with little intermission, by
+the corpse of her late aunt. Her mind deeply impressed with the unhappy
+fate of this object, she forgot all her faults, her unjust and imperious
+conduct to herself; and, remembering only her sufferings, thought of
+her only with tender compassion. Sometimes, however, she could not avoid
+musing upon the strange infatuation that had proved so fatal to her
+aunt, and had involved herself in a labyrinth of misfortune, from which
+she saw no means of escaping,--the marriage with Montoni. But, when
+she considered this circumstance, it was 'more in sorrow than in
+anger,'--more for the purpose of indulging lamentation, than reproach.
+
+In her pious cares she was not disturbed by Montoni, who not only
+avoided the chamber, where the remains of his wife were laid, but that
+part of the castle adjoining to it, as if he had apprehended a contagion
+in death. He seemed to have given no orders respecting the funeral,
+and Emily began to fear he meant to offer a new insult to the memory of
+Madame Montoni; but from this apprehension she was relieved, when, on
+the evening of the second day, Annette informed her, that the interment
+was to take place that night. She knew, that Montoni would not attend;
+and it was so very grievous to her to think that the remains of her
+unfortunate aunt would pass to the grave without one relative, or friend
+to pay them the last decent rites, that she determined to be deterred
+by no considerations for herself, from observing this duty. She would
+otherwise have shrunk from the circumstance of following them to the
+cold vault, to which they were to be carried by men, whose air and
+countenances seemed to stamp them for murderers, at the midnight hour
+of silence and privacy, which Montoni had chosen for committing, if
+possible, to oblivion the reliques of a woman, whom his harsh conduct
+had, at least, contributed to destroy.
+
+Emily, shuddering with emotions of horror and grief, assisted by
+Annette, prepared the corpse for interment; and, having wrapt it in
+cerements, and covered it with a winding-sheet, they watched beside it,
+till past midnight, when they heard the approaching footsteps of the
+men, who were to lay it in its earthy bed. It was with difficulty, that
+Emily overcame her emotion, when, the door of the chamber being thrown
+open, their gloomy countenances were seen by the glare of the torch they
+carried, and two of them, without speaking, lifted the body on their
+shoulders, while the third preceding them with the light, descended
+through the castle towards the grave, which was in the lower vault of
+the chapel within the castle walls.
+
+They had to cross two courts, towards the east wing of the castle,
+which, adjoining the chapel, was, like it, in ruins: but the silence and
+gloom of these courts had now little power over Emily's mind, occupied
+as it was, with more mournful ideas; and she scarcely heard the low
+and dismal hooting of the night-birds, that roosted among the ivyed
+battlements of the ruin, or perceived the still flittings of the bat,
+which frequently crossed her way. But, when, having entered the chapel,
+and passed between the mouldering pillars of the aisles, the bearers
+stopped at a flight of steps, that led down to a low arched door, and,
+their comrade having descended to unlock it, she saw imperfectly the
+gloomy abyss beyond;--saw the corpse of her aunt carried down these
+steps, and the ruffian-like figure, that stood with a torch at the
+bottom to receive it--all her fortitude was lost in emotions of
+inexpressible grief and terror. She turned to lean upon Annette, who was
+cold and trembling like herself, and she lingered so long on the summit
+of the flight, that the gleam of the torch began to die away on the
+pillars of the chapel, and the men were almost beyond her view. Then,
+the gloom around her awakening other fears, and a sense of what she
+considered to be her duty overcoming her reluctance, she descended to
+the vaults, following the echo of footsteps and the faint ray, that
+pierced the darkness, till the harsh grating of a distant door, that was
+opened to receive the corpse, again appalled her.
+
+After the pause of a moment, she went on, and, as she entered the
+vaults, saw between the arches, at some distance, the men lay down the
+body near the edge of an open grave, where stood another of Montoni's
+men and a priest, whom she did not observe, till he began the burial
+service; then, lifting her eyes from the ground, she saw the venerable
+figure of the friar, and heard him in a low voice, equally solemn and
+affecting, perform the service for the dead. At the moment, in which
+they let down the body into the earth, the scene was such as only the
+dark pencil of a Domenichino, perhaps, could have done justice to. The
+fierce features and wild dress of the condottieri, bending with their
+torches over the grave, into which the corpse was descending, were
+contrasted by the venerable figure of the monk, wrapt in long black
+garments, his cowl thrown back from his pale face, on which the light
+gleaming strongly shewed the lines of affliction softened by piety, and
+the few grey locks, which time had spared on his temples: while,
+beside him, stood the softer form of Emily, who leaned for support upon
+Annette; her face half averted, and shaded by a thin veil, that fell
+over her figure; and her mild and beautiful countenance fixed in
+grief so solemn as admitted not of tears, while she thus saw committed
+untimely to the earth her last relative and friend. The gleams, thrown
+between the arches of the vaults, where, here and there, the broken
+ground marked the spots in which other bodies had been recently
+interred, and the general obscurity beyond were circumstances, that
+alone would have led on the imagination of a spectator to scenes
+more horrible, than even that, which was pictured at the grave of the
+misguided and unfortunate Madame Montoni.
+
+When the service was over, the friar regarded Emily with attention and
+surprise, and looked as if he wished to speak to her, but was restrained
+by the presence of the condottieri, who, as they now led the way to
+the courts, amused themselves with jokes upon his holy order, which
+he endured in silence, demanding only to be conducted safely to his
+convent, and to which Emily listened with concern and even horror. When
+they reached the court, the monk gave her his blessing, and, after a
+lingering look of pity, turned away to the portal, whither one of the
+men carried a torch; while Annette, lighting another, preceded Emily to
+her apartment. The appearance of the friar and the expression of tender
+compassion, with which he had regarded her, had interested Emily, who,
+though it was at her earnest supplication, that Montoni had consented
+to allow a priest to perform the last rites for his deceased wife, knew
+nothing concerning this person, till Annette now informed her, that he
+belonged to a monastery, situated among the mountains at a few miles
+distance. The Superior, who regarded Montoni and his associates, not
+only with aversion, but with terror, had probably feared to offend him
+by refusing his request, and had, therefore, ordered a monk to officiate
+at the funeral, who, with the meek spirit of a christian, had overcome
+his reluctance to enter the walls of such a castle, by the wish of
+performing what he considered to be his duty, and, as the chapel was
+built on consecrated ground, had not objected to commit to it the
+remains of the late unhappy Madame Montoni.
+
+Several days passed with Emily in total seclusion, and in a state of
+mind partaking both of terror for herself, and grief for the departed.
+She, at length, determined to make other efforts to persuade Montoni to
+permit her return to France. Why he should wish to detain her, she could
+scarcely dare to conjecture; but it was too certain that he did so, and
+the absolute refusal he had formerly given to her departure allowed her
+little hope, that he would now consent to it. But the horror, which his
+presence inspired, made her defer, from day to day, the mention of this
+subject; and at last she was awakened from her inactivity only by a
+message from him, desiring her attendance at a certain hour. She began
+to hope he meant to resign, now that her aunt was no more, the authority
+he had usurped over her; till she recollected, that the estates, which
+had occasioned so much contention, were now hers, and she then feared
+Montoni was about to employ some stratagem for obtaining them, and
+that he would detain her his prisoner, till he succeeded. This thought,
+instead of overcoming her with despondency, roused all the latent
+powers of her fortitude into action; and the property, which she would
+willingly have resigned to secure the peace of her aunt, she resolved,
+that no common sufferings of her own should ever compel her to give to
+Montoni. For Valancourt's sake also she determined to preserve these
+estates, since they would afford that competency, by which she hoped to
+secure the comfort of their future lives. As she thought of this, she
+indulged the tenderness of tears, and anticipated the delight of that
+moment, when, with affectionate generosity, she might tell him they
+were his own. She saw the smile, that lighted up his features--the
+affectionate regard, which spoke at once his joy and thanks; and, at
+this instant, she believed she could brave any suffering, which the evil
+spirit of Montoni might be preparing for her. Remembering then, for the
+first time since her aunt's death, the papers relative to the estates
+in question, she determined to search for them, as soon as her interview
+with Montoni was over.
+
+With these resolutions she met him at the appointed time, and waited to
+hear his intention before she renewed her request. With him were Orsino
+and another officer, and both were standing near a table, covered with
+papers, which he appeared to be examining.
+
+'I sent for you, Emily,' said Montoni, raising his head, 'that you might
+be a witness in some business, which I am transacting with my friend
+Orsino. All that is required of you will be to sign your name to this
+paper:' he then took one up, hurried unintelligibly over some lines,
+and, laying it before her on the table, offered her a pen. She took it,
+and was going to write--when the design of Montoni came upon her mind
+like a flash of lightning; she trembled, let the pen fall, and refused
+to sign what she had not read. Montoni affected to laugh at her
+scruples, and, taking up the paper, again pretended to read; but Emily,
+who still trembled on perceiving her danger, and was astonished, that
+her own credulity had so nearly betrayed her, positively refused to sign
+any paper whatever. Montoni, for some time, persevered in affecting
+to ridicule this refusal; but, when he perceived by her steady
+perseverance, that she understood his design, he changed his manner, and
+bade her follow him to another room. There he told her, that he had been
+willing to spare himself and her the trouble of useless contest, in an
+affair, where his will was justice, and where she should find it law;
+and had, therefore, endeavoured to persuade, rather than to compel, her
+to the practice of her duty.
+
+'I, as the husband of the late Signora Montoni,' he added, 'am the heir
+of all she possessed; the estates, therefore, which she refused to me
+in her life-time, can no longer be withheld, and, for your own sake, I
+would undeceive you, respecting a foolish assertion she once made to you
+in my hearing--that these estates would be yours, if she died without
+resigning them to me. She knew at that moment, she had no power to
+withhold them from me, after her decease; and I think you have more
+sense, than to provoke my resentment by advancing an unjust claim. I
+am not in the habit of flattering, and you will, therefore, receive,
+as sincere, the praise I bestow, when I say, that you possess an
+understanding superior to that of your sex; and that you have none
+of those contemptible foibles, that frequently mark the female
+character--such as avarice and the love of power, which latter makes
+women delight to contradict and to tease, when they cannot conquer. If
+I understand your disposition and your mind, you hold in sovereign
+contempt these common failings of your sex.'
+
+Montoni paused; and Emily remained silent and expecting; for she knew
+him too well, to believe he would condescend to such flattery, unless he
+thought it would promote his own interest; and, though he had forborne
+to name vanity among the foibles of women, it was evident, that he
+considered it to be a predominant one, since he designed to sacrifice to
+hers the character and understanding of her whole sex.
+
+'Judging as I do,' resumed Montoni, 'I cannot believe you will oppose,
+where you know you cannot conquer, or, indeed, that you would wish to
+conquer, or be avaricious of any property, when you have not justice
+on your side. I think it proper, however, to acquaint you with the
+alternative. If you have a just opinion of the subject in question, you
+shall be allowed a safe conveyance to France, within a short period;
+but, if you are so unhappy as to be misled by the late assertion of the
+Signora, you shall remain my prisoner, till you are convinced of your
+error.'
+
+Emily calmly said,
+
+'I am not so ignorant, Signor, of the laws on this subject, as to be
+misled by the assertion of any person. The law, in the present instance,
+gives me the estates in question, and my own hand shall never betray my
+right.'
+
+'I have been mistaken in my opinion of you, it appears,' rejoined
+Montoni, sternly. 'You speak boldly, and presumptuously, upon a subject,
+which you do not understand. For once, I am willing to pardon the
+conceit of ignorance; the weakness of your sex, too, from which, it
+seems, you are not exempt, claims some allowance; but, if you persist in
+this strain--you have every thing to fear from my justice.'
+
+'From your justice, Signor,' rejoined Emily, 'I have nothing to fear--I
+have only to hope.'
+
+Montoni looked at her with vexation, and seemed considering what to
+say. 'I find that you are weak enough,' he resumed, 'to credit the idle
+assertion I alluded to! For your own sake I lament this; as to me, it
+is of little consequence. Your credulity can punish only yourself; and I
+must pity the weakness of mind, which leads you to so much suffering as
+you are compelling me to prepare for you.'
+
+'You may find, perhaps, Signor,' said Emily, with mild dignity, 'that
+the strength of my mind is equal to the justice of my cause; and that I
+can endure with fortitude, when it is in resistance of oppression.'
+
+'You speak like a heroine,' said Montoni, contemptuously; 'we shall see
+whether you can suffer like one.'
+
+Emily was silent, and he left the room.
+
+Recollecting, that it was for Valancourt's sake she had thus resisted,
+she now smiled complacently upon the threatened sufferings, and retired
+to the spot, which her aunt had pointed out as the repository of the
+papers, relative to the estates, where she found them as described; and,
+since she knew of no better place of concealment, than this, returned
+them, without examining their contents, being fearful of discovery,
+while she should attempt a perusal.
+
+To her own solitary chamber she once more returned, and there thought
+again of the late conversation with Montoni, and of the evil she might
+expect from opposition to his will. But his power did not appear so
+terrible to her imagination, as it was wont to do: a sacred pride was
+in her heart, that taught it to swell against the pressure of injustice,
+and almost to glory in the quiet sufferance of ills, in a cause, which
+had also the interest of Valancourt for its object. For the first time,
+she felt the full extent of her own superiority to Montoni, and despised
+the authority, which, till now, she had only feared.
+
+As she sat musing, a peal of laughter rose from the terrace, and, on
+going to the casement, she saw, with inexpressible surprise, three
+ladies, dressed in the gala habit of Venice, walking with several
+gentlemen below. She gazed in an astonishment that made her remain at
+the window, regardless of being observed, till the group passed under
+it; and, one of the strangers looking up, she perceived the features of
+Signora Livona, with whose manners she had been so much charmed, the day
+after her arrival at Venice, and who had been there introduced at the
+table of Montoni. This discovery occasioned her an emotion of doubtful
+joy; for it was matter of joy and comfort to know, that a person, of a
+mind so gentle, as that of Signora Livona seemed to be, was near her;
+yet there was something so extraordinary in her being at this castle,
+circumstanced as it now was, and evidently, by the gaiety of her air,
+with her own consent, that a very painful surmise arose, concerning her
+character. But the thought was so shocking to Emily, whose affection the
+fascinating manners of the Signora had won, and appeared so improbable,
+when she remembered these manners, that she dismissed it almost
+instantly.
+
+On Annette's appearance, however, she enquired, concerning these
+strangers; and the former was as eager to tell, as Emily was to learn.
+
+'They are just come, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'with two Signors from
+Venice, and I was glad to see such Christian faces once again.--But
+what can they mean by coming here? They must surely be stark mad to come
+freely to such a place as this! Yet they do come freely, for they seem
+merry enough, I am sure.'
+
+'They were taken prisoners, perhaps?' said Emily.
+
+'Taken prisoners!' exclaimed Annette; 'no, indeed, ma'amselle, not they.
+I remember one of them very well at Venice: she came two or three times,
+to the Signor's you know, ma'amselle, and it was said, but I did not
+believe a word of it--it was said, that the Signor liked her better than
+he should do. Then why, says I, bring her to my lady? Very true, said
+Ludovico; but he looked as if he knew more, too.'
+
+Emily desired Annette would endeavour to learn who these ladies were, as
+well as all she could concerning them; and she then changed the subject,
+and spoke of distant France.
+
+'Ah, ma'amselle! we shall never see it more!' said Annette, almost
+weeping.--'I must come on my travels, forsooth!'
+
+Emily tried to sooth and to cheer her, with a hope, in which she
+scarcely herself indulged.
+
+'How--how, ma'amselle, could you leave France, and leave Mons.
+Valancourt, too?' said Annette, sobbing. 'I--I--am sure, if Ludovico had
+been in France, I would never have left it.'
+
+'Why do you lament quitting France, then?' said Emily, trying to smile,
+'since, if you had remained there, you would not have found Ludovico.'
+
+'Ah, ma'amselle! I only wish I was out of this frightful castle, serving
+you in France, and I would care about nothing else!'
+
+'Thank you, my good Annette, for your affectionate regard; the time will
+come, I hope, when you may remember the expression of that wish with
+pleasure.'
+
+Annette departed on her business, and Emily sought to lose the sense of
+her own cares, in the visionary scenes of the poet; but she had again to
+lament the irresistible force of circumstances over the taste and powers
+of the mind; and that it requires a spirit at ease to be sensible even
+to the abstract pleasures of pure intellect. The enthusiasm of genius,
+with all its pictured scenes, now appeared cold, and dim. As she mused
+upon the book before her, she involuntarily exclaimed, 'Are these,
+indeed, the passages, that have so often given me exquisite delight?
+Where did the charm exist?--Was it in my mind, or in the imagination
+of the poet? It lived in each,' said she, pausing. 'But the fire of the
+poet is vain, if the mind of his reader is not tempered like his own,
+however it may be inferior to his in power.'
+
+Emily would have pursued this train of thinking, because it relieved her
+from more painful reflection, but she found again, that thought cannot
+always be controlled by will; and hers returned to the consideration of
+her own situation.
+
+In the evening, not choosing to venture down to the ramparts, where she
+would be exposed to the rude gaze of Montoni's associates, she walked
+for air in the gallery, adjoining her chamber; on reaching the further
+end of which she heard distant sounds of merriment and laughter. It was
+the wild uproar of riot, not the cheering gaiety of tempered mirth; and
+seemed to come from that part of the castle, where Montoni usually was.
+Such sounds, at this time, when her aunt had been so few days dead,
+particularly shocked her, consistent as they were with the late conduct
+of Montoni.
+
+As she listened, she thought she distinguished female voices mingling
+with the laughter, and this confirmed her worst surmise, concerning the
+character of Signora Livona and her companions. It was evident, that
+they had not been brought hither by compulsion; and she beheld herself
+in the remote wilds of the Apennine, surrounded by men, whom she
+considered to be little less than ruffians, and their worst associates,
+amid scenes of vice, from which her soul recoiled in horror. It was at
+this moment, when the scenes of the present and the future opened to her
+imagination, that the image of Valancourt failed in its influence, and
+her resolution shook with dread. She thought she understood all the
+horrors, which Montoni was preparing for her, and shrunk from an
+encounter with such remorseless vengeance, as he could inflict. The
+disputed estates she now almost determined to yield at once, whenever
+he should again call upon her, that she might regain safety and freedom;
+but then, the remembrance of Valancourt would steal to her heart, and
+plunge her into the distractions of doubt.
+
+She continued walking in the gallery, till evening threw its melancholy
+twilight through the painted casements, and deepened the gloom of
+the oak wainscoting around her; while the distant perspective of
+the corridor was so much obscured, as to be discernible only by the
+glimmering window, that terminated it.
+
+Along the vaulted halls and passages below, peals of laughter echoed
+faintly, at intervals, to this remote part of the castle, and seemed to
+render the succeeding stillness more dreary. Emily, however, unwilling
+to return to her more forlorn chamber, whither Annette was not yet come,
+still paced the gallery. As she passed the door of the apartment, where
+she had once dared to lift the veil, which discovered to her a spectacle
+so horrible, that she had never after remembered it, but with emotions
+of indescribable awe, this remembrance suddenly recurred. It now brought
+with it reflections more terrible, than it had yet done, which the late
+conduct of Montoni occasioned; and, hastening to quit the gallery, while
+she had power to do so, she heard a sudden step behind her.--It might
+be that of Annette; but, turning fearfully to look, she saw, through the
+gloom, a tall figure following her, and all the horrors of that chamber
+rushed upon her mind. In the next moment, she found herself clasped in
+the arms of some person, and heard a deep voice murmur in her ear.
+
+When she had power to speak, or to distinguish articulated sounds, she
+demanded who detained her.
+
+'It is I,' replied the voice--'Why are you thus alarmed?'
+
+She looked on the face of the person who spoke, but the feeble light,
+that gleamed through the high casement at the end of the gallery, did
+not permit her to distinguish the features.
+
+'Whoever you are,' said Emily, in a trembling voice, 'for heaven's sake
+let me go!'
+
+'My charming Emily,' said the man, 'why will you shut yourself up in
+this obscure place, when there is so much gaiety below? Return with
+me to the cedar parlour, where you will be the fairest ornament of the
+party;--you shall not repent the exchange.'
+
+Emily disdained to reply, and still endeavoured to liberate herself.
+
+'Promise, that you will come,' he continued, 'and I will release you
+immediately; but first give me a reward for so doing.'
+
+'Who are you?' demanded Emily, in a tone of mingled terror and
+indignation, while she still struggled for liberty--'who are you, that
+have the cruelty thus to insult me?'
+
+'Why call me cruel?' said the man, 'I would remove you from this dreary
+solitude to a merry party below. Do you not know me?'
+
+Emily now faintly remembered, that he was one of the officers who were
+with Montoni when she attended him in the morning. 'I thank you for
+the kindness of your intention,' she replied, without appearing to
+understand him, 'but I wish for nothing so much as that you would leave
+me.'
+
+'Charming Emily!' said he, 'give up this foolish whim for solitude, and
+come with me to the company, and eclipse the beauties who make part of
+it; you, only, are worthy of my love.' He attempted to kiss her hand,
+but the strong impulse of her indignation gave her power to liberate
+herself, and she fled towards the chamber. She closed the door, before
+he reached it, having secured which, she sunk in a chair, overcome by
+terror and by the exertion she had made, while she heard his voice,
+and his attempts to open the door, without having the power to raise
+herself. At length, she perceived him depart, and had remained,
+listening, for a considerable time, and was somewhat revived by not
+hearing any sound, when suddenly she remembered the door of the private
+stair-case, and that he might enter that way, since it was fastened only
+on the other side. She then employed herself in endeavouring to secure
+it, in the manner she had formerly done. It appeared to her, that
+Montoni had already commenced his scheme of vengeance, by withdrawing
+from her his protection, and she repented of the rashness, that had made
+her brave the power of such a man. To retain the estates seemed to be
+now utterly impossible, and to preserve her life, perhaps her honour,
+she resolved, if she should escape the horrors of this night, to give up
+all claims to the estates, on the morrow, provided Montoni would suffer
+her to depart from Udolpho.
+
+When she had come to this decision, her mind became more composed,
+though she still anxiously listened, and often started at ideal sounds,
+that appeared to issue from the stair-case.
+
+Having sat in darkness for some hours, during all which time Annette did
+not appear, she began to have serious apprehensions for her; but, not
+daring to venture down into the castle, was compelled to remain in
+uncertainty, as to the cause of this unusual absence.
+
+Emily often stole to the stair-case door, to listen if any step
+approached, but still no sound alarmed her: determining, however, to
+watch, during the night, she once more rested on her dark and desolate
+couch, and bathed the pillow with innocent tears. She thought of her
+deceased parents and then of the absent Valancourt, and frequently
+called upon their names; for the profound stillness, that now reigned,
+was propitious to the musing sorrow of her mind.
+
+While she thus remained, her ear suddenly caught the notes of distant
+music, to which she listened attentively, and, soon perceiving this
+to be the instrument she had formerly heard at midnight, she rose, and
+stepped softly to the casement, to which the sounds appeared to come
+from a lower room.
+
+In a few moments, their soft melody was accompanied by a voice so full
+of pathos, that it evidently sang not of imaginary sorrows. Its sweet
+and peculiar tones she thought she had somewhere heard before; yet, if
+this was not fancy, it was, at most, a very faint recollection. It
+stole over her mind, amidst the anguish of her present suffering, like a
+celestial strain, soothing, and re-assuring her;--'Pleasant as the gale
+of spring, that sighs on the hunter's ear, when he awakens from dreams
+of joy, and has heard the music of the spirits of the hill.'*
+
+(*Ossian. [A. R.])
+
+
+But her emotion can scarcely be imagined, when she heard sung, with the
+taste and simplicity of true feeling, one of the popular airs of her
+native province, to which she had so often listened with delight, when
+a child, and which she had so often heard her father repeat! To this
+well-known song, never, till now, heard but in her native country, her
+heart melted, while the memory of past times returned. The pleasant,
+peaceful scenes of Gascony, the tenderness and goodness of her parents,
+the taste and simplicity of her former life--all rose to her fancy, and
+formed a picture, so sweet and glowing, so strikingly contrasted
+with the scenes, the characters and the dangers, which now surrounded
+her--that her mind could not bear to pause upon the retrospect, and
+shrunk at the acuteness of its own sufferings.
+
+Her sighs were deep and convulsed; she could no longer listen to the
+strain, that had so often charmed her to tranquillity, and she withdrew
+from the casement to a remote part of the chamber. But she was not yet
+beyond the reach of the music; she heard the measure change, and the
+succeeding air called her again to the window, for she immediately
+recollected it to be the same she had formerly heard in the
+fishing-house in Gascony. Assisted, perhaps, by the mystery, which had
+then accompanied this strain, it had made so deep an impression on her
+memory, that she had never since entirely forgotten it; and the manner,
+in which it was now sung, convinced her, however unaccountable the
+circumstances appeared, that this was the same voice she had then
+heard. Surprise soon yielded to other emotions; a thought darted,
+like lightning, upon her mind, which discovered a train of hopes, that
+revived all her spirits. Yet these hopes were so new, so unexpected,
+so astonishing, that she did not dare to trust, though she could not
+resolve to discourage them. She sat down by the casement, breathless,
+and overcome with the alternate emotions of hope and fear; then rose
+again, leaned from the window, that she might catch a nearer sound,
+listened, now doubting and then believing, softly exclaimed the name of
+Valancourt, and then sunk again into the chair. Yes, it was possible,
+that Valancourt was near her, and she recollected circumstances,
+which induced her to believe it was his voice she had just heard. She
+remembered he had more than once said that the fishing-house, where
+she had formerly listened to this voice and air, and where she had seen
+pencilled sonnets, addressed to herself, had been his favourite haunt,
+before he had been made known to her; there, too, she had herself
+unexpectedly met him. It appeared, from these circumstances, more
+than probable, that he was the musician, who had formerly charmed her
+attention, and the author of the lines, which had expressed such tender
+admiration;--who else, indeed, could it be? She was unable, at
+that time, to form a conjecture, as to the writer, but, since
+her acquaintance with Valancourt, whenever he had mentioned the
+fishing-house to have been known to him, she had not scrupled to believe
+that he was the author of the sonnets.
+
+As these considerations passed over her mind, joy, fear and tenderness
+contended at her heart; she leaned again from the casement to catch the
+sounds, which might confirm, or destroy her hope, though she did
+not recollect to have ever heard him sing; but the voice, and the
+instrument, now ceased.
+
+She considered for a moment whether she should venture to speak: then,
+not choosing, lest it should be he, to mention his name, and yet too
+much interested to neglect the opportunity of enquiring, she called from
+the casement, 'Is that song from Gascony?' Her anxious attention was
+not cheered by any reply; every thing remained silent. Her impatience
+increasing with her fears, she repeated the question; but still no sound
+was heard, except the sighings of the wind among the battlements above;
+and she endeavoured to console herself with a belief, that the stranger,
+whoever he was, had retired, before she had spoken, beyond the reach
+of her voice, which, it appeared certain, had Valancourt heard and
+recognized, he would instantly have replied to. Presently, however, she
+considered, that a motive of prudence, and not an accidental removal,
+might occasion his silence; but the surmise, that led to this
+reflection, suddenly changed her hope and joy to terror and grief; for,
+if Valancourt were in the castle, it was too probable, that he was here
+a prisoner, taken with some of his countrymen, many of whom were at that
+time engaged in the wars of Italy, or intercepted in some attempt to
+reach her. Had he even recollected Emily's voice, he would have feared,
+in these circumstances, to reply to it, in the presence of the men, who
+guarded his prison.
+
+What so lately she had eagerly hoped she now believed she
+dreaded;--dreaded to know, that Valancourt was near her; and, while she
+was anxious to be relieved from her apprehension for his safety, she
+still was unconscious, that a hope of soon seeing him, struggled with
+the fear.
+
+She remained listening at the casement, till the air began to freshen,
+and one high mountain in the east to glimmer with the morning; when,
+wearied with anxiety, she retired to her couch, where she found
+it utterly impossible to sleep, for joy, tenderness, doubt and
+apprehension, distracted her during the whole night. Now she rose from
+the couch, and opened the casement to listen; then she would pace the
+room with impatient steps, and, at length, return with despondence to
+her pillow. Never did hours appear to move so heavily, as those of this
+anxious night; after which she hoped that Annette might appear, and
+conclude her present state of torturing suspense.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+     might we but hear
+ The folded flocks penn'd in their watled cotes,
+ Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops,
+ Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock
+ Count the night watches to his feathery dames,
+ 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering
+ In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs.
+     MILTON
+
+In the morning, Emily was relieved from her fears for Annette, who came
+at an early hour.
+
+'Here were fine doings in the castle, last night, ma'amselle,' said
+she, as soon as she entered the room,--'fine doings, indeed! Was you not
+frightened, ma'amselle, at not seeing me?'
+
+'I was alarmed both on your account and on my own,' replied Emily--'What
+detained you?'
+
+'Aye, I said so, I told him so; but it would not do. It was not my
+fault, indeed, ma'amselle, for I could not get out. That rogue Ludovico
+locked me up again.'
+
+'Locked you up!' said Emily, with displeasure, 'Why do you permit
+Ludovico to lock you up?'
+
+'Holy Saints!' exclaimed Annette, 'how can I help it! If he will lock
+the door, ma'amselle, and take away the key, how am I to get out, unless
+I jump through the window? But that I should not mind so much, if the
+casements here were not all so high; one can hardly scramble up to them
+on the inside, and one should break one's neck, I suppose, going down
+on the outside. But you know, I dare say, ma'am, what a hurly-burly the
+castle was in, last night; you must have heard some of the uproar.'
+
+'What, were they disputing, then?' said Emily.
+
+'No, ma'amselle, nor fighting, but almost as good, for I believe there
+was not one of the Signors sober; and what is more, not one of those
+fine ladies sober, either. I thought, when I saw them first, that all
+those fine silks and fine veils,--why, ma'amselle, their veils were
+worked with silver! and fine trimmings--boded no good--I guessed what
+they were!'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed Emily, 'what will become of me!'
+
+'Aye, ma'am, Ludovico said much the same thing of me. Good God! said he,
+Annette, what is to become of you, if you are to go running about the
+castle among all these drunken Signors?'
+
+'O! says I, for that matter, I only want to go to my young lady's
+chamber, and I have only to go, you know, along the vaulted passage and
+across the great hall and up the marble stair-case and along the north
+gallery and through the west wing of the castle and I am in the corridor
+in a minute.' 'Are you so? says he, and what is to become of you, if
+you meet any of those noble cavaliers in the way?' 'Well, says I, if you
+think there is danger, then, go with me, and guard me; I am never afraid
+when you are by.' 'What! says he, when I am scarcely recovered of one
+wound, shall I put myself in the way of getting another? for if any of
+the cavaliers meet you, they will fall a-fighting with me directly.
+No, no, says he, I will cut the way shorter, than through the vaulted
+passage and up the marble stair-case, and along the north gallery and
+through the west wing of the castle, for you shall stay here, Annette;
+you shall not go out of this room, to-night.' 'So, with that I says'--
+
+'Well, well,' said Emily, impatiently, and anxious to enquire on another
+subject,--'so he locked you up?'
+
+'Yes, he did indeed, ma'amselle, notwithstanding all I could say to the
+contrary; and Caterina and I and he staid there all night. And in a few
+minutes after I was not so vexed, for there came Signor Verezzi roaring
+along the passage, like a mad bull, and he mistook Ludovico's hall, for
+old Carlo's; so he tried to burst open the door, and called out for more
+wine, for that he had drunk all the flasks dry, and was dying of thirst.
+So we were all as still as night, that he might suppose there was nobody
+in the room; but the Signor was as cunning as the best of us, and kept
+calling out at the door, "Come forth, my antient hero!" said he, "here
+is no enemy at the gate, that you need hide yourself: come forth, my
+valorous Signor Steward!" Just then old Carlo opened his door, and he
+came with a flask in his hand; for, as soon as the Signor saw him, he
+was as tame as could be, and followed him away as naturally as a dog
+does a butcher with a piece of meat in his basket. All this I saw
+through the key-hole. Well, Annette, said Ludovico, jeeringly, shall I
+let you out now? O no, says I, I would not'--
+
+'I have some questions to ask you on another subject,' interrupted
+Emily, quite wearied by this story. 'Do you know whether there are any
+prisoners in the castle, and whether they are confined at this end of
+the edifice?'
+
+'I was not in the way, ma'amselle,' replied Annette, 'when the first
+party came in from the mountains, and the last party is not come
+back yet, so I don't know, whether there are any prisoners; but it is
+expected back to-night, or to-morrow, and I shall know then, perhaps.'
+
+Emily enquired if she had ever heard the servants talk of prisoners.
+
+'Ah ma'amselle!' said Annette archly, 'now I dare say you are thinking
+of Monsieur Valancourt, and that he may have come among the armies,
+which, they say, are come from our country, to fight against this state,
+and that he has met with some of OUR people, and is taken captive. O
+Lord! how glad I should be, if it was so!'
+
+'Would you, indeed, be glad?' said Emily, in a tone of mournful
+reproach.
+
+'To be sure I should, ma'am,' replied Annette, 'and would not you be
+glad too, to see Signor Valancourt? I don't know any chevalier I like
+better, I have a very great regard for the Signor, truly.'
+
+'Your regard for him cannot be doubted,' said Emily, 'since you wish to
+see him a prisoner.'
+
+'Why no, ma'amselle, not a prisoner either; but one must be glad to see
+him, you know. And it was only the other night I dreamt--I dreamt I saw
+him drive into the castle-yard all in a coach and six, and dressed out,
+with a laced coat and a sword, like a lord as he is.'
+
+Emily could not forbear smiling at Annette's ideas of Valancourt,
+and repeated her enquiry, whether she had heard the servants talk of
+prisoners.
+
+'No, ma'amselle,' replied she, 'never; and lately they have done nothing
+but talk of the apparition, that has been walking about of a night on
+the ramparts, and that frightened the sentinels into fits. It came among
+them like a flash of fire, they say, and they all fell down in a row,
+till they came to themselves again; and then it was gone, and nothing to
+be seen but the old castle walls; so they helped one another up again as
+fast as they could. You would not believe, ma'amselle, though I shewed
+you the very cannon, where it used to appear.'
+
+'And are you, indeed, so simple, Annette,' said Emily, smiling at this
+curious exaggeration of the circumstances she had witnessed, 'as to
+credit these stories?'
+
+'Credit them, ma'amselle! why all the world could not persuade me out
+of them. Roberto and Sebastian and half a dozen more of them went into
+fits! To be sure, there was no occasion for that; I said, myself, there
+was no need of that, for, says I, when the enemy comes, what a pretty
+figure they will cut, if they are to fall down in fits, all of a row!
+The enemy won't be so civil, perhaps, as to walk off, like the ghost,
+and leave them to help one another up, but will fall to, cutting and
+slashing, till he makes them all rise up dead men. No, no, says I, there
+is reason in all things: though I might have fallen down in a fit that
+was no rule for them, being, because it is no business of mine to look
+gruff, and fight battles.'
+
+Emily endeavoured to correct the superstitious weakness of Annette,
+though she could not entirely subdue her own; to which the latter only
+replied, 'Nay, ma'amselle, you will believe nothing; you are almost as
+bad as the Signor himself, who was in a great passion when they told
+of what had happened, and swore that the first man, who repeated such
+nonsense, should be thrown into the dungeon under the east turret. This
+was a hard punishment too, for only talking nonsense, as he called it,
+but I dare say he had other reasons for calling it so, than you have,
+ma'am.'
+
+Emily looked displeased, and made no reply. As she mused upon the
+recollected appearance, which had lately so much alarmed her, and
+considered the circumstances of the figure having stationed itself
+opposite to her casement, she was for a moment inclined to believe it
+was Valancourt, whom she had seen. Yet, if it was he, why did he not
+speak to her, when he had the opportunity of doing so--and, if he was a
+prisoner in the castle, and he could be here in no other character, how
+could he obtain the means of walking abroad on the rampart? Thus she
+was utterly unable to decide, whether the musician and the form she had
+observed, were the same, or, if they were, whether this was Valancourt.
+She, however, desired that Annette would endeavour to learn whether any
+prisoners were in the castle, and also their names.
+
+'O dear, ma'amselle!' said Annette, 'I forget to tell you what you bade
+me ask about, the ladies, as they call themselves, who are lately come
+to Udolpho. Why that Signora Livona, that the Signor brought to see my
+late lady at Venice, is his mistress now, and was little better then,
+I dare say. And Ludovico says (but pray be secret, ma'am) that his
+excellenza introduced her only to impose upon the world, that had begun
+to make free with her character. So when people saw my lady notice her,
+they thought what they had heard must be scandal. The other two are the
+mistresses of Signor Verezzi and Signor Bertolini; and Signor Montoni
+invited them all to the castle; and so, yesterday, he gave a great
+entertainment; and there they were, all drinking Tuscany wine and all
+sorts, and laughing and singing, till they made the castle ring again.
+But I thought they were dismal sounds, so soon after my poor lady's
+death too; and they brought to my mind what she would have thought, if
+she had heard them--but she cannot hear them now, poor soul! said I.'
+
+Emily turned away to conceal her emotion, and then desired Annette to
+go, and make enquiry, concerning the prisoners, that might be in the
+castle, but conjured her to do it with caution, and on no account to
+mention her name, or that of Monsieur Valancourt.
+
+'Now I think of it, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'I do believe there are
+prisoners, for I overheard one of the Signor's men, yesterday, in the
+servants hall, talking something about ransoms, and saying what a fine
+thing it was for his excellenza to catch up men, and they were as
+good booty as any other, because of the ransoms. And the other man was
+grumbling, and saying it was fine enough for the Signor, but none so
+fine for his soldiers, because, said he, we don't go shares there.'
+
+This information heightened Emily's impatience to know more, and Annette
+immediately departed on her enquiry.
+
+The late resolution of Emily to resign her estates to Montoni, now gave
+way to new considerations; the possibility, that Valancourt was near
+her, revived her fortitude, and she determined to brave the threatened
+vengeance, at least, till she could be assured whether he was really in
+the castle. She was in this temper of mind, when she received a message
+from Montoni, requiring her attendance in the cedar parlour, which she
+obeyed with trembling, and, on her way thither, endeavoured to animate
+her fortitude with the idea of Valancourt.
+
+Montoni was alone. 'I sent for you,' said he, 'to give you another
+opportunity of retracting your late mistaken assertions concerning the
+Languedoc estates. I will condescend to advise, where I may command.--If
+you are really deluded by an opinion, that you have any right to these
+estates, at least, do not persist in the error--an error, which you
+may perceive, too late, has been fatal to you. Dare my resentment no
+further, but sign the papers.'
+
+'If I have no right in these estates, sir,' said Emily, 'of what service
+can it be to you, that I should sign any papers, concerning them? If
+the lands are yours by law, you certainly may possess them, without my
+interference, or my consent.'
+
+'I will have no more argument,' said Montoni, with a look that made
+her tremble. 'What had I but trouble to expect, when I condescended
+to reason with a baby! But I will be trifled with no longer: let the
+recollection of your aunt's sufferings, in consequence of her folly and
+obstinacy, teach you a lesson.--Sign the papers.'
+
+Emily's resolution was for a moment awed:--she shrunk at the
+recollections he revived, and from the vengeance he threatened; but
+then, the image of Valancourt, who so long had loved her, and who was
+now, perhaps, so near her, came to her heart, and, together with the
+strong feelings of indignation, with which she had always, from her
+infancy, regarded an act of injustice, inspired her with a noble, though
+imprudent, courage.
+
+'Sign the papers,' said Montoni, more impatiently than before.
+
+'Never, sir,' replied Emily; 'that request would have proved to me the
+injustice of your claim, had I even been ignorant of my right.'
+
+Montoni turned pale with anger, while his quivering lip and lurking eye
+made her almost repent the boldness of her speech.
+
+'Then all my vengeance falls upon you,' he exclaimed, with an horrible
+oath. 'And think not it shall be delayed. Neither the estates in
+Languedoc, or Gascony, shall be yours; you have dared to question my
+right,--now dare to question my power. I have a punishment which you
+think not of; it is terrible! This night--this very night'--
+
+'This night!' repeated another voice.
+
+Montoni paused, and turned half round, but, seeming to recollect
+himself, he proceeded in a lower tone.
+
+'You have lately seen one terrible example of obstinacy and folly; yet
+this, it appears, has not been sufficient to deter you.--I could tell
+you of others--I could make you tremble at the bare recital.'
+
+He was interrupted by a groan, which seemed to rise from underneath the
+chamber they were in; and, as he threw a glance round it, impatience and
+rage flashed from his eyes, yet something like a shade of fear passed
+over his countenance. Emily sat down in a chair, near the door, for the
+various emotions she had suffered, now almost overcame her; but Montoni
+paused scarcely an instant, and, commanding his features, resumed his
+discourse in a lower, yet sterner voice.
+
+'I say, I could give you other instances of my power and of my
+character, which it seems you do not understand, or you would not defy
+me.--I could tell you, that, when once my resolution is taken--but I
+am talking to a baby. Let me, however, repeat, that terrible as are the
+examples I could recite, the recital could not now benefit you; for,
+though your repentance would put an immediate end to opposition, it
+would not now appease my indignation.--I will have vengeance as well as
+justice.'
+
+Another groan filled the pause which Montoni made.
+
+'Leave the room instantly!' said he, seeming not to notice this strange
+occurrence. Without power to implore his pity, she rose to go, but found
+that she could not support herself; awe and terror overcame her, and she
+sunk again into the chair.
+
+'Quit my presence!' cried Montoni. 'This affectation of fear ill becomes
+the heroine who has just dared to brave my indignation.'
+
+'Did you hear nothing, Signor?' said Emily, trembling, and still unable
+to leave the room.
+
+'I heard my own voice,' rejoined Montoni, sternly.
+
+'And nothing else?' said Emily, speaking with difficulty.--'There again!
+Do you hear nothing now?'
+
+'Obey my order,' repeated Montoni. 'And for these fool's tricks--I will
+soon discover by whom they are practised.'
+
+Emily again rose, and exerted herself to the utmost to leave the
+room, while Montoni followed her; but, instead of calling aloud to his
+servants to search the chamber, as he had formerly done on a similar
+occurrence, passed to the ramparts.
+
+As, in her way to the corridor, she rested for a moment at an open
+casement, Emily saw a party of Montoni's troops winding down a distant
+mountain, whom she noticed no further, than as they brought to her mind
+the wretched prisoners they were, perhaps, bringing to the castle. At
+length, having reached her apartment, she threw herself upon the couch,
+overcome with the new horrors of her situation. Her thoughts lost in
+tumult and perplexity, she could neither repent of, or approve, her late
+conduct; she could only remember, that she was in the power of a man,
+who had no principle of action--but his will; and the astonishment and
+terrors of superstition, which had, for a moment, so strongly assailed
+her, now yielded to those of reason.
+
+She was, at length, roused from the reverie, which engaged her, by a
+confusion of distant voices, and a clattering of hoofs, that seemed to
+come, on the wind, from the courts. A sudden hope, that some good was
+approaching, seized her mind, till she remembered the troops she had
+observed from the casement, and concluded this to be the party, which
+Annette had said were expected at Udolpho.
+
+Soon after, she heard voices faintly from the halls, and the noise
+of horses' feet sunk away in the wind; silence ensued. Emily listened
+anxiously for Annette's step in the corridor, but a pause of total
+stillness continued, till again the castle seemed to be all tumult and
+confusion. She heard the echoes of many footsteps, passing to and fro
+in the halls and avenues below, and then busy tongues were loud on the
+rampart. Having hurried to her casement, she perceived Montoni, with
+some of his officers, leaning on the walls, and pointing from them;
+while several soldiers were employed at the further end of the rampart
+about some cannon; and she continued to observe them, careless of the
+passing time.
+
+Annette at length appeared, but brought no intelligence of Valancourt,
+'For, ma'amselle,' said she, 'all the people pretend to know nothing
+about any prisoners. But here is a fine piece of business! The rest of
+the party are just arrived, ma'am; they came scampering in, as if they
+would have broken their necks; one scarcely knew whether the man, or his
+horse would get within the gates first. And they have brought word--and
+such news! they have brought word, that a party of the enemy, as they
+call them, are coming towards the castle; so we shall have all the
+officers of justice, I suppose, besieging it! all those terrible-looking
+fellows one used to see at Venice.'
+
+'Thank God!' exclaimed Emily, fervently, 'there is yet a hope left for
+me, then!'
+
+'What mean you, ma'amselle? Do you wish to fall into the hands of those
+sad-looking men! Why I used to shudder as I passed them, and should have
+guessed what they were, if Ludovico had not told me.'
+
+'We cannot be in worse hands than at present,' replied Emily,
+unguardedly; 'but what reason have you to suppose these are officers of
+justice?'
+
+'Why OUR people, ma'am, are all in such a fright, and a fuss; and I
+don't know any thing but the fear of justice, that could make them so.
+I used to think nothing on earth could fluster them, unless, indeed,
+it was a ghost, or so; but now, some of them are for hiding down in
+the vaults under the castle; but you must not tell the Signor this,
+ma'amselle, and I overheard two of them talking--Holy Mother! what makes
+you look so sad, ma'amselle? You don't hear what I say!'
+
+'Yes, I do, Annette; pray proceed.'
+
+'Well, ma'amselle, all the castle is in such hurly-burly. Some of the
+men are loading the cannon, and some are examining the great gates, and
+the walls all round, and are hammering and patching up, just as if all
+those repairs had never been made, that were so long about. But what is
+to become of me and you, ma'amselle, and Ludovico? O! when I hear the
+sound of the cannon, I shall die with fright. If I could but catch the
+great gate open for one minute, I would be even with it for shutting me
+within these walls so long!--it should never see me again.'
+
+Emily caught the latter words of Annette. 'O! if you could find it open,
+but for one moment!' she exclaimed, 'my peace might yet be saved!'
+The heavy groan she uttered, and the wildness of her look, terrified
+Annette, still more than her words; who entreated Emily to explain the
+meaning of them, to whom it suddenly occurred, that Ludovico might be
+of some service, if there should be a possibility of escape, and who
+repeated the substance of what had passed between Montoni and herself,
+but conjured her to mention this to no person except to Ludovico. 'It
+may, perhaps, be in his power,' she added, 'to effect our escape. Go to
+him, Annette, tell him what I have to apprehend, and what I have
+already suffered; but entreat him to be secret, and to lose no time in
+attempting to release us. If he is willing to undertake this he shall
+be amply rewarded. I cannot speak with him myself, for we might be
+observed, and then effectual care would be taken to prevent our flight.
+But be quick, Annette, and, above all, be discreet--I will await your
+return in this apartment.'
+
+The girl, whose honest heart had been much affected by the recital, was
+now as eager to obey, as Emily was to employ her, and she immediately
+quitted the room.
+
+Emily's surprise increased, as she reflected upon Annette's
+intelligence. 'Alas!' said she, 'what can the officers of justice
+do against an armed castle? these cannot be such.' Upon further
+consideration, however, she concluded, that, Montoni's bands having
+plundered the country round, the inhabitants had taken arms, and were
+coming with the officers of police and a party of soldiers, to force
+their way into the castle. 'But they know not,' thought she, 'its
+strength, or the armed numbers within it. Alas! except from flight, I
+have nothing to hope!'
+
+Montoni, though not precisely what Emily apprehended him to be--a
+captain of banditti--had employed his troops in enterprises not less
+daring, or less atrocious, than such a character would have undertaken.
+They had not only pillaged, whenever opportunity offered, the helpless
+traveller, but had attacked, and plundered the villas of several
+persons, which, being situated among the solitary recesses of the
+mountains, were totally unprepared for resistance. In these expeditions
+the commanders of the party did not appear, and the men, partly
+disguised, had sometimes been mistaken for common robbers, and, at
+others, for bands of the foreign enemy, who, at that period, invaded
+the country. But, though they had already pillaged several mansions, and
+brought home considerable treasures, they had ventured to approach only
+one castle, in the attack of which they were assisted by other troops of
+their own order; from this, however, they were vigorously repulsed,
+and pursued by some of the foreign enemy, who were in league with the
+besieged. Montoni's troops fled precipitately towards Udolpho, but were
+so closely tracked over the mountains, that, when they reached one of
+the heights in the neighbourhood of the castle, and looked back upon the
+road, they perceived the enemy winding among the cliffs below, and
+at not more than a league distant. Upon this discovery, they hastened
+forward with increased speed, to prepare Montoni for the enemy; and it
+was their arrival, which had thrown the castle into such confusion and
+tumult.
+
+As Emily awaited anxiously some information from below, she now saw from
+her casements a body of troops pour over the neighbouring heights; and,
+though Annette had been gone a very short time, and had a difficult and
+dangerous business to accomplish, her impatience for intelligence became
+painful: she listened; opened her door; and often went out upon the
+corridor to meet her.
+
+At length, she heard a footstep approach her chamber; and, on opening
+the door, saw, not Annette, but old Carlo! New fears rushed upon her
+mind. He said he came from the Signor, who had ordered him to inform
+her, that she must be ready to depart from Udolpho immediately, for that
+the castle was about to be besieged; and that mules were preparing to
+convey her, with her guides, to a place of safety.
+
+'Of safety!' exclaimed Emily, thoughtlessly; 'has, then, the Signor so
+much consideration for me?'
+
+Carlo looked upon the ground, and made no reply. A thousand opposite
+emotions agitated Emily, successively, as she listened to old Carlo;
+those of joy, grief, distrust and apprehension, appeared, and vanished
+from her mind, with the quickness of lightning. One moment, it seemed
+impossible, that Montoni could take this measure merely for her
+preservation; and so very strange was his sending her from the castle
+at all, that she could attribute it only to the design of carrying into
+execution the new scheme of vengeance, with which he had menaced her. In
+the next instant, it appeared so desirable to quit the castle, under any
+circumstances, that she could not but rejoice in the prospect, believing
+that change must be for the better, till she remembered the probability
+of Valancourt being detained in it, when sorrow and regret usurped her
+mind, and she wished, much more fervently than she had yet done, that it
+might not be his voice which she had heard.
+
+Carlo having reminded her, that she had no time to lose, for that the
+enemy were within sight of the castle, Emily entreated him to inform
+her whither she was to go; and, after some hesitation, he said he had
+received no orders to tell; but, on her repeating the question, replied,
+that he believed she was to be carried into Tuscany.'
+
+'To Tuscany!' exclaimed Emily--'and why thither?'
+
+Carlo answered, that he knew nothing further, than that she was to
+be lodged in a cottage on the borders of Tuscany, at the feet of the
+Apennines--'Not a day's journey distant,' said he.
+
+Emily now dismissed him; and, with trembling hands, prepared the small
+package, that she meant to take with her; while she was employed about
+which Annette returned.
+
+'O ma'amselle!' said she, 'nothing can be done! Ludovico says the new
+porter is more watchful even than Barnardine was, and we might as well
+throw ourselves in the way of a dragon, as in his. Ludovico is almost as
+broken-hearted as you are, ma'am, on my account, he says, and I am sure
+I shall never live to hear the cannon fire twice!'
+
+She now began to weep, but revived upon hearing of what had just
+occurred, and entreated Emily to take her with her.
+
+'That I will do most willingly,' replied Emily, 'if Signor Montoni
+permits it;' to which Annette made no reply, but ran out of the room,
+and immediately sought Montoni, who was on the terrace, surrounded by
+his officers, where she began her petition. He sharply bade her go into
+the castle, and absolutely refused her request. Annette, however, not
+only pleaded for herself, but for Ludovico; and Montoni had ordered some
+of his men to take her from his presence, before she would retire.
+
+In an agony of disappointment, she returned to Emily, who foreboded
+little good towards herself, from this refusal to Annette, and who, soon
+after, received a summons to repair to the great court, where the mules,
+with her guides, were in waiting. Emily here tried in vain to sooth the
+weeping Annette, who persisted in saying, that she should never see her
+dear young lady again; a fear, which her mistress secretly thought
+too well justified, but which she endeavoured to restrain, while,
+with apparent composure, she bade this affectionate servant farewell.
+Annette, however, followed to the courts, which were now thronged with
+people, busy in preparation for the enemy; and, having seen her mount
+her mule and depart, with her attendants, through the portal, turned
+into the castle and wept again.
+
+Emily, meanwhile, as she looked back upon the gloomy courts of the
+castle, no longer silent as when she had first entered them, but
+resounding with the noise of preparation for their defence, as well as
+crowded with soldiers and workmen, hurrying to and fro; and, when she
+passed once more under the huge portcullis, which had formerly struck
+her with terror and dismay, and, looking round, saw no walls to confine
+her steps--felt, in spite of anticipation, the sudden joy of a prisoner,
+who unexpectedly finds himself at liberty. This emotion would not suffer
+her now to look impartially on the dangers that awaited her without; on
+mountains infested by hostile parties, who seized every opportunity for
+plunder; and on a journey commended under the guidance of men, whose
+countenances certainly did not speak favourably of their dispositions.
+In the present moments, she could only rejoice, that she was liberated
+from those walls, which she had entered with such dismal forebodings;
+and, remembering the superstitious presentiment, which had then seized
+her, she could now smile at the impression it had made upon her mind.
+
+As she gazed, with these emotions, upon the turrets of the castle,
+rising high over the woods, among which she wound, the stranger, whom
+she believed to be confined there, returned to her remembrance, and
+anxiety and apprehension, lest he should be Valancourt, again passed
+like a cloud upon her joy. She recollected every circumstance,
+concerning this unknown person, since the night, when she had first
+heard him play the song of her native province;--circumstances, which
+she had so often recollected, and compared before, without extracting
+from them any thing like conviction, and which still only prompted her
+to believe, that Valancourt was a prisoner at Udolpho. It was possible,
+however, that the men, who were her conductors, might afford her
+information, on this subject; but, fearing to question them immediately,
+lest they should be unwilling to discover any circumstance to her in the
+presence of each other, she watched for an opportunity of speaking with
+them separately.
+
+Soon after, a trumpet echoed faintly from a distance; the guides
+stopped, and looked toward the quarter whence it came, but the thick
+woods, which surrounded them, excluding all view of the country beyond,
+one of the men rode on to the point of an eminence, that afforded a
+more extensive prospect, to observe how near the enemy, whose trumpet he
+guessed this to be, were advanced; the other, meanwhile, remained with
+Emily, and to him she put some questions, concerning the stranger at
+Udolpho. Ugo, for this was his name, said, that there were several
+prisoners in the castle, but he neither recollected their persons,
+or the precise time of their arrival, and could therefore give her no
+information. There was a surliness in his manner, as he spoke, that made
+it probable he would not have satisfied her enquiries, even if he could
+have done so.
+
+Having asked him what prisoners had been taken, about the time, as
+nearly as she could remember, when she had first heard the music, 'All
+that week,' said Ugo, 'I was out with a party, upon the mountains, and
+knew nothing of what was doing at the castle. We had enough upon our
+hands, we had warm work of it.'
+
+Bertrand, the other man, being now returned, Emily enquired no further,
+and, when he had related to his companion what he had seen, they
+travelled on in deep silence; while Emily often caught, between the
+opening woods, partial glimpses of the castle above--the west towers,
+whose battlements were now crowded with archers, and the ramparts
+below, where soldiers were seen hurrying along, or busy upon the walls,
+preparing the cannon.
+
+Having emerged from the woods, they wound along the valley in an
+opposite direction to that, from whence the enemy were approaching.
+Emily now had a full view of Udolpho, with its gray walls, towers and
+terraces, high over-topping the precipices and the dark woods, and
+glittering partially with the arms of the condottieri, as the sun's
+rays, streaming through an autumnal cloud, glanced upon a part of
+the edifice, whose remaining features stood in darkened majesty. She
+continued to gaze, through her tears, upon walls that, perhaps, confined
+Valancourt, and which now, as the cloud floated away, were lighted up
+with sudden splendour, and then, as suddenly were shrouded in gloom;
+while the passing gleam fell on the wood-tops below, and heightened the
+first tints of autumn, that had begun to steal upon the foliage. The
+winding mountains, at length, shut Udolpho from her view, and she
+turned, with mournful reluctance, to other objects. The melancholy
+sighing of the wind among the pines, that waved high over the steeps,
+and the distant thunder of a torrent assisted her musings, and conspired
+with the wild scenery around, to diffuse over her mind emotions solemn,
+yet not unpleasing, but which were soon interrupted by the distant roar
+of cannon, echoing among the mountains. The sounds rolled along the
+wind, and were repeated in faint and fainter reverberation, till they
+sunk in sullen murmurs. This was a signal, that the enemy had reached
+the castle, and fear for Valancourt again tormented Emily. She turned
+her anxious eyes towards that part of the country, where the edifice
+stood, but the intervening heights concealed it from her view; still,
+however, she saw the tall head of a mountain, which immediately fronted
+her late chamber, and on this she fixed her gaze, as if it could have
+told her of all that was passing in the scene it overlooked. The guides
+twice reminded her, that she was losing time and that they had far to
+go, before she could turn from this interesting object, and, even when
+she again moved onward, she often sent a look back, till only its blue
+point, brightening in a gleam of sunshine, appeared peeping over other
+mountains.
+
+The sound of the cannon affected Ugo, as the blast of the trumpet
+does the war-horse; it called forth all the fire of his nature; he
+was impatient to be in the midst of the fight, and uttered frequent
+execrations against Montoni for having sent him to a distance. The
+feelings of his comrade seemed to be very opposite, and adapted rather
+to the cruelties, than to the dangers of war.
+
+Emily asked frequent questions, concerning the place of her destination,
+but could only learn, that she was going to a cottage in Tuscany; and,
+whenever she mentioned the subject, she fancied she perceived, in the
+countenances of these men, an expression of malice and cunning, that
+alarmed her.
+
+It was afternoon, when they had left the castle. During several hours,
+they travelled through regions of profound solitude, where no bleat of
+sheep, or bark of watch-dog, broke on silence, and they were now too far
+off to hear even the faint thunder of the cannon. Towards evening, they
+wound down precipices, black with forests of cypress, pine and cedar,
+into a glen so savage and secluded, that, if Solitude ever had local
+habitation, this might have been 'her place of dearest residence.' To
+Emily it appeared a spot exactly suited for the retreat of banditti,
+and, in her imagination, she already saw them lurking under the brow of
+some projecting rock, whence their shadows, lengthened by the setting
+sun, stretched across the road, and warned the traveller of his danger.
+She shuddered at the idea, and, looking at her conductors, to observe
+whether they were armed, thought she saw in them the banditti she
+dreaded!
+
+It was in this glen, that they proposed to alight, 'For,' said Ugo,
+'night will come on presently, and then the wolves will make it
+dangerous to stop.' This was a new subject of alarm to Emily, but
+inferior to what she suffered from the thought of being left in these
+wilds, at midnight, with two such men as her present conductors. Dark
+and dreadful hints of what might be Montoni's purpose in sending her
+hither, came to her mind. She endeavoured to dissuade the men from
+stopping, and enquired, with anxiety, how far they had yet to go.
+
+'Many leagues yet,' replied Bertrand. 'As for you, Signora, you may do
+as you please about eating, but for us, we will make a hearty supper,
+while we can. We shall have need of it, I warrant, before we finish
+our journey. The sun's going down apace; let us alight under that rock,
+yonder.'
+
+His comrade assented, and, turning the mules out of the road, they
+advanced towards a cliff, overhung with cedars, Emily following in
+trembling silence. They lifted her from her mule, and, having seated
+themselves on the grass, at the foot of the rocks, drew some homely
+fare from a wallet, of which Emily tried to eat a little, the better to
+disguise her apprehensions.
+
+The sun was now sunk behind the high mountains in the west, upon which a
+purple haze began to spread, and the gloom of twilight to draw over the
+surrounding objects. To the low and sullen murmur of the breeze, passing
+among the woods, she no longer listened with any degree of pleasure,
+for it conspired with the wildness of the scene and the evening hour, to
+depress her spirits.
+
+Suspense had so much increased her anxiety, as to the prisoner at
+Udolpho, that, finding it impracticable to speak alone with Bertrand, on
+that subject, she renewed her questions in the presence of Ugo; but
+he either was, or pretended to be entirely ignorant, concerning the
+stranger. When he had dismissed the question, he talked with Ugo on some
+subject, which led to the mention of Signor Orsino and of the affair
+that had banished him from Venice; respecting which Emily had ventured
+to ask a few questions. Ugo appeared to be well acquainted with
+the circumstances of that tragical event, and related some minute
+particulars, that both shocked and surprised her; for it appeared
+very extraordinary how such particulars could be known to any, but to
+persons, present when the assassination was committed.
+
+'He was of rank,' said Bertrand, 'or the State would not have troubled
+itself to enquire after his assassins. The Signor has been lucky
+hitherto; this is not the first affair of the kind he has had upon his
+hands; and to be sure, when a gentleman has no other way of getting
+redress--why he must take this.'
+
+'Aye,' said Ugo, 'and why is not this as good as another? This is the
+way to have justice done at once, without more ado. If you go to law,
+you must stay till the judges please, and may lose your cause, at last,
+Why the best way, then, is to make sure of your right, while you can,
+and execute justice yourself.'
+
+'Yes, yes,' rejoined Bertrand, 'if you wait till justice is done
+you--you may stay long enough. Why if I want a friend of mine properly
+served, how am I to get my revenge? Ten to one they will tell me he is
+in the right, and I am in the wrong. Or, if a fellow has got possession
+of property, which I think ought to be mine, why I may wait, till I
+starve, perhaps, before the law will give it me, and then, after all,
+the judge may say--the estate is his. What is to be done then?--Why the
+case is plain enough, I must take it at last.'
+
+Emily's horror at this conversation was heightened by a suspicion, that
+the latter part of it was pointed against herself, and that these men
+had been commissioned by Montoni to execute a similar kind of JUSTICE,
+in his cause.
+
+'But I was speaking of Signor Orsino,' resumed Bertrand, 'he is one of
+those, who love to do justice at once. I remember, about ten years ago,
+the Signor had a quarrel with a cavaliero of Milan. The story was told
+me then, and it is still fresh in my head. They quarrelled about a
+lady, that the Signor liked, and she was perverse enough to prefer the
+gentleman of Milan, and even carried her whim so far as to marry him.
+This provoked the Signor, as well it might, for he had tried to talk
+reason to her a long while, and used to send people to serenade her,
+under her windows, of a night; and used to make verses about her, and
+would swear she was the handsomest lady in Milan--But all would not
+do--nothing would bring her to reason; and, as I said, she went so far
+at last, as to marry this other cavaliero. This made the Signor wrath,
+with a vengeance; he resolved to be even with her though, and he watched
+his opportunity, and did not wait long, for, soon after the marriage,
+they set out for Padua, nothing doubting, I warrant, of what was
+preparing for them. The cavaliero thought, to be sure, he was to be
+called to no account, but was to go off triumphant; but he was soon made
+to know another sort of story.'
+
+'What then, the lady had promised to have Signor Orsino?' said Ugo.
+
+'Promised! No,' replied Bertrand, 'she had not wit enough even to tell
+him she liked him, as I heard, but the contrary, for she used to say,
+from the first, she never meant to have him. And this was what provoked
+the Signor, so, and with good reason, for, who likes to be told that he
+is disagreeable? and this was saying as good. It was enough to tell him
+this; she need not have gone, and married another.'
+
+'What, she married, then, on purpose to plague the Signor?' said Ugo.
+
+'I don't know as for that,' replied Bertrand, 'they said, indeed, that
+she had had a regard for the other gentleman a great while; but that is
+nothing to the purpose, she should not have married him, and then the
+Signor would not have been so much provoked. She might have expected
+what was to follow; it was not to be supposed he would bear her ill
+usage tamely, and she might thank herself for what happened. But, as I
+said, they set out for Padua, she and her husband, and the road lay over
+some barren mountains like these. This suited the Signor's purpose well.
+He watched the time of their departure, and sent his men after them,
+with directions what to do. They kept their distance, till they saw
+their opportunity, and this did not happen, till the second day's
+journey, when, the gentleman having sent his servants forward to
+the next town, may be, to have horses in readiness, the Signor's men
+quickened their pace, and overtook the carriage, in a hollow, between
+two mountains, where the woods prevented the servants from seeing what
+passed, though they were then not far off. When we came up, we fired our
+tromboni, but missed.'
+
+Emily turned pale, at these words, and then hoped she had mistaken them;
+while Bertrand proceeded:
+
+'The gentleman fired again, but he was soon made to alight, and it was
+as he turned to call his people, that he was struck. It was the most
+dexterous feat you ever saw--he was struck in the back with three
+stillettos at once. He fell, and was dispatched in a minute; but the
+lady escaped, for the servants had heard the firing, and came up before
+she could be taken care of. "Bertrand," said the Signor, when his men
+returned'--
+
+'Bertrand!' exclaimed Emily, pale with horror, on whom not a syllable of
+this narrative had been lost.
+
+'Bertrand, did I say?' rejoined the man, with some confusion--'No,
+Giovanni. But I have forgot where I was;--"Bertrand," said the Signor'--
+
+'Bertrand, again!' said Emily, in a faltering voice, 'Why do you repeat
+that name?'
+
+Bertrand swore. 'What signifies it,' he proceeded, 'what the man was
+called--Bertrand, or Giovanni--or Roberto? it's all one for that. You
+have put me out twice with that--question. "Bertrand," or Giovanni--or
+what you will--"Bertrand," said the Signor, "if your comrades had done
+their duty, as well as you, I should not have lost the lady. Go, my
+honest fellow, and be happy with this." He game him a purse of gold--and
+little enough too, considering the service he had done him.'
+
+'Aye, aye,' said Ugo, 'little enough--little enough.'
+
+Emily now breathed with difficulty, and could scarcely support herself.
+When first she saw these men, their appearance and their connection with
+Montoni had been sufficient to impress her with distrust; but now, when
+one of them had betrayed himself to be a murderer, and she saw herself,
+at the approach of night, under his guidance, among wild and solitary
+mountains, and going she scarcely knew whither, the most agonizing
+terror seized her, which was the less supportable from the necessity
+she found herself under of concealing all symptoms of it from her
+companions. Reflecting on the character and the menaces of Montoni,
+it appeared not improbable, that he had delivered her to them, for the
+purpose of having her murdered, and of thus securing to himself, without
+further opposition, or delay, the estates, for which he had so long and
+so desperately contended. Yet, if this was his design, there appeared
+no necessity for sending her to such a distance from the castle; for,
+if any dread of discovery had made him unwilling to perpetrate the
+deed there, a much nearer place might have sufficed for the purpose of
+concealment. These considerations, however, did not immediately occur to
+Emily, with whom so many circumstances conspired to rouse terror, that
+she had no power to oppose it, or to enquire coolly into its grounds;
+and, if she had done so, still there were many appearances which would
+too well have justified her most terrible apprehensions. She did not
+now dare to speak to her conductors, at the sound of whose voices she
+trembled; and when, now and then, she stole a glance at them, their
+countenances, seen imperfectly through the gloom of evening, served to
+confirm her fears.
+
+The sun had now been set some time; heavy clouds, whose lower skirts
+were tinged with sulphureous crimson, lingered in the west, and threw a
+reddish tint upon the pine forests, which sent forth a solemn sound, as
+the breeze rolled over them. The hollow moan struck upon Emily's heart,
+and served to render more gloomy and terrific every object around
+her,--the mountains, shaded in twilight--the gleaming torrent, hoarsely
+roaring--the black forests, and the deep glen, broken into rocky
+recesses, high overshadowed by cypress and sycamore and winding into
+long obscurity. To this glen, Emily, as she sent forth her anxious eye,
+thought there was no end; no hamlet, or even cottage, was seen, and
+still no distant bark of watch dog, or even faint, far-off halloo
+came on the wind. In a tremulous voice, she now ventured to remind the
+guides, that it was growing late, and to ask again how far they had to
+go: but they were too much occupied by their own discourse to attend
+to her question, which she forbore to repeat, lest it should provoke a
+surly answer. Having, however, soon after, finished their supper, the
+men collected the fragments into their wallet, and proceeded along this
+winding glen, in gloomy silence; while Emily again mused upon her own
+situation, and concerning the motives of Montoni for involving her in
+it. That it was for some evil purpose towards herself, she could not
+doubt; and it seemed, that, if he did not intend to destroy her, with a
+view of immediately seizing her estates, he meant to reserve her a
+while in concealment, for some more terrible design, for one that might
+equally gratify his avarice and still more his deep revenge. At this
+moment, remembering Signor Brochio and his behaviour in the corridor,
+a few preceding nights, the latter supposition, horrible as it was,
+strengthened in her belief. Yet, why remove her from the castle,
+where deeds of darkness had, she feared, been often executed with
+secrecy?--from chambers, perhaps
+
+  With many a foul, and midnight murder stain'd.
+
+The dread of what she might be going to encounter was now so excessive,
+that it sometimes threatened her senses; and, often as she went, she
+thought of her late father and of all he would have suffered, could he
+have foreseen the strange and dreadful events of her future life;
+and how anxiously he would have avoided that fatal confidence, which
+committed his daughter to the care of a woman so weak as was Madame
+Montoni. So romantic and improbable, indeed, did her present situation
+appear to Emily herself, particularly when she compared it with the
+repose and beauty of her early days, that there were moments, when she
+could almost have believed herself the victim of frightful visions,
+glaring upon a disordered fancy.
+
+Restrained by the presence of her guides from expressing her terrors,
+their acuteness was, at length, lost in gloomy despair. The dreadful
+view of what might await her hereafter rendered her almost indifferent
+to the surrounding dangers. She now looked, with little emotion, on the
+wild dingles, and the gloomy road and mountains, whose outlines were
+only distinguishable through the dusk;--objects, which but lately had
+affected her spirits so much, as to awaken horrid views of the future,
+and to tinge these with their own gloom.
+
+It was now so nearly dark, that the travellers, who proceeded only by
+the slowest pace, could scarcely discern their way. The clouds, which
+seemed charged with thunder, passed slowly along the heavens, shewing,
+at intervals, the trembling stars; while the groves of cypress and
+sycamore, that overhung the rocks, waved high in the breeze, as it swept
+over the glen, and then rushed among the distant woods. Emily shivered
+as it passed.
+
+'Where is the torch?' said Ugo, 'It grows dark.'
+
+'Not so dark yet,' replied Bertrand, 'but we may find our way, and 'tis
+best not light the torch, before we can help, for it may betray us, if
+any straggling party of the enemy is abroad.'
+
+Ugo muttered something, which Emily did not understand, and they
+proceeded in darkness, while she almost wished, that the enemy might
+discover them; for from change there was something to hope, since she
+could scarcely imagine any situation more dreadful than her present one.
+
+As they moved slowly along, her attention was surprised by a thin
+tapering flame, that appeared, by fits, at the point of the pike, which
+Bertrand carried, resembling what she had observed on the lance of the
+sentinel, the night Madame Montoni died, and which he had said was
+an omen. The event immediately following it appeared to justify the
+assertion, and a superstitious impression had remained on Emily's mind,
+which the present appearance confirmed. She thought it was an omen of
+her own fate, and watched it successively vanish and return, in gloomy
+silence, which was at length interrupted by Bertrand.
+
+'Let us light the torch,' said he, 'and get under shelter of the
+woods;--a storm is coming on--look at my lance.'
+
+He held it forth, with the flame tapering at its point.*
+
+(*See the Abbe Berthelon on Electricity. [A. R.])
+
+
+'Aye,' said Ugo, 'you are not one of those, that believe in omens: we
+have left cowards at the castle, who would turn pale at such a sight.
+I have often seen it before a thunder storm, it is an omen of that, and
+one is coming now, sure enough. The clouds flash fast already.'
+
+Emily was relieved by this conversation from some of the terrors of
+superstition, but those of reason increased, as, waiting while Ugo
+searched for a flint, to strike fire, she watched the pale lightning
+gleam over the woods they were about to enter, and illumine the harsh
+countenances of her companions. Ugo could not find a flint, and Bertrand
+became impatient, for the thunder sounded hollowly at a distance, and
+the lightning was more frequent. Sometimes, it revealed the nearer
+recesses of the woods, or, displaying some opening in their summits,
+illumined the ground beneath with partial splendour, the thick foliage
+of the trees preserving the surrounding scene in deep shadow.
+
+At length, Ugo found a flint, and the torch was lighted. The men then
+dismounted, and, having assisted Emily, led the mules towards the woods,
+that skirted the glen, on the left, over broken ground, frequently
+interrupted with brush-wood and wild plants, which she was often obliged
+to make a circuit to avoid.
+
+She could not approach these woods, without experiencing keener sense of
+her danger. Their deep silence, except when the wind swept among their
+branches, and impenetrable glooms shewn partially by the sudden flash,
+and then, by the red glare of the torch, which served only to make
+'darkness visible,' were circumstances, that contributed to renew all
+her most terrible apprehensions; she thought, too, that, at this moment,
+the countenances of her conductors displayed more than their usual
+fierceness, mingled with a kind of lurking exultation, which they seemed
+endeavouring to disguise. To her affrighted fancy it occurred, that they
+were leading her into these woods to complete the will of Montoni by
+her murder. The horrid suggestion called a groan from her heart, which
+surprised her companions, who turned round quickly towards her, and she
+demanded why they led her thither, beseeching them to continue their way
+along the open glen, which she represented to be less dangerous than the
+woods, in a thunder storm.
+
+'No, no,' said Bertrand, 'we know best where the danger lies. See how
+the clouds open over our heads. Besides, we can glide under cover of
+the woods with less hazard of being seen, should any of the enemy be
+wandering this way. By holy St. Peter and all the rest of them, I've as
+stout a heart as the best, as many a poor devil could tell, if he were
+alive again--but what can we do against numbers?'
+
+'What are you whining about?' said Ugo, contemptuously, 'who fears
+numbers! Let them come, though they were as many, as the Signor's castle
+could hold; I would shew the knaves what fighting is. For you--I would
+lay you quietly in a dry ditch, where you might peep out, and see me put
+the rogues to flight.--Who talks of fear!'
+
+Bertrand replied, with an horrible oath, that he did not like such
+jesting, and a violent altercation ensued, which was, at length,
+silenced by the thunder, whose deep volley was heard afar, rolling
+onward till it burst over their heads in sounds, that seemed to shake
+the earth to its centre. The ruffians paused, and looked upon each
+other. Between the boles of the trees, the blue lightning flashed and
+quivered along the ground, while, as Emily looked under the boughs, the
+mountains beyond, frequently appeared to be clothed in livid flame. At
+this moment, perhaps, she felt less fear of the storm, than did either
+of her companions, for other terrors occupied her mind.
+
+The men now rested under an enormous chesnut-tree, and fixed their
+pikes in the ground, at some distance, on the iron points of which Emily
+repeatedly observed the lightning play, and then glide down them into
+the earth.
+
+'I would we were well in the Signor's castle!' said Bertrand, 'I know
+not why he should send us on this business. Hark! how it rattles above,
+there! I could almost find in my heart to turn priest, and pray. Ugo,
+hast got a rosary?'
+
+'No,' replied Ugo, 'I leave it to cowards like thee, to carry
+rosaries--I, carry a sword.'
+
+'And much good may it do thee in fighting against the storm!' said
+Bertrand.
+
+Another peal, which was reverberated in tremendous echoes among the
+mountains, silenced them for a moment. As it rolled away, Ugo proposed
+going on. 'We are only losing time here,' said he, 'for the thick boughs
+of the woods will shelter us as well as this chesnut-tree.'
+
+They again led the mules forward, between the boles of the trees, and
+over pathless grass, that concealed their high knotted roots. The rising
+wind was now heard contending with the thunder, as it rushed furiously
+among the branches above, and brightened the red flame of the torch,
+which threw a stronger light forward among the woods, and shewed their
+gloomy recesses to be suitable resorts for the wolves, of which Ugo had
+formerly spoken.
+
+At length, the strength of the wind seemed to drive the storm before it,
+for the thunder rolled away into distance, and was only faintly heard.
+After travelling through the woods for nearly an hour, during which the
+elements seemed to have returned to repose, the travellers, gradually
+ascending from the glen, found themselves upon the open brow of a
+mountain, with a wide valley, extending in misty moon-light, at their
+feet, and above, the blue sky, trembling through the few thin clouds,
+that lingered after the storm, and were sinking slowly to the verge of
+the horizon.
+
+Emily's spirits, now that she had quitted the woods, began to revive;
+for she considered, that, if these men had received an order to destroy
+her, they would probably have executed their barbarous purpose in the
+solitary wild, from whence they had just emerged, where the deed would
+have been shrouded from every human eye. Reassured by this reflection,
+and by the quiet demeanour of her guides, Emily, as they proceeded
+silently, in a kind of sheep track, that wound along the skirts of the
+woods, which ascended on the right, could not survey the sleeping beauty
+of the vale, to which they were declining, without a momentary sensation
+of pleasure. It seemed varied with woods, pastures, and sloping grounds,
+and was screened to the north and the east by an amphitheatre of the
+Apennines, whose outline on the horizon was here broken into varied
+and elegant forms; to the west and the south, the landscape extended
+indistinctly into the lowlands of Tuscany.
+
+'There is the sea yonder,' said Bertrand, as if he had known that Emily
+was examining the twilight view, 'yonder in the west, though we cannot
+see it.'
+
+Emily already perceived a change in the climate, from that of the wild
+and mountainous tract she had left; and, as she continued descending,
+the air became perfumed by the breath of a thousand nameless flowers
+among the grass, called forth by the late rain. So soothingly beautiful
+was the scene around her, and so strikingly contrasted to the gloomy
+grandeur of those, to which she had long been confined, and to the
+manners of the people, who moved among them, that she could almost have
+fancied herself again at La Vallee, and, wondering why Montoni had sent
+her hither, could scarcely believe, that he had selected so enchanting
+a spot for any cruel design. It was, however, probably not the spot,
+but the persons, who happened to inhabit it, and to whose care he could
+safely commit the execution of his plans, whatever they might be, that
+had determined his choice.
+
+She now ventured again to enquire, whether they were near the place of
+their destination, and was answered by Ugo, that they had not far to go.
+'Only to the wood of chesnuts in the valley yonder,' said he, 'there, by
+the brook, that sparkles with the moon; I wish I was once at rest there,
+with a flask of good wine, and a slice of Tuscany bacon.'
+
+Emily's spirits revived, when she heard, that the journey was so nearly
+concluded, and saw the wood of chesnuts in an open part of the vale, on
+the margin of the stream.
+
+In a short time, they reached the entrance of the wood, and perceived,
+between the twinkling leaves, a light, streaming from a distant cottage
+window. They proceeded along the edge of the brook to where the trees,
+crowding over it, excluded the moon-beams, but a long line of light,
+from the cottage above, was seen on its dark tremulous surface. Bertrand
+now stepped on first, and Emily heard him knock, and call loudly at
+the door. As she reached it, the small upper casement, where the light
+appeared, was unclosed by a man, who, having enquired what they wanted,
+immediately descended, let them into a neat rustic cot, and called
+up his wife to set refreshments before the travellers. As this man
+conversed, rather apart, with Bertrand, Emily anxiously surveyed him. He
+was a tall, but not robust, peasant, of a sallow complexion, and had a
+shrewd and cunning eye; his countenance was not of a character to win
+the ready confidence of youth, and there was nothing in his manner, that
+might conciliate a stranger.
+
+Ugo called impatiently for supper, and in a tone as if he knew his
+authority here to be unquestionable. 'I expected you an hour ago,' said
+the peasant, 'for I have had Signor Montoni's letter these three hours,
+and I and my wife had given you up, and gone to bed. How did you fare in
+the storm?'
+
+'Ill enough,' replied Ugo, 'ill enough and we are like to fare ill
+enough here, too, unless you will make more haste. Get us more wine, and
+let us see what you have to eat.'
+
+The peasant placed before them all, that his cottage afforded--ham,
+wine, figs, and grapes of such size and flavour, as Emily had seldom
+tasted.
+
+After taking refreshment, she was shewn by the peasant's wife to her
+little bed-chamber, where she asked some questions concerning Montoni,
+to which the woman, whose name was Dorina, gave reserved answers,
+pretending ignorance of his excellenza's intention in sending Emily
+hither, but acknowledging that her husband had been apprized of
+the circumstance. Perceiving, that she could obtain no intelligence
+concerning her destination, Emily dismissed Dorina, and retired to
+repose; but all the busy scenes of her past and the anticipated ones of
+the future came to her anxious mind, and conspired with the sense of her
+new situation to banish sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+     Was nought around but images of rest,
+ Sleep-soothing groves, and quiet lawns between,
+ And flowery beds that slumbrous influence kept,
+ From poppies breath'd, and banks of pleasant green,
+ Where never yet was creeping creature seen.
+ Meantime unnumbered glittering streamlets play'd,
+ And hurled every where their water's sheen,
+ That, as they bicker'd through the sunny glade,
+ Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur made.
+     THOMSON
+
+When Emily, in the morning, opened her casement, she was surprised
+to observe the beauties, that surrounded it. The cottage was nearly
+embowered in the woods, which were chiefly of chesnut intermixed
+with some cypress, larch and sycamore. Beneath the dark and spreading
+branches, appeared, to the north, and to the east, the woody Apennines,
+rising in majestic amphitheatre, not black with pines, as she had been
+accustomed to see them, but their loftiest summits crowned with antient
+forests of chesnut, oak, and oriental plane, now animated with the rich
+tints of autumn, and which swept downward to the valley uninterruptedly,
+except where some bold rocky promontory looked out from among the
+foliage, and caught the passing gleam. Vineyards stretched along the
+feet of the mountains, where the elegant villas of the Tuscan nobility
+frequently adorned the scene, and overlooked slopes clothed with
+groves of olive, mulberry, orange and lemon. The plain, to which these
+declined, was coloured with the riches of cultivation, whose mingled
+hues were mellowed into harmony by an Italian sun. Vines, their purple
+clusters blushing between the russet foliage, hung in luxuriant festoons
+from the branches of standard fig and cherry trees, while pastures of
+verdure, such as Emily had seldom seen in Italy, enriched the banks of
+a stream that, after descending from the mountains, wound along the
+landscape, which it reflected, to a bay of the sea. There, far in the
+west, the waters, fading into the sky, assumed a tint of the faintest
+purple, and the line of separation between them was, now and then,
+discernible only by the progress of a sail, brightened with the sunbeam,
+along the horizon.
+
+The cottage, which was shaded by the woods from the intenser rays of the
+sun, and was open only to his evening light, was covered entirely with
+vines, fig-trees and jessamine, whose flowers surpassed in size and
+fragrance any that Emily had seen. These and ripening clusters of grapes
+hung round her little casement. The turf, that grew under the woods, was
+inlaid with a variety of wild flowers and perfumed herbs, and, on the
+opposite margin of the stream, whose current diffused freshness beneath
+the shades, rose a grove of lemon and orange trees. This, though nearly
+opposite to Emily's window, did not interrupt her prospect, but rather
+heightened, by its dark verdure, the effect of the perspective; and
+to her this spot was a bower of sweets, whose charms communicated
+imperceptibly to her mind somewhat of their own serenity.
+
+She was soon summoned to breakfast, by the peasant's daughter, a girl
+about seventeen, of a pleasant countenance, which, Emily was glad to
+observe, seemed animated with the pure affections of nature, though
+the others, that surrounded her, expressed, more or less, the worst
+qualities--cruelty, ferocity, cunning and duplicity; of the latter style
+of countenance, especially, were those of the peasant and his wife.
+Maddelina spoke little, but what she said was in a soft voice, and
+with an air of modesty and complacency, that interested Emily, who
+breakfasted at a separate table with Dorina, while Ugo and Bertrand
+were taking a repast of Tuscany bacon and wine with their host, near
+the cottage door; when they had finished which, Ugo, rising hastily,
+enquired for his mule, and Emily learned that he was to return to
+Udolpho, while Bertrand remained at the cottage; a circumstance, which,
+though it did not surprise, distressed her.
+
+When Ugo was departed, Emily proposed to walk in the neighbouring woods;
+but, on being told, that she must not quit the cottage, without having
+Bertrand for her attendant, she withdrew to her own room. There, as her
+eyes settled on the towering Apennines, she recollected the terrific
+scenery they had exhibited and the horrors she had suffered, on the
+preceding night, particularly at the moment when Bertrand had betrayed
+himself to be an assassin; and these remembrances awakened a train of
+images, which, since they abstracted her from a consideration of her own
+situation, she pursued for some time, and then arranged in the following
+lines; pleased to have discovered any innocent means, by which she could
+beguile an hour of misfortune.
+
+  THE PILGRIM*
+
+ Slow o'er the Apennine, with bleeding feet,
+ A patient Pilgrim wound his lonely way,
+ To deck the Lady of Loretto's seat
+ With all the little wealth his zeal could pay.
+ From mountain-tops cold died the evening ray,
+ And, stretch'd in twilight, slept the vale below;
+ And now the last, last purple streaks of day
+ Along the melancholy West fade slow.
+ High o'er his head, the restless pines complain,
+ As on their summit rolls the breeze of night;
+ Beneath, the hoarse stream chides the rocks in vain:
+ The Pilgrim pauses on the dizzy height.
+ Then to the vale his cautious step he prest,
+ For there a hermit's cross was dimly seen,
+ Cresting the rock, and there his limbs might rest,
+ Cheer'd in the good man's cave, by faggot's sheen,
+ On leafy beds, nor guile his sleep molest.
+ Unhappy Luke! he trusts a treacherous clue!
+ Behind the cliff the lurking robber stood;
+ No friendly moon his giant shadow threw
+ Athwart the road, to save the Pilgrim's blood;
+ On as he went a vesper-hymn he sang,
+ The hymn, that nightly sooth'd him to repose.
+ Fierce on his harmless prey the ruffian sprang!
+ The Pilgrim bleeds to death, his eye-lids close.
+ Yet his meek spirit knew no vengeful care,
+ But, dying, for his murd'rer breath'd--a sainted pray'r!
+
+(* This poem and that entitled THE TRAVELLER in vol. ii, have already
+appeared in a periodical publication. [A. R.])
+
+
+Preferring the solitude of her room to the company of the persons below
+stairs, Emily dined above, and Maddelina was suffered to attend her,
+from whose simple conversation she learned, that the peasant and his
+wife were old inhabitants of this cottage, which had been purchased for
+them by Montoni, in reward of some service, rendered him, many years
+before, by Marco, to whom Carlo, the steward at the castle, was nearly
+related. 'So many years ago, Signora,' added Maddelina, 'that I know
+nothing about it; but my father did the Signor a great good, for my
+mother has often said to him, this cottage was the least he ought to
+have had.'
+
+To the mention of this circumstance Emily listened with a painful
+interest, since it appeared to give a frightful colour to the character
+of Marco, whose service, thus rewarded by Montoni, she could scarcely
+doubt have been criminal; and, if so, had too much reason to believe,
+that she had been committed into his hands for some desperate
+purpose. 'Did you ever hear how many years it is,' said Emily, who was
+considering of Signora Laurentini's disappearance from Udolpho, 'since
+your father performed the services you spoke of?'
+
+'It was a little before he came to live at the cottage, Signora,'
+replied Maddelina, 'and that is about eighteen years ago.'
+
+This was near the period, when Signora Laurentini had been said to
+disappear, and it occurred to Emily, that Marco had assisted in that
+mysterious affair, and, perhaps, had been employed in a murder! This
+horrible suggestion fixed her in such profound reverie, that Maddelina
+quitted the room, unperceived by her, and she remained unconscious of
+all around her, for a considerable time. Tears, at length, came to her
+relief, after indulging which, her spirits becoming calmer, she
+ceased to tremble at a view of evils, that might never arrive; and had
+sufficient resolution to endeavour to withdraw her thoughts from the
+contemplation of her own interests. Remembering the few books, which
+even in the hurry of her departure from Udolpho she had put into her
+little package, she sat down with one of them at her pleasant casement,
+whence her eyes often wandered from the page to the landscape, whose
+beauty gradually soothed her mind into gentle melancholy.
+
+Here, she remained alone, till evening, and saw the sun descend the
+western sky, throw all his pomp of light and shadow upon the mountains,
+and gleam upon the distant ocean and the stealing sails, as he sunk
+amidst the waves. Then, at the musing hour of twilight, her softened
+thoughts returned to Valancourt; she again recollected every
+circumstance, connected with the midnight music, and all that might
+assist her conjecture, concerning his imprisonment at the castle, and,
+becoming confirmed in the supposition, that it was his voice she had
+heard there, she looked back to that gloomy abode with emotions of grief
+and momentary regret.
+
+Refreshed by the cool and fragrant air, and her spirits soothed to a
+state of gentle melancholy by the stilly murmur of the brook below and
+of the woods around, she lingered at her casement long after the sun
+had set, watching the valley sinking into obscurity, till only the
+grand outline of the surrounding mountains, shadowed upon the horizon,
+remained visible. But a clear moon-light, that succeeded, gave to the
+landscape, what time gives to the scenes of past life, when it softens
+all their harsher features, and throws over the whole the mellowing
+shade of distant contemplation. The scenes of La Vallee, in the early
+morn of her life, when she was protected and beloved by parents equally
+loved, appeared in Emily's memory tenderly beautiful, like the prospect
+before her, and awakened mournful comparisons. Unwilling to encounter
+the coarse behaviour of the peasant's wife, she remained supperless in
+her room, while she wept again over her forlorn and perilous situation,
+a review of which entirely overcame the small remains of her fortitude,
+and, reducing her to temporary despondence, she wished to be released
+from the heavy load of life, that had so long oppressed her, and prayed
+to Heaven to take her, in its mercy, to her parents.
+
+Wearied with weeping, she, at length, lay down on her mattress, and sunk
+to sleep, but was soon awakened by a knocking at her chamber door,
+and, starting up in terror, she heard a voice calling her. The image of
+Bertrand, with a stilletto in his hand, appeared to her alarmed fancy,
+and she neither opened the door, or answered, but listened in profound
+silence, till, the voice repeating her name in the same low tone, she
+demanded who called. 'It is I, Signora,' replied the voice, which she
+now distinguished to be Maddelina's, 'pray open the door. Don't be
+frightened, it is I.'
+
+'And what brings you here so late, Maddelina?' said Emily, as she let
+her in.
+
+'Hush! signora, for heaven's sake hush!--if we are overheard I shall
+never be forgiven. My father and mother and Bertrand are all gone
+to bed,' continued Maddelina, as she gently shut the door, and crept
+forward, 'and I have brought you some supper, for you had none, you
+know, Signora, below stairs. Here are some grapes and figs and half a
+cup of wine.' Emily thanked her, but expressed apprehension lest
+this kindness should draw upon her the resentment of Dorina, when she
+perceived the fruit was gone. 'Take it back, therefore, Maddelina,'
+added Emily, 'I shall suffer much less from the want of it, than
+I should do, if this act of good-nature was to subject you to your
+mother's displeasure.'
+
+'O Signora! there is no danger of that,' replied Maddelina, 'my mother
+cannot miss the fruit, for I saved it from my own supper. You will make
+me very unhappy, if you refuse to take it, Signora.' Emily was so
+much affected by this instance of the good girl's generosity, that she
+remained for some time unable to reply, and Maddelina watched her in
+silence, till, mistaking the cause of her emotion, she said, 'Do not
+weep so, Signora! My mother, to be sure, is a little cross, sometimes,
+but then it is soon over,--so don't take it so much to heart. She often
+scolds me, too, but then I have learned to bear it, and, when she has
+done, if I can but steal out into the woods, and play upon my sticcado,
+I forget it all directly.'
+
+Emily, smiling through her tears, told Maddelina, that she was a good
+girl, and then accepted her offering. She wished anxiously to know,
+whether Bertrand and Dorina had spoken of Montoni, or of his designs,
+concerning herself, in the presence of Maddelina, but disdained to tempt
+the innocent girl to a conduct so mean, as that of betraying the private
+conversations of her parents. When she was departing, Emily requested,
+that she would come to her room as often as she dared, without offending
+her mother, and Maddelina, after promising that she would do so, stole
+softly back again to her own chamber.
+
+Thus several days passed, during which Emily remained in her own room,
+Maddelina attending her only at her repast, whose gentle countenance and
+manners soothed her more than any circumstance she had known for many
+months. Of her pleasant embowered chamber she now became fond, and
+began to experience in it those feelings of security, which we naturally
+attach to home. In this interval also, her mind, having been undisturbed
+by any new circumstance of disgust, or alarm, recovered its tone
+sufficiently to permit her the enjoyment of her books, among which she
+found some unfinished sketches of landscapes, several blank sheets of
+paper, with her drawing instruments, and she was thus enabled to amuse
+herself with selecting some of the lovely features of the prospect,
+that her window commanded, and combining them in scenes, to which her
+tasteful fancy gave a last grace. In these little sketches she generally
+placed interesting groups, characteristic of the scenery they animated,
+and often contrived to tell, with perspicuity, some simple and affecting
+story, when, as a tear fell over the pictured griefs, which her
+imagination drew, she would forget, for a moment, her real sufferings.
+Thus innocently she beguiled the heavy hours of misfortune, and, with
+meek patience, awaited the events of futurity.
+
+A beautiful evening, that had succeeded to a sultry day, at length
+induced Emily to walk, though she knew that Bertrand must attend her,
+and, with Maddelina for her companion, she left the cottage, followed by
+Bertrand, who allowed her to choose her own way. The hour was cool and
+silent, and she could not look upon the country around her, without
+delight. How lovely, too, appeared the brilliant blue, that coloured all
+the upper region of the air, and, thence fading downward, was lost in
+the saffron glow of the horizon! Nor less so were the varied shades and
+warm colouring of the Apennines, as the evening sun threw his slanting
+rays athwart their broken surface. Emily followed the course of the
+stream, under the shades, that overhung its grassy margin. On the
+opposite banks, the pastures were animated with herds of cattle of a
+beautiful cream-colour; and, beyond, were groves of lemon and orange,
+with fruit glowing on the branches, frequent almost as the leaves,
+which partly concealed it. She pursued her way towards the sea, which
+reflected the warm glow of sun-set, while the cliffs, that rose over its
+edge, were tinted with the last rays. The valley was terminated on the
+right by a lofty promontory, whose summit, impending over the waves, was
+crowned with a ruined tower, now serving for the purpose of a beacon,
+whose shattered battlements and the extended wings of some sea-fowl,
+that circled near it, were still illumined by the upward beams of the
+sun, though his disk was now sunk beneath the horizon; while the lower
+part of the ruin, the cliff on which it stood and the waves at its foot,
+were shaded with the first tints of twilight.
+
+Having reached this headland, Emily gazed with solemn pleasure on the
+cliffs, that extended on either hand along the sequestered shores,
+some crowned with groves of pine, and others exhibiting only barren
+precipices of grayish marble, except where the crags were tufted with
+myrtle and other aromatic shrubs. The sea slept in a perfect calm;
+its waves, dying in murmurs on the shores, flowed with the gentlest
+undulation, while its clear surface reflected in softened beauty the
+vermeil tints of the west. Emily, as she looked upon the ocean, thought
+of France and of past times, and she wished, Oh! how ardently, and
+vainly--wished! that its waves would bear her to her distant, native
+home!
+
+'Ah! that vessel,' said she, 'that vessel, which glides along so
+stately, with its tall sails reflected in the water is, perhaps, bound
+for France! Happy--happy bark!' She continued to gaze upon it, with warm
+emotion, till the gray of twilight obscured the distance, and veiled it
+from her view. The melancholy sound of the waves at her feet assisted
+the tenderness, that occasioned her tears, and this was the only sound,
+that broke upon the hour, till, having followed the windings of the
+beach, for some time, a chorus of voices passed her on the air. She
+paused a moment, wishing to hear more, yet fearing to be seen, and,
+for the first time, looked back to Bertrand, as her protector, who
+was following, at a short distance, in company with some other person.
+Reassured by this circumstance, she advanced towards the sounds, which
+seemed to arise from behind a high promontory, that projected athwart
+the beach. There was now a sudden pause in the music, and then one
+female voice was heard to sing in a kind of chant. Emily quickened
+her steps, and, winding round the rock, saw, within the sweeping bay,
+beyond, which was hung with woods from the borders of the beach to the
+very summit of the cliffs, two groups of peasants, one seated beneath
+the shades, and the other standing on the edge of the sea, round the
+girl, who was singing, and who held in her hand a chaplet of flowers,
+which she seemed about to drop into the waves.
+
+Emily, listening with surprise and attention, distinguished the
+following invocation delivered in the pure and elegant tongue of
+Tuscany, and accompanied by a few pastoral instruments.
+
+  TO A SEA-NYMPH
+
+ O nymph! who loves to float on the green wave,
+ When Neptune sleeps beneath the moon-light hour,
+ Lull'd by the music's melancholy pow'r,
+ O nymph, arise from out thy pearly cave!
+
+ For Hesper beams amid the twilight shade,
+ And soon shall Cynthia tremble o'er the tide,
+ Gleam on these cliffs, that bound the ocean's pride,
+ And lonely silence all the air pervade.
+
+ Then, let thy tender voice at distance swell,
+ And steal along this solitary shore,
+ Sink on the breeze, till dying--heard no more--
+ Thou wak'st the sudden magic of thy shell.
+
+ While the long coast in echo sweet replies,
+ Thy soothing strains the pensive heart beguile,
+ And bid the visions of the future smile,
+ O nymph! from out thy pearly cave--arise!
+
+  (Chorus)--ARISE!
+  (Semi-chorus)--ARISE!
+
+The last words being repeated by the surrounding group, the garland of
+flowers was thrown into the waves, and the chorus, sinking gradually
+into a chant, died away in silence.
+
+'What can this mean, Maddelina?' said Emily, awakening from the pleasing
+trance, into which the music had lulled her. 'This is the eve of a
+festival, Signora,' replied Maddelina; 'and the peasants then amuse
+themselves with all kinds of sports.'
+
+'But they talked of a sea-nymph,' said Emily: 'how came these good
+people to think of a sea-nymph?'
+
+'O, Signora,' rejoined Maddelina, mistaking the reason of Emily's
+surprise, 'nobody BELIEVES in such things, but our old songs tell of
+them, and, when we are at our sports, we sometimes sing to them, and
+throw garlands into the sea.'
+
+Emily had been early taught to venerate Florence as the seat of
+literature and of the fine arts; but, that its taste for classic story
+should descend to the peasants of the country, occasioned her both
+surprise and admiration. The Arcadian air of the girls next attracted
+her attention. Their dress was a very short full petticoat of light
+green, with a boddice of white silk; the sleeves loose, and tied up at
+the shoulders with ribbons and bunches of flowers. Their hair, falling
+in ringlets on their necks, was also ornamented with flowers, and with a
+small straw hat, which, set rather backward and on one side of the head,
+gave an expression of gaiety and smartness to the whole figure. When
+the song had concluded, several of these girls approached Emily, and,
+inviting her to sit down among them, offered her, and Maddelina, whom
+they knew, grapes and figs.
+
+Emily accepted their courtesy, much pleased with the gentleness and
+grace of their manners, which appeared to be perfectly natural to them;
+and when Bertrand, soon after, approached, and was hastily drawing her
+away, a peasant, holding up a flask, invited him to drink; a temptation,
+which Bertrand was seldom very valiant in resisting.
+
+'Let the young lady join in the dance, my friend,' said the peasant,
+'while we empty this flask. They are going to begin directly. Strike up!
+my lads, strike up your tambourines and merry flutes!'
+
+They sounded gaily; and the younger peasants formed themselves into a
+circle, which Emily would readily have joined, had her spirits been in
+unison with their mirth. Maddelina, however, tripped it lightly,
+and Emily, as she looked on the happy group, lost the sense of her
+misfortunes in that of a benevolent pleasure. But the pensive melancholy
+of her mind returned, as she sat rather apart from the company,
+listening to the mellow music, which the breeze softened as it bore it
+away, and watching the moon, stealing its tremulous light over the waves
+and on the woody summits of the cliffs, that wound along these Tuscan
+shores.
+
+Meanwhile, Bertrand was so well pleased with his first flask, that he
+very willingly commenced the attack on a second, and it was late before
+Emily, not without some apprehension, returned to the cottage.
+
+After this evening, she frequently walked with Maddelina, but was never
+unattended by Bertrand; and her mind became by degrees as tranquil as
+the circumstances of her situation would permit. The quiet, in which
+she was suffered to live, encouraged her to hope, that she was not sent
+hither with an evil design; and, had it not appeared probable, that
+Valancourt was at this time an inhabitant of Udolpho, she would have
+wished to remain at the cottage, till an opportunity should offer of
+returning to her native country. But, concerning Montoni's motive for
+sending her into Tuscany, she was more than ever perplexed, nor could
+she believe that any consideration for her safety had influenced him on
+this occasion.
+
+She had been some time at the cottage, before she recollected, that, in
+the hurry of leaving Udolpho, she had forgotten the papers committed
+to her by her late aunt, relative to the Languedoc estates; but, though
+this remembrance occasioned her much uneasiness, she had some hope,
+that, in the obscure place, where they were deposited, they would escape
+the detection of Montoni.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
+ I play the torturer, by small and small,
+ To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken.
+     RICHARD II
+
+We now return, for a moment, to Venice, where Count Morano was suffering
+under an accumulation of misfortunes. Soon after his arrival in that
+city, he had been arrested by order of the Senate, and, without knowing
+of what he was suspected, was conveyed to a place of confinement,
+whither the most strenuous enquiries of his friends had been unable to
+trace him. Who the enemy was, that had occasioned him this calamity, he
+had not been able to guess, unless, indeed, it was Montoni, on whom his
+suspicions rested, and not only with much apparent probability, but with
+justice.
+
+In the affair of the poisoned cup, Montoni had suspected Morano; but,
+being unable to obtain the degree of proof, which was necessary to
+convict him of a guilty intention, he had recourse to means of other
+revenge, than he could hope to obtain by prosecution. He employed
+a person, in whom he believed he might confide, to drop a letter of
+accusation into the DENUNZIE SECRETE, or lions' mouths, which are
+fixed in a gallery of the Doge's palace, as receptacles for anonymous
+information, concerning persons, who may be disaffected towards the
+state. As, on these occasions, the accuser is not confronted with the
+accused, a man may falsely impeach his enemy, and accomplish an unjust
+revenge, without fear of punishment, or detection. That Montoni should
+have recourse to these diabolical means of ruining a person, whom he
+suspected of having attempted his life, is not in the least surprising.
+In the letter, which he had employed as the instrument of his revenge,
+he accused Morano of designs against the state, which he attempted to
+prove, with all the plausible simplicity of which he was master; and
+the Senate, with whom a suspicion was, at that time, almost equal to
+a proof, arrested the Count, in consequence of this accusation; and,
+without even hinting to him his crime, threw him into one of those
+secret prisons, which were the terror of the Venetians, and in which
+persons often languished, and sometimes died, without being discovered
+by their friends.
+
+Morano had incurred the personal resentment of many members of the
+state; his habits of life had rendered him obnoxious to some; and his
+ambition, and the bold rivalship, which he discovered, on several public
+occasions,--to others; and it was not to be expected, that mercy would
+soften the rigour of a law, which was to be dispensed from the hands of
+his enemies.
+
+Montoni, meantime, was beset by dangers of another kind. His castle
+was besieged by troops, who seemed willing to dare every thing, and to
+suffer patiently any hardships in pursuit of victory. The strength
+of the fortress, however, withstood their attack, and this, with the
+vigorous defence of the garrison and the scarcity of provision on these
+wild mountains, soon compelled the assailants to raise the siege.
+
+When Udolpho was once more left to the quiet possession of Montoni,
+he dispatched Ugo into Tuscany for Emily, whom he had sent from
+considerations of her personal safety, to a place of greater security,
+than a castle, which was, at that time, liable to be overrun by his
+enemies. Tranquillity being once more restored to Udolpho, he was
+impatient to secure her again under his roof, and had commissioned Ugo
+to assist Bertrand in guarding her back to the castle. Thus compelled to
+return, Emily bade the kind Maddelina farewell, with regret, and,
+after about a fortnight's stay in Tuscany, where she had experienced
+an interval of quiet, which was absolutely necessary to sustain her
+long-harassed spirits, began once more to ascend the Apennines, from
+whose heights she gave a long and sorrowful look to the beautiful
+country, that extended at their feet, and to the distant Mediterranean,
+whose waves she had so often wished would bear her back to France.
+The distress she felt, on her return towards the place of her former
+sufferings, was, however, softened by a conjecture, that Valancourt was
+there, and she found some degree of comfort in the thought of being near
+him, notwithstanding the consideration, that he was probably a prisoner.
+
+It was noon, when she had left the cottage, and the evening was closed,
+long before she came within the neighbourhood of Udolpho. There was a
+moon, but it shone only at intervals, for the night was cloudy, and,
+lighted by the torch, which Ugo carried, the travellers paced silently
+along, Emily musing on her situation, and Bertrand and Ugo anticipating
+the comforts of a flask of wine and a good fire, for they had perceived
+for some time the difference between the warm climate of the lowlands
+of Tuscany and the nipping air of these upper regions. Emily was, at
+length, roused from her reverie by the far-off sound of the castle
+clock, to which she listened not without some degree of awe, as it
+rolled away on the breeze. Another and another note succeeded, and died
+in sullen murmur among the mountains:--to her mournful imagination it
+seemed a knell measuring out some fateful period for her.
+
+'Aye, there is the old clock,' said Bertrand, 'there he is still; the
+cannon have not silenced him!'
+
+'No,' answered Ugo, 'he crowed as loud as the best of them in the midst
+of it all. There he was roaring out in the hottest fire I have seen this
+many a day! I said that some of them would have a hit at the old fellow,
+but he escaped, and the tower too.'
+
+The road winding round the base of a mountain, they now came within view
+of the castle, which was shewn in the perspective of the valley by a
+gleam of moon-shine, and then vanished in shade; while even a transient
+view of it had awakened the poignancy of Emily's feelings. Its massy and
+gloomy walls gave her terrible ideas of imprisonment and suffering:
+yet, as she advanced, some degree of hope mingled with her terror; for,
+though this was certainly the residence of Montoni, it was possibly,
+also, that of Valancourt, and she could not approach a place, where he
+might be, without experiencing somewhat of the joy of hope.
+
+They continued to wind along the valley, and, soon after, she saw again
+the old walls and moon-lit towers, rising over the woods: the strong
+rays enabled her, also, to perceive the ravages, which the siege had
+made,--with the broken walls, and shattered battlements, for they were
+now at the foot of the steep, on which Udolpho stood. Massy fragments
+had rolled down among the woods, through which the travellers now began
+to ascend, and there mingled with the loose earth, and pieces of rock
+they had brought with them. The woods, too, had suffered much from the
+batteries above, for here the enemy had endeavoured to screen themselves
+from the fire of the ramparts. Many noble trees were levelled with the
+ground, and others, to a wide extent, were entirely stripped of their
+upper branches. 'We had better dismount,' said Ugo, 'and lead the mules
+up the hill, or we shall get into some of the holes, which the balls
+have left. Here are plenty of them. Give me the torch,' continued Ugo,
+after they had dismounted, 'and take care you don't stumble over any
+thing, that lies in your way, for the ground is not yet cleared of the
+enemy.'
+
+'How!' exclaimed Emily, 'are any of the enemy here, then?'
+
+'Nay, I don't know for that, now,' he replied, 'but when I came away I
+saw one or two of them lying under the trees.'
+
+As they proceeded, the torch threw a gloomy light upon the ground, and
+far among the recesses of the woods, and Emily feared to look forward,
+lest some object of horror should meet her eye. The path was often
+strewn with broken heads of arrows, and with shattered remains of
+armour, such as at that period was mingled with the lighter dress of the
+soldiers. 'Bring the light hither,' said Bertrand, 'I have stumbled over
+something, that rattles loud enough.' Ugo holding up the torch, they
+perceived a steel breastplate on the ground, which Bertrand raised, and
+they saw, that it was pierced through, and that the lining was entirely
+covered with blood; but upon Emily's earnest entreaties, that they would
+proceed, Bertrand, uttering some joke upon the unfortunate person, to
+whom it had belonged, threw it hard upon the ground, and they passed on.
+
+At every step she took, Emily feared to see some vestige of death.
+Coming soon after to an opening in the woods, Bertrand stopped to survey
+the ground, which was encumbered with massy trunks and branches of the
+trees, that had so lately adorned it, and seemed to have been a spot
+particularly fatal to the besiegers; for it was evident from the
+destruction of the trees, that here the hottest fire of the garrison
+had been directed. As Ugo held again forth the torch, steel glittered
+between the fallen trees; the ground beneath was covered with broken
+arms, and with the torn vestments of soldiers, whose mangled forms
+Emily almost expected to see; and she again entreated her companions to
+proceed, who were, however, too intent in their examination, to regard
+her, and she turned her eyes from this desolated scene to the castle
+above, where she observed lights gliding along the ramparts. Presently,
+the castle clock struck twelve, and then a trumpet sounded, of which
+Emily enquired the occasion.
+
+'O! they are only changing watch,' replied Ugo. 'I do not remember
+this trumpet,' said Emily, 'it is a new custom.' 'It is only an old one
+revived, lady; we always use it in time of war. We have sounded it, at
+midnight, ever since the place was besieged.'
+
+'Hark!' said Emily, as the trumpet sounded again; and, in the next
+moment, she heard a faint clash of arms, and then the watchword passed
+along the terrace above, and was answered from a distant part of the
+castle; after which all was again still. She complained of cold, and
+begged to go on. 'Presently, lady,' said Bertrand, turning over some
+broken arms with the pike he usually carried. 'What have we here?'
+
+'Hark!' cried Emily, 'what noise was that?'
+
+'What noise was it?' said Ugo, starting up and listening.
+
+'Hush!' repeated Emily. 'It surely came from the ramparts above:' and,
+on looking up, they perceived a light moving along the walls, while,
+in the next instant, the breeze swelling, the voice sounded louder than
+before.
+
+'Who goes yonder?' cried a sentinel of the castle. 'Speak or it will be
+worse for you.' Bertrand uttered a shout of joy. 'Hah! my brave comrade,
+is it you?' said he, and he blew a shrill whistle, which signal was
+answered by another from the soldier on watch; and the party, then
+passing forward, soon after emerged from the woods upon the broken road,
+that led immediately to the castle gates, and Emily saw, with renewed
+terror, the whole of that stupendous structure. 'Alas!' said she to
+herself, 'I am going again into my prison!'
+
+'Here has been warm work, by St. Marco!' cried Bertrand, waving a
+torch over the ground; 'the balls have torn up the earth here with a
+vengeance.'
+
+'Aye,' replied Ugo, 'they were fired from that redoubt, yonder, and
+rare execution they did. The enemy made a furious attack upon the great
+gates; but they might have guessed they could never carry it there; for,
+besides the cannon from the walls, our archers, on the two round towers,
+showered down upon them at such a rate, that, by holy Peter! there was
+no standing it. I never saw a better sight in my life; I laughed,
+till my sides aked, to see how the knaves scampered. Bertrand, my good
+fellow, thou shouldst have been among them; I warrant thou wouldst have
+won the race!'
+
+'Hah! you are at your old tricks again,' said Bertrand in a surly tone.
+'It is well for thee thou art so near the castle; thou knowest I have
+killed my man before now.' Ugo replied only by a laugh, and then gave
+some further account of the siege, to which as Emily listened, she was
+struck by the strong contrast of the present scene with that which had
+so lately been acted here.
+
+The mingled uproar of cannon, drums, and trumpets, the groans of the
+conquered, and the shouts of the conquerors were now sunk into a silence
+so profound, that it seemed as if death had triumphed alike over the
+vanquished and the victor. The shattered condition of one of the towers
+of the great gates by no means confirmed the VALIANT account just given
+by Ugo of the scampering party, who, it was evident, had not only made
+a stand, but had done much mischief before they took to flight; for this
+tower appeared, as far as Emily could judge by the dim moon-light
+that fell upon it, to be laid open, and the battlements were nearly
+demolished. While she gazed, a light glimmered through one of the lower
+loop-holes, and disappeared; but, in the next moment, she perceived
+through the broken wall, a soldier, with a lamp, ascending the narrow
+staircase, that wound within the tower, and, remembering that it was the
+same she had passed up, on the night, when Barnardine had deluded her
+with a promise of seeing Madame Montoni, fancy gave her somewhat of
+the terror she had then suffered. She was now very near the gates, over
+which the soldier having opened the door of the portal-chamber, the lamp
+he carried gave her a dusky view of that terrible apartment, and she
+almost sunk under the recollected horrors of the moment, when she had
+drawn aside the curtain, and discovered the object it was meant to
+conceal.
+
+'Perhaps,' said she to herself, 'it is now used for a similar purpose;
+perhaps, that soldier goes, at this dead hour, to watch over the corpse
+of his friend!' The little remains of her fortitude now gave way to the
+united force of remembered and anticipated horrors, for the melancholy
+fate of Madame Montoni appeared to foretell her own. She considered,
+that, though the Languedoc estates, if she relinquished them, would
+satisfy Montoni's avarice, they might not appease his vengeance, which
+was seldom pacified but by a terrible sacrifice; and she even thought,
+that, were she to resign them, the fear of justice might urge him either
+to detain her a prisoner, or to take away her life.
+
+They were now arrived at the gates, where Bertrand, observing the light
+glimmer through a small casement of the portal-chamber, called aloud;
+and the soldier, looking out, demanded who was there. 'Here, I have
+brought you a prisoner,' said Ugo, 'open the gate, and let us in.'
+
+'Tell me first who it is, that demands entrance,' replied the soldier.
+'What! my old comrade,' cried Ugo, 'don't you know me? not know Ugo? I
+have brought home a prisoner here, bound hand and foot--a fellow, who
+has been drinking Tuscany wine, while we here have been fighting.'
+
+'You will not rest till you meet with your match,' said Bertrand
+sullenly. 'Hah! my comrade, is it you?' said the soldier--'I'll be with
+you directly.'
+
+Emily presently heard his steps descending the stairs within, and then
+the heavy chain fall, and the bolts undraw of a small postern door,
+which he opened to admit the party. He held the lamp low, to shew the
+step of the gate, and she found herself once more beneath the gloomy
+arch, and heard the door close, that seemed to shut her from the world
+for ever. In the next moment, she was in the first court of the castle,
+where she surveyed the spacious and solitary area, with a kind of calm
+despair; while the dead hour of the night, the gothic gloom of the
+surrounding buildings, and the hollow and imperfect echoes, which
+they returned, as Ugo and the soldier conversed together, assisted to
+increase the melancholy forebodings of her heart. Passing on to the
+second court, a distant sound broke feebly on the silence, and gradually
+swelling louder, as they advanced, Emily distinguished voices of revelry
+and laughter, but they were to her far other than sounds of joy. 'Why,
+you have got some Tuscany wine among you, HERE,' said Bertrand, 'if one
+may judge by the uproar that is going forward. Ugo has taken a larger
+share of that than of fighting, I'll be sworn. Who is carousing at this
+late hour?'
+
+'His excellenza and the Signors,' replied the soldier: 'it is a sign you
+are a stranger at the castle, or you would not need to ask the question.
+They are brave spirits, that do without sleep--they generally pass the
+night in good cheer; would that we, who keep the watch, had a little of
+it! It is cold work, pacing the ramparts so many hours of the night, if
+one has no good liquor to warm one's heart.'
+
+'Courage, my lad, courage ought to warm your heart,' said Ugo.
+'Courage!' replied the soldier sharply, with a menacing air, which Ugo
+perceiving, prevented his saying more, by returning to the subject of
+the carousal. 'This is a new custom,' said he; 'when I left the castle,
+the Signors used to sit up counselling.'
+
+'Aye, and for that matter, carousing too,' replied the soldier, 'but,
+since the siege, they have done nothing but make merry: and if I was
+they, I would settle accounts with myself, for all my hard fighting, the
+same way.'
+
+They had now crossed the second court, and reached the hall door, when
+the soldier, bidding them good night, hastened back to his post; and,
+while they waited for admittance, Emily considered how she might avoid
+seeing Montoni, and retire unnoticed to her former apartment, for she
+shrunk from the thought of encountering either him, or any of his party,
+at this hour. The uproar within the castle was now so loud, that, though
+Ugo knocked repeatedly at the hall door, he was not heard by any of
+the servants, a circumstance, which increased Emily's alarm, while it
+allowed her time to deliberate on the means of retiring unobserved; for,
+though she might, perhaps, pass up the great stair-case unseen, it was
+impossible she could find the way to her chamber, without a light, the
+difficulty of procuring which, and the danger of wandering about the
+castle, without one, immediately struck her. Bertrand had only a torch,
+and she knew, that the servants never brought a taper to the door, for
+the hall was sufficiently lighted by the large tripod lamp, which hung
+in the vaulted roof; and, while she should wait till Annette could bring
+a taper, Montoni, or some of his companions, might discover her.
+
+The door was now opened by Carlo; and Emily, having requested him to
+send Annette immediately with a light to the great gallery, where
+she determined to await her, passed on with hasty steps towards the
+stair-case; while Bertrand and Ugo, with the torch, followed old Carlo
+to the servants' hall, impatient for supper and the warm blaze of a wood
+fire. Emily, lighted only by the feeble rays, which the lamp above threw
+between the arches of this extensive hall, endeavoured to find her way
+to the stair-case, now hid in obscurity; while the shouts of merriment,
+that burst from a remote apartment, served, by heightening her terror,
+to increase her perplexity, and she expected, every instant, to see
+the door of that room open, and Montoni and his companions issue forth.
+Having, at length, reached the stair-case, and found her way to the top,
+she seated herself on the last stair, to await the arrival of Annette;
+for the profound darkness of the gallery deterred her from proceeding
+farther, and, while she listened for her footstep, she heard only
+distant sounds of revelry, which rose in sullen echoes from among the
+arcades below. Once she thought she heard a low sound from the dark
+gallery behind her; and, turning her eyes, fancied she saw something
+luminous move in it; and, since she could not, at this moment, subdue
+the weakness that caused her fears, she quitted her seat, and crept
+softly down a few stairs lower.
+
+Annette not yet appearing, Emily now concluded, that she was gone
+to bed, and that nobody chose to call her up; and the prospect, that
+presented itself, of passing the night in darkness, in this place, or
+in some other equally forlorn (for she knew it would be impracticable to
+find her way through the intricacies of the galleries to her chamber),
+drew tears of mingled terror and despondency from her eyes.
+
+While thus she sat, she fancied she heard again an odd sound from
+the gallery, and she listened, scarcely daring to breathe, but the
+increasing voices below overcame every other sound. Soon after, she
+heard Montoni and his companions burst into the hall, who spoke, as
+if they were much intoxicated, and seemed to be advancing towards the
+stair-case. She now remembered, that they must come this way to their
+chambers, and, forgetting all the terrors of the gallery, hurried
+towards it with an intention of secreting herself in some of the
+passages, that opened beyond, and of endeavouring, when the Signors were
+retired, to find her way to her own room, or to that of Annette, which
+was in a remote part of the castle.
+
+With extended arms, she crept along the gallery, still hearing the
+voices of persons below, who seemed to stop in conversation at the foot
+of the stair-case, and then pausing for a moment to listen, half fearful
+of going further into the darkness of the gallery, where she still
+imagined, from the noise she had heard, that some person was lurking,
+'They are already informed of my arrival,' said she, 'and Montoni is
+coming himself to seek me! In the present state of his mind, his purpose
+must be desperate.' Then, recollecting the scene, that had passed in
+the corridor, on the night preceding her departure from the castle, 'O
+Valancourt!' said she, 'I must then resign you for ever. To brave any
+longer the injustice of Montoni, would not be fortitude, but rashness.'
+Still the voices below did not draw nearer, but they became louder, and
+she distinguished those of Verezzi and Bertolini above the rest, while
+the few words she caught made her listen more anxiously for others. The
+conversation seemed to concern herself; and, having ventured to step
+a few paces nearer to the stair-case, she discovered, that they were
+disputing about her, each seeming to claim some former promise of
+Montoni, who appeared, at first, inclined to appease and to persuade
+them to return to their wine, but afterwards to be weary of the dispute,
+and, saying that he left them to settle it as they could, was returning
+with the rest of the party to the apartment he had just quitted.
+Verezzi then stopped him. 'Where is she? Signor,' said he, in a voice of
+impatience: 'tell us where she is.' 'I have already told you that I
+do not know,' replied Montoni, who seemed to be somewhat overcome with
+wine; 'but she is most probably gone to her apartment.' Verezzi
+and Bertolini now desisted from their enquiries, and sprang to the
+stair-case together, while Emily, who, during this discourse, had
+trembled so excessively, that she had with difficulty supported herself,
+seemed inspired with new strength, the moment she heard the sound
+of their steps, and ran along the gallery, dark as it was, with the
+fleetness of a fawn. But, long before she reached its extremity, the
+light, which Verezzi carried, flashed upon the walls; both appeared,
+and, instantly perceiving Emily, pursued her. At this moment, Bertolini,
+whose steps, though swift, were not steady, and whose impatience
+overcame what little caution he had hitherto used, stumbled, and fell
+at his length. The lamp fell with him, and was presently expiring on the
+floor; but Verezzi, regardless of saving it, seized the advantage this
+accident gave him over his rival, and followed Emily, to whom, however,
+the light had shown one of the passages that branched from the gallery,
+and she instantly turned into it. Verezzi could just discern the way she
+had taken, and this he pursued; but the sound of her steps soon sunk
+in distance, while he, less acquainted with the passage, was obliged
+to proceed through the dark, with caution, lest he should fall down
+a flight of steps, such as in this extensive old castle frequently
+terminated an avenue. This passage at length brought Emily to the
+corridor, into which her own chamber opened, and, not hearing any
+footstep, she paused to take breath, and consider what was the safest
+design to be adopted. She had followed this passage, merely because it
+was the first that appeared, and now that she had reached the end of it,
+was as perplexed as before. Whither to go, or how further to find her
+way in the dark, she knew not; she was aware only that she must not seek
+her apartment, for there she would certainly be sought, and her danger
+increased every instant, while she remained near it. Her spirits and her
+breath, however, were so much exhausted, that she was compelled to rest,
+for a few minutes, at the end of the passage, and still she heard no
+steps approaching. As thus she stood, light glimmered under an opposite
+door of the gallery, and, from its situation, she knew, that it was
+the door of that mysterious chamber, where she had made a discovery so
+shocking, that she never remembered it but with the utmost horror. That
+there should be light in this chamber, and at this hour, excited her
+strong surprise, and she felt a momentary terror concerning it, which
+did not permit her to look again, for her spirits were now in such a
+state of weakness, that she almost expected to see the door slowly open,
+and some horrible object appear at it. Still she listened for a
+step along the passage, and looked up it, where, not a ray of light
+appearing, she concluded, that Verezzi had gone back for the lamp; and,
+believing that he would shortly be there, she again considered which way
+she should go, or rather which way she could find in the dark.
+
+A faint ray still glimmered under the opposite door, but so great, and,
+perhaps, so just was her horror of that chamber, that she would not
+again have tempted its secrets, though she had been certain of obtaining
+the light so important to her safety. She was still breathing with
+difficulty, and resting at the end of the passage, when she heard a
+rustling sound, and then a low voice, so very near her, that it seemed
+close to her ear; but she had presence of mind to check her emotions,
+and to remain quite still; in the next moment, she perceived it to be
+the voice of Verezzi, who did not appear to know, that she was there,
+but to have spoken to himself. 'The air is fresher here,' said he: 'this
+should be the corridor.' Perhaps, he was one of those heroes, whose
+courage can defy an enemy better than darkness, and he tried to rally
+his spirits with the sound of his own voice. However this might be,
+he turned to the right, and proceeded, with the same stealing steps,
+towards Emily's apartment, apparently forgetting, that, in darkness,
+she could easily elude his search, even in her chamber; and, like an
+intoxicated person, he followed pertinaciously the one idea, that had
+possessed his imagination.
+
+The moment she heard his steps steal away, she left her station and
+moved softly to the other end of the corridor, determined to trust
+again to chance, and to quit it by the first avenue she could find; but,
+before she could effect this, light broke upon the walls of the gallery,
+and, looking back, she saw Verezzi crossing it towards her chamber.
+She now glided into a passage, that opened on the left, without, as
+she thought, being perceived; but, in the next instant, another light,
+glimmering at the further end of this passage, threw her into new
+terror. While she stopped and hesitated which way to go, the pause
+allowed her to perceive, that it was Annette, who advanced, and
+she hurried to meet her: but her imprudence again alarmed Emily,
+on perceiving whom, she burst into a scream of joy, and it was some
+minutes, before she could be prevailed with to be silent, or to release
+her mistress from the ardent clasp, in which she held her. When, at
+length, Emily made Annette comprehend her danger, they hurried
+towards Annette's room, which was in a distant part of the castle.
+No apprehensions, however, could yet silence the latter. 'Oh dear
+ma'amselle,' said she, as they passed along, 'what a terrified time have
+I had of it! Oh! I thought I should have died an hundred times! I never
+thought I should live to see you again! and I never was so glad to see
+any body in my whole life, as I am to see you now.' 'Hark!' cried Emily,
+'we are pursued; that was the echo of steps!' 'No, ma'amselle,' said
+Annette, 'it was only the echo of a door shutting; sound runs along
+these vaulted passages so, that one is continually deceived by it; if
+one does but speak, or cough, it makes a noise as loud as a cannon.'
+'Then there is the greater necessity for us to be silent,' said Emily:
+'pr'ythee say no more, till we reach your chamber.' Here, at length,
+they arrived, without interruption, and, Annette having fastened the
+door, Emily sat down on her little bed, to recover breath and composure.
+To her enquiry, whether Valancourt was among the prisoners in the
+castle, Annette replied, that she had not been able to hear, but that
+she knew there were several persons confined. She then proceeded, in her
+tedious way, to give an account of the siege, or rather a detail of her
+terrors and various sufferings, during the attack. 'But,' added she,
+'when I heard the shouts of victory from the ramparts, I thought we were
+all taken, and gave myself up for lost, instead of which, WE had driven
+the enemy away. I went then to the north gallery, and saw a great many
+of them scampering away among the mountains; but the rampart walls were
+all in ruins, as one may say, and there was a dismal sight to see down
+among the woods below, where the poor fellows were lying in heaps, but
+were carried off presently by their comrades. While the siege was going
+on, the Signor was here, and there, and every where, at the same time,
+as Ludovico told me, for he would not let me see any thing hardly, and
+locked me up, as he has often done before, in a room in the middle of
+the castle, and used to bring me food, and come and talk with me as
+often as he could; and I must say, if it had not been for Ludovico, I
+should have died outright.'
+
+'Well, Annette,' said Emily, 'and how have affairs gone on, since the
+siege?'
+
+'O! sad hurly burly doings, ma'amselle,' replied Annette; 'the Signors
+have done nothing but sit and drink and game, ever since. They sit up,
+all night, and play among themselves, for all those riches and fine
+things, they brought in, some time since, when they used to go out
+a-robbing, or as good, for days together; and then they have dreadful
+quarrels about who loses, and who wins. That fierce Signor Verezzi is
+always losing, as they tell me, and Signor Orsino wins from him, and
+this makes him very wroth, and they have had several hard set-to's about
+it. Then, all those fine ladies are at the castle still; and I declare I
+am frighted, whenever I meet any of them in the passages.'--
+
+'Surely, Annette,' said Emily starting, 'I heard a noise: listen.' After
+a long pause, 'No, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'it was only the wind in
+the gallery; I often hear it, when it shakes the old doors, at the other
+end. But won't you go to bed, ma'amselle? you surely will not sit up
+starving, all night.' Emily now laid herself down on the mattress, and
+desired Annette to leave the lamp burning on the hearth; having done
+which, the latter placed herself beside Emily, who, however, was not
+suffered to sleep, for she again thought she heard a noise from the
+passage; and Annette was again trying to convince her, that it was only
+the wind, when footsteps were distinctly heard near the door. Annette
+was now starting from the bed, but Emily prevailed with her to remain
+there, and listened with her in a state of terrible expectation. The
+steps still loitered at the door, when presently an attempt was made on
+the lock, and, in the next instant, a voice called. 'For heaven's sake,
+Annette, do not answer,' said Emily softly, 'remain quite still; but I
+fear we must extinguish the lamp, or its glare will betray us.' 'Holy
+Virgin!' exclaimed Annette, forgetting her discretion, 'I would not be
+in darkness now for the whole world.' While she spoke, the voice became
+louder than before, and repeated Annette's name; 'Blessed Virgin!' cried
+she suddenly, 'it is only Ludovico.' She rose to open the door, but
+Emily prevented her, till they should be more certain, that it was he
+alone; with whom Annette, at length, talked for some time, and learned,
+that he was come to enquire after herself, whom he had let out of her
+room to go to Emily, and that he was now returned to lock her in again.
+Emily, fearful of being overheard, if they conversed any longer through
+the door, consented that it should be opened, and a young man appeared,
+whose open countenance confirmed the favourable opinion of him, which
+his care of Annette had already prompted her to form. She entreated his
+protection, should Verezzi make this requisite; and Ludovico offered
+to pass the night in an old chamber, adjoining, that opened from the
+gallery, and, on the first alarm, to come to their defence.
+
+Emily was much soothed by this proposal; and Ludovico, having lighted
+his lamp, went to his station, while she, once more, endeavoured to
+repose on her mattress. But a variety of interests pressed upon her
+attention, and prevented sleep. She thought much on what Annette had
+told her of the dissolute manners of Montoni and his associates, and
+more of his present conduct towards herself, and of the danger, from
+which she had just escaped. From the view of her present situation she
+shrunk, as from a new picture of terror. She saw herself in a castle,
+inhabited by vice and violence, seated beyond the reach of law or
+justice, and in the power of a man, whose perseverance was equal to
+every occasion, and in whom passions, of which revenge was not the
+weakest, entirely supplied the place of principles. She was compelled,
+once more, to acknowledge, that it would be folly, and not fortitude,
+any longer to dare his power; and, resigning all hopes of future
+happiness with Valancourt, she determined, that, on the following
+morning, she would compromise with Montoni, and give up her estates,
+on condition, that he would permit her immediate return to France. Such
+considerations kept her waking for many hours; but, the night passed,
+without further alarm from Verezzi.
+
+On the next morning, Emily had a long conversation with Ludovico, in
+which she heard circumstances concerning the castle, and received hints
+of the designs of Montoni, that considerably increased her alarms. On
+expressing her surprise, that Ludovico, who seemed to be so sensible of
+the evils of his situation, should continue in it, he informed her, that
+it was not his intention to do so, and she then ventured to ask him, if
+he would assist her to escape from the castle. Ludovico assured her of
+his readiness to attempt this, but strongly represented the difficulty
+of the enterprise, and the certain destruction which must ensue,
+should Montoni overtake them, before they had passed the mountains;
+he, however, promised to be watchful of every circumstance, that might
+contribute to the success of the attempt, and to think upon some plan of
+departure.
+
+Emily now confided to him the name of Valancourt, and begged he would
+enquire for such a person among the prisoners in the castle; for the
+faint hope, which this conversation awakened, made her now recede from
+her resolution of an immediate compromise with Montoni. She determined,
+if possible, to delay this, till she heard further from Ludovico, and,
+if his designs were found to be impracticable, to resign the estates
+at once. Her thoughts were on this subject, when Montoni, who was now
+recovered from the intoxication of the preceding night, sent for her,
+and she immediately obeyed the summons. He was alone. 'I find,' said he,
+'that you were not in your chamber, last night; where were you?' Emily
+related to him some circumstances of her alarm, and entreated his
+protection from a repetition of them. 'You know the terms of my
+protection,' said he; 'if you really value this, you will secure it.'
+His open declaration, that he would only conditionally protect her,
+while she remained a prisoner in the castle, shewed Emily the necessity
+of an immediate compliance with his terms; but she first demanded,
+whether he would permit her immediately to depart, if she gave up her
+claim to the contested estates. In a very solemn manner he then assured
+her, that he would, and immediately laid before her a paper, which was
+to transfer the right of those estates to himself.
+
+She was, for a considerable time, unable to sign it, and her heart
+was torn with contending interests, for she was about to resign the
+happiness of all her future years--the hope, which had sustained her in
+so many hours of adversity.
+
+After hearing from Montoni a recapitulation of the conditions of her
+compliance, and a remonstrance, that his time was valuable, she put her
+hand to the paper; when she had done which, she fell back in her chair,
+but soon recovered, and desired, that he would give orders for her
+departure, and that he would allow Annette to accompany her. Montoni
+smiled. 'It was necessary to deceive you,' said he,--'there was no other
+way of making you act reasonably; you shall go, but it must not be at
+present. I must first secure these estates by possession: when that is
+done, you may return to France if you will.'
+
+The deliberate villany, with which he violated the solemn engagement he
+had just entered into, shocked Emily as much, as the certainty, that she
+had made a fruitless sacrifice, and must still remain his prisoner. She
+had no words to express what she felt, and knew, that it would have been
+useless, if she had. As she looked piteously at Montoni, he turned away,
+and at the same time desired she would withdraw to her apartment; but,
+unable to leave the room, she sat down in a chair near the door, and
+sighed heavily. She had neither words nor tears.
+
+'Why will you indulge this childish grief?' said he. 'Endeavour to
+strengthen your mind, to bear patiently what cannot now be avoided; you
+have no real evil to lament; be patient, and you will be sent back to
+France. At present retire to your apartment.'
+
+
+'I dare not go, sir,' said she, 'where I shall be liable to the
+intrusion of Signor Verezzi.' 'Have I not promised to protect you?'
+said Montoni. 'You have promised, sir,'--replied Emily, after some
+hesitation. 'And is not my promise sufficient?' added he sternly. 'You
+will recollect your former promise, Signor,' said Emily, trembling,
+'and may determine for me, whether I ought to rely upon this.' 'Will you
+provoke me to declare to you, that I will not protect you then?' said
+Montoni, in a tone of haughty displeasure. 'If that will satisfy you,
+I will do it immediately. Withdraw to your chamber, before I retract my
+promise; you have nothing to fear there.' Emily left the room, and moved
+slowly into the hall, where the fear of meeting Verezzi, or Bertolini,
+made her quicken her steps, though she could scarcely support herself;
+and soon after she reached once more her own apartment. Having looked
+fearfully round her, to examine if any person was there, and having
+searched every part of it, she fastened the door, and sat down by one of
+the casements. Here, while she looked out for some hope to support her
+fainting spirits, which had been so long harassed and oppressed, that,
+if she had not now struggled much against misfortune, they would have
+left her, perhaps, for ever, she endeavoured to believe, that Montoni
+did really intend to permit her return to France as soon as he had
+secured her property, and that he would, in the mean time, protect her
+from insult; but her chief hope rested with Ludovico, who, she doubted
+not, would be zealous in her cause, though he seemed almost to despair
+of success in it. One circumstance, however, she had to rejoice in. Her
+prudence, or rather her fears, had saved her from mentioning the name
+of Valancourt to Montoni, which she was several times on the point of
+doing, before she signed the paper, and of stipulating for his release,
+if he should be really a prisoner in the castle. Had she done this,
+Montoni's jealous fears would now probably have loaded Valancourt
+with new severities, and have suggested the advantage of holding him a
+captive for life.
+
+Thus passed the melancholy day, as she had before passed many in this
+same chamber. When night drew on, she would have withdrawn herself to
+Annette's bed, had not a particular interest inclined her to remain
+in this chamber, in spite of her fears; for, when the castle should be
+still, and the customary hour arrived, she determined to watch for the
+music, which she had formerly heard. Though its sounds might not enable
+her positively to determine, whether Valancourt was there, they would
+perhaps strengthen her opinion that he was, and impart the comfort, so
+necessary to her present support.--But, on the other hand, if all should
+be silent--! She hardly dared to suffer her thoughts to glance that way,
+but waited, with impatient expectation, the approaching hour.
+
+The night was stormy; the battlements of the castle appeared to rock in
+the wind, and, at intervals, long groans seemed to pass on the air,
+such as those, which often deceive the melancholy mind, in tempests,
+and amidst scenes of desolation. Emily heard, as formerly, the sentinels
+pass along the terrace to their posts, and, looking out from her
+casement, observed, that the watch was doubled; a precaution, which
+appeared necessary enough, when she threw her eyes on the walls, and saw
+their shattered condition. The well-known sounds of the soldiers' march,
+and of their distant voices, which passed her in the wind, and were lost
+again, recalled to her memory the melancholy sensation she had
+suffered, when she formerly heard the same sounds; and occasioned almost
+involuntary comparisons between her present, and her late situation.
+But this was no subject for congratulations, and she wisely checked the
+course of her thoughts, while, as the hour was not yet come, in which
+she had been accustomed to hear the music, she closed the casement,
+and endeavoured to await it in patience. The door of the stair-case she
+tried to secure, as usual, with some of the furniture of the room; but
+this expedient her fears now represented to her to be very inadequate to
+the power and perseverance of Verezzi; and she often looked at a large
+and heavy chest, that stood in the chamber, with wishes that she and
+Annette had strength enough to move it. While she blamed the long
+stay of this girl, who was still with Ludovico and some other of the
+servants, she trimmed her wood fire, to make the room appear less
+desolate, and sat down beside it with a book, which her eyes perused,
+while her thoughts wandered to Valancourt, and her own misfortunes. As
+she sat thus, she thought, in a pause of the wind, she distinguished
+music, and went to the casement to listen, but the loud swell of the
+gust overcame every other sound. When the wind sunk again, she heard
+distinctly, in the deep pause that succeeded, the sweet strings of a
+lute; but again the rising tempest bore away the notes, and again was
+succeeded by a solemn pause. Emily, trembling with hope and fear, opened
+her casement to listen, and to try whether her own voice could be
+heard by the musician; for to endure any longer this state of torturing
+suspense concerning Valancourt, seemed to be utterly impossible. There
+was a kind of breathless stillness in the chambers, that permitted her
+to distinguish from below the tender notes of the very lute she had
+formerly heard, and with it, a plaintive voice, made sweeter by the low
+rustling sound, that now began to creep along the wood-tops, till it
+was lost in the rising wind. Their tall heads then began to wave, while,
+through a forest of pine, on the left, the wind, groaning heavily,
+rolled onward over the woods below, bending them almost to their roots;
+and, as the long-resounding gale swept away, other woods, on the
+right, seemed to answer the 'loud lament;' then, others, further still,
+softened it into a murmur, that died into silence. Emily listened,
+with mingled awe and expectation, hope and fear; and again the melting
+sweetness of the lute was heard, and the same solemn-breathing voice.
+Convinced that these came from an apartment underneath, she leaned far
+out of her window, that she might discover whether any light was there;
+but the casements below, as well as those above, were sunk so deep in
+the thick walls of the castle, that she could not see them, or even the
+faint ray, that probably glimmered through their bars. She then ventured
+to call; but the wind bore her voice to the other end of the terrace,
+and then the music was heard as before, in the pause of the gust.
+Suddenly, she thought she heard a noise in her chamber, and she drew
+herself within the casement; but, in a moment after, distinguishing
+Annette's voice at the door, she concluded it was her she had heard
+before, and she let her in. 'Move softly, Annette, to the casement,'
+said she, 'and listen with me; the music is returned.' They were silent
+till, the measure changing, Annette exclaimed, 'Holy Virgin! I know that
+song well; it is a French song, one of the favourite songs of my dear
+country.' This was the ballad Emily had heard on a former night, though
+not the one she had first listened to from the fishing-house in Gascony.
+'O! it is a Frenchman, that sings,' said Annette: 'it must be Monsieur
+Valancourt.' 'Hark! Annette, do not speak so loud,' said Emily, 'we may
+be overheard.' 'What! by the Chevalier?' said Annette. 'No,' replied
+Emily mournfully, 'but by somebody, who may report us to the Signor.
+What reason have you to think it is Monsieur Valancourt, who sings? But
+hark! now the voice swells louder! Do you recollect those tones? I fear
+to trust my own judgment.' 'I never happened to hear the Chevalier
+sing, Mademoiselle,' replied Annette, who, as Emily was disappointed to
+perceive, had no stronger reason for concluding this to be Valancourt,
+than that the musician must be a Frenchman. Soon after, she heard the
+song of the fishing-house, and distinguished her own name, which was
+repeated so distinctly, that Annette had heard it also. She trembled,
+sunk into a chair by the window, and Annette called aloud, 'Monsieur
+Valancourt! Monsieur Valancourt!' while Emily endeavoured to check her,
+but she repeated the call more loudly than before, and the lute and the
+voice suddenly stopped. Emily listened, for some time, in a state
+of intolerable suspense; but, no answer being returned, 'It does not
+signify, Mademoiselle,' said Annette; 'it is the Chevalier, and I will
+speak to him.' 'No, Annette,' said Emily, 'I think I will speak myself;
+if it is he, he will know my voice, and speak again.' 'Who is it,' said
+she, 'that sings at this late hour?'
+
+A long silence ensued, and, having repeated the question, she perceived
+some faint accents, mingling in the blast, that swept by; but the sounds
+were so distant, and passed so suddenly, that she could scarcely hear
+them, much less distinguish the words they uttered, or recognise the
+voice. After another pause, Emily called again; and again they heard
+a voice, but as faintly as before; and they perceived, that there were
+other circumstances, besides the strength, and direction of the wind, to
+content with; for the great depth, at which the casements were fixed in
+the castle walls, contributed, still more than the distance, to prevent
+articulated sounds from being understood, though general ones were
+easily heard. Emily, however, ventured to believe, from the circumstance
+of her voice alone having been answered, that the stranger was
+Valancourt, as well as that he knew her, and she gave herself up to
+speechless joy. Annette, however, was not speechless.--She renewed
+her calls, but received no answer; and Emily, fearing, that a further
+attempt, which certainly was, as present, highly dangerous, might expose
+them to the guards of the castle, while it could not perhaps terminate
+her suspense, insisted on Annette's dropping the enquiry for this night;
+though she determined herself to question Ludovico, on the subject, in
+the morning, more urgently than she had yet done. She was now enabled
+to say, that the stranger, whom she had formerly heard, was still in
+the castle, and to direct Ludovico to that part of it, in which he was
+confined.
+
+Emily, attended by Annette, continued at the casement, for some time,
+but all remained still; they heard neither lute or voice again, and
+Emily was now as much oppressed by anxious joy, as she lately was by a
+sense of her misfortunes. With hasty steps she paced the room, now half
+calling on Valancourt's name, then suddenly stopping, and now going to
+the casement and listening, where, however, she heard nothing but
+the solemn waving of the woods. Sometimes her impatience to speak to
+Ludovico prompted her to send Annette to call him; but a sense of the
+impropriety of this at midnight restrained her. Annette, meanwhile, as
+impatient as her mistress, went as often to the casement to listen, and
+returned almost as much disappointed. She, at length, mentioned
+Signor Verezzi, and her fear, lest he should enter the chamber by the
+staircase, door. 'But the night is now almost past, Mademoiselle,' said
+she, recollecting herself; 'there is the morning light, beginning to
+peep over those mountains yonder in the east.'
+
+Emily had forgotten, till this moment, that such a person existed as
+Verezzi, and all the danger that had appeared to threaten her; but the
+mention of his name renewed her alarm, and she remembered the old chest,
+that she had wished to place against the door, which she now, with
+Annette, attempted to move, but it was so heavy, that they could not
+lift it from the floor. 'What is in this great old chest, Mademoiselle,'
+said Annette, 'that makes it so weighty?' Emily having replied, 'that
+she found it in the chamber, when she first came to the castle, and had
+never examined it.'--'Then I will, ma'amselle,' said Annette, and she
+tried to lift the lid; but this was held by a lock, for which she had
+no key, and which, indeed, appeared, from its peculiar construction, to
+open with a spring. The morning now glimmered through the casements, and
+the wind had sunk into a calm. Emily looked out upon the dusky woods,
+and on the twilight mountains, just stealing in the eye, and saw the
+whole scene, after the storm, lying in profound stillness, the woods
+motionless, and the clouds above, through which the dawn trembled,
+scarcely appearing to move along the heavens. One soldier was pacing the
+terrace beneath, with measured steps; and two, more distant, were sunk
+asleep on the walls, wearied with the night's watch. Having inhaled, for
+a while, the pure spirit of the air, and of vegetation, which the late
+rains had called forth; and having listened, once more, for a note of
+music, she now closed the casement, and retired to rest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+     Thus on the chill Lapponian's dreary land,
+ For many a long month lost in snow profound,
+ When Sol from Cancer sends the seasons bland,
+ And in their northern cave the storms hath bound;
+ From silent mountains, straight, with startling sound,
+ Torrents are hurl'd, green hills emerge, and lo,
+ The trees with foliage, cliffs with flow'rs are crown'd;
+ Pure rills through vales of verdure warbling go;
+ And wonder, love, and joy, the peasant's heart o'erflow.
+     BEATTIE
+
+Several of her succeeding days passed in suspense, for Ludovico
+could only learn from the soldiers, that there was a prisoner in the
+apartment, described to him by Emily, and that he was a Frenchman,
+whom they had taken in one of their skirmishes, with a party of his
+countrymen. During this interval, Emily escaped the persecutions of
+Bertolini, and Verezzi, by confining herself to her apartment; except
+that sometimes, in an evening, she ventured to walk in the adjoining
+corridor. Montoni appeared to respect his last promise, though he had
+prophaned his first; for to his protection only could she attribute her
+present repose; and in this she was now so secure, that she did not wish
+to leave the castle, till she could obtain some certainty concerning
+Valancourt; for which she waited, indeed, without any sacrifice of
+her own comfort, since no circumstance had occurred to make her escape
+probable.
+
+On the fourth day, Ludovico informed her, that he had hopes of being
+admitted to the presence of the prisoner; it being the turn of a
+soldier, with whom he had been for some time familiar, to attend him
+on the following night. He was not deceived in his hope; for, under
+pretence of carrying in a pitcher of water, he entered the prison,
+though, his prudence having prevented him from telling the sentinel the
+real motive of his visit, he was obliged to make his conference with the
+prisoner a very short one.
+
+Emily awaited the result in her own apartment, Ludovico having promised
+to accompany Annette to the corridor, in the evening; where, after
+several hours impatiently counted, he arrived. Emily, having then
+uttered the name of Valancourt, could articulate no more, but hesitated
+in trembling expectation. 'The Chevalier would not entrust me with his
+name, Signora,' replied Ludovico; 'but, when I just mentioned yours, he
+seemed overwhelmed with joy, though he was not so much surprised as I
+expected.' 'Does he then remember me?' she exclaimed.
+
+'O! it is Mons. Valancourt,' said Annette, and looked impatiently at
+Ludovico, who understood her look, and replied to Emily: 'Yes, lady, the
+Chevalier does, indeed, remember you, and, I am sure, has a very great
+regard for you, and I made bold to say you had for him. He then enquired
+how you came to know he was in the castle, and whether you ordered me
+to speak to him. The first question I could not answer, but the second I
+did; and then he went off into his ecstasies again. I was afraid his joy
+would have betrayed him to the sentinel at the door.'
+
+'But how does he look, Ludovico?' interrupted Emily: 'is he not
+melancholy and ill with this long confinement?'--'Why, as to melancholy,
+I saw no symptom of that, lady, while I was with him, for he seemed
+in the finest spirits I ever saw any body in, in all my life. His
+countenance was all joy, and, if one may judge from that, he was very
+well; but I did not ask him.' 'Did he send me no message?' said Emily.
+'O yes, Signora, and something besides,' replied Ludovico, who searched
+his pockets. 'Surely, I have not lost it,' added he. 'The Chevalier
+said, he would have written, madam, if he had had pen and ink, and was
+going to have sent a very long message, when the sentinel entered the
+room, but not before he had give me this.' Ludovico then drew forth a
+miniature from his bosom, which Emily received with a trembling hand,
+and perceived to be a portrait of herself--the very picture, which her
+mother had lost so strangely in the fishing-house at La Vallee.
+
+Tears of mingled joy and tenderness flowed to her eyes, while Ludovico
+proceeded--'"Tell your lady," said the Chevalier, as he gave me the
+picture, "that this has been my companion, and only solace in all my
+misfortunes. Tell her, that I have worn it next my heart, and that I
+sent it her as the pledge of an affection, which can never die; that I
+would not part with it, but to her, for the wealth of worlds, and that I
+now part with it, only in the hope of soon receiving it from her hands.
+Tell her"--Just then, Signora, the sentinel came in, and the Chevalier
+said no more; but he had before asked me to contrive an interview for
+him with you; and when I told him, how little hope I had of prevailing
+with the guard to assist me, he said, that was not, perhaps, of so
+much consequence as I imagined, and bade me contrive to bring back your
+answer, and he would inform me of more than he chose to do then. So
+this, I think, lady, is the whole of what passed.'
+
+'How, Ludovico, shall I reward you for your zeal?' said Emily: 'but,
+indeed, I do not now possess the means. When can you see the Chevalier
+again?' 'That is uncertain, Signora,' replied he. 'It depends upon who
+stands guard next: there are not more than one or two among them, from
+whom I would dare to ask admittance to the prison-chamber.'
+
+'I need not bid you remember, Ludovico,' resumed Emily, 'how very much
+interested I am in your seeing the Chevalier soon; and, when you do so,
+tell him, that I have received the picture, and, with the sentiments he
+wished. Tell him I have suffered much, and still suffer--' She paused.
+'But shall I tell him you will see him, lady?' said Ludovico. 'Most
+certainly I will,' replied Emily. 'But when, Signora, and where?' 'That
+must depend upon circumstances,' returned Emily. 'The place, and the
+hour, must be regulated by his opportunities.'
+
+'As to the place, mademoiselle,' said Annette, 'there is no other place
+in the castle, besides this corridor, where WE can see him in safety,
+you know; and, as for the hour,--it must be when all the Signors are
+asleep, if that ever happens!' 'You may mention these circumstances to
+the Chevalier, Ludovico,' said she, checking the flippancy of Annette,
+'and leave them to his judgment and opportunity. Tell him, my heart is
+unchanged. But, above all, let him see you again as soon as possible;
+and, Ludovico, I think it is needless to tell you I shall very anxiously
+look for you.' Having then wished her good night, Ludovico descended
+the staircase, and Emily retired to rest, but not to sleep, for joy now
+rendered her as wakeful, as she had ever been from grief. Montoni and
+his castle had all vanished from her mind, like the frightful vision of
+a necromancer, and she wandered, once more, in fairy scenes of unfading
+happiness:
+
+     As when, beneath the beam
+ Of summer moons, the distant woods among,
+ Or by some flood, all silver'd with the gleam,
+ The soft embodied Fays thro' airy portals stream.
+
+A week elapsed, before Ludovico again visited the prison; for the
+sentinels, during that period, were men, in whom he could not confide,
+and he feared to awaken curiosity, by asking to see their prisoner. In
+this interval, he communicated to Emily terrific reports of what
+was passing in the castle; of riots, quarrels, and of carousals more
+alarming than either; while from some circumstances, which he mentioned,
+she not only doubted, whether Montoni meant ever to release her, but
+greatly feared, that he had designs, concerning her,--such as she
+had formerly dreaded. Her name was frequently mentioned in the
+conversations, which Bertolini and Verezzi held together, and, at those
+times, they were frequently in contention. Montoni had lost large sums
+to Verezzi, so that there was a dreadful possibility of his designing
+her to be a substitute for the debt; but, as she was ignorant, that he
+had formerly encouraged the hopes of Bertolini also, concerning herself,
+after the latter had done him some signal service, she knew not how to
+account for these contentions between Bertolini and Verezzi. The cause
+of them, however, appeared to be of little consequence, for she thought
+she saw destruction approaching in many forms, and her entreaties to
+Ludovico to contrive an escape and to see the prisoner again, were more
+urgent than ever.
+
+At length, he informed her, that he had again visited the Chevalier, who
+had directed him to confide in the guard of the prison, from whom he
+had already received some instances of kindness, and who had promised to
+permit his going into the castle for half an hour, on the ensuing night,
+when Montoni and his companions should be engaged at their carousals.
+'This was kind, to be sure,' added Ludovico: 'but Sebastian knows he
+runs no risque in letting the Chevalier out, for, if he can get beyond
+the bars and iron doors of the castle, he must be cunning indeed. But
+the Chevalier desired me, Signora, to go to you immediately, and to
+beg you would allow him to visit you, this night, if it was only for a
+moment, for that he could no longer live under the same roof, without
+seeing you; the hour, he said, he could not mention, for it must depend
+on circumstances (just as you said, Signora); and the place he desired
+you would appoint, as knowing which was best for your own safety.'
+
+Emily was now so much agitated by the near prospect of meeting
+Valancourt, that it was some time, before she could give any answer to
+Ludovico, or consider of the place of meeting; when she did, she saw
+none, that promised so much security, as the corridor, near her own
+apartment, which she was checked from leaving, by the apprehension of
+meeting any of Montoni's guests, on their way to their rooms; and she
+dismissed the scruples, which delicacy opposed, now that a serious
+danger was to be avoided by encountering them. It was settled,
+therefore, that the Chevalier should meet her in the corridor, at that
+hour of the night, which Ludovico, who was to be upon the watch, should
+judge safest: and Emily, as may be imagined, passed this interval in
+a tumult of hope and joy, anxiety and impatience. Never, since her
+residence in the castle, had she watched, with so much pleasure, the
+sun set behind the mountains, and twilight shade, and darkness veil the
+scene, as on this evening. She counted the notes of the great clock, and
+listened to the steps of the sentinels, as they changed the watch,
+only to rejoice, that another hour was gone. 'O, Valancourt!' said she,
+'after all I have suffered; after our long, long separation, when I
+thought I should never--never see you more--we are still to meet again!
+O! I have endured grief, and anxiety, and terror, and let me, then, not
+sink beneath this joy!' These were moments, when it was impossible
+for her to feel emotions of regret, or melancholy, for any ordinary
+interests;--even the reflection, that she had resigned the estates,
+which would have been a provision for herself and Valancourt for life,
+threw only a light and transient shade upon her spirits. The idea of
+Valancourt, and that she should see him so soon, alone occupied her
+heart.
+
+At length the clock struck twelve; she opened the door to listen, if
+any noise was in the castle, and heard only distant shouts of riot and
+laughter, echoed feebly along the gallery. She guessed, that the Signor
+and his guests were at the banquet. 'They are now engaged for the
+night,' said she; 'and Valancourt will soon be here.' Having softly
+closed the door, she paced the room with impatient steps, and often went
+to the casement to listen for the lute; but all was silent, and, her
+agitation every moment increasing, she was at length unable to support
+herself, and sat down by the window. Annette, whom she detained, was, in
+the meantime, as loquacious as usual; but Emily heard scarcely any thing
+she said, and having at length risen to the casement, she distinguished
+the chords of the lute, struck with an expressive hand, and then the
+voice, she had formerly listened to, accompanied it.
+
+     Now rising love they fann'd, now pleasing dole
+ They breath'd in tender musings through the heart;
+ And now a graver, sacred strain they stole,
+ As when seraphic hands an hymn impart!
+
+Emily wept in doubtful joy and tenderness; and, when the strain ceased,
+she considered it as a signal, that Valancourt was about to leave the
+prison. Soon after, she heard steps in the corridor;--they were the
+light, quick steps of hope; she could scarcely support herself, as they
+approached, but opening the door of the apartment, she advanced to meet
+Valancourt, and, in the next moment, sunk in the arms of a stranger. His
+voice--his countenance instantly convinced her, and she fainted away.
+
+On reviving, she found herself supported by the stranger, who was
+watching over her recovery, with a countenance of ineffable tenderness
+and anxiety. She had no spirits for reply, or enquiry; she asked no
+questions, but burst into tears, and disengaged herself from his
+arms; when the expression of his countenance changed to surprise and
+disappointment, and he turned to Ludovico, for an explanation; Annette
+soon gave the information, which Ludovico could not. 'O, sir!' said
+she, in a voice, interrupted with sobs; 'O, sir! you are not the other
+Chevalier. We expected Monsieur Valancourt, but you are not he! O
+Ludovico! how could you deceive us so? my poor lady will never recover
+it--never!' The stranger, who now appeared much agitated, attempted to
+speak, but his words faltered; and then striking his hand against his
+forehead, as if in sudden despair, he walked abruptly to the other end
+of the corridor.
+
+Suddenly, Annette dried her tears, and spoke to Ludovico. 'But,
+perhaps,' said she, 'after all, the other Chevalier is not this: perhaps
+the Chevalier Valancourt is still below.' Emily raised her head.
+'No,' replied Ludovico, 'Monsieur Valancourt never was below, if this
+gentleman is not he.' 'If you, sir,' said Ludovico, addressing the
+stranger, 'would but have had the goodness to trust me with your name,
+this mistake had been avoided.' 'Most true,' replied the stranger,
+speaking in broken Italian, 'but it was of the utmost consequence to me,
+that my name should be concealed from Montoni. Madam,' added he then,
+addressing Emily in French, 'will you permit me to apologize for the
+pain I have occasioned you, and to explain to you alone my name, and the
+circumstance, which has led me into this error? I am of France;--I am
+your countryman;--we are met in a foreign land.' Emily tried to
+compose her spirits; yet she hesitated to grant his request. At length,
+desiring, that Ludovico would wait on the stair-case, and detaining
+Annette, she told the stranger, that her woman understood very little
+Italian, and begged he would communicate what he wished to say, in that
+language.--Having withdrawn to a distant part of the corridor, he said,
+with a long-drawn sigh, 'You, madam, are no stranger to me, though I am
+so unhappy as to be unknown to you.--My name is Du Pont; I am of France,
+of Gascony, your native province, and have long admired,--and, why
+should I affect to disguise it?--have long loved you.' He paused,
+but, in the next moment, proceeded. 'My family, madam, is probably not
+unknown to you, for we lived within a few miles of La Vallee, and I
+have, sometimes, had the happiness of meeting you, on visits in
+the neighbourhood. I will not offend you by repeating how much you
+interested me; how much I loved to wander in the scenes you frequented;
+how often I visited your favourite fishing-house, and lamented the
+circumstance, which, at that time, forbade me to reveal my passion. I
+will not explain how I surrendered to temptation, and became possessed
+of a treasure, which was to me inestimable; a treasure, which I
+committed to your messenger, a few days ago, with expectations
+very different from my present ones. I will say nothing of these
+circumstances, for I know they will avail me little; let me only
+supplicate from you forgiveness, and the picture, which I so unwarily
+returned. Your generosity will pardon the theft, and restore the
+prize. My crime has been my punishment; for the portrait I stole has
+contributed to nourish a passion, which must still be my torment.'
+
+Emily now interrupted him. 'I think, sir, I may leave it to your
+integrity to determine, whether, after what has just appeared,
+concerning Mons. Valancourt, I ought to return the picture. I think you
+will acknowledge, that this would not be generosity; and you will allow
+me to add, that it would be doing myself an injustice. I must consider
+myself honoured by your good opinion, but'--and she hesitated,--'the
+mistake of this evening makes it unnecessary for me to say more.'
+
+'It does, madam,--alas! it does!' said the stranger, who, after a long
+pause, proceeded.--'But you will allow me to shew my disinterestedness,
+though not my love, and will accept the services I offer. Yet, alas!
+what services can I offer? I am myself a prisoner, a sufferer, like
+you. But, dear as liberty is to me, I would not seek it through half
+the hazards I would encounter to deliver you from this recess of vice.
+Accept the offered services of a friend; do not refuse me the reward of
+having, at least, attempted to deserve your thanks.'
+
+'You deserve them already, sir,' said Emily; 'the wish deserves my
+warmest thanks. But you will excuse me for reminding you of the danger
+you incur by prolonging this interview. It will be a great consolation
+to me to remember, whether your friendly attempts to release me succeed
+or not, that I have a countryman, who would so generously protect
+me.'--Monsieur Du Pont took her hand, which she but feebly attempted to
+withdraw, and pressed it respectfully to his lips. 'Allow me to breathe
+another fervent sigh for your happiness,' said he, 'and to applaud
+myself for an affection, which I cannot conquer.' As he said this, Emily
+heard a noise from her apartment, and, turning round, saw the door from
+the stair-case open, and a man rush into her chamber. 'I will teach you
+to conquer it,' cried he, as he advanced into the corridor, and drew a
+stiletto, which he aimed at Du Pont, who was unarmed, but who, stepping
+back, avoided the blow, and then sprung upon Verezzi, from whom he
+wrenched the stiletto. While they struggled in each other's grasp,
+Emily, followed by Annette, ran further into the corridor, calling
+on Ludovico, who was, however, gone from the stair-case, and, as she
+advanced, terrified and uncertain what to do, a distant noise, that
+seemed to arise from the hall, reminded her of the danger she was
+incurring; and, sending Annette forward in search of Ludovico, she
+returned to the spot where Du Pont and Verezzi were still struggling for
+victory. It was her own cause which was to be decided with that of
+the former, whose conduct, independently of this circumstance, would,
+however, have interested her in his success, even had she not disliked
+and dreaded Verezzi. She threw herself in a chair, and supplicated them
+to desist from further violence, till, at length, Du Pont forced Verezzi
+to the floor, where he lay stunned by the violence of his fall; and she
+then entreated Du Pont to escape from the room, before Montoni, or his
+party, should appear; but he still refused to leave her unprotected;
+and, while Emily, now more terrified for him, than for herself, enforced
+the entreaty, they heard steps ascending the private stair-case.
+
+'O you are lost!' cried she, 'these are Montoni's people.' Du Pont
+made no reply, but supported Emily, while, with a steady, though eager,
+countenance, he awaited their appearance, and, in the next moment,
+Ludovico, alone, mounted the landing-place. Throwing an hasty glance
+round the chamber, 'Follow me,' said he, 'as you value your lives; we
+have not an instant to lose!'
+
+Emily enquired what had occurred, and whither they were to go?
+
+'I cannot stay to tell you now, Signora,' replied Ludovico: 'fly! fly!'
+
+She immediately followed him, accompanied by Mons. Du Pont, down the
+stair-case, and along a vaulted passage, when suddenly she recollected
+Annette, and enquired for her. 'She awaits us further on, Signora,' said
+Ludovico, almost breathless with haste; 'the gates were open, a moment
+since, to a party just come in from the mountains: they will be shut,
+I fear, before we can reach them! Through this door, Signora,' added
+Ludovico, holding down the lamp, 'take care, here are two steps.'
+
+Emily followed, trembling still more, than before she had understood,
+that her escape from the castle, depended upon the present moment; while
+Du Pont supported her, and endeavoured, as they passed along, to cheer
+her spirits.
+
+'Speak low, Signor,' said Ludovico, 'these passages send echoes all
+round the castle.'
+
+'Take care of the light,' cried Emily, 'you go so fast, that the air
+will extinguish it.'
+
+Ludovico now opened another door, where they found Annette, and the
+party then descended a short flight of steps into a passage, which,
+Ludovico said, led round the inner court of the castle, and opened into
+the outer one. As they advanced, confused and tumultuous sounds, that
+seemed to come from the inner court, alarmed Emily. 'Nay, Signora,' said
+Ludovico, 'our only hope is in that tumult; while the Signor's people
+are busied about the men, who are just arrived, we may, perhaps, pass
+unnoticed through the gates. But hush!' he added, as they approached the
+small door, that opened into the outer court, 'if you will remain here a
+moment, I will go to see whether the gates are open, and any body is
+in the way. Pray extinguish the light, Signor, if you hear me talking,'
+continued Ludovico, delivering the lamp to Du Pont, 'and remain quite
+still.'
+
+Saying this, he stepped out upon the court, and they closed the door,
+listening anxiously to his departing steps. No voice, however, was heard
+in the court, which he was crossing, though a confusion of many voices
+yet issued from the inner one. 'We shall soon be beyond the walls,' said
+Du Pont softly to Emily, 'support yourself a little longer, Madam, and
+all will be well.'
+
+But soon they heard Ludovico speaking loud, and the voice also of some
+other person, and Du Pont immediately extinguished the lamp. 'Ah! it
+is too late!' exclaimed Emily, 'what is to become of us?' They listened
+again, and then perceived, that Ludovico was talking with a sentinel,
+whose voices were heard also by Emily's favourite dog, that had followed
+her from the chamber, and now barked loudly. 'This dog will betray us!'
+said Du Pont, 'I will hold him.' 'I fear he has already betrayed us!'
+replied Emily. Du Pont, however, caught him up, and, again listening
+to what was going on without, they heard Ludovico say, 'I'll watch the
+gates the while.'
+
+'Stay a minute,' replied the sentinel, 'and you need not have the
+trouble, for the horses will be sent round to the outer stables, then
+the gates will be shut, and I can leave my post.' 'I don't mind the
+trouble, comrade,' said Ludovico, 'you will do such another good turn
+for me, some time. Go--go, and fetch the wine; the rogues, that are just
+come in, will drink it all else.'
+
+The soldier hesitated, and then called aloud to the people in the second
+court, to know why they did not send out the horses, that the gates
+might be shut; but they were too much engaged, to attend to him, even if
+they had heard his voice.
+
+'Aye--aye,' said Ludovico, 'they know better than that; they are sharing
+it all among them; if you wait till the horses come out, you must wait
+till the wine is drunk. I have had my share already, but, since you do
+not care about yours, I see no reason why I should not have that too.'
+
+'Hold, hold, not so fast,' cried the sentinel, 'do watch then, for a
+moment: I'll be with you presently.'
+
+'Don't hurry yourself,' said Ludovico, coolly, 'I have kept guard before
+now. But you may leave me your trombone,* that, if the castle should be
+attacked, you know, I may be able to defend the pass, like a hero.'
+
+(* A kind of blunderbuss. [A. R.])
+
+
+'There, my good fellow,' returned the soldier, 'there, take it--it has
+seen service, though it could do little in defending the castle. I'll
+tell you a good story, though, about this same trombone.'
+
+'You'll tell it better when you have had the wine,' said Ludovico.
+'There! they are coming out from the court already.'
+
+'I'll have the wine, though,' said the sentinel, running off. 'I won't
+keep you a minute.'
+
+'Take your time, I am in no haste,' replied Ludovico, who was already
+hurrying across the court, when the soldier came back. 'Whither so fast,
+friend--whither so fast?' said the latter. 'What! is this the way you
+keep watch! I must stand to my post myself, I see.'
+
+'Aye, well,' replied Ludovico, 'you have saved me the trouble of
+following you further, for I wanted to tell you, if you have a mind to
+drink the Tuscany wine, you must go to Sebastian, he is dealing it out;
+the other that Federico has, is not worth having. But you are not likely
+to have any, I see, for they are all coming out.'
+
+'By St. Peter! so they are,' said the soldier, and again ran off, while
+Ludovico, once more at liberty, hastened to the door of the passage,
+where Emily was sinking under the anxiety this long discourse had
+occasioned; but, on his telling them the court was clear, they followed
+him to the gates, without waiting another instant, yet not before he
+had seized two horses, that had strayed from the second court, and were
+picking a scanty meal among the grass, which grew between the pavement
+of the first.
+
+They passed, without interruption, the dreadful gates, and took the road
+that led down among the woods, Emily, Monsieur Du Pont and Annette on
+foot, and Ludovico, who was mounted on one horse, leading the other.
+Having reached them, they stopped, while Emily and Annette were placed
+on horseback with their two protectors, when, Ludovico leading the way,
+they set off as fast as the broken road, and the feeble light, which a
+rising moon threw among the foliage, would permit.
+
+Emily was so much astonished by this sudden departure, that she scarcely
+dared to believe herself awake; and she yet much doubted whether this
+adventure would terminate in escape,--a doubt, which had too much
+probability to justify it; for, before they quitted the woods, they
+heard shouts in the wind, and, on emerging from them, saw lights moving
+quickly near the castle above. Du Pont whipped his horse, and with some
+difficulty compelled him to go faster.
+
+'Ah! poor beast,' said Ludovico, 'he is weary enough;--he has been out
+all day; but, Signor, we must fly for it, now; for yonder are lights
+coming this way.'
+
+Having given his own horse a lash, they now both set off on a full
+gallop; and, when they again looked back, the lights were so distant
+as scarcely to be discerned, and the voices were sunk into silence. The
+travellers then abated their pace, and, consulting whither they should
+direct their course, it was determined they should descend into Tuscany,
+and endeavour to reach the Mediterranean, where they could readily
+embark for France. Thither Du Pont meant to attend Emily, if he should
+learn, that the regiment he had accompanied into Italy, was returned to
+his native country.
+
+They were now in the road, which Emily had travelled with Ugo and
+Bertrand; but Ludovico, who was the only one of the party, acquainted
+with the passes of these mountains, said, that, a little further on, a
+bye-road, branching from this, would lead them down into Tuscany with
+very little difficulty; and that, at a few leagues distance, was a small
+town, where necessaries could be procured for their journey.
+
+'But, I hope,' added he, 'we shall meet with no straggling parties of
+banditti; some of them are abroad, I know. However, I have got a good
+trombone, which will be of some service, if we should encounter any of
+those brave spirits. You have no arms, Signor?' 'Yes,' replied Du Pont,
+'I have the villain's stilletto, who would have stabbed me--but let us
+rejoice in our escape from Udolpho, nor torment ourselves with looking
+out for dangers, that may never arrive.'
+
+The moon was now risen high over the woods, that hung upon the sides of
+the narrow glen, through which they wandered, and afforded them light
+sufficient to distinguish their way, and to avoid the loose and broken
+stones, that frequently crossed it. They now travelled leisurely, and
+in profound silence; for they had scarcely yet recovered from the
+astonishment, into which this sudden escape had thrown them.--Emily's
+mind, especially, was sunk, after the various emotions it had suffered,
+into a kind of musing stillness, which the reposing beauty of the
+surrounding scene and the creeping murmur of the night-breeze among the
+foliage above contributed to prolong. She thought of Valancourt and of
+France, with hope, and she would have thought of them with joy, had
+not the first events of this evening harassed her spirits too much, to
+permit her now to feel so lively a sensation. Meanwhile, Emily was
+alone the object of Du Pont's melancholy consideration; yet, with the
+despondency he suffered, as he mused on his recent disappointment, was
+mingled a sweet pleasure, occasioned by her presence, though they
+did not now exchange a single word. Annette thought of this wonderful
+escape, of the bustle in which Montoni and his people must be, now that
+their flight was discovered; of her native country, whither she hoped
+she was returning, and of her marriage with Ludovico, to which there no
+longer appeared any impediment, for poverty she did not consider such.
+Ludovico, on his part, congratulated himself, on having rescued his
+Annette and Signora Emily from the danger, that had surrounded them; on
+his own liberation from people, whose manners he had long detested;
+on the freedom he had given to Monsieur Du Pont; on his prospect of
+happiness with the object of his affections, and not a little on the
+address, with which he had deceived the sentinel, and conducted the
+whole of this affair.
+
+Thus variously engaged in thought, the travellers passed on silently,
+for above an hour, a question only being, now and then, asked by Du
+Pont, concerning the road, or a remark uttered by Annette, respecting
+objects, seen imperfectly in the twilight. At length, lights were
+perceived twinkling on the side of a mountain, and Ludovico had no
+doubt, that they proceeded from the town he had mentioned, while his
+companions, satisfied by this assurance, sunk again into silence.
+Annette was the first who interrupted this. 'Holy Peter!' said she,
+'What shall we do for money on our journey? for I know neither I, or my
+lady, have a single sequin; the Signor took care of that!'
+
+This remark produced a serious enquiry, which ended in as serious an
+embarrassment, for Du Pont had been rifled of nearly all his money, when
+he was taken prisoner; the remainder he had given to the sentinel, who
+had enabled him occasionally to leave his prison-chamber; and Ludovico,
+who had for some time found a difficulty, in procuring any part of the
+wages due to him, had now scarcely cash sufficient to procure necessary
+refreshment at the first town, in which they should arrive.
+
+Their poverty was the more distressing, since it would detain them
+among the mountains, where, even in a town, they could scarcely consider
+themselves safe from Montoni. The travellers, however, had only to
+proceed and dare the future; and they continued their way through lonely
+wilds and dusky vallies, where the overhanging foliage now admitted, and
+then excluded the moon-light;--wilds so desolate, that they appeared, on
+the first glance, as if no human being had ever trode them before. Even
+the road, in which the party were, did but slightly contradict this
+error, for the high grass and other luxuriant vegetation, with which it
+was overgrown, told how very seldom the foot of a traveller had passed
+it.
+
+At length, from a distance, was heard the faint tinkling of a
+sheep-bell; and, soon after, the bleat of flocks, and the party then
+knew, that they were near some human habitation, for the light, which
+Ludovico had fancied to proceed from a town, had long been concealed by
+intervening mountains. Cheered by this hope, they quickened their pace
+along the narrow pass they were winding, and it opened upon one of those
+pastoral vallies of the Apennines, which might be painted for a scene
+of Arcadia, and whose beauty and simplicity are finely contrasted by the
+grandeur of the snow-topt mountains above.
+
+The morning light, now glimmering in the horizon, shewed faintly, at
+a little distance, upon the brow of a hill, which seemed to peep from
+'under the opening eye-lids of the morn,' the town they were in
+search of, and which they soon after reached. It was not without some
+difficulty, that they there found a house, which could afford shelter
+for themselves and their horses; and Emily desired they might not rest
+longer than was necessary for refreshment. Her appearance excited some
+surprise, for she was without a hat, having had time only to throw on
+her veil before she left the castle, a circumstance, that compelled her
+to regret again the want of money, without which it was impossible to
+procure this necessary article of dress.
+
+Ludovico, on examining his purse, found it even insufficient to supply
+present refreshment, and Du Pont, at length, ventured to inform the
+landlord, whose countenance was simple and honest, of their exact
+situation, and requested, that he would assist them to pursue their
+journey; a purpose, which he promised to comply with, as far as he was
+able, when he learned that they were prisoners escaping from Montoni,
+whom he had too much reason to hate. But, though he consented to lend
+them fresh horses to carry them to the next town, he was too poor
+himself to trust them with money, and they were again lamenting their
+poverty, when Ludovico, who had been with his tired horses to the hovel,
+which served for a stable, entered the room, half frantic with joy, in
+which his auditors soon participated. On removing the saddle from one of
+the horses, he had found beneath it a small bag, containing, no doubt,
+the booty of one of the condottieri, who had returned from a plundering
+excursion, just before Ludovico left the castle, and whose horse having
+strayed from the inner court, while his master was engaged in drinking,
+had brought away the treasure, which the ruffian had considered the
+reward of his exploit.
+
+On counting over this, Du Pont found, that it would be more than
+sufficient to carry them all to France, where he now determined to
+accompany Emily, whether he should obtain intelligence of his regiment,
+or not; for, though he had as much confidence in the integrity of
+Ludovico, as his small knowledge of him allowed, he could not endure the
+thought of committing her to his care for the voyage; nor, perhaps, had
+he resolution enough to deny himself the dangerous pleasure, which he
+might derive from her presence.
+
+He now consulted them, concerning the sea-port, to which they should
+direct their way, and Ludovico, better informed of the geography of the
+country, said, that Leghorn was the nearest port of consequence, which
+Du Pont knew also to be the most likely of any in Italy to assist
+their plan, since from thence vessels of all nations were continually
+departing. Thither, therefore, it was determined, that they should
+proceed.
+
+Emily, having purchased a little straw hat, such as was worn by the
+peasant girls of Tuscany, and some other little necessary equipments for
+the journey, and the travellers, having exchanged their tired horses for
+others better able to carry them, re-commenced their joyous way, as the
+sun was rising over the mountains, and, after travelling through this
+romantic country, for several hours, began to descend into the vale
+of Arno. And here Emily beheld all the charms of sylvan and pastoral
+landscape united, adorned with the elegant villas of the Florentine
+nobles, and diversified with the various riches of cultivation. How
+vivid the shrubs, that embowered the slopes, with the woods, that
+stretched amphitheatrically along the mountains! and, above all, how
+elegant the outline of these waving Apennines, now softening from the
+wildness, which their interior regions exhibited! At a distance, in the
+east, Emily discovered Florence, with its towers rising on the
+brilliant horizon, and its luxuriant plain, spreading to the feet of
+the Apennines, speckled with gardens and magnificent villas, or coloured
+with groves of orange and lemon, with vines, corn, and plantations of
+olives and mulberry; while, to the west, the vale opened to the waters
+of the Mediterranean, so distant, that they were known only by a blueish
+line, that appeared upon the horizon, and by the light marine vapour,
+which just stained the aether above.
+
+With a full heart, Emily hailed the waves, that were to bear her back to
+her native country, the remembrance of which, however, brought with it
+a pang; for she had there no home to receive, no parents to welcome her,
+but was going, like a forlorn pilgrim, to weep over the sad spot, where
+he, who WAS her father, lay interred. Nor were her spirits cheered,
+when she considered how long it would probably be before she should see
+Valancourt, who might be stationed with his regiment in a distant part
+of France, and that, when they did meet, it would be only to lament
+the successful villany of Montoni; yet, still she would have felt
+inexpressible delight at the thought of being once more in the same
+country with Valancourt, had it even been certain, that she could not
+see him.
+
+The intense heat, for it was now noon, obliged the travellers to look
+out for a shady recess, where they might rest, for a few hours, and
+the neighbouring thickets, abounding with wild grapes, raspberries, and
+figs, promised them grateful refreshment. Soon after, they turned
+from the road into a grove, whose thick foliage entirely excluded the
+sun-beams, and where a spring, gushing from the rock, gave coolness to
+the air; and, having alighted and turned the horses to graze, Annette
+and Ludovico ran to gather fruit from the surrounding thickets, of which
+they soon returned with an abundance. The travellers, seated under the
+shade of a pine and cypress grove and on turf, enriched with such a
+profusion of fragrant flowers, as Emily had scarcely ever seen, even
+among the Pyrenees, took their simple repast, and viewed, with new
+delight, beneath the dark umbrage of gigantic pines, the glowing
+landscape stretching to the sea.
+
+Emily and Du Pont gradually became thoughtful and silent; but Annette
+was all joy and loquacity, and Ludovico was gay, without forgetting the
+respectful distance, which was due to his companions. The repast being
+over, Du Pont recommended Emily to endeavour to sleep, during these
+sultry hours, and, desiring the servants would do the same, said he
+would watch the while; but Ludovico wished to spare him this trouble;
+and Emily and Annette, wearied with travelling, tried to repose, while
+he stood guard with his trombone.
+
+When Emily, refreshed by slumber, awoke, she found the sentinel asleep
+on his post and Du Pont awake, but lost in melancholy thought. As the
+sun was yet too high to allow them to continue their journey, and as
+it was necessary, that Ludovico, after the toils and trouble he had
+suffered, should finish his sleep, Emily took this opportunity of
+enquiring by what accident Du Pont became Montoni's prisoner, and he,
+pleased with the interest this enquiry expressed and with the excuse
+it gave him for talking to her of himself, immediately answered her
+curiosity.
+
+'I came into Italy, madam,' said Du Pont, 'in the service of my country.
+In an adventure among the mountains our party, engaging with the bands
+of Montoni, was routed, and I, with a few of my comrades, was taken
+prisoner. When they told me, whose captive I was, the name of Montoni
+struck me, for I remembered, that Madame Cheron, your aunt, had married
+an Italian of that name, and that you had accompanied them into Italy.
+It was not, however, till some time after, that I became convinced this
+was the same Montoni, or learned that you, madam, was under the same
+roof with myself. I will not pain you by describing what were my
+emotions upon this discovery, which I owed to a sentinel, whom I had
+so far won to my interest, that he granted me many indulgences, one of
+which was very important to me, and somewhat dangerous to himself; but
+he persisted in refusing to convey any letter, or notice of my situation
+to you, for he justly dreaded a discovery and the consequent vengeance
+of Montoni. He however enabled me to see you more than once. You are
+surprised, madam, and I will explain myself. My health and spirits
+suffered extremely from want of air and exercise, and, at length, I
+gained so far upon the pity, or the avarice of the man, that he gave me
+the means of walking on the terrace.'
+
+Emily now listened, with very anxious attention, to the narrative of Du
+Pont, who proceeded:
+
+'In granting this indulgence, he knew, that he had nothing to apprehend
+from a chance of my escaping from a castle, which was vigilantly
+guarded, and the nearest terrace of which rose over a perpendicular
+rock; he shewed me also,' continued Du Pont, 'a door concealed in
+the cedar wainscot of the apartment where I was confined, which he
+instructed me how to open; and which, leading into a passage, formed
+within the thickness of the wall, that extended far along the castle,
+finally opened in an obscure corner of the eastern rampart. I have since
+been informed, that there are many passages of the same kind
+concealed within the prodigious walls of that edifice, and which were,
+undoubtedly, contrived for the purpose of facilitating escapes in time
+of war. Through this avenue, at the dead of night, I often stole to the
+terrace, where I walked with the utmost caution, lest my steps should
+betray me to the sentinels on duty in distant parts; for this end of it,
+being guarded by high buildings, was not watched by soldiers. In one of
+these midnight wanderings, I saw light in a casement that overlooked the
+rampart, and which, I observed, was immediately over my prison-chamber.
+It occurred to me, that you might be in that apartment, and, with the
+hope of seeing you, I placed myself opposite to the window.'
+
+Emily, remembering the figure that had formerly appeared on the terrace,
+and which had occasioned her so much anxiety, exclaimed, 'It was you
+then, Monsieur Du Pont, who occasioned me much foolish terror; my
+spirits were, at that time, so much weakened by long suffering, that
+they took alarm at every hint.' Du Pont, after lamenting, that he
+had occasioned her any apprehension, added, 'As I rested on the
+wall, opposite to your casement, the consideration of your melancholy
+situation and of my own called from me involuntary sounds of
+lamentation, which drew you, I fancy, to the casement; I saw there a
+person, whom I believed to be you. O! I will say nothing of my emotion
+at that moment; I wished to speak, but prudence restrained me, till
+the distant foot-step of a sentinel compelled me suddenly to quit my
+station.
+
+'It was some time, before I had another opportunity of walking, for I
+could only leave my prison, when it happened to be the turn of one
+man to guard me; meanwhile I became convinced from some circumstances
+related by him, that your apartment was over mine, and, when again I
+ventured forth, I returned to your casement, where again I saw you, but
+without daring to speak. I waved my hand, and you suddenly disappeared;
+then it was, that I forgot my prudence, and yielded to lamentation;
+again you appeared--you spoke--I heard the well-known accent of your
+voice! and, at that moment, my discretion would have forsaken me
+again, had I not heard also the approaching steps of a soldier, when I
+instantly quitted the place, though not before the man had seen me.
+He followed down the terrace and gained so fast upon me, that I was
+compelled to make use of a stratagem, ridiculous enough, to save myself.
+I had heard of the superstition of many of these men, and I uttered
+a strange noise, with a hope, that my pursuer would mistake it for
+something supernatural, and desist from pursuit. Luckily for myself I
+succeeded; the man, it seems, was subject to fits, and the terror he
+suffered threw him into one, by which accident I secured my retreat. A
+sense of the danger I had escaped, and the increased watchfulness, which
+my appearance had occasioned among the sentinels, deterred me ever
+after from walking on the terrace; but, in the stillness of night,
+I frequently beguiled myself with an old lute, procured for me by a
+soldier, which I sometimes accompanied with my voice, and sometimes, I
+will acknowledge, with a hope of making myself heard by you; but it was
+only a few evenings ago, that this hope was answered. I then thought I
+heard a voice in the wind, calling me; yet, even then I feared to reply,
+lest the sentinel at the prison door should hear me. Was I right, madam,
+in this conjecture--was it you who spoke?'
+
+'Yes,' said Emily, with an involuntary sigh, 'you was right indeed.'
+
+Du Pont, observing the painful emotions, which this question revived,
+now changed the subject. 'In one of my excursions through the passage,
+which I have mentioned, I overheard a singular conversation,' said he.
+
+'In the passage!' said Emily, with surprise.
+
+'I heard it in the passage,' said Du Pont, 'but it proceeded from an
+apartment, adjoining the wall, within which the passage wound, and the
+shell of the wall was there so thin, and was also somewhat decayed,
+that I could distinctly hear every word, spoken on the other side. It
+happened that Montoni and his companions were assembled in the room,
+and Montoni began to relate the extraordinary history of the lady, his
+predecessor, in the castle. He did, indeed, mention some very surprising
+circumstances, and whether they were strictly true, his conscience
+must decide; I fear it will determine against him. But you, madam, have
+doubtless heard the report, which he designs should circulate, on the
+subject of that lady's mysterious fate.'
+
+'I have, sir,' replied Emily, 'and I perceive, that you doubt it.'
+
+'I doubted it before the period I am speaking of,' rejoined Du
+Pont;--'but some circumstances, mentioned by Montoni, greatly
+contributed to my suspicions. The account I then heard, almost convinced
+me, that he was a murderer. I trembled for you;--the more so that I had
+heard the guests mention your name in a manner, that threatened your
+repose; and, knowing, that the most impious men are often the most
+superstitious, I determined to try whether I could not awaken their
+consciences, and awe them from the commission of the crime I dreaded. I
+listened closely to Montoni, and, in the most striking passages of his
+story, I joined my voice, and repeated his last words, in a disguised
+and hollow tone.'
+
+'But was you not afraid of being discovered?' said Emily.
+
+'I was not,' replied Du Pont; 'for I knew, that, if Montoni had been
+acquainted with the secret of this passage, he would not have confined
+me in the apartment, to which it led. I knew also, from better
+authority, that he was ignorant of it. The party, for some time,
+appeared inattentive to my voice; but, at length, were so much alarmed,
+that they quitted the apartment; and, having heard Montoni order his
+servants to search it, I returned to my prison, which was very distant
+from this part of the passage.' 'I remember perfectly to have heard of
+the conversation you mention,' said Emily; 'it spread a general alarm
+among Montoni's people, and I will own I was weak enough to partake of
+it.'
+
+Monsieur Du Pont and Emily thus continued to converse of Montoni, and
+then of France, and of the plan of their voyage; when Emily told him,
+that it was her intention to retire to a convent in Languedoc, where she
+had been formerly treated with much kindness, and from thence to write
+to her relation Monsieur Quesnel, and inform him of her conduct. There,
+she designed to wait, till La Vallee should again be her own, whither
+she hoped her income would some time permit her to return; for Du
+Pont now taught her to expect, that the estate, of which Montoni had
+attempted to defraud her, was not irrecoverably lost, and he again
+congratulated her on her escape from Montoni, who, he had not a doubt,
+meant to have detained her for life. The possibility of recovering her
+aunt's estates for Valancourt and herself lighted up a joy in Emily's
+heart, such as she had not known for many months; but she endeavoured to
+conceal this from Monsieur Du Pont, lest it should lead him to a painful
+remembrance of his rival.
+
+They continued to converse, till the sun was declining in the west, when
+Du Pont awoke Ludovico, and they set forward on their journey. Gradually
+descending the lower slopes of the valley, they reached the Arno, and
+wound along its pastoral margin, for many miles, delighted with the
+scenery around them, and with the remembrances, which its classic waves
+revived. At a distance, they heard the gay song of the peasants among
+the vineyards, and observed the setting sun tint the waves with yellow
+lustre, and twilight draw a dusky purple over the mountains, which, at
+length, deepened into night. Then the LUCCIOLA, the fire-fly of Tuscany,
+was seen to flash its sudden sparks among the foliage, while the
+cicala, with its shrill note, became more clamorous than even during the
+noon-day heat, loving best the hour when the English beetle, with less
+offensive sound,
+
+     winds
+ His small but sullen horn,
+ As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path,
+ Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum.*
+
+(* Collins. [A. R.])
+
+
+The travellers crossed the Arno by moon-light, at a ferry, and, learning
+that Pisa was distant only a few miles down the river, they wished to
+have proceeded thither in a boat, but, as none could be procured, they
+set out on their wearied horses for that city. As they approached it,
+the vale expanded into a plain, variegated with vineyards, corn, olives
+and mulberry groves; but it was late, before they reached its gates,
+where Emily was surprised to hear the busy sound of footsteps and the
+tones of musical instruments, as well as to see the lively groups, that
+filled the streets, and she almost fancied herself again at Venice;
+but here was no moon-light sea--no gay gondolas, dashing the waves,--no
+PALLADIAN palaces, to throw enchantment over the fancy and lead it into
+the wilds of fairy story. The Arno rolled through the town, but no music
+trembled from balconies over its waters; it gave only the busy voices
+of sailors on board vessels just arrived from the Mediterranean;
+the melancholy heaving of the anchor, and the shrill boatswain's
+whistle;--sounds, which, since that period, have there sunk almost into
+silence. They then served to remind Du Pont, that it was probable he
+might hear of a vessel, sailing soon to France from this port, and thus
+be spared the trouble of going to Leghorn. As soon as Emily had reached
+the inn, he went therefore to the quay, to make his enquiries; but,
+after all the endeavours of himself and Ludovico, they could hear of no
+bark, destined immediately for France, and the travellers returned to
+their resting-place. Here also, Du Pont endeavoured to learn where his
+regiment then lay, but could acquire no information concerning it. The
+travellers retired early to rest, after the fatigues of this day;
+and, on the following, rose early, and, without pausing to view the
+celebrated antiquities of the place, or the wonders of its hanging
+tower, pursued their journey in the cooler hours, through a charming
+country, rich with wine, and corn and oil. The Apennines, no longer
+awful, or even grand, here softened into the beauty of sylvan and
+pastoral landscape; and Emily, as she descended them, looked down
+delighted on Leghorn, and its spacious bay, filled with vessels, and
+crowned with these beautiful hills.
+
+She was no less surprised and amused, on entering this town, to find
+it crowded with persons in the dresses of all nations; a scene, which
+reminded her of a Venetian masquerade, such as she had witnessed at the
+time of the Carnival; but here, was bustle, without gaiety, and noise
+instead of music, while elegance was to be looked for only in the waving
+outlines of the surrounding hills.
+
+Monsieur Du Pont, immediately on their arrival, went down to the quay,
+where he heard of several French vessels, and of one, that was to sail,
+in a few days, for Marseilles, from whence another vessel could be
+procured, without difficulty, to take them across the gulf of Lyons
+towards Narbonne, on the coast not many leagues from which city he
+understood the convent was seated, to which Emily wished to retire.
+He, therefore, immediately engaged with the captain to take them to
+Marseilles, and Emily was delighted to hear, that her passage to France
+was secured. Her mind was now relieved from the terror of pursuit, and
+the pleasing hope of soon seeing her native country--that country which
+held Valancourt, restored to her spirits a degree of cheerfulness, such
+as she had scarcely known, since the death of her father. At Leghorn
+also, Du Pont heard of his regiment, and that it had embarked for
+France; a circumstance, which gave him great satisfaction, for he could
+now accompany Emily thither, without reproach to his conscience, or
+apprehension of displeasure from his commander. During these days, he
+scrupulously forbore to distress her by a mention of his passion, and
+she was compelled to esteem and pity, though she could not love him. He
+endeavoured to amuse her by shewing the environs of the town, and they
+often walked together on the sea-shore, and on the busy quays, where
+Emily was frequently interested by the arrival and departure of vessels,
+participating in the joy of meeting friends, and, sometimes, shedding
+a sympathetic tear to the sorrow of those, that were separating. It was
+after having witnessed a scene of the latter kind, that she arranged the
+following stanzas:
+
+THE MARINER
+
+ Soft came the breath of spring; smooth flow'd the tide;
+ And blue the heaven in its mirror smil'd;
+ The white sail trembled, swell'd, expanded wide,
+ The busy sailors at the anchor toil'd.
+
+ With anxious friends, that shed the parting tear,
+ The deck was throng'd--how swift the moments fly!
+ The vessel heaves, the farewel signs appear;
+ Mute is each tongue, and eloquent each eye!
+
+ The last dread moment comes!--The sailor-youth
+ Hides the big drop, then smiles amid his pain,
+ Sooths his sad bride, and vows eternal truth,
+ 'Farewel, my love--we shall--shall meet again!'
+
+ Long on the stern, with waving hand, he stood;
+ The crowded shore sinks, lessening, from his view,
+ As gradual glides the bark along the flood;
+ His bride is seen no more--'Adieu!--adieu!'
+
+ The breeze of Eve moans low, her smile is o'er,
+ Dim steals her twilight down the crimson'd west,
+ He climbs the top-most mast, to seek once more
+ The far-seen coast, where all his wishes rest.
+
+ He views its dark line on the distant sky,
+ And Fancy leads him to his little home,
+ He sees his weeping love, he hears her sigh,
+ He sooths her griefs, and tells of joys to come.
+
+ Eve yields to night, the breeze to wintry gales,
+ In one vast shade the seas and shores repose;
+ He turns his aching eyes,--his spirit fails,
+ The chill tear falls;--sad to the deck he goes!
+
+ The storm of midnight swells, the sails are furl'd,
+ Deep sounds the lead, but finds no friendly shore,
+ Fast o'er the waves the wretched bark is hurl'd,
+ 'O Ellen, Ellen! we must meet no more!'
+
+ Lightnings, that shew the vast and foamy deep,
+ The rending thunders, as they onward roll,
+ The loud, loud winds, that o'er the billows sweep--
+ Shake the firm nerve, appall the bravest soul!
+
+ Ah! what avails the seamen's toiling care!
+ The straining cordage bursts, the mast is riv'n;
+ The sounds of terror groan along the air,
+ Then sink afar;--the bark on rocks is driv'n!
+
+ Fierce o'er the wreck the whelming waters pass'd,
+ The helpless crew sunk in the roaring main!
+ Henry's faint accents trembled in the blast--
+ 'Farewel, my love!--we ne'er shall meet again!'
+
+ Oft, at the calm and silent evening hour,
+ When summer-breezes linger on the wave,
+ A melancholy voice is heard to pour
+ Its lonely sweetness o'er poor Henry's grave!
+
+ And oft, at midnight, airy strains are heard
+ Around the grove, where Ellen's form is laid;
+ Nor is the dirge by village-maidens fear'd,
+ For lovers' spirits guard the holy shade!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+     Oh! the joy
+ Of young ideas, painted on the mind
+ In the warm glowing colours fancy spreads
+ On objects not yet known, when all is new,
+ And all is lovely!
+     SACRED DRAMAS
+
+We now return to Languedoc and to the mention of Count De Villefort, the
+nobleman, who succeeded to an estate of the Marquis De Villeroi situated
+near the monastery of St. Claire. It may be recollected, that this
+chateau was uninhabited, when St. Aubert and his daughter were in the
+neighbourhood, and that the former was much affected on discovering
+himself to be so near Chateau-le-Blanc, a place, concerning which the
+good old La Voisin afterwards dropped some hints, that had alarmed
+Emily's curiosity.
+
+It was in the year 1584, the beginning of that, in which St. Aubert
+died, that Francis Beauveau, Count De Villefort, came into possession
+of the mansion and extensive domain called Chateau-le-Blanc, situated
+in the province of Languedoc, on the shore of the Mediterranean. This
+estate, which, during some centuries, had belonged to his family,
+now descended to him, on the decease of his relative, the Marquis De
+Villeroi, who had been latterly a man of reserved manners and austere
+character; circumstances, which, together with the duties of his
+profession, that often called him into the field, had prevented any
+degree of intimacy with his cousin, the Count De Villefort. For many
+years, they had known little of each other, and the Count received the
+first intelligence of his death, which happened in a distant part of
+France, together with the instruments, that gave him possession of the
+domain Chateau-le-Blanc; but it was not till the following year, that
+he determined to visit that estate, when he designed to pass the autumn
+there. The scenes of Chateau-le-Blanc often came to his remembrance,
+heightened by the touches, which a warm imagination gives to the
+recollection of early pleasures; for, many years before, in the
+life-time of the Marchioness, and at that age when the mind is
+particularly sensible to impressions of gaiety and delight, he had once
+visited this spot, and, though he had passed a long intervening period
+amidst the vexations and tumults of public affairs, which too frequently
+corrode the heart, and vitiate the taste, the shades of Languedoc and
+the grandeur of its distant scenery had never been remembered by him
+with indifference.
+
+During many years, the chateau had been abandoned by the late Marquis,
+and, being inhabited only by an old steward and his wife, had been
+suffered to fall much into decay. To superintend the repairs, that would
+be requisite to make it a comfortable residence, had been a principal
+motive with the Count for passing the autumnal months in Languedoc; and
+neither the remonstrances, or the tears of the Countess, for, on
+urgent occasions, she could weep, were powerful enough to overcome his
+determination. She prepared, therefore, to obey the command, which she
+could not conquer, and to resign the gay assemblies of Paris,--where her
+beauty was generally unrivalled and won the applause, to which her
+wit had but feeble claim--for the twilight canopy of woods, the lonely
+grandeur of mountains and the solemnity of gothic halls and of long,
+long galleries, which echoed only the solitary step of a domestic, or
+the measured clink, that ascended from the great clock--the ancient
+monitor of the hall below. From these melancholy expectations she
+endeavoured to relieve her spirits by recollecting all that she had ever
+heard, concerning the joyous vintage of the plains of Languedoc; but
+there, alas! no airy forms would bound to the gay melody of Parisian
+dances, and a view of the rustic festivities of peasants could afford
+little pleasure to a heart, in which even the feelings of ordinary
+benevolence had long since decayed under the corruptions of luxury.
+
+The Count had a son and a daughter, the children of a former marriage,
+who, he designed, should accompany him to the south of France; Henri,
+who was in his twentieth year, was in the French service; and Blanche,
+who was not yet eighteen, had been hitherto confined to the convent,
+where she had been placed immediately on her father's second
+marriage. The present Countess, who had neither sufficient ability, or
+inclination, to superintend the education of her daughter-in-law, had
+advised this step, and the dread of superior beauty had since urged
+her to employ every art, that might prevail on the Count to prolong
+the period of Blanche's seclusion; it was, therefore, with extreme
+mortification, that she now understood he would no longer submit on this
+subject, yet it afforded her some consolation to consider, that, though
+the Lady Blanche would emerge from her convent, the shades of the
+country would, for some time, veil her beauty from the public eye.
+
+On the morning, which commenced the journey, the postillions stopped at
+the convent, by the Count's order, to take up Blanche, whose heart beat
+with delight, at the prospect of novelty and freedom now before her. As
+the time of her departure drew nigh, her impatience had increased, and
+the last night, during which she counted every note of every hour, had
+appeared the most tedious of any she had ever known. The morning light,
+at length, dawned; the matin-bell rang; she heard the nuns descending
+from their chambers, and she started from a sleepless pillow to welcome
+the day, which was to emancipate her from the severities of a cloister,
+and introduce her to a world, where pleasure was ever smiling, and
+goodness ever blessed--where, in short, nothing but pleasure and
+goodness reigned! When the bell of the great gate rang, and the sound
+was followed by that of carriage wheels, she ran, with a palpitating
+heart, to her lattice, and, perceiving her father's carriage in the
+court below, danced, with airy steps, along the gallery, where she was
+met by a nun with a summons from the abbess. In the next moment, she was
+in the parlour, and in the presence of the Countess who now appeared to
+her as an angel, that was to lead her into happiness. But the emotions
+of the Countess, on beholding her, were not in unison with those of
+Blanche, who had never appeared so lovely as at this moment, when her
+countenance, animated by the lightning smile of joy, glowed with the
+beauty of happy innocence.
+
+After conversing for a few minutes with the abbess, the Countess rose to
+go. This was the moment, which Blanche had anticipated with such eager
+expectation, the summit from which she looked down upon the fairy-land
+of happiness, and surveyed all its enchantment; was it a moment, then,
+for tears of regret? Yet it was so. She turned, with an altered and
+dejected countenance, to her young companions, who were come to bid her
+farewell, and wept! Even my lady abbess, so stately and so solemn, she
+saluted with a degree of sorrow, which, an hour before, she would
+have believed it impossible to feel, and which may be accounted for by
+considering how reluctantly we all part, even with unpleasing objects,
+when the separation is consciously for ever. Again, she kissed the poor
+nuns and then followed the Countess from that spot with tears, which she
+expected to leave only with smiles.
+
+But the presence of her father and the variety of objects, on the road,
+soon engaged her attention, and dissipated the shade, which tender
+regret had thrown upon her spirits. Inattentive to a conversation, which
+was passing between the Countess and a Mademoiselle Bearn, her friend,
+Blanche sat, lost in pleasing reverie, as she watched the clouds
+floating silently along the blue expanse, now veiling the sun and
+stretching their shadows along the distant scene, and then disclosing
+all his brightness. The journey continued to give Blanche inexpressible
+delight, for new scenes of nature were every instant opening to her
+view, and her fancy became stored with gay and beautiful imagery.
+
+It was on the evening of the seventh day, that the travellers came
+within view of Chateau-le-Blanc, the romantic beauty of whose situation
+strongly impressed the imagination of Blanche, who observed, with
+sublime astonishment, the Pyrenean mountains, which had been seen only
+at a distance during the day, now rising within a few leagues, with
+their wild cliffs and immense precipices, which the evening clouds,
+floating round them, now disclosed, and again veiled. The setting rays,
+that tinged their snowy summits with a roseate hue, touched their lower
+points with various colouring, while the blueish tint, that pervaded
+their shadowy recesses, gave the strength of contrast to the splendour
+of light. The plains of Languedoc, blushing with the purple vine and
+diversified with groves of mulberry, almond and olives, spread far to
+the north and the east; to the south, appeared the Mediterranean, clear
+as crystal, and blue as the heavens it reflected, bearing on its bosom
+vessels, whose white sails caught the sun-beams, and gave animation
+to the scene. On a high promontory, washed by the waters of the
+Mediterranean, stood her father's mansion, almost secluded from the
+eye by woods of intermingled pine, oak and chesnut, which crowned the
+eminence, and sloped towards the plains, on one side; while, on the
+other, they extended to a considerable distance along the sea-shores.
+
+As Blanche drew nearer, the gothic features of this antient mansion
+successively appeared--first an embattled turret, rising above the
+trees--then the broken arch of an immense gate-way, retiring beyond
+them; and she almost fancied herself approaching a castle, such as is
+often celebrated in early story, where the knights look out from the
+battlements on some champion below, who, clothed in black armour,
+comes, with his companions, to rescue the fair lady of his love from
+the oppression of his rival; a sort of legends, to which she had once
+or twice obtained access in the library of her convent, that, like
+many others, belonging to the monks, was stored with these reliques of
+romantic fiction.
+
+The carriages stopped at a gate, which led into the domain of the
+chateau, but which was now fastened; and the great bell, that had
+formerly served to announce the arrival of strangers, having long since
+fallen from its station, a servant climbed over a ruined part of the
+adjoining wall, to give notice to those within of the arrival of their
+lord.
+
+As Blanche leaned from the coach window, she resigned herself to the
+sweet and gentle emotions, which the hour and the scenery awakened. The
+sun had now left the earth, and twilight began to darken the mountains;
+while the distant waters, reflecting the blush that still glowed in
+the west, appeared like a line of light, skirting the horizon. The low
+murmur of waves, breaking on the shore, came in the breeze, and, now and
+then, the melancholy dashing of oars was feebly heard from a distance.
+She was suffered to indulge her pensive mood, for the thoughts of the
+rest of the party were silently engaged upon the subjects of their
+several interests. Meanwhile, the Countess, reflecting, with regret,
+upon the gay parties she had left at Paris, surveyed, with disgust, what
+she thought the gloomy woods and solitary wildness of the scene; and,
+shrinking from the prospect of being shut up in an old castle, was
+prepared to meet every object with displeasure. The feelings of Henri
+were somewhat similar to those of the Countess; he gave a mournful sigh
+to the delights of the capital, and to the remembrance of a lady,
+who, he believed, had engaged his affections, and who had certainly
+fascinated his imagination; but the surrounding country, and the mode
+of life, on which he was entering, had, for him, at least, the charm of
+novelty, and his regret was softened by the gay expectations of youth.
+The gates being at length unbarred, the carriage moved slowly on, under
+spreading chesnuts, that almost excluded the remains of day, following
+what had been formerly a road, but which now, overgrown with luxuriant
+vegetation, could be traced only by the boundary, formed by trees,
+on either side, and which wound for near half a mile among the woods,
+before it reached the chateau. This was the very avenue that St.
+Aubert and Emily had formerly entered, on their first arrival in the
+neighbourhood, with the hope of finding a house, that would receive
+them, for the night, and had so abruptly quitted, on perceiving the
+wildness of the place, and a figure, which the postillion had fancied
+was a robber.
+
+'What a dismal place is this!' exclaimed the Countess, as the carriage
+penetrated the deeper recesses of the woods. 'Surely, my lord, you do
+not mean to pass all the autumn in this barbarous spot! One ought to
+bring hither a cup of the waters of Lethe, that the remembrance of
+pleasanter scenes may not heighten, at least, the natural dreariness of
+these.'
+
+'I shall be governed by circumstances, madam,' said the Count, 'this
+barbarous spot was inhabited by my ancestors.'
+
+The carriage now stopped at the chateau, where, at the door of the great
+hall, appeared the old steward and the Parisian servants, who had been
+sent to prepare the chateau, waiting to receive their lord. Lady Blanche
+now perceived, that the edifice was not built entirely in the gothic
+style, but that it had additions of a more modern date; the large and
+gloomy hall, however, into which she now entered, was entirely gothic,
+and sumptuous tapestry, which it was now too dark to distinguish, hung
+upon the walls, and depictured scenes from some of the antient Provencal
+romances. A vast gothic window, embroidered with CLEMATIS and eglantine,
+that ascended to the south, led the eye, now that the casements were
+thrown open, through this verdant shade, over a sloping lawn, to the
+tops of dark woods, that hung upon the brow of the promontory. Beyond,
+appeared the waters of the Mediterranean, stretching far to the south,
+and to the east, where they were lost in the horizon; while, to the
+north-east, they were bounded by the luxuriant shores of Languedoc and
+Provence, enriched with wood, and gay with vines and sloping pastures;
+and, to the south-west, by the majestic Pyrenees, now fading from the
+eye, beneath the gradual gloom.
+
+Blanche, as she crossed the hall, stopped a moment to observe this
+lovely prospect, which the evening twilight obscured, yet did not
+conceal. But she was quickly awakened from the complacent delight,
+which this scene had diffused upon her mind, by the Countess, who,
+discontented with every object around, and impatient for refreshment
+and repose, hastened forward to a large parlour, whose cedar wainscot,
+narrow, pointed casements, and dark ceiling of carved cypress wood,
+gave it an aspect of peculiar gloom, which the dingy green velvet of the
+chairs and couches, fringed with tarnished gold, had once been designed
+to enliven.
+
+While the Countess enquired for refreshment, the Count, attended by
+his son, went to look over some part of the chateau, and Lady Blanche
+reluctantly remained to witness the discontent and ill-humour of her
+step-mother.
+
+'How long have you lived in this desolate place?' said her ladyship, to
+the old house keeper, who came to pay her duty.
+
+'Above twenty years, your ladyship, on the next feast of St. Jerome.'
+
+'How happened it, that you have lived here so long, and almost alone,
+too? I understood, that the chateau had been shut up for some years?'
+
+'Yes, madam, it was for many years after my late lord, the Count, went
+to the wars; but it is above twenty years, since I and my husband came
+into his service. The place is so large, and has of late been so lonely,
+that we were lost in it, and, after some time, we went to live in a
+cottage at the end of the woods, near some of the tenants, and came to
+look after the chateau, every now and then. When my lord returned to
+France from the wars, he took a dislike to the place, and never came
+to live here again, and so he was satisfied with our remaining at the
+cottage. Alas--alas! how the chateau is changed from what it once was!
+What delight my late lady used to take in it! I well remember when she
+came here a bride, and how fine it was. Now, it has been neglected so
+long, and is gone into such decay! I shall never see those days again!'
+
+The Countess appearing to be somewhat offended by the thoughtless
+simplicity, with which the old woman regretted former times, Dorothee
+added--'But the chateau will now be inhabited, and cheerful again; not
+all the world could tempt me to live in it alone.'
+
+'Well, the experiment will not be made, I believe,' said the Countess,
+displeased that her own silence had been unable to awe the loquacity of
+this rustic old housekeeper, now spared from further attendance by the
+entrance of the Count, who said he had been viewing part of the
+chateau, and found, that it would require considerable repairs and some
+alterations, before it would be perfectly comfortable, as a place of
+residence. 'I am sorry to hear it, my lord,' replied the Countess. 'And
+why sorry, madam?' 'Because the place will ill repay your trouble; and
+were it even a paradise, it would be insufferable at such a distance
+from Paris.'
+
+The Count made no reply, but walked abruptly to a window. 'There are
+windows, my lord, but they neither admit entertainment, or light; they
+shew only a scene of savage nature.'
+
+'I am at a loss, madam,' said the Count, 'to conjecture what you mean by
+savage nature. Do those plains, or those woods, or that fine expanse of
+water, deserve the name?'
+
+'Those mountains certainly do, my lord,' rejoined the Countess, pointing
+to the Pyrenees, 'and this chateau, though not a work of rude nature,
+is, to my taste, at least, one of savage art.' The Count coloured
+highly. 'This place, madam, was the work of my ancestors,' said he,
+'and you must allow me to say, that your present conversation discovers
+neither good taste, or good manners.' Blanche, now shocked at an
+altercation, which appeared to be increasing to a serious disagreement,
+rose to leave the room, when her mother's woman entered it; and the
+Countess, immediately desiring to be shewn to her own apartment,
+withdrew, attended by Mademoiselle Bearn.
+
+Lady Blanche, it being not yet dark, took this opportunity of exploring
+new scenes, and, leaving the parlour, she passed from the hall into
+a wide gallery, whose walls were decorated by marble pilasters, which
+supported an arched roof, composed of a rich mosaic work. Through a
+distant window, that seemed to terminate the gallery, were seen the
+purple clouds of evening and a landscape, whose features, thinly veiled
+in twilight, no longer appeared distinctly, but, blended into one grand
+mass, stretched to the horizon, coloured only with a tint of solemn
+grey.
+
+The gallery terminated in a saloon, to which the window she had seen
+through an open door, belonged; but the increasing dusk permitted her
+only an imperfect view of this apartment, which seemed to be magnificent
+and of modern architecture; though it had been either suffered to fall
+into decay, or had never been properly finished. The windows, which were
+numerous and large, descended low, and afforded a very extensive, and
+what Blanche's fancy represented to be, a very lovely prospect; and
+she stood for some time, surveying the grey obscurity and depicturing
+imaginary woods and mountains, vallies and rivers, on this scene of
+night; her solemn sensations rather assisted, than interrupted, by the
+distant bark of a watch-dog, and by the breeze, as it trembled upon the
+light foliage of the shrubs. Now and then, appeared for a moment, among
+the woods, a cottage light; and, at length, was heard, afar off, the
+evening bell of a convent, dying on the air. When she withdrew her
+thoughts from these subjects of fanciful delight, the gloom and silence
+of the saloon somewhat awed her; and, having sought the door of the
+gallery, and pursued, for a considerable time, a dark passage, she came
+to a hall, but one totally different from that she had formerly seen.
+By the twilight, admitted through an open portico, she could just
+distinguish this apartment to be of very light and airy architecture,
+and that it was paved with white marble, pillars of which supported the
+roof, that rose into arches built in the Moorish style. While Blanche
+stood on the steps of this portico, the moon rose over the sea, and
+gradually disclosed, in partial light, the beauties of the eminence, on
+which she stood, whence a lawn, now rude and overgrown with high grass,
+sloped to the woods, that, almost surrounding the chateau, extended in a
+grand sweep down the southern sides of the promontory to the very margin
+of the ocean. Beyond the woods, on the north-side, appeared a long tract
+of the plains of Languedoc; and, to the east, the landscape she had
+before dimly seen, with the towers of a monastery, illumined by the
+moon, rising over dark groves.
+
+The soft and shadowy tint, that overspread the scene, the waves,
+undulating in the moon-light, and their low and measured murmurs on the
+beach, were circumstances, that united to elevate the unaccustomed mind
+of Blanche to enthusiasm.
+
+'And have I lived in this glorious world so long,' said she, 'and never
+till now beheld such a prospect--never experienced these delights! Every
+peasant girl, on my father's domain, has viewed from her infancy the
+face of nature; has ranged, at liberty, her romantic wilds, while I have
+been shut in a cloister from the view of these beautiful appearances,
+which were designed to enchant all eyes, and awaken all hearts. How
+can the poor nuns and friars feel the full fervour of devotion, if they
+never see the sun rise, or set? Never, till this evening, did I know
+what true devotion is; for, never before did I see the sun sink below
+the vast earth! To-morrow, for the first time in my life, I will see
+it rise. O, who would live in Paris, to look upon black walls and dirty
+streets, when, in the country, they might gaze on the blue heavens, and
+all the green earth!'
+
+This enthusiastic soliloquy was interrupted by a rustling noise in the
+hall; and, while the loneliness of the place made her sensible to fear,
+she thought she perceived something moving between the pillars. For
+a moment, she continued silently observing it, till, ashamed of her
+ridiculous apprehensions, she recollected courage enough to demand who
+was there. 'O my young lady, is it you?' said the old housekeeper, who
+was come to shut the windows, 'I am glad it is you.' The manner, in
+which she spoke this, with a faint breath, rather surprised Blanche, who
+said, 'You seemed frightened, Dorothee, what is the matter?'
+
+'No, not frightened, ma'amselle,' replied Dorothee, hesitating and
+trying to appear composed, 'but I am old, and--a little matter startles
+me.' The Lady Blanche smiled at the distinction. 'I am glad, that my
+lord the Count is come to live at the chateau, ma'amselle,' continued
+Dorothee, 'for it has been many a year deserted, and dreary enough; now,
+the place will look a little as it used to do, when my poor lady was
+alive.' Blanche enquired how long it was, since the Marchioness died?
+'Alas! my lady,' replied Dorothee, 'so long--that I have ceased to count
+the years! The place, to my mind, has mourned ever since, and I am sure
+my lord's vassals have! But you have lost yourself, ma'amselle,--shall I
+shew you to the other side of the chateau?'
+
+Blanche enquired how long this part of the edifice had been built. 'Soon
+after my lord's marriage, ma'am,' replied Dorothee. 'The place was large
+enough without this addition, for many rooms of the old building were
+even then never made use of, and my lord had a princely household too;
+but he thought the antient mansion gloomy, and gloomy enough it is!'
+Lady Blanche now desired to be shewn to the inhabited part of the
+chateau; and, as the passages were entirely dark, Dorothee conducted her
+along the edge of the lawn to the opposite side of the edifice, where,
+a door opening into the great hall, she was met by Mademoiselle Bearn.
+'Where have you been so long?' said she, 'I had begun to think some
+wonderful adventure had befallen you, and that the giant of this
+enchanted castle, or the ghost, which, no doubt, haunts it, had conveyed
+you through a trap-door into some subterranean vault, whence you was
+never to return.'
+
+'No,' replied Blanche, laughingly, 'you seem to love adventures so well,
+that I leave them for you to achieve.'
+
+'Well, I am willing to achieve them, provided I am allowed to describe
+them.'
+
+'My dear Mademoiselle Bearn,' said Henri, as he met her at the door of
+the parlour, 'no ghost of these days would be so savage as to impose
+silence on you. Our ghosts are more civilized than to condemn a lady to
+a purgatory severer even, than their own, be it what it may.'
+
+Mademoiselle Bearn replied only by a laugh; and, the Count now entering
+the room, supper was served, during which he spoke little, frequently
+appeared to be abstracted from the company, and more than once remarked,
+that the place was greatly altered, since he had last seen it. 'Many
+years have intervened since that period,' said he; 'and, though the
+grand features of the scenery admit of no change, they impress me with
+sensations very different from those I formerly experienced.'
+
+'Did these scenes, sir,' said Blanche, 'ever appear more lovely, than
+they do now? To me this seems hardly possible.' The Count, regarding her
+with a melancholy smile, said, 'They once were as delightful to me, as
+they are now to you; the landscape is not changed, but time has changed
+me; from my mind the illusion, which gave spirit to the colouring of
+nature, is fading fast! If you live, my dear Blanche, to re-visit this
+spot, at the distance of many years, you will, perhaps, remember and
+understand the feelings of your father.'
+
+Lady Blanche, affected by these words, remained silent; she looked
+forward to the period, which the Count anticipated, and considering,
+that he, who now spoke, would then probably be no more, her eyes, bent
+to the ground, were filed with tears. She gave her hand to her father,
+who, smiling affectionately, rose from his chair, and went to a window
+to conceal his emotion.
+
+The fatigues of the day made the party separate at an early hour,
+when Blanche retired through a long oak gallery to her chamber, whose
+spacious and lofty walls, high antiquated casements, and, what was the
+effect of these, its gloomy air, did not reconcile her to its remote
+situation, in this antient building. The furniture, also, was of antient
+date; the bed was of blue damask, trimmed with tarnished gold lace,
+and its lofty tester rose in the form of a canopy, whence the curtains
+descended, like those of such tents as are sometimes represented in old
+pictures, and, indeed, much resembling those, exhibited on the faded
+tapestry, with which the chamber was hung. To Blanche, every object here
+was matter of curiosity; and, taking the light from her woman to examine
+the tapestry, she perceived, that it represented scenes from the wars
+of Troy, though the almost colourless worsted now mocked the glowing
+actions they once had painted. She laughed at the ludicrous absurdity
+she observed, till, recollecting, that the hands, which had wove it,
+were, like the poet, whose thoughts of fire they had attempted to
+express, long since mouldered into dust, a train of melancholy ideas
+passed over her mind, and she almost wept.
+
+Having given her woman a strict injunction to awaken her, before
+sun-rise, she dismissed her; and then, to dissipate the gloom, which
+reflection had cast upon her spirits, opened one of the high casements,
+and was again cheered by the face of living nature. The shadowy earth,
+the air, and ocean--all was still. Along the deep serene of the heavens,
+a few light clouds floated slowly, through whose skirts the stars now
+seemed to tremble, and now to emerge with purer splendour. Blanche's
+thoughts arose involuntarily to the Great Author of the sublime objects
+she contemplated, and she breathed a prayer of finer devotion, than any
+she had ever uttered beneath the vaulted roof of a cloister. At this
+casement, she remained till the glooms of midnight were stretched over
+the prospect. She then retired to her pillow, and, 'with gay visions of
+to-morrow,' to those sweet slumbers, which health and happy innocence
+only know.
+
+  To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+     What transport to retrace our early plays,
+ Our easy bliss, when each thing joy supplied
+ The woods, the mountains and the warbling maze
+ Of the wild brooks!
+     THOMSON
+
+Blanche's slumbers continued, till long after the hour, which she had
+so impatiently anticipated, for her woman, fatigued with travelling,
+did not call her, till breakfast was nearly ready. Her disappointment,
+however, was instantly forgotten, when, on opening the casement, she
+saw, on one hand, the wide sea sparkling in the morning rays, with its
+stealing sails and glancing oars; and, on the other, the fresh woods,
+the plains far-stretching and the blue mountains, all glowing with the
+splendour of day.
+
+As she inspired the pure breeze, health spread a deeper blush upon her
+countenance, and pleasure danced in her eyes.
+
+'Who could first invent convents!' said she, 'and who could first
+persuade people to go into them? and to make religion a pretence, too,
+where all that should inspire it, is so carefully shut out! God is
+best pleased with the homage of a grateful heart, and, when we view his
+glories, we feel most grateful. I never felt so much devotion, during
+the many dull years I was in the convent, as I have done in the few
+hours, that I have been here, where I need only look on all around
+me--to adore God in my inmost heart!'
+
+Saying this, she left the window, bounded along the gallery, and, in
+the next moment, was in the breakfast room, where the Count was
+already seated. The cheerfulness of a bright sunshine had dispersed
+the melancholy glooms of his reflections, a pleasant smile was on his
+countenance, and he spoke in an enlivening voice to Blanche, whose
+heart echoed back the tones. Henri and, soon after, the Countess with
+Mademoiselle Bearn appeared, and the whole party seemed to acknowledge
+the influence of the scene; even the Countess was so much re-animated as
+to receive the civilities of her husband with complacency, and but once
+forgot her good-humour, which was when she asked whether they had any
+neighbours, who were likely to make THIS BARBAROUS SPOT more tolerable,
+and whether the Count believed it possible for her to exist here,
+without some amusement?
+
+Soon after breakfast the party dispersed; the Count, ordering his
+steward to attend him in the library, went to survey the condition of
+his premises, and to visit some of his tenants; Henri hastened with
+alacrity to the shore to examine a boat, that was to bear them on a
+little voyage in the evening and to superintend the adjustment of a silk
+awning; while the Countess, attended by Mademoiselle Bearn, retired to
+an apartment on the modern side of the chateau, which was fitted up with
+airy elegance; and, as the windows opened upon balconies, that fronted
+the sea, she was there saved from a view of the HORRID Pyrenees. Here,
+while she reclined on a sofa, and, casting her languid eyes over the
+ocean, which appeared beyond the wood-tops, indulged in the luxuries of
+ENNUI, her companion read aloud a sentimental novel, on some fashionable
+system of philosophy, for the Countess was herself somewhat of a
+PHILOSOPHER, especially as to INFIDELITY, and among a certain circle her
+opinions were waited for with impatience, and received as doctrines.
+
+The Lady Blanche, meanwhile, hastened to indulge, amidst the wild
+wood-walks around the chateau, her new enthusiasm, where, as she
+wandered under the shades, her gay spirits gradually yielded to pensive
+complacency. Now, she moved with solemn steps, beneath the gloom of
+thickly interwoven branches, where the fresh dew still hung upon every
+flower, that peeped from among the grass; and now tripped sportively
+along the path, on which the sunbeams darted and the checquered foliage
+trembled--where the tender greens of the beech, the acacia and the
+mountain-ash, mingling with the solemn tints of the cedar, the pine and
+cypress, exhibited as fine a contrast of colouring, as the majestic oak
+and oriental plane did of form, to the feathery lightness of the cork
+tree and the waving grace of the poplar.
+
+Having reached a rustic seat, within a deep recess of the woods, she
+rested awhile, and, as her eyes caught, through a distant opening, a
+glimpse of the blue waters of the Mediterranean, with the white sail,
+gliding on its bosom, or of the broad mountain, glowing beneath the
+mid-day sun, her mind experienced somewhat of that exquisite delight,
+which awakens the fancy, and leads to poetry. The hum of bees alone
+broke the stillness around her, as, with other insects of various
+hues, they sported gaily in the shade, or sipped sweets from the fresh
+flowers: and, while Blanche watched a butter-fly, flitting from bud to
+bud, she indulged herself in imagining the pleasures of its short day,
+till she had composed the following stanzas.
+
+  THE BUTTER-FLY TO HIS LOVE
+
+ What bowery dell, with fragrant breath,
+ Courts thee to stay thy airy flight;
+ Nor seek again the purple heath,
+ So oft the scene of gay delight?
+
+ Long I've watch'd i' the lily's bell,
+ Whose whiteness stole the morning's beam;
+ No fluttering sounds thy coming tell,
+ No waving wings, at distance, gleam.
+
+ But fountain fresh, nor breathing grove,
+ Nor sunny mead, nor blossom'd tree,
+ So sweet as lily's cell shall prove,--
+ The bower of constant love and me.
+
+ When April buds begin to blow,
+ The prim-rose, and the hare-bell blue,
+ That on the verdant moss bank grow,
+ With violet cups, that weep in dew;
+
+ When wanton gales breathe through the shade,
+ And shake the blooms, and steal their sweets,
+ And swell the song of ev'ry glade,
+ I range the forest's green retreats:
+
+ There, through the tangled wood-walks play,
+ Where no rude urchin paces near,
+ Where sparely peeps the sultry day,
+ And light dews freshen all the air.
+
+ High on a sun-beam oft I sport
+ O'er bower and fountain, vale and hill;
+ Oft ev'ry blushing flow'ret court,
+ That hangs its head o'er winding rill.
+
+ But these I'll leave to be thy guide,
+ And shew thee, where the jasmine spreads
+ Her snowy leaf, where may-flow'rs hide,
+ And rose-buds rear their peeping heads.
+
+ With me the mountain's summit scale,
+ And taste the wild-thyme's honied bloom,
+ Whose fragrance, floating on the gale,
+ Oft leads me to the cedar's gloom.
+
+ Yet, yet, no sound comes in the breeze!
+ What shade thus dares to tempt thy stay?
+ Once, me alone thou wish'd to please,
+ And with me only thou wouldst stray.
+
+ But, while thy long delay I mourn,
+ And chide the sweet shades for their guile,
+ Thou may'st be true, and they forlorn,
+ And fairy favours court thy smile.
+
+ The tiny queen of fairy-land,
+ Who knows thy speed, hath sent thee far,
+ To bring, or ere the night-watch stand,
+ Rich essence for her shadowy car:
+
+ Perchance her acorn-cups to fill
+ With nectar from the Indian rose,
+ Or gather, near some haunted rill,
+ May-dews, that lull to sleep Love's woes:
+
+ Or, o'er the mountains, bade thee fly,
+ To tell her fairy love to speed,
+ When ev'ning steals upon the sky,
+ To dance along the twilight mead.
+
+ But now I see thee sailing low,
+ Gay as the brightest flow'rs of spring,
+ Thy coat of blue and jet I know,
+ And well thy gold and purple wing.
+
+ Borne on the gale, thou com'st to me;
+ O! welcome, welcome to my home!
+ In lily's cell we'll live in glee,
+ Together o'er the mountains roam!
+
+When Lady Blanche returned to the chateau, instead of going to the
+apartment of the Countess, she amused herself with wandering over that
+part of the edifice, which she had not yet examined, of which the most
+antient first attracted her curiosity; for, though what she had seen of
+the modern was gay and elegant, there was something in the former more
+interesting to her imagination. Having passed up the great stair-case,
+and through the oak gallery, she entered upon a long suite of chambers,
+whose walls were either hung with tapestry, or wainscoted with cedar,
+the furniture of which looked almost as antient as the rooms themselves;
+the spacious fire-places, where no mark of social cheer remained,
+presented an image of cold desolation; and the whole suite had so much
+the air of neglect and desertion, that it seemed, as if the venerable
+persons, whose portraits hung upon the walls, had been the last to
+inhabit them.
+
+On leaving these rooms, she found herself in another gallery, one end of
+which was terminated by a back stair-case, and the other by a door,
+that seemed to communicate with the north-side of the chateau, but which
+being fastened, she descended the stair-case, and, opening a door in
+the wall, a few steps down, found herself in a small square room, that
+formed part of the west turret of the castle. Three windows presented
+each a separate and beautiful prospect; that to the north, overlooking
+Languedoc; another to the west, the hills ascending towards the
+Pyrenees, whose awful summits crowned the landscape; and a third,
+fronting the south, gave the Mediterranean, and a part of the wild
+shores of Rousillon, to the eye.
+
+Having left the turret, and descended the narrow stair-case, she found
+herself in a dusky passage, where she wandered, unable to find her way,
+till impatience yielded to apprehension, and she called for assistance.
+Presently steps approached, and light glimmered through a door at the
+other extremity of the passage, which was opened with caution by some
+person, who did not venture beyond it, and whom Blanche observed
+in silence, till the door was closing, when she called aloud, and,
+hastening towards it, perceived the old housekeeper. 'Dear ma'amselle!
+is it you?' said Dorothee, 'How could you find your way hither?' Had
+Blanche been less occupied by her own fears, she would probably have
+observed the strong expressions of terror and surprise on Dorothee's
+countenance, who now led her through a long succession of passages and
+rooms, that looked as if they had been uninhabited for a century,
+till they reached that appropriated to the housekeeper, where Dorothee
+entreated she would sit down and take refreshment. Blanche accepted the
+sweet meats, offered to her, mentioned her discovery of the pleasant
+turret, and her wish to appropriate it to her own use. Whether
+Dorothee's taste was not so sensible to the beauties of landscape as her
+young lady's, or that the constant view of lovely scenery had deadened
+it, she forbore to praise the subject of Blanche's enthusiasm, which,
+however, her silence did not repress. To Lady Blanche's enquiry of
+whither the door she had found fastened at the end of the gallery led,
+she replied, that it opened to a suite of rooms, which had not been
+entered, during many years, 'For,' added she, 'my late lady died in one
+of them, and I could never find in my heart to go into them since.'
+
+Blanche, though she wished to see these chambers, forbore, on observing
+that Dorothee's eyes were filled with tears, to ask her to unlock them,
+and, soon after, went to dress for dinner, at which the whole party met
+in good spirits and good humour, except the Countess, whose vacant mind,
+overcome by the languor of idleness, would neither suffer her to be
+happy herself, or to contribute to the happiness of others. Mademoiselle
+Bearn, attempting to be witty, directed her badinage against Henri,
+who answered, because he could not well avoid it, rather than from any
+inclination to notice her, whose liveliness sometimes amused, but whose
+conceit and insensibility often disgusted him.
+
+The cheerfulness, with which Blanche rejoined the party, vanished, on
+her reaching the margin of the sea; she gazed with apprehension upon
+the immense expanse of waters, which, at a distance, she had beheld only
+with delight and astonishment, and it was by a strong effort, that she
+so far overcame her fears as to follow her father into the boat.
+
+As she silently surveyed the vast horizon, bending round the distant
+verge of the ocean, an emotion of sublimest rapture struggled to
+overcome a sense of personal danger. A light breeze played on the
+water, and on the silk awning of the boat, and waved the foliage of the
+receding woods, that crowned the cliffs, for many miles, and which the
+Count surveyed with the pride of conscious property, as well as with the
+eye of taste.
+
+At some distance, among these woods, stood a pavilion, which had once
+been the scene of social gaiety, and which its situation still made
+one of romantic beauty. Thither, the Count had ordered coffee and other
+refreshment to be carried, and thither the sailors now steered
+their course, following the windings of the shore round many a woody
+promontory and circling bay; while the pensive tones of horns and other
+wind instruments, played by the attendants in a distant boat, echoed
+among the rocks, and died along the waves. Blanche had now subdued her
+fears; a delightful tranquillity stole over her mind, and held her in
+silence; and she was too happy even to remember the convent, or her
+former sorrows, as subjects of comparison with her present felicity.
+
+The Countess felt less unhappy than she had done, since the moment of
+her leaving Paris; for her mind was now under some degree of restraint;
+she feared to indulge its wayward humours, and even wished to recover
+the Count's good opinion. On his family, and on the surrounding scene,
+he looked with tempered pleasure and benevolent satisfaction, while his
+son exhibited the gay spirits of youth, anticipating new delights, and
+regretless of those, that were passed.
+
+After near an hour's rowing, the party landed, and ascended a little
+path, overgrown with vegetation. At a little distance from the point
+of the eminence, within the shadowy recess of the woods, appeared
+the pavilion, which Blanche perceived, as she caught a glimpse of its
+portico between the trees, to be built of variegated marble. As she
+followed the Countess, she often turned her eyes with rapture towards
+the ocean, seen beneath the dark foliage, far below, and from thence
+upon the deep woods, whose silence and impenetrable gloom awakened
+emotions more solemn, but scarcely less delightful.
+
+The pavilion had been prepared, as far as was possible, on a very short
+notice, for the reception of its visitors; but the faded colours of
+its painted walls and ceiling, and the decayed drapery of its once
+magnificent furniture, declared how long it had been neglected, and
+abandoned to the empire of the changing seasons. While the party partook
+of a collation of fruit and coffee, the horns, placed in a distant part
+of the woods, where an echo sweetened and prolonged their melancholy
+tones, broke softly on the stillness of the scene. This spot seemed to
+attract even the admiration of the Countess, or, perhaps, it was merely
+the pleasure of planning furniture and decorations, that made her dwell
+so long on the necessity of repairing and adorning it; while the Count,
+never happier than when he saw her mind engaged by natural and simple
+objects, acquiesced in all her designs, concerning the pavilion.
+The paintings on the walls and coved ceiling were to be renewed, the
+canopies and sofas were to be of light green damask; marble statues of
+wood-nymphs, bearing on their heads baskets of living flowers, were to
+adorn the recesses between the windows, which, descending to the ground,
+were to admit to every part of the room, and it was of octagonal form,
+the various landscape. One window opened upon a romantic glade, where
+the eye roved among the woody recesses, and the scene was bounded
+only by a lengthened pomp of groves; from another, the woods receding
+disclosed the distant summits of the Pyrenees; a third fronted an
+avenue, beyond which the grey towers of Chateau-le-Blanc, and a
+picturesque part of its ruin were seen partially among the foliage;
+while a fourth gave, between the trees, a glimpse of the green pastures
+and villages, that diversify the banks of the Aude. The Mediterranean,
+with the bold cliffs, that overlooked its shores, were the grand objects
+of a fifth window, and the others gave, in different points of view, the
+wild scenery of the woods.
+
+After wandering, for some time, in these, the party returned to the
+shore and embarked; and, the beauty of the evening tempting them to
+extend their excursion, they proceeded further up the bay. A dead calm
+had succeeded the light breeze, that wafted them hither, and the men
+took to their oars. Around, the waters were spread into one vast expanse
+of polished mirror, reflecting the grey cliffs and feathery woods, that
+over-hung its surface, the glow of the western horizon and the dark
+clouds, that came slowly from the east. Blanche loved to see the dipping
+oars imprint the water, and to watch the spreading circles they left,
+which gave a tremulous motion to the reflected landscape, without
+destroying the harmony of its features.
+
+Above the darkness of the woods, her eye now caught a cluster of high
+towers, touched with the splendour of the setting rays; and, soon after,
+the horns being then silent, she heard the faint swell of choral voices
+from a distance.
+
+'What voices are those, upon the air?' said the Count, looking
+round, and listening; but the strain had ceased. 'It seemed to be a
+vesper-hymn, which I have often heard in my convent,' said Blanche.
+
+'We are near the monastery, then,' observed the Count; and, the boat
+soon after doubling a lofty head-land, the monastery of St. Claire
+appeared, seated near the margin of the sea, where the cliffs, suddenly
+sinking, formed a low shore within a small bay, almost encircled with
+woods, among which partial features of the edifice were seen;--the great
+gate and gothic window of the hall, the cloisters and the side of a
+chapel more remote; while a venerable arch, which had once led to a part
+of the fabric, now demolished, stood a majestic ruin detached from the
+main building, beyond which appeared a grand perspective of the woods.
+On the grey walls, the moss had fastened, and, round the pointed windows
+of the chapel, the ivy and the briony hung in many a fantastic wreath.
+
+All without was silent and forsaken; but, while Blanche gazed with
+admiration on this venerable pile, whose effect was heightened by the
+strong lights and shadows thrown athwart it by a cloudy sun-set, a sound
+of many voices, slowly chanting, arose from within. The Count bade his
+men rest on their oars. The monks were singing the hymn of vespers, and
+some female voices mingled with the strain, which rose by soft degrees,
+till the high organ and the choral sounds swelled into full and solemn
+harmony. The strain, soon after, dropped into sudden silence, and was
+renewed in a low and still more solemn key, till, at length, the holy
+chorus died away, and was heard no more.--Blanche sighed, tears trembled
+in her eyes, and her thoughts seemed wafted with the sounds to heaven.
+While a rapt stillness prevailed in the boat, a train of friars, and
+then of nuns, veiled in white, issued from the cloisters, and passed,
+under the shade of the woods, to the main body of the edifice.
+
+The Countess was the first of her party to awaken from this pause of
+silence.
+
+'These dismal hymns and friars make one quite melancholy,' said she;
+'twilight is coming on; pray let us return, or it will be dark before we
+get home.'
+
+The count, looking up, now perceived, that the twilight of evening
+was anticipated by an approaching storm. In the east a tempest was
+collecting; a heavy gloom came on, opposing and contrasting the glowing
+splendour of the setting sun. The clamorous sea-fowl skimmed in fleet
+circles upon the surface of the sea, dipping their light pinions in the
+wave, as they fled away in search of shelter. The boatmen pulled hard
+at their oars; but the thunder, that now muttered at a distance, and the
+heavy drops, that began to dimple the water, made the Count determine
+to put back to the monastery for shelter, and the course of the boat
+was immediately changed. As the clouds approached the west, their lurid
+darkness changed to a deep ruddy glow, which, by reflection, seemed to
+fire the tops of the woods and the shattered towers of the monastery.
+
+The appearance of the heavens alarmed the Countess and Mademoiselle
+Bearn, whose expressions of apprehension distressed the Count, and
+perplexed his men; while Blanche continued silent, now agitated with
+fear, and now with admiration, as she viewed the grandeur of the clouds,
+and their effect on the scenery, and listened to the long, long peals of
+thunder, that rolled through the air.
+
+The boat having reached the lawn before the monastery, the Count sent a
+servant to announce his arrival, and to entreat shelter of the Superior,
+who, soon after, appeared at the great gate, attended by several
+monks, while the servant returned with a message, expressive at once of
+hospitality and pride, but of pride disguised in submission. The party
+immediately disembarked, and, having hastily crossed the lawn--for the
+shower was now heavy--were received at the gate by the Superior, who, as
+they entered, stretched forth his hands and gave his blessing; and they
+passed into the great hall, where the lady abbess waited, attended by
+several nuns, clothed, like herself, in black, and veiled in white.
+The veil of the abbess was, however, thrown half back, and discovered a
+countenance, whose chaste dignity was sweetened by the smile of welcome,
+with which she addressed the Countess, whom she led, with Blanche and
+Mademoiselle Bearn, into the convent parlour, while the Count and Henri
+were conducted by the Superior to the refectory.
+
+The Countess, fatigued and discontented, received the politeness of the
+abbess with careless haughtiness, and had followed her, with indolent
+steps, to the parlour, over which the painted casements and wainscot of
+larch-wood threw, at all times, a melancholy shade, and where the gloom
+of evening now loured almost to darkness.
+
+While the lady abbess ordered refreshment, and conversed with the
+Countess, Blanche withdrew to a window, the lower panes of which, being
+without painting, allowed her to observe the progress of the storm over
+the Mediterranean, whose dark waves, that had so lately slept, now came
+boldly swelling, in long succession, to the shore, where they burst in
+white foam, and threw up a high spray over the rocks. A red sulphureous
+tint overspread the long line of clouds, that hung above the western
+horizon, beneath whose dark skirts the sun looking out, illumined the
+distant shores of Languedoc, as well as the tufted summits of the nearer
+woods, and shed a partial gleam on the western waves. The rest of the
+scene was in deep gloom, except where a sun-beam, darting between the
+clouds, glanced on the white wings of the sea-fowl, that circled high
+among them, or touched the swelling sail of a vessel, which was seen
+labouring in the storm. Blanche, for some time, anxiously watched the
+progress of the bark, as it threw the waves in foam around it, and, as
+the lightnings flashed, looked to the opening heavens, with many a sigh
+for the fate of the poor mariners.
+
+The sun, at length, set, and the heavy clouds, which had long impended,
+dropped over the splendour of his course; the vessel, however, was
+yet dimly seen, and Blanche continued to observe it, till the quick
+succession of flashes, lighting up the gloom of the whole horizon,
+warned her to retire from the window, and she joined the Abbess, who,
+having exhausted all her topics of conversation with the Countess, had
+now leisure to notice her.
+
+But their discourse was interrupted by tremendous peals of thunder;
+and the bell of the monastery soon after ringing out, summoned the
+inhabitants to prayer. As Blanche passed the window, she gave another
+look to the ocean, where, by the momentary flash, that illumined the
+vast body of the waters, she distinguished the vessel she had observed
+before, amidst a sea of foam, breaking the billows, the mast now bowing
+to the waves, and then rising high in air.
+
+She sighed fervently as she gazed, and then followed the Lady Abbess
+and the Countess to the chapel. Meanwhile, some of the Count's servants,
+having gone by land to the chateau for carriages, returned soon after
+vespers had concluded, when, the storm being somewhat abated, the Count
+and his family returned home. Blanche was surprised to discover how much
+the windings of the shore had deceived her, concerning the distance of
+the chateau from the monastery, whose vesper bell she had heard, on the
+preceding evening, from the windows of the west saloon, and whose towers
+she would also have seen from thence, had not twilight veiled them.
+
+On their arrival at the chateau, the Countess, affecting more fatigue,
+than she really felt, withdrew to her apartment, and the Count, with
+his daughter and Henri, went to the supper-room, where they had not been
+long, when they heard, in a pause of the gust, a firing of guns, which
+the Count understanding to be signals of distress from some vessel in
+the storm, went to a window, that opened towards the Mediterranean, to
+observe further; but the sea was now involved in utter darkness, and
+the loud howlings of the tempest had again overcome every other sound.
+Blanche, remembering the bark, which she had before seen, now joined her
+father, with trembling anxiety. In a few moments, the report of guns was
+again borne along the wind, and as suddenly wafted away; a tremendous
+burst of thunder followed, and, in the flash, that had preceded it, and
+which seemed to quiver over the whole surface of the waters, a vessel
+was discovered, tossing amidst the white foam of the waves at some
+distance from the shore. Impenetrable darkness again involved the scene,
+but soon a second flash shewed the bark, with one sail unfurled, driving
+towards the coast. Blanche hung upon her father's arm, with looks full
+of the agony of united terror and pity, which were unnecessary to
+awaken the heart of the Count, who gazed upon the sea with a piteous
+expression, and, perceiving, that no boat could live in the storm,
+forbore to send one; but he gave orders to his people to carry torches
+out upon the cliffs, hoping they might prove a kind of beacon to the
+vessel, or, at least, warn the crew of the rocks they were approaching.
+While Henri went out to direct on what part of the cliffs the lights
+should appear, Blanche remained with her father, at the window,
+catching, every now and then, as the lightnings flashed, a glimpse of
+the vessel; and she soon saw, with reviving hope, the torches flaming
+on the blackness of night, and, as they waved over the cliffs, casting a
+red gleam on the gasping billows. When the firing of guns was repeated,
+the torches were tossed high in the air, as if answering the signal, and
+the firing was then redoubled; but, though the wind bore the sound away,
+she fancied, as the lightnings glanced, that the vessel was much nearer
+the shore.
+
+The Count's servants were now seen, running to and fro, on the rocks;
+some venturing almost to the point of the crags, and bending over, held
+out their torches fastened to long poles; while others, whose steps
+could be traced only by the course of the lights, descended the steep
+and dangerous path, that wound to the margin of the sea, and, with loud
+halloos, hailed the mariners, whose shrill whistle, and then feeble
+voices, were heard, at intervals, mingling with the storm. Sudden shouts
+from the people on the rocks increased the anxiety of Blanche to an
+almost intolerable degree: but her suspense, concerning the fate of the
+mariners, was soon over, when Henri, running breathless into the room,
+told that the vessel was anchored in the bay below, but in so shattered
+a condition, that it was feared she would part before the crew could
+disembark. The Count immediately gave orders for his own boats to assist
+in bringing them to shore, and that such of these unfortunate
+strangers as could not be accommodated in the adjacent hamlet should
+be entertained at the chateau. Among the latter, were Emily St. Aubert,
+Monsieur Du Pont, Ludovico and Annette, who, having embarked at Leghorn
+and reached Marseilles, were from thence crossing the Gulf of Lyons,
+when this storm overtook them. They were received by the Count with his
+usual benignity, who, though Emily wished to have proceeded immediately
+to the monastery of St. Claire, would not allow her to leave the
+chateau, that night; and, indeed, the terror and fatigue she had
+suffered would scarcely have permitted her to go farther.
+
+In Monsieur Du Pont the Count discovered an old acquaintance, and
+much joy and congratulation passed between them, after which Emily was
+introduced by name to the Count's family, whose hospitable benevolence
+dissipated the little embarrassment, which her situation had occasioned
+her, and the party were soon seated at the supper-table. The unaffected
+kindness of Blanche and the lively joy she expressed on the escape of
+the strangers, for whom her pity had been so much interested, gradually
+revived Emily's languid spirits; and Du Pont, relieved from his terrors
+for her and for himself, felt the full contrast, between his late
+situation on a dark and tremendous ocean, and his present one, in a
+cheerful mansion, where he was surrounded with plenty, elegance and
+smiles of welcome.
+
+Annette, meanwhile, in the servants' hall, was telling of all the
+dangers she had encountered, and congratulating herself so heartily upon
+her own and Ludovico's escape, and on her present comforts, that
+she often made all that part of the chateau ring with merriment
+and laughter. Ludovico's spirits were as gay as her own, but he had
+discretion enough to restrain them, and tried to check hers, though in
+vain, till her laughter, at length, ascended to MY LADY'S chamber, who
+sent to enquire what occasioned so much uproar in the chateau, and to
+command silence.
+
+Emily withdrew early to seek the repose she so much required, but
+her pillow was long a sleepless one. On this her return to her native
+country, many interesting remembrances were awakened; all the events
+and sufferings she had experienced, since she quitted it, came in
+long succession to her fancy, and were chased only by the image of
+Valancourt, with whom to believe herself once more in the same land,
+after they had been so long, and so distantly separated, gave her
+emotions of indescribable joy, but which afterwards yielded to anxiety
+and apprehension, when she considered the long period, that had elapsed,
+since any letter had passed between them, and how much might have
+happened in this interval to affect her future peace. But the thought,
+that Valancourt might be now no more, or, if living, might have
+forgotten her, was so very terrible to her heart, that she would
+scarcely suffer herself to pause upon the possibility. She determined to
+inform him, on the following day, of her arrival in France, which it was
+scarcely possible he could know but by a letter from herself, and, after
+soothing her spirits with the hope of soon hearing, that he was well,
+and unchanged in his affections, she, at length, sunk to repose.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+     Oft woo'd the gleam of Cynthia, silver-bright,
+ In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of folly,
+ With freedom by my side, and soft-ey'd melancholy.
+     GRAY
+
+The Lady Blanche was so much interested for Emily, that, upon hearing
+she was going to reside in the neighbouring convent, she requested the
+Count would invite her to lengthen her stay at the chateau. 'And you
+know, my dear sir,' added Blanche, 'how delighted I shall be with such
+a companion; for, at present, I have no friend to walk, or to read with,
+since Mademoiselle Bearn is my mamma's friend only.'
+
+The Count smiled at the youthful simplicity, with which his daughter
+yielded to first impressions; and, though he chose to warn her of their
+danger, he silently applauded the benevolence, that could thus readily
+expand in confidence to a stranger. He had observed Emily, with
+attention, on the preceding evening, and was as much pleased with
+her, as it was possible he could be with any person, on so short an
+acquaintance. The mention, made of her by Mons. Du Pont, had also given
+him a favourable impression of Emily; but, extremely cautious as
+to those, whom he introduced to the intimacy of his daughter, he
+determined, on hearing that the former was no stranger at the convent of
+St. Claire, to visit the abbess, and, if her account corresponded with
+his wish, to invite Emily to pass some time at the chateau. On this
+subject, he was influenced by a consideration of the Lady Blanche's
+welfare, still more than by either a wish to oblige her, or to befriend
+the orphan Emily, for whom, however, he felt considerably interested.
+
+On the following morning, Emily was too much fatigued to appear; but
+Mons. Du Pont was at the breakfast-table, when the Count entered the
+room, who pressed him, as his former acquaintance, and the son of a very
+old friend, to prolong his stay at the chateau; an invitation, which Du
+Pont willingly accepted, since it would allow him to be near Emily; and,
+though he was not conscious of encouraging a hope, that she would
+ever return his affection, he had not fortitude enough to attempt, at
+present, to overcome it.
+
+Emily, when she was somewhat recovered, wandered with her new friend
+over the grounds belonging to the chateau, as much delighted with the
+surrounding views, as Blanche, in the benevolence of her heart, had
+wished; from thence she perceived, beyond the woods, the towers of the
+monastery, and remarked, that it was to this convent she designed to go.
+
+'Ah!' said Blanche with surprise, 'I am but just released from a
+convent, and would you go into one? If you could know what pleasure
+I feel in wandering here, at liberty,--and in seeing the sky and the
+fields, and the woods all round me, I think you would not.' Emily,
+smiling at the warmth, with which the Lady Blanche spoke, observed, that
+she did not mean to confine herself to a convent for life.
+
+'No, you may not intend it now,' said Blanche; 'but you do not know to
+what the nuns may persuade you to consent: I know how kind they will
+appear, and how happy, for I have seen too much of their art.'
+
+When they returned to the chateau, Lady Blanche conducted Emily to
+her favourite turret, and from thence they rambled through the ancient
+chambers, which Blanche had visited before. Emily was amused by
+observing the structure of these apartments, and the fashion of their
+old but still magnificent furniture, and by comparing them with those
+of the castle of Udolpho, which were yet more antique and grotesque.
+She was also interested by Dorothee the house-keeper, who attended them,
+whose appearance was almost as antique as the objects around her, and
+who seemed no less interested by Emily, on whom she frequently gazed
+with so much deep attention, as scarcely to hear what was said to her.
+
+While Emily looked from one of the casements, she perceived, with
+surprise, some objects, that were familiar to her memory;--the fields
+and woods, with the gleaming brook, which she had passed with La Voisin,
+one evening, soon after the death of Monsieur St. Aubert, in her way
+from the monastery to her cottage; and she now knew this to be the
+chateau, which he had then avoided, and concerning which he had dropped
+some remarkable hints.
+
+Shocked by this discovery, yet scarcely knowing why, she mused for
+some time in silence, and remembered the emotion, which her father
+had betrayed on finding himself so near this mansion, and some other
+circumstances of his conduct, that now greatly interested her. The
+music, too, which she had formerly heard, and, respecting which La
+Voisin had given such an odd account, occurred to her, and, desirous of
+knowing more concerning it, she asked Dorothee whether it returned at
+midnight, as usual, and whether the musician had yet been discovered.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle,' replied Dorothee, 'that music is still heard, but
+the musician has never been found out, nor ever will, I believe; though
+there are some people, who can guess.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Emily, 'then why do they not pursue the enquiry?'
+
+'Ah, young lady! enquiry enough has been made--but who can pursue a
+spirit?'
+
+Emily smiled, and, remembering how lately she had suffered herself to be
+led away by superstition, determined now to resist its contagion; yet,
+in spite of her efforts, she felt awe mingle with her curiosity, on
+this subject; and Blanche, who had hitherto listened in silence, now
+enquired what this music was, and how long it had been heard.
+
+'Ever since the death of my lady, madam,' replied Dorothee.
+
+'Why, the place is not haunted, surely?' said Blanche, between jesting
+and seriousness.
+
+'I have heard that music almost ever since my dear lady died,' continued
+Dorothee, 'and never before then. But that is nothing to some things I
+could tell of.'
+
+'Do, pray, tell them, then,' said Lady Blanche, now more in earnest than
+in jest. 'I am much interested, for I have heard sister Henriette, and
+sister Sophie, in the convent, tell of such strange appearances, which
+they themselves had witnessed!'
+
+'You never heard, my lady, I suppose, what made us leave the chateau,
+and go and live in a cottage,' said Dorothee. 'Never!' replied Blanche
+with impatience.
+
+'Nor the reason, that my lord, the Marquis'--Dorothee checked herself,
+hesitated, and then endeavoured to change the topic; but the curiosity
+of Blanche was too much awakened to suffer the subject thus easily to
+escape her, and she pressed the old house-keeper to proceed with her
+account, upon whom, however, no entreaties could prevail; and it was
+evident, that she was alarmed for the imprudence, into which she had
+already betrayed herself.
+
+'I perceive,' said Emily, smiling, 'that all old mansions are haunted; I
+am lately come from a place of wonders; but unluckily, since I left it,
+I have heard almost all of them explained.'
+
+Blanche was silent; Dorothee looked grave, and sighed; and Emily felt
+herself still inclined to believe more of the wonderful, than she
+chose to acknowledge. Just then, she remembered the spectacle she had
+witnessed in a chamber of Udolpho, and, by an odd kind of coincidence,
+the alarming words, that had accidentally met her eye in the MS. papers,
+which she had destroyed, in obedience to the command of her father; and
+she shuddered at the meaning they seemed to impart, almost as much as at
+the horrible appearance, disclosed by the black veil.
+
+The Lady Blanche, meanwhile, unable to prevail with Dorothee to explain
+the subject of her late hints, had desired, on reaching the door, that
+terminated the gallery, and which she found fastened on the preceding
+day, to see the suite of rooms beyond. 'Dear young lady,' said the
+housekeeper, 'I have told you my reason for not opening them; I have
+never seen them, since my dear lady died; and it would go hard with me
+to see them now. Pray, madam, do not ask me again.'
+
+'Certainly I will not,' replied Blanche, 'if that is really your
+objection.'
+
+'Alas! it is,' said the old woman: 'we all loved her well, and I shall
+always grieve for her. Time runs round! it is now many years, since she
+died; but I remember every thing, that happened then, as if it was but
+yesterday. Many things, that have passed of late years, are gone quite
+from my memory, while those so long ago, I can see as if in a glass.'
+She paused, but afterwards, as they walked up the gallery, added to
+Emily, 'this young lady sometimes brings the late Marchioness to my
+mind; I can remember, when she looked just as blooming, and very like
+her, when she smiles. Poor lady! how gay she was, when she first came to
+the chateau!'
+
+'And was she not gay, afterwards?' said Blanche.
+
+Dorothee shook her head; and Emily observed her, with eyes strongly
+expressive of the interest she now felt. 'Let us sit down in this
+window,' said the Lady Blanche, on reaching the opposite end of the
+gallery: 'and pray, Dorothee, if it is not painful to you, tell us
+something more about the Marchioness. I should like to look into the
+glass you spoke of just now, and see a few of the circumstances, which
+you say often pass over it.'
+
+'No, my lady,' replied Dorothee; 'if you knew as much as I do, you would
+not, for you would find there a dismal train of them; I often wish I
+could shut them out, but they will rise to my mind. I see my dear lady
+on her death-bed,--her very look,--and remember all she said--it was a
+terrible scene!'
+
+'Why was it so terrible?' said Emily with emotion.
+
+'Ah, dear young lady! is not death always terrible?' replied Dorothee.
+
+To some further enquiries of Blanche Dorothee was silent; and Emily,
+observing the tears in her eyes, forbore to urge the subject, and
+endeavoured to withdraw the attention of her young friend to some object
+in the gardens, where the Count, with the Countess and Monsieur Du Pont,
+appearing, they went down to join them.
+
+When he perceived Emily, he advanced to meet her, and presented her to
+the Countess, in a manner so benign, that it recalled most powerfully
+to her mind the idea of her late father, and she felt more gratitude to
+him, than embarrassment towards the Countess, who, however, received
+her with one of those fascinating smiles, which her caprice sometimes
+allowed her to assume, and which was now the result of a conversation
+the Count had held with her, concerning Emily. Whatever this might be,
+or whatever had passed in his conversation with the lady abbess, whom
+he had just visited, esteem and kindness were strongly apparent in his
+manner, when he addressed Emily, who experienced that sweet emotion,
+which arises from the consciousness of possessing the approbation of
+the good; for to the Count's worth she had been inclined to yield her
+confidence almost from the first moment, in which she had seen him.
+
+Before she could finish her acknowledgments for the hospitality she had
+received, and mention of her design of going immediately to the convent,
+she was interrupted by an invitation to lengthen her stay at the
+chateau, which was pressed by the Count and the Countess, with an
+appearance of such friendly sincerity, that, though she much wished to
+see her old friends at the monastery, and to sigh, once more, over her
+father's grave, she consented to remain a few days at the chateau.
+
+To the abbess, however, she immediately wrote, mentioning her arrival
+in Languedoc and her wish to be received into the convent, as a boarder;
+she also sent letters to Monsieur Quesnel and to Valancourt, whom she
+merely informed of her arrival in France; and, as she knew not where the
+latter might be stationed, she directed her letter to his brother's seat
+in Gascony.
+
+In the evening, Lady Blanche and Mons. Du Pont walked with Emily to
+the cottage of La Voisin, which she had now a melancholy pleasure in
+approaching, for time had softened her grief for the loss of St. Aubert,
+though it could not annihilate it, and she felt a soothing sadness in
+indulging the recollections, which this scene recalled. La Voisin was
+still living, and seemed to enjoy, as much as formerly, the tranquil
+evening of a blameless life. He was sitting at the door of his cottage,
+watching some of his grandchildren, playing on the grass before him,
+and, now and then, with a laugh, or a commendation, encouraging their
+sports. He immediately recollected Emily, whom he was much pleased to
+see, and she was as rejoiced to hear, that he had not lost one of his
+family, since her departure.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle,' said the old man, 'we all live merrily together
+still, thank God! and I believe there is not a happier family to be
+found in Languedoc, than ours.'
+
+Emily did not trust herself in the chamber, where St. Aubert died; and,
+after half an hour's conversation with La Voisin and his family, she
+left the cottage.
+
+During these the first days of her stay at Chateau-le-Blanc, she was
+often affected, by observing the deep, but silent melancholy, which, at
+times, stole over Du Pont; and Emily, pitying the self-delusion, which
+disarmed him of the will to depart, determined to withdraw herself as
+soon as the respect she owed the Count and Countess De Villefort would
+permit. The dejection of his friend soon alarmed the anxiety of the
+Count, to whom Du Pont, at length, confided the secret of his hopeless
+affection, which, however, the former could only commiserate, though he
+secretly determined to befriend his suit, if an opportunity of doing so
+should ever occur. Considering the dangerous situation of Du Pont, he
+but feebly opposed his intention of leaving Chateau-le-Blanc, on the
+following day, but drew from him a promise of a longer visit, when he
+could return with safety to his peace. Emily herself, though she could
+not encourage his affection, esteemed him both for the many virtues he
+possessed, and for the services she had received from him; and it was
+not without tender emotions of gratitude and pity, that she now saw him
+depart for his family seat in Gascony; while he took leave of her with
+a countenance so expressive of love and grief, as to interest the Count
+more warmly in his cause than before.
+
+In a few days, Emily also left the chateau, but not before the Count and
+Countess had received her promise to repeat her visit very soon; and
+she was welcomed by the abbess, with the same maternal kindness she had
+formerly experienced, and by the nuns, with much expression of regard.
+The well-known scenes of the convent occasioned her many melancholy
+recollections, but with these were mingled others, that inspired
+gratitude for having escaped the various dangers, that had pursued her,
+since she quitted it, and for the good, which she yet possessed; and,
+though she once more wept over her father's grave, with tears of tender
+affection, her grief was softened from its former acuteness.
+
+Some time after her return to the monastery, she received a letter from
+her uncle, Mons. Quesnel, in answer to information that she had arrived
+in France, and to her enquiries, concerning such of her affairs as
+he had undertaken to conduct during her absence, especially as to the
+period for which La Vallee had been let, whither it was her wish to
+return, if it should appear, that her income would permit her to do
+so. The reply of Mons. Quesnel was cold and formal, as she expected,
+expressing neither concern for the evils she suffered, nor pleasure,
+that she was now removed from them; nor did he allow the opportunity
+to pass, of reproving her for her rejection of Count Morano, whom he
+affected still to believe a man of honour and fortune; nor of vehemently
+declaiming against Montoni, to whom he had always, till now, felt
+himself to be inferior. On Emily's pecuniary concerns, he was not very
+explicit; he informed her, however, that the term, for which La Vallee
+had been engaged, was nearly expired; but, without inviting her to his
+own house, added, that her circumstances would by no means allow her to
+reside there, and earnestly advised her to remain, for the present, in
+the convent of St. Claire.
+
+To her enquiries respecting poor old Theresa, her late father's servant,
+he gave no answer. In the postscript to his letter, Monsieur Quesnel
+mentioned M. Motteville, in whose hands the late St. Aubert had placed
+the chief of his personal property, as being likely to arrange his
+affairs nearly to the satisfaction of his creditors, and that Emily
+would recover much more of her fortune, than she had formerly reason to
+expect. The letter also inclosed to Emily an order upon a merchant at
+Narbonne, for a small sum of money.
+
+The tranquillity of the monastery, and the liberty she was suffered
+to enjoy, in wandering among the woods and shores of this delightful
+province, gradually restored her spirits to their natural tone, except
+that anxiety would sometimes intrude, concerning Valancourt, as the time
+approached, when it was possible that she might receive an answer to her
+letter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+     As when a wave, that from a cloud impends,
+ And, swell'd with tempests, on the ship descends,
+ White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud,
+ Howl o'er the masts, and sing through ev'ry shroud:
+ Pale, trembling, tir'd, the sailors freeze with fears,
+ And instant death on ev'ry wave appears.
+     POPE'S HOMER
+
+The Lady Blanche, meanwhile, who was left much alone, became impatient
+for the company of her new friend, whom she wished to observe sharing in
+the delight she received from the beautiful scenery around. She had now
+no person, to whom she could express her admiration and communicate
+her pleasures, no eye, that sparkled to her smile, or countenance, that
+reflected her happiness; and she became spiritless and pensive. The
+Count, observing her dissatisfaction, readily yielded to her entreaties,
+and reminded Emily of her promised visit; but the silence of Valancourt,
+which was now prolonged far beyond the period, when a letter might
+have arrived from Estuviere, oppressed Emily with severe anxiety, and,
+rendering her averse to society, she would willingly have deferred her
+acceptance of this invitation, till her spirits should be relieved.
+The Count and his family, however, pressed to see her; and, as the
+circumstances, that prompted her wish for solitude, could not be
+explained, there was an appearance of caprice in her refusal, which she
+could not persevere in, without offending the friends, whose esteem
+she valued. At length, therefore, she returned upon a second visit
+to Chateau-le-Blanc. Here the friendly manner of Count De Villefort
+encouraged Emily to mention to him her situation, respecting the estates
+of her late aunt, and to consult him on the means of recovering them. He
+had little doubt, that the law would decide in her favour, and, advising
+her to apply to it, offered first to write to an advocate at Avignon,
+on whose opinion he thought he could rely. His kindness was gratefully
+accepted by Emily, who, soothed by the courtesy she daily experienced,
+would have been once more happy, could she have been assured of
+Valancourt's welfare and unaltered affection. She had now been above a
+week at the chateau, without receiving intelligence of him, and, though
+she knew, that, if he was absent from his brother's residence, it was
+scarcely probable her letter had yet reached him, she could not forbear
+to admit doubts and fears, that destroyed her peace. Again she would
+consider of all, that might have happened in the long period, since her
+first seclusion at Udolpho, and her mind was sometimes so overwhelmed
+with an apprehension, that Valancourt was no more, or that he lived
+no longer for her, that the company even of Blanche became intolerably
+oppressive, and she would sit alone in her apartment for hours together,
+when the engagements of the family allowed her to do so, without
+incivility.
+
+In one of these solitary hours, she unlocked a little box, which
+contained some letters of Valancourt, with some drawings she had
+sketched, during her stay in Tuscany, the latter of which were no
+longer interesting to her; but, in the letters, she now, with melancholy
+indulgence, meant to retrace the tenderness, that had so often soothed
+her, and rendered her, for a moment, insensible of the distance, which
+separated her from the writer. But their effect was now changed; the
+affection they expressed appealed so forcibly to her heart, when she
+considered that it had, perhaps, yielded to the powers of time and
+absence, and even the view of the hand-writing recalled so many painful
+recollections, that she found herself unable to go through the first she
+had opened, and sat musing, with her cheek resting on her arm, and tears
+stealing from her eyes, when old Dorothee entered the room to inform
+her, that dinner would be ready, an hour before the usual time. Emily
+started on perceiving her, and hastily put up the papers, but not before
+Dorothee had observed both her agitation and her tears.
+
+'Ah, ma'amselle!' said she, 'you, who are so young,--have you reason for
+sorrow?'
+
+Emily tried to smile, but was unable to speak.
+
+'Alas! dear young lady, when you come to my age, you will not weep at
+trifles; and surely you have nothing serious, to grieve you.'
+
+'No, Dorothee, nothing of any consequence,' replied Emily. Dorothee, now
+stooping to pick up something, that had dropped from among the papers,
+suddenly exclaimed, 'Holy Mary! what is it I see?' and then, trembling,
+sat down in a chair, that stood by the table.
+
+'What is it you do see?' said Emily, alarmed by her manner, and looking
+round the room.
+
+'It is herself,' said Dorothee, 'her very self! just as she looked a
+little before she died!'
+
+Emily, still more alarmed, began now to fear, that Dorothee was seized
+with sudden phrensy, but entreated her to explain herself.
+
+'That picture!' said she, 'where did you find it, lady? it is my blessed
+mistress herself!'
+
+She laid on the table the miniature, which Emily had long ago found
+among the papers her father had enjoined her to destroy, and over
+which she had once seen him shed such tender and affecting tears; and,
+recollecting all the various circumstances of his conduct, that had long
+perplexed her, her emotions increased to an excess, which deprived her
+of all power to ask the questions she trembled to have answered, and she
+could only enquire, whether Dorothee was certain the picture resembled
+the late marchioness.
+
+'O, ma'amselle!' said she, 'how came it to strike me so, the instant I
+saw it, if it was not my lady's likeness? Ah!' added she, taking up the
+miniature, 'these are her own blue eyes--looking so sweet and so mild;
+and there is her very look, such as I have often seen it, when she had
+sat thinking for a long while, and then, the tears would often steal
+down her cheeks--but she never would complain! It was that look so meek,
+as it were, and resigned, that used to break my heart and make me love
+her so!'
+
+'Dorothee!' said Emily solemnly, 'I am interested in the cause of that
+grief, more so, perhaps, than you may imagine; and I entreat, that you
+will no longer refuse to indulge my curiosity;--it is not a common one.'
+
+As Emily said this, she remembered the papers, with which the picture
+had been found, and had scarcely a doubt, that they had concerned the
+Marchioness de Villeroi; but with this supposition came a scruple,
+whether she ought to enquire further on a subject, which might prove to
+be the same, that her father had so carefully endeavoured to conceal.
+Her curiosity, concerning the Marchioness, powerful as it was, it is
+probable she would now have resisted, as she had formerly done, on
+unwarily observing the few terrible words in the papers, which had never
+since been erased from her memory, had she been certain that the history
+of that lady was the subject of those papers, or, that such simple
+particulars only as it was probable Dorothee could relate were included
+in her father's command. What was known to her could be no secret to
+many other persons; and, since it appeared very unlikely, that St.
+Aubert should attempt to conceal what Emily might learn by ordinary
+means, she at length concluded, that, if the papers had related to the
+story of the Marchioness, it was not those circumstances of it, which
+Dorothee could disclose, that he had thought sufficiently important to
+wish to have concealed. She, therefore, no longer hesitated to make the
+enquiries, that might lead to the gratification of her curiosity.
+
+'Ah, ma'amselle!' said Dorothee, 'it is a sad story, and cannot be told
+now: but what am I saying? I never will tell it. Many years have passed,
+since it happened; and I never loved to talk of the Marchioness to any
+body, but my husband. He lived in the family, at that time, as well as
+myself, and he knew many particulars from me, which nobody else did; for
+I was about the person of my lady in her last illness, and saw and heard
+as much, or more than my lord himself. Sweet saint! how patient she was!
+When she died, I thought I could have died with her!'
+
+'Dorothee,' said Emily, interrupting her, 'what you shall tell, you may
+depend upon it, shall never be disclosed by me. I have, I repeat it,
+particular reasons for wishing to be informed on this subject, and am
+willing to bind myself, in the most solemn manner, never to mention what
+you shall wish me to conceal.'
+
+Dorothee seemed surprised at the earnestness of Emily's manner, and,
+after regarding her for some moments, in silence, said, 'Young lady!
+that look of yours pleads for you--it is so like my dear mistress's,
+that I can almost fancy I see her before me; if you were her daughter,
+you could not remind me of her more. But dinner will be ready--had you
+not better go down?'
+
+'You will first promise to grant my request,' said Emily.
+
+'And ought not you first to tell me, ma'amselle, how this picture fell
+into your hands, and the reasons you say you have for curiosity about my
+lady?'
+
+'Why, no, Dorothee,' replied Emily, recollecting herself, 'I have also
+particular reasons for observing silence, on these subjects, at least,
+till I know further; and, remember, I do not promise ever to speak upon
+them; therefore, do not let me induce you to satisfy my curiosity, from
+an expectation, that I shall gratify yours. What I may judge proper to
+conceal, does not concern myself alone, or I should have less scruple
+in revealing it: let a confidence in my honour alone persuade you to
+disclose what I request.'
+
+'Well, lady!' replied Dorothee, after a long pause, during which her
+eyes were fixed upon Emily, 'you seem so much interested,--and this
+picture and that face of yours make me think you have some reason to
+be so,--that I will trust you--and tell some things, that I never told
+before to any body, but my husband, though there are people, who have
+suspected as much. I will tell you the particulars of my lady's death,
+too, and some of my own suspicions; but you must first promise me by all
+the saints'--
+
+Emily, interrupting her, solemnly promised never to reveal what should
+be confided to her, without Dorothee's consent.
+
+'But there is the horn, ma'amselle, sounding for dinner,' said Dorothee;
+'I must be gone.'
+
+'When shall I see you again?' enquired Emily.
+
+Dorothee mused, and then replied, 'Why, madam, it may make people
+curious, if it is known I am so much in your apartment, and that
+I should be sorry for; so I will come when I am least likely to be
+observed. I have little leisure in the day, and I shall have a good deal
+to say; so, if you please, ma'am, I will come, when the family are all
+in bed.'
+
+'That will suit me very well,' replied Emily: 'Remember, then,
+to-night'--
+
+'Aye, that is well remembered,' said Dorothee, 'I fear I cannot come
+to-night, madam, for there will be the dance of the vintage, and it will
+be late, before the servants go to rest; for, when they once set in to
+dance, they will keep it up, in the cool of the air, till morning; at
+least, it used to be so in my time.'
+
+'Ah! is it the dance of the vintage?' said Emily, with a deep sigh,
+remembering, that it was on the evening of this festival, in the
+preceding year, that St. Aubert and herself had arrived in the
+neighbourhood of Chateau-le-Blanc. She paused a moment, overcome by
+the sudden recollection, and then, recovering herself, added--'But this
+dance is in the open woods; you, therefore, will not be wanted, and can
+easily come to me.'
+
+Dorothee replied, that she had been accustomed to be present at the
+dance of the vintage, and she did not wish to be absent now; 'but if I
+can get away, madam, I will,' said she.
+
+Emily then hastened to the dining-room, where the Count conducted
+himself with the courtesy, which is inseparable from true dignity, and
+of which the Countess frequently practised little, though her manner to
+Emily was an exception to her usual habit. But, if she retained few of
+the ornamental virtues, she cherished other qualities, which she seemed
+to consider invaluable. She had dismissed the grace of modesty, but
+then she knew perfectly well how to manage the stare of assurance; her
+manners had little of the tempered sweetness, which is necessary to
+render the female character interesting, but she could occasionally
+throw into them an affectation of spirits, which seemed to triumph over
+every person, who approached her. In the country, however, she generally
+affected an elegant languor, that persuaded her almost to faint,
+when her favourite read to her a story of fictitious sorrow; but
+her countenance suffered no change, when living objects of distress
+solicited her charity, and her heart beat with no transport to the
+thought of giving them instant relief;--she was a stranger to the
+highest luxury, of which, perhaps, the human mind can be sensible, for
+her benevolence had never yet called smiles upon the face of misery.
+
+In the evening, the Count, with all his family, except the Countess and
+Mademoiselle Bearn, went to the woods to witness the festivity of the
+peasants. The scene was in a glade, where the trees, opening, formed a
+circle round the turf they highly overshadowed; between their branches,
+vines, loaded with ripe clusters, were hung in gay festoons; and,
+beneath, were tables, with fruit, wine, cheese and other rural
+fare,--and seats for the Count and his family. At a little distance,
+were benches for the elder peasants, few of whom, however, could forbear
+to join the jocund dance, which began soon after sun-set, when several
+of sixty tripped it with almost as much glee and airy lightness, as
+those of sixteen.
+
+The musicians, who sat carelessly on the grass, at the foot of a tree,
+seemed inspired by the sound of their own instruments, which were
+chiefly flutes and a kind of long guitar. Behind, stood a boy,
+flourishing a tamborine, and dancing a solo, except that, as he
+sometimes gaily tossed the instrument, he tripped among the other
+dancers, when his antic gestures called forth a broader laugh, and
+heightened the rustic spirit of the scene.
+
+The Count was highly delighted with the happiness he witnessed, to which
+his bounty had largely contributed, and the Lady Blanche joined the
+dance with a young gentleman of her father's party. Du Pont requested
+Emily's hand, but her spirits were too much depressed, to permit her to
+engage in the present festivity, which called to her remembrance that
+of the preceding year, when St. Aubert was living, and of the melancholy
+scenes, which had immediately followed it.
+
+Overcome by these recollections, she, at length, left the spot, and
+walked slowly into the woods, where the softened music, floating at a
+distance, soothed her melancholy mind. The moon threw a mellow light
+among the foliage; the air was balmy and cool, and Emily, lost in
+thought, strolled on, without observing whither, till she perceived the
+sounds sinking afar off, and an awful stillness round her, except that,
+sometimes, the nightingale beguiled the silence with
+
+     Liquid notes, that close the eye of day.
+
+At length, she found herself near the avenue, which, on the night of her
+father's arrival, Michael had attempted to pass in search of a house,
+which was still nearly as wild and desolate as it had then appeared; for
+the Count had been so much engaged in directing other improvements, that
+he had neglected to give orders, concerning this extensive approach,
+and the road was yet broken, and the trees overloaded with their own
+luxuriance.
+
+As she stood surveying it, and remembering the emotions, which she had
+formerly suffered there, she suddenly recollected the figure, that had
+been seen stealing among the trees, and which had returned no answer to
+Michael's repeated calls; and she experienced somewhat of the fear, that
+had then assailed her, for it did not appear improbable, that these deep
+woods were occasionally the haunt of banditti. She, therefore, turned
+back, and was hastily pursuing her way to the dancers, when she heard
+steps approaching from the avenue; and, being still beyond the call of
+the peasants on the green, for she could neither hear their voices, or
+their music, she quickened her pace; but the persons following gained
+fast upon her, and, at length, distinguishing the voice of Henri, she
+walked leisurely, till he came up. He expressed some surprise at meeting
+her so far from the company; and, on her saying, that the pleasant
+moon-light had beguiled her to walk farther than she intended, an
+exclamation burst from the lips of his companion, and she thought she
+heard Valancourt speak! It was, indeed, he! and the meeting was such as
+may be imagined, between persons so affectionate, and so long separated
+as they had been.
+
+In the joy of these moments, Emily forgot all her past sufferings, and
+Valancourt seemed to have forgotten, that any person but Emily existed;
+while Henri was a silent and astonished spectator of the scene.
+
+Valancourt asked a thousand questions, concerning herself and Montoni,
+which there was now no time to answer; but she learned, that her letter
+had been forwarded to him, at Paris, which he had previously quitted,
+and was returning to Gascony, whither the letter also returned, which,
+at length, informed him of Emily's arrival, and on the receipt of which
+he had immediately set out for Languedoc. On reaching the
+monastery, whence she had dated her letter, he found, to his extreme
+disappointment, that the gates were already closed for the night;
+and believing, that he should not see Emily, till the morrow, he was
+returning to his little inn, with the intention of writing to her, when
+he was overtaken by Henri, with whom he had been intimate at Paris, and
+was led to her, whom he was secretly lamenting that he should not see,
+till the following day.
+
+Emily, with Valancourt and Henri, now returned to the green, where the
+latter presented Valancourt to the Count, who, she fancied, received him
+with less than his usual benignity, though it appeared, that they were
+not strangers to each other. He was invited, however, to partake of the
+diversions of the evening; and, when he had paid his respects to the
+Count, and while the dancers continued their festivity, he seated
+himself by Emily, and conversed, without restraint. The lights, which
+were hung among the trees, under which they sat, allowed her a more
+perfect view of the countenance she had so frequently in absence
+endeavoured to recollect, and she perceived, with some regret, that
+it was not the same as when last she saw it. There was all its wonted
+intelligence and fire; but it had lost much of the simplicity, and
+somewhat of the open benevolence, that used to characterise it. Still,
+however, it was an interesting countenance; but Emily thought she
+perceived, at intervals, anxiety contract, and melancholy fix the
+features of Valancourt; sometimes, too, he fell into a momentary musing,
+and then appeared anxious to dissipate thought; while, at others, as he
+fixed his eyes on Emily, a kind of sudden distraction seemed to
+cross his mind. In her he perceived the same goodness and beautiful
+simplicity, that had charmed him, on their first acquaintance. The bloom
+of her countenance was somewhat faded, but all its sweetness remained,
+and it was rendered more interesting, than ever, by the faint expression
+of melancholy, that sometimes mingled with her smile.
+
+At his request, she related the most important circumstances, that
+had occurred to her, since she left France, and emotions of pity and
+indignation alternately prevailed in his mind, when he heard how much
+she had suffered from the villany of Montoni. More than once, when she
+was speaking of his conduct, of which the guilt was rather softened,
+than exaggerated, by her representation, he started from his seat,
+and walked away, apparently overcome as much by self accusation as by
+resentment. Her sufferings alone were mentioned in the few words, which
+he could address to her, and he listened not to the account, which she
+was careful to give as distinctly as possible, of the present loss of
+Madame Montoni's estates, and of the little reason there was to expect
+their restoration. At length, Valancourt remained lost in thought, and
+then some secret cause seemed to overcome him with anguish. Again he
+abruptly left her. When he returned, she perceived, that he had been
+weeping, and tenderly begged, that he would compose himself. 'My
+sufferings are all passed now,' said she, 'for I have escaped from the
+tyranny of Montoni, and I see you well--let me also see you happy.'
+
+Valancourt was more agitated, than before. 'I am unworthy of you,
+Emily,' said he, 'I am unworthy of you;'--words, by his manner of
+uttering which Emily was then more shocked than by their import. She
+fixed on him a mournful and enquiring eye. 'Do not look thus on me,'
+said he, turning away and pressing her hand; 'I cannot bear those
+looks.'
+
+'I would ask,' said Emily, in a gentle, but agitated voice, 'the meaning
+of your words; but I perceive, that the question would distress you
+now. Let us talk on other subjects. To-morrow, perhaps, you may be more
+composed. Observe those moon light woods, and the towers, which
+appear obscurely in the perspective. You used to be a great admirer
+of landscape, and I have heard you say, that the faculty of deriving
+consolation, under misfortune, from the sublime prospects, which neither
+oppression, or poverty with-hold from us, was the peculiar blessing of
+the innocent.' Valancourt was deeply affected. 'Yes,' replied he, 'I
+had once a taste for innocent and elegant delights--I had once an
+uncorrupted heart.' Then, checking himself, he added, 'Do you remember
+our journey together in the Pyrenees?'
+
+'Can I forget it?' said Emily.--'Would that I could!' he replied;--'that
+was the happiest period of my life. I then loved, with enthusiasm,
+whatever was truly great, or good.' It was some time before Emily could
+repress her tears, and try to command her emotions. 'If you wish to
+forget that journey,' said she, 'it must certainly be my wish to forget
+it also.' She paused, and then added, 'You make me very uneasy; but this
+is not the time for further enquiry;--yet, how can I bear to believe,
+even for a moment, that you are less worthy of my esteem than formerly?
+I have still sufficient confidence in your candour, to believe, that,
+when I shall ask for an explanation, you will give it me.'--'Yes,' said
+Valancourt, 'yes, Emily: I have not yet lost my candour: if I had, I
+could better have disguised my emotions, on learning what were your
+sufferings--your virtues, while I--I--but I will say no more. I did
+not mean to have said even so much--I have been surprised into
+the self-accusation. Tell me, Emily, that you will not forget that
+journey--will not wish to forget it, and I will be calm. I would not
+lose the remembrance of it for the whole earth.'
+
+'How contradictory is this!' said Emily;--'but we may be overheard. My
+recollection of it shall depend upon yours; I will endeavour to forget,
+or to recollect it, as you may do. Let us join the Count.'--'Tell
+me first,' said Valancourt, 'that you forgive the uneasiness I have
+occasioned you, this evening, and that you will still love me.'--'I
+sincerely forgive you,' replied Emily. 'You best know whether I shall
+continue to love you, for you know whether you deserve my esteem. At
+present, I will believe that you do. It is unnecessary to say,' added
+she, observing his dejection, 'how much pain it would give me to believe
+otherwise.--The young lady, who approaches, is the Count's daughter.'
+
+Valancourt and Emily now joined the Lady Blanche; and the party, soon
+after, sat down with the Count, his son, and the Chevalier Du Pont, at a
+banquet, spread under a gay awning, beneath the trees. At the table also
+were seated several of the most venerable of the Count's tenants, and
+it was a festive repast to all but Valancourt and Emily. When the Count
+retired to the chateau, he did not invite Valancourt to accompany him,
+who, therefore, took leave of Emily, and retired to his solitary inn for
+the night: meanwhile, she soon withdrew to her own apartment, where
+she mused, with deep anxiety and concern, on his behaviour, and on the
+Count's reception of him. Her attention was thus so wholly engaged, that
+she forgot Dorothee and her appointment, till morning was far advanced,
+when, knowing that the good old woman would not come, she retired, for a
+few hours, to repose.
+
+On the following day, when the Count had accidentally joined Emily in
+one of the walks, they talked of the festival of the preceding evening,
+and this led him to a mention of Valancourt. 'That is a young man of
+talents,' said he; 'you were formerly acquainted with him, I perceive.'
+Emily said, that she was. 'He was introduced to me, at Paris,' said the
+Count, 'and I was much pleased with him, on our first acquaintance.' He
+paused, and Emily trembled, between the desire of hearing more and the
+fear of shewing the Count, that she felt an interest on the subject.
+'May I ask,' said he, at length, 'how long you have known Monsieur
+Valancourt?'--'Will you allow me to ask your reason for the question,
+sir?' said she; 'and I will answer it immediately.'--'Certainly,' said
+the Count, 'that is but just. I will tell you my reason. I cannot but
+perceive, that Monsieur Valancourt admires you; in that, however, there
+is nothing extraordinary; every person, who sees you, must do the same.
+I am above using common-place compliments; I speak with sincerity. What
+I fear, is, that he is a favoured admirer.'--'Why do you fear it, sir?'
+said Emily, endeavouring to conceal her emotion.--'Because,' replied the
+Count, 'I think him not worthy of your favour.' Emily, greatly agitated,
+entreated further explanation. 'I will give it,' said he, 'if you will
+believe, that nothing but a strong interest in your welfare could induce
+me to hazard that assertion.'--'I must believe so, sir,' replied Emily.
+
+'But let us rest under these trees,' said the Count, observing the
+paleness of her countenance; 'here is a seat--you are fatigued.' They
+sat down, and the Count proceeded. 'Many young ladies, circumstanced as
+you are, would think my conduct, on this occasion, and on so short
+an acquaintance, impertinent, instead of friendly; from what I have
+observed of your temper and understanding, I do not fear such a return
+from you. Our acquaintance has been short, but long enough to make me
+esteem you, and feel a lively interest in your happiness. You deserve
+to be very happy, and I trust that you will be so.' Emily sighed
+softly, and bowed her thanks. The Count paused again. 'I am unpleasantly
+circumstanced,' said he; 'but an opportunity of rendering you important
+service shall overcome inferior considerations. Will you inform me of
+the manner of your first acquaintance with the Chevalier Valancourt, if
+the subject is not too painful?'
+
+Emily briefly related the accident of their meeting in the presence of
+her father, and then so earnestly entreated the Count not to hesitate in
+declaring what he knew, that he perceived the violent emotion, against
+which she was contending, and, regarding her with a look of tender
+compassion, considered how he might communicate his information with
+least pain to his anxious auditor.
+
+'The Chevalier and my son,' said he, 'were introduced to each other,
+at the table of a brother officer, at whose house I also met him, and
+invited him to my own, whenever he should be disengaged. I did not then
+know, that he had formed an acquaintance with a set of men, a disgrace
+to their species, who live by plunder and pass their lives in continual
+debauchery. I knew several of the Chevalier's family, resident at Paris,
+and considered them as sufficient pledges for his introduction to my
+own. But you are ill; I will leave the subject.'--'No, sir,' said Emily,
+'I beg you will proceed: I am only distressed.'--'ONLY!' said the Count,
+with emphasis; 'however, I will proceed. I soon learned, that these, his
+associates, had drawn him into a course of dissipation, from which he
+appeared to have neither the power, nor the inclination, to extricate
+himself. He lost large sums at the gaming-table; he became infatuated
+with play; and was ruined. I spoke tenderly of this to his friends, who
+assured me, that they had remonstrated with him, till they were weary.
+I afterwards learned, that, in consideration of his talents for play,
+which were generally successful, when unopposed by the tricks of
+villany,--that in consideration of these, the party had initiated him
+into the secrets of their trade, and allotted him a share of their
+profits.' 'Impossible!' said Emily suddenly; 'but--pardon me, sir, I
+scarcely know what I say; allow for the distress of my mind. I must,
+indeed, I must believe, that you have not been truly informed. The
+Chevalier had, doubtless, enemies, who misrepresented him.'--'I should
+be most happy to believe so,' replied the Count, 'but I cannot. Nothing
+short of conviction, and a regard for your happiness, could have urged
+me to repeat these unpleasant reports.'
+
+Emily was silent. She recollected Valancourt's sayings, on the preceding
+evening, which discovered the pangs of self-reproach, and seemed to
+confirm all that the Count had related. Yet she had not fortitude enough
+to dare conviction. Her heart was overwhelmed with anguish at the mere
+suspicion of his guilt, and she could not endure a belief of it. After
+a silence, the Count said, 'I perceive, and can allow for, your want
+of conviction. It is necessary I should give some proof of what I have
+asserted; but this I cannot do, without subjecting one, who is very dear
+to me, to danger.'--'What is the danger you apprehend, sir?' said Emily;
+'if I can prevent it, you may safely confide in my honour.'--'On your
+honour I am certain I can rely,' said the Count; 'but can I trust your
+fortitude? Do you think you can resist the solicitation of a favoured
+admirer, when he pleads, in affliction, for the name of one, who
+has robbed him of a blessing?'--'I shall not be exposed to such a
+temptation, sir,' said Emily, with modest pride, 'for I cannot favour
+one, whom I must no longer esteem. I, however, readily give my word.'
+Tears, in the mean time, contradicted her first assertion; and she felt,
+that time and effort only could eradicate an affection, which had been
+formed on virtuous esteem, and cherished by habit and difficulty.
+
+'I will trust you then,' said the Count, 'for conviction is necessary
+to your peace, and cannot, I perceive, be obtained, without this
+confidence. My son has too often been an eye-witness of the Chevalier's
+ill conduct; he was very near being drawn in by it; he was, indeed,
+drawn in to the commission of many follies, but I rescued him from guilt
+and destruction. Judge then, Mademoiselle St. Aubert, whether a father,
+who had nearly lost his only son by the example of the Chevalier, has
+not, from conviction, reason to warn those, whom he esteems, against
+trusting their happiness in such hands. I have myself seen the Chevalier
+engaged in deep play with men, whom I almost shuddered to look upon. If
+you still doubt, I will refer you to my son.'
+
+'I must not doubt what you have yourself witnessed,' replied Emily,
+sinking with grief, 'or what you assert. But the Chevalier has, perhaps,
+been drawn only into a transient folly, which he may never repeat. If
+you had known the justness of his former principles, you would allow for
+my present incredulity.'
+
+'Alas!' observed the Count, 'it is difficult to believe that, which
+will make us wretched. But I will not sooth you by flattering and
+false hopes. We all know how fascinating the vice of gaming is, and how
+difficult it is, also, to conquer habits; the Chevalier might, perhaps,
+reform for a while, but he would soon relapse into dissipation--for I
+fear, not only the bonds of habit would be powerful, but that his morals
+are corrupted. And--why should I conceal from you, that play is not his
+only vice? he appears to have a taste for every vicious pleasure.'
+
+The Count hesitated and paused; while Emily endeavoured to support
+herself, as, with increasing perturbation, she expected what he might
+further say. A long pause of silence ensued, during which he was visibly
+agitated; at length, he said, 'It would be a cruel delicacy, that
+could prevail with me to be silent--and I will inform you, that the
+Chevalier's extravagance has brought him twice into the prisons of
+Paris, from whence he was last extricated, as I was told upon authority,
+which I cannot doubt, by a well-known Parisian Countess, with whom he
+continued to reside, when I left Paris.'
+
+He paused again; and, looking at Emily, perceived her countenance
+change, and that she was falling from the seat; he caught her, but she
+had fainted, and he called loudly for assistance. They were, however,
+beyond the hearing of his servants at the chateau, and he feared
+to leave her while he went thither for assistance, yet knew not how
+otherwise to obtain it; till a fountain at no great distance caught his
+eye, and he endeavoured to support Emily against the tree, under which
+she had been sitting, while he went thither for water. But again he was
+perplexed, for he had nothing near him, in which water could be brought;
+but while, with increased anxiety, he watched her, he thought he
+perceived in her countenance symptoms of returning life.
+
+It was long, however, before she revived, and then she found herself
+supported--not by the Count, but by Valancourt, who was observing her
+with looks of earnest apprehension, and who now spoke to her in a tone,
+tremulous with his anxiety. At the sound of his well-known voice, she
+raised her eyes, but presently closed them, and a faintness again came
+over her.
+
+The Count, with a look somewhat stern, waved him to withdraw; but he
+only sighed heavily, and called on the name of Emily, as he again held
+the water, that had been brought, to her lips. On the Count's repeating
+his action, and accompanying it with words, Valancourt answered him
+with a look of deep resentment, and refused to leave the place, till she
+should revive, or to resign her for a moment to the care of any person.
+In the next instant, his conscience seemed to inform him of what had
+been the subject of the Count's conversation with Emily, and indignation
+flashed in his eyes; but it was quickly repressed, and succeeded by an
+expression of serious anguish, that induced the Count to regard him with
+more pity than resentment, and the view of which so much affected Emily,
+when she again revived, that she yielded to the weakness of tears.
+But she soon restrained them, and, exerting her resolution to appear
+recovered, she rose, thanked the Count and Henri, with whom Valancourt
+had entered the garden, for their care, and moved towards the chateau,
+without noticing Valancourt, who, heart-struck by her manner, exclaimed
+in a low voice--'Good God! how have I deserved this?--what has been
+said, to occasion this change?'
+
+Emily, without replying, but with increased emotion, quickened her
+steps. 'What has thus disordered you, Emily?' said he, as he still
+walked by her side: 'give me a few moments' conversation, I entreat
+you;--I am very miserable!'
+
+Though this was spoken in a low voice, it was overheard by the Count,
+who immediately replied, that Mademoiselle St. Aubert was then too much
+indisposed, to attend to any conversation, but that he would venture
+to promise she would see Monsieur Valancourt on the morrow, if she was
+better.
+
+Valancourt's cheek was crimsoned: he looked haughtily at the Count,
+and then at Emily, with successive expressions of surprise, grief and
+supplication, which she could neither misunderstand, or resist, and she
+said languidly--'I shall be better tomorrow, and if you wish to accept
+the Count's permission, I will see you then.'
+
+'See me!' exclaimed Valancourt, as he threw a glance of mingled pride
+and resentment upon the Count; and then, seeming to recollect
+himself, he added--'But I will come, madam; I will accept the Count's
+PERMISSION.'
+
+When they reached the door of the chateau, he lingered a moment, for
+his resentment was now fled; and then, with a look so expressive of
+tenderness and grief, that Emily's heart was not proof against it, he
+bade her good morning, and, bowing slightly to the Count, disappeared.
+
+Emily withdrew to her own apartment, under such oppression of heart as
+she had seldom known, when she endeavoured to recollect all that the
+Count had told, to examine the probability of the circumstances
+he himself believed, and to consider of her future conduct towards
+Valancourt. But, when she attempted to think, her mind refused controul,
+and she could only feel that she was miserable. One moment, she sunk
+under the conviction, that Valancourt was no longer the same, whom she
+had so tenderly loved, the idea of whom had hitherto supported her
+under affliction, and cheered her with the hope of happier days,--but
+a fallen, a worthless character, whom she must teach herself to
+despise--if she could not forget. Then, unable to endure this terrible
+supposition, she rejected it, and disdained to believe him capable of
+conduct, such as the Count had described, to whom she believed he had
+been misrepresented by some artful enemy; and there were moments, when
+she even ventured to doubt the integrity of the Count himself, and to
+suspect, that he was influenced by some selfish motive, to break her
+connection with Valancourt. But this was the error of an instant, only;
+the Count's character, which she had heard spoken of by Du Pont and
+many other persons, and had herself observed, enabled her to judge, and
+forbade the supposition; had her confidence, indeed, been less, there
+appeared to be no temptation to betray him into conduct so treacherous,
+and so cruel. Nor did reflection suffer her to preserve the hope, that
+Valancourt had been mis-represented to the Count, who had said, that he
+spoke chiefly from his own observation, and from his son's experience.
+She must part from Valancourt, therefore, for ever--for what of either
+happiness or tranquillity could she expect with a man, whose tastes were
+degenerated into low inclinations, and to whom vice was become habitual?
+whom she must no longer esteem, though the remembrance of what he once
+was, and the long habit of loving him, would render it very difficult
+for her to despise him. 'O Valancourt!' she would exclaim, 'having been
+separated so long--do we meet, only to be miserable--only to part for
+ever?'
+
+Amidst all the tumult of her mind, she remembered pertinaciously the
+seeming candour and simplicity of his conduct, on the preceding night;
+and, had she dared to trust her own heart, it would have led her to hope
+much from this. Still she could not resolve to dismiss him for ever,
+without obtaining further proof of his ill conduct; yet she saw no
+probability of procuring it, if, indeed, proof more positive was
+possible. Something, however, it was necessary to decide upon, and she
+almost determined to be guided in her opinion solely by the manner, with
+which Valancourt should receive her hints concerning his late conduct.
+
+Thus passed the hours till dinner-time, when Emily, struggling against
+the pressure of her grief, dried her tears, and joined the family
+at table, where the Count preserved towards her the most delicate
+attention; but the Countess and Mademoiselle Bearn, having looked, for a
+moment, with surprise, on her dejected countenance, began, as usual,
+to talk of trifles, while the eyes of Lady Blanche asked much of her
+friend, who could only reply by a mournful smile.
+
+Emily withdrew as soon after dinner as possible, and was followed by the
+Lady Blanche, whose anxious enquiries, however, she found herself quite
+unequal to answer, and whom she entreated to spare her on the subject
+of her distress. To converse on any topic, was now, indeed, so extremely
+painful to her, that she soon gave up the attempt, and Blanche left
+her, with pity of the sorrow, which she perceived she had no power to
+assuage.
+
+Emily secretly determined to go to her convent in a day or two; for
+company, especially that of the Countess and Mademoiselle Bearn, was
+intolerable to her, in the present state of her spirits; and, in the
+retirement of the convent, as well as the kindness of the abbess, she
+hoped to recover the command of her mind, and to teach it resignation to
+the event, which, she too plainly perceived, was approaching.
+
+To have lost Valancourt by death, or to have seen him married to
+a rival, would, she thought, have given her less anguish, than a
+conviction of his unworthiness, which must terminate in misery to
+himself, and which robbed her even of the solitary image her heart so
+long had cherished. These painful reflections were interrupted, for a
+moment, by a note from Valancourt, written in evident distraction
+of mind, entreating, that she would permit him to see her on the
+approaching evening, instead of the following morning; a request, which
+occasioned her so much agitation, that she was unable to answer it. She
+wished to see him, and to terminate her present state of suspense, yet
+shrunk from the interview, and, incapable of deciding for herself, she,
+at length, sent to beg a few moments' conversation with the Count in his
+library, where she delivered to him the note, and requested his advice.
+After reading it, he said, that, if she believed herself well enough
+to support the interview, his opinion was, that, for the relief of both
+parties, it ought to take place, that evening.
+
+'His affection for you is, undoubtedly, a very sincere one,' added the
+Count; 'and he appears so much distressed, and you, my amiable friend,
+are so ill at ease--that the sooner the affair is decided, the better.'
+
+Emily replied, therefore, to Valancourt, that she would see him, and
+then exerted herself in endeavours to attain fortitude and composure,
+to bear her through the approaching scene--a scene so afflictingly the
+reverse of any, to which she had looked forward!
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 4
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+  Is all the council that we two have shared,
+     the hours that we have spent,
+ When we have chid the hasty-footed time
+ For parting us--Oh! and is all forgot?
+
+ And will you rend our ancient love asunder?
+     MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
+
+In the evening, when Emily was at length informed, that Count De
+Villefort requested to see her, she guessed that Valancourt was below,
+and, endeavouring to assume composure and to recollect all her spirits,
+she rose and left the apartment; but on reaching the door of the
+library, where she imagined him to be, her emotion returned with such
+energy, that, fearing to trust herself in the room, she returned into
+the hall, where she continued for a considerable time, unable to command
+her agitated spirits.
+
+When she could recall them, she found in the library Valancourt, seated
+with the Count, who both rose on her entrance; but she did not dare
+to look at Valancourt, and the Count, having led her to a chair,
+immediately withdrew.
+
+Emily remained with her eyes fixed on the floor, under such oppression
+of heart, that she could not speak, and with difficulty breathed; while
+Valancourt threw himself into a chair beside her, and, sighing heavily,
+continued silent, when, had she raised her eyes, she would have
+perceived the violent emotions, with which he was agitated.
+
+At length, in a tremulous voice, he said, 'I have solicited to see you
+this evening, that I might, at least, be spared the further torture of
+suspense, which your altered manner had occasioned me, and which the
+hints I have just received from the Count have in part explained. I
+perceive I have enemies, Emily, who envied me my late happiness, and
+who have been busy in searching out the means to destroy it: I perceive,
+too, that time and absence have weakened the affection you once felt for
+me, and that you can now easily be taught to forget me.'
+
+His last words faltered, and Emily, less able to speak than before,
+continued silent.
+
+'O what a meeting is this!' exclaimed Valancourt, starting from his
+seat, and pacing the room with hurried steps, 'what a meeting is this,
+after our long--long separation!' Again he sat down, and, after the
+struggle of a moment, he added in a firm but despairing tone, 'This is
+too much--I cannot bear it! Emily, will you not speak to me?'
+
+He covered his face with his hand, as if to conceal his emotion, and
+took Emily's, which she did not withdraw. Her tears could no longer
+be restrained; and, when he raised his eyes and perceived that she was
+weeping, all his tenderness returned, and a gleam of hope appeared to
+cross his mind, for he exclaimed, 'O! you do pity me, then, you do love
+me! Yes, you are still my own Emily--let me believe those tears, that
+tell me so!'
+
+Emily now made an effort to recover her firmness, and, hastily drying
+them, 'Yes,' said she, 'I do pity you--I weep for you--but, ought I to
+think of you with affection? You may remember, that yester-evening I
+said, I had still sufficient confidence in your candour to believe,
+that, when I should request an explanation of your words, you would give
+it. This explanation is now unnecessary, I understand them too well; but
+prove, at least, that your candour is deserving of the confidence I
+give it, when I ask you, whether you are conscious of being the same
+estimable Valancourt--whom I once loved.'
+
+'Once loved!' cried he,--'the same--the same!' He paused in
+extreme emotion, and then added, in a voice at once solemn, and
+dejected,--'No--I am not the same!--I am lost--I am no longer worthy of
+you!'
+
+He again concealed his face. Emily was too much affected by this honest
+confession to reply immediately, and, while she struggled to overcome
+the pleadings of her heart, and to act with the decisive firmness, which
+was necessary for her future peace, she perceived all the danger of
+trusting long to her resolution, in the presence of Valancourt, and was
+anxious to conclude an interview, that tortured them both; yet, when
+she considered, that this was probably their last meeting, her fortitude
+sunk at once, and she experienced only emotions of tenderness and of
+despondency.
+
+Valancourt, meanwhile, lost in emotions of remorse and grief, which he
+had neither the power, or the will to express, sat insensible almost
+of the presence of Emily, his features still concealed, and his breast
+agitated by convulsive sighs.
+
+'Spare me the necessity,' said Emily, recollecting her fortitude, 'spare
+me the necessity of mentioning those circumstances of your conduct,
+which oblige me to break our connection forever.--We must part, I now
+see you for the last time.'
+
+'Impossible!' cried Valancourt, roused from his deep silence, 'You
+cannot mean what you say!--you cannot mean to throw me from you
+forever!'
+
+'We must part,' repeated Emily, with emphasis,--'and that forever! Your
+own conduct has made this necessary.'
+
+'This is the Count's determination,' said he haughtily, 'not yours,
+and I shall enquire by what authority he interferes between us.' He now
+rose, and walked about the room in great emotion.
+
+'Let me save you from this error,' said Emily, not less agitated--'it is
+my determination, and, if you reflect a moment on your late conduct, you
+will perceive, that my future peace requires it.'
+
+'Your future peace requires, that we should part--part forever!' said
+Valancourt, 'How little did I ever expect to hear you say so!'
+
+'And how little did I expect, that it would be necessary for me to say
+so!' rejoined Emily, while her voice softened into tenderness, and her
+tears flowed again.--'That you--you, Valancourt, would ever fall from my
+esteem!'
+
+He was silent a moment, as if overwhelmed by the consciousness of no
+longer deserving this esteem, as well as the certainty of having lost
+it, and then, with impassioned grief, lamented the criminality of his
+late conduct and the misery to which it had reduced him, till, overcome
+by a recollection of the past and a conviction of the future, he burst
+into tears, and uttered only deep and broken sighs.
+
+The remorse he had expressed, and the distress he suffered could not
+be witnessed by Emily with indifference, and, had she not called to
+her recollection all the circumstances, of which Count De Villefort
+had informed her, and all he had said of the danger of confiding in
+repentance, formed under the influence of passion, she might perhaps
+have trusted to the assurances of her heart, and have forgotten his
+misconduct in the tenderness, which that repentance excited.
+
+Valancourt, returning to the chair beside her, at length, said, in a
+calm voice, ''Tis true, I am fallen--fallen from my own esteem! but
+could you, Emily, so soon, so suddenly resign, if you had not before
+ceased to love me, or, if your conduct was not governed by the designs,
+I will say, the selfish designs of another person! Would you not
+otherwise be willing to hope for my reformation--and could you bear, by
+estranging me from you, to abandon me to misery--to myself!'--Emily wept
+aloud.--'No, Emily--no--you would not do this, if you still loved me.
+You would find your own happiness in saving mine.'
+
+'There are too many probabilities against that hope,' said Emily, 'to
+justify me in trusting the comfort of my whole life to it. May I not
+also ask, whether you could wish me to do this, if you really loved me?'
+
+'Really loved you!' exclaimed Valancourt--'is it possible you can doubt
+my love! Yet it is reasonable, that you should do so, since you see,
+that I am less ready to suffer the horror of parting with you, than
+that of involving you in my ruin. Yes, Emily--I am ruined--irreparably
+ruined--I am involved in debts, which I can never discharge!'
+Valancourt's look, which was wild, as he spoke this, soon settled into
+an expression of gloomy despair; and Emily, while she was compelled to
+admire his sincerity, saw, with unutterable anguish, new reasons for
+fear in the suddenness of his feelings and the extent of the misery, in
+which they might involve him. After some minutes, she seemed to
+contend against her grief and to struggle for fortitude to conclude
+the interview. 'I will not prolong these moments,' said she, 'by a
+conversation, which can answer no good purpose. Valancourt, farewell!'
+
+'You are not going?' said he, wildly interrupting her--'You will not
+leave me thus--you will not abandon me even before my mind has suggested
+any possibility of compromise between the last indulgence of my despair
+and the endurance of my loss!' Emily was terrified by the sternness
+of his look, and said, in a soothing voice, 'You have yourself
+acknowledged, that it is necessary we should part;--if you
+wish, that I should believe you love me, you will repeat the
+acknowledgment.'--'Never--never,' cried he--'I was distracted when I
+made it. O! Emily--this is too much;--though you are not deceived as to
+my faults, you must be deluded into this exasperation against them. The
+Count is the barrier between us; but he shall not long remain so.'
+
+'You are, indeed, distracted,' said Emily, 'the Count is not your enemy;
+on the contrary, he is my friend, and that might, in some degree, induce
+you to consider him as yours.'--'Your friend!' said Valancourt, hastily,
+'how long has he been your friend, that he can so easily make you forget
+your lover? Was it he, who recommended to your favour the Monsieur Du
+Pont, who, you say, accompanied you from Italy, and who, I say, has
+stolen your affections? But I have no right to question you;--you are
+your own mistress. Du Pont, perhaps, may not long triumph over my fallen
+fortunes!' Emily, more frightened than before by the frantic looks of
+Valancourt, said, in a tone scarcely audible, 'For heaven's sake be
+reasonable--be composed. Monsieur Du Pont is not your rival, nor is the
+Count his advocate. You have no rival; nor, except yourself, an enemy.
+My heart is wrung with anguish, which must increase while your
+frantic behaviour shews me, more than ever, that you are no longer the
+Valancourt I have been accustomed to love.'
+
+He made no reply, but sat with his arms rested on the table and his
+face concealed by his hands; while Emily stood, silent and trembling,
+wretched for herself and dreading to leave him in this state of mind.
+
+'O excess of misery!' he suddenly exclaimed, 'that I can never lament
+my sufferings, without accusing myself, nor remember you, without
+recollecting the folly and the vice, by which I have lost you! Why was I
+forced to Paris, and why did I yield to allurements, which were to make
+me despicable for ever! O! why cannot I look back, without interruption,
+to those days of innocence and peace, the days of our early love!'--The
+recollection seemed to melt his heart, and the frenzy of despair yielded
+to tears. After a long pause, turning towards her and taking her hand,
+he said, in a softened voice, 'Emily, can you bear that we should
+part--can you resolve to give up an heart, that loves you like mine--an
+heart, which, though it has erred--widely erred, is not irretrievable
+from error, as, you well know, it never can be retrievable from love?'
+Emily made no reply, but with her tears. 'Can you,' continued he, 'can
+you forget all our former days of happiness and confidence--when I had
+not a thought, that I might wish to conceal from you--when I had no
+taste--no pleasures, in which you did not participate?'
+
+'O do not lead me to the remembrance of those days,' said Emily, 'unless
+you can teach me to forget the present; I do not mean to reproach you;
+if I did, I should be spared these tears; but why will you render your
+present sufferings more conspicuous, by contrasting them with your
+former virtues?'
+
+'Those virtues,' said Valancourt, 'might, perhaps, again be mine, if
+your affection, which nurtured them, was unchanged;--but I fear, indeed,
+I see, that you can no longer love me; else the happy hours, which we
+have passed together, would plead for me, and you could not look
+back upon them unmoved. Yet, why should I torture myself with the
+remembrance--why do I linger here? Am I not ruined--would it not be
+madness to involve you in my misfortunes, even if your heart was still
+my own? I will not distress you further. Yet, before I go,' added he,
+in a solemn voice, 'let me repeat, that, whatever may be my
+destiny--whatever I may be doomed to suffer, I must always love
+you--most fondly love you! I am going, Emily, I am going to leave
+you--to leave you, forever!' As he spoke the last words, his voice
+trembled, and he threw himself again into the chair, from which he had
+risen. Emily was utterly unable to leave the room, or to say farewell.
+All impression of his criminal conduct and almost of his follies was
+obliterated from her mind, and she was sensible only of pity and grief.
+
+'My fortitude is gone,' said Valancourt at length; 'I can no longer
+even struggle to recall it. I cannot now leave you--I cannot bid you
+an eternal farewell; say, at least, that you will see me once again.'
+Emily's heart was somewhat relieved by the request, and she endeavoured
+to believe, that she ought not to refuse it. Yet she was embarrassed
+by recollecting, that she was a visitor in the house of the Count, who
+could not be pleased by the return of Valancourt. Other considerations,
+however, soon overcame this, and she granted his request, on the
+condition, that he would neither think of the Count, as his enemy, nor
+Du Pont as his rival. He then left her, with a heart, so much lightened
+by this short respite, that he almost lost every former sense of
+misfortune.
+
+Emily withdrew to her own room, that she might compose her spirits and
+remove the traces of her tears, which would encourage the censorious
+remarks of the Countess and her favourite, as well as excite the
+curiosity of the rest of the family. She found it, however, impossible
+to tranquillize her mind, from which she could not expel the remembrance
+of the late scene with Valancourt, or the consciousness, that she was to
+see him again, on the morrow. This meeting now appeared more terrible to
+her than the last, for the ingenuous confession he had made of his
+ill conduct and his embarrassed circumstances, with the strength and
+tenderness of affection, which this confession discovered, had deeply
+impressed her, and, in spite of all she had heard and believed to his
+disadvantage, her esteem began to return. It frequently appeared to her
+impossible, that he could have been guilty of the depravities, reported
+of him, which, if not inconsistent with his warmth and impetuosity,
+were entirely so with his candour and sensibility. Whatever was the
+criminality, which had given rise to the reports, she could not now
+believe them to be wholly true, nor that his heart was finally closed
+against the charms of virtue. The deep consciousness, which he felt as
+well as expressed of his errors, seemed to justify the opinion; and,
+as she understood not the instability of youthful dispositions, when
+opposed by habit, and that professions frequently deceive those, who
+make, as well as those, who hear them, she might have yielded to the
+flattering persuasions of her own heart and the pleadings of Valancourt,
+had she not been guided by the superior prudence of the Count. He
+represented to her, in a clear light, the danger of her present
+situation, that of listening to promises of amendment, made under the
+influence of strong passion, and the slight hope, which could attach
+to a connection, whose chance of happiness rested upon the retrieval
+of ruined circumstances and the reform of corrupted habits. On these
+accounts, he lamented, that Emily had consented to a second interview,
+for he saw how much it would shake her resolution and increase the
+difficulty of her conquest.
+
+Her mind was now so entirely occupied by nearer interests, that she
+forgot the old housekeeper and the promised history, which so lately had
+excited her curiosity, but which Dorothee was probably not very anxious
+to disclose, for night came; the hours passed; and she did not appear
+in Emily's chamber. With the latter it was a sleepless and dismal
+night; the more she suffered her memory to dwell on the late scenes with
+Valancourt, the more her resolution declined, and she was obliged
+to recollect all the arguments, which the Count had made use of to
+strengthen it, and all the precepts, which she had received from her
+deceased father, on the subject of self-command, to enable her to act,
+with prudence and dignity, on this the most severe occasion of her
+life. There were moments, when all her fortitude forsook her, and when,
+remembering the confidence of former times, she thought it impossible,
+that she could renounce Valancourt. His reformation then appeared
+certain; the arguments of Count De Villefort were forgotten; she readily
+believed all she wished, and was willing to encounter any evil, rather
+than that of an immediate separation.
+
+Thus passed the night in ineffectual struggles between affection
+and reason, and she rose, in the morning, with a mind, weakened and
+irresolute, and a frame, trembling with illness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+ Come, weep with me;--past hope, past cure, past help!
+     ROMEO AND JULIET
+
+Valancourt, meanwhile, suffered the tortures of remorse and despair.
+The sight of Emily had renewed all the ardour, with which he first loved
+her, and which had suffered a temporary abatement from absence and the
+passing scenes of busy life. When, on the receipt of her letter, he set
+out for Languedoc, he then knew, that his own folly had involved him in
+ruin, and it was no part of his design to conceal this from her. But
+he lamented only the delay which his ill-conduct must give to their
+marriage, and did not foresee, that the information could induce her to
+break their connection forever. While the prospect of this separation
+overwhelmed his mind, before stung with self-reproach, he awaited their
+second interview, in a state little short of distraction, yet was still
+inclined to hope, that his pleadings might prevail upon her not to exact
+it. In the morning, he sent to know at what hour she would see him;
+and his note arrived, when she was with the Count, who had sought an
+opportunity of again conversing with her of Valancourt; for he perceived
+the extreme distress of her mind, and feared, more than ever, that her
+fortitude would desert her. Emily having dismissed the messenger, the
+Count returned to the subject of their late conversation, urging his
+fear of Valancourt's entreaties, and again pointing out to her the
+lengthened misery, that must ensue, if she should refuse to encounter
+some present uneasiness. His repeated arguments could, indeed, alone
+have protected her from the affection she still felt for Valancourt, and
+she resolved to be governed by them.
+
+The hour of interview, at length, arrived. Emily went to it, at least,
+with composure of manner, but Valancourt was so much agitated, that
+he could not speak, for several minutes, and his first words were
+alternately those of lamentation, entreaty, and self-reproach.
+Afterward, he said, 'Emily, I have loved you--I do love you, better than
+my life; but I am ruined by my own conduct. Yet I would seek to entangle
+you in a connection, that must be miserable for you, rather than subject
+myself to the punishment, which is my due, the loss of you. I am a
+wretch, but I will be a villain no longer.--I will not endeavour to
+shake your resolution by the pleadings of a selfish passion. I resign
+you, Emily, and will endeavour to find consolation in considering, that,
+though I am miserable, you, at least, may be happy. The merit of the
+sacrifice is, indeed, not my own, for I should never have attained
+strength of mind to surrender you, if your prudence had not demanded
+it.'
+
+He paused a moment, while Emily attempted to conceal the tears, which
+came to her eyes. She would have said, 'You speak now, as you were wont
+to do,' but she checked herself.--'Forgive me, Emily,' said he, 'all the
+sufferings I have occasioned you, and, sometimes, when you think of the
+wretched Valancourt, remember, that his only consolation would be to
+believe, that you are no longer unhappy by his folly.' The tears now
+fell fast upon her cheek, and he was relapsing into the phrensy of
+despair, when Emily endeavoured to recall her fortitude and to terminate
+an interview, which only seemed to increase the distress of both.
+Perceiving her tears and that she was rising to go, Valancourt
+struggled, once more, to overcome his own feelings and to sooth hers.
+'The remembrance of this sorrow,' said he, 'shall in future be my
+protection. O! never again will example, or temptation have power to
+seduce me to evil, exalted as I shall be by the recollection of your
+grief for me.'
+
+Emily was somewhat comforted by this assurance. 'We are now parting for
+ever,' said she; 'but, if my happiness is dear to you, you will always
+remember, that nothing can contribute to it more, than to believe, that
+you have recovered your own esteem.' Valancourt took her hand;--his eyes
+were covered with tears, and the farewell he would have spoken was lost
+in sighs. After a few moments, Emily said, with difficulty and emotion,
+'Farewell, Valancourt, may you be happy!' She repeated her 'farewell,'
+and attempted to withdraw her hand, but he still held it and bathed
+it with his tears. 'Why prolong these moments?' said Emily, in a voice
+scarcely audible, 'they are too painful to us both.' 'This is too--too
+much,' exclaimed Valancourt, resigning her hand and throwing himself
+into a chair, where he covered his face with his hands and was overcome,
+for some moments, by convulsive sighs. After a long pause, during which
+Emily wept in silence, and Valancourt seemed struggling with his grief,
+she again rose to take leave of him. Then, endeavouring to recover his
+composure, 'I am again afflicting you,' said he, 'but let the anguish I
+suffer plead for me.' He then added, in a solemn voice, which frequently
+trembled with the agitation of his heart, 'Farewell, Emily, you will
+always be the only object of my tenderness. Sometimes you will think of
+the unhappy Valancourt, and it will be with pity, though it may not be
+with esteem. O! what is the whole world to me, without you--without your
+esteem!' He checked himself--'I am falling again into the error I have
+just lamented. I must not intrude longer upon your patience, or I shall
+relapse into despair.'
+
+He once more bade Emily adieu, pressed her hand to his lips, looked at
+her, for the last time, and hurried out of the room.
+
+Emily remained in the chair, where he had left her, oppressed with
+a pain at her heart, which scarcely permitted her to breathe, and
+listening to his departing steps, sinking fainter and fainter, as
+he crossed the hall. She was, at length, roused by the voice of the
+Countess in the garden, and, her attention being then awakened, the
+first object, which struck her sight, was the vacant chair, where
+Valancourt had sat. The tears, which had been, for some time, repressed
+by the kind of astonishment, that followed his departure, now came to
+her relief, and she was, at length, sufficiently composed to return to
+her own room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+  This is no mortal business, nor no sound
+ That the earth owes!
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+We now return to the mention of Montoni, whose rage and disappointment
+were soon lost in nearer interests, than any, which the unhappy Emily
+had awakened. His depredations having exceeded their usual limits, and
+reached an extent, at which neither the timidity of the then commercial
+senate of Venice, nor their hope of his occasional assistance would
+permit them to connive, the same effort, it was resolved, should
+complete the suppression of his power and the correction of his
+outrages. While a corps of considerable strength was upon the point of
+receiving orders to march for Udolpho, a young officer, prompted partly
+by resentment, for some injury, received from Montoni, and partly by
+the hope of distinction, solicited an interview with the Minister, who
+directed the enterprise. To him he represented, that the situation of
+Udolpho rendered it too strong to be taken by open force, except after
+some tedious operations; that Montoni had lately shewn how capable he
+was of adding to its strength all the advantages, which could be derived
+from the skill of a commander; that so considerable a body of troops, as
+that allotted to the expedition, could not approach Udolpho without his
+knowledge, and that it was not for the honour of the republic to have a
+large part of its regular force employed, for such a time as the siege
+of Udolpho would require, upon the attack of a handful of banditti. The
+object of the expedition, he thought, might be accomplished much more
+safely and speedily by mingling contrivance with force. It was possible
+to meet Montoni and his party, without their walls, and to attack them
+then; or, by approaching the fortress, with the secrecy, consistent with
+the march of smaller bodies of troops, to take advantage either of the
+treachery, or negligence of some of his party, and to rush unexpectedly
+upon the whole even in the castle of Udolpho.
+
+This advice was seriously attended to, and the officer, who gave it,
+received the command of the troops, demanded for his purpose. His
+first efforts were accordingly those of contrivance alone. In the
+neighbourhood of Udolpho, he waited, till he had secured the assistance
+of several of the condottieri, of whom he found none, that he addressed,
+unwilling to punish their imperious master and to secure their own
+pardon from the senate. He learned also the number of Montoni's troops,
+and that it had been much increased, since his late successes. The
+conclusion of his plan was soon effected. Having returned with his
+party, who received the watch-word and other assistance from their
+friends within, Montoni and his officers were surprised by one division,
+who had been directed to their apartment, while the other maintained the
+slight combat, which preceded the surrender of the whole garrison. Among
+the persons, seized with Montoni, was Orsino, the assassin, who had
+joined him on his first arrival at Udolpho, and whose concealment had
+been made known to the senate by Count Morano, after the unsuccessful
+attempt of the latter to carry off Emily. It was, indeed, partly for
+the purpose of capturing this man, by whom one of the senate had been
+murdered, that the expedition was undertaken, and its success was so
+acceptable to them, that Morano was instantly released, notwithstanding
+the political suspicions, which Montoni, by his secret accusation,
+had excited against him. The celerity and ease, with which this whole
+transaction was completed, prevented it from attracting curiosity, or
+even from obtaining a place in any of the published records of that
+time; so that Emily, who remained in Languedoc, was ignorant of the
+defeat and signal humiliation of her late persecutor.
+
+Her mind was now occupied with sufferings, which no effort of reason had
+yet been able to controul. Count De Villefort, who sincerely attempted
+whatever benevolence could suggest for softening them, sometimes
+allowed her the solitude she wished for, sometimes led her into friendly
+parties, and constantly protected her, as much as possible, from the
+shrewd enquiries and critical conversation of the Countess. He often
+invited her to make excursions, with him and his daughter, during which
+he conversed entirely on questions, suitable to her taste, without
+appearing to consult it, and thus endeavoured gradually to withdraw her
+from the subject of her grief, and to awake other interests in her mind.
+Emily, to whom he appeared as the enlightened friend and protector of
+her youth, soon felt for him the tender affection of a daughter, and
+her heart expanded to her young friend Blanche, as to a sister, whose
+kindness and simplicity compensated for the want of more brilliant
+qualities. It was long before she could sufficiently abstract her
+mind from Valancourt to listen to the story, promised by old Dorothee,
+concerning which her curiosity had once been so deeply interested; but
+Dorothee, at length, reminded her of it, and Emily desired, that she
+would come, that night, to her chamber.
+
+Still her thoughts were employed by considerations, which weakened her
+curiosity, and Dorothee's tap at the door, soon after twelve, surprised
+her almost as much as if it had not been appointed. 'I am come, at
+last, lady,' said she; 'I wonder what it is makes my old limbs shake
+so, to-night. I thought, once or twice, I should have dropped, as I
+was a-coming.' Emily seated her in a chair, and desired, that she would
+compose her spirits, before she entered upon the subject, that had
+brought her thither. 'Alas,' said Dorothee, 'it is thinking of that, I
+believe, which has disturbed me so. In my way hither too, I passed
+the chamber, where my dear lady died, and every thing was so still and
+gloomy about me, that I almost fancied I saw her, as she appeared upon
+her death-bed.'
+
+Emily now drew her chair near to Dorothee, who went on. 'It is about
+twenty years since my lady Marchioness came a bride to the chateau. O!
+I well remember how she looked, when she came into the great hall, where
+we servants were all assembled to welcome her, and how happy my lord the
+Marquis seemed. Ah! who would have thought then!--But, as I was saying,
+ma'amselle, I thought the Marchioness, with all her sweet looks, did not
+look happy at heart, and so I told my husband, and he said it was all
+fancy; so I said no more, but I made my remarks, for all that. My lady
+Marchioness was then about your age, and, as I have often thought, very
+like you. Well! my lord the Marquis kept open house, for a long time,
+and gave such entertainments and there were such gay doings as have
+never been in the chateau since. I was younger, ma'amselle, then, than
+I am now, and was as gay at the best of them. I remember I danced with
+Philip, the butler, in a pink gown, with yellow ribbons, and a coif, not
+such as they wear now, but plaited high, with ribbons all about it. It
+was very becoming truly;--my lord, the Marquis, noticed me. Ah! he was a
+good-natured gentleman then--who would have thought that he!'--
+
+'But the Marchioness, Dorothee,' said Emily, 'you was telling me of
+her.'
+
+'O yes, my lady Marchioness, I thought she did not seem happy at heart,
+and once, soon after the marriage, I caught her crying in her chamber;
+but, when she saw me, she dried her eyes, and pretended to smile. I did
+not dare then to ask what was the matter; but, the next time I saw her
+crying, I did, and she seemed displeased;--so I said no more. I found
+out, some time after, how it was. Her father, it seems, had commanded
+her to marry my lord, the Marquis, for his money, and there was another
+nobleman, or else a chevalier, that she liked better and that was very
+fond of her, and she fretted for the loss of him, I fancy, but she never
+told me so. My lady always tried to conceal her tears from the Marquis,
+for I have often seen her, after she has been so sorrowful, look so calm
+and sweet, when he came into the room! But my lord, all of a sudden,
+grew gloomy and fretful, and very unkind sometimes to my lady. This
+afflicted her very much, as I saw, for she never complained, and she
+used to try so sweetly to oblige him and to bring him into a good
+humour, that my heart has often ached to see it. But he used to be
+stubborn, and give her harsh answers, and then, when she found it all
+in vain, she would go to her own room, and cry so! I used to hear her
+in the anti-room, poor dear lady! but I seldom ventured to go to her.
+I used, sometimes, to think my lord was jealous. To be sure my lady was
+greatly admired, but she was too good to deserve suspicion. Among the
+many chevaliers, that visited at the chateau, there was one, that I
+always thought seemed just suited for my lady; he was so courteous, yet
+so spirited, and there was such a grace, as it were, in all he did, or
+said. I always observed, that, whenever he had been there, the Marquis
+was more gloomy and my lady more thoughtful, and it came into my head,
+that this was the chevalier she ought to have married, but I never could
+learn for certain.'
+
+'What was the chevalier's name, Dorothee?' said Emily.
+
+'Why that I will not tell even to you, ma'amselle, for evil may come of
+it. I once heard from a person, who is since dead, that the Marchioness
+was not in law the wife of the Marquis, for that she had before been
+privately married to the gentleman she was so much attached to, and was
+afterwards afraid to own it to her father, who was a very stern man; but
+this seems very unlikely, and I never gave much faith to it. As I was
+saying, the Marquis was most out of humour, as I thought, when the
+chevalier I spoke of had been at the chateau, and, at last, his ill
+treatment of my lady made her quite miserable. He would see hardly any
+visitors at the castle, and made her live almost by herself. I was
+her constant attendant, and saw all she suffered, but still she never
+complained.
+
+'After matters had gone on thus, for near a year, my lady was taken ill,
+and I thought her long fretting had made her so,--but, alas! I fear it
+was worse than that.'
+
+'Worse! Dorothee,' said Emily, 'can that be possible?'
+
+'I fear it was so, madam, there were strange appearances. But I will
+only tell what happened. My lord, the Marquis--'
+
+'Hush, Dorothee, what sounds were those?' said Emily.
+
+Dorothee changed countenance, and, while they both listened, they heard,
+on the stillness of the night, music of uncommon sweetness.
+
+'I have surely heard that voice before!' said Emily, at length.
+
+'I have often heard it, and at this same hour,' said Dorothee, solemnly,
+'and, if spirits ever bring music--that is surely the music of one!'
+
+Emily, as the sounds drew nearer, knew them to be the same she had
+formerly heard at the time of her father's death, and, whether it was
+the remembrance they now revived of that melancholy event, or that
+she was struck with superstitious awe, it is certain she was so much
+affected, that she had nearly fainted.
+
+'I think I once told you, madam,' said Dorothee, 'that I first heard
+this music, soon after my lady's death! I well remember the night!'--
+'Hark! it comes again!' said Emily, 'let us open the window, and
+listen.'
+
+They did so; but, soon, the sounds floated gradually away into distance,
+and all was again still; they seemed to have sunk among the woods,
+whose tufted tops were visible upon the clear horizon, while every other
+feature of the scene was involved in the night-shade, which, however,
+allowed the eye an indistinct view of some objects in the garden below.
+
+As Emily leaned on the window, gazing with a kind of thrilling awe
+upon the obscurity beneath, and then upon the cloudless arch above,
+enlightened only by the stars, Dorothee, in a low voice, resumed her
+narrative.
+
+'I was saying, ma'amselle, that I well remember when first I heard that
+music. It was one night, soon after my lady's death, that I had sat up
+later than usual, and I don't know how it was, but I had been thinking
+a great deal about my poor mistress, and of the sad scene I had lately
+witnessed. The chateau was quite still, and I was in the chamber at a
+good distance from the rest of the servants, and this, with the mournful
+things I had been thinking of, I suppose, made me low spirited, for I
+felt very lonely and forlorn, as it were, and listened often, wishing to
+hear a sound in the chateau, for you know, ma'amselle, when one can hear
+people moving, one does not so much mind, about one's fears. But all the
+servants were gone to bed, and I sat, thinking and thinking, till I was
+almost afraid to look round the room, and my poor lady's countenance
+often came to my mind, such as I had seen her when she was dying, and,
+once or twice, I almost thought I saw her before me,--when suddenly I
+heard such sweet music! It seemed just at my window, and I shall never
+forget what I felt. I had not power to move from my chair, but then,
+when I thought it was my dear lady's voice, the tears came to my eyes.
+I had often heard her sing, in her life-time, and to be sure she had a
+very fine voice; it had made me cry to hear her, many a time, when she
+has sat in her oriel, of an evening, playing upon her lute such sad
+songs, and singing so. O! it went to one's heart! I have listened in
+the anti-chamber, for the hour together, and she would sometimes sit
+playing, with the window open, when it was summer time, till it was
+quite dark, and when I have gone in, to shut it, she has hardly seemed
+to know what hour it was. But, as I said, madam,' continued Dorothee,
+'when first I heard the music, that came just now, I thought it was my
+late lady's, and I have often thought so again, when I have heard it, as
+I have done at intervals, ever since. Sometimes, many months have gone
+by, but still it has returned.'
+
+'It is extraordinary,' observed Emily, 'that no person has yet
+discovered the musician.'
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle, if it had been any thing earthly it would have been
+discovered long ago, but who could have courage to follow a spirit, and
+if they had, what good could it do?--for spirits, YOU KNOW, ma'am, can
+take any shape, or no shape, and they will be here, one minute, and, the
+next perhaps, in a quite different place!'
+
+'Pray resume your story of the Marchioness,' said Emily, 'and acquaint
+me with the manner of her death.'
+
+'I will, ma'am,' said Dorothee, 'but shall we leave the window?'
+
+'This cool air refreshes me,' replied Emily, 'and I love to hear it
+creep along the woods, and to look upon this dusky landscape. You was
+speaking of my lord, the Marquis, when the music interrupted us.'
+
+'Yes, madam, my lord, the Marquis, became more and more gloomy; and
+my lady grew worse and worse, till, one night, she was taken very ill,
+indeed. I was called up, and, when I came to her bedside, I was shocked
+to see her countenance--it was so changed! She looked piteously up at
+me, and desired I would call the Marquis again, for he was not yet come,
+and tell him she had something particular to say to him. At last, he
+came, and he did, to be sure, seem very sorry to see her, but he said
+very little. My lady told him she felt herself to be dying, and wished
+to speak with him alone, and then I left the room, but I shall never
+forget his look as I went.'
+
+'When I returned, I ventured to remind my lord about sending for a
+doctor, for I supposed he had forgot to do so, in his grief; but my lady
+said it was then too late; but my lord, so far from thinking so, seemed
+to think light of her disorder--till she was seized with such terrible
+pains! O, I never shall forget her shriek! My lord then sent off a man
+and horse for the doctor, and walked about the room and all over the
+chateau in the greatest distress; and I staid by my dear lady, and did
+what I could to ease her sufferings. She had intervals of ease, and in
+one of these she sent for my lord again; when he came, I was going, but
+she desired I would not leave her. O! I shall never forget what a
+scene passed--I can hardly bear to think of it now! My lord was almost
+distracted, for my lady behaved with so much goodness, and took such
+pains to comfort him, that, if he ever had suffered a suspicion to enter
+his head, he must now have been convinced he was wrong. And to be sure
+he did seem to be overwhelmed with the thought of his treatment of her,
+and this affected her so much, that she fainted away.
+
+'We then got my lord out of the room; he went into his library, and
+threw himself on the floor, and there he staid, and would hear no
+reason, that was talked to him. When my lady recovered, she enquired
+for him, but, afterwards, said she could not bear to see his grief, and
+desired we would let her die quietly. She died in my arms, ma'amselle,
+and she went off as peacefully as a child, for all the violence of her
+disorder was passed.'
+
+Dorothee paused, and wept, and Emily wept with her; for she was much
+affected by the goodness of the late Marchioness, and by the meek
+patience, with which she had suffered.
+
+'When the doctor came,' resumed Dorothee, 'alas! he came too late;
+he appeared greatly shocked to see her, for soon after her death a
+frightful blackness spread all over her face. When he had sent the
+attendants out of the room, he asked me several odd questions about the
+Marchioness, particularly concerning the manner, in which she had been
+seized, and he often shook his head at my answers, and seemed to mean
+more, than he chose to say. But I understood him too well. However, I
+kept my remarks to myself, and only told them to my husband, who bade
+me hold my tongue. Some of the other servants, however, suspected what
+I did, and strange reports were whispered about the neighbourhood, but
+nobody dared to make any stir about them. When my lord heard that my
+lady was dead, he shut himself up, and would see nobody but the doctor,
+who used to be with him alone, sometimes for an hour together; and,
+after that, the doctor never talked with me again about my lady. When
+she was buried in the church of the convent, at a little distance
+yonder, if the moon was up you might see the towers here, ma'amselle,
+all my lord's vassals followed the funeral, and there was not a dry eye
+among them, for she had done a deal of good among the poor. My lord, the
+Marquis, I never saw any body so melancholy as he was afterwards, and
+sometimes he would be in such fits of violence, that we almost thought
+he had lost his senses. He did not stay long at the chateau, but joined
+his regiment, and, soon after, all the servants, except my husband and
+I, received notice to go, for my lord went to the wars. I never saw him
+after, for he would not return to the chateau, though it is such a fine
+place, and never finished those fine rooms he was building on the west
+side of it, and it has, in a manner, been shut up ever since, till my
+lord the Count came here.'
+
+'The death of the Marchioness appears extraordinary,' said Emily, who
+was anxious to know more than she dared to ask.
+
+'Yes, madam,' replied Dorothee, 'it was extraordinary; I have told you
+all I saw, and you may easily guess what I think, I cannot say more,
+because I would not spread reports, that might offend my lord the
+Count.'
+
+'You are very right,' said Emily;--'where did the Marquis die?'--'In the
+north of France, I believe, ma'amselle,' replied Dorothee. 'I was very
+glad, when I heard my lord the Count was coming, for this had been a
+sad desolate place, these many years, and we heard such strange noises,
+sometimes, after my lady's death, that, as I told you before, my husband
+and I left it for a neighbouring cottage. And now, lady, I have told you
+all this sad history, and all my thoughts, and you have promised, you
+know, never to give the least hint about it.'--'I have,' said Emily,
+'and I will be faithful to my promise, Dorothee;--what you have told
+has interested me more than you can imagine. I only wish I could
+prevail upon you to tell the name of the chevalier, whom you thought so
+deserving of the Marchioness.'
+
+Dorothee, however, steadily refused to do this, and then returned to the
+notice of Emily's likeness to the late Marchioness. 'There is another
+picture of her,' added she, 'hanging in a room of the suite, which was
+shut up. It was drawn, as I have heard, before she was married, and is
+much more like you than the miniature.' When Emily expressed a strong
+desire to see this, Dorothee replied, that she did not like to open
+those rooms; but Emily reminded her, that the Count had talked the other
+day of ordering them to be opened; of which Dorothee seemed to consider
+much, and then she owned, that she should feel less, if she went into
+them with Emily first, than otherwise, and at length promised to shew
+the picture.
+
+The night was too far advanced and Emily was too much affected by the
+narrative of the scenes, which had passed in those apartments, to wish
+to visit them at this hour, but she requested that Dorothee would return
+on the following night, when they were not likely to be observed, and
+conduct her thither. Besides her wish to examine the portrait, she felt
+a thrilling curiosity to see the chamber, in which the Marchioness had
+died, and which Dorothee had said remained, with the bed and furniture,
+just as when the corpse was removed for interment. The solemn emotions,
+which the expectation of viewing such a scene had awakened, were
+in unison with the present tone of her mind, depressed by severe
+disappointment. Cheerful objects rather added to, than removed this
+depression; but, perhaps, she yielded too much to her melancholy
+inclination, and imprudently lamented the misfortune, which no virtue of
+her own could have taught her to avoid, though no effort of reason could
+make her look unmoved upon the self-degradation of him, whom she had
+once esteemed and loved.
+
+Dorothee promised to return, on the following night, with the keys of
+the chambers, and then wished Emily good repose, and departed. Emily,
+however, continued at the window, musing upon the melancholy fate of
+the Marchioness and listening, in awful expectation, for a return of the
+music. But the stillness of the night remained long unbroken, except by
+the murmuring sounds of the woods, as they waved in the breeze, and then
+by the distant bell of the convent, striking one. She now withdrew
+from the window, and, as she sat at her bed-side, indulging melancholy
+reveries, which the loneliness of the hour assisted, the stillness was
+suddenly interrupted not by music, but by very uncommon sounds, that
+seemed to come either from the room, adjoining her own, or from one
+below. The terrible catastrophe, that had been related to her, together
+with the mysterious circumstances, said to have since occurred in the
+chateau, had so much shocked her spirits, that she now sunk, for a
+moment, under the weakness of superstition. The sounds, however, did not
+return, and she retired, to forget in sleep the disastrous story she had
+heard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+ Now it is the time of night,
+ That, the graves all gaping wide,
+ Every one lets forth his spite,
+ In the church-way path to glide.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+On the next night, about the same hour as before, Dorothee came to
+Emily's chamber, with the keys of that suite of rooms, which had been
+particularly appropriated to the late Marchioness. These extended along
+the north side of the chateau, forming part of the old building; and, as
+Emily's room was in the south, they had to pass over a great extent
+of the castle, and by the chambers of several of the family, whose
+observations Dorothee was anxious to avoid, since it might excite
+enquiry, and raise reports, such as would displease the Count. She,
+therefore, requested, that Emily would wait half an hour, before they
+ventured forth, that they might be certain all the servants were gone
+to bed. It was nearly one, before the chateau was perfectly still, or
+Dorothee thought it prudent to leave the chamber. In this interval, her
+spirits seemed to be greatly affected by the remembrance of past events,
+and by the prospect of entering again upon places, where these had
+occurred, and in which she had not been for so many years. Emily too was
+affected, but her feelings had more of solemnity, and less of fear.
+From the silence, into which reflection and expectation had thrown them,
+they, at length, roused themselves, and left the chamber. Dorothee, at
+first, carried the lamp, but her hand trembled so much with infirmity
+and alarm, that Emily took it from her, and offered her arm, to support
+her feeble steps.
+
+They had to descend the great stair-case, and, after passing over a
+wide extent of the chateau, to ascend another, which led to the suite
+of rooms they were in quest of. They stepped cautiously along the open
+corridor, that ran round the great hall, and into which the chambers
+of the Count, Countess, and the Lady Blanche, opened, and, from
+thence, descending the chief stair-case, they crossed the hall itself.
+Proceeding through the servants hall, where the dying embers of a wood
+fire still glimmered on the hearth, and the supper table was surrounded
+by chairs, that obstructed their passage, they came to the foot of the
+back stair-case. Old Dorothee here paused, and looked around; 'Let us
+listen,' said she, 'if any thing is stirring; Ma'amselle, do you hear
+any voice?' 'None,' said Emily, 'there certainly is no person up in the
+chateau, besides ourselves.'--'No, ma'amselle,' said Dorothee, 'but I
+have never been here at this hour before, and, after what I know,
+my fears are not wonderful.'--'What do you know?' said Emily.--'O,
+ma'amselle, we have no time for talking now; let us go on. That door on
+the left is the one we must open.'
+
+They proceeded, and, having reached the top of the stair-case, Dorothee
+applied the key to the lock. 'Ah,' said she, as she endeavoured to turn
+it, 'so many years have passed since this was opened, that I fear it
+will not move.' Emily was more successful, and they presently entered a
+spacious and ancient chamber.
+
+'Alas!' exclaimed Dorothee, as she entered, 'the last time I passed
+through this door--I followed my poor lady's corpse!'
+
+Emily, struck with the circumstance, and affected by the dusky and
+solemn air of the apartment, remained silent, and they passed on through
+a long suite of rooms, till they came to one more spacious than the
+rest, and rich in the remains of faded magnificence.
+
+'Let us rest here awhile, madam,' said Dorothee faintly, 'we are going
+into the chamber, where my lady died! that door opens into it. Ah,
+ma'amselle! why did you persuade me to come?'
+
+Emily drew one of the massy arm-chairs, with which the apartment was
+furnished, and begged Dorothee would sit down, and try to compose her
+spirits.
+
+'How the sight of this place brings all that passed formerly to my
+mind!' said Dorothee; 'it seems as if it was but yesterday since all
+that sad affair happened!'
+
+'Hark! what noise is that?' said Emily.
+
+Dorothee, half starting from her chair, looked round the apartment, and
+they listened--but, every thing remaining still, the old woman spoke
+again upon the subject of her sorrow. 'This saloon, ma'amselle, was in
+my lady's time the finest apartment in the chateau, and it was fitted
+up according to her own taste. All this grand furniture, but you can
+now hardly see what it is for the dust, and our light is none of the
+best--ah! how I have seen this room lighted up in my lady's time!--all
+this grand furniture came from Paris, and was made after the fashion of
+some in the Louvre there, except those large glasses, and they came from
+some outlandish place, and that rich tapestry. How the colours are faded
+already!--since I saw it last!'
+
+'I understood, that was twenty years ago,' observed Emily.
+
+'Thereabout, madam,' said Dorothee, 'and well remembered, but all the
+time between then and now seems as nothing. That tapestry used to be
+greatly admired at, it tells the stories out of some famous book, or
+other, but I have forgot the name.'
+
+Emily now rose to examine the figures it exhibited, and discovered, by
+verses in the Provencal tongue, wrought underneath each scene, that it
+exhibited stories from some of the most celebrated ancient romances.
+
+Dorothee's spirits being now more composed, she rose, and unlocked the
+door that led into the late Marchioness's apartment, and Emily passed
+into a lofty chamber, hung round with dark arras, and so spacious, that
+the lamp she held up did not shew its extent; while Dorothee, when she
+entered, had dropped into a chair, where, sighing deeply, she scarcely
+trusted herself with the view of a scene so affecting to her. It was
+some time before Emily perceived, through the dusk, the bed on which the
+Marchioness was said to have died; when, advancing to the upper end of
+the room, she discovered the high canopied tester of dark green damask,
+with the curtains descending to the floor in the fashion of a tent,
+half drawn, and remaining apparently, as they had been left twenty years
+before; and over the whole bedding was thrown a counterpane, or pall, of
+black velvet, that hung down to the floor. Emily shuddered, as she held
+the lamp over it, and looked within the dark curtains, where she almost
+expected to have seen a human face, and, suddenly remembering the
+horror she had suffered upon discovering the dying Madame Montoni in the
+turret-chamber of Udolpho, her spirits fainted, and she was turning from
+the bed, when Dorothee, who had now reached it, exclaimed, 'Holy Virgin!
+methinks I see my lady stretched upon that pall--as when last I saw
+her!'
+
+Emily, shocked by this exclamation, looked involuntarily again within
+the curtains, but the blackness of the pall only appeared; while
+Dorothee was compelled to support herself upon the side of the bed, and
+presently tears brought her some relief.
+
+'Ah!' said she, after she had wept awhile, 'it was here I sat on that
+terrible night, and held my lady's hand, and heard her last words, and
+saw all her sufferings--HERE she died in my arms!'
+
+'Do not indulge these painful recollections,' said Emily, 'let us go.
+Shew me the picture you mentioned, if it will not too much affect you.'
+
+'It hangs in the oriel,' said Dorothee rising, and going towards a small
+door near the bed's head, which she opened, and Emily followed with the
+light, into the closet of the late Marchioness.
+
+'Alas! there she is, ma'amselle,' said Dorothee, pointing to a portrait
+of a lady, 'there is her very self! just as she looked when she came
+first to the chateau. You see, madam, she was all blooming like you,
+then--and so soon to be cut off!'
+
+While Dorothee spoke, Emily was attentively examining the picture, which
+bore a strong resemblance to the miniature, though the expression of the
+countenance in each was somewhat different; but still she thought she
+perceived something of that pensive melancholy in the portrait, which so
+strongly characterised the miniature.
+
+'Pray, ma'amselle, stand beside the picture, that I may look at you
+together,' said Dorothee, who, when the request was complied with,
+exclaimed again at the resemblance. Emily also, as she gazed upon it,
+thought that she had somewhere seen a person very like it, though she
+could not now recollect who this was.
+
+In this closet were many memorials of the departed Marchioness; a robe
+and several articles of her dress were scattered upon the chairs, as if
+they had just been thrown off. On the floor were a pair of black satin
+slippers, and, on the dressing-table, a pair of gloves and a long black
+veil, which, as Emily took it up to examine, she perceived was dropping
+to pieces with age.
+
+'Ah!' said Dorothee, observing the veil, 'my lady's hand laid it there;
+it has never been moved since!'
+
+Emily, shuddering, immediately laid it down again. 'I well remember
+seeing her take it off,' continued Dorothee, 'it was on the night before
+her death, when she had returned from a little walk I had persuaded her
+to take in the gardens, and she seemed refreshed by it. I told her how
+much better she looked, and I remember what a languid smile she gave me;
+but, alas! she little thought, or I either, that she was to die, that
+night.'
+
+Dorothee wept again, and then, taking up the veil, threw it suddenly
+over Emily, who shuddered to find it wrapped round her, descending even
+to her feet, and, as she endeavoured to throw it off, Dorothee intreated
+that she would keep it on for one moment. 'I thought,' added she, 'how
+like you would look to my dear mistress in that veil;--may your life,
+ma'amselle, be a happier one than hers!'
+
+Emily, having disengaged herself from the veil, laid it again on the
+dressing-table, and surveyed the closet, where every object, on which
+her eye fixed, seemed to speak of the Marchioness. In a large oriel
+window of painted glass, stood a table, with a silver crucifix, and a
+prayer-book open; and Emily remembered with emotion what Dorothee had
+mentioned concerning her custom of playing on her lute in this window,
+before she observed the lute itself, lying on a corner of the table, as
+if it had been carelessly placed there by the hand, that had so often
+awakened it.
+
+'This is a sad forlorn place!' said Dorothee, 'for, when my dear lady
+died, I had no heart to put it to rights, or the chamber either; and my
+lord never came into the rooms after, so they remain just as they did
+when my lady was removed for interment.'
+
+While Dorothee spoke, Emily was still looking on the lute, which was a
+Spanish one, and remarkably large; and then, with a hesitating hand,
+she took it up, and passed her fingers over the chords. They were out
+of tune, but uttered a deep and full sound. Dorothee started at their
+well-known tones, and, seeing the lute in Emily's hand, said, 'This is
+the lute my lady Marchioness loved so! I remember when last she played
+upon it--it was on the night that she died. I came as usual to undress
+her, and, as I entered the bed-chamber, I heard the sound of music from
+the oriel, and perceiving it was my lady's, who was sitting there, I
+stepped softly to the door, which stood a little open, to listen; for
+the music--though it was mournful--was so sweet! There I saw her, with
+the lute in her hand, looking upwards, and the tears fell upon her
+cheeks, while she sung a vesper hymn, so soft, and so solemn! and her
+voice trembled, as it were, and then she would stop for a moment, and
+wipe away her tears, and go on again, lower than before. O! I had often
+listened to my lady, but never heard any thing so sweet as this; it made
+me cry, almost, to hear it. She had been at prayers, I fancy, for there
+was the book open on the table beside her--aye, and there it lies open
+still! Pray, let us leave the oriel, ma'amselle,' added Dorothee, 'this
+is a heart-breaking place!'
+
+Having returned into the chamber, she desired to look once more upon
+the bed, when, as they came opposite to the open door, leading into
+the saloon, Emily, in the partial gleam, which the lamp threw into it,
+thought she saw something glide along into the obscurer part of the
+room. Her spirits had been much affected by the surrounding scene, or it
+is probable this circumstance, whether real or imaginary, would not have
+affected her in the degree it did; but she endeavoured to conceal her
+emotion from Dorothee, who, however, observing her countenance change,
+enquired if she was ill.
+
+'Let us go,' said Emily, faintly, 'the air of these rooms is
+unwholesome;' but, when she attempted to do so, considering that she
+must pass through the apartment where the phantom of her terror had
+appeared, this terror increased, and, too faint to support herself, she
+sat down on the side of the bed.
+
+Dorothee, believing that she was only affected by a consideration of the
+melancholy catastrophe, which had happened on this spot, endeavoured
+to cheer her; and then, as they sat together on the bed, she began to
+relate other particulars concerning it, and this without reflecting,
+that it might increase Emily's emotion, but because they were
+particularly interesting to herself. 'A little before my lady's death,'
+said she, 'when the pains were gone off, she called me to her, and
+stretching out her hand to me, I sat down just there--where the curtain
+falls upon the bed. How well I remember her look at the time--death
+was in it!--I can almost fancy I see her now.--There she lay,
+ma'amselle--her face was upon the pillow there! This black counterpane
+was not upon the bed then; it was laid on, after her death, and she was
+laid out upon it.'
+
+Emily turned to look within the dusky curtains, as if she could have
+seen the countenance of which Dorothee spoke. The edge of the white
+pillow only appeared above the blackness of the pall, but, as her eyes
+wandered over the pall itself, she fancied she saw it move. Without
+speaking, she caught Dorothee's arm, who, surprised by the action, and
+by the look of terror that accompanied it, turned her eyes from Emily to
+the bed, where, in the next moment she, too, saw the pall slowly lifted,
+and fall again.
+
+Emily attempted to go, but Dorothee stood fixed and gazing upon the bed;
+and, at length, said--'It is only the wind, that waves it, ma'amselle;
+we have left all the doors open: see how the air waves the lamp,
+too.--It is only the wind.'
+
+She had scarcely uttered these words, when the pall was more violently
+agitated than before; but Emily, somewhat ashamed of her terrors,
+stepped back to the bed, willing to be convinced that the wind only had
+occasioned her alarm; when, as she gazed within the curtains, the
+pall moved again, and, in the next moment, the apparition of a human
+countenance rose above it.
+
+Screaming with terror, they both fled, and got out of the chamber as
+fast as their trembling limbs would bear them, leaving open the doors
+of all the rooms, through which they passed. When they reached the
+stair-case, Dorothee threw open a chamber door, where some of the female
+servants slept, and sunk breathless on the bed; while Emily, deprived of
+all presence of mind, made only a feeble attempt to conceal the occasion
+of her terror from the astonished servants; and, though Dorothee, when
+she could speak, endeavoured to laugh at her own fright, and was joined
+by Emily, no remonstrances could prevail with the servants, who had
+quickly taken the alarm, to pass even the remainder of the night in a
+room so near to these terrific chambers.
+
+Dorothee having accompanied Emily to her own apartment, they then began
+to talk over, with some degree of coolness, the strange circumstance,
+that had just occurred; and Emily would almost have doubted her own
+perceptions, had not those of Dorothee attested their truth. Having
+now mentioned what she had observed in the outer chamber, she asked the
+housekeeper, whether she was certain no door had been left unfastened,
+by which a person might secretly have entered the apartments? Dorothee
+replied, that she had constantly kept the keys of the several doors
+in her own possession; that, when she had gone her rounds through the
+castle, as she frequently did, to examine if all was safe, she had tried
+these doors among the rest, and had always found them fastened. It
+was, therefore, impossible, she added, that any person could have
+got admittance into the apartments; and, if they could--it was very
+improbable they should have chose to sleep in a place so cold and
+forlorn.
+
+Emily observed, that their visit to these chambers had, perhaps, been
+watched, and that some person, for a frolic, had followed them into
+the rooms, with a design to frighten them, and, while they were in the
+oriel, had taken the opportunity of concealing himself in the bed.
+
+Dorothee allowed, that this was possible, till she recollected, that, on
+entering the apartments, she had turned the key of the outer door, and
+this, which had been done to prevent their visit being noticed by any
+of the family, who might happen to be up, must effectually have
+excluded every person, except themselves, from the chambers; and she now
+persisted in affirming, that the ghastly countenance she had seen was
+nothing human, but some dreadful apparition.
+
+Emily was very solemnly affected. Of whatever nature might be the
+appearance she had witnessed, whether human or supernatural, the fate
+of the deceased Marchioness was a truth not to be doubted; and
+this unaccountable circumstance, occurring in the very scene of her
+sufferings, affected Emily's imagination with a superstitious awe, to
+which, after having detected the fallacies at Udolpho, she might not
+have yielded, had she been ignorant of the unhappy story, related by the
+housekeeper. Her she now solemnly conjured to conceal the occurrence of
+this night, and to make light of the terror she had already betrayed,
+that the Count might not be distressed by reports, which would certainly
+spread alarm and confusion among his family. 'Time,' she added, 'may
+explain this mysterious affair; meanwhile let us watch the event in
+silence.'
+
+Dorothee readily acquiesced; but she now recollected that she had left
+all the doors of the north suite of rooms open, and, not having courage
+to return alone to lock even the outer one, Emily, after some effort,
+so far conquered her own fears, that she offered to accompany her to the
+foot of the back stair-case, and to wait there while Dorothee ascended,
+whose resolution being re-assured by this circumstance, she consented to
+go, and they left Emily's apartment together.
+
+No sound disturbed the stillness, as they passed along the halls and
+galleries; but, on reaching the foot of the back stair-case, Dorothee's
+resolution failed again; having, however, paused a moment to listen,
+and no sound being heard above, she ascended, leaving Emily below,
+and, scarcely suffering her eye to glance within the first chamber,
+she fastened the door, which shut up the whole suite of apartments, and
+returned to Emily.
+
+As they stepped along the passage, leading into the great hall, a sound
+of lamentation was heard, which seemed to come from the hall itself, and
+they stopped in new alarm to listen, when Emily presently distinguished
+the voice of Annette, whom she found crossing the hall, with another
+female servant, and so terrified by the report, which the other maids
+had spread, that, believing she could be safe only where her lady was,
+she was going for refuge to her apartment. Emily's endeavours to
+laugh, or to argue her out of these terrors, were equally vain, and, in
+compassion to her distress, she consented that she should remain in her
+room during the night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+  Hail, mildly-pleasing Solitude!
+ Companion of the wise and good--
+
+ This is the balmy breath of morn,
+ Just as the dew-bent rose is born.
+
+ But chief when evening scenes decay
+ And the faint landscape swims away,
+ Thine is the doubtful, soft decline,
+ And that best hour of musing thine.
+     THOMSON
+
+Emily's injunctions to Annette to be silent on the subject of her terror
+were ineffectual, and the occurrence of the preceding night spread such
+alarm among the servants, who now all affirmed, that they had frequently
+heard unaccountable noises in the chateau, that a report soon reached
+the Count of the north side of the castle being haunted. He treated
+this, at first, with ridicule, but, perceiving, that it was productive
+of serious evil, in the confusion it occasioned among his household, he
+forbade any person to repeat it, on pain of punishment.
+
+The arrival of a party of his friends soon withdrew his thoughts
+entirely from this subject, and his servants had now little leisure to
+brood over it, except, indeed, in the evenings after supper, when they
+all assembled in their hall, and related stories of ghosts, till they
+feared to look round the room; started, if the echo of a closing door
+murmured along the passage, and refused to go singly to any part of the
+castle.
+
+On these occasions Annette made a distinguished figure. When she told
+not only of all the wonders she had witnessed, but of all that she
+had imagined, in the castle of Udolpho, with the story of the strange
+disappearance of Signora Laurentini, she made no trifling impression on
+the mind of her attentive auditors. Her suspicions, concerning Montoni,
+she would also have freely disclosed, had not Ludovico, who was now in
+the service of the Count, prudently checked her loquacity, whenever it
+pointed to that subject.
+
+Among the visitors at the chateau was the Baron de Saint Foix, an old
+friend of the Count, and his son, the Chevalier St. Foix, a sensible
+and amiable young man, who, having in the preceding year seen the Lady
+Blanche, at Paris, had become her declared admirer. The friendship,
+which the Count had long entertained for his father, and the equality
+of their circumstances made him secretly approve of the connection; but,
+thinking his daughter at this time too young to fix her choice for
+life, and wishing to prove the sincerity and strength of the Chevalier's
+attachment, he then rejected his suit, though without forbidding his
+future hope. This young man now came, with the Baron, his father,
+to claim the reward of a steady affection, a claim, which the Count
+admitted and which Blanche did not reject.
+
+While these visitors were at the chateau, it became a scene of gaiety
+and splendour. The pavilion in the woods was fitted up and frequented,
+in the fine evenings, as a supper-room, when the hour usually concluded
+with a concert, at which the Count and Countess, who were scientific
+performers, and the Chevaliers Henri and St. Foix, with the Lady Blanche
+and Emily, whose voices and fine taste compensated for the want of more
+skilful execution, usually assisted. Several of the Count's servants
+performed on horns and other instruments, some of which, placed at
+a little distance among the woods, spoke, in sweet response, to the
+harmony, that proceeded from the pavilion.
+
+At any other period, these parties would have been delightful to
+Emily; but her spirits were now oppressed with a melancholy, which
+she perceived that no kind of what is called amusement had power to
+dissipate, and which the tender and, frequently, pathetic, melody of
+these concerts sometimes increased to a very painful degree.
+
+She was particularly fond of walking in the woods, that hung on a
+promontory, overlooking the sea. Their luxuriant shade was soothing to
+her pensive mind, and, in the partial views, which they afforded of
+the Mediterranean, with its winding shores and passing sails, tranquil
+beauty was united with grandeur. The paths were rude and frequently
+overgrown with vegetation, but their tasteful owner would suffer little
+to be done to them, and scarcely a single branch to be lopped from the
+venerable trees. On an eminence, in one of the most sequestered parts
+of these woods, was a rustic seat, formed of the trunk of a decayed oak,
+which had once been a noble tree, and of which many lofty branches still
+flourishing united with beech and pines to over-canopy the spot. Beneath
+their deep umbrage, the eye passed over the tops of other woods, to the
+Mediterranean, and, to the left, through an opening, was seen a ruined
+watch-tower, standing on a point of rock, near the sea, and rising from
+among the tufted foliage.
+
+Hither Emily often came alone in the silence of evening, and, soothed
+by the scenery and by the faint murmur, that rose from the waves, would
+sit, till darkness obliged her to return to the chateau. Frequently,
+also, she visited the watch-tower, which commanded the entire
+prospect, and, when she leaned against its broken walls, and thought of
+Valancourt, she not once imagined, what was so true, that this tower had
+been almost as frequently his resort, as her own, since his estrangement
+from the neighbouring chateau.
+
+One evening, she lingered here to a late hour. She had sat on the steps
+of the building, watching, in tranquil melancholy, the gradual effect
+of evening over the extensive prospect, till the gray waters of the
+Mediterranean and the massy woods were almost the only features of the
+scene, that remained visible; when, as she gazed alternately on these,
+and on the mild blue of the heavens, where the first pale star of
+evening appeared, she personified the hour in the following lines:--
+
+  SONG OF THE EVENING HOUR
+
+ Last of the Hours, that track the fading Day,
+ I move along the realms of twilight air,
+ And hear, remote, the choral song decay
+ Of sister-nymphs, who dance around his car.
+
+ Then, as I follow through the azure void,
+ His partial splendour from my straining eye
+ Sinks in the depth of space; my only guide
+ His faint ray dawning on the farthest sky;
+
+ Save that sweet, lingering strain of gayer Hours,
+ Whose close my voice prolongs in dying notes,
+ While mortals on the green earth own its pow'rs,
+ As downward on the evening gale it floats.
+
+ When fades along the West the Sun's last beam,
+ As, weary, to the nether world he goes,
+ And mountain-summits catch the purple gleam,
+ And slumbering ocean faint and fainter glows,
+
+ Silent upon the globe's broad shade I steal,
+ And o'er its dry turf shed the cooling dews,
+ And ev'ry fever'd herb and flow'ret heal,
+ And all their fragrance on the air diffuse.
+
+ Where'er I move, a tranquil pleasure reigns;
+ O'er all the scene the dusky tints I send,
+ That forests wild and mountains, stretching plains
+ And peopled towns, in soft confusion blend.
+
+ Wide o'er the world I waft the fresh'ning wind,
+ Low breathing through the woods and twilight vale,
+ In whispers soft, that woo the pensive mind
+ Of him, who loves my lonely steps to hail.
+
+ His tender oaten reed I watch to hear,
+ Stealing its sweetness o'er some plaining rill,
+ Or soothing ocean's wave, when storms are near,
+ Or swelling in the breeze from distant hill!
+
+ I wake the fairy elves, who shun the light;
+ When, from their blossom'd beds, they slily peep,
+ And spy my pale star, leading on the night,--
+ Forth to their games and revelry they leap;
+
+ Send all the prison'd sweets abroad in air,
+ That with them slumber'd in the flow'ret's cell;
+ Then to the shores and moon-light brooks repair,
+ Till the high larks their matin-carol swell.
+
+ The wood-nymphs hail my airs and temper'd shade,
+ With ditties soft and lightly sportive dance,
+ On river margin of some bow'ry glade,
+ And strew their fresh buds as my steps advance:
+
+ But, swift I pass, and distant regions trace,
+ For moon-beams silver all the eastern cloud,
+ And Day's last crimson vestige fades apace;
+ Down the steep west I fly from Midnight's shroud.
+
+The moon was now rising out of the sea. She watched its gradual
+progress, the extending line of radiance it threw upon the waters, the
+sparkling oars, the sail faintly silvered, and the wood-tops and the
+battlements of the watch-tower, at whose foot she was sitting, just
+tinted with the rays. Emily's spirits were in harmony with this scene.
+As she sat meditating, sounds stole by her on the air, which she
+immediately knew to be the music and the voice she had formerly heard at
+midnight, and the emotion of awe, which she felt, was not unmixed with
+terror, when she considered her remote and lonely situation. The sounds
+drew nearer. She would have risen to leave the place, but they seemed
+to come from the way she must have taken towards the chateau, and she
+awaited the event in trembling expectation. The sounds continued to
+approach, for some time, and then ceased. Emily sat listening, gazing
+and unable to move, when she saw a figure emerge from the shade of the
+woods and pass along the bank, at some little distance before her. It
+went swiftly, and her spirits were so overcome with awe, that, though
+she saw, she did not much observe it.
+
+Having left the spot, with a resolution never again to visit it alone,
+at so late an hour, she began to approach the chateau, when she heard
+voices calling her from the part of the wood, which was nearest to it.
+They were the shouts of the Count's servants, who were sent to search
+for her; and when she entered the supper-room, where he sat with Henri
+and Blanche, he gently reproached her with a look, which she blushed to
+have deserved.
+
+This little occurrence deeply impressed her mind, and, when she withdrew
+to her own room, it recalled so forcibly the circumstances she had
+witnessed, a few nights before, that she had scarcely courage to remain
+alone. She watched to a late hour, when, no sound having renewed
+her fears, she, at length, sunk to repose. But this was of short
+continuance, for she was disturbed by a loud and unusual noise, that
+seemed to come from the gallery, into which her chamber opened. Groans
+were distinctly heard, and, immediately after, a dead weight fell
+against the door, with a violence, that threatened to burst it open. She
+called loudly to know who was there, but received no answer, though,
+at intervals, she still thought she heard something like a low moaning.
+Fear deprived her of the power to move. Soon after, she heard footsteps
+in a remote part of the gallery, and, as they approached, she called
+more loudly than before, till the steps paused at her door. She then
+distinguished the voices of several of the servants, who seemed too
+much engaged by some circumstance without, to attend to her calls; but,
+Annette soon after entering the room for water, Emily understood, that
+one of the maids had fainted, whom she immediately desired them to bring
+into her room, where she assisted to restore her. When this girl had
+recovered her speech, she affirmed, that, as she was passing up the back
+stair-case, in the way to her chamber, she had seen an apparition on the
+second landing-place; she held the lamp low, she said, that she might
+pick her way, several of the stairs being infirm and even decayed, and
+it was upon raising her eyes, that she saw this appearance. It stood for
+a moment in the corner of the landing-place, which she was approaching,
+and then, gliding up the stairs, vanished at the door of the apartment,
+that had been lately opened. She heard afterwards a hollow sound.
+
+'Then the devil has got a key to that apartment,' said Dorothee, 'for it
+could be nobody but he; I locked the door myself!'
+
+The girl, springing down the stairs and passing up the great stair-case,
+had run, with a faint scream, till she reached the gallery, where she
+fell, groaning, at Emily's door.
+
+Gently chiding her for the alarm she had occasioned, Emily tried to make
+her ashamed of her fears; but the girl persisted in saying, that she
+had seen an apparition, till she went to her own room, whither she
+was accompanied by all the servants present, except Dorothee, who,
+at Emily's request, remained with her during the night. Emily was
+perplexed, and Dorothee was terrified, and mentioned many occurrences
+of former times, which had long since confirmed her superstitions; among
+these, according to her belief, she had once witnessed an appearance,
+like that just described, and on the very same spot, and it was the
+remembrance of it, that had made her pause, when she was going to ascend
+the stairs with Emily, and which had increased her reluctance to open
+the north apartments. Whatever might be Emily's opinions, she did
+not disclose them, but listened attentively to all that Dorothee
+communicated, which occasioned her much thought and perplexity.
+
+From this night the terror of the servants increased to such an excess,
+that several of them determined to leave the chateau, and requested
+their discharge of the Count, who, if he had any faith in the subject of
+their alarm, thought proper to dissemble it, and, anxious to avoid the
+inconvenience that threatened him, employed ridicule and then argument
+to convince them they had nothing to apprehend from supernatural agency.
+But fear had rendered their minds inaccessible to reason; and it was
+now, that Ludovico proved at once his courage and his gratitude for the
+kindness he had received from the Count, by offering to watch, during a
+night, in the suite of rooms, reputed to be haunted. He feared, he said,
+no spirits, and, if any thing of human form appeared--he would prove
+that he dreaded that as little.
+
+The Count paused upon the offer, while the servants, who heard it,
+looked upon one another in doubt and amazement, and Annette, terrified
+for the safety of Ludovico, employed tears and entreaties to dissuade
+him from his purpose.
+
+'You are a bold fellow,' said the Count, smiling, 'Think well of what
+you are going to encounter, before you finally determine upon it.
+However, if you persevere in your resolution, I will accept your offer,
+and your intrepidity shall not go unrewarded.'
+
+'I desire no reward, your excellenza,' replied Ludovico, 'but your
+approbation. Your excellenza has been sufficiently good to me already;
+but I wish to have arms, that I may be equal to my enemy, if he should
+appear.'
+
+'Your sword cannot defend you against a ghost,' replied the Count,
+throwing a glance of irony upon the other servants, 'neither can bars,
+or bolts; for a spirit, you know, can glide through a keyhole as easily
+as through a door.'
+
+'Give me a sword, my lord Count,' said Ludovico, 'and I will lay all the
+spirits, that shall attack me, in the red sea.'
+
+'Well,' said the Count, 'you shall have a sword, and good cheer, too;
+and your brave comrades here will, perhaps, have courage enough to
+remain another night in the chateau, since your boldness will certainly,
+for this night, at least, confine all the malice of the spectre to
+yourself.'
+
+Curiosity now struggled with fear in the minds of several of his fellow
+servants, and, at length, they resolved to await the event of Ludovico's
+rashness.
+
+Emily was surprised and concerned, when she heard of his intention, and
+was frequently inclined to mention what she had witnessed in the north
+apartments to the Count, for she could not entirely divest herself of
+fears for Ludovico's safety, though her reason represented these to be
+absurd. The necessity, however, of concealing the secret, with which
+Dorothee had entrusted her, and which must have been mentioned, with the
+late occurrence, in excuse for her having so privately visited the north
+apartments, kept her entirely silent on the subject of her apprehension;
+and she tried only to sooth Annette, who held, that Ludovico was
+certainly to be destroyed; and who was much less affected by Emily's
+consolatory efforts, than by the manner of old Dorothee, who often, as
+she exclaimed Ludovico, sighed, and threw up her eyes to heaven.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+  Ye gods of quiet, and of sleep profound!
+ Whose soft dominion o'er this castle sways,
+ And all the widely-silent places round,
+ Forgive me, if my trembling pen displays
+ What never yet was sung in mortal lays.
+     THOMSON
+
+The Count gave orders for the north apartments to be opened and prepared
+for the reception of Ludovico; but Dorothee, remembering what she
+had lately witnessed there, feared to obey, and, not one of the other
+servants daring to venture thither, the rooms remained shut up till the
+time when Ludovico was to retire thither for the night, an hour, for
+which the whole household waited with impatience.
+
+After supper, Ludovico, by the order of the Count, attended him in his
+closet, where they remained alone for near half an hour, and, on leaving
+which, his Lord delivered to him a sword.
+
+'It has seen service in mortal quarrels,' said the Count, jocosely, 'you
+will use it honourably, no doubt, in a spiritual one. Tomorrow, let me
+hear that there is not one ghost remaining in the chateau.'
+
+Ludovico received it with a respectful bow. 'You shall be obeyed, my
+Lord,' said he; 'I will engage, that no spectre shall disturb the peace
+of the chateau after this night.'
+
+They now returned to the supper-room, where the Count's guests awaited
+to accompany him and Ludovico to the door of the north apartments, and
+Dorothee, being summoned for the keys, delivered them to Ludovico, who
+then led the way, followed by most of the inhabitants of the chateau.
+Having reached the back stair-case, several of the servants shrunk back,
+and refused to go further, but the rest followed him to the top of the
+stair-case, where a broad landing-place allowed them to flock round him,
+while he applied the key to the door, during which they watched him with
+as much eager curiosity as if he had been performing some magical rite.
+
+Ludovico, unaccustomed to the lock, could not turn it, and Dorothee, who
+had lingered far behind, was called forward, under whose hand the door
+opened slowly, and, her eye glancing within the dusky chamber, she
+uttered a sudden shriek, and retreated. At this signal of alarm, the
+greater part of the crowd hurried down the stairs, and the Count, Henri
+and Ludovico were left alone to pursue the enquiry, who instantly rushed
+into the apartment, Ludovico with a drawn sword, which he had just time
+to draw from the scabbard, the Count with the lamp in his hand, and
+Henri carrying a basket, containing provisions for the courageous
+adventurer.
+
+Having looked hastily round the first room, where nothing appeared to
+justify alarm, they passed on to the second; and, here too all being
+quiet, they proceeded to a third with a more tempered step. The Count
+had now leisure to smile at the discomposure, into which he had been
+surprised, and to ask Ludovico in which room he designed to pass the
+night.
+
+'There are several chambers beyond these, your excellenza,' said
+Ludovico, pointing to a door, 'and in one of them is a bed, they say.
+I will pass the night there, and when I am weary of watching, I can lie
+down.'
+
+'Good;' said the Count; 'let us go on. You see these rooms shew nothing,
+but damp walls and decaying furniture. I have been so much engaged
+since I came to the chateau, that I have not looked into them till now.
+Remember, Ludovico, to tell the housekeeper, to-morrow, to throw open
+these windows. The damask hangings are dropping to pieces, I will have
+them taken down, and this antique furniture removed.'
+
+'Dear sir!' said Henri, 'here is an arm-chair so massy with gilding,
+that it resembles one of the state chairs at the Louvre, more then any
+thing else.'
+
+'Yes,' said the Count, stopping a moment to survey it, 'there is a
+history belonging to that chair, but I have not time to tell it.--Let us
+pass on. This suite runs to a greater extent than I had imagined; it is
+many years since I was in them. But where is the bed-room you speak of,
+Ludovico?--these are only anti-chambers to the great drawing-room. I
+remember them in their splendour!'
+
+'The bed, my Lord,' replied Ludovico, 'they told me, was in a room that
+opens beyond the saloon, and terminates the suite.'
+
+'O, here is the saloon,' said the Count, as they entered the spacious
+apartment, in which Emily and Dorothee had rested. He here stood for
+a moment, surveying the reliques of faded grandeur, which it
+exhibited--the sumptuous tapestry--the long and low sophas of velvet,
+with frames heavily carved and gilded--the floor inlaid with small
+squares of fine marble, and covered in the centre with a piece of
+very rich tapestry-work--the casements of painted glass, and the large
+Venetian mirrors, of a size and quality, such as at that period France
+could not make, which reflected, on every side, the spacious apartment.
+These had formerly also reflected a gay and brilliant scene, for this
+had been the state-room of the chateau, and here the Marchioness had
+held the assemblies, that made part of the festivities of her nuptials.
+If the wand of a magician could have recalled the vanished groups, many
+of them vanished even from the earth! that once had passed over these
+polished mirrors, what a varied and contrasted picture would they have
+exhibited with the present! Now, instead of a blaze of lights, and
+a splendid and busy crowd, they reflected only the rays of the one
+glimmering lamp, which the Count held up, and which scarcely served to
+shew the three forlorn figures, that stood surveying the room, and the
+spacious and dusky walls around them.
+
+'Ah!' said the Count to Henri, awaking from his deep reverie, 'how the
+scene is changed since last I saw it! I was a young man, then, and the
+Marchioness was alive and in her bloom; many other persons were here,
+too, who are now no more! There stood the orchestra; here we tripped in
+many a sprightly maze--the walls echoing to the dance! Now, they resound
+only one feeble voice--and even that will, ere long, be heard no more!
+My son, remember, that I was once as young as yourself, and that you
+must pass away like those, who have preceded you--like those, who, as
+they sung and danced in this once gay apartment, forgot, that years are
+made up of moments, and that every step they took carried them nearer
+to their graves. But such reflections are useless, I had almost
+said criminal, unless they teach us to prepare for eternity, since,
+otherwise, they cloud our present happiness, without guiding us to a
+future one. But enough of this; let us go on.'
+
+Ludovico now opened the door of the bed-room, and the Count, as he
+entered, was struck with the funereal appearance, which the dark arras
+gave to it. He approached the bed, with an emotion of solemnity, and,
+perceiving it to be covered with the pall of black velvet, paused; 'What
+can this mean?' said he, as he gazed upon it.
+
+'I have heard, my Lord,' said Ludovico, as he stood at the feet, looking
+within the canopied curtains, 'that the Lady Marchioness de Villeroi
+died in this chamber, and remained here till she was removed to be
+buried; and this, perhaps, Signor, may account for the pall.'
+
+The Count made no reply, but stood for a few moments engaged in thought,
+and evidently much affected. Then, turning to Ludovico, he asked him
+with a serious air, whether he thought his courage would support him
+through the night? 'If you doubt this,' added the Count, 'do not be
+ashamed to own it; I will release you from your engagement, without
+exposing you to the triumphs of your fellow-servants.'
+
+Ludovico paused; pride, and something very like fear, seemed struggling
+in his breast; pride, however, was victorious;--he blushed, and his
+hesitation ceased.
+
+'No, my Lord,' said he, 'I will go through with what I have begun; and
+I am grateful for your consideration. On that hearth I will make a fire,
+and, with the good cheer in this basket, I doubt not I shall do well.'
+
+'Be it so,' said the Count; 'but how will you beguile the tediousness of
+the night, if you do not sleep?'
+
+'When I am weary, my Lord,' replied Ludovico, 'I shall not fear to
+sleep; in the meanwhile, I have a book, that will entertain me.'
+
+'Well,' said the Count, 'I hope nothing will disturb you; but if you
+should be seriously alarmed in the night, come to my apartment. I have
+too much confidence in your good sense and courage, to believe you will
+be alarmed on slight grounds; or suffer the gloom of this chamber, or
+its remote situation, to overcome you with ideal terrors. To-morrow, I
+shall have to thank you for an important service; these rooms shall then
+be thrown open, and my people will be convinced of their error. Good
+night, Ludovico; let me see you early in the morning, and remember what
+I lately said to you.'
+
+'I will, my Lord; good night to your excellenza; let me attend you with
+the light.'
+
+He lighted the Count and Henri through the chambers to the outer door;
+on the landing-place stood a lamp, which one of the affrighted servants
+had left, and Henri, as he took it up, again bade Ludovico good night,
+who, having respectfully returned the wish, closed the door upon them,
+and fastened it. Then, as he retired to the bed-chamber, he examined the
+rooms, through which he passed, with more minuteness than he had done
+before, for he apprehended, that some person might have concealed
+himself in them, for the purpose of frightening him. No one, however,
+but himself, was in these chambers, and, leaving open the doors,
+through which he passed, he came again to the great drawing-room, whose
+spaciousness and silent gloom somewhat awed him. For a moment he stood,
+looking back through the long suite of rooms he had quitted, and, as he
+turned, perceiving a light and his own figure, reflected in one of the
+large mirrors, he started. Other objects too were seen obscurely on its
+dark surface, but he paused not to examine them, and returned hastily
+into the bed-room, as he surveyed which, he observed the door of the
+oriel, and opened it. All within was still. On looking round, his eye
+was arrested by the portrait of the deceased Marchioness, upon which he
+gazed, for a considerable time, with great attention and some surprise;
+and then, having examined the closet, he returned into the bed-room,
+where he kindled a wood fire, the bright blaze of which revived his
+spirits, which had begun to yield to the gloom and silence of the place,
+for gusts of wind alone broke at intervals this silence. He now drew a
+small table and a chair near the fire, took a bottle of wine, and some
+cold provision out of his basket, and regaled himself. When he had
+finished his repast, he laid his sword upon the table, and, not feeling
+disposed to sleep, drew from his pocket the book he had spoken of.--It
+was a volume of old Provencal tales. Having stirred the fire upon the
+hearth, he began to read, and his attention was soon wholly occupied by
+the scenes, which the page disclosed.
+
+The Count, meanwhile, had returned to the supper-room, whither those of
+the party, who had attended him to the north apartment, had retreated,
+upon hearing Dorothee's scream, and who were now earnest in their
+enquiries concerning those chambers. The Count rallied his guests on
+their precipitate retreat, and on the superstitious inclination which
+had occasioned it, and this led to the question, Whether the spirit,
+after it has quitted the body, is ever permitted to revisit the earth;
+and if it is, whether it was possible for spirits to become visible to
+the sense. The Baron was of opinion, that the first was probable, and
+the last was possible, and he endeavoured to justify this opinion by
+respectable authorities, both ancient and modern, which he quoted.
+The Count, however, was decidedly against him, and a long conversation
+ensued, in which the usual arguments on these subjects were on both
+sides brought forward with skill, and discussed with candour, but
+without converting either party to the opinion of his opponent. The
+effect of their conversation on their auditors was various. Though the
+Count had much the superiority of the Baron in point of argument, he
+had considerably fewer adherents; for that love, so natural to the
+human mind, of whatever is able to distend its faculties with wonder and
+astonishment, attached the majority of the company to the side of the
+Baron; and, though many of the Count's propositions were unanswerable,
+his opponents were inclined to believe this the consequence of their
+own want of knowledge, on so abstracted a subject, rather than that
+arguments did not exist, which were forcible enough to conquer his.
+
+Blanche was pale with attention, till the ridicule in her father's
+glance called a blush upon her countenance, and she then endeavoured
+to forget the superstitious tales she had been told in her convent.
+Meanwhile, Emily had been listening with deep attention to the
+discussion of what was to her a very interesting question, and,
+remembering the appearance she had witnessed in the apartment of the
+late Marchioness, she was frequently chilled with awe. Several times she
+was on the point of mentioning what she had seen, but the fear of giving
+pain to the Count, and the dread of his ridicule, restrained her; and,
+awaiting in anxious expectation the event of Ludovico's intrepidity, she
+determined that her future silence should depend upon it.
+
+When the party had separated for the night, and the Count retired to
+his dressing-room, the remembrance of the desolate scenes he had lately
+witnessed in his own mansion deeply affected him, but at length he
+was aroused from his reverie and his silence. 'What music is that I
+hear?'--said he suddenly to his valet, 'Who plays at this late hour?'
+
+The man made no reply, and the Count continued to listen, and then
+added, 'That is no common musician; he touches the instrument with a
+delicate hand; who is it, Pierre?'
+
+'My lord!' said the man, hesitatingly.
+
+'Who plays that instrument?' repeated the Count.
+
+'Does not your lordship know, then?' said the valet.
+
+'What mean you?' said the Count, somewhat sternly.
+
+'Nothing, my Lord, I meant nothing,' rejoined the man
+submissively--'Only--that music--goes about the house at midnight often,
+and I thought your lordship might have heard it before.'
+
+'Music goes about the house at midnight! Poor fellow!--does nobody dance
+to the music, too?'
+
+'It is not in the chateau, I believe, my Lord; the sounds come from the
+woods, they say, though they seem so near;--but then a spirit can do any
+thing!'
+
+'Ah, poor fellow!' said the Count, 'I perceive you are as silly as the
+rest of them; to-morrow, you will be convinced of your ridiculous error.
+But hark!--what voice is that?'
+
+'O my Lord! that is the voice we often hear with the music.'
+
+'Often!' said the Count, 'How often, pray? It is a very fine one.'
+
+'Why, my Lord, I myself have not heard it more than two or three times,
+but there are those who have lived here longer, that have heard it often
+enough.'
+
+'What a swell was that!' exclaimed the Count, as he still listened, 'And
+now, what a dying cadence! This is surely something more than mortal!'
+
+'That is what they say, my Lord,' said the valet; 'they say it is
+nothing mortal, that utters it; and if I might say my thoughts'--
+
+'Peace!' said the Count, and he listened till the strain died away.
+
+'This is strange!' said he, as he turned from the window, 'Close the
+casements, Pierre.'
+
+Pierre obeyed, and the Count soon after dismissed him, but did not so
+soon lose the remembrance of the music, which long vibrated in his fancy
+in tones of melting sweetness, while surprise and perplexity engaged his
+thoughts.
+
+Ludovico, meanwhile, in his remote chamber, heard, now and then, the
+faint echo of a closing door, as the family retired to rest, and then
+the hall clock, at a great distance, strike twelve. 'It is midnight,'
+said he, and he looked suspiciously round the spacious chamber. The fire
+on the hearth was now nearly expiring, for his attention having been
+engaged by the book before him, he had forgotten every thing besides;
+but he soon added fresh wood, not because he was cold, though the night
+was stormy, but because he was cheerless; and, having again trimmed
+his lamp, he poured out a glass of wine, drew his chair nearer to the
+crackling blaze, tried to be deaf to the wind, that howled mournfully
+at the casements, endeavoured to abstract his mind from the melancholy,
+that was stealing upon him, and again took up his book. It had been lent
+to him by Dorothee, who had formerly picked it up in an obscure corner
+of the Marquis's library, and who, having opened it and perceived
+some of the marvels it related, had carefully preserved it for her own
+entertainment, its condition giving her some excuse for detaining it
+from its proper station. The damp corner into which it had fallen, had
+caused the cover to be disfigured and mouldy, and the leaves to be so
+discoloured with spots, that it was not without difficulty the letters
+could be traced. The fictions of the Provencal writers, whether drawn
+from the Arabian legends, brought by the Saracens into Spain, or
+recounting the chivalric exploits performed by the crusaders, whom the
+Troubadors accompanied to the east, were generally splendid and always
+marvellous, both in scenery and incident; and it is not wonderful, that
+Dorothee and Ludovico should be fascinated by inventions, which had
+captivated the careless imagination in every rank of society, in a
+former age. Some of the tales, however, in the book now before Ludovico,
+were of simple structure, and exhibited nothing of the magnificent
+machinery and heroic manners, which usually characterized the fables of
+the twelfth century, and of this description was the one he now happened
+to open, which, in its original style, was of great length, but which
+may be thus shortly related. The reader will perceive, that it is
+strongly tinctured with the superstition of the times.
+
+
+THE PROVENCAL TALE
+
+'There lived, in the province of Bretagne, a noble Baron, famous for
+his magnificence and courtly hospitalities. His castle was graced with
+ladies of exquisite beauty, and thronged with illustrious knights; for
+the honour he paid to feats of chivalry invited the brave of distant
+countries to enter his lists, and his court was more splendid than those
+of many princes. Eight minstrels were retained in his service, who used
+to sing to their harps romantic fictions, taken from the Arabians, or
+adventures of chivalry, that befel knights during the crusades, or the
+martial deeds of the Baron, their lord;--while he, surrounded by his
+knights and ladies, banqueted in the great hall of his castle, where the
+costly tapestry, that adorned the walls with pictured exploits of
+his ancestors, the casements of painted glass, enriched with armorial
+bearings, the gorgeous banners, that waved along the roof, the sumptuous
+canopies, the profusion of gold and silver, that glittered on the
+sideboards, the numerous dishes, that covered the tables, the number and
+gay liveries of the attendants, with the chivalric and splendid attire
+of the guests, united to form a scene of magnificence, such as we may
+not hope to see in these DEGENERATE DAYS.
+
+'Of the Baron, the following adventure is related. One night, having
+retired late from the banquet to his chamber, and dismissed his
+attendants, he was surprised by the appearance of a stranger of a noble
+air, but of a sorrowful and dejected countenance. Believing, that this
+person had been secreted in the apartment, since it appeared impossible
+he could have lately passed the anti-room, unobserved by the pages in
+waiting, who would have prevented this intrusion on their lord, the
+Baron, calling loudly for his people, drew his sword, which he had not
+yet taken from his side, and stood upon his defence. The stranger slowly
+advancing, told him, that there was nothing to fear; that he came with
+no hostile design, but to communicate to him a terrible secret, which it
+was necessary for him to know.
+
+'The Baron, appeased by the courteous manners of the stranger, after
+surveying him, for some time, in silence, returned his sword into the
+scabbard, and desired him to explain the means, by which he had obtained
+access to the chamber, and the purpose of this extraordinary visit.
+
+'Without answering either of these enquiries, the stranger said, that he
+could not then explain himself, but that, if the Baron would follow him
+to the edge of the forest, at a short distance from the castle walls,
+he would there convince him, that he had something of importance to
+disclose.
+
+'This proposal again alarmed the Baron, who could scarcely believe, that
+the stranger meant to draw him to so solitary a spot, at this hour of
+the night, without harbouring a design against his life, and he refused
+to go, observing, at the same time, that, if the stranger's purpose
+was an honourable one, he would not persist in refusing to reveal the
+occasion of his visit, in the apartment where they were.
+
+'While he spoke this, he viewed the stranger still more attentively than
+before, but observed no change in his countenance, or any symptom, that
+might intimate a consciousness of evil design. He was habited like
+a knight, was of a tall and majestic stature, and of dignified and
+courteous manners. Still, however, he refused to communicate the subject
+of his errand in any place, but that he had mentioned, and, at the same
+time, gave hints concerning the secret he would disclose, that awakened
+a degree of solemn curiosity in the Baron, which, at length, induced him
+to consent to follow the stranger, on certain conditions.
+
+'"Sir knight," said he, "I will attend you to the forest, and will take
+with me only four of my people, who shall witness our conference."
+
+'To this, however, the Knight objected.
+
+'"What I would disclose," said he, with solemnity, "is to you alone.
+There are only three living persons, to whom the circumstance is known;
+it is of more consequence to you and your house, than I shall now
+explain. In future years, you will look back to this night with
+satisfaction or repentance, accordingly as you now determine. As you
+would hereafter prosper--follow me; I pledge you the honour of a
+knight, that no evil shall befall you;--if you are contented to dare
+futurity--remain in your chamber, and I will depart as I came."
+
+'"Sir knight," replied the Baron, "how is it possible, that my future
+peace can depend upon my present determination?"
+
+'"That is not now to be told," said the stranger, "I have explained
+myself to the utmost. It is late; if you follow me it must be
+quickly;--you will do well to consider the alternative."
+
+'The Baron mused, and, as he looked upon the knight, he perceived his
+countenance assume a singular solemnity.'
+
+[Here Ludovico thought he heard a noise, and he threw a glance round the
+chamber, and then held up the lamp to assist his observation; but, not
+perceiving any thing to confirm his alarm, he took up the book again and
+pursued the story.]
+
+'The Baron paced his apartment, for some time, in silence, impressed by
+the last words of the stranger, whose extraordinary request he feared to
+grant, and feared, also, to refuse. At length, he said, "Sir knight, you
+are utterly unknown to me; tell me yourself,--is it reasonable, that I
+should trust myself alone with a stranger, at this hour, in a solitary
+forest? Tell me, at least, who you are, and who assisted to secrete you
+in this chamber."
+
+'The knight frowned at these latter words, and was a moment silent;
+then, with a countenance somewhat stern, he said,
+
+'"I am an English knight; I am called Sir Bevys of Lancaster,--and my
+deeds are not unknown at the Holy City, whence I was returning to my
+native land, when I was benighted in the neighbouring forest."
+
+'"Your name is not unknown to fame," said the Baron, "I have heard of
+it." (The Knight looked haughtily.) "But why, since my castle is known
+to entertain all true knights, did not your herald announce you? Why
+did you not appear at the banquet, where your presence would have been
+welcomed, instead of hiding yourself in my castle, and stealing to my
+chamber, at midnight?"
+
+'The stranger frowned, and turned away in silence; but the Baron
+repeated the questions.
+
+'"I come not," said the Knight, "to answer enquiries, but to reveal
+facts. If you would know more, follow me, and again I pledge the
+honour of a Knight, that you shall return in safety.--Be quick in your
+determination--I must be gone."
+
+'After some further hesitation, the Baron determined to follow the
+stranger, and to see the result of his extraordinary request; he,
+therefore, again drew forth his sword, and, taking up a lamp, bade the
+Knight lead on. The latter obeyed, and, opening the door of the chamber,
+they passed into the anti-room, where the Baron, surprised to find
+all his pages asleep, stopped, and, with hasty violence, was going to
+reprimand them for their carelessness, when the Knight waved his hand,
+and looked so expressively upon the Baron, that the latter restrained
+his resentment, and passed on.
+
+'The Knight, having descended a stair-case, opened a secret door,
+which the Baron had believed was known only to himself, and, proceeding
+through several narrow and winding passages, came, at length, to a small
+gate, that opened beyond the walls of the castle. Meanwhile, the Baron
+followed in silence and amazement, on perceiving that these secret
+passages were so well known to a stranger, and felt inclined to return
+from an adventure, that appeared to partake of treachery, as well as
+danger. Then, considering that he was armed, and observing the courteous
+and noble air of his conductor, his courage returned, he blushed, that
+it had failed him for a moment, and he resolved to trace the mystery to
+its source.
+
+'He now found himself on the heathy platform, before the great gates of
+his castle, where, on looking up, he perceived lights glimmering in
+the different casements of the guests, who were retiring to sleep; and,
+while he shivered in the blast, and looked on the dark and desolate
+scene around him, he thought of the comforts of his warm chamber,
+rendered cheerful by the blaze of wood, and felt, for a moment, the full
+contrast of his present situation.'
+
+[Here Ludovico paused a moment, and, looking at his own fire, gave it a
+brightening stir.]
+
+'The wind was strong, and the Baron watched his lamp with anxiety,
+expecting every moment to see it extinguished; but, though the flame
+wavered, it did not expire, and he still followed the stranger, who
+often sighed as he went, but did not speak.
+
+'When they reached the borders of the forest, the Knight turned, and
+raised his head, as if he meant to address the Baron, but then, closing
+his lips in silence, he walked on.
+
+'As they entered, beneath the dark and spreading boughs, the Baron,
+affected by the solemnity of the scene, hesitated whether to proceed,
+and demanded how much further they were to go. The Knight replied only
+by a gesture, and the Baron, with hesitating steps and a suspicious eye,
+followed through an obscure and intricate path, till, having proceeded a
+considerable way, he again demanded whither they were going, and refused
+to proceed unless he was informed.
+
+'As he said this, he looked at his own sword, and at the Knight
+alternately, who shook his head, and whose dejected countenance disarmed
+the Baron, for a moment, of suspicion.
+
+'"A little further is the place, whither I would lead you," said the
+stranger; "no evil shall befall you--I have sworn it on the honour of a
+knight."
+
+'The Baron, re-assured, again followed in silence, and they soon arrived
+at a deep recess of the forest, where the dark and lofty chesnuts
+entirely excluded the sky, and which was so overgrown with underwood,
+that they proceeded with difficulty. The Knight sighed deeply as he
+passed, and sometimes paused; and having, at length, reached a spot,
+where the trees crowded into a knot, he turned, and, with a terrific
+look, pointing to the ground, the Baron saw there the body of a man,
+stretched at its length, and weltering in blood; a ghastly wound was
+on the forehead, and death appeared already to have contracted the
+features.
+
+'The Baron, on perceiving the spectacle, started in horror, looked at
+the Knight for explanation, and was then going to raise the body and
+examine if there were yet any remains of life; but the stranger, waving
+his hand, fixed upon him a look so earnest and mournful, as not only
+much surprised him, but made him desist.
+
+'But, what were the Baron's emotions, when, on holding the lamp near
+the features of the corpse, he discovered the exact resemblance of the
+stranger his conductor, to whom he now looked up in astonishment and
+enquiry? As he gazed, he perceived the countenance of the Knight change,
+and begin to fade, till his whole form gradually vanished from his
+astonished sense! While the Baron stood, fixed to the spot, a voice was
+heard to utter these words:--'
+
+[Ludovico started, and laid down the book, for he thought he heard a
+voice in the chamber, and he looked toward the bed, where, however, he
+saw only the dark curtains and the pall. He listened, scarcely daring
+to draw his breath, but heard only the distant roaring of the sea in the
+storm, and the blast, that rushed by the casements; when, concluding,
+that he had been deceived by its sighings, he took up his book to finish
+the story.]
+
+'While the Baron stood, fixed to the spot, a voice was heard to utter
+these words:--*
+
+(* This repetition seems to be intentional. Ludovico is picking up the
+thread.)
+
+
+'The body of Sir Bevys of Lancaster, a noble knight of England, lies
+before you. He was, this night, waylaid and murdered, as he journeyed
+from the Holy City towards his native land. Respect the honour of
+knighthood and the law of humanity; inter the body in christian ground,
+and cause his murderers to be punished. As ye observe, or neglect this,
+shall peace and happiness, or war and misery, light upon you and your
+house for ever!'
+
+'The Baron, when he recovered from the awe and astonishment, into which
+this adventure had thrown him, returned to his castle, whither he caused
+the body of Sir Bevys to be removed; and, on the following day, it was
+interred, with the honours of knighthood, in the chapel of the castle,
+attended by all the noble knights and ladies, who graced the court of
+Baron de Brunne.'
+
+Ludovico, having finished this story, laid aside the book, for he felt
+drowsy, and, after putting more wood on the fire and taking another
+glass of wine, he reposed himself in the arm-chair on the hearth. In
+his dream he still beheld the chamber where he really was, and, once or
+twice, started from imperfect slumbers, imagining he saw a man's face,
+looking over the high back of his armchair. This idea had so strongly
+impressed him, that, when he raised his eyes, he almost expected to
+meet other eyes, fixed upon his own, and he quitted his seat and looked
+behind the chair, before he felt perfectly convinced, that no person was
+there.
+
+Thus closed the hour.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+  Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber;
+ Thou hast no figures, nor no fantasies,
+ Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
+ Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+The Count, who had slept little during the night, rose early, and,
+anxious to speak with Ludovico, went to the north apartment; but, the
+outer door having been fastened, on the preceding night, he was obliged
+to knock loudly for admittance. Neither the knocking, or his voice was
+heard; but, considering the distance of this door from the bed-room, and
+that Ludovico, wearied with watching, had probably fallen into a deep
+sleep, the Count was not surprised on receiving no answer, and, leaving
+the door, he went down to walk in his grounds.
+
+It was a gray autumnal morning. The sun, rising over Provence, gave only
+a feeble light, as his rays struggled through the vapours that ascended
+from the sea, and floated heavily over the wood-tops, which were now
+varied with many a mellow tint of autumn. The storm was passed, but the
+waves were yet violently agitated, and their course was traced by long
+lines of foam, while not a breeze fluttered in the sails of the vessels,
+near the shore, that were weighing anchor to depart. The still gloom of
+the hour was pleasing to the Count, and he pursued his way through the
+woods, sunk in deep thought.
+
+Emily also rose at an early hour, and took her customary walk along the
+brow of the promontory, that overhung the Mediterranean. Her mind was
+now not occupied with the occurrences of the chateau, and Valancourt
+was the subject of her mournful thoughts; whom she had not yet taught
+herself to consider with indifference, though her judgment constantly
+reproached her for the affection, that lingered in her heart, after her
+esteem for him was departed. Remembrance frequently gave her his parting
+look and the tones of his voice, when he had bade her a last farewel;
+and, some accidental associations now recalling these circumstances
+to her fancy, with peculiar energy, she shed bitter tears to the
+recollection.
+
+Having reached the watch-tower, she seated herself on the broken steps,
+and, in melancholy dejection, watched the waves, half hid in vapour,
+as they came rolling towards the shore, and threw up their light spray
+round the rocks below. Their hollow murmur and the obscuring mists, that
+came in wreaths up the cliffs, gave a solemnity to the scene, which was
+in harmony with the temper of her mind, and she sat, given up to
+the remembrance of past times, till this became too painful, and
+she abruptly quitted the place. On passing the little gate of the
+watch-tower, she observed letters, engraved on the stone postern, which
+she paused to examine, and, though they appeared to have been rudely
+cut with a pen-knife, the characters were familiar to her; at length,
+recognizing the hand-writing of Valancourt, she read, with trembling
+anxiety the following lines, entitled
+
+SHIPWRECK
+
+ 'Til solemn midnight!  On this lonely steep,
+ Beneath this watch-tow'r's desolated wall,
+ Where mystic shapes the wonderer appall,
+ I rest; and view below the desert deep,
+ As through tempestuous clouds the moon's cold light
+ Gleams on the wave.  Viewless, the winds of night
+ With loud mysterious force the billows sweep,
+ And sullen roar the surges, far below.
+ In the still pauses of the gust I hear
+ The voice of spirits, rising sweet and slow,
+ And oft among the clouds their forms appear.
+ But hark! what shriek of death comes in the gale,
+ And in the distant ray what glimmering sail
+ Bends to the storm?--Now sinks the note of fear!
+ Ah! wretched mariners!--no more shall day
+ Unclose his cheering eye to light ye on your way!
+
+From these lines it appeared, that Valancourt had visited the tower;
+that he had probably been here on the preceding night, for it was such
+an one as they described, and that he had left the building very lately,
+since it had not long been light, and without light it was impossible
+these letters could have been cut. It was thus even probable, that he
+might be yet in the gardens.
+
+As these reflections passed rapidly over the mind of Emily, they called
+up a variety of contending emotions, that almost overcame her spirits;
+but her first impulse was to avoid him, and, immediately leaving the
+tower, she returned, with hasty steps, towards the chateau. As she
+passed along, she remembered the music she had lately heard near the
+tower, with the figure, which had appeared, and, in this moment of
+agitation, she was inclined to believe, that she had then heard and seen
+Valancourt; but other recollections soon convinced her of her error.
+On turning into a thicker part of the woods, she perceived a person,
+walking slowly in the gloom at some little distance, and, her mind
+engaged by the idea of him, she started and paused, imagining this to
+be Valancourt. The person advanced with quicker steps, and, before she
+could recover recollection enough to avoid him, he spoke, and she then
+knew the voice of the Count, who expressed some surprise, on finding her
+walking at so early an hour, and made a feeble effort to rally her on
+her love of solitude. But he soon perceived this to be more a subject of
+concern than of light laughter, and, changing his manner, affectionately
+expostulated with Emily, on thus indulging unavailing regret; who,
+though she acknowledged the justness of all he said, could not restrain
+her tears, while she did so, and he presently quitted the topic.
+Expressing surprise at not having yet heard from his friend, the
+Advocate at Avignon, in answer to the questions proposed to him,
+respecting the estates of the late Madame Montoni, he, with friendly
+zeal, endeavoured to cheer Emily with hopes of establishing her claim
+to them; while she felt, that the estates could now contribute little to
+the happiness of a life, in which Valancourt had no longer an interest.
+
+When they returned to the chateau, Emily retired to her apartment, and
+Count De Villefort to the door of the north chambers. This was still
+fastened, but, being now determined to arouse Ludovico, he renewed his
+calls more loudly than before, after which a total silence ensued, and
+the Count, finding all his efforts to be heard ineffectual, at length
+began to fear, that some accident had befallen Ludovico, whom terror
+of an imaginary being might have deprived of his senses. He, therefore,
+left the door with an intention of summoning his servants to force it
+open, some of whom he now heard moving in the lower part of the chateau.
+
+To the Count's enquiries, whether they had seen or heard Ludovico, they
+replied in affright, that not one of them had ventured on the north side
+of the chateau, since the preceding night.
+
+'He sleeps soundly then,' said the Count, 'and is at such a distance
+from the outer door, which is fastened, that to gain admittance to the
+chambers it will be necessary to force it. Bring an instrument, and
+follow me.'
+
+The servants stood mute and dejected, and it was not till nearly all the
+household were assembled, that the Count's orders were obeyed. In the
+mean time, Dorothee was telling of a door, that opened from a gallery,
+leading from the great stair-case into the last anti-room of the saloon,
+and, this being much nearer to the bed-chamber, it appeared probable,
+that Ludovico might be easily awakened by an attempt to open it.
+Thither, therefore, the Count went, but his voice was as ineffectual
+at this door as it had proved at the remoter one; and now, seriously
+interested for Ludovico, he was himself going to strike upon the door
+with the instrument, when he observed its singular beauty, and with-held
+the blow. It appeared, on the first glance, to be of ebony, so dark and
+close was its grain and so high its polish; but it proved to be only of
+larch wood, of the growth of Provence, then famous for its forests
+of larch. The beauty of its polished hue and of its delicate carvings
+determined the Count to spare this door, and he returned to that leading
+from the back stair-case, which being, at length, forced, he entered the
+first anti-room, followed by Henri and a few of the most courageous of
+his servants, the rest awaiting the event of the enquiry on the stairs
+and landing-place.
+
+All was silent in the chambers, through which the Count passed, and,
+having reached the saloon, he called loudly upon Ludovico; after which,
+still receiving no answer, he threw open the door of the bed-room, and
+entered.
+
+The profound stillness within confirmed his apprehensions for Ludovico,
+for not even the breathings of a person in sleep were heard; and his
+uncertainty was not soon terminated, since the shutters being all
+closed, the chamber was too dark for any object to be distinguished in
+it.
+
+The Count bade a servant open them, who, as he crossed the room to
+do so, stumbled over something, and fell to the floor, when his cry
+occasioned such panic among the few of his fellows, who had ventured
+thus far, that they instantly fled, and the Count and Henri were left to
+finish the adventure.
+
+Henri then sprung across the room, and, opening a window-shutter, they
+perceived, that the man had fallen over a chair near the hearth, in
+which Ludovico had been sitting;--for he sat there no longer, nor could
+any where be seen by the imperfect light, that was admitted into the
+apartment. The Count, seriously alarmed, now opened other shutters, that
+he might be enabled to examine further, and, Ludovico not yet appearing,
+he stood for a moment, suspended in astonishment and scarcely trusting
+his senses, till, his eyes glancing on the bed, he advanced to examine
+whether he was there asleep. No person, however, was in it, and he
+proceeded to the oriel, where every thing remained as on the preceding
+night, but Ludovico was no where to be found.
+
+The Count now checked his amazement, considering, that Ludovico might
+have left the chambers, during the night, overcome by the terrors, which
+their lonely desolation and the recollected reports, concerning them,
+had inspired. Yet, if this had been the fact, the man would naturally
+have sought society, and his fellow servants had all declared they had
+not seen him; the door of the outer room also had been found fastened,
+with the key on the inside; it was impossible, therefore, for him to
+have passed through that, and all the outer doors of this suite were
+found, on examination, to be bolted and locked, with the keys also
+within them. The Count, being then compelled to believe, that the lad
+had escaped through the casements, next examined them, but such as
+opened wide enough to admit the body of a man were found to be carefully
+secured either by iron bars, or by shutters, and no vestige appeared of
+any person having attempted to pass them; neither was it probable, that
+Ludovico would have incurred the risque of breaking his neck, by leaping
+from a window, when he might have walked safely through a door.
+
+The Count's amazement did not admit of words; but he returned once more
+to examine the bed-room, where was no appearance of disorder, except
+that occasioned by the late overthrow of the chair, near which had stood
+a small table, and on this Ludovico's sword, his lamp, the book he had
+been reading, and the remnant of his flask of wine still remained.
+At the foot of the table, too, was the basket with some fragments of
+provision and wood.
+
+Henri and the servant now uttered their astonishment without reserve,
+and, though the Count said little, there was a seriousness in his
+manner, that expressed much. It appeared, that Ludovico must have
+quitted these rooms by some concealed passage, for the Count could not
+believe, that any supernatural means had occasioned this event, yet, if
+there was any such passage, it seemed inexplicable why he should retreat
+through it, and it was equally surprising, that not even the smallest
+vestige should appear, by which his progress could be traced. In the
+rooms every thing remained as much in order as if he had just walked out
+by the common way.
+
+The Count himself assisted in lifting the arras, with which the
+bed-chamber, saloon and one of the anti-rooms were hung, that he
+might discover if any door had been concealed behind it; but, after
+a laborious search, none was found, and he, at length, quitted the
+apartments, having secured the door of the last anti-chamber, the key of
+which he took into his own possession. He then gave orders, that strict
+search should be made for Ludovico not only in the chateau, but in the
+neighbourhood, and, retiring with Henri to his closet, they remained
+there in conversation for a considerable time, and whatever was the
+subject of it, Henri from this hour lost much of his vivacity, and his
+manners were particularly grave and reserved, whenever the topic, which
+now agitated the Count's family with wonder and alarm, was introduced.
+
+On the disappearing of Ludovico, Baron St. Foix seemed strengthened
+in all his former opinions concerning the probability of apparitions,
+though it was difficult to discover what connection there could possibly
+be between the two subjects, or to account for this effect otherwise
+than by supposing, that the mystery attending Ludovico, by exciting
+awe and curiosity, reduced the mind to a state of sensibility, which
+rendered it more liable to the influence of superstition in general. It
+is, however, certain, that from this period the Baron and his adherents
+became more bigoted to their own systems than before, while the terrors
+of the Count's servants increased to an excess, that occasioned many of
+them to quit the mansion immediately, and the rest remained only till
+others could be procured to supply their places.
+
+The most strenuous search after Ludovico proved unsuccessful, and, after
+several days of indefatigable enquiry, poor Annette gave herself up to
+despair, and the other inhabitants of the chateau to amazement.
+
+Emily, whose mind had been deeply affected by the disastrous fate of the
+late Marchioness and with the mysterious connection, which she fancied
+had existed between her and St. Aubert, was particularly impressed
+by the late extraordinary event, and much concerned for the loss of
+Ludovico, whose integrity and faithful services claimed both her
+esteem and gratitude. She was now very desirous to return to the quiet
+retirement of her convent, but every hint of this was received with real
+sorrow by the Lady Blanche, and affectionately set aside by the Count,
+for whom she felt much of the respectful love and admiration of a
+daughter, and to whom, by Dorothee's consent, she, at length, mentioned
+the appearance, which they had witnessed in the chamber of the deceased
+Marchioness. At any other period, he would have smiled at such a
+relation, and have believed, that its object had existed only in the
+distempered fancy of the relater; but he now attended to Emily with
+seriousness, and, when she concluded, requested of her a promise, that
+this occurrence should rest in silence. 'Whatever may be the cause and
+the import of these extraordinary occurrences,' added the Count, 'time
+only can explain them. I shall keep a wary eye upon all that passes in
+the chateau, and shall pursue every possible means of discovering the
+fate of Ludovico. Meanwhile, we must be prudent and be silent. I will
+myself watch in the north chambers, but of this we will say nothing,
+till the night arrives, when I purpose doing so.'
+
+The Count then sent for Dorothee, and required of her also a promise of
+silence, concerning what she had already, or might in future witness of
+an extraordinary nature; and this ancient servant now related to him the
+particulars of the Marchioness de Villeroi's death, with some of which
+he appeared to be already acquainted, while by others he was evidently
+surprised and agitated. After listening to this narrative, the Count
+retired to his closet, where he remained alone for several hours;
+and, when he again appeared, the solemnity of his manner surprised and
+alarmed Emily, but she gave no utterance to her thoughts.
+
+On the week following the disappearance of Ludovico, all the Count's
+guests took leave of him, except the Baron, his son Mons. St. Foix, and
+Emily; the latter of whom was soon after embarrassed and distressed by
+the arrival of another visitor, Mons. Du Pont, which made her determine
+upon withdrawing to her convent immediately. The delight, that appeared
+in his countenance, when he met her, told that he brought back the
+same ardour of passion, which had formerly banished him from
+Chateau-le-Blanc. He was received with reserve by Emily, and with
+pleasure by the Count, who presented him to her with a smile, that
+seemed intended to plead his cause, and who did not hope the less for
+his friend, from the embarrassment she betrayed.
+
+But M. Du Pont, with truer sympathy, seemed to understand her manner,
+and his countenance quickly lost its vivacity, and sunk into the languor
+of despondency.
+
+On the following day, however, he sought an opportunity of declaring
+the purport of his visit, and renewed his suit; a declaration, which was
+received with real concern by Emily, who endeavoured to lessen the pain
+she might inflict by a second rejection, with assurances of esteem
+and friendship; yet she left him in a state of mind, that claimed and
+excited her tenderest compassion; and, being more sensible than ever
+of the impropriety of remaining longer at the chateau, she immediately
+sought the Count, and communicated to him her intention of returning to
+the convent.
+
+'My dear Emily,' said he 'I observe, with extreme concern, the illusion
+you are encouraging--an illusion common to young and sensible minds.
+Your heart has received a severe shock; you believe you can never
+entirely recover it, and you will encourage this belief, till the habit
+of indulging sorrow will subdue the strength of your mind, and discolour
+your future views with melancholy and regret. Let me dissipate this
+illusion, and awaken you to a sense of your danger.'
+
+Emily smiled mournfully, 'I know what you would say, my dear sir,' said
+she, 'and am prepared to answer you. I feel, that my heart can never
+know a second affection; and that I must never hope even to recover its
+tranquillity--if I suffer myself to enter into a second engagement.'
+
+'I know, that you feel all this,' replied the Count; 'and I know, also,
+that time will overcome these feelings, unless you cherish them in
+solitude, and, pardon me, with romantic tenderness. Then, indeed, time
+will only confirm habit. I am particularly empowered to speak on this
+subject, and to sympathize in your sufferings,' added the Count, with
+an air of solemnity, 'for I have known what it is to love, and to lament
+the object of my love. Yes,' continued he, while his eyes filled with
+tears, 'I have suffered!--but those times have passed away--long passed!
+and I can now look back upon them without emotion.'
+
+'My dear sir,' said Emily, timidly, 'what mean those tears?--they speak,
+I fear, another language--they plead for me.'
+
+'They are weak tears, for they are useless ones,' replied the Count,
+drying them, 'I would have you superior to such weakness. These,
+however, are only faint traces of a grief, which, if it had not been
+opposed by long continued effort, might have led me to the verge
+of madness! Judge, then, whether I have not cause to warn you of an
+indulgence, which may produce so terrible an effect, and which must
+certainly, if not opposed, overcloud the years, that otherwise might
+be happy. M. Du Pont is a sensible and amiable man, who has long
+been tenderly attached to you; his family and fortune are
+unexceptionable;--after what I have said, it is unnecessary to add, that
+I should rejoice in your felicity, and that I think M. Du Pont would
+promote it. Do not weep, Emily,' continued the Count, taking her hand,
+'there IS happiness reserved for you.'
+
+He was silent a moment; and then added, in a firmer voice, 'I do not
+wish, that you should make a violent effort to overcome your feelings;
+all I, at present, ask, is, that you will check the thoughts, that would
+lead you to a remembrance of the past; that you will suffer your mind to
+be engaged by present objects; that you will allow yourself to believe
+it possible you may yet be happy; and that you will sometimes think
+with complacency of poor Du Pont, and not condemn him to the state of
+despondency, from which, my dear Emily, I am endeavouring to withdraw
+you.'
+
+'Ah! my dear sir,' said Emily, while her tears still fell, 'do not
+suffer the benevolence of your wishes to mislead Mons. Du Pont with
+an expectation that I can ever accept his hand. If I understand my own
+heart, this never can be; your instruction I can obey in almost every
+other particular, than that of adopting a contrary belief.'
+
+'Leave me to understand your heart,' replied the Count, with a faint
+smile. 'If you pay me the compliment to be guided by my advice in
+other instances, I will pardon your incredulity, respecting your future
+conduct towards Mons. Du Pont. I will not even press you to remain
+longer at the chateau than your own satisfaction will permit; but though
+I forbear to oppose your present retirement, I shall urge the claims of
+friendship for your future visits.'
+
+Tears of gratitude mingled with those of tender regret, while Emily
+thanked the Count for the many instances of friendship she had received
+from him; promised to be directed by his advice upon every subject but
+one, and assured him of the pleasure, with which she should, at some
+future period, accept the invitation of the Countess and himself--If
+Mons. Du Pont was not at the chateau.
+
+The Count smiled at this condition. 'Be it so,' said he, 'meanwhile the
+convent is so near the chateau, that my daughter and I shall often
+visit you; and if, sometimes, we should dare to bring you another
+visitor--will you forgive us?'
+
+Emily looked distressed, and remained silent.
+
+'Well,' rejoined the Count, 'I will pursue this subject no further, and
+must now entreat your forgiveness for having pressed it thus far. You
+will, however, do me the justice to believe, that I have been urged only
+by a sincere regard for your happiness, and that of my amiable friend
+Mons. Du Pont.'
+
+Emily, when she left the Count, went to mention her intended departure
+to the Countess, who opposed it with polite expressions of regret; after
+which, she sent a note to acquaint the lady abbess, that she should
+return to the convent; and thither she withdrew on the evening of the
+following day. M. Du Pont, in extreme regret, saw her depart, while the
+Count endeavoured to cheer him with a hope, that Emily would sometimes
+regard him with a more favourable eye.
+
+She was pleased to find herself once more in the tranquil retirement
+of the convent, where she experienced a renewal of all the maternal
+kindness of the abbess, and of the sisterly attentions of the nuns. A
+report of the late extraordinary occurrence at the chateau had already
+reached them, and, after supper, on the evening of her arrival, it
+was the subject of conversation in the convent parlour, where she was
+requested to mention some particulars of that unaccountable event. Emily
+was guarded in her conversation on this subject, and briefly related a
+few circumstances concerning Ludovico, whose disappearance, her auditors
+almost unanimously agreed, had been effected by supernatural means.
+
+'A belief had so long prevailed,' said a nun, who was called sister
+Frances, 'that the chateau was haunted, that I was surprised, when I
+heard the Count had the temerity to inhabit it. Its former possessor,
+I fear, had some deed of conscience to atone for; let us hope, that the
+virtues of its present owner will preserve him from the punishment due
+to the errors of the last, if, indeed, he was a criminal.'
+
+'Of what crime, then, was he suspected?' said a Mademoiselle Feydeau, a
+boarder at the convent.
+
+'Let us pray for his soul!' said a nun, who had till now sat in silent
+attention. 'If he was criminal, his punishment in this world was
+sufficient.'
+
+There was a mixture of wildness and solemnity in her manner of
+delivering this, which struck Emily exceedingly; but Mademoiselle
+repeated her question, without noticing the solemn eagerness of the nun.
+
+'I dare not presume to say what was his crime,' replied sister Frances;
+'but I have heard many reports of an extraordinary nature, respecting
+the late Marquis de Villeroi, and among others, that, soon after the
+death of his lady, he quitted Chateau-le-Blanc, and never afterwards
+returned to it. I was not here at the time, so I can only mention it
+from report, and so many years have passed since the Marchioness died,
+that few of our sisterhood, I believe, can do more.'
+
+'But I can,' said the nun, who had before spoke, and whom they called
+sister Agnes.
+
+'You then,' said Mademoiselle Feydeau, 'are possibly acquainted with
+circumstances, that enable you to judge, whether he was criminal or not,
+and what was the crime imputed to him.'
+
+'I am,' replied the nun; 'but who shall dare to scrutinize my
+thoughts--who shall dare to pluck out my opinion? God only is his judge,
+and to that judge he is gone!'
+
+Emily looked with surprise at sister Frances, who returned her a
+significant glance.
+
+'I only requested your opinion,' said Mademoiselle Feydeau, mildly; 'if
+the subject is displeasing to you, I will drop it.'
+
+'Displeasing!'--said the nun, with emphasis.--'We are idle talkers;
+we do not weigh the meaning of the words we use; DISPLEASING is a poor
+word. I will go pray.' As she said this she rose from her seat, and with
+a profound sigh quitted the room.
+
+'What can be the meaning of this?' said Emily, when she was gone.
+
+'It is nothing extraordinary,' replied sister Frances, 'she is often
+thus; but she had no meaning in what she says. Her intellects are at
+times deranged. Did you never see her thus before?'
+
+'Never,' said Emily. 'I have, indeed, sometimes, thought, that there was
+the melancholy of madness in her look, but never before perceived it in
+her speech. Poor soul, I will pray for her!'
+
+'Your prayers then, my daughter, will unite with ours,' observed the
+lady abbess, 'she has need of them.'
+
+'Dear lady,' said Mademoiselle Feydeau, addressing the abbess, 'what is
+your opinion of the late Marquis? The strange circumstances, that have
+occurred at the chateau, have so much awakened my curiosity, that I
+shall be pardoned the question. What was his imputed crime, and what the
+punishment, to which sister Agnes alluded?'
+
+'We must be cautious of advancing our opinion,' said the abbess, with
+an air of reserve, mingled with solemnity, 'we must be cautious of
+advancing our opinion on so delicate a subject. I will not take upon me
+to pronounce, that the late Marquis was criminal, or to say what was
+the crime of which he was suspected; but, concerning the punishment our
+daughter Agnes hinted, I know of none he suffered. She probably alluded
+to the severe one, which an exasperated conscience can inflict. Beware,
+my children, of incurring so terrible a punishment--it is the purgatory
+of this life! The late Marchioness I knew well; she was a pattern to
+such as live in the world; nay, our sacred order need not have blushed
+to copy her virtues! Our holy convent received her mortal part; her
+heavenly spirit, I doubt not, ascended to its sanctuary!'
+
+As the abbess spoke this, the last bell of vespers struck up, and
+she rose. 'Let us go, my children,' said she, 'and intercede for the
+wretched; let us go and confess our sins, and endeavour to purify our
+souls for the heaven, to which SHE is gone!'
+
+Emily was affected by the solemnity of this exhortation, and,
+remembering her father, 'The heaven, to which HE, too, is gone!' said
+she, faintly, as she suppressed her sighs, and followed the abbess and
+the nuns to the chapel.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd,
+ Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,
+ Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,
+
+ I will speak to thee.
+     HAMLET
+
+Count de Villefort, at length, received a letter from the advocate at
+Avignon, encouraging Emily to assert her claim to the estates of the
+late Madame Montoni; and, about the same time, a messenger arrived from
+Monsieur Quesnel with intelligence, that made an appeal to the law on
+this subject unnecessary, since it appeared, that the only person, who
+could have opposed her claim, was now no more. A friend of Monsieur
+Quesnel, who resided at Venice, had sent him an account of the death
+of Montoni who had been brought to trial with Orsino, as his supposed
+accomplice in the murder of the Venetian nobleman. Orsino was found
+guilty, condemned and executed upon the wheel, but, nothing being
+discovered to criminate Montoni, and his colleagues, on this charge,
+they were all released, except Montoni, who, being considered by the
+senate as a very dangerous person, was, for other reasons, ordered again
+into confinement, where, it was said, he had died in a doubtful and
+mysterious manner, and not without suspicion of having been poisoned.
+The authority, from which M. Quesnel had received this information,
+would not allow him to doubt its truth, and he told Emily, that she had
+now only to lay claim to the estates of her late aunt, to secure them,
+and added, that he would himself assist in the necessary forms of this
+business. The term, for which La Vallee had been let being now also
+nearly expired, he acquainted her with the circumstance, and advised her
+to take the road thither, through Tholouse, where he promised to meet
+her, and where it would be proper for her to take possession of the
+estates of the late Madame Montoni; adding, that he would spare her
+any difficulties, that might occur on that occasion from the want of
+knowledge on the subject, and that he believed it would be necessary for
+her to be at Tholouse, in about three weeks from the present time.
+
+An increase of fortune seemed to have awakened this sudden kindness in
+M. Quesnel towards his niece, and it appeared, that he entertained more
+respect for the rich heiress, than he had ever felt compassion for the
+poor and unfriended orphan.
+
+The pleasure, with which she received this intelligence, was clouded
+when she considered, that he, for whose sake she had once regretted
+the want of fortune, was no longer worthy of sharing it with her; but,
+remembering the friendly admonition of the Count, she checked this
+melancholy reflection, and endeavoured to feel only gratitude for
+the unexpected good, that now attended her; while it formed no
+inconsiderable part of her satisfaction to know, that La Vallee, her
+native home, which was endeared to her by it's having been the residence
+of her parents, would soon be restored to her possession. There she
+meant to fix her future residence, for, though it could not be compared
+with the chateau at Tholouse, either for extent, or magnificence, its
+pleasant scenes and the tender remembrances, that haunted them, had
+claims upon her heart, which she was not inclined to sacrifice to
+ostentation. She wrote immediately to thank M. Quesnel for the active
+interest he took in her concerns, and to say, that she would meet him at
+Tholouse at the appointed time.
+
+When Count de Villefort, with Blanche, came to the convent to give
+Emily the advice of the advocate, he was informed of the contents of
+M. Quesnel's letter, and gave her his sincere congratulations, on
+the occasion; but she observed, that, when the first expression
+of satisfaction had faded from his countenance, an unusual gravity
+succeeded, and she scarcely hesitated to enquire its cause.
+
+'It has no new occasion,' replied the Count; 'I am harassed and
+perplexed by the confusion, into which my family is thrown by their
+foolish superstition. Idle reports are floating round me, which I can
+neither admit to be true, or prove to be false; and I am, also, very
+anxious about the poor fellow, Ludovico, concerning whom I have not been
+able to obtain information. Every part of the chateau and every part of
+the neighbourhood, too, has, I believe, been searched, and I know not
+what further can be done, since I have already offered large rewards
+for the discovery of him. The keys of the north apartment I have not
+suffered to be out of my possession, since he disappeared, and I mean to
+watch in those chambers, myself, this very night.'
+
+Emily, seriously alarmed for the Count, united her entreaties with those
+of the Lady Blanche, to dissuade him from his purpose.
+
+'What should I fear?' said he. 'I have no faith in supernatural combats,
+and for human opposition I shall be prepared; nay, I will even promise
+not to watch alone.'
+
+'But who, dear sir, will have courage enough to watch with you?' said
+Emily.
+
+'My son,' replied the Count. 'If I am not carried off in the night,'
+added he, smiling, 'you shall hear the result of my adventure,
+tomorrow.'
+
+The Count and Lady Blanche, shortly afterwards, took leave of Emily, and
+returned to the chateau, where he informed Henri of his intention, who,
+not without some secret reluctance, consented to be the partner of his
+watch; and, when the design was mentioned after supper, the Countess was
+terrified, and the Baron, and M. Du Pont joined with her in entreating,
+that he would not tempt his fate, as Ludovico had done. 'We know not,'
+added the Baron, 'the nature, or the power of an evil spirit; and
+that such a spirit haunts those chambers can now, I think, scarcely be
+doubted. Beware, my lord, how you provoke its vengeance, since it has
+already given us one terrible example of its malice. I allow it may be
+probable, that the spirits of the dead are permitted to return to the
+earth only on occasions of high import; but the present import may be
+your destruction.'
+
+The Count could not forbear smiling; 'Do you think then, Baron,' said
+he, 'that my destruction is of sufficient importance to draw back
+to earth the soul of the departed? Alas! my good friend, there is no
+occasion for such means to accomplish the destruction of any individual.
+Wherever the mystery rests, I trust I shall, this night, be able to
+detect it. You know I am not superstitious.'
+
+'I know that you are incredulous,' interrupted the Baron.
+
+'Well, call it what you will, I mean to say, that, though you know I am
+free from superstition--if any thing supernatural has appeared, I doubt
+not it will appear to me, and if any strange event hangs over my house,
+or if any extraordinary transaction has formerly been connected with it,
+I shall probably be made acquainted with it. At all events I will invite
+discovery; and, that I may be equal to a mortal attack, which in good
+truth, my friend, is what I most expect, I shall take care to be well
+armed.'
+
+The Count took leave of his family, for the night, with an assumed
+gaiety, which but ill concealed the anxiety, that depressed his spirits,
+and retired to the north apartments, accompanied by his son and followed
+by the Baron, M. Du Pont and some of the domestics, who all bade him
+good night at the outer door. In these chambers every thing appeared
+as when he had last been here; even in the bed-room no alteration was
+visible, where he lighted his own fire, for none of the domestics could
+be prevailed upon to venture thither. After carefully examining the
+chamber and the oriel, the Count and Henri drew their chairs upon the
+hearth, set a bottle of wine and a lamp before them, laid their swords
+upon the table, and, stirring the wood into a blaze, began to converse
+on indifferent topics. But Henri was often silent and abstracted, and
+sometimes threw a glance of mingled awe and curiosity round the gloomy
+apartment; while the Count gradually ceased to converse, and sat either
+lost in thought, or reading a volume of Tacitus, which he had brought to
+beguile the tediousness of the night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+ Give thy thoughts no tongue.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+The Baron St. Foix, whom anxiety for his friend had kept awake, rose
+early to enquire the event of the night, when, as he passed the Count's
+closet, hearing steps within, he knocked at the door, and it was opened
+by his friend himself. Rejoicing to see him in safety, and curious to
+learn the occurrences of the night, he had not immediately leisure to
+observe the unusual gravity, that overspread the features of the Count,
+whose reserved answers first occasioned him to notice it. The Count,
+then smiling, endeavoured to treat the subject of his curiosity with
+levity, but the Baron was serious, and pursued his enquiries so closely,
+that the Count, at length, resuming his gravity, said, 'Well, my friend,
+press the subject no further, I entreat you; and let me request
+also, that you will hereafter be silent upon any thing you may think
+extraordinary in my future conduct. I do not scruple to tell you, that I
+am unhappy, and that the watch of the last night has not assisted me to
+discover Ludovico; upon every occurrence of the night you must excuse my
+reserve.'
+
+'But where is Henri?' said the Baron, with surprise and disappointment
+at this denial.
+
+'He is well in his own apartment,' replied the Count. 'You will not
+question him on this topic, my friend, since you know my wish.'
+
+'Certainly not,' said the Baron, somewhat chagrined, 'since it would
+be displeasing to you; but methinks, my friend, you might rely on my
+discretion, and drop this unusual reserve. However, you must allow me to
+suspect, that you have seen reason to become a convert to my system, and
+are no longer the incredulous knight you lately appeared to be.'
+
+'Let us talk no more upon this subject,' said the Count; 'you may be
+assured, that no ordinary circumstance has imposed this silence upon me
+towards a friend, whom I have called so for near thirty years; and
+my present reserve cannot make you question either my esteem, or the
+sincerity of my friendship.'
+
+'I will not doubt either,' said the Baron, 'though you must allow me to
+express my surprise, at this silence.'
+
+'To me I will allow it,' replied the Count, 'but I earnestly entreat
+that you will forbear to notice it to my family, as well as every thing
+remarkable you may observe in my conduct towards them.'
+
+The Baron readily promised this, and, after conversing for some time on
+general topics, they descended to the breakfast-room, where the Count
+met his family with a cheerful countenance, and evaded their enquiries
+by employing light ridicule, and assuming an air of uncommon gaiety,
+while he assured them, that they need not apprehend any evil from the
+north chambers, since Henri and himself had been permitted to return
+from them in safety.
+
+Henri, however, was less successful in disguising his feelings. From his
+countenance an expression of terror was not entirely faded; he was
+often silent and thoughtful, and when he attempted to laugh at the eager
+enquiries of Mademoiselle Bearn, it was evidently only an attempt.
+
+In the evening, the Count called, as he had promised, at the convent,
+and Emily was surprised to perceive a mixture of playful ridicule and
+of reserve in his mention of the north apartment. Of what had occurred
+there, however, he said nothing, and, when she ventured to remind him
+of his promise to tell her the result of his enquiries, and to ask if
+he had received any proof, that those chambers were haunted, his look
+became solemn, for a moment, then, seeming to recollect himself, he
+smiled, and said, 'My dear Emily, do not suffer my lady abbess to infect
+your good understanding with these fancies; she will teach you to expect
+a ghost in every dark room. But believe me,' added he, with a profound
+sigh, 'the apparition of the dead comes not on light, or sportive
+errands, to terrify, or to surprise the timid.' He paused, and fell into
+a momentary thoughtfulness, and then added, 'We will say no more on this
+subject.'
+
+Soon after, he took leave, and, when Emily joined some of the nuns, she
+was surprised to find them acquainted with a circumstance, which she
+had carefully avoided to mention, and expressing their admiration of
+his intrepidity in having dared to pass a night in the apartment, whence
+Ludovico had disappeared; for she had not considered with what rapidity
+a tale of wonder circulates. The nuns had acquired their information
+from peasants, who brought fruit to the monastery, and whose whole
+attention had been fixed, since the disappearance of Ludovico, on what
+was passing in the castle.
+
+Emily listened in silence to the various opinions of the nuns,
+concerning the conduct of the Count, most of whom condemned it as rash
+and presumptuous, affirming, that it was provoking the vengeance of an
+evil spirit, thus to intrude upon its haunts.
+
+Sister Frances contended, that the Count had acted with the bravery of a
+virtuous mind. He knew himself guiltless of aught, that should provoke a
+good spirit, and did not fear the spells of an evil one, since he could
+claim the protection of an higher Power, of Him, who can command the
+wicked, and will protect the innocent.
+
+'The guilty cannot claim that protection!' said sister Agnes, 'let the
+Count look to his conduct, that he do not forfeit his claim! Yet who is
+he, that shall dare to call himself innocent!--all earthly innocence is
+but comparative. Yet still how wide asunder are the extremes of guilt,
+and to what an horrible depth may we fall! Oh!'--
+
+The nun, as she concluded, uttered a shuddering sigh, that startled
+Emily, who, looking up, perceived the eyes of Agnes fixed on hers,
+after which the sister rose, took her hand, gazed earnestly upon her
+countenance, for some moments, in silence, and then said,
+
+'You are young--you are innocent! I mean you are yet innocent of any
+great crime!--But you have passions in your heart,--scorpions; they
+sleep now--beware how you awaken them!--they will sting you, even unto
+death!'
+
+Emily, affected by these words and by the solemnity, with which they
+were delivered, could not suppress her tears.
+
+'Ah! is it so?' exclaimed Agnes, her countenance softening from its
+sternness--'so young, and so unfortunate! We are sisters, then indeed.
+Yet, there is no bond of kindness among the guilty,' she added, while
+her eyes resumed their wild expression, 'no gentleness,--no peace, no
+hope! I knew them all once--my eyes could weep--but now they burn, for
+now, my soul is fixed, and fearless!--I lament no more!'
+
+'Rather let us repent, and pray,' said another nun. 'We are taught to
+hope, that prayer and penitence will work our salvation. There is hope
+for all who repent!'
+
+'Who repent and turn to the true faith,' observed sister Frances.
+
+'For all but me!' replied Agnes solemnly, who paused, and then abruptly
+added, 'My head burns, I believe I am not well. O! could I strike from
+my memory all former scenes--the figures, that rise up, like furies, to
+torment me!--I see them, when I sleep, and, when I am awake, they are
+still before my eyes! I see them now--now!'
+
+She stood in a fixed attitude of horror, her straining eyes moving
+slowly round the room, as if they followed something. One of the nuns
+gently took her hand, to lead her from the parlour. Agnes became calm,
+drew her other hand across her eyes, looked again, and, sighing deeply,
+said, 'They are gone--they are gone! I am feverish, I know not what I
+say. I am thus, sometimes, but it will go off again, I shall soon be
+better. Was not that the vesper-bell?'
+
+'No,' replied Frances, 'the evening service is passed. Let Margaret lead
+you to your cell.'
+
+'You are right,' replied sister Agnes, 'I shall be better there. Good
+night, my sisters, remember me in your orisons.'
+
+When they had withdrawn, Frances, observing Emily's emotion, said, 'Do
+not be alarmed, our sister is often thus deranged, though I have not
+lately seen her so frantic; her usual mood is melancholy. This fit has
+been coming on, for several days; seclusion and the customary treatment
+will restore her.'
+
+'But how rationally she conversed, at first!' observed Emily, 'her ideas
+followed each other in perfect order.'
+
+'Yes,' replied the nun, 'this is nothing new; nay, I have sometimes
+known her argue not only with method, but with acuteness, and then, in a
+moment, start off into madness.'
+
+'Her conscience seems afflicted,' said Emily, 'did you ever hear what
+circumstance reduced her to this deplorable condition?'
+
+'I have,' replied the nun, who said no more till Emily repeated the
+question, when she added in a low voice, and looking significantly
+towards the other boarders, 'I cannot tell you now, but, if you think it
+worth your while, come to my cell, to-night, when our sisterhood are at
+rest, and you shall hear more; but remember we rise to midnight prayers,
+and come either before, or after midnight.'
+
+Emily promised to remember, and, the abbess soon after appearing, they
+spoke no more of the unhappy nun.
+
+The Count meanwhile, on his return home, had found M. Du Pont in one
+of those fits of despondency, which his attachment to Emily frequently
+occasioned him, an attachment, that had subsisted too long to be easily
+subdued, and which had already outlived the opposition of his friends.
+M. Du Pont had first seen Emily in Gascony, during the lifetime of his
+parent, who, on discovering his son's partiality for Mademoiselle St.
+Aubert, his inferior in point of fortune, forbade him to declare it to
+her family, or to think of her more. During the life of his father, he
+had observed the first command, but had found it impracticable to obey
+the second, and had, sometimes, soothed his passion by visiting her
+favourite haunts, among which was the fishing-house, where, once or
+twice, he addressed her in verse, concealing his name, in obedience to
+the promise he had given his father. There too he played the pathetic
+air, to which she had listened with such surprise and admiration; and
+there he found the miniature, that had since cherished a passion fatal
+to his repose. During his expedition into Italy, his father died; but
+he received his liberty at a moment, when he was the least enabled to
+profit by it, since the object, that rendered it most valuable, was
+no longer within the reach of his vows. By what accident he discovered
+Emily, and assisted to release her from a terrible imprisonment, has
+already appeared, and also the unavailing hope, with which he then
+encouraged his love, and the fruitless efforts, that he had since made
+to overcome it.
+
+The Count still endeavoured, with friendly zeal, to sooth him with a
+belief, that patience, perseverance and prudence would finally obtain
+for him happiness and Emily: 'Time,' said he, 'will wear away the
+melancholy impression, which disappointment has left on her mind, and
+she will be sensible of your merit. Your services have already awakened
+her gratitude, and your sufferings her pity; and trust me, my friend, in
+a heart so sensible as hers, gratitude and pity lead to love. When
+her imagination is rescued from its present delusion, she will readily
+accept the homage of a mind like yours.'
+
+Du Pont sighed, while he listened to these words; and, endeavouring to
+hope what his friend believed, he willingly yielded to an invitation to
+prolong his visit at the chateau, which we now leave for the monastery
+of St. Claire.
+
+When the nuns had retired to rest, Emily stole to her appointment with
+sister Frances, whom she found in her cell, engaged in prayer, before a
+little table, where appeared the image she was addressing, and, above,
+the dim lamp that gave light to the place. Turning her eyes, as the door
+opened, she beckoned to Emily to come in, who, having done so, seated
+herself in silence beside the nun's little mattress of straw, till
+her orisons should conclude. The latter soon rose from her knees, and,
+taking down the lamp and placing it on the table, Emily perceived
+there a human scull and bones, lying beside an hour-glass; but the nun,
+without observing her emotion, sat down on the mattress by her, saying,
+'Your curiosity, sister, has made you punctual, but you have nothing
+remarkable to hear in the history of poor Agnes, of whom I avoided
+to speak in the presence of my lay-sisters, only because I would not
+publish her crime to them.'
+
+'I shall consider your confidence in me as a favour,' said Emily, 'and
+will not misuse it.'
+
+'Sister Agnes,' resumed the nun, 'is of a noble family, as the dignity
+of her air must already have informed you, but I will not dishonour
+their name so much as to reveal it. Love was the occasion of her crime
+and of her madness. She was beloved by a gentleman of inferior fortune,
+and her father, as I have heard, bestowing her on a nobleman, whom
+she disliked, an ill-governed passion proved her destruction.--Every
+obligation of virtue and of duty was forgotten, and she prophaned her
+marriage vows; but her guilt was soon detected, and she would have
+fallen a sacrifice to the vengeance of her husband, had not her father
+contrived to convey her from his power. By what means he did this,
+I never could learn; but he secreted her in this convent, where he
+afterwards prevailed with her to take the veil, while a report was
+circulated in the world, that she was dead, and the father, to save his
+daughter, assisted the rumour, and employed such means as induced her
+husband to believe she had become a victim to his jealousy. You look
+surprised,' added the nun, observing Emily's countenance; 'I allow the
+story is uncommon, but not, I believe, without a parallel.'
+
+'Pray proceed,' said Emily, 'I am interested.'
+
+'The story is already told,' resumed the nun, 'I have only to mention,
+that the long struggle, which Agnes suffered, between love, remorse
+and a sense of the duties she had taken upon herself in becoming of our
+order, at length unsettled her reason. At first, she was frantic and
+melancholy by quick alternatives; then, she sunk into a deep and settled
+melancholy, which still, however, has, at times, been interrupted by
+fits of wildness, and, of late, these have again been frequent.'
+
+Emily was affected by the history of the sister, some parts of whose
+story brought to her remembrance that of the Marchioness de Villeroi,
+who had also been compelled by her father to forsake the object of her
+affections, for a nobleman of his choice; but, from what Dorothee had
+related, there appeared no reason to suppose, that she had escaped the
+vengeance of a jealous husband, or to doubt for a moment the innocence
+of her conduct. But Emily, while she sighed over the misery of the
+nun, could not forbear shedding a few tears to the misfortunes of the
+Marchioness; and, when she returned to the mention of sister Agnes, she
+asked Frances if she remembered her in her youth, and whether she was
+then beautiful.
+
+'I was not here at the time, when she took the vows,' replied Frances,
+'which is so long ago, that few of the present sisterhood, I believe,
+were witnesses of the ceremony; nay, ever our lady mother did not then
+preside over the convent: but I can remember, when sister Agnes was a
+very beautiful woman. She retains that air of high rank, which always
+distinguished her, but her beauty, you must perceive, is fled; I can
+scarcely discover even a vestige of the loveliness, that once animated
+her features.'
+
+'It is strange,' said Emily, 'but there are moments, when her
+countenance has appeared familiar to my memory! You will think me
+fanciful, and I think myself so, for I certainly never saw sister Agnes,
+before I came to this convent, and I must, therefore, have seen
+some person, whom she strongly resembles, though of this I have no
+recollection.'
+
+'You have been interested by the deep melancholy of her countenance,'
+said Frances, 'and its impression has probably deluded your imagination;
+for I might as reasonably think I perceive a likeness between you and
+Agnes, as you, that you have seen her any where but in this convent,
+since this has been her place of refuge, for nearly as many years as
+make your age.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Emily.
+
+'Yes,' rejoined Frances, 'and why does that circumstance excite your
+surprise?'
+
+Emily did not appear to notice this question, but remained thoughtful,
+for a few moments, and then said, 'It was about that same period that
+the Marchioness de Villeroi expired.'
+
+'That is an odd remark,' said Frances.
+
+Emily, recalled from her reverie, smiled, and gave the conversation
+another turn, but it soon came back to the subject of the unhappy nun,
+and Emily remained in the cell of sister Frances, till the mid-night
+bell aroused her; when, apologizing for having interrupted the sister's
+repose, till this late hour, they quitted the cell together. Emily
+returned to her chamber, and the nun, bearing a glimmering taper, went
+to her devotion in the chapel.
+
+Several days followed, during which Emily saw neither the Count, or any
+of his family; and, when, at length, he appeared, she remarked, with
+concern, that his air was unusually disturbed.
+
+'My spirits are harassed,' said he, in answer to her anxious enquiries,
+'and I mean to change my residence, for a little while, an experiment,
+which, I hope, will restore my mind to its usual tranquillity. My
+daughter and myself will accompany the Baron St. Foix to his chateau. It
+lies in a valley of the Pyrenees, that opens towards Gascony, and I have
+been thinking, Emily, that, when you set out for La Vallee, we may go
+part of the way together; it would be a satisfaction to me to guard you
+towards your home.'
+
+She thanked the Count for his friendly consideration, and lamented, that
+the necessity for her going first to Tholouse would render this plan
+impracticable. 'But, when you are at the Baron's residence,' she added,
+'you will be only a short journey from La Vallee, and I think, sir, you
+will not leave the country without visiting me; it is unnecessary to say
+with what pleasure I should receive you and the Lady Blanche.'
+
+'I do not doubt it,' replied the Count, 'and I will not deny myself and
+Blanche the pleasure of visiting you, if your affairs should allow you
+to be at La Vallee, about the time when we can meet you there.'
+
+When Emily said that she should hope to see the Countess also, she was
+not sorry to learn that this lady was going, accompanied by Mademoiselle
+Bearn, to pay a visit, for a few weeks, to a family in lower Languedoc.
+
+The Count, after some further conversation on his intended journey and
+on the arrangement of Emily's, took leave; and many days did not succeed
+this visit, before a second letter from M. Quesnel informed her, that he
+was then at Tholouse, that La Vallee was at liberty, and that he wished
+her to set off for the former place, where he awaited her arrival, with
+all possible dispatch, since his own affairs pressed him to return
+to Gascony. Emily did not hesitate to obey him, and, having taken an
+affecting leave of the Count's family, in which M. Du Pont was still
+included, and of her friends at the convent, she set out for Tholouse,
+attended by the unhappy Annette, and guarded by a steady servant of the
+Count.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+ Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain,
+ Our thoughts are link'd by many a hidden chain:
+ Awake but one, and lo! what myriads rise!
+ Each stamps its image as the other flies!
+     PLEASURES OF MEMORY
+
+Emily pursued her journey, without any accident, along the plains of
+Languedoc towards the north-west; and, on this her return to Tholouse,
+which she had last left with Madame Montoni, she thought much on the
+melancholy fate of her aunt, who, but for her own imprudence, might now
+have been living in happiness there! Montoni, too, often rose to her
+fancy, such as she had seen him in his days of triumph, bold, spirited
+and commanding; such also as she had since beheld him in his days of
+vengeance; and now, only a few short months had passed--and he had
+no longer the power, or the will to afflict;--he had become a clod of
+earth, and his life was vanished like a shadow! Emily could have wept at
+his fate, had she not remembered his crimes; for that of her unfortunate
+aunt she did weep, and all sense of her errors was overcome by the
+recollection of her misfortunes.
+
+Other thoughts and other emotions succeeded, as Emily drew near the
+well-known scenes of her early love, and considered, that Valancourt was
+lost to her and to himself, for ever. At length, she came to the brow of
+the hill, whence, on her departure for Italy, she had given a farewell
+look to this beloved landscape, amongst whose woods and fields she had
+so often walked with Valancourt, and where he was then to inhabit,
+when she would be far, far away! She saw, once more, that chain of the
+Pyrenees, which overlooked La Vallee, rising, like faint clouds, on the
+horizon. 'There, too, is Gascony, extended at their feet!' said she,
+'O my father,--my mother! And there, too, is the Garonne!' she added,
+drying the tears, that obscured her sight,--'and Tholouse, and my aunt's
+mansion--and the groves in her garden!--O my friends! are ye all lost
+to me--must I never, never see ye more!' Tears rushed again to her eyes,
+and she continued to weep, till an abrupt turn in the road had nearly
+occasioned the carriage to overset, when, looking up, she perceived
+another part of the well-known scene around Tholouse, and all the
+reflections and anticipations, which she had suffered, at the moment,
+when she bade it last adieu, came with recollected force to her heart.
+She remembered how anxiously she had looked forward to the futurity,
+which was to decide her happiness concerning Valancourt, and what
+depressing fears had assailed her; the very words she had uttered, as
+she withdrew her last look from the prospect, came to her memory. 'Could
+I but be certain,' she had then said, 'that I should ever return, and
+that Valancourt would still live for me--I should go in peace!'
+
+Now, that futurity, so anxiously anticipated, was arrived, she was
+returned--but what a dreary blank appeared!--Valancourt no longer
+lived for her! She had no longer even the melancholy satisfaction of
+contemplating his image in her heart, for he was no longer the same
+Valancourt she had cherished there--the solace of many a mournful
+hour, the animating friend, that had enabled her to bear up against the
+oppression of Montoni--the distant hope, that had beamed over her gloomy
+prospect! On perceiving this beloved idea to be an illusion of her own
+creation, Valancourt seemed to be annihilated, and her soul sickened at
+the blank, that remained. His marriage with a rival, even his death, she
+thought she could have endured with more fortitude, than this discovery;
+for then, amidst all her grief, she could have looked in secret upon the
+image of goodness, which her fancy had drawn of him, and comfort would
+have mingled with her suffering!
+
+Drying her tears, she looked, once more, upon the landscape, which had
+excited them, and perceived, that she was passing the very bank, where
+she had taken leave of Valancourt, on the morning of her departure from
+Tholouse, and she now saw him, through her returning tears, such as
+he had appeared, when she looked from the carriage to give him a last
+adieu--saw him leaning mournfully against the high trees, and remembered
+the fixed look of mingled tenderness and anguish, with which he had then
+regarded her. This recollection was too much for her heart, and she sunk
+back in the carriage, nor once looked up, till it stopped at the gates
+of what was now her own mansion.
+
+These being opened, and by the servant, to whose care the chateau had
+been entrusted, the carriage drove into the court, where, alighting,
+she hastily passed through the great hall, now silent and solitary, to
+a large oak parlour, the common sitting room of the late Madame Montoni,
+where, instead of being received by M. Quesnel, she found a letter from
+him, informing her that business of consequence had obliged him to leave
+Tholouse two days before. Emily was, upon the whole, not sorry to be
+spared his presence, since his abrupt departure appeared to indicate the
+same indifference, with which he had formerly regarded her. This letter
+informed her, also, of the progress he had made in the settlement of
+her affairs, and concluded with directions, concerning the forms of
+some business, which remained for her to transact. But M. Quesnel's
+unkindness did not long occupy her thoughts, which returned the
+remembrance of the persons she had been accustomed to see in this
+mansion, and chiefly of the ill-guided and unfortunate Madame Montoni.
+In the room, where she now sat, she had breakfasted with her on the
+morning of their departure for Italy; and the view of it brought most
+forcibly to her recollection all she had herself suffered, at that time,
+and the many gay expectations, which her aunt had formed, respecting
+the journey before her. While Emily's mind was thus engaged, her eyes
+wandered unconsciously to a large window, that looked upon the garden,
+and here new memorials of the past spoke to her heart, for she saw
+extended before her the very avenue, in which she had parted with
+Valancourt, on the eve of her journey; and all the anxiety, the tender
+interest he had shewn, concerning her future happiness, his earnest
+remonstrances against her committing herself to the power of Montoni,
+and the truth of his affection, came afresh to her memory. At this
+moment, it appeared almost impossible, that Valancourt could have become
+unworthy of her regard, and she doubted all that she had lately heard to
+his disadvantage, and even his own words, which had confirmed Count De
+Villefort's report of him. Overcome by the recollections, which the view
+of this avenue occasioned, she turned abruptly from the window, and
+sunk into a chair beside it, where she sat, given up to grief, till the
+entrance of Annette, with coffee, aroused her.
+
+'Dear madam, how melancholy this place looks now,' said Annette, 'to
+what it used to do! It is dismal coming home, when there is nobody to
+welcome one!'
+
+This was not the moment, in which Emily could bear the remark; her tears
+fell again, and, as soon as she had taken the coffee, she retired to
+her apartment, where she endeavoured to repose her fatigued spirits. But
+busy memory would still supply her with the visions of former times: she
+saw Valancourt interesting and benevolent, as he had been wont to appear
+in the days of their early love, and, amidst the scenes, where she had
+believed that they should sometimes pass their years together!--but, at
+length, sleep closed these afflicting scenes from her view.
+
+On the following morning, serious occupation recovered her from such
+melancholy reflections; for, being desirous of quitting Tholouse, and of
+hastening on to La Vallee, she made some enquiries into the condition of
+the estate, and immediately dispatched a part of the necessary business
+concerning it, according to the directions of Mons. Quesnel. It
+required a strong effort to abstract her thoughts from other interests
+sufficiently to attend to this, but she was rewarded for her exertions
+by again experiencing, that employment is the surest antidote to sorrow.
+
+This day was devoted entirely to business; and, among other concerns,
+she employed means to learn the situation of all her poor tenants, that
+she might relieve their wants, or confirm their comforts.
+
+In the evening, her spirits were so much strengthened, that she thought
+she could bear to visit the gardens, where she had so often walked with
+Valancourt; and, knowing, that, if she delayed to do so, their scenes
+would only affect her the more, whenever they should be viewed, she took
+advantage of the present state of her mind, and entered them.
+
+Passing hastily the gate leading from the court into the gardens, she
+hurried up the great avenue, scarcely permitting her memory to dwell for
+a moment on the circumstance of her having here parted with Valancourt,
+and soon quitted this for other walks less interesting to her heart.
+These brought her, at length, to the flight of steps, that led from the
+lower garden to the terrace, on seeing which, she became agitated,
+and hesitated whether to ascend, but, her resolution returning, she
+proceeded.
+
+'Ah!' said Emily, as she ascended, 'these are the same high trees, that
+used to wave over the terrace, and these the same flowery thickets--the
+liburnum, the wild rose, and the cerinthe--which were wont to grow
+beneath them! Ah! and there, too, on that bank, are the very plants,
+which Valancourt so carefully reared!--O, when last I saw them!'--she
+checked the thought, but could not restrain her tears, and, after
+walking slowly on for a few moments, her agitation, upon the view of
+this well-known scene, increased so much, that she was obliged to stop,
+and lean upon the wall of the terrace. It was a mild, and beautiful
+evening. The sun was setting over the extensive landscape, to which his
+beams, sloping from beneath a dark cloud, that overhung the west,
+gave rich and partial colouring, and touched the tufted summits of the
+groves, that rose from the garden below, with a yellow gleam. Emily and
+Valancourt had often admired together this scene, at the same hour; and
+it was exactly on this spot, that, on the night preceding her departure
+for Italy, she had listened to his remonstrances against the journey,
+and to the pleadings of passionate affection. Some observations, which
+she made on the landscape, brought this to her remembrance, and with it
+all the minute particulars of that conversation;--the alarming doubts he
+had expressed concerning Montoni, doubts, which had since been fatally
+confirmed; the reasons and entreaties he had employed to prevail with
+her to consent to an immediate marriage; the tenderness of his love,
+the paroxysms of this grief, and the conviction that he had repeatedly
+expressed, that they should never meet again in happiness! All these
+circumstances rose afresh to her mind, and awakened the various emotions
+she had then suffered. Her tenderness for Valancourt became as powerful
+as in the moments, when she thought, that she was parting with him and
+happiness together, and when the strength of her mind had enabled her to
+triumph over present suffering, rather than to deserve the reproach
+of her conscience by engaging in a clandestine marriage.--'Alas!' said
+Emily, as these recollections came to her mind, 'and what have I gained
+by the fortitude I then practised?--am I happy now?--He said, we should
+meet no more in happiness; but, O! he little thought his own misconduct
+would separate us, and lead to the very evil he then dreaded!'
+
+Her reflections increased her anguish, while she was compelled to
+acknowledge, that the fortitude she had formerly exerted, if it had
+not conducted her to happiness, had saved her from irretrievable
+misfortune--from Valancourt himself! But in these moments she could not
+congratulate herself on the prudence, that had saved her; she could only
+lament, with bitterest anguish, the circumstances, which had conspired
+to betray Valancourt into a course of life so different from that,
+which the virtues, the tastes, and the pursuits of his early years had
+promised; but she still loved him too well to believe, that his
+heart was even now depraved, though his conduct had been criminal. An
+observation, which had fallen from M. St. Aubert more than once, now
+occurred to her. 'This young man,' said he, speaking of Valancourt, 'has
+never been at Paris;' a remark, that had surprised her at the time
+it was uttered, but which she now understood, and she exclaimed
+sorrowfully, 'O Valancourt! if such a friend as my father had been with
+you at Paris--your noble, ingenuous nature would not have fallen!'
+
+The sun was now set, and, recalling her thoughts from their melancholy
+subject, she continued her walk; for the pensive shade of twilight was
+pleasing to her, and the nightingales from the surrounding groves began
+to answer each other in the long-drawn, plaintive note, which always
+touched her heart; while all the fragrance of the flowery thickets, that
+bounded the terrace, was awakened by the cool evening air, which floated
+so lightly among their leaves, that they scarcely trembled as it passed.
+
+Emily came, at length, to the steps of the pavilion, that terminated
+the terrace, and where her last interview with Valancourt, before her
+departure from Tholouse, had so unexpectedly taken place. The door was
+now shut, and she trembled, while she hesitated whether to open it; but
+her wish to see again a place, which had been the chief scene of her
+former happiness, at length overcoming her reluctance to encounter the
+painful regret it would renew, she entered. The room was obscured by a
+melancholy shade; but through the open lattices, darkened by the
+hanging foliage of the vines, appeared the dusky landscape, the Garonne
+reflecting the evening light, and the west still glowing. A chair was
+placed near one of the balconies, as if some person had been sitting
+there, but the other furniture of the pavilion remained exactly as
+usual, and Emily thought it looked as if it had not once been moved
+since she set out for Italy. The silent and deserted air of the place
+added solemnity to her emotions, for she heard only the low whisper
+of the breeze, as it shook the leaves of the vines, and the very faint
+murmur of the Garonne.
+
+She seated herself in a chair, near the lattice, and yielded to the
+sadness of her heart, while she recollected the circumstances of her
+parting interview with Valancourt, on this spot. It was here too, that
+she had passed some of the happiest hours of her life with him, when
+her aunt favoured the connection, for here she had often sat and worked,
+while he conversed, or read; and she now well remembered with what
+discriminating judgment, with what tempered energy, he used to repeat
+some of the sublimest passages of their favourite authors; how often he
+would pause to admire with her their excellence, and with what tender
+delight he would listen to her remarks, and correct her taste.
+
+'And is it possible,' said Emily, as these recollections returned--'is
+it possible, that a mind, so susceptible of whatever is grand and
+beautiful, could stoop to low pursuits, and be subdued by frivolous
+temptations?'
+
+She remembered how often she had seen the sudden tear start in his eye,
+and had heard his voice tremble with emotion, while he related any great
+or benevolent action, or repeated a sentiment of the same character.
+'And such a mind,' said she, 'such a heart, were to be sacrificed to the
+habits of a great city!'
+
+These recollections becoming too painful to be endured, she abruptly
+left the pavilion, and, anxious to escape from the memorials of her
+departed happiness, returned towards the chateau. As she passed along
+the terrace, she perceived a person, walking, with a slow step, and a
+dejected air, under the trees, at some distance. The twilight, which
+was now deep, would not allow her to distinguish who it was, and she
+imagined it to be one of the servants, till, the sound of her steps
+seeming to reach him, he turned half round, and she thought she saw
+Valancourt!
+
+Whoever it was, he instantly struck among the thickets on the left, and
+disappeared, while Emily, her eyes fixed on the place, whence he
+had vanished, and her frame trembling so excessively, that she could
+scarcely support herself, remained, for some moments, unable to quit the
+spot, and scarcely conscious of existence. With her recollection, her
+strength returned, and she hurried toward the house, where she did not
+venture to enquire who had been in the gardens, lest she should betray
+her emotion; and she sat down alone, endeavouring to recollect the
+figure, air and features of the person she had just seen. Her view of
+him, however, had been so transient, and the gloom had rendered it
+so imperfect, that she could remember nothing with exactness; yet the
+general appearance of his figure, and his abrupt departure, made her
+still believe, that this person was Valancourt. Sometimes, indeed, she
+thought, that her fancy, which had been occupied by the idea of him,
+had suggested his image to her uncertain sight: but this conjecture was
+fleeting. If it was himself whom she had seen, she wondered much, that
+he should be at Tholouse, and more, how he had gained admittance into
+the garden; but as often as her impatience prompted her to enquire
+whether any stranger had been admitted, she was restrained by an
+unwillingness to betray her doubts; and the evening was passed in
+anxious conjecture, and in efforts to dismiss the subject from her
+thoughts. But, these endeavours were ineffectual, and a thousand
+inconsistent emotions assailed her, whenever she fancied that Valancourt
+might be near her; now, she dreaded it to be true, and now she feared it
+to be false; and, while she constantly tried to persuade herself, that
+she wished the person, whom she had seen, might not be Valancourt, her
+heart as constantly contradicted her reason.
+
+The following day was occupied by the visits of several neighbouring
+families, formerly intimate with Madame Montoni, who came to condole
+with Emily on her death, to congratulate her upon the acquisition of
+these estates, and to enquire about Montoni, and concerning the strange
+reports they had heard of her own situation; all which was done with the
+utmost decorum, and the visitors departed with as much composure as they
+had arrived.
+
+Emily was wearied by these formalities, and disgusted by the subservient
+manners of many persons, who had thought her scarcely worthy of common
+attention, while she was believed to be a dependant on Madame Montoni.
+
+'Surely,' said she, 'there is some magic in wealth, which can thus make
+persons pay their court to it, when it does not even benefit themselves.
+How strange it is, that a fool or a knave, with riches, should be
+treated with more respect by the world, than a good man, or a wise man
+in poverty!'
+
+It was evening, before she was left alone, and she then wished to have
+refreshed her spirits in the free air of her garden; but she feared to
+go thither, lest she should meet again the person, whom she had seen on
+the preceding night, and he should prove to be Valancourt. The suspense
+and anxiety she suffered, on this subject, she found all her efforts
+unable to controul, and her secret wish to see Valancourt once more,
+though unseen by him, powerfully prompted her to go, but prudence and
+a delicate pride restrained her, and she determined to avoid the
+possibility of throwing herself in his way, by forbearing to visit the
+gardens, for several days.
+
+When, after near a week, she again ventured thither, she made Annette
+her companion, and confined her walk to the lower grounds, but often
+started as the leaves rustled in the breeze, imagining, that some person
+was among the thickets; and, at the turn of every alley, she looked
+forward with apprehensive expectation. She pursued her walk thoughtfully
+and silently, for her agitation would not suffer her to converse with
+Annette, to whom, however, thought and silence were so intolerable, that
+she did not scruple at length to talk to her mistress.
+
+'Dear madam,' said she, 'why do you start so? one would think you knew
+what has happened.'
+
+'What has happened?' said Emily, in a faltering voice, and trying to
+command her emotion.
+
+'The night before last, you know, madam'--
+
+'I know nothing, Annette,' replied her lady in a more hurried voice.
+
+'The night before last, madam, there was a robber in the garden.'
+
+'A robber!' said Emily, in an eager, yet doubting tone.
+
+'I suppose he was a robber, madam. What else could he be?'
+
+'Where did you see him, Annette?' rejoined Emily, looking round her, and
+turning back towards the chateau.
+
+'It was not I that saw him, madam, it was Jean the gardener. It was
+twelve o'clock at night, and, as he was coming across the court to go
+the back way into the house, what should he see--but somebody walking in
+the avenue, that fronts the garden gate! So, with that, Jean guessed how
+it was, and he went into the house for his gun.'
+
+'His gun!' exclaimed Emily.
+
+'Yes, madam, his gun; and then he came out into the court to watch him.
+Presently, he sees him come slowly down the avenue, and lean over the
+garden gate, and look up at the house for a long time; and I warrant he
+examined it well, and settled what window he should break in at.'
+
+'But the gun,' said Emily--'the gun!'
+
+'Yes, madam, all in good time. Presently, Jean says, the robber opened
+the gate, and was coming into the court, and then he thought proper to
+ask him his business: so he called out again, and bade him say who he
+was, and what he wanted. But the man would do neither; but turned upon
+his heel, and passed into the garden again. Jean knew then well enough
+how it was, and so he fired after him.'
+
+'Fired!' exclaimed Emily.
+
+'Yes, madam, fired off his gun; but, Holy Virgin! what makes you look
+so pale, madam? The man was not killed,--I dare say; but if he was, his
+comrades carried him off: for, when Jean went in the morning, to look
+for the body, it was gone, and nothing to be seen but a track of blood
+on the ground. Jean followed it, that he might find out where the man
+got into the garden, but it was lost in the grass, and'--
+
+Annette was interrupted: for Emily's spirits died away, and she would
+have fallen to the ground, if the girl had not caught her, and supported
+her to a bench, close to them.
+
+When, after a long absence, her senses returned, Emily desired to be
+led to her apartment; and, though she trembled with anxiety to enquire
+further on the subject of her alarm, she found herself too ill at
+present, to dare the intelligence which it was possible she might
+receive of Valancourt. Having dismissed Annette, that she might weep
+and think at liberty, she endeavoured to recollect the exact air of the
+person, whom she had seen on the terrace, and still her fancy gave her
+the figure of Valancourt. She had, indeed, scarcely a doubt, that it was
+he whom she had seen, and at whom the gardener had fired: for the manner
+of the latter person, as described by Annette, was not that of a robber;
+nor did it appear probable, that a robber would have come alone, to
+break into a house so spacious as this.
+
+When Emily thought herself sufficiently recovered, to listen to what
+Jean might have to relate, she sent for him; but he could inform her of
+no circumstance, that might lead to a knowledge of the person, who
+had been shot, or of the consequence of the wound; and, after severely
+reprimanding him, for having fired with bullets, and ordering diligent
+enquiry to be made in the neighbourhood for the discovery of the wounded
+person, she dismissed him, and herself remained in the same state of
+terrible suspense. All the tenderness she had ever felt for Valancourt,
+was recalled by the sense of his danger; and the more she considered the
+subject, the more her conviction strengthened, that it was he, who
+had visited the gardens, for the purpose of soothing the misery of
+disappointed affection, amidst the scenes of his former happiness.
+
+'Dear madam,' said Annette, when she returned, 'I never saw you so
+affected before! I dare say the man is not killed.'
+
+Emily shuddered, and lamented bitterly the rashness of the gardener in
+having fired.
+
+'I knew you would be angry enough about that, madam, or I should have
+told you before; and he knew so too; for, says he, "Annette, say nothing
+about this to my lady. She lies on the other side of the house, so did
+not hear the gun, perhaps; but she would be angry with me, if she knew,
+seeing there is blood. But then," says he, "how is one to keep the
+garden clear, if one is afraid to fire at a robber, when one sees him?"'
+
+'No more of this,' said Emily, 'pray leave me.'
+
+Annette obeyed, and Emily returned to the agonizing considerations, that
+had assailed her before, but which she, at length, endeavoured to sooth
+by a new remark. If the stranger was Valancourt, it was certain he had
+come alone, and it appeared, therefore, that he had been able to quit
+the gardens, without assistance; a circumstance which did not seem
+probable, had his wound been dangerous. With this consideration, she
+endeavoured to support herself, during the enquiries, that were making
+by her servants in the neighbourhood; but day after day came, and still
+closed in uncertainty, concerning this affair: and Emily, suffering in
+silence, at length, drooped, and sunk under the pressure of her anxiety.
+She was attacked by a slow fever, and when she yielded to the persuasion
+of Annette to send for medical advice, the physicians prescribed little
+beside air, gentle exercise and amusement: but how was this last to be
+obtained? She, however, endeavoured to abstract her thoughts from the
+subject of her anxiety, by employing them in promoting that happiness in
+others, which she had lost herself; and, when the evening was fine, she
+usually took an airing, including in her ride the cottages of some of
+her tenants, on whose condition she made such observations, as often
+enabled her, unasked, to fulfil their wishes.
+
+Her indisposition and the business she engaged in, relative to this
+estate, had already protracted her stay at Tholouse, beyond the period
+she had formerly fixed for her departure to La Vallee; and now she
+was unwilling to leave the only place, where it seemed possible, that
+certainty could be obtained on the subject of her distress. But the time
+was come, when her presence was necessary at La Vallee, a letter from
+the Lady Blanche now informing her, that the Count and herself, being
+then at the chateau of the Baron St. Foix, purposed to visit her at La
+Vallee, on their way home, as soon as they should be informed of her
+arrival there. Blanche added, that they made this visit, with the hope
+of inducing her to return with them to Chateau-le-Blanc.
+
+Emily, having replied to the letter of her friend, and said that she
+should be at La Vallee in a few days, made hasty preparations for the
+journey; and, in thus leaving Tholouse, endeavoured to support herself
+with a belief, that, if any fatal accident had happened to Valancourt,
+she must in this interval have heard of it.
+
+On the evening before her departure, she went to take leave of the
+terrace and the pavilion. The day had been sultry, but a light shower,
+that fell just before sun-set, had cooled the air, and given that soft
+verdure to the woods and pastures, which is so refreshing to the eye;
+while the rain drops, still trembling on the shrubs, glittered in the
+last yellow gleam, that lighted up the scene, and the air was filled
+with fragrance, exhaled by the late shower, from herbs and flowers and
+from the earth itself. But the lovely prospect, which Emily beheld from
+the terrace, was no longer viewed by her with delight; she sighed deeply
+as her eye wandered over it, and her spirits were in a state of such
+dejection, that she could not think of her approaching return to La
+Vallee, without tears, and seemed to mourn again the death of her
+father, as if it had been an event of yesterday. Having reached the
+pavilion, she seated herself at the open lattice, and, while her
+eyes settled on the distant mountains, that overlooked Gascony, still
+gleaming on the horizon, though the sun had now left the plains below,
+'Alas!' said she, 'I return to your long-lost scenes, but shall meet
+no more the parents, that were wont to render them delightful!--no
+more shall see the smile of welcome, or hear the well-known voice of
+fondness:--all will now be cold and silent in what was once my happy
+home.'
+
+Tears stole down her cheek, as the remembrance of what that home had
+been, returned to her; but, after indulging her sorrow for some time,
+she checked it, accusing herself of ingratitude in forgetting the
+friends, that she possessed, while she lamented those that were
+departed; and she, at length, left the pavilion and the terrace, without
+having observed a shadow of Valancourt or of any other person.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+  Ah happy hills! ah pleasing shade!
+ Ah fields belov'd in vain!
+ Where once my careless childhood stray'd,
+ A stranger yet to pain!
+ I feel the gales, that from ye blow,
+ A momentary bliss bestow,
+ As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
+ My weary soul they seem to sooth.
+     GRAY
+
+On the following morning, Emily left Tholouse at an early hour, and
+reached La Vallee about sun-set. With the melancholy she experienced on
+the review of a place which had been the residence of her parents, and
+the scene of her earliest delight, was mingled, after the first shock
+had subsided, a tender and undescribable pleasure. For time had so far
+blunted the acuteness of her grief, that she now courted every scene,
+that awakened the memory of her friends; in every room, where she had
+been accustomed to see them, they almost seemed to live again; and
+she felt that La Vallee was still her happiest home. One of the first
+apartments she visited, was that, which had been her father's
+library, and here she seated herself in his arm-chair, and, while she
+contemplated, with tempered resignation, the picture of past times,
+which her memory gave, the tears she shed could scarcely be called those
+of grief.
+
+Soon after her arrival, she was surprised by a visit from the venerable
+M. Barreaux, who came impatiently to welcome the daughter of his late
+respected neighbour, to her long-deserted home. Emily was comforted by
+the presence of an old friend, and they passed an interesting hour in
+conversing of former times, and in relating some of the circumstances,
+that had occurred to each, since they parted.
+
+The evening was so far advanced, when M. Barreaux left Emily, that she
+could not visit the garden that night; but, on the following morning,
+she traced its long-regretted scenes with fond impatience; and, as she
+walked beneath the groves, which her father had planted, and where
+she had so often sauntered in affectionate conversation with him, his
+countenance, his smile, even the accents of his voice, returned
+with exactness to her fancy, and her heart melted to the tender
+recollections.
+
+This, too, was his favourite season of the year, at which they had often
+together admired the rich and variegated tints of these woods and the
+magical effect of autumnal lights upon the mountains; and now, the view
+of these circumstances made memory eloquent. As she wandered pensively
+on, she fancied the following address
+
+ TO AUTUMN
+
+ Sweet Autumn! how thy melancholy grace
+ Steals on my heart, as through these shades I wind!
+ Sooth'd by thy breathing sigh, I fondly trace
+ Each lonely image of the pensive mind!
+ Lov'd scenes, lov'd friends--long lost! around me rise,
+ And wake the melting thought, the tender tear!
+ That tear, that thought, which more than mirth I prize--
+ Sweet as the gradual tint, that paints thy year!
+ Thy farewel smile, with fond regret, I view,
+ Thy beaming lights, soft gliding o'er the woods;
+ Thy distant landscape, touch'd with yellow hue
+ While falls the lengthen'd gleam; thy winding floods,
+ Now veil'd in shade, save where the skiff's white sails
+ Swell to the breeze, and catch thy streaming ray.
+ But now, e'en now!--the partial vision fails,
+ And the wave smiles, as sweeps the cloud away!
+ Emblem of life!--Thus checquer'd is its plan,
+ Thus joy succeeds to grief--thus smiles the varied man!
+
+One of Emily's earliest enquiries, after her arrival at La Vallee, was
+concerning Theresa, her father's old servant, whom it may be remembered
+that M. Quesnel had turned from the house when it was let, without
+any provision. Understanding that she lived in a cottage at no great
+distance, Emily walked thither, and, on approaching, was pleased to see,
+that her habitation was pleasantly situated on a green slope, sheltered
+by a tuft of oaks, and had an appearance of comfort and extreme
+neatness. She found the old woman within, picking vine-stalks, who, on
+perceiving her young mistress, was nearly overcome with joy.
+
+'Ah! my dear young lady!' said she, 'I thought I should never see
+you again in this world, when I heard you was gone to that outlandish
+country. I have been hardly used, since you went; I little thought they
+would have turned me out of my old master's family in my old age!'
+
+Emily lamented the circumstance, and then assured her, that she would
+make her latter days comfortable, and expressed satisfaction, on seeing
+her in so pleasant an habitation.
+
+Theresa thanked her with tears, adding, 'Yes, mademoiselle, it is a
+very comfortable home, thanks to the kind friend, who took me out of
+my distress, when you was too far off to help me, and placed me here! I
+little thought!--but no more of that--'
+
+'And who was this kind friend?' said Emily: 'whoever it was, I shall
+consider him as mine also.'
+
+'Ah, mademoiselle! that friend forbad me to blazon the good deed--I must
+not say, who it was. But how you are altered since I saw you last! You
+look so pale now, and so thin, too; but then, there is my old master's
+smile! Yes, that will never leave you, any more than the goodness, that
+used to make him smile. Alas-a-day! the poor lost a friend indeed, when
+he died!'
+
+Emily was affected by this mention of her father, which Theresa
+observing, changed the subject. 'I heard, mademoiselle,' said she,
+'that Madame Cheron married a foreign gentleman, after all, and took you
+abroad; how does she do?'
+
+Emily now mentioned her death. 'Alas!' said Theresa, 'if she had not
+been my master's sister, I should never have loved her; she was always
+so cross. But how does that dear young gentleman do, M. Valancourt? he
+was an handsome youth, and a good one; is he well, mademoiselle?'
+
+Emily was much agitated.
+
+'A blessing on him!' continued Theresa. 'Ah, my dear young lady, you
+need not look so shy; I know all about it. Do you think I do not know,
+that he loves you? Why, when you was away, mademoiselle, he used to
+come to the chateau and walk about it, so disconsolate! He would go into
+every room in the lower part of the house, and, sometimes, he would
+sit himself down in a chair, with his arms across, and his eyes on
+the floor, and there he would sit, and think, and think, for the hour
+together. He used to be very fond of the south parlour, because I
+told him it used to be yours; and there he would stay, looking at the
+pictures, which I said you drew, and playing upon your lute, that hung
+up by the window, and reading in your books, till sunset, and then he
+must go back to his brother's chateau. And then--'
+
+'It is enough, Theresa,' said Emily.--'How long have you lived in this
+cottage--and how can I serve you? Will you remain here, or return and
+live with me?'
+
+'Nay, mademoiselle,' said Theresa, 'do not be so shy to your poor
+old servant. I am sure it is no disgrace to like such a good young
+gentleman.'
+
+A deep sigh escaped from Emily.
+
+'Ah! how he did love to talk of you! I loved him for that. Nay, for that
+matter, he liked to hear me talk, for he did not say much himself. But I
+soon found out what he came to the chateau about. Then, he would go
+into the garden, and down to the terrace, and sit under that great tree
+there, for the day together, with one of your books in his hand; but he
+did not read much, I fancy; for one day I happened to go that way, and I
+heard somebody talking. Who can be here? says I: I am sure I let nobody
+into the garden, but the Chevalier. So I walked softly, to see who it
+could be; and behold! it was the Chevalier himself, talking to himself
+about you. And he repeated your name, and sighed so! and said he had
+lost you for ever, for that you would never return for him. I thought he
+was out in his reckoning there, but I said nothing, and stole away.'
+
+'No more of this trifling,' said Emily, awakening from her reverie: 'it
+displeases me.'
+
+'But, when M. Quesnel let the chateau, I thought it would have broke the
+Chevalier's heart.'
+
+'Theresa,' said Emily seriously, 'you must name the Chevalier no more!'
+
+'Not name him, mademoiselle!' cried Theresa: 'what times are come
+up now? Why, I love the Chevalier next to my old master and you,
+mademoiselle.'
+
+'Perhaps your love was not well bestowed, then,' replied Emily, trying
+to conceal her tears; 'but, however that might be, we shall meet no
+more.'
+
+'Meet no more!--not well bestowed!' exclaimed Theresa. 'What do I hear?
+No, mademoiselle, my love was well bestowed, for it was the Chevalier
+Valancourt, who gave me this cottage, and has supported me in my old
+age, ever since M. Quesnel turned me from my master's house.'
+
+'The Chevalier Valancourt!' said Emily, trembling extremely.
+
+'Yes, mademoiselle, he himself, though he made me promise not to tell;
+but how could one help, when one heard him ill spoken of? Ah! dear young
+lady, you may well weep, if you have behaved unkindly to him, for a more
+tender heart than his never young gentleman had. He found me out in my
+distress, when you was too far off to help me; and M. Quesnel refused
+to do so, and bade me go to service again--Alas! I was too old for
+that!--The Chevalier found me, and bought me this cottage, and gave me
+money to furnish it, and bade me seek out another poor woman to live
+with me; and he ordered his brother's steward to pay me, every quarter,
+that which has supported me in comfort. Think then, mademoiselle,
+whether I have not reason to speak well of the Chevalier. And there are
+others, who could have afforded it better than he: and I am afraid he
+has hurt himself by his generosity, for quarter day is gone by long
+since, and no money for me! But do not weep so, mademoiselle: you are
+not sorry surely to hear of the poor Chevalier's goodness?'
+
+'Sorry!' said Emily, and wept the more. 'But how long is it since you
+have seen him?'
+
+'Not this many a day, mademoiselle.'
+
+'When did you hear of him?' enquired Emily, with increased emotion.
+
+'Alas! never since he went away so suddenly into Languedoc; and he was
+but just come from Paris then, or I should have seen him, I am sure.
+Quarter day is gone by long since, and, as I said, no money for me; and
+I begin to fear some harm has happened to him: and if I was not so far
+from Estuviere and so lame, I should have gone to enquire before this
+time; and I have nobody to send so far.'
+
+Emily's anxiety, as to the fate of Valancourt, was now scarcely
+endurable, and, since propriety would not suffer her to send to the
+chateau of his brother, she requested that Theresa would immediately
+hire some person to go to his steward from herself, and, when he asked
+for the quarterage due to her, to make enquiries concerning Valancourt.
+But she first made Theresa promise never to mention her name in this
+affair, or ever with that of the Chevalier Valancourt; and her
+former faithfulness to M. St. Aubert induced Emily to confide in her
+assurances. Theresa now joyfully undertook to procure a person for this
+errand, and then Emily, after giving her a sum of money to supply her
+with present comforts, returned, with spirits heavily oppressed, to her
+home, lamenting, more than ever, that an heart, possessed of so much
+benevolence as Valancourt's, should have been contaminated by the vices
+of the world, but affected by the delicate affection, which his kindness
+to her old servant expressed for herself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+  Light thickens, and the crow
+ Makes wing to the rooky wood:
+ Good things of day begin to droop, and drowze;
+ While night's black agents to their preys do rouze.
+     MACBETH
+
+Meanwhile Count De Villefort and Lady Blanche had passed a pleasant
+fortnight at the chateau de St. Foix, with the Baron and Baroness,
+during which they made frequent excursions among the mountains, and were
+delighted with the romantic wildness of Pyrenean scenery. It was with
+regret, that the Count bade adieu to his old friends, although with the
+hope of being soon united with them in one family; for it was settled
+that M. St. Foix, who now attended them into Gascony, should receive the
+hand of the Lady Blanche, upon their arrival at Chateau-le-Blanc. As
+the road, from the Baron's residence to La Vallee, was over some of
+the wildest tract of the Pyrenees, and where a carriage-wheel had never
+passed, the Count hired mules for himself and his family, as well as a
+couple of stout guides, who were well armed, informed of all the passes
+of the mountains, and who boasted, too, that they were acquainted with
+every brake and dingle in the way, could tell the names of all the
+highest points of this chain of Alps, knew every forest, that spread
+along their narrow vallies, the shallowest part of every torrent they
+must cross, and the exact distance of every goat-herd's and hunter's
+cabin they should have occasion to pass,--which last article of learning
+required no very capacious memory, for even such simple inhabitants were
+but thinly scattered over these wilds.
+
+The Count left the chateau de St. Foix, early in the morning, with an
+intention of passing the night at a little inn upon the mountains, about
+half way to La Vallee, of which his guides had informed him; and, though
+this was frequented chiefly by Spanish muleteers, on their route into
+France, and, of course, would afford only sorry accommodation, the Count
+had no alternative, for it was the only place like an inn, on the road.
+
+After a day of admiration and fatigue, the travellers found themselves,
+about sun-set, in a woody valley, overlooked, on every side, by abrupt
+heights. They had proceeded for many leagues, without seeing a human
+habitation, and had only heard, now and then, at a distance, the
+melancholy tinkling of a sheep-bell; but now they caught the notes of
+merry music, and presently saw, within a little green recess among the
+rocks, a group of mountaineers, tripping through a dance. The Count,
+who could not look upon the happiness, any more than on the misery
+of others, with indifference, halted to enjoy this scene of simple
+pleasure. The group before him consisted of French and Spanish peasants,
+the inhabitants of a neighbouring hamlet, some of whom were performing a
+sprightly dance, the women with castanets in their hands, to the sounds
+of a lute and a tamborine, till, from the brisk melody of France, the
+music softened into a slow movement, to which two female peasants danced
+a Spanish Pavan.
+
+The Count, comparing this with the scenes of such gaiety as he had
+witnessed at Paris, where false taste painted the features, and, while
+it vainly tried to supply the glow of nature, concealed the charms
+of animation--where affectation so often distorted the air, and vice
+perverted the manners--sighed to think, that natural graces and innocent
+pleasures flourished in the wilds of solitude, while they drooped amidst
+the concourse of polished society. But the lengthening shadows reminded
+the travellers, that they had no time to lose; and, leaving this joyous
+group, they pursued their way towards the little inn, which was to
+shelter them from the night.
+
+The rays of the setting sun now threw a yellow gleam upon the forests of
+pine and chesnut, that swept down the lower region of the mountains, and
+gave resplendent tints to the snowy points above. But soon, even this
+light faded fast, and the scenery assumed a more tremendous appearance,
+invested with the obscurity of twilight. Where the torrent had been
+seen, it was now only heard; where the wild cliffs had displayed
+every variety of form and attitude, a dark mass of mountains now alone
+appeared; and the vale, which far, far below had opened its dreadful
+chasm, the eye could no longer fathom. A melancholy gleam still lingered
+on the summits of the highest Alps, overlooking the deep repose of
+evening, and seeming to make the stillness of the hour more awful.
+
+Blanche viewed the scene in silence, and listened with enthusiasm to the
+murmur of the pines, that extended in dark lines along the mountains,
+and to the faint voice of the izard, among the rocks, that came at
+intervals on the air. But her enthusiasm sunk into apprehension, when,
+as the shadows deepened, she looked upon the doubtful precipice, that
+bordered the road, as well as on the various fantastic forms of danger,
+that glimmered through the obscurity beyond it; and she asked her
+father, how far they were from the inn, and whether he did not consider
+the road to be dangerous at this late hour. The Count repeated the first
+question to the guides, who returned a doubtful answer, adding, that,
+when it was darker, it would be safest to rest, till the moon rose.
+'It is scarcely safe to proceed now,' said the Count; but the guides,
+assuring him that there was no danger, went on. Blanche, revived by
+this assurance, again indulged a pensive pleasure, as she watched the
+progress of twilight gradually spreading its tints over the woods and
+mountains, and stealing from the eye every minuter feature of the scene,
+till the grand outlines of nature alone remained. Then fell the silent
+dews, and every wild flower, and aromatic plant, that bloomed among the
+cliffs, breathed forth its sweetness; then, too, when the mountain-bee
+had crept into its blossomed bed, and the hum of every little insect,
+that had floated gaily in the sun-beam, was hushed, the sound of many
+streams, not heard till now, murmured at a distance.--The bats alone,
+of all the animals inhabiting this region, seemed awake; and, while
+they flitted across the silent path, which Blanche was pursuing, she
+remembered the following lines, which Emily had given her:
+
+ TO THE BAT
+
+ From haunt of man, from day's obtrusive glare,
+ Thou shroud'st thee in the ruin's ivy'd tow'r.
+ Or in some shadowy glen's romantic bow'r,
+ Where wizard forms their mystic charms prepare,
+ Where Horror lurks, and ever-boding Care!
+ But, at the sweet and silent ev'ning hour,
+ When clos'd in sleep is ev'ry languid flow'r,
+ Thou lov'st to sport upon the twilight air,
+ Mocking the eye, that would thy course pursue,
+ In many a wanton-round, elastic, gay,
+ Thou flit'st athwart the pensive wand'rer's way,
+ As his lone footsteps print the mountain-dew.
+ From Indian isles thou com'st, with Summer's car,
+ Twilight thy love--thy guide her beaming star!
+
+To a warm imagination, the dubious forms, that float, half veiled in
+darkness, afford a higher delight, than the most distinct scenery, that
+the sun can shew. While the fancy thus wanders over landscapes partly of
+its own creation, a sweet complacency steals upon the mind, and
+
+ Refines it all to subtlest feeling,
+ Bids the tear of rapture roll.
+
+The distant note of a torrent, the weak trembling of the breeze among
+the woods, or the far-off sound of a human voice, now lost and heard
+again, are circumstances, which wonderfully heighten the enthusiastic
+tone of the mind. The young St. Foix, who saw the presentations of a
+fervid fancy, and felt whatever enthusiasm could suggest, sometimes
+interrupted the silence, which the rest of the party seemed by mutual
+consent to preserve, remarking and pointing out to Blanche the most
+striking effect of the hour upon the scenery; while Blanche, whose
+apprehensions were beguiled by the conversation of her lover, yielded
+to the taste so congenial to his, and they conversed in a low restrained
+voice, the effect of the pensive tranquillity, which twilight and the
+scene inspired, rather than of any fear, that they should be heard.
+But, while the heart was thus soothed to tenderness, St. Foix gradually
+mingled, with his admiration of the country, a mention of his affection;
+and he continued to speak, and Blanche to listen, till the mountains,
+the woods, and the magical illusions of twilight, were remembered no
+more.
+
+The shadows of evening soon shifted to the gloom of night, which was
+somewhat anticipated by the vapours, that, gathering fast round the
+mountains, rolled in dark wreaths along their sides; and the guides
+proposed to rest, till the moon should rise, adding, that they thought a
+storm was coming on. As they looked round for a spot, that might afford
+some kind of shelter, an object was perceived obscurely through the
+dusk, on a point of rock, a little way down the mountain, which they
+imagined to be a hunter's or a shepherd's cabin, and the party, with
+cautious steps, proceeded towards it. Their labour, however, was not
+rewarded, or their apprehensions soothed; for, on reaching the object of
+their search, they discovered a monumental cross, which marked the spot
+to have been polluted by murder.
+
+The darkness would not permit them to read the inscription; but the
+guides knew this to be a cross, raised to the memory of a Count de
+Beliard, who had been murdered here by a horde of banditti, that had
+infested this part of the Pyrenees, a few years before; and the uncommon
+size of the monument seemed to justify the supposition, that it was
+erected for a person of some distinction. Blanche shuddered, as she
+listened to some horrid particulars of the Count's fate, which one of
+the guides related in a low, restrained tone, as if the sound of his own
+voice frightened him; but, while they lingered at the cross, attending
+to his narrative, a flash of lightning glanced upon the rocks, thunder
+muttered at a distance, and the travellers, now alarmed, quitted this
+scene of solitary horror, in search of shelter.
+
+Having regained their former track, the guides, as they passed on,
+endeavoured to interest the Count by various stories of robbery, and
+even of murder, which had been perpetrated in the very places they
+must unavoidably pass, with accounts of their own dauntless courage
+and wonderful escapes. The chief guide, or rather he, who was the most
+completely armed, drawing forth one of the four pistols, that were
+tucked into his belt, swore, that it had shot three robbers within the
+year. He then brandished a clasp-knife of enormous length, and was
+going to recount the wonderful execution it had done, when St. Foix,
+perceiving, that Blanche was terrified, interrupted him. The Count,
+meanwhile, secretly laughing at the terrible histories and extravagant
+boastings of the man, resolved to humour him, and, telling Blanche in
+a whisper, his design, began to recount some exploits of his own, which
+infinitely exceeded any related by the guide.
+
+To these surprising circumstances he so artfully gave the colouring of
+truth, that the courage of the guides was visibly affected by them,
+who continued silent, long after the Count had ceased to speak. The
+loquacity of the chief hero thus laid asleep, the vigilance of his eyes
+and ears seemed more thoroughly awakened, for he listened, with much
+appearance of anxiety, to the deep thunder, which murmured at intervals,
+and often paused, as the breeze, that was now rising, rushed among the
+pines. But, when he made a sudden halt before a tuft of cork trees,
+that projected over the road, and drew forth a pistol, before he would
+venture to brave the banditti which might lurk behind it, the Count
+could no longer refrain from laughter.
+
+Having now, however, arrived at a level spot, somewhat sheltered from
+the air, by overhanging cliffs and by a wood of larch, that rose over
+the precipice on the left, and the guides being yet ignorant how far
+they were from the inn, the travellers determined to rest, till the moon
+should rise, or the storm disperse. Blanche, recalled to a sense of the
+present moment, looked on the surrounding gloom, with terror; but giving
+her hand to St. Foix, she alighted, and the whole party entered a kind
+of cave, if such it could be called, which was only a shallow cavity,
+formed by the curve of impending rocks. A light being struck, a fire was
+kindled, whose blaze afforded some degree of cheerfulness, and no
+small comfort, for, though the day had been hot, the night air of this
+mountainous region was chilling; a fire was partly necessary also to
+keep off the wolves, with which those wilds were infested.
+
+Provisions being spread upon a projection of the rock, the Count and his
+family partook of a supper, which, in a scene less rude, would certainly
+have been thought less excellent. When the repast was finished, St.
+Foix, impatient for the moon, sauntered along the precipice, to a point,
+that fronted the east; but all was yet wrapt in gloom, and the silence
+of night was broken only by the murmuring of woods, that waved far
+below, or by distant thunder, and, now and then, by the faint voices of
+the party he had quitted. He viewed, with emotions of awful sublimity,
+the long volumes of sulphureous clouds, that floated along the upper and
+middle regions of the air, and the lightnings that flashed from them,
+sometimes silently, and, at others, followed by sullen peals of thunder,
+which the mountains feebly prolonged, while the whole horizon, and the
+abyss, on which he stood, were discovered in the momentary light. Upon
+the succeeding darkness, the fire, which had been kindled in the cave,
+threw a partial gleam, illumining some points of the opposite rocks, and
+the summits of pine-woods, that hung beetling on the cliffs below, while
+their recesses seemed to frown in deeper shade.
+
+St. Foix stopped to observe the picture, which the party in the cave
+presented, where the elegant form of Blanche was finely contrasted by
+the majestic figure of the Count, who was seated by her on a rude stone,
+and each was rendered more impressive by the grotesque habits and strong
+features of the guides and other attendants, who were in the back ground
+of the piece. The effect of the light, too, was interesting; on the
+surrounding figures it threw a strong, though pale gleam, and glittered
+on their bright arms; while upon the foliage of a gigantic larch, that
+impended its shade over the cliff above, appeared a red, dusky tint,
+deepening almost imperceptibly into the blackness of night.
+
+While St. Foix contemplated the scene, the moon, broad and yellow, rose
+over the eastern summits, from among embattled clouds, and shewed dimly
+the grandeur of the heavens, the mass of vapours, that rolled half way
+down the precipice beneath, and the doubtful mountains.
+
+ What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime,
+ Like shipwreck'd mariner on desert coast,
+ And view th'enormous waste of vapour, tost
+ In billows length'ning to th'horizon round!
+     THE MINSTREL
+
+From this romantic reverie he was awakened by the voices of the guides,
+repeating his name, which was reverbed from cliff to cliff, till an
+hundred tongues seemed to call him; when he soon quieted the fears of
+the Count and the Lady Blanche, by returning to the cave. As the storm,
+however, seemed approaching, they did not quit their place of shelter;
+and the Count, seated between his daughter and St. Foix, endeavoured to
+divert the fears of the former, and conversed on subjects, relating to
+the natural history of the scene, among which they wandered. He spoke
+of the mineral and fossile substances, found in the depths of these
+mountains,--the veins of marble and granite, with which they abounded,
+the strata of shells, discovered near their summits, many thousand
+fathom above the level of the sea, and at a vast distance from its
+present shore;--of the tremendous chasms and caverns of the rocks, the
+grotesque form of the mountains, and the various phaenomena, that seem
+to stamp upon the world the history of the deluge. From the natural
+history he descended to the mention of events and circumstances,
+connected with the civil story of the Pyrenees; named some of the most
+remarkable fortresses, which France and Spain had erected in the passes
+of these mountains; and gave a brief account of some celebrated sieges
+and encounters in early times, when Ambition first frightened Solitude
+from these her deep recesses, made her mountains, which before had
+echoed only to the torrent's roar, tremble with the clang of arms, and,
+when man's first footsteps in her sacred haunts had left the print of
+blood!
+
+As Blanche sat, attentive to the narrative, that rendered the
+scenes doubly interesting, and resigned to solemn emotion, while she
+considered, that she was on the very ground, once polluted by these
+events, her reverie was suddenly interrupted by a sound, that came
+in the wind.--It was the distant bark of a watch-dog. The travellers
+listened with eager hope, and, as the wind blew stronger, fancied, that
+the sound came from no great distance; and, the guides having little
+doubt, that it proceeded from the inn they were in search of, the Count
+determined to pursue his way. The moon now afforded a stronger, though
+still an uncertain light, as she moved among broken clouds; and the
+travellers, led by the sound, recommenced their journey along the brow
+of the precipice, preceded by a single torch, that now contended with
+the moon-light; for the guides, believing they should reach the inn soon
+after sun-set, had neglected to provide more. In silent caution they
+followed the sound, which was heard but at intervals, and which, after
+some time entirely ceased. The guides endeavoured, however, to point
+their course to the quarter, whence it had issued, but the deep roaring
+of a torrent soon seized their attention, and presently they came to
+a tremendous chasm of the mountain, which seemed to forbid all further
+progress. Blanche alighted from her mule, as did the Count and St.
+Foix, while the guides traversed the edge in search of a bridge, which,
+however rude, might convey them to the opposite side, and they, at
+length, confessed, what the Count had begun to suspect, that they had
+been, for some time, doubtful of their way, and were now certain only,
+that they had lost it.
+
+At a little distance, was discovered a rude and dangerous passage,
+formed by an enormous pine, which, thrown across the chasm, united the
+opposite precipices, and which had been felled probably by the hunter,
+to facilitate his chace of the izard, or the wolf. The whole party,
+the guides excepted, shuddered at the prospect of crossing this alpine
+bridge, whose sides afforded no kind of defence, and from which to fall
+was to die. The guides, however, prepared to lead over the mules, while
+Blanche stood trembling on the brink, and listening to the roar of the
+waters, which were seen descending from rocks above, overhung with lofty
+pines, and thence precipitating themselves into the deep abyss, where
+their white surges gleamed faintly in the moon-light. The poor animals
+proceeded over this perilous bridge with instinctive caution, neither
+frightened by the noise of the cataract, or deceived by the gloom, which
+the impending foliage threw athwart their way. It was now, that the
+solitary torch, which had been hitherto of little service, was found
+to be an inestimable treasure; and Blanche, terrified, shrinking,
+but endeavouring to re-collect all her firmness and presence of mind,
+preceded by her lover and supported by her father, followed the red
+gleam of the torch, in safety, to the opposite cliff.
+
+As they went on, the heights contracted, and formed a narrow pass, at
+the bottom of which, the torrent they had just crossed, was heard to
+thunder. But they were again cheered by the bark of a dog, keeping
+watch, perhaps, over the flocks of the mountains, to protect them
+from the nightly descent of the wolves. The sound was much nearer than
+before, and, while they rejoiced in the hope of soon reaching a place
+of repose, a light was seen to glimmer at a distance. It appeared at a
+height considerably above the level of their path, and was lost and seen
+again, as if the waving branches of trees sometimes excluded and then
+admitted its rays. The guides hallooed with all their strength, but the
+sound of no human voice was heard in return, and, at length, as a more
+effectual means of making themselves known, they fired a pistol. But,
+while they listened in anxious expectation, the noise of the explosion
+was alone heard, echoing among the rocks, and it gradually sunk into
+silence, which no friendly hint of man disturbed. The light, however,
+that had been seen before, now became plainer, and, soon after, voices
+were heard indistinctly on the wind; but, upon the guides repeating the
+call, the voices suddenly ceased, and the light disappeared.
+
+The Lady Blanche was now almost sinking beneath the pressure of anxiety,
+fatigue and apprehension, and the united efforts of the Count and St.
+Foix could scarcely support her spirits. As they continued to advance,
+an object was perceived on a point of rock above, which, the strong rays
+of the moon then falling on it, appeared to be a watch-tower. The Count,
+from its situation and some other circumstances, had little doubt, that
+it was such, and believing, that the light had proceeded from thence, he
+endeavoured to re-animate his daughter's spirits by the near prospect
+of shelter and repose, which, however rude the accommodation, a ruined
+watch-tower might afford.
+
+'Numerous watch-towers have been erected among the Pyrenees,' said the
+Count, anxious only to call Blanche's attention from the subject of her
+fears; 'and the method, by which they give intelligence of the approach
+of the enemy, is, you know, by fires, kindled on the summits of these
+edifices. Signals have thus, sometimes, been communicated from post to
+post, along a frontier line of several hundred miles in length. Then,
+as occasion may require, the lurking armies emerge from their fortresses
+and the forests, and march forth, to defend, perhaps, the entrance of
+some grand pass, where, planting themselves on the heights, they assail
+their astonished enemies, who wind along the glen below, with fragments
+of the shattered cliff, and pour death and defeat upon them. The ancient
+forts, and watch-towers, overlooking the grand passes of the Pyrenees,
+are carefully preserved; but some of those in inferior stations have
+been suffered to fall into decay, and are now frequently converted into
+the more peaceful habitation of the hunter, or the shepherd, who, after
+a day of toil, retires hither, and, with his faithful dogs, forgets,
+near a cheerful blaze, the labour of the chace, or the anxiety of
+collecting his wandering flocks, while he is sheltered from the nightly
+storm.'
+
+'But are they always thus peacefully inhabited?' said the Lady Blanche.
+
+'No,' replied the Count, 'they are sometimes the asylum of French and
+Spanish smugglers, who cross the mountains with contraband goods from
+their respective countries, and the latter are particularly numerous,
+against whom strong parties of the king's troops are sometimes sent. But
+the desperate resolution of these adventurers, who, knowing, that, if
+they are taken, they must expiate the breach of the law by the most
+cruel death, travel in large parties, well armed, often daunts the
+courage of the soldiers. The smugglers, who seek only safety, never
+engage, when they can possibly avoid it; the military, also, who
+know, that in these encounters, danger is certain, and glory almost
+unattainable, are equally reluctant to fight; an engagement, therefore,
+very seldom happens, but, when it does, it never concludes till after
+the most desperate and bloody conflict. You are inattentive, Blanche,'
+added the Count: 'I have wearied you with a dull subject; but see,
+yonder, in the moon-light, is the edifice we have been in search of, and
+we are fortunate to be so near it, before the storm bursts.'
+
+Blanche, looking up, perceived, that they were at the foot of the cliff,
+on whose summit the building stood, but no light now issued from it; the
+barking of the dog too had, for some time, ceased, and the guides began
+to doubt, whether this was really the object of their search. From the
+distance, at which they surveyed it, shewn imperfectly by a cloudy moon,
+it appeared to be of more extent than a single watch-tower; but the
+difficulty was how to ascend the height, whose abrupt declivities seemed
+to afford no kind of pathway.
+
+While the guides carried forward the torch to examine the cliff, the
+Count, remaining with Blanche and St. Foix at its foot, under the shadow
+of the woods, endeavoured again to beguile the time by conversation,
+but again anxiety abstracted the mind of Blanche; and he then consulted,
+apart with St. Foix, whether it would be advisable, should a path be
+found, to venture to an edifice, which might possibly harbour banditti.
+They considered, that their own party was not small, and that several of
+them were well armed; and, after enumerating the dangers, to be incurred
+by passing the night in the open wild, exposed, perhaps, to the effects
+of a thunder-storm, there remained not a doubt, that they ought to
+endeavour to obtain admittance to the edifice above, at any hazard
+respecting the inhabitants it might harbour; but the darkness, and the
+dead silence, that surrounded it, appeared to contradict the probability
+of its being inhabited at all.
+
+A shout from the guides aroused their attention, after which, in a few
+minutes, one of the Count's servants returned with intelligence, that a
+path was found, and they immediately hastened to join the guides, when
+they all ascended a little winding way cut in the rock among thickets
+of dwarf wood, and, after much toil and some danger, reached the summit,
+where several ruined towers, surrounded by a massy wall, rose to their
+view, partially illumined by the moon-light. The space around the
+building was silent, and apparently forsaken, but the Count was
+cautious; 'Step softly,' said he, in a low voice, 'while we reconnoitre
+the edifice.'
+
+Having proceeded silently along for some paces, they stopped at a
+gate, whose portals were terrible even in ruins, and, after a moment's
+hesitation, passed on to the court of entrance, but paused again at the
+head of a terrace, which, branching from it, ran along the brow of a
+precipice. Over this, rose the main body of the edifice, which was now
+seen to be, not a watch-tower, but one of those ancient fortresses,
+that, from age and neglect, had fallen to decay. Many parts of it,
+however, appeared to be still entire; it was built of grey stone, in
+the heavy Saxon-gothic style, with enormous round towers, buttresses of
+proportionable strength, and the arch of the large gate, which seemed
+to open into the hall of the fabric, was round, as was that of a window
+above. The air of solemnity, which must so strongly have characterized
+the pile even in the days of its early strength, was now considerably
+heightened by its shattered battlements and half-demolished walls, and
+by the huge masses of ruin, scattered in its wide area, now silent and
+grass grown. In this court of entrance stood the gigantic remains of an
+oak, that seemed to have flourished and decayed with the building, which
+it still appeared frowningly to protect by the few remaining branches,
+leafless and moss-grown, that crowned its trunk, and whose wide extent
+told how enormous the tree had been in a former age. This fortress was
+evidently once of great strength, and, from its situation on a point of
+rock, impending over a deep glen, had been of great power to annoy, as
+well as to resist; the Count, therefore, as he stood surveying it, was
+somewhat surprised, that it had been suffered, ancient as it was, to
+sink into ruins, and its present lonely and deserted air excited in
+his breast emotions of melancholy awe. While he indulged, for a moment,
+these emotions, he thought he heard a sound of remote voices steal upon
+the stillness, from within the building, the front of which he again
+surveyed with scrutinizing eyes, but yet no light was visible. He now
+determined to walk round the fort, to that remote part of it, whence he
+thought the voices had arisen, that he might examine whether any light
+could be discerned there, before he ventured to knock at the gate; for
+this purpose, he entered upon the terrace, where the remains of cannon
+were yet apparent in the thick walls, but he had not proceeded many
+paces, when his steps were suddenly arrested by the loud barking of a
+dog within, and which he fancied to be the same, whose voice had been
+the means of bringing the travellers thither. It now appeared certain,
+that the place was inhabited, and the Count returned to consult again
+with St. Foix, whether he should try to obtain admittance, for its wild
+aspect had somewhat shaken his former resolution; but, after a
+second consultation, he submitted to the considerations, which before
+determined him, and which were strengthened by the discovery of the dog,
+that guarded the fort, as well as by the stillness that pervaded it.
+He, therefore, ordered one of his servants to knock at the gate, who was
+advancing to obey him, when a light appeared through the loop-hole
+of one of the towers, and the Count called loudly, but, receiving no
+answer, he went up to the gate himself, and struck upon it with an
+iron-pointed pole, which had assisted him to climb the steep. When
+the echoes had ceased, that this blow had awakened, the renewed
+barking,--and there were now more than one dog,--was the only sound,
+that was heard. The Count stepped back, a few paces, to observe whether
+the light was in the tower, and, perceiving, that it was gone, he
+returned to the portal, and had lifted the pole to strike again, when
+again he fancied he heard the murmur of voices within, and paused to
+listen. He was confirmed in the supposition, but they were too remote,
+to be heard otherwise than in a murmur, and the Count now let the pole
+fall heavily upon the gate; when almost immediately a profound silence
+followed. It was apparent, that the people within had heard the sound,
+and their caution in admitting strangers gave him a favourable opinion
+of them. 'They are either hunters or shepherds,' said he, 'who, like
+ourselves, have probably sought shelter from the night within these
+walls, and are fearful of admitting strangers, lest they should prove
+robbers. I will endeavour to remove their fears.' So saying, he called
+aloud, 'We are friends, who ask shelter from the night.' In a few
+moments, steps were heard within, which approached, and a voice then
+enquired--'Who calls?' 'Friends,' repeated the Count; 'open the gates,
+and you shall know more.'--Strong bolts were now heard to be undrawn,
+and a man, armed with a hunting spear, appeared. 'What is it you want
+at this hour?' said he. The Count beckoned his attendants, and then
+answered, that he wished to enquire the way to the nearest cabin. 'Are
+you so little acquainted with these mountains,' said the man, 'as not to
+know, that there is none, within several leagues? I cannot shew you the
+way; you must seek it--there's a moon.' Saying this, he was closing the
+gate, and the Count was turning away, half disappointed and half afraid,
+when another voice was heard from above, and, on looking up, he saw a
+light, and a man's face, at the grate of the portal. 'Stay, friend, you
+have lost your way?' said the voice. 'You are hunters, I suppose, like
+ourselves: I will be with you presently.' The voice ceased, and the
+light disappeared. Blanche had been alarmed by the appearance of the
+man, who had opened the gate, and she now entreated her father to quit
+the place; but the Count had observed the hunter's spear, which he
+carried; and the words from the tower encouraged him to await the event.
+The gate was soon opened, and several men in hunters' habits, who had
+heard above what had passed below, appeared, and, having listened some
+time to the Count, told him he was welcome to rest there for the night.
+They then pressed him, with much courtesy, to enter, and to partake of
+such fare as they were about to sit down to. The Count, who had
+observed them attentively while they spoke, was cautious, and somewhat
+suspicious; but he was also weary, fearful of the approaching storm, and
+of encountering alpine heights in the obscurity of night; being likewise
+somewhat confident in the strength and number of his attendants, he,
+after some further consideration, determined to accept the invitation.
+With this resolution he called his servants, who, advancing round
+the tower, behind which some of them had silently listened to this
+conference, followed their Lord, the Lady Blanche, and St. Foix into the
+fortress. The strangers led them on to a large and rude hall, partially
+seen by a fire that blazed at its extremity, round which four men, in
+the hunter's dress, were seated, and on the hearth were several dogs
+stretched in sleep. In the middle of the hall stood a large table,
+and over the fire some part of an animal was boiling. As the Count
+approached, the men arose, and the dogs, half raising themselves, looked
+fiercely at the strangers, but, on hearing their masters' voices, kept
+their postures on the hearth.
+
+Blanche looked round this gloomy and spacious hall; then at the men, and
+to her father, who, smiling cheerfully at her, addressed himself to the
+hunters. 'This is an hospitable hearth,' said he, 'the blaze of a fire
+is reviving after having wandered so long in these dreary wilds. Your
+dogs are tired; what success have you had?' 'Such as we usually have,'
+replied one of the men, who had been seated in the hall, 'we kill our
+game with tolerable certainty.' 'These are fellow hunters,' said one of
+the men who had brought the Count hither, 'that have lost their way,
+and I have told them there is room enough in the fort for us all.' 'Very
+true, very true,' replied his companion, 'What luck have you had in the
+chace, brothers? We have killed two izards, and that, you will say,
+is pretty well.' 'You mistake, friend,' said the Count, 'we are not
+hunters, but travellers; but, if you will admit us to hunters' fare, we
+shall be well contented, and will repay your kindness.' 'Sit down then,
+brother,' said one of the men: 'Jacques, lay more fuel on the fire, the
+kid will soon be ready; bring a seat for the lady too. Ma'amselle, will
+you taste our brandy? it is true Barcelona, and as bright as ever flowed
+from a keg.' Blanche timidly smiled, and was going to refuse, when her
+father prevented her, by taking, with a good humoured air, the glass
+offered to his daughter; and Mons. St. Foix, who was seated next her,
+pressed her hand, and gave her an encouraging look, but her attention
+was engaged by a man, who sat silently by the fire, observing St. Foix,
+with a steady and earnest eye.
+
+'You lead a jolly life here,' said the Count. 'The life of a hunter is
+a pleasant and a healthy one; and the repose is sweet, which succeeds to
+your labour.'
+
+'Yes,' replied one of his hosts, 'our life is pleasant enough. We live
+here only during the summer, and autumnal months; in winter, the place
+is dreary, and the swoln torrents, that descend from the heights, put a
+stop to the chace.'
+
+''Tis a life of liberty and enjoyment,' said the Count: 'I should like
+to pass a month in your way very well.'
+
+'We find employment for our guns too,' said a man who stood behind the
+Count: 'here are plenty of birds, of delicious flavour, that feed upon
+the wild thyme and herbs, that grow in the vallies. Now I think of it,
+there is a brace of birds hung up in the stone gallery; go fetch them,
+Jacques, we will have them dressed.'
+
+The Count now made enquiry, concerning the method of pursuing the
+chace among the rocks and precipices of these romantic regions, and
+was listening to a curious detail, when a horn was sounded at the gate.
+Blanche looked timidly at her father, who continued to converse on the
+subject of the chace, but whose countenance was somewhat expressive of
+anxiety, and who often turned his eyes towards that part of the hall
+nearest the gate. The horn sounded again, and a loud halloo succeeded.
+'These are some of our companions, returned from their day's labour,'
+said a man, going lazily from his seat towards the gate; and in a
+few minutes, two men appeared, each with a gun over his shoulder, and
+pistols in his belt. 'What cheer, my lads? what cheer?' said they,
+as they approached. 'What luck?' returned their companions: 'have you
+brought home your supper? You shall have none else.'
+
+'Hah! who the devil have you brought home?' said they in bad Spanish,
+on perceiving the Count's party, 'are they from France, or Spain?--where
+did you meet with them?'
+
+'They met with us, and a merry meeting too,' replied his companion aloud
+in good French. 'This chevalier, and his party, had lost their way,
+and asked a night's lodging in the fort.' The others made no reply, but
+threw down a kind of knapsack, and drew forth several brace of birds.
+The bag sounded heavily as it fell to the ground, and the glitter
+of some bright metal within glanced on the eye of the Count, who now
+surveyed, with a more enquiring look, the man, that held the knapsack.
+He was a tall robust figure, of a hard countenance, and had short black
+hair, curling in his neck. Instead of the hunter's dress, he wore a
+faded military uniform; sandals were laced on his broad legs, and a kind
+of short trowsers hung from his waist. On his head he wore a leathern
+cap, somewhat resembling in shape an ancient Roman helmet; but the
+brows that scowled beneath it, would have characterized those of the
+barbarians, who conquered Rome, rather than those of a Roman soldier.
+The Count, at length, turned away his eyes, and remained silent and
+thoughtful, till, again raising them, he perceived a figure standing in
+an obscure part of the hall, fixed in attentive gaze on St. Foix, who
+was conversing with Blanche, and did not observe this; but the Count,
+soon after, saw the same man looking over the shoulder of the soldier as
+attentively at himself. He withdrew his eye, when that of the Count met
+it, who felt mistrust gathering fast upon his mind, but feared to betray
+it in his countenance, and, forcing his features to assume a smile,
+addressed Blanche on some indifferent subject. When he again looked
+round, he perceived, that the soldier and his companion were gone.
+
+The man, who was called Jacques, now returned from the stone gallery. 'A
+fire is lighted there,' said he, 'and the birds are dressing; the table
+too is spread there, for that place is warmer than this.'
+
+His companions approved of the removal, and invited their guests to
+follow to the gallery, of whom Blanche appeared distressed, and remained
+seated, and St. Foix looked at the Count, who said, he preferred the
+comfortable blaze of the fire he was then near. The hunters, however,
+commended the warmth of the other apartment, and pressed his removal
+with such seeming courtesy, that the Count, half doubting, and half
+fearful of betraying his doubts, consented to go. The long and ruinous
+passages, through which they went, somewhat daunted him, but the
+thunder, which now burst in loud peals above, made it dangerous to
+quit this place of shelter, and he forbore to provoke his conductors by
+shewing that he distrusted them. The hunters led the way, with a
+lamp; the Count and St. Foix, who wished to please their hosts by some
+instances of familiarity, carried each a seat, and Blanche followed,
+with faltering steps. As she passed on, part of her dress caught on a
+nail in the wall, and, while she stopped, somewhat too scrupulously,
+to disengage it, the Count, who was talking to St. Foix, and neither of
+whom observed the circumstance, followed their conductor round an abrupt
+angle of the passage, and Blanche was left behind in darkness. The
+thunder prevented them from hearing her call but, having disengaged her
+dress, she quickly followed, as she thought, the way they had taken.
+A light, that glimmered at a distance, confirmed this belief, and she
+proceeded towards an open door, whence it issued, conjecturing the room
+beyond to be the stone gallery the men had spoken of. Hearing voices
+as she advanced, she paused within a few paces of the chamber, that she
+might be certain whether she was right, and from thence, by the light
+of a lamp, that hung from the ceiling, observed four men, seated round
+a table, over which they leaned in apparent consultation. In one of them
+she distinguished the features of him, whom she had observed, gazing
+at St. Foix, with such deep attention; and who was now speaking in an
+earnest, though restrained voice, till, one of his companions seeming
+to oppose him, they spoke together in a loud and harsher tone. Blanche,
+alarmed by perceiving that neither her father, or St. Foix were there,
+and terrified at the fierce countenances and manners of these men, was
+turning hastily from the chamber, to pursue her search of the gallery,
+when she heard one of the men say:
+
+'Let all dispute end here. Who talks of danger? Follow my advice,
+and there will be none--secure THEM, and the rest are an easy prey.'
+Blanche, struck with these words, paused a moment, to hear more. 'There
+is nothing to be got by the rest,' said one of his companions, 'I am
+never for blood when I can help it--dispatch the two others, and our
+business is done; the rest may go.'
+
+'May they so?' exclaimed the first ruffian, with a tremendous
+oath--'What! to tell how we have disposed of their masters, and to
+send the king's troops to drag us to the wheel! You was always a choice
+adviser--I warrant we have not yet forgot St. Thomas's eve last year.'
+
+Blanche's heart now sunk with horror. Her first impulse was to retreat
+from the door, but, when she would have gone, her trembling frame
+refused to support her, and, having tottered a few paces, to a more
+obscure part of the passage, she was compelled to listen to the dreadful
+councils of those, who, she was no longer suffered to doubt, were
+banditti. In the next moment, she heard the following words, 'Why you
+would not murder the whole GANG?'
+
+'I warrant our lives are as good as theirs,' replied his comrade. 'If
+we don't kill them, they will hang us: better they should die than we be
+hanged.'
+
+'Better, better,' cried his comrades.
+
+'To commit murder, is a hopeful way of escaping the gallows!' said the
+first ruffian--'many an honest fellow has run his head into the noose
+that way, though.' There was a pause of some moments, during which they
+appeared to be considering.
+
+'Confound those fellows,' exclaimed one of the robbers impatiently,
+'they ought to have been here by this time; they will come back
+presently with the old story, and no booty: if they were here, our
+business would be plain and easy. I see we shall not be able to do the
+business to-night, for our numbers are not equal to the enemy, and in
+the morning they will be for marching off, and how can we detain them
+without force?'
+
+'I have been thinking of a scheme, that will do,' said one of his
+comrades: 'if we can dispatch the two chevaliers silently, it will be
+easy to master the rest.'
+
+'That's a plausible scheme, in good faith,' said another with a smile
+of scorn--'If I can eat my way through the prison wall, I shall be at
+liberty!--How can we dispatch them SILENTLY?'
+
+'By poison,' replied his companions.
+
+'Well said! that will do,' said the second ruffian, 'that will give a
+lingering death too, and satisfy my revenge. These barons shall take
+care how they again tempt our vengeance.'
+
+'I knew the son, the moment I saw him,' said the man, whom Blanche had
+observed gazing on St. Foix, 'though he does not know me; the father I
+had almost forgotten.'
+
+'Well, you may say what you will,' said the third ruffian, 'but I don't
+believe he is the Baron, and I am as likely to know as any of you, for I
+was one of them, that attacked him, with our brave lads, that suffered.'
+
+'And was not I another?' said the first ruffian, 'I tell you he is the
+Baron; but what does it signify whether he is or not?--shall we let all
+this booty go out of our hands? It is not often we have such luck at
+this. While we run the chance of the wheel for smuggling a few pounds of
+tobacco, to cheat the king's manufactory, and of breaking our necks
+down the precipices in the chace of our food; and, now and then, rob a
+brother smuggler, or a straggling pilgrim, of what scarcely repays us
+the powder we fire at them, shall we let such a prize as this go? Why
+they have enough about them to keep us for--'
+
+'I am not for that, I am not for that,' replied the third robber, 'let
+us make the most of them: only, if this is the Baron, I should like to
+have a flash the more at him, for the sake of our brave comrades, that
+he brought to the gallows.'
+
+'Aye, aye, flash as much as you will,' rejoined the first man, 'but I
+tell you the Baron is a taller man.'
+
+'Confound your quibbling,' said the second ruffian, 'shall we let them
+go or not? If we stay here much longer, they will take the hint, and
+march off without our leave. Let them be who they will, they are rich,
+or why all those servants? Did you see the ring, he, you call the Baron,
+had on his finger?--it was a diamond; but he has not got it on now: he
+saw me looking at it, I warrant, and took it off.'
+
+'Aye, and then there is the picture; did you see that? She has not taken
+that off,' observed the first ruffian, 'it hangs at her neck; if it had
+not sparkled so, I should not have found it out, for it was almost hid
+by her dress; those are diamonds too, and a rare many of them there must
+be, to go round such a large picture.'
+
+'But how are we to manage this business?' said the second ruffian: 'let
+us talk of that, there is no fear of there being booty enough, but how
+are we to secure it?'
+
+'Aye, aye,' said his comrades, 'let us talk of that, and remember no
+time is to be lost.'
+
+
+'I am still for poison,' observed the third, 'but consider their number;
+why there are nine or ten of them, and armed too; when I saw so many at
+the gate, I was not for letting them in, you know, nor you either.'
+
+'I thought they might be some of our enemies,' replied the second, 'I
+did not so much mind numbers.'
+
+'But you must mind them now,' rejoined his comrade, 'or it will be worse
+for you. We are not more than six, and how can we master ten by open
+force? I tell you we must give some of them a dose, and the rest may
+then be managed.'
+
+'I'll tell you a better way,' rejoined the other impatiently, 'draw
+closer.'
+
+Blanche, who had listened to this conversation, in an agony, which it
+would be impossible to describe, could no longer distinguish what was
+said, for the ruffians now spoke in lowered voices; but the hope, that
+she might save her friends from the plot, if she could find her way
+quickly to them, suddenly re-animated her spirits, and lent her strength
+enough to turn her steps in search of the gallery. Terror, however,
+and darkness conspired against her, and, having moved a few yards, the
+feeble light, that issued from the chamber, no longer even contended
+with the gloom, and, her foot stumbling over a step that crossed the
+passage, she fell to the ground.
+
+The noise startled the banditti, who became suddenly silent, and then
+all rushed to the passage, to examine whether any person was there, who
+might have overheard their councils. Blanche saw them approaching, and
+perceived their fierce and eager looks: but, before she could raise
+herself, they discovered and seized her, and, as they dragged her
+towards the chamber they had quitted, her screams drew from them
+horrible threatenings.
+
+Having reached the room, they began to consult what they should do with
+her. 'Let us first know what she had heard,' said the chief robber. 'How
+long have you been in the passage, lady, and what brought you there?'
+
+'Let us first secure that picture,' said one of his comrades,
+approaching the trembling Blanche. 'Fair lady, by your leave that
+picture is mine; come, surrender it, or I shall seize it.'
+
+Blanche, entreating their mercy, immediately gave up the miniature,
+while another of the ruffians fiercely interrogated her, concerning what
+she had overheard of their conversation, when, her confusion and terror
+too plainly telling what her tongue feared to confess, the ruffians
+looked expressively upon one another, and two of them withdrew to a
+remote part of the room, as if to consult further.
+
+'These are diamonds, by St. Peter!' exclaimed the fellow, who had been
+examining the miniature, 'and here is a very pretty picture too, 'faith;
+as handsome a young chevalier, as you would wish to see by a summer's
+sun. Lady, this is your spouse, I warrant, for it is the spark, that was
+in your company just now.'
+
+Blanche, sinking with terror, conjured him to have pity on her, and,
+delivering him her purse, promised to say nothing of what had passed, if
+he would suffer her to return to her friends.
+
+He smiled ironically, and was going to reply, when his attention was
+called off by a distant noise; and, while he listened, he grasped the
+arm of Blanche more firmly, as if he feared she would escape from him,
+and she again shrieked for help.
+
+The approaching sounds called the ruffians from the other part of the
+chamber. 'We are betrayed,' said they; 'but let us listen a moment,
+perhaps it is only our comrades come in from the mountains, and if so,
+our work is sure; listen!'
+
+A distant discharge of shot confirmed this supposition for a moment,
+but, in the next, the former sounds drawing nearer, the clashing of
+swords, mingled with the voices of loud contention and with heavy
+groans, were distinguished in the avenue leading to the chamber. While
+the ruffians prepared their arms, they heard themselves called by some
+of their comrades afar off, and then a shrill horn was sounded without
+the fortress, a signal, it appeared, they too well understood; for three
+of them, leaving the Lady Blanche to the care of the fourth, instantly
+rushed from the chamber.
+
+While Blanche, trembling, and nearly fainting, was supplicating for
+release, she heard amid the tumult, that approached, the voice of St.
+Foix, and she had scarcely renewed her shriek, when the door of the
+room was thrown open, and he appeared, much disfigured with blood, and
+pursued by several ruffians. Blanche neither saw, or heard any more; her
+head swam, her sight failed, and she became senseless in the arms of the
+robber, who had detained her.
+
+When she recovered, she perceived, by the gloomy light, that trembled
+round her, that she was in the same chamber, but neither the Count, St.
+Foix, or any other person appeared, and she continued, for some time,
+entirely still, and nearly in a state of stupefaction. But, the dreadful
+images of the past returning, she endeavoured to raise herself, that
+she might seek her friends, when a sullen groan, at a little distance,
+reminded her of St. Foix, and of the condition, in which she had seen
+him enter this room; then, starting from the floor, by a sudden effort
+of horror, she advanced to the place whence the sound had proceeded,
+where a body was lying stretched upon the pavement, and where, by the
+glimmering light of a lamp, she discovered the pale and disfigured
+countenance of St. Foix. Her horrors, at that moment, may be easily
+imagined. He was speechless; his eyes were half closed, and, on the
+hand, which she grasped in the agony of despair, cold damps had settled.
+While she vainly repeated his name, and called for assistance, steps
+approached, and a person entered the chamber, who, she soon perceived,
+was not the Count, her father; but, what was her astonishment, when,
+supplicating him to give his assistance to St. Foix, she discovered
+Ludovico! He scarcely paused to recognise her, but immediately bound
+up the wounds of the Chevalier, and, perceiving, that he had fainted
+probably from loss of blood, ran for water; but he had been absent only
+a few moments, when Blanche heard other steps approaching, and, while
+she was almost frantic with apprehension of the ruffians, the light of a
+torch flashed upon the walls, and then Count De Villefort appeared, with
+an affrighted countenance, and breathless with impatience, calling upon
+his daughter. At the sound of his voice, she rose, and ran to his arms,
+while he, letting fall the bloody sword he held, pressed her to his
+bosom in a transport of gratitude and joy, and then hastily enquired for
+St. Foix, who now gave some signs of life. Ludovico soon after returning
+with water and brandy, the former was applied to his lips, and the
+latter to his temples and hands, and Blanche, at length, saw him unclose
+his eyes, and then heard him enquire for her; but the joy she felt,
+on this occasion, was interrupted by new alarms, when Ludovico said it
+would be necessary to remove Mons. St. Foix immediately, and added, 'The
+banditti, that are out, my Lord, were expected home, an hour ago, and
+they will certainly find us, if we delay. That shrill horn, they know,
+is never sounded by their comrades but on most desperate occasions, and
+it echoes among the mountains for many leagues round. I have known them
+brought home by its sound even from the Pied de Melicant. Is any body
+standing watch at the great gate, my Lord?'
+
+'Nobody,' replied the Count; 'the rest of my people are now scattered
+about, I scarcely know where. Go, Ludovico, collect them together, and
+look out yourself, and listen if you hear the feet of mules.'
+
+Ludovico then hurried away, and the Count consulted as to the means of
+removing St. Foix, who could not have borne the motion of a mule, even
+if his strength would have supported him in the saddle.
+
+While the Count was telling, that the banditti, whom they had found
+in the fort, were secured in the dungeon, Blanche observed that he was
+himself wounded, and that his left arm was entirely useless; but he
+smiled at her anxiety, assuring her the wound was trifling.
+
+The Count's servants, except two who kept watch at the gate, now
+appeared, and, soon after, Ludovico. 'I think I hear mules coming along
+the glen, my Lord,' said he, 'but the roaring of the torrent below
+will not let me be certain; however, I have brought what will serve the
+Chevalier,' he added, shewing a bear's skin, fastened to a couple of
+long poles, which had been adapted for the purpose of bringing home such
+of the banditti as happened to be wounded in their encounters. Ludovico
+spread it on the ground, and, placing the skins of several goats upon
+it, made a kind of bed, into which the Chevalier, who was however now
+much revived, was gently lifted; and, the poles being raised upon the
+shoulders of the guides, whose footing among these steeps could best
+be depended upon, he was borne along with an easy motion. Some of the
+Count's servants were also wounded--but not materially, and, their
+wounds being bound up, they now followed to the great gate. As they
+passed along the hall, a loud tumult was heard at some distance, and
+Blanche was terrified. 'It is only those villains in the dungeon, my
+Lady,' said Ludovico. 'They seem to be bursting it open,' said the
+Count. 'No, my Lord,' replied Ludovico, 'it has an iron door; we have
+nothing to fear from them; but let me go first, and look out from the
+rampart.'
+
+They quickly followed him, and found their mules browsing before the
+gates, where the party listened anxiously, but heard no sound, except
+that of the torrent below and of the early breeze, sighing among the
+branches of the old oak, that grew in the court; and they were now glad
+to perceive the first tints of dawn over the mountain-tops. When they
+had mounted their mules, Ludovico, undertaking to be their guide, led
+them by an easier path, than that by which they had formerly ascended,
+into the glen. 'We must avoid that valley to the east, my Lord,'
+said he, 'or we may meet the banditti; they went out that way in the
+morning.'
+
+The travellers, soon after, quitted this glen, and found themselves in
+a narrow valley that stretched towards the north-west. The morning light
+upon the mountains now strengthened fast, and gradually discovered the
+green hillocks, that skirted the winding feet of the cliffs, tufted with
+cork tree, and ever-green oak. The thunder-clouds being dispersed, had
+left the sky perfectly serene, and Blanche was revived by the fresh
+breeze, and by the view of verdure, which the late rain had brightened.
+Soon after, the sun arose, when the dripping rocks, with the shrubs that
+fringed their summits, and many a turfy slope below, sparkled in his
+rays. A wreath of mist was seen, floating along the extremity of the
+valley, but the gale bore it before the travellers, and the sun-beams
+gradually drew it up towards the summit of the mountains. They had
+proceeded about a league, when, St. Foix having complained of extreme
+faintness, they stopped to give him refreshment, and, that the men, who
+bore him, might rest. Ludovico had brought from the fort some flasks of
+rich Spanish wine, which now proved a reviving cordial not only to
+St. Foix but to the whole party, though to him it gave only temporary
+relief, for it fed the fever, that burned in his veins, and he could
+neither disguise in his countenance the anguish he suffered, or suppress
+the wish, that he was arrived at the inn, where they had designed to
+pass the preceding night.
+
+While they thus reposed themselves under the shade of the dark green
+pines, the Count desired Ludovico to explain shortly, by what means he
+had disappeared from the north apartment, how he came into the hands of
+the banditti, and how he had contributed so essentially to serve him and
+his family, for to him he justly attributed their present deliverance.
+Ludovico was going to obey him, when suddenly they heard the echo of
+a pistol-shot, from the way they had passed, and they rose in alarm,
+hastily to pursue their route.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+  Ah why did Fate his steps decoy
+ In stormy paths to roam,
+ Remote from all congenial joy!
+     BEATTIE
+
+Emily, mean while, was still suffering anxiety as to the fate of
+Valancourt; but Theresa, having, at length, found a person, whom she
+could entrust on her errand to the steward, informed her, that the
+messenger would return on the following day; and Emily promised to be at
+the cottage, Theresa being too lame to attend her.
+
+In the evening, therefore, Emily set out alone for the cottage, with a
+melancholy foreboding, concerning Valancourt, while, perhaps, the gloom
+of the hour might contribute to depress her spirits. It was a grey
+autumnal evening towards the close of the season; heavy mists partially
+obscured the mountains, and a chilling breeze, that sighed among the
+beech woods, strewed her path with some of their last yellow leaves.
+These, circling in the blast and foretelling the death of the year,
+gave an image of desolation to her mind, and, in her fancy, seemed to
+announce the death of Valancourt. Of this she had, indeed, more than
+once so strong a presentiment, that she was on the point of returning
+home, feeling herself unequal to an encounter with the certainty she
+anticipated, but, contending with her emotions, she so far commanded
+them, as to be able to proceed.
+
+While she walked mournfully on, gazing on the long volumes of vapour,
+that poured upon the sky, and watching the swallows, tossed along the
+wind, now disappearing among tempestuous clouds, and then emerging,
+for a moment, in circles upon the calmer air, the afflictions and
+vicissitudes of her late life seemed pourtrayed in these fleeting
+images;--thus had she been tossed upon the stormy sea of misfortune for
+the last year, with but short intervals of peace, if peace that could be
+called, which was only the delay of evils. And now, when she had escaped
+from so many dangers, was become independent of the will of those, who
+had oppressed her, and found herself mistress of a large fortune, now,
+when she might reasonably have expected happiness, she perceived that
+she was as distant from it as ever. She would have accused herself
+of weakness and ingratitude in thus suffering a sense of the various
+blessings she possessed to be overcome by that of a single misfortune,
+had this misfortune affected herself alone; but, when she had wept for
+Valancourt even as living, tears of compassion had mingled with those
+of regret, and while she lamented a human being degraded to vice, and
+consequently to misery, reason and humanity claimed these tears, and
+fortitude had not yet taught her to separate them from those of love; in
+the present moments, however, it was not the certainty of his guilt, but
+the apprehension of his death (of a death also, to which she herself,
+however innocently, appeared to have been in some degree instrumental)
+that oppressed her. This fear increased, as the means of certainty
+concerning it approached; and, when she came within view of Theresa's
+cottage, she was so much disordered, and her resolution failed her so
+entirely, that, unable to proceed, she rested on a bank, beside her
+path; where, as she sat, the wind that groaned sullenly among the lofty
+branches above, seemed to her melancholy imagination to bear the sounds
+of distant lamentation, and, in the pauses of the gust, she still
+fancied she heard the feeble and far-off notes of distress. Attention
+convinced her, that this was no more than fancy; but the increasing
+gloom, which seemed the sudden close of day, soon warned her to depart,
+and, with faltering steps, she again moved toward the cottage. Through
+the casement appeared the cheerful blaze of a wood fire, and Theresa,
+who had observed Emily approaching, was already at the door to receive
+her.
+
+'It is a cold evening, madam,' said she, 'storms are coming on, and I
+thought you would like a fire. Do take this chair by the hearth.'
+
+Emily, thanking her for this consideration, sat down, and then, looking
+in her face, on which the wood fire threw a gleam, she was struck with
+its expression, and, unable to speak, sunk back in her chair with a
+countenance so full of woe, that Theresa instantly comprehended the
+occasion of it, but she remained silent. 'Ah!' said Emily, at length,
+'it is unnecessary for me to ask the result of your enquiry, your
+silence, and that look, sufficiently explain it;--he is dead!'
+
+'Alas! my dear young lady,' replied Theresa, while tears filled her
+eyes, 'this world is made up of trouble! the rich have their share
+as well as the poor! But we must all endeavour to bear what Heaven
+pleases.'
+
+'He is dead, then!'--interrupted Emily--'Valancourt is dead!'
+
+'A-well-a-day! I fear he is,' replied Theresa.
+
+'You fear!' said Emily, 'do you only fear?'
+
+'Alas! yes, madam, I fear he is! neither the steward, or any of the
+Epourville family, have heard of him since he left Languedoc, and
+the Count is in great affliction about him, for he says he was always
+punctual in writing, but that now he has not received a line from him,
+since he left Languedoc; he appointed to be at home, three weeks ago,
+but he has neither come, or written, and they fear some accident has
+befallen him. Alas! that ever I should live to cry for his death! I am
+old, and might have died without being missed, but he'--Emily was faint,
+and asked for some water, and Theresa, alarmed by the voice, in which
+she spoke, hastened to her assistance, and, while she held the water to
+Emily's lips, continued, 'My dear young mistress, do not take it so to
+heart; the Chevalier may be alive and well, for all this; let us hope
+the best!'
+
+'O no! I cannot hope,' said Emily, 'I am acquainted with circumstances,
+that will not suffer me to hope. I am somewhat better now, and can hear
+what you have to say. Tell me, I entreat, the particulars of what you
+know.'
+
+'Stay, till you are a little better, mademoiselle, you look sadly!'
+
+'O no, Theresa, tell me all, while I have the power to hear it,' said
+Emily, 'tell me all, I conjure you!'
+
+'Well, madam, I will then; but the steward did not say much, for Richard
+says he seemed shy of talking about Mons. Valancourt, and what he
+gathered was from Gabriel, one of the servants, who said he had heard it
+from my lord's gentleman.'
+
+'What did he hear?' said Emily.
+
+'Why, madam, Richard has but a bad memory, and could not remember half
+of it, and, if I had not asked him a great many questions, I should have
+heard little indeed. But he says that Gabriel said, that he and all the
+other servants were in great trouble about M. Valancourt, for that he
+was such a kind young gentleman, they all loved him, as well as if he
+had been their own brother--and now, to think what was become of him!
+For he used to be so courteous to them all, and, if any of them had been
+in fault, M. Valancourt was the first to persuade my lord to forgive
+them. And then, if any poor family was in distress, M. Valancourt was
+the first, too, to relieve them, though some folks, not a great way off,
+could have afforded that much better than he. And then, said Gabriel, he
+was so gentle to every body, and, for all he had such a noble look with
+him, he never would command, and call about him, as some of your quality
+people do, and we never minded him the less for that. Nay, says Gabriel,
+for that matter, we minded him the more, and would all have run to obey
+him at a word, sooner than if some folks had told us what to do at full
+length; aye, and were more afraid of displeasing him, too, than of them,
+that used rough words to us.'
+
+Emily, who no longer considered it to be dangerous to listen to praise,
+bestowed on Valancourt, did not attempt to interrupt Theresa, but sat,
+attentive to her words, though almost overwhelmed with grief. 'My Lord,'
+continued Theresa, 'frets about M. Valancourt sadly, and the more,
+because, they say, he had been rather harsh against him lately. Gabriel
+says he had it from my Lord's valet, that M. Valancourt had COMPORTED
+himself wildly at Paris, and had spent a great deal of money, more
+a great deal than my Lord liked, for he loves money better than M.
+Valancourt, who had been led astray sadly. Nay, for that matter, M.
+Valancourt had been put into prison at Paris, and my Lord, says Gabriel,
+refused to take him out, and said he deserved to suffer; and, when old
+Gregoire, the butler, heard of this, he actually bought a walking-stick
+to take with him to Paris, to visit his young master; but the next thing
+we hear is, that M. Valancourt is coming home. O, it was a joyful day
+when he came; but he was sadly altered, and my Lord looked very cool
+upon him, and he was very sad, indeed. And, soon after, he went away
+again into Languedoc, and, since that time, we have never seen him.'
+
+Theresa paused, and Emily, sighing deeply, remained with her eyes fixed
+upon the floor, without speaking. After a long pause, she enquired what
+further Theresa had heard. 'Yet why should I ask?' she added; 'what
+you have already told is too much. O Valancourt! thou art gone--forever
+gone! and I--I have murdered thee!' These words, and the countenance of
+despair which accompanied them, alarmed Theresa, who began to fear, that
+the shock of the intelligence Emily had just received, had affected her
+senses. 'My dear young lady, be composed,' said she, 'and do not say
+such frightful words. You murder M. Valancourt,--dear heart!' Emily
+replied only by a heavy sigh.
+
+'Dear lady, it breaks my heart to see you look so,' said Theresa, 'do
+not sit with your eyes upon the ground, and all so pale and melancholy;
+it frightens me to see you.' Emily was still silent, and did not
+appear to hear any thing that was said to her. 'Besides, mademoiselle,'
+continued Theresa, 'M. Valancourt may be alive and merry yet, for what
+we know.'
+
+At the mention of his name, Emily raised her eyes, and fixed them, in a
+wild gaze, upon Theresa, as if she was endeavouring to understand what
+had been said. 'Aye, my dear lady,' said Theresa, mistaking the meaning
+of this considerate air, 'M. Valancourt may be alive and merry yet.'
+
+On the repetition of these words, Emily comprehended their import, but,
+instead of producing the effect intended, they seemed only to heighten
+her distress. She rose hastily from her chair, paced the little room,
+with quick steps, and, often sighing deeply, clasped her hands, and
+shuddered.
+
+Meanwhile, Theresa, with simple, but honest affection, endeavoured to
+comfort her; put more wood on the fire, stirred it up into a brighter
+blaze, swept the hearth, set the chair, which Emily had left, in a
+warmer situation, and then drew forth from a cupboard a flask of wine.
+'It is a stormy night, madam,' said she, 'and blows cold--do come nearer
+the fire, and take a glass of this wine; it will comfort you, as it has
+done me, often and often, for it is not such wine as one gets every day;
+it is rich Languedoc, and the last of six flasks that M. Valancourt sent
+me, the night before he left Gascony for Paris. They have served me,
+ever since, as cordials, and I never drink it, but I think of him, and
+what kind words he said to me when he gave them. Theresa, says he, you
+are not young now, and should have a glass of good wine, now and then. I
+will send you a few flasks, and, when you taste them, you will sometimes
+remember me your friend. Yes--those were his very words--me your
+friend!' Emily still paced the room, without seeming to hear what
+Theresa said, who continued speaking. 'And I have remembered him, often
+enough, poor young gentleman!--for he gave me this roof for a shelter,
+and that, which has supported me. Ah! he is in heaven, with my blessed
+master, if ever saint was!'
+
+Theresa's voice faltered; she wept, and set down the flask, unable to
+pour out the wine. Her grief seemed to recall Emily from her own, who
+went towards her, but then stopped, and, having gazed on her, for a
+moment, turned suddenly away, as if overwhelmed by the reflection, that
+it was Valancourt, whom Theresa lamented.
+
+While she yet paced the room, the still, soft note of an oboe, or flute,
+was heard mingling with the blast, the sweetness of which affected
+Emily's spirits; she paused a moment in attention; the tender tones,
+as they swelled along the wind, till they were lost again in the ruder
+gust, came with a plaintiveness, that touched her heart, and she melted
+into tears.
+
+'Aye,' said Theresa, drying her eyes, 'there is Richard, our neighbour's
+son, playing on the oboe; it is sad enough, to hear such sweet music
+now.' Emily continued to weep, without replying. 'He often plays of an
+evening,' added Theresa, 'and, sometimes, the young folks dance to the
+sound of his oboe. But, dear young lady! do not cry so; and pray take
+a glass of this wine,' continued she, pouring some into a glass, and
+handing it to Emily, who reluctantly took it.
+
+'Taste it for M. Valancourt's sake,' said Theresa, as Emily lifted the
+glass to her lips, 'for he gave it me, you know, madam.' Emily's hand
+trembled, and she spilt the wine as she withdrew it from her lips. 'For
+whose sake!--who gave the wine?' said she in a faltering voice. 'M.
+Valancourt, dear lady. I knew you would be pleased with it. It is the
+last flask I have left.'
+
+Emily set the wine upon the table, and burst into tears, while Theresa,
+disappointed and alarmed, tried to comfort her; but she only waved her
+hand, entreated she might be left alone, and wept the more.
+
+A knock at the cottage door prevented Theresa from immediately obeying
+her mistress, and she was going to open it, when Emily, checking her,
+requested she would not admit any person; but, afterwards, recollecting,
+that she had ordered her servant to attend her home, she said it was
+only Philippe, and endeavoured to restrain her tears, while Theresa
+opened the door.
+
+A voice, that spoke without, drew Emily's attention. She listened,
+turned her eyes to the door, when a person now appeared, and immediately
+a bright gleam, that flashed from the fire, discovered--Valancourt!
+
+Emily, on perceiving him, started from her chair, trembled, and, sinking
+into it again, became insensible to all around her.
+
+A scream from Theresa now told, that she knew Valancourt, whom her
+imperfect sight, and the duskiness of the place had prevented her from
+immediately recollecting; but his attention was immediately called from
+her to the person, whom he saw, falling from a chair near the fire;
+and, hastening to her assistance,--he perceived, that he was supporting
+Emily! The various emotions, that seized him upon thus unexpectedly
+meeting with her, from whom he had believed he had parted for ever,
+and on beholding her pale and lifeless in his arms--may, perhaps, be
+imagined, though they could neither be then expressed, or now described,
+any more than Emily's sensations, when, at length, she unclosed her
+eyes, and, looking up, again saw Valancourt. The intense anxiety, with
+which he regarded her, was instantly changed to an expression of mingled
+joy and tenderness, as his eye met hers, and he perceived, that she was
+reviving. But he could only exclaim, 'Emily!' as he silently watched her
+recovery, while she averted her eye, and feebly attempted to withdraw
+her hand; but, in these the first moments, which succeeded to the pangs
+his supposed death had occasioned her, she forgot every fault, which had
+formerly claimed indignation, and beholding Valancourt such as he had
+appeared, when he won her early affection, she experienced emotions of
+only tenderness and joy. This, alas! was but the sunshine of a few short
+moments; recollections rose, like clouds, upon her mind, and, darkening
+the illusive image, that possessed it, she again beheld Valancourt,
+degraded--Valancourt unworthy of the esteem and tenderness she had once
+bestowed upon him; her spirits faltered, and, withdrawing her hand, she
+turned from him to conceal her grief, while he, yet more embarrassed and
+agitated, remained silent.
+
+A sense of what she owed to herself restrained her tears, and taught
+her soon to overcome, in some degree, the emotions of mingled joy and
+sorrow, that contended at her heart, as she rose, and, having thanked
+him for the assistance he had given her, bade Theresa good evening. As
+she was leaving the cottage, Valancourt, who seemed suddenly awakened
+as from a dream, entreated, in a voice, that pleaded powerfully for
+compassion, a few moments attention. Emily's heart, perhaps, pleaded as
+powerfully, but she had resolution enough to resist both, together with
+the clamorous entreaties of Theresa, that she would not venture home
+alone in the dark, and had already opened the cottage door, when the
+pelting storm compelled her to obey their requests.
+
+Silent and embarrassed, she returned to the fire, while Valancourt, with
+increasing agitation, paced the room, as if he wished, yet feared, to
+speak, and Theresa expressed without restraint her joy and wonder upon
+seeing him.
+
+'Dear heart! sir,' said she, 'I never was so surprised and overjoyed in
+my life. We were in great tribulation before you came, for we thought
+you was dead, and were talking, and lamenting about you, just when you
+knocked at the door. My young mistress there was crying, fit to break
+her heart--'
+
+Emily looked with much displeasure at Theresa, but, before she could
+speak, Valancourt, unable to repress the emotion, which Theresa's
+imprudent discovery occasioned, exclaimed, 'O my Emily! am I then
+still dear to you! Did you, indeed, honour me with a thought--a tear? O
+heavens! you weep--you weep now!'
+
+'Theresa, sir,' said Emily, with a reserved air, and trying to conquer
+her tears, 'has reason to remember you with gratitude, and she was
+concerned, because she had not lately heard of you. Allow me to thank
+you for the kindness you have shewn her, and to say, that, since I am
+now upon the spot, she must not be further indebted to you.''
+
+'Emily,' said Valancourt, no longer master of his emotions, 'is it thus
+you meet him, whom once you meant to honour with your hand--thus you
+meet him, who has loved you--suffered for you?--Yet what do I say?
+Pardon me, pardon me, mademoiselle St. Aubert, I know not what I utter.
+I have no longer any claim upon your remembrance--I have forfeited every
+pretension to your esteem, your love. Yes! let me not forget, that I
+once possessed your affections, though to know that I have lost them,
+is my severest affliction. Affliction--do I call it!--that is a term of
+mildness.'
+
+'Dear heart!' said Theresa, preventing Emily from replying, 'talk of
+once having her affections! Why, my dear young lady loves you now,
+better than she does any body in the whole world, though she pretends to
+deny it.'
+
+'This is insupportable!' said Emily; 'Theresa, you know not what you
+say. Sir, if you respect my tranquillity, you will spare me from the
+continuance of this distress.'
+
+'I do respect your tranquillity too much, voluntarily to interrupt it,'
+replied Valancourt, in whose bosom pride now contended with tenderness;
+'and will not be a voluntary intruder. I would have entreated a few
+moments attention--yet I know not for what purpose. You have ceased to
+esteem me, and to recount to you my sufferings will degrade me more,
+without exciting even your pity. Yet I have been, O Emily! I am indeed
+very wretched!' added Valancourt, in a voice, that softened from
+solemnity into grief.
+
+'What! is my dear young master going out in all this rain!' said
+Theresa. 'No, he shall not stir a step. Dear! dear! to see how
+gentlefolks can afford to throw away their happiness! Now, if you were
+poor people, there would be none of this. To talk of unworthiness,
+and not caring about one another, when I know there are not such a
+kind-hearted lady and gentleman in the whole province, nor any that love
+one another half so well, if the truth was spoken!'
+
+Emily, in extreme vexation, now rose from her chair, 'I must be gone,'
+said she, 'the storm is over.'
+
+'Stay, Emily, stay, mademoiselle St. Aubert!' said Valancourt, summoning
+all his resolution, 'I will no longer distress you by my presence.
+Forgive me, that I did not sooner obey you, and, if you can, sometimes,
+pity one, who, in losing you--has lost all hope of peace! May you be
+happy, Emily, however wretched I remain, happy as my fondest wish would
+have you!'
+
+His voice faltered with the last words, and his countenance changed,
+while, with a look of ineffable tenderness and grief, he gazed upon her
+for an instant, and then quitted the cottage.
+
+'Dear heart! dear heart!' cried Theresa, following him to the door,
+'why, Monsieur Valancourt! how it rains! what a night is this to turn
+him out in! Why it will give him his death; and it was but now you was
+crying, mademoiselle, because he was dead. Well! young ladies do change
+their mind in a minute, as one may say!'
+
+Emily made no reply, for she heard not what was said, while, lost in
+sorrow and thought, she remained in her chair by the fire, with her eyes
+fixed, and the image of Valancourt still before them.
+
+'M. Valancourt is sadly altered! madam,' said Theresa; 'he looks so thin
+to what he used to do, and so melancholy, and then he wears his arm in a
+sling.'
+
+Emily raised her eyes at these words, for she had not observed this last
+circumstance, and she now did not doubt, that Valancourt had received
+the shot of her gardener at Tholouse; with this conviction her pity for
+him returning, she blamed herself for having occasioned him to leave the
+cottage, during the storm.
+
+Soon after her servants arrived with the carriage, and Emily, having
+censured Theresa for her thoughtless conversation to Valancourt, and
+strictly charging her never to repeat any hints of the same kind to him,
+withdrew to her home, thoughtful and disconsolate.
+
+Meanwhile, Valancourt had returned to a little inn of the village,
+whither he had arrived only a few moments before his visit to Theresa's
+cottage, on the way from Tholouse to the chateau of the Count de
+Duvarney, where he had not been since he bade adieu to Emily at
+Chateau-le-Blanc, in the neighbourhood of which he had lingered for a
+considerable time, unable to summon resolution enough to quit a place,
+that contained the object most dear to his heart. There were times,
+indeed, when grief and despair urged him to appear again before Emily,
+and, regardless of his ruined circumstances, to renew his suit. Pride,
+however, and the tenderness of his affection, which could not long
+endure the thought of involving her in his misfortunes, at length, so
+far triumphed over passion, that he relinquished this desperate design,
+and quitted Chateau-le-Blanc. But still his fancy wandered among the
+scenes, which had witnessed his early love, and, on his way to
+Gascony, he stopped at Tholouse, where he remained when Emily arrived,
+concealing, yet indulging his melancholy in the gardens, where he had
+formerly passed with her so many happy hours; often recurring, with vain
+regret, to the evening before her departure for Italy, when she had so
+unexpectedly met him on the terrace, and endeavouring to recall to his
+memory every word and look, which had then charmed him, the arguments
+he had employed to dissuade her from the journey, and the tenderness
+of their last farewel. In such melancholy recollections he had been
+indulging, when Emily unexpectedly arrived to him on this very terrace,
+the evening after her arrival at Tholouse. His emotions, on thus
+seeing her, can scarcely be imagined; but he so far overcame the first
+promptings of love, that he forbore to discover himself, and abruptly
+quitted the gardens. Still, however, the vision he had seen haunted his
+mind; he became more wretched than before, and the only solace of his
+sorrow was to return in the silence of the night; to follow the paths
+which he believed her steps had pressed, during the day; and, to watch
+round the habitation where she reposed. It was in one of these mournful
+wanderings, that he had received by the fire of the gardener, who
+mistook him for a robber, a wound in his arm, which had detained him
+at Tholouse till very lately, under the hands of a surgeon. There,
+regardless of himself and careless of his friends, whose late unkindness
+had urged him to believe, that they were indifferent as to his fate,
+he remained, without informing them of his situation; and now, being
+sufficiently recovered to bear travelling, he had taken La Vallee in
+his way to Estuviere, the Count's residence, partly for the purpose of
+hearing of Emily, and of being again near her, and partly for that of
+enquiring into the situation of poor old Theresa, who, he had reason to
+suppose, had been deprived of her stipend, small as it was, and which
+enquiry had brought him to her cottage, when Emily happened to be there.
+
+This unexpected interview, which had at once shewn him the tenderness of
+her love and the strength of her resolution, renewed all the acuteness
+of the despair, that had attended their former separation, and which
+no effort of reason could teach him, in these moments, to subdue. Her
+image, her look, the tones of her voice, all dwelt on his fancy, as
+powerfully as they had late appeared to his senses, and banished from
+his heart every emotion, except those of love and despair.
+
+Before the evening concluded, he returned to Theresa's cottage, that
+he might hear her talk of Emily, and be in the place, where she had so
+lately been. The joy, felt and expressed by that faithful servant, was
+quickly changed to sorrow, when she observed, at one moment, his wild
+and phrensied look, and, at another, the dark melancholy, that overhung
+him.
+
+After he had listened, and for a considerable time, to all she had to
+relate, concerning Emily, he gave Theresa nearly all the money he
+had about him, though she repeatedly refused it, declaring, that her
+mistress had amply supplied her wants; and then, drawing a ring of value
+from his finger, he delivered it her with a solemn charge to present
+it to Emily, of whom he entreated, as a last favour, that she would
+preserve it for his sake, and sometimes, when she looked upon it,
+remember the unhappy giver.
+
+Theresa wept, as she received the ring, but it was more from sympathy,
+than from any presentiment of evil; and before she could reply,
+Valancourt abruptly left the cottage. She followed him to the door,
+calling upon his name and entreating him to return; but she received no
+answer, and saw him no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+  Call up him, that left half told
+ The story of Cambuscan bold.
+     MILTON
+
+On the following morning, as Emily sat in the parlour adjoining the
+library, reflecting on the scene of the preceding night, Annette rushed
+wildly into the room, and, without speaking, sunk breathless into a
+chair. It was some time before she could answer the anxious enquiries of
+Emily, as to the occasion of her emotion, but, at length, she exclaimed,
+'I have seen his ghost, madam, I have seen his ghost!'
+
+'Who do you mean?' said Emily, with extreme impatience.
+
+'It came in from the hall, madam,' continued Annette, 'as I was crossing
+to the parlour.'
+
+'Who are you speaking of?' repeated Emily, 'Who came in from the hall?
+
+'It was dressed just as I have seen him, often and often,' added
+Annette. 'Ah! who could have thought--'
+
+Emily's patience was now exhausted, and she was reprimanding her for
+such idle fancies, when a servant entered the room, and informed her,
+that a stranger without begged leave to speak with her.
+
+It immediately occurred to Emily, that this stranger was Valancourt, and
+she told the servant to inform him, that she was engaged, and could not
+see any person.
+
+The servant, having delivered his message, returned with one from the
+stranger, urging the first request, and saying, that he had something of
+consequence to communicate; while Annette, who had hitherto sat
+silent and amazed, now started up, and crying, 'It is Ludovico!--it is
+Ludovico!' ran out of the room. Emily bade the servant follow her, and,
+if it really was Ludovico, to shew him into the parlour.
+
+In a few minutes, Ludovico appeared, accompanied by Annette, who, as
+joy rendered her forgetful of all rules of decorum towards her mistress,
+would not suffer any person to be heard, for some time, but herself.
+Emily expressed surprise and satisfaction, on seeing Ludovico in safety,
+and the first emotions increased, when he delivered letters from
+Count De Villefort and the Lady Blanche, informing her of their late
+adventure, and of their present situation at an inn among the Pyrenees,
+where they had been detained by the illness of Mons. St. Foix, and the
+indisposition of Blanche, who added, that the Baron St. Foix was just
+arrived to attend his son to his chateau, where he would remain till the
+perfect recovery of his wounds, and then return to Languedoc, but that
+her father and herself purposed to be at La Vallee, on the following
+day. She added, that Emily's presence would be expected at the
+approaching nuptials, and begged she would be prepared to proceed, in
+a few days to Chateau-le-Blanc. For an account of Ludovico's adventure,
+she referred her to himself; and Emily, though much interested,
+concerning the means, by which he had disappeared from the north
+apartments, had the forbearance to suspend the gratification of her
+curiosity, till he had taken some refreshment, and had conversed with
+Annette, whose joy, on seeing him in safety, could not have been more
+extravagant, had he arisen from the grave.
+
+Meanwhile, Emily perused again the letters of her friends, whose
+expressions of esteem and kindness were very necessary consolations
+to her heart, awakened as it was by the late interview to emotions of
+keener sorrow and regret.
+
+The invitation to Chateau-le-Blanc was pressed with so much kindness by
+the Count and his daughter, who strengthened it by a message from the
+Countess, and the occasion of it was so important to her friend, that
+Emily could not refuse to accept it, nor, though she wished to remain
+in the quiet shades of her native home, could she avoid perceiving the
+impropriety of remaining there alone, since Valancourt was again in the
+neighbourhood. Sometimes, too, she thought, that change of scenery and
+the society of her friends might contribute, more than retirement, to
+restore her to tranquillity.
+
+When Ludovico again appeared, she desired him to give a detail of his
+adventure in the north apartments, and to tell by what means he became a
+companion of the banditti, with whom the Count had found him.
+
+He immediately obeyed, while Annette, who had not yet had leisure to
+ask him many questions, on the subject, prepared to listen, with a
+countenance of extreme curiosity, venturing to remind her lady of her
+incredulity, concerning spirits, in the castle of Udolpho, and of
+her own sagacity in believing in them; while Emily, blushing at the
+consciousness of her late credulity, observed, that, if Ludovico's
+adventure could justify Annette's superstition, he had probably not been
+here to relate it.
+
+Ludovico smiled at Annette, and bowed to Emily, and then began as
+follows:
+
+'You may remember, madam, that, on the night, when I sat up in the north
+chamber, my lord, the Count, and Mons. Henri accompanied me thither, and
+that, while they remained there, nothing happened to excite any alarm.
+When they were gone I made a fire in the bed-room, and, not being
+inclined to sleep, I sat down on the hearth with a book I had brought
+with me to divert my mind. I confess I did sometimes look round the
+chamber, with something like apprehension--'
+
+'O very like it, I dare say,' interrupted Annette, 'and I dare say too,
+if the truth was known, you shook from head to foot.'
+
+'Not quite so bad as that,' replied Ludovico, smiling, 'but several
+times, as the wind whistled round the castle, and shook the old
+casements, I did fancy I heard odd noises, and, once or twice, I got up
+and looked about me; but nothing was to be seen, except the grim figures
+in the tapestry, which seemed to frown upon me, as I looked at them.
+I had sat thus for above an hour,' continued Ludovico, 'when again I
+thought I heard a noise, and glanced my eyes round the room, to discover
+what it came from, but, not perceiving any thing, I began to read
+again, and, when I had finished the story I was upon, I felt drowsy, and
+dropped asleep. But presently I was awakened by the noise I had heard
+before, and it seemed to come from that part of the chamber, where the
+bed stood; and then, whether it was the story I had been reading that
+affected my spirits, or the strange reports, that had been spread of
+these apartments, I don't know, but, when I looked towards the bed
+again, I fancied I saw a man's face within the dusky curtains.'
+
+At the mention of this, Emily trembled, and looked anxiously,
+remembering the spectacle she had herself witnessed there with Dorothee.
+
+'I confess, madam, my heart did fail me, at that instant,' continued
+Ludovico, 'but a return of the noise drew my attention from the bed, and
+I then distinctly heard a sound, like that of a key, turning in a lock,
+but what surprised me more was, that I saw no door where the sound
+seemed to come from. In the next moment, however, the arras near the
+bed was slowly lifted, and a person appeared behind it, entering from
+a small door in the wall. He stood for a moment as if half retreating,
+with his head bending under the arras which concealed the upper part of
+his face except his eyes scowling beneath the tapestry as he held it;
+and then, while he raised it higher, I saw the face of another man
+behind, looking over his shoulder. I know not how it was, but, though
+my sword was upon the table before me, I had not the power just then to
+seize it, but sat quite still, watching them, with my eyes half shut as
+if I was asleep. I suppose they thought me so, and were debating what
+they should do, for I heard them whisper, and they stood in the same
+posture for the value of a minute, and then, I thought I perceived other
+faces in the duskiness beyond the door, and heard louder whispers.'
+
+'This door surprises me,' said Emily, 'because I understood, that
+the Count had caused the arras to be lifted, and the walls examined,
+suspecting, that they might have concealed a passage through which you
+had departed.'
+
+'It does not appear so extraordinary to me, madam,' replied Ludovico,
+'that this door should escape notice, because it was formed in a narrow
+compartment, which appeared to be part of the outward wall, and, if the
+Count had not passed over it, he might have thought it was useless to
+search for a door where it seemed as if no passage could communicate
+with one; but the truth was, that the passage was formed within the
+wall itself.--But, to return to the men, whom I saw obscurely beyond the
+door, and who did not suffer me to remain long in suspense, concerning
+their design. They all rushed into the room, and surrounded me, though
+not before I had snatched up my sword to defend myself. But what could
+one man do against four? They soon disarmed me, and, having fastened my
+arms, and gagged my mouth, forced me through the private door, leaving
+my sword upon the table, to assist, as they said, those who should come
+in the morning to look for me, in fighting against the ghosts. They then
+led me through many narrow passages, cut, as I fancied, in the walls,
+for I had never seen them before, and down several flights of steps,
+till we came to the vaults underneath the castle; and then opening
+a stone door, which I should have taken for the wall itself, we went
+through a long passage, and down other steps cut in the solid rock, when
+another door delivered us into a cave. After turning and twining about,
+for some time, we reached the mouth of it, and I found myself on the
+sea-beach at the foot of the cliffs, with the chateau above. A boat was
+in waiting, into which the ruffians got, forcing me along with them,
+and we soon reached a small vessel, that was at anchor, where other men
+appeared, when setting me aboard, two of the fellows who had seized me,
+followed, and the other two rowed back to the shore, while we set sail.
+I soon found out what all this meant, and what was the business of these
+men at the chateau. We landed in Rousillon, and, after lingering
+several days about the shore, some of their comrades came down from the
+mountains, and carried me with them to the fort, where I remained till
+my Lord so unexpectedly arrived, for they had taken good care to prevent
+my running away, having blindfolded me, during the journey, and, if they
+had not done this, I think I never could have found my road to any town,
+through the wild country we traversed. After I reached the fort I was
+watched like a prisoner, and never suffered to go out, without two or
+three companions, and I became so weary of life, that I often wished to
+get rid of it.'
+
+'Well, but they let you talk,' said Annette, 'they did not gagg you
+after they got you away from the chateau, so I don't see what reason
+there was to be so very weary of living; to say nothing about the chance
+you had of seeing me again.'
+
+Ludovico smiled, and Emily also, who enquired what was the motive of
+these men for carrying him off.
+
+'I soon found out, madam,' resumed Ludovico, 'that they were pirates,
+who had, during many years, secreted their spoil in the vaults of the
+castle, which, being so near the sea, suited their purpose well. To
+prevent detection they had tried to have it believed, that the chateau
+was haunted, and, having discovered the private way to the north
+apartments, which had been shut up ever since the death of the lady
+marchioness, they easily succeeded. The housekeeper and her husband, who
+were the only persons, that had inhabited the castle, for some years,
+were so terrified by the strange noises they heard in the nights, that
+they would live there no longer; a report soon went abroad, that it
+was haunted, and the whole country believed this the more readily, I
+suppose, because it had been said, that the lady marchioness had died
+in a strange way, and because my lord never would return to the place
+afterwards.'
+
+'But why,' said Emily, 'were not these pirates contented with the
+cave--why did they think it necessary to deposit their spoil in the
+castle?'
+
+'The cave, madam,' replied Ludovico, 'was open to any body, and their
+treasures would not long have remained undiscovered there, but in the
+vaults they were secure so long as the report prevailed of their being
+haunted. Thus then, it appears, that they brought at midnight, the
+spoil they took on the seas, and kept it till they had opportunities of
+disposing of it to advantage. The pirates were connected with Spanish
+smugglers and banditti, who live among the wilds of the Pyrenees, and
+carry on various kinds of traffic, such as nobody would think of; and
+with this desperate horde of banditti I remained, till my lord arrived.
+I shall never forget what I felt, when I first discovered him--I almost
+gave him up for lost! but I knew, that, if I shewed myself, the banditti
+would discover who he was, and probably murder us all, to prevent their
+secret in the chateau being detected. I, therefore, kept out of my
+lord's sight, but had a strict watch upon the ruffians, and determined,
+if they offered him or his family violence, to discover myself, and
+fight for our lives. Soon after, I overheard some of them laying a most
+diabolical plan for the murder and plunder of the whole party, when I
+contrived to speak to some of my lord's attendants, telling them what
+was going forward, and we consulted what was best to be done; meanwhile
+my lord, alarmed at the absence of the Lady Blanche, demanded her, and
+the ruffians having given some unsatisfactory answer, my lord and Mons.
+St. Foix became furious, so then we thought it a good time to discover
+the plot, and rushing into the chamber, I called out, "Treachery! my
+lord count, defend yourself!" His lordship and the chevalier drew their
+swords directly, and a hard battle we had, but we conquered at last, as,
+madam, you are already informed of by my Lord Count.'
+
+'This is an extraordinary adventure,' said Emily, 'and much praise
+is due, Ludovico, to your prudence and intrepidity. There are some
+circumstances, however, concerning the north apartments, which still
+perplex me; but, perhaps, you may be able to explain them. Did you ever
+hear the banditti relate any thing extraordinary of these rooms?'
+
+'No, madam,' replied Ludovico, 'I never heard them speak about the
+rooms, except to laugh at the credulity of the old housekeeper, who
+once was very near catching one of the pirates; it was since the Count
+arrived at the chateau, he said, and he laughed heartily as he related
+the trick he had played off.'
+
+A blush overspread Emily's cheek, and she impatiently desired Ludovico
+to explain himself.
+
+'Why, my lady,' said he, 'as this fellow was, one night in the bed-room,
+he heard somebody approaching through the next apartment, and not having
+time to lift up the arras, and unfasten the door, he hid himself in
+the bed just by. There he lay for some time in as great a fright, I
+suppose--'
+
+'As you was in,' interrupted Annette, 'when you sat up so boldly to
+watch by yourself.'
+
+'Aye,' said Ludovico, 'in as great a fright as he ever made any body
+else suffer; and presently the housekeeper and some other person came up
+to the bed, when he, thinking they were going to examine it, bethought
+him, that his only chance of escaping detection, was by terrifying them;
+so he lifted up the counterpane, but that did not do, till he raised his
+face above it, and then they both set off, he said, as if they had seen
+the devil, and he got out of the rooms undiscovered.'
+
+Emily could not forbear smiling at this explanation of the deception,
+which had given her so much superstitious terror, and was surprised,
+that she could have suffered herself to be thus alarmed, till she
+considered, that, when the mind has once begun to yield to the weakness
+of superstition, trifles impress it with the force of conviction. Still,
+however, she remembered with awe the mysterious music, which had been
+heard, at midnight, near Chateau-le-Blanc, and she asked Ludovico if he
+could give any explanation of it; but he could not.
+
+'I only know, madam,' he added, 'that it did not belong to the pirates,
+for I have heard them laugh about it, and say, they believed the devil
+was in league with them there.'
+
+'Yes, I will answer for it he was,' said Annette, her countenance
+brightening, 'I was sure all along, that he or his spirits had something
+to do with the north apartments, and now you see, madam, I am right at
+last.'
+
+'It cannot be denied, that his spirits were very busy in that part of
+the chateau,' replied Emily, smiling. 'But I am surprised, Ludovico,
+that these pirates should persevere in their schemes, after the arrival
+of the Count; what could they expect but certain detection?'
+
+'I have reason to believe, madam,' replied Ludovico, 'that it was their
+intention to persevere no longer than was necessary for the removal of
+the stores, which were deposited in the vaults; and it appeared, that
+they had been employed in doing so from within a short period after the
+Count's arrival; but, as they had only a few hours in the night for
+this business, and were carrying on other schemes at the same time, the
+vaults were not above half emptied, when they took me away. They gloried
+exceedingly in this opportunity of confirming the superstitious reports,
+that had been spread of the north chambers, were careful to leave every
+thing there as they had found it, the better to promote the deception,
+and frequently, in their jocose moods, would laugh at the consternation,
+which they believed the inhabitants of the castle had suffered upon
+my disappearing, and it was to prevent the possibility of my betraying
+their secret, that they had removed me to such a distance. From that
+period they considered the chateau as nearly their own; but I found from
+the discourse of their comrades, that, though they were cautious, at
+first, in shewing their power there, they had once very nearly betrayed
+themselves. Going, one night, as was their custom, to the north chambers
+to repeat the noises, that had occasioned such alarm among the servants,
+they heard, as they were about to unfasten the secret door, voices in
+the bed-room. My lord has since told me, that himself and M. Henri
+were then in the apartment, and they heard very extraordinary sounds of
+lamentation, which it seems were made by these fellows, with their usual
+design of spreading terror; and my lord has owned, he then felt somewhat
+more, than surprise; but, as it was necessary to the peace of his
+family, that no notice should be taken, he was silent on the subject,
+and enjoined silence to his son.'
+
+Emily, recollecting the change, that had appeared in the spirits of
+the Count, after the night, when he had watched in the north room, now
+perceived the cause of it; and, having made some further enquiries upon
+this strange affair, she dismissed Ludovico, and went to give orders for
+the accommodation of her friends, on the following day.
+
+In the evening, Theresa, lame as she was, came to deliver the ring, with
+which Valancourt had entrusted her, and, when she presented it, Emily
+was much affected, for she remembered to have seen him wear it often
+in happier days. She was, however, much displeased, that Theresa had
+received it, and positively refused to accept it herself, though to
+have done so would have afforded her a melancholy pleasure. Theresa
+entreated, expostulated, and then described the distress of Valancourt,
+when he had given the ring, and repeated the message, with which he had
+commissioned her to deliver it; and Emily could not conceal the extreme
+sorrow this recital occasioned her, but wept, and remained lost in
+thought.
+
+'Alas! my dear young lady!' said Theresa, 'why should all this be? I
+have known you from your infancy, and it may well be supposed I love
+you, as if you was my own, and wish as much to see you happy. M.
+Valancourt, to be sure, I have not known so long, but then I have reason
+to love him, as though he was my own son. I know how well you love one
+another, or why all this weeping and wailing?' Emily waved her hand for
+Theresa to be silent, who, disregarding the signal, continued, 'And
+how much you are alike in your tempers and ways, and, that, if you were
+married, you would be the happiest couple in the whole province--then
+what is there to prevent your marrying? Dear dear! to see how some
+people fling away their happiness, and then cry and lament about it,
+just as if it was not their own doing, and as if there was more pleasure
+in wailing and weeping, than in being at peace. Learning, to be sure,
+is a fine thing, but, if it teaches folks no better than that, why I had
+rather be without it; if it would teach them to be happier, I would say
+something to it, then it would be learning and wisdom too.'
+
+Age and long services had given Theresa a privilege to talk, but
+Emily now endeavoured to check her loquacity, and, though she felt
+the justness of some of her remarks, did not choose to explain the
+circumstances, that had determined her conduct towards Valancourt. She,
+therefore, only told Theresa, that it would much displease her to hear
+the subject renewed; that she had reasons for her conduct, which she did
+not think it proper to mention, and that the ring must be returned, with
+an assurance, that she could not accept it with propriety; and, at
+the same time, she forbade Theresa to repeat any future message
+from Valancourt, as she valued her esteem and kindness. Theresa was
+afflicted, and made another attempt, though feeble, to interest her
+for Valancourt, but the unusual displeasure, expressed in Emily's
+countenance, soon obliged her to desist, and she departed in wonder and
+lamentation.
+
+To relieve her mind, in some degree, from the painful recollections,
+that intruded upon it, Emily busied herself in preparations for the
+journey into Languedoc, and, while Annette, who assisted her, spoke with
+joy and affection of the safe return of Ludovico, she was considering
+how she might best promote their happiness, and determined, if it
+appeared, that his affection was as unchanged as that of the simple and
+honest Annette, to give her a marriage portion, and settle them on some
+part of her estate. These considerations led her to the remembrance of
+her father's paternal domain, which his affairs had formerly compelled
+him to dispose of to M. Quesnel, and which she frequently wished to
+regain, because St. Aubert had lamented, that the chief lands of his
+ancestors had passed into another family, and because they had been his
+birth-place and the haunt of his early years. To the estate at Tholouse
+she had no peculiar attachment, and it was her wish to dispose of this,
+that she might purchase her paternal domains, if M. Quesnel could be
+prevailed on to part with them, which, as he talked much of living in
+Italy, did not appear very improbable.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+  Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,
+ The bees' collected treasures sweet,
+ Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet
+ The still, small voice of gratitude.
+     GRAY
+
+On the following day, the arrival of her friend revived the drooping
+Emily, and La Vallee became once more the scene of social kindness and
+of elegant hospitality. Illness and the terror she had suffered had
+stolen from Blanche much of her sprightliness, but all her affectionate
+simplicity remained, and, though she appeared less blooming, she was not
+less engaging than before. The unfortunate adventure on the Pyrenees had
+made the Count very anxious to reach home, and, after little more than a
+week's stay at La Vallee, Emily prepared to set out with her friends
+for Languedoc, assigning the care of her house, during her absence,
+to Theresa. On the evening, preceding her departure, this old servant
+brought again the ring of Valancourt, and, with tears, entreated her
+mistress to receive it, for that she had neither seen, or heard of M.
+Valancourt, since the night when he delivered it to her. As she said
+this, her countenance expressed more alarm, than she dared to utter;
+but Emily, checking her own propensity to fear, considered, that he had
+probably returned to the residence of his brother, and, again refusing
+to accept the ring, bade Theresa preserve it, till she saw him, which,
+with extreme reluctance, she promised to do.
+
+On the following day, Count De Villefort, with Emily and the Lady
+Blanche, left La Vallee, and, on the ensuing evening, arrived at the
+Chateau-le-Blanc, where the Countess, Henri, and M. Du Pont, whom
+Emily was surprised to find there, received them with much joy and
+congratulation. She was concerned to observe, that the Count still
+encouraged the hopes of his friend, whose countenance declared, that
+his affection had suffered no abatement from absence; and was much
+distressed, when, on the second evening after her arrival, the Count,
+having withdrawn her from the Lady Blanche, with whom she was walking,
+renewed the subject of M. Du Pont's hopes. The mildness, with which
+she listened to his intercessions at first, deceiving him, as to her
+sentiments, he began to believe, that, her affection for Valancourt
+being overcome, she was, at length, disposed to think favourably of
+M. Du Pont; and, when she afterwards convinced him of his mistake, he
+ventured, in the earnestness of his wish to promote what he considered
+to be the happiness of two persons, whom he so much esteemed, gently
+to remonstrate with her, on thus suffering an ill-placed affection to
+poison the happiness of her most valuable years.
+
+Observing her silence and the deep dejection of her countenance, he
+concluded with saying, 'I will not say more now, but I will still
+believe, my dear Mademoiselle St. Aubert, that you will not always
+reject a person, so truly estimable as my friend Du Pont.'
+
+He spared her the pain of replying, by leaving her; and she strolled on,
+somewhat displeased with the Count for having persevered to plead for a
+suit, which she had repeatedly rejected, and lost amidst the melancholy
+recollections, which this topic had revived, till she had insensibly
+reached the borders of the woods, that screened the monastery of St.
+Clair, when, perceiving how far she had wandered, she determined to
+extend her walk a little farther, and to enquire about the abbess and
+some of her friends among the nuns.
+
+Though the evening was now drawing to a close, she accepted the
+invitation of the friar, who opened the gate, and, anxious to meet some
+of her old acquaintances, proceeded towards the convent parlour. As she
+crossed the lawn, that sloped from the front of the monastery towards
+the sea, she was struck with the picture of repose, exhibited by some
+monks, sitting in the cloisters, which extended under the brow of the
+woods, that crowned this eminence; where, as they meditated, at this
+twilight hour, holy subjects, they sometimes suffered their attention to
+be relieved by the scene before them, nor thought it profane to look at
+nature, now that it had exchanged the brilliant colours of day for the
+sober hue of evening. Before the cloisters, however, spread an
+ancient chesnut, whose ample branches were designed to screen the full
+magnificence of a scene, that might tempt the wish to worldly pleasures;
+but still, beneath the dark and spreading foliage, gleamed a wide extent
+of ocean, and many a passing sail; while, to the right and left, thick
+woods were seen stretching along the winding shores. So much as this had
+been admitted, perhaps, to give to the secluded votary an image of the
+dangers and vicissitudes of life, and to console him, now that he had
+renounced its pleasures, by the certainty of having escaped its evils.
+As Emily walked pensively along, considering how much suffering she
+might have escaped, had she become a votaress of the order, and remained
+in this retirement from the time of her father's death, the vesper-bell
+struck up, and the monks retired slowly toward the chapel, while she,
+pursuing her way, entered the great hall, where an unusual silence
+seemed to reign. The parlour too, which opened from it, she found
+vacant, but, as the evening bell was sounding, she believed the nuns had
+withdrawn into the chapel, and sat down to rest, for a moment, before
+she returned to the chateau, where, however, the increasing gloom made
+her now anxious to be.
+
+Not many minutes had elapsed, before a nun, entering in haste, enquired
+for the abbess, and was retiring, without recollecting Emily, when
+she made herself known, and then learned, that a mass was going to be
+performed for the soul of sister Agnes, who had been declining, for some
+time, and who was now believed to be dying.
+
+Of her sufferings the sister gave a melancholy account, and of the
+horrors, into which she had frequently started, but which had now
+yielded to a dejection so gloomy, that neither the prayers, in which she
+was joined by the sisterhood, or the assurances of her confessor, had
+power to recall her from it, or to cheer her mind even with a momentary
+gleam of comfort.
+
+To this relation Emily listened with extreme concern, and, recollecting
+the frenzied manners and the expressions of horror, which she had
+herself witnessed of Agnes, together with the history, that sister
+Frances had communicated, her compassion was heightened to a very
+painful degree. As the evening was already far advanced, Emily did not
+now desire to see her, or to join in the mass, and, after leaving many
+kind remembrances with the nun, for her old friends, she quitted the
+monastery, and returned over the cliffs towards the chateau, meditating
+upon what she had just heard, till, at length she forced her mind upon
+less interesting subjects.
+
+The wind was high, and as she drew near the chateau, she often paused
+to listen to its awful sound, as it swept over the billows, that beat
+below, or groaned along the surrounding woods; and, while she rested on
+a cliff at a short distance from the chateau, and looked upon the wide
+waters, seen dimly beneath the last shade of twilight, she thought of
+the following address:
+
+ TO THE WINDS
+
+ Viewless, through heaven's vast vault your course ye steer,
+ Unknown from whence ye come, or whither go!
+ Mysterious pow'rs! I hear ye murmur low,
+ Till swells your loud gust on my startled ear,
+ And, awful! seems to say--some God is near!
+ I love to list your midnight voices float
+ In the dread storm, that o'er the ocean rolls,
+ And, while their charm the angry wave controuls,
+ Mix with its sullen roar, and sink remote.
+ Then, rising in the pause, a sweeter note,
+ The dirge of spirits, who your deeds bewail,
+ A sweeter note oft swells while sleeps the gale!
+ But soon, ye sightless pow'rs! your rest is o'er,
+ Solemn and slow, ye rise upon the air,
+ Speak in the shrouds, and bid the sea-boy fear,
+ And the faint-warbled dirge--is heard no more!
+  Oh! then I deprecate your awful reign!
+ The loud lament yet bear not on your breath!
+ Bear not the crash of bark far on the main,
+ Bear not the cry of men, who cry in vain,
+ The crew's dread chorus sinking into death!
+ Oh! give not these, ye pow'rs!  I ask alone,
+ As rapt I climb these dark romantic steeps,
+ The elemental war, the billow's moan;
+ I ask the still, sweet tear, that listening Fancy weeps!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+  Unnatural deeds
+ Do breed unnatural troubles:  infected minds
+ To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
+ More needs she the divine, than the physician.
+     MACBETH
+
+On the following evening, the view of the convent towers, rising among
+the shadowy woods, reminded Emily of the nun, whose condition had so
+much affected her; and, anxious to know how she was, as well as to see
+some of her former friends, she and the Lady Blanche extended their walk
+to the monastery. At the gate stood a carriage, which, from the heat
+of the horses, appeared to have just arrived; but a more than common
+stillness pervaded the court and the cloisters, through which Emily
+and Blanche passed in their way to the great hall, where a nun, who was
+crossing to the stair-case, replied to the enquiries of the former, that
+sister Agnes was still living, and sensible, but that it was thought she
+could not survive the night. In the parlour, they found several of
+the boarders, who rejoiced to see Emily, and told her many little
+circumstances that had happened in the convent since her departure, and
+which were interesting to her only because they related to persons, whom
+she had regarded with affection. While they thus conversed the abbess
+entered the room, and expressed much satisfaction at seeing Emily, but
+her manner was unusually solemn, and her countenance dejected. 'Our
+house,' said she, after the first salutations were over, 'is truly a
+house of mourning--a daughter is now paying the debt of nature.--You
+have heard, perhaps, that our daughter Agnes is dying?'
+
+Emily expressed her sincere concern.
+
+'Her death presents to us a great and awful lesson,' continued the
+abbess; 'let us read it, and profit by it; let it teach us to prepare
+ourselves for the change, that awaits us all! You are young, and have
+it yet in your power to secure "the peace that passeth all
+understanding"--the peace of conscience. Preserve it in your youth, that
+it may comfort you in age; for vain, alas! and imperfect are the good
+deeds of our latter years, if those of our early life have been evil!'
+
+Emily would have said, that good deeds, she hoped, were never vain;
+but she considered that it was the abbess who spoke, and she remained
+silent.
+
+'The latter days of Agnes,' resumed the abbess, 'have been exemplary;
+would they might atone for the errors of her former ones! Her sufferings
+now, alas! are great; let us believe, that they will make her peace
+hereafter! I have left her with her confessor, and a gentleman, whom she
+has long been anxious to see, and who is just arrived from Paris.
+They, I hope, will be able to administer the repose, which her mind has
+hitherto wanted.'
+
+Emily fervently joined in the wish.
+
+'During her illness, she has sometimes named you,' resumed the abbess;
+'perhaps, it would comfort her to see you; when her present visitors
+have left her, we will go to her chamber, if the scene will not be
+too melancholy for your spirits. But, indeed, to such scenes, however
+painful, we ought to accustom ourselves, for they are salutary to the
+soul, and prepare us for what we are ourselves to suffer.'
+
+Emily became grave and thoughtful; for this conversation brought to her
+recollection the dying moments of her beloved father, and she wished
+once more to weep over the spot, where his remains were buried.
+During the silence, which followed the abbess' speech, many minute
+circumstances attending his last hours occurred to her--his emotion on
+perceiving himself to be in the neighbourhood of Chateau-le-Blanc--his
+request to be interred in a particular spot in the church of this
+monastery--and the solemn charge he had delivered to her to destroy
+certain papers, without examining them.--She recollected also the
+mysterious and horrible words in those manuscripts, upon which her eye
+had involuntarily glanced; and, though they now, and, indeed, whenever
+she remembered them, revived an excess of painful curiosity, concerning
+their full import, and the motives for her father's command, it was
+ever her chief consolation, that she had strictly obeyed him in this
+particular.
+
+Little more was said by the abbess, who appeared too much affected by
+the subject she had lately left, to be willing to converse, and her
+companions had been for some time silent from the same cause, when this
+general reverie was interrupted by the entrance of a stranger, Monsieur
+Bonnac, who had just quitted the chamber of sister Agnes. He appeared
+much disturbed, but Emily fancied, that his countenance had more the
+expression of horror, than of grief. Having drawn the abbess to a
+distant part of the room, he conversed with her for some time, during
+which she seemed to listen with earnest attention, and he to speak
+with caution, and a more than common degree of interest. When he had
+concluded, he bowed silently to the rest of the company, and quitted the
+room. The abbess, soon after, proposed going to the chamber of sister
+Agnes, to which Emily consented, though not without some reluctance, and
+Lady Blanche remained with the boarders below.
+
+At the door of the chamber they met the confessor, whom, as he lifted
+up his head on their approach, Emily observed to be the same that had
+attended her dying father; but he passed on, without noticing her, and
+they entered the apartment, where, on a mattress, was laid sister Agnes,
+with one nun watching in the chair beside her. Her countenance was so
+much changed, that Emily would scarcely have recollected her, had she
+not been prepared to do so: it was ghastly, and overspread with gloomy
+horror; her dim and hollow eyes were fixed on a crucifix, which she
+held upon her bosom; and she was so much engaged in thought, as not to
+perceive the abbess and Emily, till they stood at the bed-side. Then,
+turning her heavy eyes, she fixed them, in wild horror, upon Emily, and,
+screaming, exclaimed, 'Ah! that vision comes upon me in my dying hours!'
+
+Emily started back in terror, and looked for explanation to the abbess,
+who made her a signal not to be alarmed, and calmly said to Agnes,
+'Daughter, I have brought Mademoiselle St. Aubert to visit you: I
+thought you would be glad to see her.'
+
+Agnes made no reply; but, still gazing wildly upon Emily, exclaimed, 'It
+is her very self! Oh! there is all that fascination in her look, which
+proved my destruction! What would you have--what is it you came to
+demand--Retribution?--It will soon be yours--it is yours already.
+How many years have passed, since last I saw you! My crime is but as
+yesterday.--Yet I am grown old beneath it; while you are still young and
+blooming--blooming as when you forced me to commit that most abhorred
+deed! O! could I once forget it!--yet what would that avail?--the deed
+is done!'
+
+Emily, extremely shocked, would now have left the room; but the abbess,
+taking her hand, tried to support her spirits, and begged she would stay
+a few moments, when Agnes would probably be calm, whom now she tried to
+sooth. But the latter seemed to disregard her, while she still fixed
+her eyes on Emily, and added, 'What are years of prayers and repentance?
+they cannot wash out the foulness of murder!--Yes, murder! Where is
+he--where is he?--Look there--look there!--see where he stalks along
+the room! Why do you come to torment me now?' continued Agnes, while her
+straining eyes were bent on air, 'why was not I punished before?--O!
+do not frown so sternly! Hah! there again! 'til she herself! Why do you
+look so piteously upon me--and smile, too? smile on me! What groan was
+that?'
+
+Agnes sunk down, apparently lifeless, and Emily, unable to support
+herself, leaned against the bed, while the abbess and the attendant nun
+were applying the usual remedies to Agnes. 'Peace,' said the abbess,
+when Emily was going to speak, 'the delirium is going off, she will soon
+revive. When was she thus before, daughter?'
+
+'Not of many weeks, madam,' replied the nun, 'but her spirits have been
+much agitated by the arrival of the gentleman she wished so much to
+see.'
+
+'Yes,' observed the abbess, 'that has undoubtedly occasioned this
+paroxysm of frenzy. When she is better, we will leave her to repose.'
+
+Emily very readily consented, but, though she could now give little
+assistance, she was unwilling to quit the chamber, while any might be
+necessary.
+
+When Agnes recovered her senses, she again fixed her eyes on Emily, but
+their wild expression was gone, and a gloomy melancholy had succeeded.
+It was some moments before she recovered sufficient spirits to speak;
+she then said feebly--'The likeness is wonderful!--surely it must
+be something more than fancy. Tell me, I conjure you,' she added,
+addressing Emily, 'though your name is St. Aubert, are you not the
+daughter of the Marchioness?'
+
+'What Marchioness?' said Emily, in extreme surprise; for she had
+imagined, from the calmness of Agnes's manner, that her intellects were
+restored. The abbess gave her a significant glance, but she repeated the
+question.
+
+'What Marchioness?' exclaimed Agnes, 'I know but of one--the Marchioness
+de Villeroi.'
+
+Emily, remembering the emotion of her late father, upon the unexpected
+mention of this lady, and his request to be laid near to the tomb of
+the Villerois, now felt greatly interested, and she entreated Agnes to
+explain the reason of her question. The abbess would now have withdrawn
+Emily from the room, who being, however, detained by a strong interest,
+repeated her entreaties.
+
+'Bring me that casket, sister,' said Agnes; 'I will shew her to you; yet
+you need only look in that mirror, and you will behold her; you surely
+are her daughter: such striking resemblance is never found but among
+near relations.'
+
+The nun brought the casket, and Agnes, having directed her how to unlock
+it, she took thence a miniature, in which Emily perceived the exact
+resemblance of the picture, which she had found among her late father's
+papers. Agnes held out her hand to receive it; gazed upon it earnestly
+for some moments in silence; and then, with a countenance of deep
+despair, threw up her eyes to Heaven, and prayed inwardly. When she had
+finished, she returned the miniature to Emily. 'Keep it,' said she,
+'I bequeath it to you, for I must believe it is your right. I have
+frequently observed the resemblance between you; but never, till this
+day, did it strike upon my conscience so powerfully! Stay, sister, do
+not remove the casket--there is another picture I would shew.'
+
+Emily trembled with expectation, and the abbess again would have
+withdrawn her. 'Agnes is still disordered,' said she, 'you observe how
+she wanders. In these moods she says any thing, and does not scruple, as
+you have witnessed, to accuse herself of the most horrible crimes.'
+
+Emily, however, thought she perceived something more than madness in
+the inconsistencies of Agnes, whose mention of the Marchioness,
+and production of her picture, had interested her so much, that she
+determined to obtain further information, if possible, respecting the
+subject of it.
+
+The nun returned with the casket, and, Agnes pointing out to her a
+secret drawer, she took from it another miniature. 'Here,' said Agnes,
+as she offered it to Emily, 'learn a lesson for your vanity, at least;
+look well at this picture, and see if you can discover any resemblance
+between what I was, and what I am.'
+
+Emily impatiently received the miniature, which her eyes had scarcely
+glanced upon, before her trembling hands had nearly suffered it to
+fall--it was the resemblance of the portrait of Signora Laurentini,
+which she had formerly seen in the castle of Udolpho--the lady, who
+had disappeared in so mysterious a manner, and whom Montoni had been
+suspected of having caused to be murdered.
+
+In silent astonishment, Emily continued to gaze alternately upon the
+picture and the dying nun, endeavouring to trace a resemblance between
+them, which no longer existed.
+
+'Why do you look so sternly on me?' said Agnes, mistaking the nature of
+Emily's emotion.
+
+'I have seen this face before,' said Emily, at length; 'was it really
+your resemblance?'
+
+'You may well ask that question,' replied the nun,--'but it was once
+esteemed a striking likeness of me. Look at me well, and see what guilt
+has made me. I then was innocent; the evil passions of my nature slept.
+Sister!' added she solemnly, and stretching forth her cold, damp hand
+to Emily, who shuddered at its touch--'Sister! beware of the first
+indulgence of the passions; beware of the first! Their course, if not
+checked then, is rapid--their force is uncontroulable--they lead us we
+know not whither--they lead us perhaps to the commission of crimes, for
+which whole years of prayer and penitence cannot atone!--Such may be the
+force of even a single passion, that it overcomes every other, and sears
+up every other approach to the heart. Possessing us like a fiend, it
+leads us on to the acts of a fiend, making us insensible to pity and
+to conscience. And, when its purpose is accomplished, like a fiend,
+it leaves us to the torture of those feelings, which its power had
+suspended--not annihilated,--to the tortures of compassion, remorse, and
+conscience. Then, we awaken as from a dream, and perceive a new
+world around us--we gaze in astonishment, and horror--but the deed
+is committed; not all the powers of heaven and earth united can
+undo it--and the spectres of conscience will not fly! What are
+riches--grandeur--health itself, to the luxury of a pure conscience, the
+health of the soul;--and what the sufferings of poverty, disappointment,
+despair--to the anguish of an afflicted one! O! how long is it since
+I knew that luxury! I believed, that I had suffered the most agonizing
+pangs of human nature, in love, jealousy, and despair--but these pangs
+were ease, compared with the stings of conscience, which I have since
+endured. I tasted too what was called the sweet of revenge--but it was
+transient, it expired even with the object, that provoked it. Remember,
+sister, that the passions are the seeds of vices as well as of virtues,
+from which either may spring, accordingly as they are nurtured. Unhappy
+they who have never been taught the art to govern them!'
+
+'Alas! unhappy!' said the abbess, 'and ill-informed of our holy
+religion!' Emily listened to Agnes, in silent awe, while she still
+examined the miniature, and became confirmed in her opinion of its
+strong resemblance to the portrait at Udolpho. 'This face is familiar to
+me,' said she, wishing to lead the nun to an explanation, yet fearing to
+discover too abruptly her knowledge of Udolpho.
+
+'You are mistaken,' replied Agnes, 'you certainly never saw that picture
+before.'
+
+'No,' replied Emily, 'but I have seen one extremely like it.'
+'Impossible,' said Agnes, who may now be called the Lady Laurentini.
+
+'It was in the castle of Udolpho,' continued Emily, looking stedfastly
+at her.
+
+'Of Udolpho!' exclaimed Laurentini, 'of Udolpho in Italy!' 'The same,'
+replied Emily.
+
+'You know me then,' said Laurentini, 'and you are the daughter of the
+Marchioness.' Emily was somewhat surprised at this abrupt assertion. 'I
+am the daughter of the late Mons. St. Aubert,' said she; 'and the lady
+you name is an utter stranger to me.'
+
+'At least you believe so,' rejoined Laurentini.
+
+Emily asked what reasons there could be to believe otherwise.
+
+'The family likeness, that you bear her,' said the nun. 'The
+Marchioness, it is known, was attached to a gentleman of Gascony, at the
+time when she accepted the hand of the Marquis, by the command of her
+father. Ill-fated, unhappy woman!'
+
+Emily, remembering the extreme emotion which St. Aubert had betrayed on
+the mention of the Marchioness, would now have suffered something more
+than surprise, had her confidence in his integrity been less; as it
+was, she could not, for a moment, believe what the words of Laurentini
+insinuated; yet she still felt strongly interested, concerning them, and
+begged, that she would explain them further.
+
+'Do not urge me on that subject,' said the nun, 'it is to me a terrible
+one! Would that I could blot it from my memory!' She sighed deeply,
+and, after the pause of a moment, asked Emily, by what means she had
+discovered her name?
+
+'By your portrait in the castle of Udolpho, to which this miniature
+bears a striking resemblance,' replied Emily.
+
+'You have been at Udolpho then!' said the nun, with great emotion.
+'Alas! what scenes does the mention of it revive in my fancy--scenes of
+happiness--of suffering--and of horror!'
+
+At this moment, the terrible spectacle, which Emily had witnessed in a
+chamber of that castle, occurred to her, and she shuddered, while she
+looked upon the nun--and recollected her late words--that 'years of
+prayer and penitence could not wash out the foulness of murder.' She
+was now compelled to attribute these to another cause, than that of
+delirium. With a degree of horror, that almost deprived her of sense,
+she now believed she looked upon a murderer; all the recollected
+behaviour of Laurentini seemed to confirm the supposition, yet Emily was
+still lost in a labyrinth of perplexities, and, not knowing how to ask
+the questions, which might lead to truth, she could only hint them in
+broken sentences.
+
+'Your sudden departure from Udolpho'--said she.
+
+Laurentini groaned.
+
+'The reports that followed it,' continued Emily--'The west chamber--the
+mournful veil--the object it conceals!--when murders are committed--'
+
+The nun shrieked. 'What! there again!' said she, endeavouring to raise
+herself, while her starting eyes seemed to follow some object round
+the room--'Come from the grave! What! Blood--blood too!--There was
+no blood--thou canst not say it!--Nay, do not smile,--do not smile so
+piteously!'
+
+Laurentini fell into convulsions, as she uttered the last words; and
+Emily, unable any longer to endure the horror of the scene, hurried from
+the room, and sent some nuns to the assistance of the abbess.
+
+The Lady Blanche, and the boarders, who were in the parlour, now
+assembled round Emily, and, alarmed by her manner and affrighted
+countenance, asked a hundred questions, which she avoided answering
+further, than by saying, that she believed sister Agnes was dying. They
+received this as a sufficient explanation of her terror, and had then
+leisure to offer restoratives, which, at length, somewhat revived Emily,
+whose mind was, however, so much shocked with the terrible surmises, and
+perplexed with doubts by some words from the nun, that she was unable
+to converse, and would have left the convent immediately, had she not
+wished to know whether Laurentini would survive the late attack. After
+waiting some time, she was informed, that, the convulsions having
+ceased, Laurentini seemed to be reviving, and Emily and Blanche were
+departing, when the abbess appeared, who, drawing the former aside, said
+she had something of consequence to say to her, but, as it was late,
+she would not detain her then, and requested to see her on the following
+day.
+
+Emily promised to visit her, and, having taken leave, returned with the
+Lady Blanche towards the chateau, on the way to which the deep gloom of
+the woods made Blanche lament, that the evening was so far advanced; for
+the surrounding stillness and obscurity rendered her sensible of fear,
+though there was a servant to protect her; while Emily was too much
+engaged by the horrors of the scene she had just witnessed, to be
+affected by the solemnity of the shades, otherwise than as they served
+to promote her gloomy reverie, from which, however, she was at length
+recalled by the Lady Blanche, who pointed out, at some distance, in
+the dusky path they were winding, two persons slowly advancing. It was
+impossible to avoid them without striking into a still more secluded
+part of the wood, whither the strangers might easily follow; but all
+apprehension vanished, when Emily distinguished the voice of Mons. Du
+Pont, and perceived, that his companion was the gentleman, whom she
+had seen at the monastery, and who was now conversing with so much
+earnestness as not immediately to perceive their approach. When Du Pont
+joined the ladies, the stranger took leave, and they proceeded to the
+chateau, where the Count, when he heard of Mons. Bonnac, claimed him for
+an acquaintance, and, on learning the melancholy occasion of his visit
+to Languedoc, and that he was lodged at a small inn in the village,
+begged the favour of Mons. Du Pont to invite him to the chateau.
+
+The latter was happy to do so, and the scruples of reserve, which made
+M. Bonnac hesitate to accept the invitation, being at length overcome,
+they went to the chateau, where the kindness of the Count and the
+sprightliness of his son were exerted to dissipate the gloom, that
+overhung the spirits of the stranger. M. Bonnac was an officer in the
+French service, and appeared to be about fifty; his figure was tall
+and commanding, his manners had received the last polish, and there was
+something in his countenance uncommonly interesting; for over features,
+which, in youth, must have been remarkably handsome, was spread a
+melancholy, that seemed the effect of long misfortune, rather than of
+constitution, or temper.
+
+The conversation he held, during supper, was evidently an effort of
+politeness, and there were intervals in which, unable to struggle
+against the feelings, that depressed him, he relapsed into silence and
+abstraction, from which, however, the Count, sometimes, withdrew him in
+a manner so delicate and benevolent, that Emily, while she observed him,
+almost fancied she beheld her late father.
+
+The party separated, at an early hour, and then, in the solitude of her
+apartment, the scenes, which Emily had lately witnessed, returned to
+her fancy, with dreadful energy. That in the dying nun she should have
+discovered Signora Laurentini, who, instead of having been murdered by
+Montoni, was, as it now seemed, herself guilty of some dreadful crime,
+excited both horror and surprise in a high degree; nor did the hints,
+which she had dropped, respecting the marriage of the Marchioness de
+Villeroi, and the enquiries she had made concerning Emily's birth,
+occasion her a less degree of interest, though it was of a different
+nature.
+
+The history, which sister Frances had formerly related, and had said to
+be that of Agnes, it now appeared, was erroneous; but for what purpose
+it had been fabricated, unless the more effectually to conceal the true
+story, Emily could not even guess. Above all, her interest was excited
+as to the relation, which the story of the late Marchioness de Villeroi
+bore to that of her father; for, that some kind of relation existed
+between them, the grief of St. Aubert, upon hearing her named, his
+request to be buried near her, and her picture, which had been found
+among his papers, certainly proved. Sometimes it occurred to Emily, that
+he might have been the lover, to whom it was said the Marchioness was
+attached, when she was compelled to marry the Marquis de Villeroi; but
+that he had afterwards cherished a passion for her, she could not suffer
+herself to believe, for a moment. The papers, which he had so solemnly
+enjoined her to destroy, she now fancied had related to this connection,
+and she wished more earnestly than before to know the reasons, that
+made him consider the injunction necessary, which, had her faith in
+his principles been less, would have led to believe, that there was
+a mystery in her birth dishonourable to her parents, which those
+manuscripts might have revealed.
+
+Reflections, similar to these, engaged her mind, during the greater part
+of the night, and when, at length, she fell into a slumber, it was only
+to behold a vision of the dying nun, and to awaken in horrors, like
+those she had witnessed.
+
+On the following morning, she was too much indisposed to attend her
+appointment with the abbess, and, before the day concluded, she heard,
+that sister Agnes was no more. Mons. Bonnac received this intelligence,
+with concern; but Emily observed, that he did not appear so much
+affected now, as on the preceding evening, immediately after quitting
+the apartment of the nun, whose death was probably less terrible to him,
+than the confession he had been then called upon to witness. However
+this might be, he was perhaps consoled, in some degree, by a knowledge
+of the legacy bequeathed him, since his family was large, and the
+extravagance of some part of it had lately been the means of involving
+him in great distress, and even in the horrors of a prison; and it was
+the grief he had suffered from the wild career of a favourite son, with
+the pecuniary anxieties and misfortunes consequent upon it, that
+had given to his countenance the air of dejection, which had so much
+interested Emily.
+
+To his friend Mons. Du Pont he recited some particulars of his late
+sufferings, when it appeared, that he had been confined for several
+months in one of the prisons of Paris, with little hope of release,
+and without the comfort of seeing his wife, who had been absent in the
+country, endeavouring, though in vain, to procure assistance from his
+friends. When, at length, she had obtained an order for admittance, she
+was so much shocked at the change, which long confinement and sorrow had
+made in his appearance, that she was seized with fits, which, by their
+long continuance, threatened her life.
+
+'Our situation affected those, who happened to witness it,' continued
+Mons. Bonnac, 'and one generous friend, who was in confinement at the
+same time, afterwards employed the first moments of his liberty in
+efforts to obtain mine. He succeeded; the heavy debt, that oppressed
+me, was discharged; and, when I would have expressed my sense of the
+obligation I had received, my benefactor was fled from my search. I have
+reason to believe he was the victim of his own generosity, and that he
+returned to the state of confinement, from which he had released me;
+but every enquiry after him was unsuccessful. Amiable and unfortunate
+Valancourt!'
+
+'Valancourt!' exclaimed Mons. Du Pont. 'Of what family?'
+
+'The Valancourts, Counts Duvarney,' replied Mons. Bonnac.
+
+The emotion of Mons. Du Pont, when he discovered the generous benefactor
+of his friend to be the rival of his love, can only be imagined; but,
+having overcome his first surprise, he dissipated the apprehensions of
+Mons. Bonnac by acquainting him, that Valancourt was at liberty, and had
+lately been in Languedoc; after which his affection for Emily prompted
+him to make some enquiries, respecting the conduct of his rival, during
+his stay at Paris, of which M. Bonnac appeared to be well informed. The
+answers he received were such as convinced him, that Valancourt had been
+much misrepresented, and, painful as was the sacrifice, he formed the
+just design of relinquishing his pursuit of Emily to a lover, who, it
+now appeared, was not unworthy of the regard, with which she honoured
+him.
+
+The conversation of Mons. Bonnac discovered, that Valancourt, some
+time after his arrival at Paris, had been drawn into the snares, which
+determined vice had spread for him, and that his hours had been chiefly
+divided between the parties of the captivating Marchioness and those
+gaming assemblies, to which the envy, or the avarice, of his brother
+officers had spared no art to seduce him. In these parties he had lost
+large sums, in efforts to recover small ones, and to such losses the
+Count De Villefort and Mons. Henri had been frequent witnesses. His
+resources were, at length, exhausted; and the Count, his brother,
+exasperated by his conduct, refused to continue the supplies necessary
+to his present mode of life, when Valancourt, in consequence of
+accumulated debts, was thrown into confinement, where his brother
+suffered him to remain, in the hope, that punishment might effect a
+reform of conduct, which had not yet been confirmed by long habit.
+
+In the solitude of his prison, Valancourt had leisure for reflection,
+and cause for repentance; here, too, the image of Emily, which, amidst
+the dissipation of the city had been obscured, but never obliterated
+from his heart, revived with all the charms of innocence and beauty, to
+reproach him for having sacrificed his happiness and debased his talents
+by pursuits, which his nobler faculties would formerly have taught him
+to consider were as tasteless as they were degrading. But, though his
+passions had been seduced, his heart was not depraved, nor had habit
+riveted the chains, that hung heavily on his conscience; and, as he
+retained that energy of will, which was necessary to burst them, he, at
+length, emancipated himself from the bondage of vice, but not till after
+much effort and severe suffering.
+
+Being released by his brother from the prison, where he had witnessed
+the affecting meeting between Mons. Bonnac and his wife, with whom he
+had been for some time acquainted, the first use of his liberty formed a
+striking instance of his humanity and his rashness; for with nearly all
+the money, just received from his brother, he went to a gaming-house,
+and gave it as a last stake for the chance of restoring his friend to
+freedom, and to his afflicted family. The event was fortunate, and,
+while he had awaited the issue of this momentous stake, he made a solemn
+vow never again to yield to the destructive and fascinating vice of
+gaming.
+
+Having restored the venerable Mons. Bonnac to his rejoicing family, he
+hurried from Paris to Estuviere; and, in the delight of having made the
+wretched happy, forgot, for a while, his own misfortunes. Soon, however,
+he remembered, that he had thrown away the fortune, without which he
+could never hope to marry Emily; and life, unless passed with her,
+now scarcely appeared supportable; for her goodness, refinement, and
+simplicity of heart, rendered her beauty more enchanting, if possible,
+to his fancy, than it had ever yet appeared. Experience had taught
+him to understand the full value of the qualities, which he had before
+admired, but which the contrasted characters he had seen in the world
+made him now adore; and these reflections, increasing the pangs of
+remorse and regret, occasioned the deep dejection, that had accompanied
+him even into the presence of Emily, of whom he considered himself no
+longer worthy. To the ignominy of having received pecuniary obligations
+from the Marchioness Chamfort, or any other lady of intrigue, as the
+Count De Villefort had been informed, or of having been engaged in the
+depredating schemes of gamesters, Valancourt had never submitted; and
+these were some of such scandals as often mingle with truth, against the
+unfortunate. Count De Villefort had received them from authority which
+he had no reason to doubt, and which the imprudent conduct he had
+himself witnessed in Valancourt, had certainly induced him the more
+readily to believe. Being such as Emily could not name to the Chevalier,
+he had no opportunity of refuting them; and, when he confessed
+himself to be unworthy of her esteem, he little suspected, that he was
+confirming to her the most dreadful calumnies. Thus the mistake had been
+mutual, and had remained so, when Mons. Bonnac explained the conduct of
+his generous, but imprudent young friend to Du Pont, who, with severe
+justice, determined not only to undeceive the Count on this subject, but
+to resign all hope of Emily. Such a sacrifice as his love rendered
+this, was deserving of a noble reward, and Mons. Bonnac, if it had been
+possible for him to forget the benevolent Valancourt, would have wished
+that Emily might accept the just Du Pont.
+
+When the Count was informed of the error he had committed, he was
+extremely shocked at the consequence of his credulity, and the account
+which Mons. Bonnac gave of his friend's situation, while at Paris,
+convinced him, that Valancourt had been entrapped by the schemes of a
+set of dissipated young men, with whom his profession had partly obliged
+him to associate, rather than by an inclination to vice; and, charmed
+by the humanity, and noble, though rash generosity, which his conduct
+towards Mons. Bonnac exhibited, he forgave him the transient errors,
+that had stained his youth, and restored him to the high degree of
+esteem, with which he had regarded him, during their early acquaintance.
+But, as the least reparation he could now make Valancourt was to
+afford him an opportunity of explaining to Emily his former conduct,
+he immediately wrote, to request his forgiveness of the unintentional
+injury he had done him, and to invite him to Chateau-le-Blanc. Motives
+of delicacy with-held the Count from informing Emily of this letter,
+and of kindness from acquainting her with the discovery respecting
+Valancourt, till his arrival should save her from the possibility of
+anxiety, as to its event; and this precaution spared her even severer
+inquietude, than the Count had foreseen, since he was ignorant of the
+symptoms of despair, which Valancourt's late conduct had betrayed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+  But in these cases,
+ We still have judgment here; that we but teach
+ Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
+ To plague the inventor:  thus even-handed justice
+ Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
+ To our own lips.
+     MACBETH
+
+Some circumstances of an extraordinary nature now withdrew Emily from
+her own sorrows, and excited emotions, which partook of both surprise
+and horror.
+
+A few days followed that, on which Signora Laurentini died, her will
+was opened at the monastery, in the presence of the superiors and Mons.
+Bonnac, when it was found, that one third of her personal property was
+bequeathed to the nearest surviving relative of the late Marchioness de
+Villeroi, and that Emily was the person.
+
+With the secret of Emily's family the abbess had long been acquainted,
+and it was in observance of the earnest request of St. Aubert, who
+was known to the friar, that attended him on his death-bed, that
+his daughter had remained in ignorance of her relationship to the
+Marchioness. But some hints, which had fallen from Signora Laurentini,
+during her last interview with Emily, and a confession of a very
+extraordinary nature, given in her dying hours, had made the abbess
+think it necessary to converse with her young friend, on the topic she
+had not before ventured to introduce; and it was for this purpose, that
+she had requested to see her on the morning that followed her interview
+with the nun. Emily's indisposition had then prevented the intended
+conversation; but now, after the will had been examined, she received
+a summons, which she immediately obeyed, and became informed of
+circumstances, that powerfully affected her. As the narrative of the
+abbess was, however, deficient in many particulars, of which the reader
+may wish to be informed, and the history of the nun is materially
+connected with the fate of the Marchioness de Villeroi, we shall omit
+the conversation, that passed in the parlour of the convent, and mingle
+with our relation a brief history of
+
+ LAURENTINI DI UDOLPHO,
+
+Who was the only child of her parents, and heiress of the ancient house
+of Udolpho, in the territory of Venice. It was the first misfortune
+of her life, and that which led to all her succeeding misery, that the
+friends, who ought to have restrained her strong passions, and mildly
+instructed her in the art of governing them, nurtured them by early
+indulgence. But they cherished their own failings in her; for their
+conduct was not the result of rational kindness, and, when they either
+indulged, or opposed the passions of their child, they gratified their
+own. Thus they indulged her with weakness, and reprehended her with
+violence; her spirit was exasperated by their vehemence, instead of
+being corrected by their wisdom; and their oppositions became contest
+for victory, in which the due tenderness of the parents, and the
+affectionate duties of the child, were equally forgotten; but, as
+returning fondness disarmed the parents' resentment soonest, Laurentini
+was suffered to believe that she had conquered, and her passions became
+stronger by every effort, that had been employed to subdue them.
+
+The death of her father and mother in the same year left her to her own
+discretion, under the dangerous circumstances attendant on youth
+and beauty. She was fond of company, delighted with admiration, yet
+disdainful of the opinion of the world, when it happened to contradict
+her inclinations; had a gay and brilliant wit, and was mistress of
+all the arts of fascination. Her conduct was such as might have been
+expected, from the weakness of her principles and the strength of her
+passions.
+
+Among her numerous admirers was the late Marquis de Villeroi, who, on
+his tour through Italy, saw Laurentini at Venice, where she usually
+resided, and became her passionate adorer. Equally captivated by the
+figure and accomplishments of the Marquis, who was at that period one of
+the most distinguished noblemen of the French court, she had the art so
+effectually to conceal from him the dangerous traits of her character
+and the blemishes of her late conduct, that he solicited her hand in
+marriage.
+
+Before the nuptials were concluded, she retired to the castle of
+Udolpho, whither the Marquis followed, and, where her conduct, relaxing
+from the propriety, which she had lately assumed, discovered to him
+the precipice, on which he stood. A minuter enquiry than he had before
+thought it necessary to make, convinced him, that he had been deceived
+in her character, and she, whom he had designed for his wife, afterwards
+became his mistress.
+
+Having passed some weeks at Udolpho, he was called abruptly to France,
+whither he returned with extreme reluctance, for his heart was still
+fascinated by the arts of Laurentini, with whom, however, he had on
+various pretences delayed his marriage; but, to reconcile her to this
+separation, he now gave repeated promises of returning to conclude
+the nuptials, as soon as the affair, which thus suddenly called him to
+France, should permit.
+
+Soothed, in some degree, by these assurances, she suffered him to
+depart; and, soon after, her relative, Montoni, arriving at Udolpho,
+renewed the addresses, which she had before refused, and which she now
+again rejected. Meanwhile, her thoughts were constantly with the Marquis
+de Villeroi, for whom she suffered all the delirium of Italian love,
+cherished by the solitude, to which she confined herself; for she
+had now lost all taste for the pleasures of society and the gaiety of
+amusement. Her only indulgences were to sigh and weep over a miniature
+of the Marquis; to visit the scenes, that had witnessed their happiness,
+to pour forth her heart to him in writing, and to count the weeks, the
+days, which must intervene before the period that he had mentioned as
+probable for his return. But this period passed without bringing
+him; and week after week followed in heavy and almost intolerable
+expectation. During this interval, Laurentini's fancy, occupied
+incessantly by one idea, became disordered; and, her whole heart being
+devoted to one object, life became hateful to her, when she believed
+that object lost.
+
+Several months passed, during which she heard nothing from the Marquis
+de Villeroi, and her days were marked, at intervals, with the phrensy
+of passion and the sullenness of despair. She secluded herself from all
+visitors, and, sometimes, remained in her apartment, for weeks
+together, refusing to speak to every person, except her favourite female
+attendant, writing scraps of letters, reading, again and again, those
+she had received from the Marquis, weeping over his picture, and
+speaking to it, for many hours, upbraiding, reproaching and caressing it
+alternately.
+
+At length, a report reached her, that the Marquis had married in France,
+and, after suffering all the extremes of love, jealousy and indignation,
+she formed the desperate resolution of going secretly to that country,
+and, if the report proved true, of attempting a deep revenge. To her
+favourite woman only she confided the plan of her journey, and she
+engaged her to partake of it. Having collected her jewels, which,
+descending to her from many branches of her family, were of immense
+value, and all her cash, to a very large amount, they were packed in
+a trunk, which was privately conveyed to a neighbouring town, whither
+Laurentini, with this only servant, followed, and thence proceeded
+secretly to Leghorn, where they embarked for France.
+
+When, on her arrival in Languedoc, she found, that the Marquis de
+Villeroi had been married, for some months, her despair almost deprived
+her of reason, and she alternately projected and abandoned the horrible
+design of murdering the Marquis, his wife and herself. At length she
+contrived to throw herself in his way, with an intention of reproaching
+him, for his conduct, and of stabbing herself in his presence; but,
+when she again saw him, who so long had been the constant object of
+her thoughts and affections, resentment yielded to love; her resolution
+failed; she trembled with the conflict of emotions, that assailed her
+heart, and fainted away.
+
+The Marquis was not proof against her beauty and sensibility; all the
+energy, with which he had first loved, returned, for his passion had
+been resisted by prudence, rather than overcome by indifference; and,
+since the honour of his family would not permit him to marry her, he had
+endeavoured to subdue his love, and had so far succeeded, as to select
+the then Marchioness for his wife, whom he loved at first with a
+tempered and rational affection. But the mild virtues of that amiable
+lady did not recompense him for her indifference, which appeared,
+notwithstanding her efforts to conceal it; and he had, for some time,
+suspected that her affections were engaged by another person, when
+Laurentini arrived in Languedoc. This artful Italian soon perceived,
+that she had regained her influence over him, and, soothed by the
+discovery, she determined to live, and to employ all her enchantments to
+win his consent to the diabolical deed, which she believed was necessary
+to the security of her happiness. She conducted her scheme with deep
+dissimulation and patient perseverance, and, having completely estranged
+the affections of the Marquis from his wife, whose gentle goodness and
+unimpassioned manners had ceased to please, when contrasted with the
+captivations of the Italian, she proceeded to awaken in his mind the
+jealousy of pride, for it was no longer that of love, and even pointed
+out to him the person, to whom she affirmed the Marchioness had
+sacrificed her honour; but Laurentini had first extorted from him a
+solemn promise to forbear avenging himself upon his rival. This was
+an important part of her plan, for she knew, that, if his desire of
+vengeance was restrained towards one party, it would burn more fiercely
+towards the other, and he might then, perhaps, be prevailed on to assist
+in the horrible act, which would release him from the only barrier, that
+with-held him from making her his wife.
+
+The innocent Marchioness, meanwhile, observed, with extreme grief, the
+alteration in her husband's manners. He became reserved and thoughtful
+in her presence; his conduct was austere, and sometimes even rude; and
+he left her, for many hours together, to weep for his unkindness, and to
+form plans for the recovery of his affection. His conduct afflicted her
+the more, because, in obedience to the command of her father, she had
+accepted his hand, though her affections were engaged to another, whose
+amiable disposition, she had reason to believe, would have ensured her
+happiness. This circumstance Laurentini had discovered, soon after her
+arrival in France, and had made ample use of it in assisting her designs
+upon the Marquis, to whom she adduced such seeming proof of his wife's
+infidelity, that, in the frantic rage of wounded honour, he consented to
+destroy his wife. A slow poison was administered, and she fell a victim
+to the jealousy and subtlety of Laurentini and to the guilty weakness of
+her husband.
+
+But the moment of Laurentini's triumph, the moment, to which she had
+looked forward for the completion of all her wishes, proved only the
+commencement of a suffering, that never left her to her dying hour.
+
+The passion of revenge, which had in part stimulated her to the
+commission of this atrocious deed, died, even at the moment when it was
+gratified, and left her to the horrors of unavailing pity and remorse,
+which would probably have empoisoned all the years she had promised
+herself with the Marquis de Villeroi, had her expectations of an
+alliance with him been realized. But he, too, had found the moment of
+his revenge to be that of remorse, as to himself, and detestation, as
+to the partner of his crime; the feeling, which he had mistaken for
+conviction, was no more; and he stood astonished, and aghast, that no
+proof remained of his wife's infidelity, now that she had suffered the
+punishment of guilt. Even when he was informed, that she was dying, he
+had felt suddenly and unaccountably reassured of her innocence, nor was
+the solemn assurance she made him in her last hour, capable of affording
+him a stronger conviction of her blameless conduct.
+
+In the first horrors of remorse and despair, he felt inclined to deliver
+up himself and the woman, who had plunged him into this abyss of guilt,
+into the hands of justice; but, when the paroxysm of his suffering
+was over, his intention changed. Laurentini, however, he saw only once
+afterwards, and that was, to curse her as the instigator of his crime,
+and to say, that he spared her life only on condition, that she
+passed the rest of her days in prayer and penance. Overwhelmed with
+disappointment, on receiving contempt and abhorrence from the man,
+for whose sake she had not scrupled to stain her conscience with
+human blood, and, touched with horror of the unavailing crime she had
+committed, she renounced the world, and retired to the monastery of St.
+Claire, a dreadful victim to unresisted passion.
+
+The Marquis, immediately after the death of his wife, quitted
+Chateau-le-Blanc, to which he never returned, and endeavoured to lose
+the sense of his crime amidst the tumult of war, or the dissipations
+of a capital; but his efforts were vain; a deep dejection hung over him
+ever after, for which his most intimate friend could not account, and
+he, at length, died, with a degree of horror nearly equal to that, which
+Laurentini had suffered. The physician, who had observed the singular
+appearance of the unfortunate Marchioness, after death, had been bribed
+to silence; and, as the surmises of a few of the servants had proceeded
+no further than a whisper, the affair had never been investigated.
+Whether this whisper ever reached the father of the Marchioness, and,
+if it did, whether the difficulty of obtaining proof deterred him from
+prosecuting the Marquis de Villeroi, is uncertain; but her death was
+deeply lamented by some part of her family, and particularly by her
+brother, M. St. Aubert; for that was the degree of relationship, which
+had existed between Emily's father and the Marchioness; and there is no
+doubt, that he suspected the manner of her death. Many letters passed
+between the Marquis and him, soon after the decease of his beloved
+sister, the subject of which was not known, but there is reason to
+believe, that they related to the cause of her death; and these were the
+papers, together with some letters of the Marchioness, who had confided
+to her brother the occasion of her unhappiness, which St. Aubert had so
+solemnly enjoined his daughter to destroy: and anxiety for her peace had
+probably made him forbid her to enquire into the melancholy story,
+to which they alluded. Such, indeed, had been his affliction, on the
+premature death of this his favourite sister, whose unhappy marriage had
+from the first excited his tenderest pity, that he never could hear
+her named, or mention her himself after her death, except to Madame St.
+Aubert. From Emily, whose sensibility he feared to awaken, he had so
+carefully concealed her history and name, that she was ignorant, till
+now, that she ever had such a relative as the Marchioness de Villeroi;
+and from this motive he had enjoined silence to his only surviving
+sister, Madame Cheron, who had scrupulously observed his request.
+
+It was over some of the last pathetic letters of the Marchioness, that
+St. Aubert was weeping, when he was observed by Emily, on the eve of
+her departure from La Vallee, and it was her picture, which he had so
+tenderly caressed. Her disastrous death may account for the emotion he
+had betrayed, on hearing her named by La Voisin, and for his request to
+be interred near the monument of the Villerois, where her remains were
+deposited, but not those of her husband, who was buried, where he died,
+in the north of France.
+
+The confessor, who attended St. Aubert in his last moments, recollected
+him to be the brother of the late Marchioness, when St. Aubert, from
+tenderness to Emily, had conjured him to conceal the circumstance, and
+to request that the abbess, to whose care he particularly recommended
+her, would do the same; a request, which had been exactly observed.
+
+Laurentini, on her arrival in France, had carefully concealed her
+name and family, and, the better to disguise her real history, had,
+on entering the convent, caused the story to be circulated, which had
+imposed on sister Frances, and it is probable, that the abbess, who did
+not preside in the convent, at the time of her noviciation, was also
+entirely ignorant of the truth. The deep remorse, that seized on
+the mind of Laurentini, together with the sufferings of disappointed
+passion, for she still loved the Marquis, again unsettled her
+intellects, and, after the first paroxysms of despair were passed, a
+heavy and silent melancholy had settled upon her spirits, which suffered
+few interruptions from fits of phrensy, till the time of her death.
+During many years, it had been her only amusement to walk in the woods
+near the monastery, in the solitary hours of night, and to play upon
+a favourite instrument, to which she sometimes joined the delightful
+melody of her voice, in the most solemn and melancholy airs of her
+native country, modulated by all the energetic feeling, that dwelt in
+her heart. The physician, who had attended her, recommended it to the
+superior to indulge her in this whim, as the only means of soothing her
+distempered fancy; and she was suffered to walk in the lonely hours of
+night, attended by the servant, who had accompanied her from Italy; but,
+as the indulgence transgressed against the rules of the convent, it was
+kept as secret as possible; and thus the mysterious music of Laurentini
+had combined with other circumstances, to produce a report, that not
+only the chateau, but its neighbourhood, was haunted.
+
+Soon after her entrance into this holy community, and before she had
+shewn any symptoms of insanity there, she made a will, in which, after
+bequeathing a considerable legacy to the convent, she divided the
+remainder of her personal property, which her jewels made very valuable,
+between the wife of Mons. Bonnac, who was an Italian lady and her
+relation, and the nearest surviving relative of the late Marchioness
+de Villeroi. As Emily St. Aubert was not only the nearest, but the sole
+relative, this legacy descended to her, and thus explained to her the
+whole mystery of her father's conduct.
+
+The resemblance between Emily and her unfortunate aunt had frequently
+been observed by Laurentini, and had occasioned the singular behaviour,
+which had formerly alarmed her; but it was in the nun's dying hour, when
+her conscience gave her perpetually the idea of the Marchioness, that
+she became more sensible, than ever, of this likeness, and, in her
+phrensy, deemed it no resemblance of the person she had injured, but the
+original herself. The bold assertion, that had followed, on the recovery
+of her senses, that Emily was the daughter of the Marchioness de
+Villeroi, arose from a suspicion that she was so; for, knowing that her
+rival, when she married the Marquis, was attached to another lover, she
+had scarcely scrupled to believe, that her honour had been sacrificed,
+like her own, to an unresisted passion.
+
+Of a crime, however, to which Emily had suspected, from her phrensied
+confession of murder, that she had been instrumental in the castle of
+Udolpho, Laurentini was innocent; and she had herself been deceived,
+concerning the spectacle, that formerly occasioned her so much terror,
+and had since compelled her, for a while, to attribute the horrors of
+the nun to a consciousness of a murder, committed in that castle.
+
+It may be remembered, that, in a chamber of Udolpho, hung a black
+veil, whose singular situation had excited Emily's curiosity, and which
+afterwards disclosed an object, that had overwhelmed her with horror;
+for, on lifting it, there appeared, instead of the picture she had
+expected, within a recess of the wall, a human figure of ghastly
+paleness, stretched at its length, and dressed in the habiliments of
+the grave. What added to the horror of the spectacle, was, that the face
+appeared partly decayed and disfigured by worms, which were visible on
+the features and hands. On such an object, it will be readily believed,
+that no person could endure to look twice. Emily, it may be recollected,
+had, after the first glance, let the veil drop, and her terror had
+prevented her from ever after provoking a renewal of such suffering, as
+she had then experienced. Had she dared to look again, her delusion and
+her fears would have vanished together, and she would have perceived,
+that the figure before her was not human, but formed of wax. The history
+of it is somewhat extraordinary, though not without example in the
+records of that fierce severity, which monkish superstition has
+sometimes inflicted on mankind. A member of the house of Udolpho, having
+committed some offence against the prerogative of the church, had been
+condemned to the penance of contemplating, during certain hours of the
+day, a waxen image, made to resemble a human body in the state, to which
+it is reduced after death. This penance, serving as a memento of the
+condition at which he must himself arrive, had been designed to
+reprove the pride of the Marquis of Udolpho, which had formerly so
+much exasperated that of the Romish church; and he had not only
+superstitiously observed this penance himself, which, he had believed,
+was to obtain a pardon for all his sins, but had made it a condition
+in his will, that his descendants should preserve the image, on pain of
+forfeiting to the church a certain part of his domain, that they
+also might profit by the humiliating moral it conveyed. The figure,
+therefore, had been suffered to retain its station in the wall of the
+chamber, but his descendants excused themselves from observing the
+penance, to which he had been enjoined.
+
+This image was so horribly natural, that it is not surprising Emily
+should have mistaken it for the object it resembled, nor, since she had
+heard such an extraordinary account, concerning the disappearing of the
+late lady of the castle, and had such experience of the character of
+Montoni, that she should have believed this to be the murdered body of
+the lady Laurentini, and that he had been the contriver of her death.
+
+The situation, in which she had discovered it, occasioned her, at first,
+much surprise and perplexity; but the vigilance, with which the doors
+of the chamber, where it was deposited, were afterwards secured, had
+compelled her to believe, that Montoni, not daring to confide the secret
+of her death to any person, had suffered her remains to decay in this
+obscure chamber. The ceremony of the veil, however, and the circumstance
+of the doors having been left open, even for a moment, had occasioned
+her much wonder and some doubts; but these were not sufficient to
+overcome her suspicion of Montoni; and it was the dread of his terrible
+vengeance, that had sealed her lips in silence, concerning what she had
+seen in the west chamber.
+
+Emily, in discovering the Marchioness de Villeroi to have been the
+sister of Mons. St. Aubert, was variously affected; but, amidst the
+sorrow, which she suffered for her untimely death, she was released from
+an anxious and painful conjecture, occasioned by the rash assertion of
+Signora Laurentini, concerning her birth and the honour of her parents.
+Her faith in St. Aubert's principles would scarcely allow her to suspect
+that he had acted dishonourably; and she felt such reluctance to
+believe herself the daughter of any other, than her, whom she had always
+considered and loved as a mother, that she would hardly admit such a
+circumstance to be possible; yet the likeness, which it had frequently
+been affirmed she bore to the late Marchioness, the former behaviour
+of Dorothee the old housekeeper, the assertion of Laurentini, and the
+mysterious attachment, which St. Aubert had discovered, awakened doubts,
+as to his connection with the Marchioness, which her reason could
+neither vanquish, or confirm. From these, however, she was now relieved,
+and all the circumstances of her father's conduct were fully explained:
+but her heart was oppressed by the melancholy catastrophe of her
+amiable relative, and by the awful lesson, which the history of the
+nun exhibited, the indulgence of whose passions had been the means of
+leading her gradually to the commission of a crime, from the prophecy
+of which in her early years she would have recoiled in horror, and
+exclaimed--that it could not be!--a crime, which whole years of
+repentance and of the severest penance had not been able to obliterate
+from her conscience.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+  Then, fresh tears
+ Stood on her cheek, as doth the honey-dew
+ Upon a gather'd lily almost wither'd
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+After the late discoveries, Emily was distinguished at the chateau by
+the Count and his family, as a relative of the house of Villeroi, and
+received, if possible, more friendly attention, than had yet been shewn
+her.
+
+Count De Villefort's surprise at the delay of an answer to his letter,
+which had been directed to Valancourt, at Estuviere, was mingled with
+satisfaction for the prudence, which had saved Emily from a share of the
+anxiety he now suffered, though, when he saw her still drooping under
+the effect of his former error, all his resolution was necessary to
+restrain him from relating the truth, that would afford her a momentary
+relief. The approaching nuptials of the Lady Blanche now divided his
+attention with this subject of his anxiety, for the inhabitants of the
+chateau were already busied in preparations for that event, and the
+arrival of Mons. St. Foix was daily expected. In the gaiety, which
+surrounded her, Emily vainly tried to participate, her spirits being
+depressed by the late discoveries, and by the anxiety concerning the
+fate of Valancourt, that had been occasioned by the description of his
+manner, when he had delivered the ring. She seemed to perceive in it
+the gloomy wildness of despair; and, when she considered to what that
+despair might have urged him, her heart sunk with terror and grief.
+The state of suspense, as to his safety, to which she believed herself
+condemned, till she should return to La Vallee, appeared insupportable,
+and, in such moments, she could not even struggle to assume the
+composure, that had left her mind, but would often abruptly quit the
+company she was with, and endeavour to sooth her spirits in the deep
+solitudes of the woods, that overbrowed the shore. Here, the faint roar
+of foaming waves, that beat below, and the sullen murmur of the wind
+among the branches around, were circumstances in unison with the temper
+of her mind; and she would sit on a cliff, or on the broken steps of
+her favourite watch-tower, observing the changing colours of the evening
+clouds, and the gloom of twilight draw over the sea, till the white tops
+of billows, riding towards the shore, could scarcely be discerned amidst
+the darkened waters. The lines, engraved by Valancourt on this tower,
+she frequently repeated with melancholy enthusiasm, and then would
+endeavour to check the recollections and the grief they occasioned, and
+to turn her thoughts to indifferent subjects.
+
+One evening, having wandered with her lute to this her favourite spot,
+she entered the ruined tower, and ascended a winding staircase, that
+led to a small chamber, which was less decayed than the rest of the
+building, and whence she had often gazed, with admiration, on the wide
+prospect of sea and land, that extended below. The sun was now setting
+on that tract of the Pyrenees, which divided Languedoc from Rousillon,
+and, placing herself opposite to a small grated window, which, like the
+wood-tops beneath, and the waves lower still, gleamed with the red glow
+of the west, she touched the chords of her lute in solemn symphony, and
+then accompanied it with her voice, in one of the simple and affecting
+airs, to which, in happier days, Valancourt had often listened in
+rapture, and which she now adapted to the following lines.
+
+ TO MELANCHOLY
+
+ Spirit of love and sorrow--hail!
+ Thy solemn voice from far I hear,
+ Mingling with ev'ning's dying gale:
+ Hail, with this sadly-pleasing tear!
+
+ O! at this still, this lonely hour,
+ Thine own sweet hour of closing day,
+ Awake thy lute, whose charmful pow'r
+ Shall call up Fancy to obey:
+
+ To paint the wild romantic dream,
+ That meets the poet's musing eye,
+ As, on the bank of shadowy stream,
+ He breathes to her the fervid sigh.
+
+ O lonely spirit! let thy song
+ Lead me through all thy sacred haunt;
+ The minister's moon-light aisles along,
+ Where spectres raise the midnight chaunt.
+
+ I hear their dirges faintly swell!
+ Then, sink at once in silence drear,
+ While, from the pillar'd cloister's cell,
+ Dimly their gliding forms appear!
+
+ Lead where the pine-woods wave on high,
+ Whose pathless sod is darkly seen,
+ As the cold moon, with trembling eye,
+ Darts her long beams the leaves between.
+
+ Lead to the mountain's dusky head,
+ Where, far below, in shade profound,
+ Wide forests, plains and hamlets spread,
+ And sad the chimes of vesper sound,
+
+ Or guide me, where the dashing oar
+ Just breaks the stillness of the vale,
+ As slow it tracks the winding shore,
+ To meet the ocean's distant sail:
+
+ To pebbly banks, that Neptune laves,
+ With measur'd surges, loud and deep,
+ Where the dark cliff bends o'er the waves,
+ And wild the winds of autumn sweep.
+
+ There pause at midnight's spectred hour,
+ And list the long-resounding gale;
+ And catch the fleeting moon-light's pow'r,
+ O'er foaming seas and distant sail.
+
+The soft tranquillity of the scene below, where the evening breeze
+scarcely curled the water, or swelled the passing sail, that caught the
+last gleam of the sun, and where, now and then, a dipping oar was all
+that disturbed the trembling radiance, conspired with the tender melody
+of her lute to lull her mind into a state of gentle sadness, and she
+sung the mournful songs of past times, till the remembrances they
+awakened were too powerful for her heart, her tears fell upon the
+lute, over which she drooped, and her voice trembled, and was unable to
+proceed.
+
+Though the sun had now sunk behind the mountains, and even his reflected
+light was fading from their highest points, Emily did not leave the
+watch-tower, but continued to indulge her melancholy reverie, till a
+footstep, at a little distance, startled her, and, on looking through
+the grate, she observed a person walking below, whom, however, soon
+perceiving to be Mons. Bonnac, she returned to the quiet thoughtfulness
+his step had interrupted. After some time, she again struck her lute,
+and sung her favourite air; but again a step disturbed her, and, as she
+paused to listen, she heard it ascending the stair-case of the tower.
+The gloom of the hour, perhaps, made her sensible to some degree of
+fear, which she might not otherwise have felt; for, only a few minutes
+before, she had seen Mons. Bonnac pass. The steps were quick and
+bounding, and, in the next moment, the door of the chamber opened, and a
+person entered, whose features were veiled in the obscurity of
+twilight; but his voice could not be concealed, for it was the voice
+of Valancourt! At the sound, never heard by Emily, without emotion, she
+started, in terror, astonishment and doubtful pleasure, and had scarcely
+beheld him at her feet, when she sunk into a seat, overcome by the
+various emotions, that contended at her heart, and almost insensible to
+that voice, whose earnest and trembling calls seemed as if endeavouring
+to save her. Valancourt, as he hung over Emily, deplored his own rash
+impatience, in having thus surprised her: for when he had arrived at
+the chateau, too anxious to await the return of the Count, who, he
+understood, was in the grounds, he went himself to seek him, when, as
+he passed the tower, he was struck by the sound of Emily's voice, and
+immediately ascended.
+
+It was a considerable time before she revived, but, when her
+recollection returned, she repulsed his attentions, with an air of
+reserve, and enquired, with as much displeasure as it was possible she
+could feel in these first moments of his appearance, the occasion of his
+visit.
+
+'Ah Emily!' said Valancourt, 'that air, those words--alas! I have, then,
+little to hope--when you ceased to esteem me, you ceased also to love
+me!'
+
+'Most true, sir,' replied Emily, endeavouring to command her trembling
+voice; 'and if you had valued my esteem, you would not have given me
+this new occasion for uneasiness.'
+
+Valancourt's countenance changed suddenly from the anxieties of doubt to
+an expression of surprise and dismay: he was silent a moment, and then
+said, 'I had been taught to hope for a very different reception! Is
+it, then, true, Emily, that I have lost your regard forever? am I to
+believe, that, though your esteem for me may return--your affection
+never can? Can the Count have meditated the cruelty, which now tortures
+me with a second death?'
+
+The voice, in which he spoke this, alarmed Emily as much as his words
+surprised her, and, with trembling impatience, she begged that he would
+explain them.
+
+'Can any explanation be necessary?' said Valancourt, 'do you not know
+how cruelly my conduct has been misrepresented? that the actions of
+which you once believed me guilty (and, O Emily! how could you so
+degrade me in your opinion, even for a moment!) those actions--I hold in
+as much contempt and abhorrence as yourself? Are you, indeed, ignorant,
+that Count de Villefort has detected the slanders, that have robbed me
+of all I hold dear on earth, and has invited me hither to justify to
+you my former conduct? It is surely impossible you can be uninformed of
+these circumstances, and I am again torturing myself with a false hope!'
+
+The silence of Emily confirmed this supposition; for the deep twilight
+would not allow Valancourt to distinguish the astonishment and doubting
+joy, that fixed her features. For a moment, she continued unable to
+speak; then a profound sigh seemed to give some relief to her spirits,
+and she said,
+
+'Valancourt! I was, till this moment, ignorant of all the circumstances
+you have mentioned; the emotion I now suffer may assure you of the truth
+of this, and, that, though I had ceased to esteem, I had not taught
+myself entirely to forget you.'
+
+'This moment,' said Valancourt, in a low voice, and leaning for support
+against the window--'this moment brings with it a conviction that
+overpowers me!--I am dear to you then--still dear to you, my Emily!'
+
+'Is it necessary that I should tell you so?' she replied, 'is it
+necessary, that I should say--these are the first moments of joy I have
+known, since your departure, and that they repay me for all those of
+pain I have suffered in the interval?'
+
+Valancourt sighed deeply, and was unable to reply; but, as he pressed
+her hand to his lips, the tears, that fell over it, spoke a language,
+which could not be mistaken, and to which words were inadequate.
+
+Emily, somewhat tranquillized, proposed returning to the chateau,
+and then, for the first time, recollected that the Count had invited
+Valancourt thither to explain his conduct, and that no explanation had
+yet been given. But, while she acknowledged this, her heart would
+not allow her to dwell, for a moment, on the possibility of his
+unworthiness; his look, his voice, his manner, all spoke the noble
+sincerity, which had formerly distinguished him; and she again permitted
+herself to indulge the emotions of a joy, more surprising and powerful,
+than she had ever before experienced.
+
+Neither Emily, or Valancourt, were conscious how they reached the
+chateau, whither they might have been transferred by the spell of a
+fairy, for any thing they could remember; and it was not, till they had
+reached the great hall, that either of them recollected there were other
+persons in the world besides themselves. The Count then came forth
+with surprise, and with the joyfulness of pure benevolence, to welcome
+Valancourt, and to entreat his forgiveness of the injustice he had done
+him; soon after which, Mons. Bonnac joined this happy group, in which he
+and Valancourt were mutually rejoiced to meet.
+
+When the first congratulations were over, and the general joy became
+somewhat more tranquil, the Count withdrew with Valancourt to the
+library, where a long conversation passed between them, in which
+the latter so clearly justified himself of the criminal parts of the
+conduct, imputed to him, and so candidly confessed and so feelingly
+lamented the follies, which he had committed, that the Count was
+confirmed in his belief of all he had hoped; and, while he perceived so
+many noble virtues in Valancourt, and that experience had taught him
+to detest the follies, which before he had only not admired, he did not
+scruple to believe, that he would pass through life with the dignity of
+a wise and good man, or to entrust to his care the future happiness of
+Emily St. Aubert, for whom he felt the solicitude of a parent. Of this
+he soon informed her, in a short conversation, when Valancourt had left
+him. While Emily listened to a relation of the services, that Valancourt
+had rendered Mons. Bonnac, her eyes overflowed with tears of pleasure,
+and the further conversation of Count De Villefort perfectly dissipated
+every doubt, as to the past and future conduct of him, to whom she now
+restored, without fear, the esteem and affection, with which she had
+formerly received him.
+
+When they returned to the supper-room, the Countess and Lady Blanche
+met Valancourt with sincere congratulations; and Blanche, indeed, was
+so much rejoiced to see Emily returned to happiness, as to forget, for a
+while, that Mons. St. Foix was not yet arrived at the chateau, though
+he had been expected for some hours; but her generous sympathy was, soon
+after, rewarded by his appearance. He was now perfectly recovered from
+the wounds, received, during his perilous adventure among the Pyrenees,
+the mention of which served to heighten to the parties, who had
+been involved in it, the sense of their present happiness. New
+congratulations passed between them, and round the supper-table appeared
+a group of faces, smiling with felicity, but with a felicity, which had
+in each a different character. The smile of Blanche was frank and gay,
+that of Emily tender and pensive; Valancourt's was rapturous, tender and
+gay alternately; Mons. St. Foix's was joyous, and that of the Count, as
+he looked on the surrounding party, expressed the tempered complacency
+of benevolence; while the features of the Countess, Henri, and Mons.
+Bonnac, discovered fainter traces of animation. Poor Mons. Du Pont did
+not, by his presence, throw a shade of regret over the company; for,
+when he had discovered, that Valancourt was not unworthy of the esteem
+of Emily, he determined seriously to endeavour at the conquest of
+his own hopeless affection, and had immediately withdrawn from
+Chateau-le-Blanc--a conduct, which Emily now understood, and rewarded
+with her admiration and pity.
+
+The Count and his guests continued together till a late hour, yielding
+to the delights of social gaiety, and to the sweets of friendship. When
+Annette heard of the arrival of Valancourt, Ludovico had some difficulty
+to prevent her going into the supper-room, to express her joy, for she
+declared, that she had never been so rejoiced at any ACCIDENT as this,
+since she had found Ludovico himself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+  Now my task is smoothly done,
+ I can fly, or I can run
+ Quickly to the green earth's end,
+ Where the bow'd welkin low doth bend,
+ And, from thence, can soar as soon
+ To the corners of the moon.
+     MILTON
+
+The marriages of the Lady Blanche and Emily St. Aubert were celebrated,
+on the same day, and with the ancient baronial magnificence, at
+Chateau-le-Blanc. The feasts were held in the great hall of the castle,
+which, on this occasion, was hung with superb new tapestry, representing
+the exploits of Charlemagne and his twelve peers; here, were seen the
+Saracens, with their horrible visors, advancing to battle; and there,
+were displayed the wild solemnities of incantation, and the necromantic
+feats, exhibited by the magician JARL before the Emperor. The sumptuous
+banners of the family of Villeroi, which had long slept in dust, were
+once more unfurled, to wave over the gothic points of painted casements;
+and music echoed, in many a lingering close, through every winding
+gallery and colonnade of that vast edifice.
+
+As Annette looked down from the corridor upon the hall, whose arches and
+windows were illuminated with brilliant festoons of lamps, and gazed
+on the splendid dresses of the dancers, the costly liveries of the
+attendants, the canopies of purple velvet and gold, and listened to
+the gay strains that floated along the vaulted roof, she almost fancied
+herself in an enchanted palace, and declared, that she had not met with
+any place, which charmed her so much, since she read the fairy tales;
+nay, that the fairies themselves, at their nightly revels in this old
+hall, could display nothing finer; while old Dorothee, as she surveyed
+the scene, sighed, and said, the castle looked as it was wont to do in
+the time of her youth.
+
+After gracing the festivities of Chateau-le-Blanc, for some days,
+Valancourt and Emily took leave of their kind friends, and returned to
+La Vallee, where the faithful Theresa received them with unfeigned
+joy, and the pleasant shades welcomed them with a thousand tender and
+affecting remembrances; and, while they wandered together over the
+scenes, so long inhabited by the late Mons. and Madame St. Aubert, and
+Emily pointed out, with pensive affection, their favourite haunts, her
+present happiness was heightened, by considering, that it would have
+been worthy of their approbation, could they have witnessed it.
+
+Valancourt led her to the plane-tree on the terrace, where he had first
+ventured to declare his love, and where now the remembrance of the
+anxiety he had then suffered, and the retrospect of all the dangers
+and misfortunes they had each encountered, since last they sat together
+beneath its broad branches, exalted the sense of their present felicity,
+which, on this spot, sacred to the memory of St. Aubert, they solemnly
+vowed to deserve, as far as possible, by endeavouring to imitate his
+benevolence,--by remembering, that superior attainments of every sort
+bring with them duties of superior exertion,--and by affording to their
+fellow-beings, together with that portion of ordinary comforts, which
+prosperity always owes to misfortune, the example of lives passed in
+happy thankfulness to GOD, and, therefore, in careful tenderness to his
+creatures.
+
+Soon after their return to La Vallee, the brother of Valancourt came to
+congratulate him on his marriage, and to pay his respects to Emily, with
+whom he was so much pleased, as well as with the prospect of rational
+happiness, which these nuptials offered to Valancourt, that he
+immediately resigned to him a part of the rich domain, the whole of
+which, as he had no family, would of course descend to his brother, on
+his decease.
+
+The estates, at Tholouse, were disposed of, and Emily purchased of
+Mons. Quesnel the ancient domain of her late father, where, having given
+Annette a marriage portion, she settled her as the housekeeper,
+and Ludovico as the steward; but, since both Valancourt and herself
+preferred the pleasant and long-loved shades of La Vallee to the
+magnificence of Epourville, they continued to reside there, passing,
+however, a few months in the year at the birth-place of St. Aubert, in
+tender respect to his memory.
+
+The legacy, which had been bequeathed to Emily by Signora Laurentini,
+she begged Valancourt would allow her to resign to Mons. Bonnac;
+and Valancourt, when she made the request, felt all the value of the
+compliment it conveyed. The castle of Udolpho, also, descended to the
+wife of Mons. Bonnac, who was the nearest surviving relation of the
+house of that name, and thus affluence restored his long-oppressed
+spirits to peace, and his family to comfort.
+
+O! how joyful it is to tell of happiness, such as that of Valancourt
+and Emily; to relate, that, after suffering under the oppression of the
+vicious and the disdain of the weak, they were, at length, restored to
+each other--to the beloved landscapes of their native country,--to the
+securest felicity of this life, that of aspiring to moral and labouring
+for intellectual improvement--to the pleasures of enlightened society,
+and to the exercise of the benevolence, which had always animated their
+hearts; while the bowers of La Vallee became, once more, the retreat of
+goodness, wisdom and domestic blessedness!
+
+O! useful may it be to have shewn, that, though the vicious can
+sometimes pour affliction upon the good, their power is transient
+and their punishment certain; and that innocence, though oppressed
+by injustice, shall, supported by patience, finally triumph over
+misfortune!
+
+And, if the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes,
+beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him
+to sustain it--the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the
+writer unrewarded.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO ***
+
+***** This file should be named 3268.txt or 3268.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/3268/
+
+Produced by Karalee Coleman
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/3268.zip b/old/3268.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74c2d62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/3268.zip
diff --git a/old/udolf10.txt b/old/udolf10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7b28de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/udolf10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,30941 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.
+
+Please do not remove this.
+
+This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book.
+Do not change or edit it without written permission.  The words
+are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they
+need about what they can legally do with the texts.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541
+
+As of 12/12/00 contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa,
+Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana,
+Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,
+Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising
+will begin in the additional states.  Please feel
+free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+International donations are accepted,
+but we don't know ANYTHING about how
+to make them tax-deductible, or
+even if they CAN be made deductible,
+and don't have the staff to handle it
+even if there are ways.
+
+These donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+
+Title:  The Mysteries of Udolpho
+
+Author:  Ann Radcliffe
+
+Release Date: June, 2002  [Etext #3268]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 03/04/01]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
+*****This file should be named newhd10.txt or newhd10.zip*****
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, newhd11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, newhd10a.txt
+
+[Keyed and Proofed by Karalee Coleman <kcoleman@cadvision.com>
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any
+of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after
+the official publication date.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement
+can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext02
+or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext02
+
+Or /etext01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext
+files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we
+manage to get some real funding.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+Presently, contributions are only being solicited from people in:
+Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa,
+Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana,
+Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,
+Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising
+will begin in the additional states.
+
+These donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation,
+EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541,
+has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal
+Revenue Service (IRS).  Donations are tax-deductible to the extent
+permitted by law.  As the requirements for other states are met,
+additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the
+additional states.
+
+All donations should be made to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation.  Mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Avenue
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109  [USA]
+
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org
+if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if
+it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+***
+
+
+Example command-line FTP session:
+
+ftp ftp.ibiblio.org
+login: anonymous
+password: your@login
+cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg
+cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc.
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET GUTINDEX.??  [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]
+GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may 
+receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the 
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this etext,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.  
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, 
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+[Keyed and Proofed by Karalee Coleman <kcoleman@cadvision.com>
+
+
+
+
+
+The Mysteries of Udolpho
+
+by Ann Radcliffe
+
+
+
+
+A Romance
+Interspersed With Some Pieces of Poetry
+
+ Fate sits on these dark battlements, and frowns,
+ And, as the portals open to receive me,
+ Her voice, in sullen echoes through the courts,
+ Tells of a nameless deed.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 1
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+      home is the resort
+ Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where,
+ Supporting and supported, polish'd friends
+ And dear relations mingle into bliss.*
+      *Thomson
+
+
+On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, 
+stood, in the year 1584, the chateau of Monsieur St. Aubert.  From 
+its windows were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gascony 
+stretching along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vine, and 
+plantations of olives.  To the south, the view was bounded by the 
+majestic Pyrenees, whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibiting 
+awful forms, seen, and lost again, as the partial vapours rolled 
+along, were sometimes barren, and gleamed through the blue tinge of 
+air, and sometimes frowned with forests of gloomy pine, that swept 
+downward to their base.  These tremendous precipices were contrasted 
+by the soft green of the pastures and woods that hung upon their 
+skirts; among whose flocks, and herds, and simple cottages, the eye, 
+after having scaled the cliffs above, delighted to repose.  To the 
+north, and to the east, the plains of Guienne and Languedoc were lost 
+in the mist of distance; on the west, Gascony was bounded by the 
+waters of Biscay.
+
+M.  St. Aubert loved to wander, with his wife and daughter, on the 
+margin of the Garonne, and to listen to the music that floated on its 
+waves.  He had known life in other forms than those of pastoral 
+simplicity, having mingled in the gay and in the busy scenes of the 
+world; but the flattering portrait of mankind, which his heart had 
+delineated in early youth, his experience had too sorrowfully 
+corrected.  Yet, amidst the changing visions of life, his principles 
+remained unshaken, his benevolence unchilled; and he retired from the 
+multitude 'more in PITY than in anger,' to scenes of simple nature, 
+to the pure delights of literature, and to the exercise of domestic 
+virtues.
+
+He was a descendant from the younger branch of an illustrious family, 
+and it was designed, that the deficiency of his patrimonial wealth 
+should be supplied either by a splendid alliance in marriage, or by 
+success in the intrigues of public affairs.  But St. Aubert had too 
+nice a sense of honour to fulfil the latter hope, and too small a 
+portion of ambition to sacrifice what he called happiness, to the 
+attainment of wealth.  After the death of his father he married a 
+very amiable woman, his equal in birth, and not his superior in 
+fortune.  The late Monsieur St. Aubert's liberality, or extravagance, 
+had so much involved his affairs, that his son found it necessary to 
+dispose of a part of the family domain, and, some years after his 
+marriage, he sold it to Monsieur Quesnel, the brother of his wife, 
+and retired to a small estate in Gascony, where conjugal felicity, 
+and parental duties, divided his attention with the treasures of 
+knowledge and the illuminations of genius.
+
+To this spot he had been attached from his infancy.  He had often 
+made excursions to it when a boy, and the impressions of delight 
+given to his mind by the homely kindness of the grey-headed peasant, 
+to whom it was intrusted, and whose fruit and cream never failed, had 
+not been obliterated by succeeding circumstances.  The green pastures 
+along which he had so often bounded in the exultation of health, and 
+youthful freedom--the woods, under whose refreshing shade he had 
+first indulged that pensive melancholy, which afterwards made a 
+strong feature of his character--the wild walks of the mountains, the 
+river, on whose waves he had floated, and the distant plains, which 
+seemed boundless as his early hopes--were never after remembered by 
+St. Aubert but with enthusiasm and regret.  At length he disengaged 
+himself from the world, and retired hither, to realize the wishes of 
+many years.
+
+The building, as it then stood, was merely a summer cottage, rendered 
+interesting to a stranger by its neat simplicity, or the beauty of 
+the surrounding scene; and considerable additions were necessary to 
+make it a comfortable family residence.  St. Aubert felt a kind of 
+affection for every part of the fabric, which he remembered in his 
+youth, and would not suffer a stone of it to be removed, so that the 
+new building, adapted to the style of the old one, formed with it 
+only a simple and elegant residence.  The taste of Madame St. Aubert 
+was conspicuous in its internal finishing, where the same chaste 
+simplicity was observable in the furniture, and in the few ornaments 
+of the apartments, that characterized the manners of its inhabitants.
+
+The library occupied the west side of the chateau, and was enriched 
+by a collection of the best books in the ancient and modern 
+languages.  This room opened upon a grove, which stood on the brow of 
+a gentle declivity, that fell towards the river, and the tall trees 
+gave it a melancholy and pleasing shade; while from the windows the 
+eye caught, beneath the spreading branches, the gay and luxuriant 
+landscape stretching to the west, and overlooked on the left by the 
+bold precipices of the Pyrenees.  Adjoining the library was a green-
+house, stored with scarce and beautiful plants; for one of the 
+amusements of St. Aubert was the study of botany, and among the 
+neighbouring mountains, which afforded a luxurious feast to the mind 
+of the naturalist, he often passed the day in the pursuit of his 
+favourite science.  He was sometimes accompanied in these little 
+excursions by Madame St. Aubert, and frequently by his daughter; 
+when, with a small osier basket to receive plants, and another filled 
+with cold refreshments, such as the cabin of the shepherd did not 
+afford, they wandered away among the most romantic and magnificent 
+scenes, nor suffered the charms of Nature's lowly children to 
+abstract them from the observance of her stupendous works.  When 
+weary of sauntering among cliffs that seemed scarcely accessible but 
+to the steps of the enthusiast, and where no track appeared on the 
+vegetation, but what the foot of the izard had left; they would seek 
+one of those green recesses, which so beautifully adorn the bosom of 
+these mountains, where, under the shade of the lofty larch, or cedar, 
+they enjoyed their simple repast, made sweeter by the waters of the 
+cool stream, that crept along the turf, and by the breath of wild 
+flowers and aromatic plants, that fringed the rocks, and inlaid the 
+grass.
+
+Adjoining the eastern side of the green-house, looking towards the 
+plains of Languedoc, was a room, which Emily called hers, and which 
+contained her books, her drawings, her musical instruments, with some 
+favourite birds and plants.  Here she usually exercised herself in 
+elegant arts, cultivated only because they were congenial to her 
+taste, and in which native genius, assisted by the instructions of 
+Monsieur and Madame St. Aubert, made her an early proficient.  The 
+windows of this room were particularly pleasant; they descended to 
+the floor, and, opening upon the little lawn that surrounded the 
+house, the eye was led between groves of almond, palm-trees, 
+flowering-ash, and myrtle, to the distant landscape, where the 
+Garonne wandered.
+
+The peasants of this gay climate were often seen on an evening, when 
+the day's labour was done, dancing in groups on the margin of the 
+river.  Their sprightly melodies, debonnaire steps, the fanciful 
+figure of their dances, with the tasteful and capricious manner in 
+which the girls adjusted their simple dress, gave a character to the 
+scene entirely French.
+
+The front of the chateau, which, having a southern aspect, opened 
+upon the grandeur of the mountains, was occupied on the ground floor 
+by a rustic hall, and two excellent sitting rooms.  The first floor, 
+for the cottage had no second story, was laid out in bed-chambers, 
+except one apartment that opened to a balcony, and which was 
+generally used for a breakfast-room.
+
+In the surrounding ground, St. Aubert had made very tasteful 
+improvements; yet, such was his attachment to objects he had 
+remembered from his boyish days, that he had in some instances 
+sacrificed taste to sentiment.  There were two old larches that 
+shaded the building, and interrupted the prospect; St. Aubert had 
+sometimes declared that he believed he should have been weak enough 
+to have wept at their fall.  In addition to these larches he planted 
+a little grove of beech, pine, and mountain-ash.  On a lofty terrace, 
+formed by the swelling bank of the river, rose a plantation of 
+orange, lemon, and palm-trees, whose fruit, in the coolness of 
+evening, breathed delicious fragrance.  With these were mingled a few 
+trees of other species.  Here, under the ample shade of a plane-tree, 
+that spread its majestic canopy towards the river, St. Aubert loved 
+to sit in the fine evenings of summer, with his wife and children, 
+watching, beneath its foliage, the setting sun, the mild splendour of 
+its light fading from the distant landscape, till the shadows of 
+twilight melted its various features into one tint of sober grey.  
+Here, too, he loved to read, and to converse with Madame St. Aubert; 
+or to play with his children, resigning himself to the influence of 
+those sweet affections, which are ever attendant on simplicity and 
+nature.  He has often said, while tears of pleasure trembled in his 
+eyes, that these were moments infinitely more delightful than any 
+passed amid the brilliant and tumultuous scenes that are courted by 
+the world.  His heart was occupied; it had, what can be so rarely 
+said, no wish for a happiness beyond what it experienced.  The 
+consciousness of acting right diffused a serenity over his manners, 
+which nothing else could impart to a man of moral perceptions like 
+his, and which refined his sense of every surrounding blessing.
+
+The deepest shade of twilight did not send him from his favourite 
+plane-tree.  He loved the soothing hour, when the last tints of light 
+die away; when the stars, one by one, tremble through aether, and are 
+reflected on the dark mirror of the waters; that hour, which, of all 
+others, inspires the mind with pensive tenderness, and often elevates 
+it to sublime contemplation.  When the moon shed her soft rays among 
+the foliage, he still lingered, and his pastoral supper of cream and 
+fruits was often spread beneath it.  Then, on the stillness of night, 
+came the song of the nightingale, breathing sweetness, and awakening 
+melancholy.
+
+The first interruptions to the happiness he had known since his 
+retirement, were occasioned by the death of his two sons.  He lost 
+them at that age when infantine simplicity is so fascinating; and 
+though, in consideration of Madame St. Aubert's distress, he 
+restrained the expression of his own, and endeavoured to bear it, as 
+he meant, with philosophy, he had, in truth, no philosophy that could 
+render him calm to such losses.  One daughter was now his only 
+surviving child; and, while he watched the unfolding of her infant 
+character, with anxious fondness, he endeavoured, with unremitting 
+effort, to counteract those traits in her disposition, which might 
+hereafter lead her from happiness.  She had discovered in her early 
+years uncommon delicacy of mind, warm affections, and ready 
+benevolence; but with these was observable a degree of susceptibility 
+too exquisite to admit of lasting peace.  As she advanced in youth, 
+this sensibility gave a pensive tone to her spirits, and a softness 
+to her manner, which added grace to beauty, and rendered her a very 
+interesting object to persons of a congenial disposition.  But St. 
+Aubert had too much good sense to prefer a charm to a virtue; and had 
+penetration enough to see, that this charm was too dangerous to its 
+possessor to be allowed the character of a blessing.  He endeavoured, 
+therefore, to strengthen her mind; to enure her to habits of self-
+command; to teach her to reject the first impulse of her feelings, 
+and to look, with cool examination, upon the disappointments he 
+sometimes threw in her way.  While he instructed her to resist first 
+impressions, and to acquire that steady dignity of mind, that can 
+alone counterbalance the passions, and bear us, as far as is 
+compatible with our nature, above the reach of circumstances, he 
+taught himself a lesson of fortitude; for he was often obliged to 
+witness, with seeming indifference, the tears and struggles which his 
+caution occasioned her.
+
+In person, Emily resembled her mother; having the same elegant 
+symmetry of form, the same delicacy of features, and the same blue 
+eyes, full of tender sweetness.  But, lovely as was her person, it 
+was the varied expression of her countenance, as conversation 
+awakened the nicer emotions of her mind, that threw such a 
+captivating grace around her:
+
+ Those tend'rer tints, that shun the careless eye,
+ And, in the world's contagious circle, die.
+
+St. Aubert cultivated her understanding with the most scrupulous 
+care.  He gave her a general view of the sciences, and an exact 
+acquaintance with every part of elegant literature.  He taught her 
+Latin and English, chiefly that she might understand the sublimity of 
+their best poets.  She discovered in her early years a taste for 
+works of genius; and it was St. Aubert's principle, as well as his 
+inclination, to promote every innocent means of happiness.  'A well-
+informed mind,' he would say, 'is the best security against the 
+contagion of folly and of vice.  The vacant mind is ever on the watch 
+for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the 
+languor of idleness.  Store it with ideas, teach it the pleasure of 
+thinking; and the temptations of the world without, will be 
+counteracted by the gratifications derived from the world within.  
+Thought, and cultivation, are necessary equally to the happiness of a 
+country and a city life; in the first they prevent the uneasy 
+sensations of indolence, and afford a sublime pleasure in the taste 
+they create for the beautiful, and the grand; in the latter, they 
+make dissipation less an object of necessity, and consequently of 
+interest.'
+
+It was one of Emily's earliest pleasures to ramble among the scenes 
+of nature; nor was it in the soft and glowing landscape that she most 
+delighted; she loved more the wild wood-walks, that skirted the 
+mountain; and still more the mountain's stupendous recesses, where 
+the silence and grandeur of solitude impressed a sacred awe upon her 
+heart, and lifted her thoughts to the GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.  In 
+scenes like these she would often linger along, wrapt in a melancholy 
+charm, till the last gleam of day faded from the west; till the 
+lonely sound of a sheep-bell, or the distant bark of a watch-dog, 
+were all that broke on the stillness of the evening.  Then, the gloom 
+of the woods; the trembling of their leaves, at intervals, in the 
+breeze; the bat, flitting on the twilight; the cottage-lights, now 
+seen, and now lost--were circumstances that awakened her mind into 
+effort, and led to enthusiasm and poetry.
+
+Her favourite walk was to a little fishing-house, belonging to St. 
+Aubert, in a woody glen, on the margin of a rivulet that descended 
+from the Pyrenees, and, after foaming among their rocks, wound its 
+silent way beneath the shades it reflected.  Above the woods, that 
+screened this glen, rose the lofty summits of the Pyrenees, which 
+often burst boldly on the eye through the glades below.  Sometimes 
+the shattered face of a rock only was seen, crowned with wild shrubs; 
+or a shepherd's cabin seated on a cliff, overshadowed by dark 
+cypress, or waving ash.  Emerging from the deep recesses of the 
+woods, the glade opened to the distant landscape, where the rich 
+pastures and vine-covered slopes of Gascony gradually declined to the 
+plains; and there, on the winding shores of the Garonne, groves, and 
+hamlets, and villas--their outlines softened by distance, melted from 
+the eye into one rich harmonious tint.
+
+This, too, was the favourite retreat of St. Aubert, to which he 
+frequently withdrew from the fervour of noon, with his wife, his 
+daughter, and his books; or came at the sweet evening hour to welcome 
+the silent dusk, or to listen for the music of the nightingale.  
+Sometimes, too, he brought music of his own, and awakened every fairy 
+echo with the tender accents of his oboe; and often have the tones of 
+Emily's voice drawn sweetness from the waves, over which they 
+trembled.
+
+It was in one of these excursions to this spot, that she observed the 
+following lines written with a pencil on a part of the wainscot:
+
+ SONNET
+
+ Go, pencil! faithful to thy master's sighs!
+ Go--tell the Goddess of the fairy scene,
+ When next her light steps wind these wood-walks green,
+ Whence all his tears, his tender sorrows, rise;
+ Ah! paint her form, her soul-illumin'd eyes,
+ The sweet expression of her pensive face,
+ The light'ning smile, the animated grace--
+ The portrait well the lover's voice supplies;
+ Speaks all his heart must feel, his tongue would say:
+ Yet ah! not all his heart must sadly feel!
+ How oft the flow'ret's silken leaves conceal
+ The drug that steals the vital spark away!
+ And who that gazes on that angel-smile,
+ Would fear its charm, or think it could beguile!
+
+These lines were not inscribed to any person; Emily therefore could 
+not apply them to herself, though she was undoubtedly the nymph of 
+these shades.  Having glanced round the little circle of her 
+acquaintance without being detained by a suspicion as to whom they 
+could be addressed, she was compelled to rest in uncertainty; an 
+uncertainty which would have been more painful to an idle mind than 
+it was to hers.  She had no leisure to suffer this circumstance, 
+trifling at first, to swell into importance by frequent remembrance.  
+The little vanity it had excited (for the incertitude which forbade 
+her to presume upon having inspired the sonnet, forbade her also to 
+disbelieve it) passed away, and the incident was dismissed from her 
+thoughts amid her books, her studies, and the exercise of social 
+charities.
+
+Soon after this period, her anxiety was awakened by the indisposition 
+of her father, who was attacked with a fever; which, though not 
+thought to be of a dangerous kind, gave a severe shock to his 
+constitution.  Madame St. Aubert and Emily attended him with 
+unremitting care; but his recovery was very slow, and, as he advanced 
+towards health, Madame seemed to decline.
+
+The first scene he visited, after he was well enough to take the air, 
+was his favourite fishing-house.  A basket of provisions was sent 
+thither, with books, and Emily's lute; for fishing-tackle he had no 
+use, for he never could find amusement in torturing or destroying.
+
+After employing himself, for about an hour, in botanizing, dinner was 
+served.  It was a repast, to which gratitude, for being again 
+permitted to visit this spot, gave sweetness; and family happiness 
+once more smiled beneath these shades.  Monsieur St. Aubert conversed 
+with unusual cheerfulness; every object delighted his senses.  The 
+refreshing pleasure from the first view of nature, after the pain of 
+illness, and the confinement of a sick-chamber, is above the 
+conceptions, as well as the descriptions, of those in health.  The 
+green woods and pastures; the flowery turf; the blue concave of the 
+heavens; the balmy air; the murmur of the limpid stream; and even the 
+hum of every little insect of the shade, seem to revivify the soul, 
+and make mere existence bliss.
+
+Madame St. Aubert, reanimated by the cheerfulness and recovery of her 
+husband, was no longer sensible of the indisposition which had lately 
+oppressed her; and, as she sauntered along the wood-walks of this 
+romantic glen, and conversed with him, and with her daughter, she 
+often looked at them alternately with a degree of tenderness, that 
+filled her eyes with tears.  St. Aubert observed this more than once, 
+and gently reproved her for the emotion; but she could only smile, 
+clasp his hand, and that of Emily, and weep the more.  He felt the 
+tender enthusiasm stealing upon himself in a degree that became 
+almost painful; his features assumed a serious air, and he could not 
+forbear secretly sighing--'Perhaps I shall some time look back to 
+these moments, as to the summit of my happiness, with hopeless 
+regret.  But let me not misuse them by useless anticipation; let me 
+hope I shall not live to mourn the loss of those who are dearer to me 
+than life.'
+
+To relieve, or perhaps to indulge, the pensive temper of his mind, he 
+bade Emily fetch the lute she knew how to touch with such sweet 
+pathos.  As she drew near the fishing-house, she was surprised to 
+hear the tones of the instrument, which were awakened by the hand of 
+taste, and uttered a plaintive air, whose exquisite melody engaged 
+all her attention.  She listened in profound silence, afraid to move 
+from the spot, lest the sound of her steps should occasion her to 
+lose a note of the music, or should disturb the musician.  Every 
+thing without the building was still, and no person appeared.  She 
+continued to listen, till timidity succeeded to surprise and delight; 
+a timidity, increased by a remembrance of the pencilled lines she had 
+formerly seen, and she hesitated whether to proceed, or to return.
+
+While she paused, the music ceased; and, after a momentary 
+hesitation, she re-collected courage to advance to the fishing-house, 
+which she entered with faltering steps, and found unoccupied!  Her 
+lute lay on the table; every thing seemed undisturbed, and she began 
+to believe it was another instrument she had heard, till she 
+remembered, that, when she followed M. and Madame St. Aubert from 
+this spot, her lute was left on a window seat.  She felt alarmed, yet 
+knew not wherefore; the melancholy gloom of evening, and the profound 
+stillness of the place, interrupted only by the light trembling of 
+leaves, heightened her fanciful apprehensions, and she was desirous 
+of quitting the building, but perceived herself grow faint, and sat 
+down.  As she tried to recover herself, the pencilled lines on the 
+wainscot met her eye; she started, as if she had seen a stranger; 
+but, endeavouring to conquer the tremor of her spirits, rose, and 
+went to the window.  To the lines before noticed she now perceived 
+that others were added, in which her name appeared.
+
+Though no longer suffered to doubt that they were addressed to 
+herself, she was as ignorant, as before, by whom they could be 
+written.  While she mused, she thought she heard the sound of a step 
+without the building, and again alarmed, she caught up her lute, and 
+hurried away.  Monsieur and Madame St. Aubert she found in a little 
+path that wound along the sides of the glen.
+
+Having reached a green summit, shadowed by palm-trees, and 
+overlooking the vallies and plains of Gascony, they seated themselves 
+on the turf; and while their eyes wandered over the glorious scene, 
+and they inhaled the sweet breath of flowers and herbs that enriched 
+the grass, Emily played and sung several of their favourite airs, 
+with the delicacy of expression in which she so much excelled.
+
+Music and conversation detained them in this enchanting spot, till 
+the sun's last light slept upon the plains; till the white sails that 
+glided beneath the mountains, where the Garonne wandered, became dim, 
+and the gloom of evening stole over the landscape.  It was a 
+melancholy but not unpleasing gloom.  St. Aubert and his family rose, 
+and left the place with regret; alas! Madame St. Aubert knew not that 
+she left it for ever.
+
+When they reached the fishing-house she missed her bracelet, and 
+recollected that she had taken it from her arm after dinner, and had 
+left it on the table when she went to walk.  After a long search, in 
+which Emily was very active, she was compelled to resign herself to 
+the loss of it.  What made this bracelet valuable to her was a 
+miniature of her daughter to which it was attached, esteemed a 
+striking resemblance, and which had been painted only a few months 
+before.  When Emily was convinced that the bracelet was really gone, 
+she blushed, and became thoughtful.  That some stranger had been in 
+the fishing-house, during her absence, her lute, and the additional 
+lines of a pencil, had already informed her:  from the purport of 
+these lines it was not unreasonable to believe, that the poet, the 
+musician, and the thief were the same person.  But though the music 
+she had heard, the written lines she had seen, and the disappearance 
+of the picture, formed a combination of circumstances very 
+remarkable, she was irresistibly restrained from mentioning them; 
+secretly determining, however, never again to visit the fishing-house 
+without Monsieur or Madame St. Aubert.
+
+They returned pensively to the chateau, Emily musing on the incident 
+which had just occurred; St. Aubert reflecting, with placid 
+gratitude, on the blessings he possessed; and Madame St. Aubert 
+somewhat disturbed, and perplexed, by the loss of her daughter's 
+picture.  As they drew near the house, they observed an unusual 
+bustle about it; the sound of voices was distinctly heard, servants 
+and horses were seen passing between the trees, and, at length, the 
+wheels of a carriage rolled along.  Having come within view of the 
+front of the chateau, a landau, with smoking horses, appeared on the 
+little lawn before it.  St. Aubert perceived the liveries of his 
+brother-in-law, and in the parlour he found Monsieur and Madame 
+Quesnel already entered.  They had left Paris some days before, and 
+were on the way to their estate, only ten leagues distant from La 
+Vallee, and which Monsieur Quesnel had purchased several years before 
+of St. Aubert.  This gentleman was the only brother of Madame St. 
+Aubert; but the ties of relationship having never been strengthened 
+by congeniality of character, the intercourse between them had not 
+been frequent.  M. Quesnel had lived altogether in the world; his aim 
+had been consequence; splendour was the object of his taste; and his 
+address and knowledge of character had carried him forward to the 
+attainment of almost all that he had courted.  By a man of such a 
+disposition, it is not surprising that the virtues of St. Aubert 
+should be overlooked; or that his pure taste, simplicity, and 
+moderated wishes, were considered as marks of a weak intellect, and 
+of confined views.  The marriage of his sister with St. Aubert had 
+been mortifying to his ambition, for he had designed that the 
+matrimonial connection she formed should assist him to attain the 
+consequence which he so much desired; and some offers were made her 
+by persons whose rank and fortune flattered his warmest hope.  But 
+his sister, who was then addressed also by St. Aubert, perceived, or 
+thought she perceived, that happiness and splendour were not the 
+same, and she did not hesitate to forego the last for the attainment 
+of the former.  Whether Monsieur Quesnel thought them the same, or 
+not, he would readily have sacrificed his sister's peace to the 
+gratification of his own ambition; and, on her marriage with St. 
+Aubert, expressed in private his contempt of her spiritless conduct, 
+and of the connection which it permitted.  Madame St. Aubert, though 
+she concealed this insult from her husband, felt, perhaps, for the 
+first time, resentment lighted in her heart; and, though a regard for 
+her own dignity, united with considerations of prudence, restrained 
+her expression of this resentment, there was ever after a mild 
+reserve in her manner towards M. Quesnel, which he both understood 
+and felt.
+
+In his own marriage he did not follow his sister's example.  His lady 
+was an Italian, and an heiress by birth; and, by nature and 
+education, was a vain and frivolous woman.
+
+They now determined to pass the night with St. Aubert; and as the 
+chateau was not large enough to accommodate their servants, the 
+latter were dismissed to the neighbouring village.  When the first 
+compliments were over, and the arrangements for the night made M. 
+Quesnel began the display of his intelligence and his connections; 
+while St. Aubert, who had been long enough in retirement to find 
+these topics recommended by their novelty, listened, with a degree of 
+patience and attention, which his guest mistook for the humility of 
+wonder.  The latter, indeed, described the few festivities which the 
+turbulence of that period permitted to the court of Henry the Third, 
+with a minuteness, that somewhat recompensed for his ostentation; 
+but, when he came to speak of the character of the Duke de Joyeuse, 
+of a secret treaty, which he knew to be negotiating with the Porte, 
+and of the light in which Henry of Navarre was received, M. St. 
+Aubert recollected enough of his former experience to be assured, 
+that his guest could be only of an inferior class of politicians; and 
+that, from the importance of the subjects upon which he committed 
+himself, he could not be of the rank to which he pretended to belong.  
+The opinions delivered by M. Quesnel, were such as St. Aubert 
+forebore to reply to, for he knew that his guest had neither humanity 
+to feel, nor discernment to perceive, what is just.
+
+Madame Quesnel, meanwhile, was expressing to Madame St. Aubert her 
+astonishment, that she could bear to pass her life in this remote 
+corner of the world, as she called it, and describing, from a wish, 
+probably, of exciting envy, the splendour of the balls, banquets, and 
+processions which had just been given by the court, in honour of the 
+nuptials of the Duke de Joyeuse with Margaretta of Lorrain, the 
+sister of the Queen.  She described with equal minuteness the 
+magnificence she had seen, and that from which she had been excluded; 
+while Emily's vivid fancy, as she listened with the ardent curiosity 
+of youth, heightened the scenes she heard of; and Madame St. Aubert, 
+looking on her family, felt, as a tear stole to her eye, that though 
+splendour may grace happiness, virtue only can bestow it.
+
+'It is now twelve years, St. Aubert,' said M. Quesnel, 'since I 
+purchased your family estate.'--'Somewhere thereabout,' replied St. 
+Aubert, suppressing a sigh.  'It is near five years since I have been 
+there,' resumed Quesnel; 'for Paris and its neighbourhood is the only 
+place in the world to live in, and I am so immersed in politics, and 
+have so many affairs of moment on my hands, that I find it difficult 
+to steal away even for a month or two.'  St. Aubert remaining silent, 
+M. Quesnel proceeded:  'I have sometimes wondered how you, who have 
+lived in the capital, and have been accustomed to company, can exist 
+elsewhere;--especially in so remote a country as this, where you can 
+neither hear nor see any thing, and can in short be scarcely 
+conscious of life.'
+
+'I live for my family and myself,' said St. Aubert; 'I am now 
+contented to know only happiness;--formerly I knew life.'
+
+'I mean to expend thirty or forty thousand livres on improvements,' 
+said M. Quesnel, without seeming to notice the words of St. Aubert; 
+'for I design, next summer, to bring here my friends, the Duke de 
+Durefort and the Marquis Ramont, to pass a month or two with me.'  To 
+St. Aubert's enquiry, as to these intended improvements, he replied, 
+that he should take down the whole east wing of the chateau, and 
+raise upon the site a set of stables.  'Then I shall build,' said he, 
+'a SALLE A MANGER, a SALON, a SALLE AU COMMUNE, and a number of rooms 
+for servants; for at present there is not accommodation for a third 
+part of my own people.'
+
+'It accommodated our father's household,' said St. Aubert, grieved 
+that the old mansion was to be thus improved, 'and that was not a 
+small one.'
+
+'Our notions are somewhat enlarged since those days,' said M. 
+Quesnel;--'what was then thought a decent style of living would not 
+now be endured.'  Even the calm St. Aubert blushed at these words, 
+but his anger soon yielded to contempt.  'The ground about the 
+chateau is encumbered with trees; I mean to cut some of them down.'
+
+'Cut down the trees too!' said St. Aubert.
+
+'Certainly.  Why should I not? they interrupt my prospects.  There is 
+a chesnut which spreads its branches before the whole south side of 
+the chateau, and which is so ancient that they tell me the hollow of 
+its trunk will hold a dozen men.  Your enthusiasm will scarcely 
+contend that there can be either use, or beauty, in such a sapless 
+old tree as this.'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed St. Aubert, 'you surely will not destroy that 
+noble chesnut, which has flourished for centuries, the glory of the 
+estate!  It was in its maturity when the present mansion was built.  
+How often, in my youth, have I climbed among its broad branches, and 
+sat embowered amidst a world of leaves, while the heavy shower has 
+pattered above, and not a rain drop reached me!  How often I have sat 
+with a book in my hand, sometimes reading, and sometimes looking out 
+between the branches upon the wide landscape, and the setting sun, 
+till twilight came, and brought the birds home to their little nests 
+among the leaves!  How often--but pardon me,' added St. Aubert, 
+recollecting that he was speaking to a man who could neither 
+comprehend, nor allow his feelings, 'I am talking of times and 
+feelings as old-fashioned as the taste that would spare that 
+venerable tree.'
+
+'It will certainly come down,' said M. Quesnel; 'I believe I shall 
+plant some Lombardy poplars among the clumps of chesnut, that I shall 
+leave of the avenue; Madame Quesnel is partial to the poplar, and 
+tells me how much it adorns a villa of her uncle, not far from 
+Venice.'
+
+'On the banks of the Brenta, indeed,' continued St. Aubert, 'where 
+its spiry form is intermingled with the pine, and the cypress, and 
+where it plays over light and elegant porticos and colonnades, it, 
+unquestionably, adorns the scene; but among the giants of the forest, 
+and near a heavy gothic mansion--'
+
+'Well, my good sir,' said M. Quesnel, 'I will not dispute with you.  
+You must return to Paris before our ideas can at all agree.  But A-
+PROPOS of Venice, I have some thoughts of going thither, next summer; 
+events may call me to take possession of that same villa, too, which 
+they tell me is the most charming that can be imagined.  In that case 
+I shall leave the improvements I mention to another year, and I may, 
+perhaps, be tempted to stay some time in Italy.'
+
+Emily was somewhat surprised to hear him talk of being tempted to 
+remain abroad, after he had mentioned his presence to be so necessary 
+at Paris, that it was with difficulty he could steal away for a month 
+or two; but St. Aubert understood the self-importance of the man too 
+well to wonder at this trait; and the possibility, that these 
+projected improvements might be deferred, gave him a hope, that they 
+might never take place.
+
+Before they separated for the night, M. Quesnel desired to speak with 
+St. Aubert alone, and they retired to another room, where they 
+remained a considerable time.  The subject of this conversation was 
+not known; but, whatever it might be, St. Aubert, when he returned to 
+the supper-room, seemed much disturbed, and a shade of sorrow 
+sometimes fell upon his features that alarmed Madame St. Aubert.  
+When they were alone she was tempted to enquire the occasion of it, 
+but the delicacy of mind, which had ever appeared in his conduct, 
+restrained her:  she considered that, if St. Aubert wished her to be 
+acquainted with the subject of his concern, he would not wait on her 
+enquiries.
+
+On the following day, before M. Quesnel departed, he had a second 
+conference with St. Aubert.
+
+The guests, after dining at the chateau, set out in the cool of the 
+day for Epourville, whither they gave him and Madame St. Aubert a 
+pressing invitation, prompted rather by the vanity of displaying 
+their splendour, than by a wish to make their friends happy.
+
+Emily returned, with delight, to the liberty which their presence had 
+restrained, to her books, her walks, and the rational conversation of 
+M. and Madame St. Aubert, who seemed to rejoice, no less, that they 
+were delivered from the shackles, which arrogance and frivolity had 
+imposed.
+
+Madame St. Aubert excused herself from sharing their usual evening 
+walk, complaining that she was not quite well, and St. Aubert and 
+Emily went out together.
+
+They chose a walk towards the mountains, intending to visit some old 
+pensioners of St. Aubert, which, from his very moderate income, he 
+contrived to support, though it is probable M. Quesnel, with his very 
+large one, could not have afforded this.
+
+After distributing to his pensioners their weekly stipends, listening 
+patiently to the complaints of some, redressing the grievances of 
+others, and softening the discontents of all, by the look of 
+sympathy, and the smile of benevolence, St. Aubert returned home 
+through the woods,
+
+     where
+ At fall of eve the fairy-people throng,
+ In various games and revelry to pass
+ The summer night, as village stories tell.*
+     *Thomson
+
+
+'The evening gloom of woods was always delightful to me,' said St. 
+Aubert, whose mind now experienced the sweet calm, which results from 
+the consciousness of having done a beneficent action, and which 
+disposes it to receive pleasure from every surrounding object.  'I 
+remember that in my youth this gloom used to call forth to my fancy a 
+thousand fairy visions, and romantic images; and, I own, I am not yet 
+wholly insensible of that high enthusiasm, which wakes the poet's 
+dream:  I can linger, with solemn steps, under the deep shades, send 
+forward a transforming eye into the distant obscurity, and listen 
+with thrilling delight to the mystic murmuring of the woods.'
+
+'O my dear father,' said Emily, while a sudden tear started to her 
+eye, 'how exactly you describe what I have felt so often, and which I 
+thought nobody had ever felt but myself!  But hark! here comes the 
+sweeping sound over the wood-tops;--now it dies away;--how solemn the 
+stillness that succeeds!  Now the breeze swells again.  It is like 
+the voice of some supernatural being--the voice of the spirit of the 
+woods, that watches over them by night.  Ah! what light is yonder?  
+But it is gone.  And now it gleams again, near the root of that large 
+chestnut:  look, sir!'
+
+'Are you such an admirer of nature,' said St. Aubert, 'and so little 
+acquainted with her appearances as not to know that for the glow-
+worm?  But come,' added he gaily, 'step a little further, and we 
+shall see fairies, perhaps; they are often companions.  The glow-worm 
+lends his light, and they in return charm him with music, and the 
+dance.  Do you see nothing tripping yonder?'
+
+Emily laughed.  'Well, my dear sir,' said she, 'since you allow of 
+this alliance, I may venture to own I have anticipated you; and 
+almost dare venture to repeat some verses I made one evening in these 
+very woods.'
+
+'Nay,' replied St. Aubert, 'dismiss the ALMOST, and venture quite; 
+let us hear what vagaries fancy has been playing in your mind.  If 
+she has given you one of her spells, you need not envy those of the 
+fairies.'
+
+'If it is strong enough to enchant your judgment, sir,' said Emily, 
+'while I disclose her images, I need NOT envy them.  The lines go in 
+a sort of tripping measure, which I thought might suit the subject 
+well enough, but I fear they are too irregular.'
+
+  THE GLOW-WORM
+
+ How pleasant is the green-wood's deep-matted shade
+  On a mid-summer's eve, when the fresh rain is o'er;
+ When the yellow beams slope, and sparkle thro' the glade,
+  And swiftly in the thin air the light swallows soar!
+
+ But sweeter, sweeter still, when the sun sinks to rest,
+  And twilight comes on, with the fairies so gay
+ Tripping through the forest-walk, where flow'rs, unprest,
+  Bow not their tall heads beneath their frolic play.
+
+ To music's softest sounds they dance away the hour,
+  Till moon-light steals down among the trembling leaves,
+ And checquers all the ground, and guides them to the bow'r,
+  The long haunted bow'r, where the nightingale grieves.
+
+ Then no more they dance, till her sad song is done,
+  But, silent as the night, to her mourning attend;
+ And often as her dying notes their pity have won,
+  They vow all her sacred haunts from mortals to defend.
+
+ When, down among the mountains, sinks the ev'ning star,
+  And the changing moon forsakes this shadowy sphere,
+ How cheerless would they be, tho' they fairies are,
+  If I, with my pale light, came not near!
+
+ Yet cheerless tho' they'd be, they're ungrateful to my love!
+  For, often when the traveller's benighted on his way,
+ And I glimmer in his path, and would guide him thro' the grove,
+  They bind me in their magic spells to lead him far astray;
+
+ And in the mire to leave him, till the stars are all burnt out,
+  While, in strange-looking shapes, they frisk about the ground,
+ And, afar in the woods, they raise a dismal shout,
+  Till I shrink into my cell again for terror of the sound!
+
+ But, see where all the tiny elves come dancing in a ring,
+  With the merry, merry pipe, and the tabor, and the horn,
+ And the timbrel so clear, and the lute with dulcet string;
+  Then round about the oak they go till peeping of the morn.
+
+ Down yonder glade two lovers steal, to shun the fairy-queen,
+  Who frowns upon their plighted vows, and jealous is of me,
+ That yester-eve I lighted them, along the dewy green,
+  To seek the purple flow'r, whose juice from all her spells can 
+free.
+
+ And now, to punish me, she keeps afar her jocund band,
+  With the merry, merry pipe, and the tabor, and the lute;
+ If I creep near yonder oak she will wave her fairy wand,
+  And to me the dance will cease, and the music all be mute.
+
+ O! had I but that purple flow'r whose leaves her charms can foil,
+  And knew like fays to draw the juice, and throw it on the wind,
+ I'd be her slave no longer, nor the traveller beguile,
+  And help all faithful lovers, nor fear the fairy kind!
+
+ But soon the VAPOUR OF THE WOODS will wander afar,
+  And the fickle moon will fade, and the stars disappear,
+ Then, cheerless will they be, tho' they fairies are,
+  If I, with my pale light, come not near!
+
+Whatever St. Aubert might think of the stanzas, he would not deny his 
+daughter the pleasure of believing that he approved them; and, having 
+given his commendation, he sunk into a reverie, and they walked on in 
+silence.
+
+     A faint erroneous ray
+ Glanc'd from th' imperfect surfaces of things,
+ Flung half an image on the straining eye;
+ While waving woods, and villages, and streams,
+ And rocks, and mountain-tops, that long retain
+ The ascending gleam, are all one swimming scene,
+ Uncertain if beheld.*
+     *Thomson.
+
+
+St. Aubert continued silent till he reached the chateau, where his 
+wife had retired to her chamber.  The languor and dejection, that had 
+lately oppressed her, and which the exertion called forth by the 
+arrival of her guests had suspended, now returned with increased 
+effect.  On the following day, symptoms of fever appeared, and St. 
+Aubert, having sent for medical advice, learned, that her disorder 
+was a fever of the same nature as that, from which he had lately 
+recovered.  She had, indeed, taken the infection, during her 
+attendance upon him, and, her constitution being too weak to throw 
+out the disease immediately, it had lurked in her veins, and 
+occasioned the heavy languor of which she had complained.  St. 
+Aubert, whose anxiety for his wife overcame every other 
+consideration, detained the physician in his house.  He remembered 
+the feelings and the reflections that had called a momentary gloom 
+upon his mind, on the day when he had last visited the fishing-house, 
+in company with Madame St. Aubert, and he now admitted a 
+presentiment, that this illness would be a fatal one.  But he 
+effectually concealed this from her, and from his daughter, whom he 
+endeavoured to re-animate with hopes that her constant assiduities 
+would not be unavailing.  The physician, when asked by St. Aubert for 
+his opinion of the disorder, replied, that the event of it depended 
+upon circumstances which he could not ascertain.  Madame St. Aubert 
+seemed to have formed a more decided one; but her eyes only gave 
+hints of this.  She frequently fixed them upon her anxious friends 
+with an expression of pity, and of tenderness, as if she anticipated 
+the sorrow that awaited them, and that seemed to say, it was for 
+their sakes only, for their sufferings, that she regretted life.  On 
+the seventh day, the disorder was at its crisis.  The physician 
+assumed a graver manner, which she observed, and took occasion, when 
+her family had once quitted the chamber, to tell him, that she 
+perceived her death was approaching.  'Do not attempt to deceive me,' 
+said she, 'I feel that I cannot long survive.  I am prepared for the 
+event, I have long, I hope, been preparing for it.  Since I have not 
+long to live, do not suffer a mistaken compassion to induce you to 
+flatter my family with false hopes.  If you do, their affliction will 
+only be the heavier when it arrives:  I will endeavour to teach them 
+resignation by my example.'
+
+The physician was affected; he promised to obey her, and told St. 
+Aubert, somewhat abruptly, that there was nothing to expect.  The 
+latter was not philosopher enough to restrain his feelings when he 
+received this information; but a consideration of the increased 
+affliction which the observance of his grief would occasion his wife, 
+enabled him, after some time, to command himself in her presence.  
+Emily was at first overwhelmed with the intelligence; then, deluded 
+by the strength of her wishes, a hope sprung up in her mind that her 
+mother would yet recover, and to this she pertinaciously adhered 
+almost to the last hour.
+
+The progress of this disorder was marked, on the side of Madame St. 
+Aubert, by patient suffering, and subjected wishes.  The composure, 
+with which she awaited her death, could be derived only from the 
+retrospect of a life governed, as far as human frailty permits, by a 
+consciousness of being always in the presence of the Deity, and by 
+the hope of a higher world.  But her piety could not entirely subdue 
+the grief of parting from those whom she so dearly loved.  During 
+these her last hours, she conversed much with St. Aubert and Emily, 
+on the prospect of futurity, and on other religious topics.  The 
+resignation she expressed, with the firm hope of meeting in a future 
+world the friends she left in this, and the effort which sometimes 
+appeared to conceal her sorrow at this temporary separation, 
+frequently affected St. Aubert so much as to oblige him to leave the 
+room.  Having indulged his tears awhile, he would dry them and return 
+to the chamber with a countenance composed by an endeavour which did 
+but increase his grief.
+
+Never had Emily felt the importance of the lessons, which had taught 
+her to restrain her sensibility, so much as in these moments, and 
+never had she practised them with a triumph so complete.  But when 
+the last was over, she sunk at once under the pressure of her sorrow, 
+and then perceived that it was hope, as well as fortitude, which had 
+hitherto supported her.  St. Aubert was for a time too devoid of 
+comfort himself to bestow any on his daughter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+ I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word
+ Would harrow up thy soul.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+
+Madame St. Aubert was interred in the neighbouring village church;  
+her husband and daughter attended her to the grave, followed by a 
+long train of the peasantry, who were sincere mourners of this 
+excellent woman.
+
+On his return from the funeral, St. Aubert shut himself in his 
+chamber.  When he came forth, it was with a serene countenance, 
+though pale in sorrow.  He gave orders that his family should attend 
+him.  Emily only was absent; who, overcome with the scene she had 
+just witnessed, had retired to her closet to weep alone.  St. Aubert 
+followed her thither:  he took her hand in silence, while she 
+continued to weep; and it was some moments before he could so far 
+command his voice as to speak.  It trembled while he said, 'My Emily, 
+I am going to prayers with my family; you will join us.  We must ask 
+support from above.  Where else ought we to seek it--where else can 
+we find it?'
+
+Emily checked her tears, and followed her father to the parlour, 
+where, the servants being assembled, St. Aubert read, in a low and 
+solemn voice, the evening service, and added a prayer for the soul of 
+the departed.  During this, his voice often faltered, his tears fell 
+upon the book, and at length he paused.  But the sublime emotions of 
+pure devotion gradually elevated his views above this world, and 
+finally brought comfort to his heart.
+
+When the service was ended, and the servants were withdrawn, he 
+tenderly kissed Emily, and said, 'I have endeavoured to teach you, 
+from your earliest youth, the duty of self-command; I have pointed 
+out to you the great importance of it through life, not only as it 
+preserves us in the various and dangerous temptations that call us 
+from rectitude and virtue, but as it limits the indulgences which are 
+termed virtuous, yet which, extended beyond a certain boundary, are 
+vicious, for their consequence is evil.  All excess is vicious; even 
+that sorrow, which is amiable in its origin, becomes a selfish and 
+unjust passion, if indulged at the expence of our duties--by our 
+duties I mean what we owe to ourselves, as well as to others.  The 
+indulgence of excessive grief enervates the mind, and almost 
+incapacitates it for again partaking of those various innocent 
+enjoyments which a benevolent God designed to be the sun-shine of our 
+lives.  My dear Emily, recollect and practise the precepts I have so 
+often given you, and which your own experience has so often shewn you 
+to be wise.
+
+'Your sorrow is useless.  Do not receive this as merely a commonplace 
+remark, but let reason THEREFORE restrain sorrow.  I would not 
+annihilate your feelings, my child, I would only teach you to command 
+them; for whatever may be the evils resulting from a too susceptible 
+heart, nothing can be hoped from an insensible one; that, on the 
+other hand, is all vice--vice, of which the deformity is not 
+softened, or the effect consoled for, by any semblance or possibility 
+of good.  You know my sufferings, and are, therefore, convinced that 
+mine are not the light words which, on these occasions, are so often 
+repeated to destroy even the sources of honest emotion, or which 
+merely display the selfish ostentation of a false philosophy.  I will 
+shew my Emily, that I can practise what I advise.  I have said thus 
+much, because I cannot bear to see you wasting in useless sorrow, for 
+want of that resistance which is due from mind; and I have not said 
+it till now, because there is a period when all reasoning must yield 
+to nature; that is past:  and another, when excessive indulgence, 
+having sunk into habit, weighs down the elasticity of the spirits so 
+as to render conquest nearly impossible; this is to come.  You, my 
+Emily, will shew that you are willing to avoid it.'
+
+Emily smiled through her tears upon her father:  'Dear sir,' said 
+she, and her voice trembled; she would have added, 'I will shew 
+myself worthy of being your daughter;' but a mingled emotion of 
+gratitude, affection, and grief overcame her.  St. Aubert suffered 
+her to weep without interruption, and then began to talk on common 
+topics.
+
+The first person who came to condole with St. Aubert was a M. 
+Barreaux, an austere and seemingly unfeeling man.  A taste for botany 
+had introduced them to each other, for they had frequently met in 
+their wanderings among the mountains.  M. Barreaux had retired from 
+the world, and almost from society, to live in a pleasant chateau, on 
+the skirts of the woods, near La Vallee.  He also had been 
+disappointed in his opinion of mankind; but he did not, like St. 
+Aubert, pity and mourn for them; he felt more indignation at their 
+vices, than compassion for their weaknesses.
+
+St. Aubert was somewhat surprised to see him; for, though he had 
+often pressed him to come to the chateau, he had never till now 
+accepted the invitation; and now he came without ceremony or reserve, 
+entering the parlour as an old friend.  The claims of misfortune 
+appeared to have softened down all the ruggedness and prejudices of 
+his heart.  St. Aubert unhappy, seemed to be the sole idea that 
+occupied his mind.  It was in manners, more than in words, that he 
+appeared to sympathize with his friends:  he spoke little on the 
+subject of their grief; but the minute attention he gave them, and 
+the modulated voice, and softened look that accompanied it, came from 
+his heart, and spoke to theirs.
+
+At this melancholy period St. Aubert was likewise visited by Madame 
+Cheron, his only surviving sister, who had been some years a widow, 
+and now resided on her own estate near Tholouse.  The intercourse 
+between them had not been very frequent.  In her condolements, words 
+were not wanting; she understood not the magic of the look that 
+speaks at once to the soul, or the voice that sinks like balm to the 
+heart:  but she assured St. Aubert that she sincerely sympathized 
+with him, praised the virtues of his late wife, and then offered what 
+she considered to be consolation.  Emily wept unceasingly while she 
+spoke; St. Aubert was tranquil, listened to what she said in silence, 
+and then turned the discourse upon another subject.
+
+At parting she pressed him and her niece to make her an early visit.  
+'Change of place will amuse you,' said she, 'and it is wrong to give 
+way to grief.'  St. Aubert acknowledged the truth of these words of 
+course; but, at the same time, felt more reluctant than ever to quit 
+the spot which his past happiness had consecrated.  The presence of 
+his wife had sanctified every surrounding scene, and, each day, as it 
+gradually softened the acuteness of his suffering, assisted the 
+tender enchantment that bound him to home.
+
+But there were calls which must be complied with, and of this kind 
+was the visit he paid to his brother-in-law M. Quesnel.  An affair of 
+an interesting nature made it necessary that he should delay this 
+visit no longer, and, wishing to rouse Emily from her dejection, he 
+took her with him to Epourville.
+
+As the carriage entered upon the forest that adjoined his paternal 
+domain, his eyes once more caught, between the chesnut avenue, the 
+turreted corners of the chateau.  He sighed to think of what had 
+passed since he was last there, and that it was now the property of a 
+man who neither revered nor valued it.  At length he entered the 
+avenue, whose lofty trees had so often delighted him when a boy, and 
+whose melancholy shade was now so congenial with the tone of his 
+spirits.  Every feature of the edifice, distinguished by an air of 
+heavy grandeur, appeared successively between the branches of the 
+trees--the broad turret, the arched gate-way that led into the 
+courts, the drawbridge, and the dry fosse which surrounded the whole.
+
+The sound of carriage wheels brought a troop of servants to the great 
+gate, where St. Aubert alighted, and from which he led Emily into the 
+gothic hall, now no longer hung with the arms and ancient banners of 
+the family.  These were displaced, and the oak wainscotting, and 
+beams that crossed the roof, were painted white.  The large table, 
+too, that used to stretch along the upper end of the hall, where the 
+master of the mansion loved to display his hospitality, and whence 
+the peal of laughter, and the song of conviviality, had so often 
+resounded, was now removed; even the benches that had surrounded the 
+hall were no longer there.  The heavy walls were hung with frivolous 
+ornaments, and every thing that appeared denoted the false taste and 
+corrupted sentiments of the present owner.
+
+St. Aubert followed a gay Parisian servant to a parlour, where sat 
+Mons. and Madame Quesnel, who received him with a stately politeness, 
+and, after a few formal words of condolement, seemed to have 
+forgotten that they ever had a sister.
+
+Emily felt tears swell into her eyes, and then resentment checked 
+them.  St. Aubert, calm and deliberate, preserved his dignity without 
+assuming importance, and Quesnel was depressed by his presence 
+without exactly knowing wherefore.
+
+After some general conversation, St. Aubert requested to speak with 
+him alone; and Emily, being left with Madame Quesnel, soon learned 
+that a large party was invited to dine at the chateau, and was 
+compelled to hear that nothing which was past and irremediable ought 
+to prevent the festivity of the present hour.
+
+St. Aubert, when he was told that company were expected, felt a mixed 
+emotion of disgust and indignation against the insensibility of 
+Quesnel, which prompted him to return home immediately.  But he was 
+informed, that Madame Cheron had been asked to meet him; and, when he 
+looked at Emily, and considered that a time might come when the 
+enmity of her uncle would be prejudicial to her, he determined not to 
+incur it himself, by conduct which would be resented as indecorous, 
+by the very persons who now showed so little sense of decorum.
+
+Among the visitors assembled at dinner were two Italian gentlemen, of 
+whom one was named Montoni, a distant relation of Madame Quesnel, a 
+man about forty, of an uncommonly handsome person, with features 
+manly and expressive, but whose countenance exhibited, upon the 
+whole, more of the haughtiness of command, and the quickness of 
+discernment, than of any other character.
+
+Signor Cavigni, his friend, appeared to be about thirty--inferior in 
+dignity, but equal to him in penetration of countenance, and superior 
+in insinuation of manner.
+
+Emily was shocked by the salutation with which Madame Cheron met her 
+father--'Dear brother,' said she, 'I am concerned to see you look so 
+very ill; do, pray, have advice!'  St. Aubert answered, with a 
+melancholy smile, that he felt himself much as usual; but Emily's 
+fears made her now fancy that her father looked worse than he really 
+did.
+
+Emily would have been amused by the new characters she saw, and the 
+varied conversation that passed during dinner, which was served in a 
+style of splendour she had seldom seen before, had her spirits been 
+less oppressed.  Of the guests, Signor Montoni was lately come from 
+Italy, and he spoke of the commotions which at that period agitated 
+the country; talked of party differences with warmth, and then 
+lamented the probable consequences of the tumults.  His friend spoke 
+with equal ardour, of the politics of his country; praised the 
+government and prosperity of Venice, and boasted of its decided 
+superiority over all the other Italian states.  He then turned to the 
+ladies, and talked with the same eloquence, of Parisian fashions, the 
+French opera, and French manners; and on the latter subject he did 
+not fail to mingle what is so particularly agreeable to French taste.  
+The flattery was not detected by those to whom it was addressed, 
+though its effect, in producing submissive attention, did not escape 
+his observation.  When he could disengage himself from the 
+assiduities of the other ladies, he sometimes addressed Emily:  but 
+she knew nothing of Parisian fashions, or Parisian operas; and her 
+modesty, simplicity, and correct manners formed a decided contrast to 
+those of her female companions.
+
+After dinner, St. Aubert stole from the room to view once more the 
+old chesnut which Quesnel talked of cutting down.  As he stood under 
+its shade, and looked up among its branches, still luxuriant, and saw 
+here and there the blue sky trembling between them; the pursuits and 
+events of his early days crowded fast to his mind, with the figures 
+and characters of friends--long since gone from the earth; and he now 
+felt himself to be almost an insulated being, with nobody but his 
+Emily for his heart to turn to.
+
+He stood lost amid the scenes of years which fancy called up, till 
+the succession closed with the picture of his dying wife, and he 
+started away, to forget it, if possible, at the social board.
+
+St. Aubert ordered his carriage at an early hour, and Emily observed, 
+that he was more than usually silent and dejected on the way home; 
+but she considered this to be the effect of his visit to a place 
+which spoke so eloquently of former times, nor suspected that he had 
+a cause of grief which he concealed from her.
+
+On entering the chateau she felt more depressed than ever, for she 
+more than ever missed the presence of that dear parent, who, whenever 
+she had been from home, used to welcome her return with smiles and 
+fondness; now, all was silent and forsaken.
+
+But what reason and effort may fail to do, time effects.  Week after 
+week passed away, and each, as it passed, stole something from the 
+harshness of her affliction, till it was mellowed to that tenderness 
+which the feeling heart cherishes as sacred.  St. Aubert, on the 
+contrary, visibly declined in health; though Emily, who had been so 
+constantly with him, was almost the last person who observed it.  His 
+constitution had never recovered from the late attack of the fever, 
+and the succeeding shock it received from Madame St. Aubert's death 
+had produced its present infirmity.  His physician now ordered him to 
+travel; for it was perceptible that sorrow had seized upon his 
+nerves, weakened as they had been by the preceding illness; and 
+variety of scene, it was probable, would, by amusing his mind, 
+restore them to their proper tone.
+
+For some days Emily was occupied in preparations to attend him; and 
+he, by endeavours to diminish his expences at home during the 
+journey--a purpose which determined him at length to dismiss his 
+domestics.  Emily seldom opposed her father's wishes by questions or 
+remonstrances, or she would now have asked why he did not take a 
+servant, and have represented that his infirm health made one almost 
+necessary.  But when, on the eve of their departure, she found that 
+he had dismissed Jacques, Francis, and Mary, and detained only 
+Theresa the old housekeeper, she was extremely surprised, and 
+ventured to ask his reason for having done so.  'To save expences, my 
+dear,' he replied--'we are going on an expensive excursion.'
+
+The physician had prescribed the air of Languedoc and Provence; and 
+St. Aubert determined, therefore, to travel leisurely along the 
+shores of the Mediterranean, towards Provence.
+
+They retired early to their chamber on the night before their 
+departure; but Emily had a few books and other things to collect, and 
+the clock had struck twelve before she had finished, or had 
+remembered that some of her drawing instruments, which she meant to 
+take with her, were in the parlour below.  As she went to fetch 
+these, she passed her father's room, and, perceiving the door half 
+open, concluded that he was in his study--for, since the death of 
+Madame St. Aubert, it had been frequently his custom to rise from his 
+restless bed, and go thither to compose his mind.  When she was below 
+stairs she looked into this room, but without finding him; and as she 
+returned to her chamber, she tapped at his door, and receiving no 
+answer, stepped softly in, to be certain whether he was there.
+
+The room was dark, but a light glimmered through some panes of glass 
+that were placed in the upper part of a closet-door.  Emily believed 
+her father to be in the closet, and, surprised that he was up at so 
+late an hour, apprehended he was unwell, and was going to enquire; 
+but, considering that her sudden appearance at this hour might alarm 
+him, she removed her light to the stair-case, and then stepped softly 
+to the closet.  On looking through the panes of glass, she saw him 
+seated at a small table, with papers before him, some of which he was 
+reading with deep attention and interest, during which he often wept 
+and sobbed aloud.  Emily, who had come to the door to learn whether 
+her father was ill, was now detained there by a mixture of curiosity 
+and tenderness.  She could not witness his sorrow, without being 
+anxious to know the subject of; and she therefore continued to 
+observe him in silence, concluding that those papers were letters of 
+her late mother.  Presently he knelt down, and with a look so solemn 
+as she had seldom seen him assume, and which was mingled with a 
+certain wild expression, that partook more of horror than of any 
+other character, he prayed silently for a considerable time.
+
+When he rose, a ghastly paleness was on his countenance.  Emily was 
+hastily retiring; but she saw him turn again to the papers, and she 
+stopped.  He took from among them a small case, and from thence a 
+miniature picture.  The rays of light fell strongly upon it, and she 
+perceived it to be that of a lady, but not of her mother.
+
+St. Aubert gazed earnestly and tenderly upon his portrait, put it to 
+his lips, and then to his heart, and sighed with a convulsive force.  
+Emily could scarcely believe what she saw to be real.  She never knew 
+till now that he had a picture of any other lady than her mother, 
+much less that he had one which he evidently valued so highly; but 
+having looked repeatedly, to be certain that it was not the 
+resemblance of Madame St. Aubert, she became entirely convinced that 
+it was designed for that of some other person.
+
+At length St. Aubert returned the picture to its case; and Emily, 
+recollecting that she was intruding upon his private sorrows, softly 
+withdrew from the chamber.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+ O how canst thou renounce the boundless store
+ Of charms which nature to her vot'ry yields!
+ The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
+ The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields;
+ All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
+ And all that echoes to the song of even;
+ All that the mountain's shelt'ring bosom shields,
+ And all the dread magnificence of heaven;
+ O how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven!
+ . . . . .
+ These charms shall work thy soul's eternal health,
+ And love, and gentleness, and joy, impart.
+     THE MINSTREL
+
+St. Aubert, instead of taking the more direct road, that ran along 
+the feet of the Pyrenees to Languedoc, chose one that, winding over 
+the heights, afforded more extensive views and greater variety of 
+romantic scenery.  He turned a little out of his way to take leave of 
+M. Barreaux, whom he found botanizing in the wood near his chateau, 
+and who, when he was told the purpose of St. Aubert's visit, 
+expressed a degree of concern, such as his friend had thought it was 
+scarcely possible for him to feel on any similar occasion.  They 
+parted with mutual regret.
+
+'If any thing could have tempted me from my retirement,' said M. 
+Barreaux, 'it would have been the pleasure of accompanying you on 
+this little tour.  I do not often offer compliments; you may, 
+therefore, believe me, when I say, that I shall look for your return 
+with impatience.'
+
+The travellers proceeded on their journey.  As they ascended the 
+heights, St. Aubert often looked back upon the chateau, in the plain 
+below; tender images crowded to his mind; his melancholy imagination 
+suggested that he should return no more; and though he checked this 
+wandering thought, still he continued to look, till the haziness of 
+distance blended his home with the general landscape, and St. Aubert 
+seemed to
+
+ Drag at each remove a lengthening chain.
+
+He and Emily continued sunk in musing silence for some leagues, from 
+which melancholy reverie Emily first awoke, and her young fancy, 
+struck with the grandeur of the objects around, gradually yielded to 
+delightful impressions.  The road now descended into glens, confined 
+by stupendous walls of rock, grey and barren, except where shrubs 
+fringed their summits, or patches of meagre vegetation tinted their 
+recesses, in which the wild goat was frequently browsing.  And now, 
+the way led to the lofty cliffs, from whence the landscape was seen 
+extending in all its magnificence.
+
+Emily could not restrain her transport as she looked over the pine 
+forests of the mountains upon the vast plains, that, enriched with 
+woods, towns, blushing vines, and plantations of almonds, palms, and 
+olives, stretched along, till their various colours melted in 
+distance into one harmonious hue, that seemed to unite earth with 
+heaven.  Through the whole of this glorious scene the majestic 
+Garonne wandered; descending from its source among the Pyrenees, and 
+winding its blue waves towards the Bay of Biscay.
+
+The ruggedness of the unfrequented road often obliged the wanderers 
+to alight from their little carriage, but they thought themselves 
+amply repaid for this inconvenience by the grandeur of the scenes; 
+and, while the muleteer led his animals slowly over the broken 
+ground, the travellers had leisure to linger amid these solitudes, 
+and to indulge the sublime reflections, which soften, while they 
+elevate, the heart, and fill it with the certainty of a present God!  
+Still the enjoyment of St. Aubert was touched with that pensive 
+melancholy, which gives to every object a mellower tint, and breathes 
+a sacred charm over all around.
+
+They had provided against part of the evil to be encountered from a 
+want of convenient inns, by carrying a stock of provisions in the 
+carriage, so that they might take refreshment on any pleasant spot, 
+in the open air, and pass the nights wherever they should happen to 
+meet with a comfortable cottage.  For the mind, also, they had 
+provided, by a work on botany, written by M. Barreaux, and by several 
+of the Latin and Italian poets; while Emily's pencil enabled her to 
+preserve some of those combinations of forms, which charmed her at 
+every step.
+
+The loneliness of the road, where, only now and then, a peasant was 
+seen driving his mule, or some mountaineer-children at play among the 
+rocks, heightened the effect of the scenery.  St. Aubert was so much 
+struck with it, that he determined, if he could hear of a road, to 
+penetrate further among the mountains, and, bending his way rather 
+more to the south, to emerge into Rousillon, and coast the 
+Mediterranean along part of that country to Languedoc.
+
+Soon after mid-day, they reached the summit of one of those cliffs, 
+which, bright with the verdure of palm-trees, adorn, like gems, the 
+tremendous walls of the rocks, and which overlooked the greater part 
+of Gascony, and part of Languedoc.  Here was shade, and the fresh 
+water of a spring, that, gliding among the turf, under the trees, 
+thence precipitated itself from rock to rock, till its dashing 
+murmurs were lost in the abyss, though its white foam was long seen 
+amid the darkness of the pines below.
+
+This was a spot well suited for rest, and the travellers alighted to 
+dine, while the mules were unharnessed to browse on the savoury herbs 
+that enriched this summit.
+
+It was some time before St. Aubert or Emily could withdraw their 
+attention from the surrounding objects, so as to partake of their 
+little repast.  Seated in the shade of the palms, St. Aubert pointed 
+out to her observation the course of the rivers, the situation of 
+great towns, and the boundaries of provinces, which science, rather 
+than the eye, enabled him to describe.  Notwithstanding this 
+occupation, when he had talked awhile he suddenly became silent, 
+thoughtful, and tears often swelled to his eyes, which Emily 
+observed, and the sympathy of her own heart told her their cause.  
+The scene before them bore some resemblance, though it was on a much 
+grander scale, to a favourite one of the late Madame St. Aubert, 
+within view of the fishing-house.  They both observed this, and 
+thought how delighted she would have been with the present landscape, 
+while they knew that her eyes must never, never more open upon this 
+world.  St. Aubert remembered the last time of his visiting that spot 
+in company with her, and also the mournfully presaging thoughts which 
+had then arisen in his mind, and were now, even thus soon, realized!  
+The recollections subdued him, and he abruptly rose from his seat, 
+and walked away to where no eye could observe his grief.
+
+When he returned, his countenance had recovered its usual serenity; 
+he took Emily's hand, pressed it affectionately, without speaking, 
+and soon after called to the muleteer, who sat at a little distance, 
+concerning a road among the mountains towards Rousillon.  Michael 
+said, there were several that way, but he did not know how far they 
+extended, or even whether they were passable; and St. Aubert, who did 
+not intend to travel after sun-set, asked what village they could 
+reach about that time.  The muleteer calculated that they could 
+easily reach Mateau, which was in their present road; but that, if 
+they took a road that sloped more to the south, towards Rousillon, 
+there was a hamlet, which he thought they could gain before the 
+evening shut in.
+
+St. Aubert, after some hesitation, determined to take the latter 
+course, and Michael, having finished his meal, and harnessed his 
+mules, again set forward, but soon stopped; and St. Aubert saw him 
+doing homage to a cross, that stood on a rock impending over their 
+way.  Having concluded his devotions, he smacked his whip in the air, 
+and, in spite of the rough road, and the pain of his poor mules, 
+which he had been lately lamenting, rattled, in a full gallop, along 
+the edge of a precipice, which it made the eye dizzy to look down.  
+Emily was terrified almost to fainting; and St. Aubert, apprehending 
+still greater danger from suddenly stopping the driver, was compelled 
+to sit quietly, and trust his fate to the strength and discretion of 
+the mules, who seemed to possess a greater portion of the latter 
+quality than their master; for they carried the travellers safely 
+into the valley, and there stopped upon the brink of the rivulet that 
+watered it.
+
+Leaving the splendour of extensive prospects, they now entered this 
+narrow valley screened by
+
+ Rocks on rocks piled, as if by magic spell,
+ Here scorch'd by lightnings, there with ivy green.
+
+The scene of barrenness was here and there interrupted by the 
+spreading branches of the larch and cedar, which threw their gloom 
+over the cliff, or athwart the torrent that rolled in the vale.  No 
+living creature appeared, except the izard, scrambling among the 
+rocks, and often hanging upon points so dangerous, that fancy shrunk 
+from the view of them.  This was such a scene as SALVATOR would have 
+chosen, had he then existed, for his canvas; St. Aubert, impressed by 
+the romantic character of the place, almost expected to see banditti 
+start from behind some projecting rock, and he kept his hand upon the 
+arms with which he always travelled.
+
+As they advanced, the valley opened; its savage features gradually 
+softened, and, towards evening, they were among heathy mountains, 
+stretched in far perspective, along which the solitary sheep-bell was 
+heard, and the voice of the shepherd calling his wandering flocks to 
+the nightly fold.  His cabin, partly shadowed by the cork-tree and 
+the ilex, which St. Aubert observed to flourish in higher regions of 
+the air than any other trees, except the fir, was all the human 
+habitation that yet appeared.  Along the bottom of this valley the 
+most vivid verdure was spread; and, in the little hollow recesses of 
+the mountains, under the shade of the oak and chestnut, herds of 
+cattle were grazing.  Groups of them, too, were often seen reposing 
+on the banks of the rivulet, or laving their sides in the cool 
+stream, and sipping its wave.
+
+The sun was now setting upon the valley; its last light gleamed upon 
+the water, and heightened the rich yellow and purple tints of the 
+heath and broom, that overspread the mountains.  St. Aubert enquired 
+of Michael the distance to the hamlet he had mentioned, but the man 
+could not with certainty tell; and Emily began to fear that he had 
+mistaken the road.  Here was no human being to assist, or direct 
+them; they had left the shepherd and his cabin far behind, and the 
+scene became so obscured in twilight, that the eye could not follow 
+the distant perspective of the valley in search of a cottage, or a 
+hamlet.  A glow of the horizon still marked the west, and this was of 
+some little use to the travellers.  Michael seemed endeavouring to 
+keep up his courage by singing; his music, however, was not of a kind 
+to disperse melancholy; he sung, in a sort of chant, one of the most 
+dismal ditties his present auditors had ever heard, and St. Aubert at 
+length discovered it to be a vesper-hymn to his favourite saint.
+
+They travelled on, sunk in that thoughtful melancholy, with which 
+twilight and solitude impress the mind.  Michael had now ended his 
+ditty, and nothing was heard but the drowsy murmur of the breeze 
+among the woods, and its light flutter, as it blew freshly into the 
+carriage.  They were at length roused by the sound of fire-arms.  St. 
+Aubert called to the muleteer to stop, and they listened.  The noise 
+was not repeated; but presently they heard a rustling among the 
+brakes.  St. Aubert drew forth a pistol, and ordered Michael to 
+proceed as fast as possible; who had not long obeyed, before a horn 
+sounded, that made the mountains ring.  He looked again from the 
+window, and then saw a young man spring from the bushes into the 
+road, followed by a couple of dogs.  The stranger was in a hunter's 
+dress.  His gun was slung across his shoulders, the hunter's horn 
+hung from his belt, and in his hand was a small pike, which, as he 
+held it, added to the manly grace of his figure, and assisted the 
+agility of his steps.
+
+After a moment's hesitation, St. Aubert again stopped the carriage, 
+and waited till he came up, that they might enquire concerning the 
+hamlet they were in search of.  The stranger informed him, that it 
+was only half a league distant, that he was going thither himself, 
+and would readily shew the way.  St. Aubert thanked him for the 
+offer, and, pleased with his chevalier-like air and open countenance, 
+asked him to take a seat in the carriage; which the stranger, with an 
+acknowledgment, declined, adding that he would keep pace with the 
+mules.  'But I fear you will be wretchedly accommodated,' said he:  
+'the inhabitants of these mountains are a simple people, who are not 
+only without the luxuries of life, but almost destitute of what in 
+other places are held to be its necessaries.'
+
+'I perceive you are not one of its inhabitants, sir,' said St. 
+Aubert.
+
+'No, sir, I am only a wanderer here.'
+
+The carriage drove on, and the increasing dusk made the travellers 
+very thankful that they had a guide; the frequent glens, too, that 
+now opened among the mountains, would likewise have added to their 
+perplexity.  Emily, as she looked up one of these, saw something at a 
+great distance like a bright cloud in the air.  'What light is 
+yonder, sir?' said she.
+
+St. Aubert looked, and perceived that it was the snowy summit of a 
+mountain, so much higher than any around it, that it still reflected 
+the sun's rays, while those below lay in deep shade.
+
+At length, the village lights were seen to twinkle through the dusk, 
+and, soon after, some cottages were discovered in the valley, or 
+rather were seen by reflection in the stream, on whose margin they 
+stood, and which still gleamed with the evening light.
+
+The stranger now came up, and St. Aubert, on further enquiry, found 
+not only that there was no inn in the place, but not any sort of 
+house of public reception.  The stranger, however, offered to walk 
+on, and enquire for a cottage to accommodate them; for which further 
+civility St. Aubert returned his thanks, and said, that, as the 
+village was so near, he would alight, and walk with him.  Emily 
+followed slowly in the carriage.
+
+On the way, St. Aubert asked his companion what success he had had in 
+the chase.  'Not much, sir,' he replied, 'nor do I aim at it.  I am 
+pleased with the country, and mean to saunter away a few weeks among 
+its scenes.  My dogs I take with me more for companionship than for 
+game.  This dress, too, gives me an ostensible business, and procures 
+me that respect from the people, which would, perhaps, be refused to 
+a lonely stranger, who had no visible motive for coming among them.'
+
+'I admire your taste,' said St. Aubert, 'and, if I was a younger man, 
+should like to pass a few weeks in your way exceedingly.  I, too, am 
+a wanderer, but neither my plan nor pursuits are exactly like yours--
+I go in search of health, as much as of amusement.'  St. Aubert 
+sighed, and paused; and then, seeming to recollect himself, he 
+resumed:  'If I can hear of a tolerable road, that shall afford 
+decent accommodation, it is my intention to pass into Rousillon, and 
+along the sea-shore to Languedoc.  You, sir, seem to be acquainted 
+with the country, and can, perhaps, give me information on the 
+subject.'
+
+The stranger said, that what information he could give was entirely 
+at his service; and then mentioned a road rather more to the east, 
+which led to a town, whence it would be easy to proceed into 
+Rousillon.
+
+They now arrived at the village, and commenced their search for a 
+cottage, that would afford a night's lodging.  In several, which they 
+entered, ignorance, poverty, and mirth seemed equally to prevail; and 
+the owners eyed St. Aubert with a mixture of curiosity and timidity.  
+Nothing like a bed could be found, and he had ceased to enquire for 
+one, when Emily joined him, who observed the languor of her father's 
+countenance, and lamented, that he had taken a road so ill provided 
+with the comforts necessary for an invalid.  Other cottages, which 
+they examined, seemed somewhat less savage than the former, 
+consisting of two rooms, if such they could be called; the first of 
+these occupied by mules and pigs, the second by the family, which 
+generally consisted of six or eight children, with their parents, who 
+slept on beds of skins and dried beech leaves, spread upon a mud 
+floor.  Here, light was admitted, and smoke discharged, through an 
+aperture in the roof; and here the scent of spirits (for the 
+travelling smugglers, who haunted the Pyrenees, had made this rude 
+people familiar with the use of liquors) was generally perceptible 
+enough.  Emily turned from such scenes, and looked at her father with 
+anxious tenderness, which the young stranger seemed to observe; for, 
+drawing St. Aubert aside, he made him an offer of his own bed.  'It 
+is a decent one,' said he, 'when compared with what we have just 
+seen, yet such as in other circumstances I should be ashamed to offer 
+you.'  St. Aubert acknowledged how much he felt himself obliged by 
+this kindness, but refused to accept it, till the young stranger 
+would take no denial.  'Do not give me the pain of knowing, sir,' 
+said he, 'that an invalid, like you, lies on hard skins, while I 
+sleep in a bed.  Besides, sir, your refusal wounds my pride; I must 
+believe you think my offer unworthy your acceptance.  Let me shew you 
+the way.  I have no doubt my landlady can accommodate this young lady 
+also.'
+
+St. Aubert at length consented, that, if this could be done, he would 
+accept his kindness, though he felt rather surprised, that the 
+stranger had proved himself so deficient in gallantry, as to 
+administer to the repose of an infirm man, rather than to that of a 
+very lovely young woman, for he had not once offered the room for 
+Emily.  But she thought not of herself, and the animated smile she 
+gave him, told how much she felt herself obliged for the preference 
+of her father.
+
+On their way, the stranger, whose name was Valancourt, stepped on 
+first to speak to his hostess, and she came out to welcome St. Aubert 
+into a cottage, much superior to any he had seen.  This good woman 
+seemed very willing to accommodate the strangers, who were soon 
+compelled to accept the only two beds in the place.  Eggs and milk 
+were the only food the cottage afforded; but against scarcity of 
+provisions St. Aubert had provided, and he requested Valancourt to 
+stay, and partake with him of less homely fare; an invitation, which 
+was readily accepted, and they passed an hour in intelligent 
+conversation.  St. Aubert was much pleased with the manly frankness, 
+simplicity, and keen susceptibility to the grandeur of nature, which 
+his new acquaintance discovered; and, indeed, he had often been heard 
+to say, that, without a certain simplicity of heart, this taste could 
+not exist in any strong degree.
+
+The conversation was interrupted by a violent uproar without, in 
+which the voice of the muleteer was heard above every other sound.  
+Valancourt started from his seat, and went to enquire the occasion; 
+but the dispute continued so long afterwards, that St. Aubert went 
+himself, and found Michael quarrelling with the hostess, because she 
+had refused to let his mules lie in a little room where he and three 
+of her sons were to pass the night.  The place was wretched enough, 
+but there was no other for these people to sleep in; and, with 
+somewhat more of delicacy than was usual among the inhabitants of 
+this wild tract of country, she persisted in refusing to let the 
+animals have the same BED-CHAMBER with her children.  This was a 
+tender point with the muleteer; his honour was wounded when his mules 
+were treated with disrespect, and he would have received a blow, 
+perhaps, with more meekness.  He declared that his beasts were as 
+honest beasts, and as good beasts, as any in the whole province; and 
+that they had a right to be well treated wherever they went.  'They 
+are as harmless as lambs,' said he, 'if people don't affront them.  I 
+never knew them behave themselves amiss above once or twice in my 
+life, and then they had good reason for doing so.  Once, indeed, they 
+kicked at a boy's leg that lay asleep in the stable, and broke it; 
+but I told them they were out there, and by St. Anthony! I believe 
+they understood me, for they never did so again.'
+
+He concluded this eloquent harangue with protesting, that they should 
+share with him, go where he would.
+
+The dispute was at length settled by Valancourt, who drew the hostess 
+aside, and desired she would let the muleteer and his beasts have the 
+place in question to themselves, while her sons should have the bed 
+of skins designed for him, for that he would wrap himself in his 
+cloak, and sleep on the bench by the cottage door.  But this she 
+thought it her duty to oppose, and she felt it to be her inclination 
+to disappoint the muleteer.  Valancourt, however, was positive, and 
+the tedious affair was at length settled.
+
+It was late when St. Aubert and Emily retired to their rooms, and 
+Valancourt to his station at the door, which, at this mild season, he 
+preferred to a close cabin and a bed of skins.  St. Aubert was 
+somewhat surprised to find in his room volumes of Homer, Horace, and 
+Petrarch; but the name of Valancourt, written in them, told him to 
+whom they belonged.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+   In truth he was a strange and wayward wight,
+  Fond of each gentle, and each dreadful scene,
+  In darkness, and in storm he found delight;
+  Nor less than when on ocean-wave serene
+  The southern sun diffus'd his dazzling sheen.
+  Even sad vicissitude amus'd his soul;
+  And if a sigh would sometimes intervene,
+  And down his cheek a tear of pity roll,
+ A sigh, a tear, so sweet, he wish'd not to controul.
+     THE MINSTREL
+
+St. Aubert awoke at an early hour, refreshed by sleep, and desirous 
+to set forward.  He invited the stranger to breakfast with him; and, 
+talking again of the road, Valancourt said, that, some months past, 
+he had travelled as far as Beaujeu, which was a town of some 
+consequence on the way to Rousillon.  He recommended it to St. Aubert 
+to take that route, and the latter determined to do so.
+
+'The road from this hamlet,' said Valancourt, 'and that to Beaujeu, 
+part at the distance of about a league and a half from hence; if you 
+will give me leave, I will direct your muleteer so far.  I must 
+wander somewhere, and your company would make this a pleasanter 
+ramble than any other I could take.'
+
+St. Aubert thankfully accepted his offer, and they set out together, 
+the young stranger on foot, for he refused the invitation of St. 
+Aubert to take a seat in his little carriage.
+
+The road wound along the feet of the mountains through a pastoral 
+valley, bright with verdure, and varied with groves of dwarf oak, 
+beech and sycamore, under whose branches herds of cattle reposed.  
+The mountain-ash too, and the weeping birch, often threw their 
+pendant foliage over the steeps above, where the scanty soil scarcely 
+concealed their roots, and where their light branches waved to every 
+breeze that fluttered from the mountains.
+
+The travellers were frequently met at this early hour, for the sun 
+had not yet risen upon the valley, by shepherds driving immense 
+flocks from their folds to feed upon the hills.  St. Aubert had set 
+out thus early, not only that he might enjoy the first appearance of 
+sunrise, but that he might inhale the first pure breath of morning, 
+which above all things is refreshing to the spirits of the invalid.  
+In these regions it was particularly so, where an abundance of wild 
+flowers and aromatic herbs breathed forth their essence on the air.
+
+The dawn, which softened the scenery with its peculiar grey tint, now 
+dispersed, and Emily watched the progress of the day, first trembling 
+on the tops of the highest cliffs, then touching them with splendid 
+light, while their sides and the vale below were still wrapt in dewy 
+mist.  Meanwhile, the sullen grey of the eastern clouds began to 
+blush, then to redden, and then to glow with a thousand colours, till 
+the golden light darted over all the air, touched the lower points of 
+the mountain's brow, and glanced in long sloping beams upon the 
+valley and its stream.  All nature seemed to have awakened from death 
+into life; the spirit of St. Aubert was renovated.  His heart was 
+full; he wept, and his thoughts ascended to the Great Creator.
+
+Emily wished to trip along the turf, so green and bright with dew, 
+and to taste the full delight of that liberty, which the izard seemed 
+to enjoy as he bounded along the brow of the cliffs; while Valancourt 
+often stopped to speak with the travellers, and with social feeling 
+to point out to them the peculiar objects of his admiration.  St. 
+Aubert was pleased with him:  'Here is the real ingenuousness and 
+ardour of youth,' said he to himself; 'this young man has never been 
+at Paris.'
+
+He was sorry when they came to the spot where the roads parted, and 
+his heart took a more affectionate leave of him than is usual after 
+so short an acquaintance.  Valancourt talked long by the side of the 
+carriage; seemed more than once to be going, but still lingered, and 
+appeared to search anxiously for topics of conversation to account 
+for his delay.  At length he took leave.  As he went, St. Aubert 
+observed him look with an earnest and pensive eye at Emily, who bowed 
+to him with a countenance full of timid sweetness, while the carriage 
+drove on.  St. Aubert, for whatever reason, soon after looked from 
+the window, and saw Valancourt standing upon the bank of the road, 
+resting on his pike with folded arms, and following the carriage with 
+his eyes.  He waved his hand, and Valancourt, seeming to awake from 
+his reverie, returned the salute, and started away.
+
+The aspect of the country now began to change, and the travellers 
+soon found themselves among mountains covered from their base nearly 
+to their summits with forests of gloomy pine, except where a rock of 
+granite shot up from the vale, and lost its snowy top in the clouds.  
+The rivulet, which had hitherto accompanied them, now expanded into a 
+river; and, flowing deeply and silently along, reflected, as in a 
+mirror, the blackness of the impending shades.  Sometimes a cliff was 
+seen lifting its bold head above the woods and the vapours, that 
+floated mid-way down the mountains; and sometimes a face of 
+perpendicular marble rose from the water's edge, over which the larch 
+threw his gigantic arms, here scathed with lightning, and there 
+floating in luxuriant foliage.
+
+They continued to travel over a rough and unfrequented road, seeing 
+now and then at a distance the solitary shepherd, with his dog, 
+stalking along the valley, and hearing only the dashing of torrents, 
+which the woods concealed from the eye, the long sullen murmur of the 
+breeze, as it swept over the pines, or the notes of the eagle and the 
+vulture, which were seen towering round the beetling cliff.
+
+Often, as the carriage moved slowly over uneven ground, St. Aubert 
+alighted, and amused himself with examining the curious plants that 
+grew on the banks of the road, and with which these regions abound; 
+while Emily, wrapt in high enthusiasm, wandered away under the 
+shades, listening in deep silence to the lonely murmur of the woods.
+
+Neither village nor hamlet was seen for many leagues; the goat-herd's 
+or the hunter's cabin, perched among the cliffs of the rocks, were 
+the only human habitations that appeared.
+
+The travellers again took their dinner in the open air, on a pleasant 
+spot in the valley, under the spreading shade of cedars; and then set 
+forward towards Beaujeu.
+
+The road now began to descend, and, leaving the pine forests behind, 
+wound among rocky precipices.  The evening twilight again fell over 
+the scene, and the travellers were ignorant how far they might yet be 
+from Beaujeu.  St. Aubert, however, conjectured that the distance 
+could not be very great, and comforted himself with the prospect of 
+travelling on a more frequented road after reaching that town, where 
+he designed to pass the night.  Mingled woods, and rocks, and heathy 
+mountains were now seen obscurely through the dusk; but soon even 
+these imperfect images faded in darkness.  Michael proceeded with 
+caution, for he could scarcely distinguish the road; his mules, 
+however, seemed to have more sagacity, and their steps were sure.
+
+On turning the angle of a mountain, a light appeared at a distance, 
+that illumined the rocks, and the horizon to a great extent.  It was 
+evidently a large fire, but whether accidental, or otherwise, there 
+were no means of knowing.  St. Aubert thought it was probably kindled 
+by some of the numerous banditti, that infested the Pyrenees, and he 
+became watchful and anxious to know whether the road passed near this 
+fire.  He had arms with him, which, on an emergency, might afford 
+some protection, though certainly a very unequal one, against a band 
+of robbers, so desperate too as those usually were who haunted these 
+wild regions.  While many reflections rose upon his mind, he heard a 
+voice shouting from the road behind, and ordering the muleteer to 
+stop.  St. Aubert bade him proceed as fast as possible; but either 
+Michael, or his mules were obstinate, for they did not quit the old 
+pace.  Horses' feet were now heard; a man rode up to the carriage, 
+still ordering the driver to stop; and St. Aubert, who could no 
+longer doubt his purpose, was with difficulty able to prepare a 
+pistol for his defence, when his hand was upon the door of the 
+chaise.  The man staggered on his horse, the report of the pistol was 
+followed by a groan, and St. Aubert's horror may be imagined, when in 
+the next instant he thought he heard the faint voice of Valancourt.  
+He now himself bade the muleteer stop; and, pronouncing the name of 
+Valancourt, was answered in a voice, that no longer suffered him to 
+doubt.  St. Aubert, who instantly alighted and went to his 
+assistance, found him still sitting on his horse, but bleeding 
+profusely, and appearing to be in great pain, though he endeavoured 
+to soften the terror of St. Aubert by assurances that he was not 
+materially hurt, the wound being only in his arm.  St. Aubert, with 
+the muleteer, assisted him to dismount, and he sat down on the bank 
+of the road, where St. Aubert tried to bind up his arm, but his hands 
+trembled so excessively that he could not accomplish it; and, Michael 
+being now gone in pursuit of the horse, which, on being disengaged 
+from his rider, had galloped off, he called Emily to his assistance.  
+Receiving no answer, he went to the carriage, and found her sunk on 
+the seat in a fainting fit.  Between the distress of this 
+circumstance and that of leaving Valancourt bleeding, he scarcely 
+knew what he did; he endeavoured, however, to raise her, and called 
+to Michael to fetch water from the rivulet that flowed by the road, 
+but Michael was gone beyond the reach of his voice.  Valancourt, who 
+heard these calls, and also the repeated name of Emily, instantly 
+understood the subject of his distress; and, almost forgetting his 
+own condition, he hastened to her relief.  She was reviving when he 
+reached the carriage; and then, understanding that anxiety for him 
+had occasioned her indisposition, he assured her, in a voice that 
+trembled, but not from anguish, that his wound was of no consequence.  
+While he said this St. Aubert turned round, and perceiving that he 
+was still bleeding, the subject of his alarm changed again, and he 
+hastily formed some handkerchiefs into a bandage.  This stopped the 
+effusion of the blood; but St. Aubert, dreading the consequence of 
+the wound, enquired repeatedly how far they were from Beaujeu; when, 
+learning that it was at two leagues' distance, his distress 
+increased, since he knew not how Valancourt, in his present state, 
+would bear the motion of the carriage, and perceived that he was 
+already faint from loss of blood.  When he mentioned the subject of 
+his anxiety, Valancourt entreated that he would not suffer himself to 
+be thus alarmed on his account, for that he had no doubt he should be 
+able to support himself very well; and then he talked of the accident 
+as a slight one.  The muleteer being now returned with Valancourt's 
+horse, assisted him into the chaise; and, as Emily was now revived, 
+they moved slowly on towards Beaujeu.
+
+St. Aubert, when he had recovered from the terror occasioned him by 
+this accident, expressed surprise on seeing Valancourt, who explained 
+his unexpected appearance by saying, 'You, sir, renewed my taste for 
+society; when you had left the hamlet, it did indeed appear a 
+solitude.  I determined, therefore, since my object was merely 
+amusement, to change the scene; and I took this road, because I knew 
+it led through a more romantic tract of mountains than the spot I 
+have left.  Besides,' added he, hesitating for an instant, 'I will 
+own, and why should I not? that I had some hope of overtaking you.'
+
+'And I have made you a very unexpected return for the compliment,' 
+said St. Aubert, who lamented again the rashness which had produced 
+the accident, and explained the cause of his late alarm.  But 
+Valancourt seemed anxious only to remove from the minds of his 
+companions every unpleasant feeling relative to himself; and, for 
+that purpose, still struggled against a sense of pain, and tried to 
+converse with gaiety.  Emily meanwhile was silent, except when 
+Valancourt particularly addressed her, and there was at those times a 
+tremulous tone in his voice that spoke much.
+
+They were now so near the fire, which had long flamed at a distance 
+on the blackness of night, that it gleamed upon the road, and they 
+could distinguish figures moving about the blaze.  The way winding 
+still nearer, they perceived in the valley one of those numerous 
+bands of gipsies, which at that period particularly haunted the wilds 
+of the Pyrenees, and lived partly by plundering the traveller.  Emily 
+looked with some degree of terror on the savage countenances of these 
+people, shewn by the fire, which heightened the romantic effects of 
+the scenery, as it threw a red dusky gleam upon the rocks and on the 
+foliage of the trees, leaving heavy masses of shade and regions of 
+obscurity, which the eye feared to penetrate.
+
+They were preparing their supper; a large pot stood by the fire, over 
+which several figures were busy.  The blaze discovered a rude kind of 
+tent, round which many children and dogs were playing, and the whole 
+formed a picture highly grotesque.  The travellers saw plainly their 
+danger.  Valancourt was silent, but laid his hand on one of St. 
+Aubert's pistols;  St. Aubert drew forth another, and Michael was 
+ordered to proceed as fast as possible.  They passed the place, 
+however, without being attacked; the rovers being probably unprepared 
+for the opportunity, and too busy about their supper to feel much 
+interest, at the moment, in any thing besides.
+
+After a league and a half more, passed in darkness, the travellers 
+arrived at Beaujeu, and drove up to the only inn the place afforded; 
+which, though superior to any they had seen since they entered the 
+mountains, was bad enough.
+
+The surgeon of the town was immediately sent for, if a surgeon he 
+could be called, who prescribed for horses as well as for men, and 
+shaved faces at least as dexterously as he set bones.  After 
+examining Valancourt's arm, and perceiving that the bullet had passed 
+through the flesh without touching the bone, he dressed it, and left 
+him with a solemn prescription of quiet, which his patient was not 
+inclined to obey.  The delight of ease had now succeeded to pain; for 
+ease may be allowed to assume a positive quality when contrasted with 
+anguish; and, his spirits thus re-animated, he wished to partake of 
+the conversation of St. Aubert and Emily, who, released from so many 
+apprehensions, were uncommonly cheerful.  Late as it was, however, 
+St. Aubert was obliged to go out with the landlord to buy meat for 
+supper; and Emily, who, during this interval, had been absent as long 
+as she could, upon excuses of looking to their accommodation, which 
+she found rather better than she expected, was compelled to return, 
+and converse with Valancourt alone.  They talked of the character of 
+the scenes they had passed, of the natural history of the country, of 
+poetry, and of St. Aubert; a subject on which Emily always spoke and 
+listened to with peculiar pleasure.
+
+The travellers passed an agreeable evening; but St. Aubert was 
+fatigued with his journey; and, as Valancourt seemed again sensible 
+of pain, they separated soon after supper.
+
+In the morning St. Aubert found that Valancourt had passed a restless 
+night; that he was feverish, and his wound very painful.  The 
+surgeon, when he dressed it, advised him to remain quietly at 
+Beaujeu; advice which was too reasonable to be rejected.  St. Aubert, 
+however, had no favourable opinion of this practitioner, and was 
+anxious to commit Valancourt into more skilful hands; but learning, 
+upon enquiry, that there was no town within several leagues which 
+seemed more likely to afford better advice, he altered the plan of 
+his journey, and determined to await the recovery of Valancourt, who, 
+with somewhat more ceremony than sincerity, made many objections to 
+this delay.
+
+By order of his surgeon, Valancourt did not go out of the house that 
+day; but St. Aubert and Emily surveyed with delight the environs of 
+the town, situated at the feet of the Pyrenean Alps, that rose, some 
+in abrupt precipices, and others swelling with woods of cedar, fir, 
+and cypress, which stretched nearly to their highest summits.  The 
+cheerful green of the beech and mountain-ash was sometimes seen, like 
+a gleam of light, amidst the dark verdure of the forest; and 
+sometimes a torrent poured its sparkling flood, high among the woods.
+
+Valancourt's indisposition detained the travellers at Beaujeu several 
+days, during which interval St. Aubert had observed his disposition 
+and his talents with the philosophic inquiry so natural to him.  He 
+saw a frank and generous nature, full of ardour, highly susceptible 
+of whatever is grand and beautiful, but impetuous, wild, and somewhat 
+romantic.  Valancourt had known little of the world.  His perceptions 
+were clear, and his feelings just; his indignation of an unworthy, or 
+his admiration of a generous action, were expressed in terms of equal 
+vehemence.  St. Aubert sometimes smiled at his warmth, but seldom 
+checked it, and often repeated to himself, 'This young man has never 
+been at Paris.'  A sigh sometimes followed this silent ejaculation.  
+He determined not to leave Valancourt till he should be perfectly 
+recovered; and, as he was now well enough to travel, though not able 
+to manage his horse, St. Aubert invited him to accompany him for a 
+few days in the carriage.  This he the more readily did, since he had 
+discovered that Valancourt was of a family of the same name in 
+Gascony, with whose respectability he was well acquainted.  The 
+latter accepted the offer with great pleasure, and they again set 
+forward among these romantic wilds about Rousillon.
+
+They travelled leisurely; stopping wherever a scene uncommonly grand 
+appeared; frequently alighting to walk to an eminence, whither the 
+mules could not go, from which the prospect opened in greater 
+magnificence; and often sauntering over hillocks covered with 
+lavender, wild thyme, juniper, and tamarisc; and under the shades of 
+woods, between those boles they caught the long mountain-vista, 
+sublime beyond any thing that Emily had ever imagined.
+
+St. Aubert sometimes amused himself with botanizing, while Valancourt 
+and Emily strolled on; he pointing out to her notice the objects that 
+particularly charmed him, and reciting beautiful passages from such 
+of the Latin and Italian poets as he had heard her admire.  In the 
+pauses of conversation, when he thought himself not observed, he 
+frequently fixed his eyes pensively on her countenance, which 
+expressed with so much animation the taste and energy of her mind; 
+and when he spoke again, there was a peculiar tenderness in the tone 
+of his voice, that defeated any attempt to conceal his sentiments.  
+By degrees these silent pauses became more frequent; till Emily, 
+only, betrayed an anxiety to interrupt them; and she; who had been 
+hitherto reserved, would now talk again, and again, of the woods and 
+the vallies and the mountains, to avoid the danger of sympathy and 
+silence.
+
+From Beaujeu the road had constantly ascended, conducting the 
+travellers into the higher regions of the air, where immense glaciers 
+exhibited their frozen horrors, and eternal snow whitened the summits 
+of the mountains.  They often paused to contemplate these stupendous 
+scenes, and, seated on some wild cliff, where only the ilex or the 
+larch could flourish, looked over dark forests of fir, and precipices 
+where human foot had never wandered, into the glen--so deep, that the 
+thunder of the torrent, which was seen to foam along the bottom, was 
+scarcely heard to murmur.  Over these crags rose others of stupendous 
+height, and fantastic shape; some shooting into cones; others 
+impending far over their base, in huge masses of granite, along whose 
+broken ridges was often lodged a weight of snow, that, trembling even 
+to the vibration of a sound, threatened to bear destruction in its 
+course to the vale.  Around, on every side, far as the eye could 
+penetrate, were seen only forms of grandeur--the long perspective of 
+mountain-tops, tinged with ethereal blue, or white with snow; vallies 
+of ice, and forests of gloomy fir.  The serenity and clearness of the 
+air in these high regions were particularly delightful to the 
+travellers; it seemed to inspire them with a finer spirit, and 
+diffused an indescribable complacency over their minds.  They had no 
+words to express the sublime emotions they felt.  A solemn expression 
+characterized the feelings of St. Aubert; tears often came to his 
+eyes, and he frequently walked away from his companions.  Valancourt 
+now and then spoke, to point to Emily's notice some feature of the 
+scene.  The thinness of the atmosphere, through which every object 
+came so distinctly to the eye, surprised and deluded her; who could 
+scarcely believe that objects, which appeared so near, were, in 
+reality, so distant.  The deep silence of these solitudes was broken 
+only at intervals by the scream of the vultures, seen cowering round 
+some cliff below, or by the cry of the eagle sailing high in the air; 
+except when the travellers listened to the hollow thunder that 
+sometimes muttered at their feet.  While, above, the deep blue of the 
+heavens was unobscured by the lightest cloud, half way down the 
+mountains, long billows of vapour were frequently seen rolling, now 
+wholly excluding the country below, and now opening, and partially 
+revealing its features.  Emily delighted to observe the grandeur of 
+these clouds as they changed in shape and tints, and to watch their 
+various effect on the lower world, whose features, partly veiled, 
+were continually assuming new forms of sublimity.
+
+After traversing these regions for many leagues, they began to 
+descend towards Rousillon, and features of beauty then mingled with 
+the scene.  Yet the travellers did not look back without some regret 
+to the sublime objects they had quitted; though the eye, fatigued 
+with the extension of its powers, was glad to repose on the verdure 
+of woods and pastures, that now hung on the margin of the river 
+below; to view again the humble cottage shaded by cedars, the playful 
+group of mountaineer-children, and the flowery nooks that appeared 
+among the hills.
+
+As they descended, they saw at a distance, on the right, one of the 
+grand passes of the Pyrenees into Spain, gleaming with its 
+battlements and towers to the splendour of the setting rays, yellow 
+tops of woods colouring the steeps below, while far above aspired the 
+snowy points of the mountains, still reflecting a rosy hue.
+
+St. Aubert began to look out for the little town he had been directed 
+to by the people of Beaujeu, and where he meant to pass the night; 
+but no habitation yet appeared.  Of its distance Valancourt could not 
+assist him to judge, for he had never been so far along this chain of 
+Alps before.  There was, however, a road to guide them; and there 
+could be little doubt that it was the right one; for, since they had 
+left Beaujeu, there had been no variety of tracks to perplex or 
+mislead.
+
+The sun now gave his last light, and St. Aubert bade the muleteer 
+proceed with all possible dispatch.  He found, indeed, the lassitude 
+of illness return upon him, after a day of uncommon fatigue, both of 
+body and mind, and he longed for repose.  His anxiety was not soothed 
+by observing a numerous train, consisting of men, horses, and loaded 
+mules, winding down the steeps of an opposite mountain, appearing and 
+disappearing at intervals among the woods, so that its numbers could 
+not be judged of.  Something bright, like arms, glanced in the 
+setting ray, and the military dress was distinguishable upon the men 
+who were in the van, and on others scattered among the troop that 
+followed.  As these wound into the vale, the rear of the party 
+emerged from the woods, and exhibited a band of soldiers.  St. 
+Aubert's apprehensions now subsided; he had no doubt that the train 
+before him consisted of smugglers, who, in conveying prohibited goods 
+over the Pyrenees, had been encountered, and conquered by a party of 
+troops.
+
+The travellers had lingered so long among the sublimer scenes of 
+these mountains, that they found themselves entirely mistaken in 
+their calculation that they could reach Montigny at sun-set; but, as 
+they wound along the valley, the saw, on a rude Alpine bridge, that 
+united two lofty crags of the glen, a group of mountaineer-children, 
+amusing themselves with dropping pebbles into a torrent below, and 
+watching the stones plunge into the water, that threw up its white 
+spray high in the air as it received them, and returned a sullen 
+sound, which the echoes of the mountains prolonged.  Under the bridge 
+was seen a perspective of the valley, with its cataract descending 
+among the rocks, and a cottage on a cliff, overshadowed with pines.  
+It appeared, that they could not be far from some small town.  St. 
+Aubert bade the muleteer stop, and then called to the children to 
+enquire if he was near Montigny; but the distance, and the roaring of 
+the waters, would not suffer his voice to be heard; and the crags, 
+adjoining the bridge, were of such tremendous height and steepness, 
+that to have climbed either would have been scarcely practicable to a 
+person unacquainted with the ascent.  St. Aubert, therefore, did not 
+waste more moments in delay.  They continued to travel long after 
+twilight had obscured the road, which was so broken, that, now 
+thinking it safer to walk than to ride, they all alighted.  The moon 
+was rising, but her light was yet too feeble to assist them.  While 
+they stepped carefully on, they heard the vesper-bell of a convent.  
+The twilight would not permit them to distinguish anything like a 
+building, but the sounds seemed to come from some woods, that 
+overhung an acclivity to the right.  Valancourt proposed to go in 
+search of this convent.  'If they will not accommodate us with a 
+night's lodging,' said he, 'they may certainly inform us how far we 
+are from Montigny, and direct us towards it.'  He was bounding 
+forward, without waiting St. Aubert's reply, when the latter stopped 
+him.  'I am very weary,' said St. Aubert, 'and wish for nothing so 
+much as for immediate rest.  We will all go to the convent; your good 
+looks would defeat our purpose; but when they see mine and Emily's 
+exhausted countenances, they will scarcely deny us repose.' 
+
+As he said this, he took Emily's arm within his, and, telling Michael 
+to wait awhile in the road with the carriage, they began to ascend 
+towards the woods, guided by the bell of the convent.  His steps were 
+feeble, and Valancourt offered him his arm, which he accepted.  The 
+moon now threw a faint light over their path, and, soon after, 
+enabled them to distinguish some towers rising above the tops of the 
+woods.  Still following the note of the bell, they entered the shade 
+of those woods, lighted only by the moonbeams, that glided down 
+between the leaves, and threw a tremulous uncertain gleam upon the 
+steep track they were winding.  The gloom and the silence that 
+prevailed, except when the bell returned upon the air, together with 
+the wildness of the surrounding scene, struck Emily with a degree of 
+fear, which, however, the voice and conversation of Valancourt 
+somewhat repressed.  When they had been some time ascending, St. 
+Aubert complained of weariness, and they stopped to rest upon a 
+little green summit, where the trees opened, and admitted the moon-
+light.  He sat down upon the turf, between Emily and Valancourt.  The 
+bell had now ceased, and the deep repose of the scene was undisturbed 
+by any sound, for the low dull murmur of some distant torrents might 
+be said to sooth, rather than to interrupt, the silence.
+
+Before them, extended the valley they had quitted; its rocks, and 
+woods to the left, just silvered by the rays, formed a contrast to 
+the deep shadow, that involved the opposite cliffs, whose fringed 
+summits only were tipped with light; while the distant perspective of 
+the valley was lost in the yellow mist of moon-light.  The travellers 
+sat for some time wrapt in the complacency which such scenes inspire.
+
+'These scenes,' said Valancourt, at length, 'soften the heart, like 
+the notes of sweet music, and inspire that delicious melancholy which 
+no person, who had felt it once, would resign for the gayest 
+pleasures.  They waken our best and purest feelings, disposing us to 
+benevolence, pity, and friendship.  Those whom I love--I always seem 
+to love more in such an hour as this.'  His voice trembled, and he 
+paused.
+
+St. Aubert was silent; Emily perceived a warm tear fall upon the hand 
+he held; she knew the object of his thoughts; hers too had, for some 
+time, been occupied by the remembrance of her mother.  He seemed by 
+an effort to rouse himself.  'Yes,' said he, with an half-suppressed 
+sigh, 'the memory of those we love--of times for ever past! in such 
+an hour as this steals upon the mind, like a strain of distant music 
+in the stillness of night;--all tender and harmonious as this 
+landscape, sleeping in the mellow moon-light.'  After the pause of a 
+moment, St. Aubert added, 'I have always fancied, that I thought with 
+more clearness, and precision, at such an hour than at any other, and 
+that heart must be insensible in a great degree, that does not soften 
+to its influence.  But many such there are.'
+
+Valancourt sighed.
+
+'Are there, indeed, many such?' said Emily.
+
+'a few years hence, my Emily,' replied St. Aubert, 'and you may smile 
+at the recollection of that question--if you do not weep to it.  But 
+come, I am somewhat refreshed, let us proceed.'
+
+Having emerged from the woods, they saw, upon a turfy hillock above, 
+the convent of which they were in search.  A high wall, that 
+surrounded it, led them to an ancient gate, at which they knocked; 
+and the poor monk, who opened it, conducted them into a small 
+adjoining room, where he desired they would wait while he informed 
+the superior of their request.  In this interval, several friars came 
+in separately to look at them; and at length the first monk returned, 
+and they followed him to a room, where the superior was sitting in an 
+arm-chair, with a large folio volume, printed in black letter, open 
+on a desk before him.  He received them with courtesy, though he did 
+not rise from his seat; and, having asked them a few questions, 
+granted their request.  After a short conversation, formal and solemn 
+on the part of the superior, they withdrew to the apartment where 
+they were to sup, and Valancourt, whom one of the inferior friars 
+civilly desired to accompany, went to seek Michael and his mules.  
+They had not descended half way down the cliffs, before they heard 
+the voice of the muleteer echoing far and wide.  Sometimes he called 
+on St. Aubert, and sometimes on Valancourt; who having, at length, 
+convinced him that he had nothing to fear either for himself, or his 
+master; and having disposed of him, for the night, in a cottage on 
+the skirts of the woods, returned to sup with his friends, on such 
+sober fare as the monks thought it prudent to set before them.  While 
+St. Aubert was too much indisposed to share it, Emily, in her anxiety 
+for her father, forgot herself; and Valancourt, silent and 
+thoughtful, yet never inattentive to them, appeared particularly 
+solicitous to accommodate and relieve St. Aubert, who often observed, 
+while his daughter was pressing him to eat, or adjusting the pillow 
+she had placed in the back of his arm-chair, that Valancourt fixed on 
+her a look of pensive tenderness, which he was not displeased to 
+understand.
+
+They separated at an early hour, and retired to their respective 
+apartments.  Emily was shown to hers by a nun of the convent, whom 
+she was glad to dismiss, for her heart was melancholy, and her 
+attention so much abstracted, that conversation with a stranger was 
+painful.  She thought her father daily declining, and attributed his 
+present fatigue more to the feeble state of his frame, than to the 
+difficulty of the journey.  A train of gloomy ideas haunted her mind, 
+till she fell asleep.
+
+In about two hours after, she was awakened by the chiming of a bell, 
+and then heard quick steps pass along the gallery, into which her 
+chamber opened.  She was so little accustomed to the manners of a 
+convent, as to be alarmed by this circumstance; her fears, ever alive 
+for her father, suggested that he was very ill, and she rose in haste 
+to go to him.  Having paused, however, to let the persons in the 
+gallery pass before she opened her door, her thoughts, in the mean 
+time, recovered from the confusion of sleep, and she understood that 
+the bell was the call of the monks to prayers.  It had now ceased, 
+and, all being again still, she forbore to go to St. Aubert's room.  
+Her mind was not disposed for immediate sleep, and the moon-light, 
+that shone into her chamber, invited her to open the casement, and 
+look out upon the country.
+
+It was a still and beautiful night, the sky was unobscured by any 
+cloud, and scarce a leaf of the woods beneath trembled in the air.  
+As she listened, the mid-night hymn of the monks rose softly from a 
+chapel, that stood on one of the lower cliffs, an holy strain, that 
+seemed to ascend through the silence of night to heaven, and her 
+thoughts ascended with it.  From the consideration of His works, her 
+mind arose to the adoration of the Deity, in His goodness and power; 
+wherever she turned her view, whether on the sleeping earth, or to 
+the vast regions of space, glowing with worlds beyond the reach of 
+human thought, the sublimity of God, and the majesty of His presence 
+appeared.  Her eyes were filled with tears of awful love and 
+admiration; and she felt that pure devotion, superior to all the 
+distinctions of human system, which lifts the soul above this world, 
+and seems to expand it into a nobler nature; such devotion as can, 
+perhaps, only be experienced, when the mind, rescued, for a moment, 
+from the humbleness of earthly considerations, aspires to contemplate 
+His power in the sublimity of His works, and His goodness in the 
+infinity of His blessings.
+
+     Is it not now the hour,
+ The holy hour, when to the cloudless height
+ Of yon starred concave climbs the full-orbed moon,
+ And to this nether world in solemn stillness,
+ Gives sign, that, to the list'ning ear of Heaven
+ Religion's voice should plead?  The very babe
+ Knows this, and, chance awak'd, his little hands
+ Lifts to the gods, and on his innocent couch
+ Calls down a blessing.*
+     *Caractacus
+
+
+The midnight chant of the monks soon after dropped into silence; but 
+Emily remained at the casement, watching the setting moon, and the 
+valley sinking into deep shade, and willing to prolong her present 
+state of mind.  At length she retired to her mattress, and sunk into 
+tranquil slumber.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+     While in the rosy vale
+ Love breath'd his infant sighs, from anguish free.
+     Thomson
+
+St. Aubert, sufficiently restored by a night's repose to pursue his 
+journey, set out in the morning, with his family and Valancourt, for 
+Rousillon, which he hoped to reach before night-fall.  The scenes, 
+through which they now passed, were as wild and romantic, as any they 
+had yet observed, with this difference, that beauty, every now and 
+then, softened the landscape into smiles.  Little woody recesses 
+appeared among the mountains, covered with bright verdure and 
+flowers; or a pastoral valley opened its grassy bosom in the shade of 
+the cliffs, with flocks and herds loitering along the banks of a 
+rivulet, that refreshed it with perpetual green.  St. Aubert could 
+not repent the having taken this fatiguing road, though he was this 
+day, also, frequently obliged to alight, to walk along the rugged 
+precipice, and to climb the steep and flinty mountain.  The wonderful 
+sublimity and variety of the prospects repaid him for all this, and 
+the enthusiasm, with which they were viewed by his young companions, 
+heightened his own, and awakened a remembrance of all the delightful 
+emotions of his early days, when the sublime charms of nature were 
+first unveiled to him.  He found great pleasure in conversing with 
+Valancourt, and in listening to his ingenuous remarks.  The fire and 
+simplicity of his manners seemed to render him a characteristic 
+figure in the scenes around them; and St. Aubert discovered in his 
+sentiments the justness and the dignity of an elevated mind, 
+unbiassed by intercourse with the world.  He perceived, that his 
+opinions were formed, rather than imbibed; were more the result of 
+thought, than of learning.  Of the world he seemed to know nothing; 
+for he believed well of all mankind, and this opinion gave him the 
+reflected image of his own heart.
+
+St. Aubert, as he sometimes lingered to examine the wild plants in 
+his path, often looked forward with pleasure to Emily and Valancourt, 
+as they strolled on together; he, with a countenance of animated 
+delight, pointing to her attention some grand feature of the scene; 
+and she, listening and observing with a look of tender seriousness, 
+that spoke the elevation of her mind.  They appeared like two lovers 
+who had never strayed beyond these their native mountains; whose 
+situation had secluded them from the frivolities of common life, 
+whose ideas were simple and grand, like the landscapes among which 
+they moved, and who knew no other happiness, than in the union of 
+pure and affectionate hearts.  St. Aubert smiled, and sighed at the 
+romantic picture of felicity his fancy drew; and sighed again to 
+think, that nature and simplicity were so little known to the world, 
+as that their pleasures were thought romantic.
+
+'The world,' said he, pursuing this train of thought, 'ridicules a 
+passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, 
+distract the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love 
+cannot exist in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence.  
+Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than 
+active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in 
+real love.  How then are we to look for love in great cities, where 
+selfishness, dissipation, and insincerity supply the place of 
+tenderness, simplicity and truth?'
+
+It was near noon, when the travellers, having arrived at a piece of 
+steep and dangerous road, alighted to walk.  The road wound up an 
+ascent, that was clothed with wood, and, instead of following the 
+carriage, they entered the refreshing shade.  A dewy coolness was 
+diffused upon the air, which, with the bright verdure of turf, that 
+grew under the trees, the mingled fragrance of flowers and of balm, 
+thyme, and lavender, that enriched it, and the grandeur of the pines, 
+beech, and chestnuts, that overshadowed them, rendered this a most 
+delicious retreat.  Sometimes, the thick foliage excluded all view of 
+the country; at others, it admitted some partial catches of the 
+distant scenery, which gave hints to the imagination to picture 
+landscapes more interesting, more impressive, than any that had been 
+presented to the eye.  The wanderers often lingered to indulge in 
+these reveries of fancy.
+
+The pauses of silence, such as had formerly interrupted the 
+conversations of Valancourt and Emily, were more frequent today than 
+ever.  Valancourt often dropped suddenly from the most animating 
+vivacity into fits of deep musing, and there was, sometimes, an 
+unaffected melancholy in his smile, which Emily could not avoid 
+understanding, for her heart was interested in the sentiment it 
+spoke.
+
+St. Aubert was refreshed by the shades, and they continued to saunter 
+under them, following, as nearly as they could guess, the direction 
+of the road, till they perceived that they had totally lost it.  They 
+had continued near the brow of the precipice, allured by the scenery 
+it exhibited, while the road wound far away over the cliff above.  
+Valancourt called loudly to Michael, but heard no voice, except his 
+own, echoing among the rocks, and his various efforts to regain the 
+road were equally unsuccessful.  While they were thus circumstanced, 
+they perceived a shepherd's cabin, between the boles of the trees at 
+some distance, and Valancourt bounded on first to ask assistance.  
+When he reached it, he saw only two little children, at play, on the 
+turf before the door.  He looked into the hut, but no person was 
+there, and the eldest of the boys told him that their father was with 
+his flocks, and their mother was gone down into the vale, but would 
+be back presently.  As he stood, considering what was further to be 
+done, on a sudden he heard Michael's voice roaring forth most 
+manfully among the cliffs above, till he made their echoes ring.  
+Valancourt immediately answered the call, and endeavoured to make his 
+way through the thicket that clothed the steeps, following the 
+direction of the sound.  After much struggle over brambles and 
+precipices, he reached Michael, and at length prevailed with him to 
+be silent, and to listen to him.  The road was at a considerable 
+distance from the spot where St. Aubert and Emily were; the carriage 
+could not easily return to the entrance of the wood, and, since it 
+would be very fatiguing for St. Aubert to climb the long and steep 
+road to the place where it now stood, Valancourt was anxious to find 
+a more easy ascent, by the way he had himself passed.
+
+Meanwhile St. Aubert and Emily approached the cottage, and rested 
+themselves on a rustic bench, fastened between two pines, which 
+overshadowed it, till Valancourt, whose steps they had observed, 
+should return.
+
+The eldest of the children desisted from his play, and stood still to 
+observe the strangers, while the younger continued his little 
+gambols, and teased his brother to join in them.  St. Aubert looked 
+with pleasure upon this picture of infantine simplicity, till it 
+brought to his remembrance his own boys, whom he had lost about the 
+age of these, and their lamented mother; and he sunk into a 
+thoughtfulness, which Emily observing, she immediately began to sing 
+one of those simple and lively airs he was so fond of, and which she 
+knew how to give with the most captivating sweetness.  St. Aubert 
+smiled on her through his tears, took her hand and pressed it 
+affectionately, and then tried to dissipate the melancholy 
+reflections that lingered in his mind.
+
+While she sung, Valancourt approached, who was unwilling to interrupt 
+her, and paused at a little distance to listen.  When she had 
+concluded, he joined the party, and told them, that he had found 
+Michael, as well as a way, by which he thought they could ascend the 
+cliff to the carriage.  He pointed to the woody steeps above, which 
+St. Aubert surveyed with an anxious eye.  He was already wearied by 
+his walk, and this ascent was formidable to him.  He thought, 
+however, it would be less toilsome than the long and broken road, and 
+he determined to attempt it; but Emily, ever watchful of his ease, 
+proposing that he should rest, and dine before they proceeded 
+further, Valancourt went to the carriage for the refreshments 
+deposited there.
+
+On his return, he proposed removing a little higher up the mountain, 
+to where the woods opened upon a grand and extensive prospect; and 
+thither they were preparing to go, when they saw a young woman join 
+the children, and caress and weep over them.
+
+The travellers, interested by her distress, stopped to observe her.  
+She took the youngest of the children in her arms, and, perceiving 
+the strangers, hastily dried her tears, and proceeded to the cottage.  
+St. Aubert, on enquiring the occasion of her sorrow, learned that her 
+husband, who was a shepherd, and lived here in the summer months to 
+watch over the flocks he led to feed upon these mountains, had lost, 
+on the preceding night, his little all.  A gang of gipsies, who had 
+for some time infested the neighbourhood, had driven away several of 
+his master's sheep.  'Jacques,' added the shepherd's wife, 'had saved 
+a little money, and had bought a few sheep with it, and now they must 
+go to his master for those that are stolen; and what is worse than 
+all, his master, when he comes to know how it is, will trust him no 
+longer with the care of his flocks, for he is a hard man! and then 
+what is to become of our children!'
+
+The innocent countenance of the woman, and the simplicity of her 
+manner in relating her grievance, inclined St. Aubert to believe her 
+story; and Valancourt, convinced that it was true, asked eagerly what 
+was the value of the stolen sheep; on hearing which he turned away 
+with a look of disappointment.  St. Aubert put some money into her 
+hand, Emily too gave something from her little purse, and they walked 
+towards the cliff; but Valancourt lingered behind, and spoke to the 
+shepherd's wife, who was now weeping with gratitude and surprise.  He 
+enquired how much money was yet wanting to replace the stolen sheep, 
+and found, that it was a sum very little short of all he had about 
+him.  He was perplexed and distressed.  'This sum then,' said he to 
+himself, 'would make this poor family completely happy--it is in my 
+power to give it--to make them completely happy!  But what is to 
+become of me?--how shall I contrive to reach home with the little 
+money that will remain?'  For a moment he stood, unwilling to forego 
+the luxury of raising a family from ruin to happiness, yet 
+considering the difficulties of pursuing his journey with so small a 
+sum as would be left.
+
+While he was in this state of perplexity, the shepherd himself 
+appeared:  his children ran to meet him; he took one of them in his 
+arms, and, with the other clinging to his coat, came forward with a 
+loitering step.  His forlorn and melancholy look determined 
+Valancourt at once; he threw down all the money he had, except a very 
+few louis, and bounded away after St. Aubert and Emily, who were 
+proceeding slowly up the steep.  Valancourt had seldom felt his heart 
+so light as at this moment; his gay spirits danced with pleasure; 
+every object around him appeared more interesting, or beautiful, than 
+before.  St. Aubert observed the uncommon vivacity of his 
+countenance:  'What has pleased you so much?' said he.  'O what a 
+lovely day,' replied Valancourt, 'how brightly the sun shines, how 
+pure is this air, what enchanting scenery!'  'It is indeed 
+enchanting,' said St. Aubert, whom early experience had taught to 
+understand the nature of Valancourt's present feelings.  'What pity 
+that the wealthy, who can command such sunshine, should ever pass 
+their days in gloom--in the cold shade of selfishness!  For you, my 
+young friend, may the sun always shine as brightly as at this moment; 
+may your own conduct always give you the sunshine of benevolence and 
+reason united!'
+
+Valancourt, highly flattered by this compliment, could make no reply 
+but by a smile of gratitude.
+
+They continued to wind under the woods, between the grassy knolls of 
+the mountain, and, as they reached the shady summit, which he had 
+pointed out, the whole party burst into an exclamation.  Behind the 
+spot where they stood, the rock rose perpendicularly in a massy wall 
+to a considerable height, and then branched out into overhanging 
+crags.  Their grey tints were well contrasted by the bright hues of 
+the plants and wild flowers, that grew in their fractured sides, and 
+were deepened by the gloom of the pines and cedars, that waved above.  
+The steeps below, over which the eye passed abruptly to the valley, 
+were fringed with thickets of alpine shrubs; and, lower still, 
+appeared the tufted tops of the chesnut woods, that clothed their 
+base, among which peeped forth the shepherd's cottage, just left by 
+the travellers, with its blueish smoke curling high in the air.  On 
+every side appeared the majestic summits of the Pyrenees, some 
+exhibiting tremendous crags of marble, whose appearance was changing 
+every instant, as the varying lights fell upon their surface; others, 
+still higher, displaying only snowy points, while their lower steeps 
+were covered almost invariably with forests of pine, larch, and oak, 
+that stretched down to the vale.  This was one of the narrow vallies, 
+that open from the Pyrenees into the country of Rousillon, and whose 
+green pastures, and cultivated beauty, form a decided and wonderful 
+contrast to the romantic grandeur that environs it.  Through a vista 
+of the mountains appeared the lowlands of Rousillon, tinted with the 
+blue haze of distance, as they united with the waters of the 
+Mediterranean; where, on a promontory, which marked the boundary of 
+the shore, stood a lonely beacon, over which were seen circling 
+flights of sea-fowl.  Beyond, appeared, now and then, a stealing 
+sail, white with the sun-beam, and whose progress was perceivable by 
+its approach to the light-house.  Sometimes, too, was seen a sail so 
+distant, that it served only to mark the line of separation between 
+the sky and the waves.
+
+On the other side of the valley, immediately opposite to the spot 
+where the travellers rested, a rocky pass opened toward Gascony.  
+Here no sign of cultivation appeared.  The rocks of granite, that 
+screened the glen, rose abruptly from their base, and stretched their 
+barren points to the clouds, unvaried with woods, and uncheered even 
+by a hunter's cabin.  Sometimes, indeed, a gigantic larch threw its 
+long shade over the precipice, and here and there a cliff reared on 
+its brow a monumental cross, to tell the traveller the fate of him 
+who had ventured thither before.  This spot seemed the very haunt of 
+banditti; and Emily, as she looked down upon it, almost expected to 
+see them stealing out from some hollow cave to look for their prey.  
+Soon after an object not less terrific struck her,--a gibbet standing 
+on a point of rock near the entrance of the pass, and immediately 
+over one of the crosses she had before observed.  These were 
+hieroglyphics that told a plain and dreadful story.  She forbore to 
+point it out to St. Aubert, but it threw a gloom over her spirits, 
+and made her anxious to hasten forward, that they might with 
+certainty reach Rousillon before night-fall.  It was necessary, 
+however, that St. Aubert should take some refreshment, and, seating 
+themselves on the short dry turf, they opened the basket of 
+provisions, while
+
+     by breezy murmurs cool'd,
+ Broad o'er THEIR heads the verdant cedars wave,
+ And high palmetos lift their graceful shade.
+ -----THEY draw
+ Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales
+ Profusely breathing from the piney groves,
+ And vales of fragrance; there at a distance hear
+ The roaring floods, and cataracts.*
+     *Thomson
+
+
+St. Aubert was revived by rest, and by the serene air of this summit; 
+and Valancourt was so charmed with all around, and with the 
+conversation of his companions, that he seemed to have forgotten he 
+had any further to go.  Having concluded their simple repast, they 
+gave a long farewell look to the scene, and again began to ascend.  
+St. Aubert rejoiced when he reached the carriage, which Emily entered 
+with him; but Valancourt, willing to take a more extensive view of 
+the enchanting country, into which they were about to descend, than 
+he could do from a carriage, loosened his dogs, and once more bounded 
+with them along the banks of the road.  He often quitted it for 
+points that promised a wider prospect, and the slow pace, at which 
+the mules travelled, allowed him to overtake them with ease.  
+Whenever a scene of uncommon magnificence appeared, he hastened to 
+inform St. Aubert, who, though he was too much tired to walk himself, 
+sometimes made the chaise wait, while Emily went to the neighbouring 
+cliff.
+
+It was evening when they descended the lower alps, that bind 
+Rousillon, and form a majestic barrier round that charming country, 
+leaving it open only on the east to the Mediterranean.  The gay tints 
+of cultivation once more beautified the landscape; for the lowlands 
+were coloured with the richest hues, which a luxuriant climate, and 
+an industrious people can awaken into life.  Groves of orange and 
+lemon perfumed the air, their ripe fruit glowing among the foliage; 
+while, sloping to the plains, extensive vineyards spread their 
+treasures.  Beyond these, woods and pastures, and mingled towns and 
+hamlets stretched towards the sea, on whose bright surface gleamed 
+many a distant sail; while, over the whole scene, was diffused the 
+purple glow of evening.  This landscape with the surrounding alps 
+did, indeed, present a perfect picture of the lovely and the sublime, 
+of 'beauty sleeping in the lap of horror.'
+
+The travellers, having reached the plains, proceeded, between hedges 
+of flowering myrtle and pomegranate, to the town of Arles, where they 
+proposed to rest for the night.  They met with simple, but neat 
+accommodation, and would have passed a happy evening, after the toils 
+and the delights of this day, had not the approaching separation 
+thrown a gloom over their spirit.  It was St. Aubert's plan to 
+proceed, on the morrow, to the borders of the Mediterranean, and 
+travel along its shores into Languedoc; and Valancourt, since he was 
+now nearly recovered, and had no longer a pretence for continuing 
+with his new friends, resolved to leave them here.  St. Aubert, who 
+was much pleased with him, invited him to go further, but did not 
+repeat the invitation, and Valancourt had resolution enough to forego 
+the temptation of accepting it, that he might prove himself not 
+unworthy of the favour.  On the following morning, therefore, they 
+were to part, St. Aubert to pursue his way to Languedoc, and 
+Valancourt to explore new scenes among the mountains, on his return 
+home.  During this evening he was often silent and thoughtful; St. 
+Aubert's manner towards him was affectionate, though grave, and Emily 
+was serious, though she made frequent efforts to appear cheerful.  
+After one of the most melancholy evenings they had yet passed 
+together, they separated for the night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+ I care not, Fortune! what you me deny;
+ You cannot rob me of free nature's grace;
+ You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
+ Through which Aurora shews her brightening face;
+ You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
+ The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve:
+ Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
+ And I their toys to the great children leave:
+ Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave.
+     THOMSON
+
+In the morning, Valancourt breakfasted with St. Aubert and Emily, 
+neither of whom seemed much refreshed by sleep.  The languor of 
+illness still hung over St. Aubert, and to Emily's fears his disorder 
+appeared to be increasing fast upon him.  She watched his looks with 
+anxious affection, and their expression was always faithfully 
+reflected in her own.
+
+At the commencement of their acquaintance, Valancourt had made known 
+his name and family.  St. Aubert was not a stranger to either, for 
+the family estates, which were now in the possession of an elder 
+brother of Valancourt, were little more than twenty miles distant 
+from La Vallee, and he had sometimes met the elder Valancourt on 
+visits in the neighbourhood.  This knowledge had made him more 
+willingly receive his present companion; for, though his countenance 
+and manners would have won him the acquaintance of St. Aubert, who 
+was very apt to trust to the intelligence of his own eyes, with 
+respect to countenances, he would not have accepted these, as 
+sufficient introductions to that of his daughter.
+
+The breakfast was almost as silent as the supper of the preceding 
+night; but their musing was at length interrupted by the sound of the 
+carriage wheels, which were to bear away St. Aubert and Emily.  
+Valancourt started from his chair, and went to the window; it was 
+indeed the carriage, and he returned to his seat without speaking.  
+The moment was now come when they must part.  St. Aubert told 
+Valancourt, that he hoped he would never pass La Vallee without 
+favouring him with a visit; and Valancourt, eagerly thanking him, 
+assured him that he never would; as he said which he looked timidly 
+at Emily, who tried to smile away the seriousness of her spirits.  
+They passed a few minutes in interesting conversation, and St. Aubert 
+then led the way to the carriage, Emily and Valancourt following in 
+silence.  The latter lingered at the door several minutes after they 
+were seated, and none of the party seemed to have courage enough to 
+say--Farewell.  At length, St. Aubert pronounced the melancholy word, 
+which Emily passed to Valancourt, who returned it, with a dejected 
+smile, and the carriage drove on.
+
+The travellers remained, for some time, in a state of tranquil 
+pensiveness, which is not unpleasing.  St. Aubert interrupted it by 
+observing, 'This is a very promising young man; it is many years 
+since I have been so much pleased with any person, on so short an 
+acquaintance.  He brings back to my memory the days of my youth, when 
+every scene was new and delightful!'  St. Aubert sighed, and sunk 
+again into a reverie; and, as Emily looked back upon the road they 
+had passed, Valancourt was seen, at the door of the little inn, 
+following them with his eyes.  Her perceived her, and waved his hand; 
+and she returned the adieu, till the winding road shut her from his 
+sight.
+
+'I remember when I was about his age,' resumed St. Aubert, 'and I 
+thought, and felt exactly as he does.  The world was opening upon me 
+then, now--it is closing.'
+
+'My dear sir, do not think so gloomily,' said Emily in a trembling 
+voice, 'I hope you have many, many years to live--for your own sake--
+for MY sake.'
+
+'Ah, my Emily!' replied St. Aubert, 'for thy sake!  Well- I hope it 
+is so.'  He wiped away a tear, that was stealing down his cheek, 
+threw a smile upon his countenance, and said in a cheering voice, 
+'there is something in the ardour and ingenuousness of youth, which 
+is particularly pleasing to the contemplation of an old man, if his 
+feelings have not been entirely corroded by the world.  It is 
+cheering and reviving, like the view of spring to a sick person; his 
+mind catches somewhat of the spirit of the season, and his eyes are 
+lighted up with a transient sunshine.  Valancourt is this spring to 
+me.'
+
+Emily, who pressed her father's hand affectionately, had never before 
+listened with so much pleasure to the praises he bestowed; no, not 
+even when he had bestowed them on herself.
+
+They travelled on, among vineyards, woods, and pastures, delighted 
+with the romantic beauty of the landscape, which was bounded, on one 
+side, by the grandeur of the Pyrenees, and, on the other, by the 
+ocean; and, soon after noon, they reached the town of Colioure, 
+situated on the Mediterranean.  Here they dined, and rested till 
+towards the cool of day, when they pursued their way along the 
+shores--those enchanting shores!--which extend to Languedoc.  Emily 
+gazed with enthusiasm on the vastness of the sea, its surface 
+varying, as the lights and shadows fell, and on its woody banks, 
+mellowed with autumnal tints.
+
+St. Aubert was impatient to reach Perpignan, where he expected 
+letters from M. Quesnel; and it was the expectation of these letters, 
+that had induced him to leave Colioure, for his feeble frame had 
+required immediate rest.  After travelling a few miles, he fell 
+asleep; and Emily, who had put two or three books into the carriage, 
+on leaving La Vallee, had now the leisure for looking into them.  She 
+sought for one, in which Valancourt had been reading the day before, 
+and hoped for the pleasure of re-tracing a page, over which the eyes 
+of a beloved friend had lately passed, of dwelling on the passages, 
+which he had admired, and of permitting them to speak to her in the 
+language of his own mind, and to bring himself to her presence.  On 
+searching for the book, she could find it no where, but in its stead 
+perceived a volume of Petrarch's poems, that had belonged to 
+Valancourt, whose name was written in it, and from which he had 
+frequently read passages to her, with all the pathetic expression, 
+that characterized the feelings of the author.  She hesitated in 
+believing, what would have been sufficiently apparent to almost any 
+other person, that he had purposely left this book, instead of the 
+one she had lost, and that love had prompted the exchange; but, 
+having opened it with impatient pleasure, and observed the lines of 
+his pencil drawn along the various passages he had read aloud, and 
+under others more descriptive of delicate tenderness than he had 
+dared to trust his voice with, the conviction came, at length, to her 
+mind.  For some moments she was conscious only of being beloved; 
+then, a recollection of all the variations of tone and countenance, 
+with which he had recited these sonnets, and of the soul, which spoke 
+in their expression, pressed to her memory, and she wept over the 
+memorial of his affection.
+
+They arrived at Perpignan soon after sunset, where St. Aubert found, 
+as he had expected, letters from M. Quesnel, the contents of which so 
+evidently and grievously affected him, that Emily was alarmed, and 
+pressed him, as far as her delicacy would permit, to disclose the 
+occasion of his concern; but he answered her only by tears, and 
+immediately began to talk on other topics.  Emily, though she forbore 
+to press the one most interesting to her, was greatly affected by her 
+father's manner, and passed a night of sleepless solicitude.
+
+In the morning they pursued their journey along the coast towards 
+Leucate, another town on the Mediterranean, situated on the borders 
+of Languedoc and Rousillon.  On the way, Emily renewed the subject of 
+the preceding night, and appeared so deeply affected by St. Aubert's 
+silence and dejection, that he relaxed from his reserve.  'I was 
+unwilling, my dear Emily,' said he, 'to throw a cloud over the 
+pleasure you receive from these scenes, and meant, therefore, to 
+conceal, for the present, some circumstances, with which, however, 
+you must at length have been made acquainted.  But your anxiety has 
+defeated my purpose; you suffer as much from this, perhaps, as you 
+will do from a knowledge of the facts I have to relate.  M. Quesnel's 
+visit proved an unhappy one to me; he came to tell me part of the 
+news he has now confirmed.  You may have heard me mention a M. 
+Motteville, of Paris, but you did not know that the chief of my 
+personal property was invested in his hands.  I had great confidence 
+in him, and I am yet willing to believe, that he is not wholly 
+unworthy of my esteem.  A variety of circumstances have concurred to 
+ruin him, and--I am ruined with him.'
+
+St. Aubert paused to conceal his emotion.
+
+'The letters I have just received from M. Quesnel,' resumed he, 
+struggling to speak with firmness, 'enclosed others from Motteville, 
+which confirmed all I dreaded.'
+
+'Must we then quit La Vallee?' said Emily, after a long pause of 
+silence.  'That is yet uncertain,' replied St. Aubert, 'it will 
+depend upon the compromise Motteville is able to make with his 
+creditors.  My income, you know, was never large, and now it will be 
+reduced to little indeed!  It is for you, Emily, for you, my child, 
+that I am most afflicted.'  His last words faltered; Emily smiled 
+tenderly upon him through her tears, and then, endeavouring to 
+overcome her emotion, 'My dear father,' said she, 'do not grieve for 
+me, or for yourself; we may yet be happy;--if La Vallee remains for 
+us, we must be happy.  We will retain only one servant, and you shall 
+scarcely perceive the change in your income.  Be comforted, my dear 
+sir; we shall not feel the want of those luxuries, which others value 
+so highly, since we never had a taste for them; and poverty cannot 
+deprive us of many consolations.  It cannot rob us of the affection 
+we have for each other, or degrade us in our own opinion, or in that 
+of any person, whose opinion we ought to value.'
+
+St. Aubert concealed his face with his handkerchief, and was unable 
+to speak; but Emily continued to urge to her father the truths, which 
+himself had impressed upon her mind.
+
+'Besides, my dear sir, poverty cannot deprive us of intellectual 
+delights.  It cannot deprive you of the comfort of affording me 
+examples of fortitude and benevolence; nor me of the delight of 
+consoling a beloved parent.  It cannot deaden our taste for the 
+grand, and the beautiful, or deny us the means of indulging it; for 
+the scenes of nature--those sublime spectacles, so infinitely 
+superior to all artificial luxuries! are open for the enjoyment of 
+the poor, as well as of the rich.  Of what, then, have we to 
+complain, so long as we are not in want of necessaries?  Pleasures, 
+such as wealth cannot buy, will still be ours.  We retain, then, the 
+sublime luxuries of nature, and lose only the frivolous ones of art.'
+
+St. Aubert could not reply:  he caught Emily to his bosom, their 
+tears flowed together, but--they were not tears of sorrow.  After 
+this language of the heart, all other would have been feeble, and 
+they remained silent for some time.  Then, St. Aubert conversed as 
+before; for, if his mind had not recovered its natural tranquillity, 
+it at least assumed the appearance of it.
+
+They reached the romantic town of Leucate early in the day, but St. 
+Aubert was weary, and they determined to pass the night there.  In 
+the evening, he exerted himself so far as to walk with his daughter 
+to view the environs that overlook the lake of Leucate, the 
+Mediterranean, part of Rousillon, with the Pyrenees, and a wide 
+extent of the luxuriant province of Languedoc, now blushing with the 
+ripened vintage, which the peasants were beginning to gather.  St. 
+Aubert and Emily saw the busy groups, caught the joyous song, that 
+was wafted on the breeze, and anticipated, with apparent pleasure, 
+their next day's journey over this gay region.  He designed, however, 
+still to wind along the sea-shore.  To return home immediately was 
+partly his wish, but from this he was withheld by a desire to 
+lengthen the pleasure, which the journey gave his daughter, and to 
+try the effect of the sea air on his own disorder.
+
+On the following day, therefore, they recommenced their journey 
+through Languedoc, winding the shores of the Mediterranean; the 
+Pyrenees still forming the magnificent back-ground of their 
+prospects, while on their right was the ocean, and, on their left, 
+wide extended plains melting into the blue horizon.  St. Aubert was 
+pleased, and conversed much with Emily, yet his cheerfulness was 
+sometimes artificial, and sometimes a shade of melancholy would steal 
+upon his countenance, and betray him.  This was soon chased away by 
+Emily's smile; who smiled, however, with an aching heart, for she saw 
+that his misfortunes preyed upon his mind, and upon his enfeebled 
+frame.
+
+It was evening when they reached a small village of Upper Languedoc, 
+where they meant to pass the night, but the place could not afford 
+them beds; for here, too, it was the time of the vintage, and they 
+were obliged to proceed to the next post.  The languor of illness and 
+of fatigue, which returned upon St. Aubert, required immediate 
+repose, and the evening was now far advanced; but from necessity 
+there was no appeal, and he ordered Michael to proceed.
+
+The rich plains of Languedoc, which exhibited all the glories of the 
+vintage, with the gaieties of a French festival, no longer awakened 
+St. Aubert to pleasure, whose condition formed a mournful contrast to 
+the hilarity and youthful beauty which surrounded him.  As his 
+languid eyes moved over the scene, he considered, that they would 
+soon, perhaps, be closed for ever on this world.  'Those distant and 
+sublime mountains,' said he secretly, as he gazed on a chain of the 
+Pyrenees that stretched towards the west, 'these luxuriant plains, 
+this blue vault, the cheerful light of day, will be shut from my 
+eyes!  The song of the peasant, the cheering voice of man--will no 
+longer sound for me!'
+
+The intelligent eyes of Emily seemed to read what passed in the mind 
+of her father, and she fixed them on his face, with an expression of 
+such tender pity, as recalled his thoughts from every desultory 
+object of regret, and he remembered only, that he must leave his 
+daughter without protection.  This reflection changed regret to 
+agony; he sighed deeply, and remained silent, while she seemed to 
+understand that sigh, for she pressed his hand affectionately, and 
+then turned to the window to conceal her tears.  The sun now threw a 
+last yellow gleam on the waves of the Mediterranean, and the gloom of 
+twilight spread fast over the scene, till only a melancholy ray 
+appeared on the western horizon, marking the point where the sun had 
+set amid the vapours of an autumnal evening.  A cool breeze now came 
+from the shore, and Emily let down the glass; but the air, which was 
+refreshing to health, was as chilling to sickness, and St. Aubert 
+desired, that the window might be drawn up.  Increasing illness made 
+him now more anxious than ever to finish the day's journey, and he 
+stopped the muleteer to enquire how far they had yet to go to the 
+next post.  He replied, 'Nine miles.'  'I feel I am unable to proceed 
+much further,' said St. Aubert; 'enquire, as you go, if there is any 
+house on the road that would accommodate us for the night.'  He sunk 
+back in the carriage, and Michael, cracking his whip in the air, set 
+off, and continued on the full gallop, till St. Aubert, almost 
+fainting, called to him to stop.  Emily looked anxiously from the 
+window, and saw a peasant walking at some little distance on the 
+road, for whom they waited, till he came up, when he was asked, if 
+there was any house in the neighbourhood that accommodated 
+travellers.  He replied, that he knew of none.  'There is a chateau, 
+indeed, among those woods on the right,' added he, 'but I believe it 
+receives nobody, and I cannot show you the way, for I am almost a 
+stranger here.'  St. Aubert was going to ask him some further 
+question concerning the chateau, but the man abruptly passed on.  
+After some consideration, he ordered Michael to proceed slowly to the 
+woods.  Every moment now deepened the twilight, and increased the 
+difficulty of finding the road.  Another peasant soon after passed.  
+'Which is the way to the chateau in the woods?' cried Michael.
+
+'The chateau in the woods!' exclaimed the peasant--'Do you mean that 
+with the turret, yonder?'
+
+'I don't know as for the turret, as you call it,' said Michael, 'I 
+mean that white piece of a building, that we see at a distance there, 
+among the trees.'
+
+'Yes, that is the turret; why, who are you, that you are going 
+thither?' said the man with surprise.
+
+St. Aubert, on hearing this odd question, and observing the peculiar 
+tone in which it was delivered, looked out from the carriage.  'We 
+are travellers,' said he, 'who are in search of a house of 
+accommodation for the night; is there any hereabout?'
+
+'None, Monsieur, unless you have a mind to try your luck yonder,' 
+replied the peasant, pointing to the woods, 'but I would not advise 
+you to go there.'
+
+'To whom does the chateau belong?'
+
+'I scarcely know myself, Monsieur.'
+
+'It is uninhabited, then?'  'No, not uninhabited; the steward and 
+housekeeper are there, I believe.'
+
+On hearing this, St. Aubert determined to proceed to the chateau, and 
+risque the refusal of being accommodated for the night; he therefore 
+desired the countryman would shew Michael the way, and bade him 
+expect reward for his trouble.  The man was for a moment silent, and 
+then said, that he was going on other business, but that the road 
+could not be missed, if they went up an avenue to the right, to which 
+he pointed.  St. Aubert was going to speak, but the peasant wished 
+him good night, and walked on.
+
+The carriage now moved towards the avenue, which was guarded by a 
+gate, and Michael having dismounted to open it, they entered between 
+rows of ancient oak and chesnut, whose intermingled branches formed a 
+lofty arch above.  There was something so gloomy and desolate in the 
+appearance of this avenue, and its lonely silence, that Emily almost 
+shuddered as she passed along; and, recollecting the manner in which 
+the peasant had mentioned the chateau, she gave a mysterious meaning 
+to his words, such as she had not suspected when he uttered them.  
+These apprehensions, however, she tried to check, considering that 
+they were probably the effect of a melancholy imagination, which her 
+father's situation, and a consideration of her own circumstances, had 
+made sensible to every impression.
+
+They passed slowly on, for they were now almost in darkness, which, 
+together with the unevenness of the ground, and the frequent roots of 
+old trees, that shot up above the soil, made it necessary to proceed 
+with caution.  On a sudden Michael stopped the carriage; and, as St. 
+Aubert looked from the window to enquire the cause, he perceived a 
+figure at some distance moving up the avenue.  The dusk would not 
+permit him to distinguish what it was, but he bade Michael go on.
+
+'This seems a wild place,' said Michael; 'there is no house 
+hereabout, don't your honour think we had better turn back?'
+
+'Go a little farther, and if we see no house then, we will return to 
+the road,' replied St. Aubert.
+
+Michael proceeded with reluctance, and the extreme slowness of his 
+pace made St. Aubert look again from the window to hasten him, when 
+again he saw the same figure.  He was somewhat startled:  probably 
+the gloominess of the spot made him more liable to alarm than usual; 
+however this might be, he now stopped Michael, and bade him call to 
+the person in the avenue.
+
+'Please your honour, he may be a robber,' said Michael.  'It does not 
+please me,' replied St. Aubert, who could not forbear smiling at the 
+simplicity of his phrase, 'and we will, therefore, return to the 
+road, for I see no probability of meeting here with what we seek.'
+
+Michael turned about immediately, and was retracing his way with 
+alacrity, when a voice was heard from among the trees on the left.  
+It was not the voice of command, or distress, but a deep hollow tone, 
+which seemed to be scarcely human.  The man whipped his mules till 
+they went as fast as possible, regardless of the darkness, the broken 
+ground, and the necks of the whole party, nor once stopped till he 
+reached the gate, which opened from the avenue into the high-road, 
+where he went into a more moderate pace.
+
+'I am very ill,' said St. Aubert, taking his daughter's hand.  'You 
+are worse, then, sir!' said Emily, extremely alarmed by his manner, 
+'you are worse, and here is no assistance.  Good God! what is to be 
+done!'  He leaned his head on her shoulder, while she endeavoured to 
+support him with her arm, and Michael was again ordered to stop.  
+When the rattling of the wheels had ceased, music was heard on their 
+air; it was to Emily the voice of Hope.  'Oh! we are near some human 
+habitation!' said she, 'help may soon be had.'
+
+She listened anxiously; the sounds were distant, and seemed to come 
+from a remote part of the woods that bordered the road; and, as she 
+looked towards the spot whence they issued, she perceived in the 
+faint moon-light something like a chateau.  It was difficult, 
+however, to reach this; St. Aubert was now too ill to bear the motion 
+of the carriage; Michael could not quit his mules; and Emily, who 
+still supported her father, feared to leave him, and also feared to 
+venture alone to such a distance, she knew not whither, or to whom.  
+Something, however, it was necessary to determine upon immediately; 
+St. Aubert, therefore, told Michael to proceed slowly; but they had 
+not gone far, when he fainted, and the carriage was again stopped.  
+He lay quite senseless.--'My dear, dear father!' cried Emily in great 
+agony, who began to fear that he was dying, 'speak, if it is only one 
+word to let me hear the sound of your voice!'  But no voice spoke in 
+reply.  In the agony of terror she bade Michael bring water from the 
+rivulet, that flowed along the road; and, having received some in the 
+man's hat, with trembling hands she sprinkled it over her father's 
+face, which, as the moon's rays now fell upon it, seemed to bear the 
+impression of death.  Every emotion of selfish fear now gave way to a 
+stronger influence, and, committing St. Aubert to the care of 
+Michael, who refused to go far from his mules, she stepped from the 
+carriage in search of the chateau she had seen at a distance.  It was 
+a still moon-light night, and the music, which yet sounded on the 
+air, directed her steps from the high road, up a shadowy lane, that 
+led to the woods.  Her mind was for some time so entirely occupied by 
+anxiety and terror for her father, that she felt none for herself, 
+till the deepening gloom of the overhanging foliage, which now wholly 
+excluded the moon-light, and the wildness of the place, recalled her 
+to a sense of her adventurous situation.  The music had ceased, and 
+she had no guide but chance.  For a moment she paused in terrified 
+perplexity, till a sense of her father's condition again overcoming 
+every consideration for herself, she proceeded.  The lane terminated 
+in the woods, but she looked round in vain for a house, or a human 
+being, and as vainly listened for a sound to guide her.  She hurried 
+on, however, not knowing whither, avoiding the recesses of the woods, 
+and endeavouring to keep along their margin, till a rude kind of 
+avenue, which opened upon a moon-light spot, arrested her attention.  
+The wildness of this avenue brought to her recollection the one 
+leading to the turreted chateau, and she was inclined to believe, 
+that this was a part of the same domain, and probably led to the same 
+point.  While she hesitated, whether to follow it or not, a sound of 
+many voices in loud merriment burst upon her ear.  It seemed not the 
+laugh of cheerfulness, but of riot, and she stood appalled.  While 
+she paused, she heard a distant voice, calling from the way she had 
+come, and not doubting but it was that of Michael, her first impulse 
+was to hasten back; but a second thought changed her purpose; she 
+believed that nothing less than the last extremity could have 
+prevailed with Michael to quit his mules, and fearing that her father 
+was now dying, she rushed forward, with a feeble hope of obtaining 
+assistance from the people in the woods.  Her heart beat with fearful 
+expectation, as she drew near the spot whence the voices issued, and 
+she often startled when her steps disturbed the fallen leaves.  The 
+sounds led her towards the moon-light glade she had before noticed; 
+at a little distance from which she stopped, and saw, between the 
+boles of the trees, a small circular level of green turf, surrounded 
+by the woods, on which appeared a group of figures.  On drawing 
+nearer, she distinguished these, by their dress, to be peasants, and 
+perceived several cottages scattered round the edge of the woods, 
+which waved loftily over this spot.  While she gazed, and endeavoured 
+to overcome the apprehensions that withheld her steps, several 
+peasant girls came out of a cottage; music instantly struck up, and 
+the dance began.  It was the joyous music of the vintage! the same 
+she had before heard upon the air.  Her heart, occupied with terror 
+for her father, could not feel the contrast, which this gay scene 
+offered to her own distress; she stepped hastily forward towards a 
+group of elder peasants, who were seated at the door of a cottage, 
+and, having explained her situation, entreated their assistance.  
+Several of them rose with alacrity, and, offering any service in 
+their power, followed Emily, who seemed to move on the wind, as fast 
+as they could towards the road.
+
+When she reached the carriage she found St. Aubert restored to 
+animation.  On the recovery of his senses, having heard from Michael 
+whither his daughter was gone, anxiety for her overcame every regard 
+for himself, and he had sent him in search of her.  He was, however, 
+still languid, and, perceiving himself unable to travel much farther, 
+he renewed his enquiries for an inn, and concerning the chateau in 
+the woods.  'The chateau cannot accommodate you, sir,' said a 
+venerable peasant who had followed Emily from the woods, 'it is 
+scarcely inhabited; but, if you will do me the honour to visit my 
+cottage, you shall be welcome to the best bed it affords.'
+
+St. Aubert was himself a Frenchman; he therefore was not surprised at 
+French courtesy; but, ill as he was, he felt the value of the offer 
+enhanced by the manner which accompanied it.  He had too much 
+delicacy to apologize, or to appear to hesitate about availing 
+himself of the peasant's hospitality, but immediately accepted it 
+with the same frankness with which it was offered.
+
+The carriage again moved slowly on; Michael following the peasants up 
+the lane, which Emily had just quitted, till they came to the moon-
+light glade.  St. Aubert's spirits were so far restored by the 
+courtesy of his host, and the near prospect of repose, that he looked 
+with a sweet complacency upon the moon-light scene, surrounded by the 
+shadowy woods, through which, here and there, an opening admitted the 
+streaming splendour, discovering a cottage, or a sparkling rivulet.  
+He listened, with no painful emotion, to the merry notes of the 
+guitar and tamborine; and, though tears came to his eyes, when he saw 
+the debonnaire dance of the peasants, they were not merely tears of 
+mournful regret.  With Emily it was otherwise; immediate terror for 
+her father had now subsided into a gentle melancholy, which every 
+note of joy, by awakening comparison, served to heighten.
+
+The dance ceased on the approach of the carriage, which was a 
+phenomenon in these sequestered woods, and the peasantry flocked 
+round it with eager curiosity.  On learning that it brought a sick 
+stranger, several girls ran across the turf, and returned with wine 
+and baskets of grapes, which they presented to the travellers, each 
+with kind contention pressing for a preference.  At length, the 
+carriage stopped at a neat cottage, and his venerable conductor, 
+having assisted St. Aubert to alight, led him and Emily to a small 
+inner room, illuminated only by moon-beams, which the open casement 
+admitted.  St. Aubert, rejoicing in rest, seated himself in an arm-
+chair, and his senses were refreshed by the cool and balmy air, that 
+lightly waved the embowering honeysuckles, and wafted their sweet 
+breath into the apartment.  His host, who was called La Voisin, 
+quitted the room, but soon returned with fruits, cream, and all the 
+pastoral luxury his cottage afforded; having set down which, with a 
+smile of unfeigned welcome, he retired behind the chair of his guest.  
+St. Aubert insisted on his taking a seat at the table, and, when the 
+fruit had allayed the fever of his palate, and he found himself 
+somewhat revived, he began to converse with his host, who 
+communicated several particulars concerning himself and his family, 
+which were interesting, because they were spoken from the heart, and 
+delineated a picture of the sweet courtesies of family kindness.  
+Emily sat by her father, holding his hand, and, while she listened to 
+the old man, her heart swelled with the affectionate sympathy he 
+described, and her tears fell to the mournful consideration, that 
+death would probably soon deprive her of the dearest blessing she 
+then possessed.  The soft moon-light of an autumnal evening, and the 
+distant music, which now sounded a plaintive strain, aided the 
+melancholy of her mind.  The old man continued to talk of his family, 
+and St. Aubert remained silent.  'I have only one daughter living,' 
+said La Voisin, 'but she is happily married, and is every thing to 
+me.  When I lost my wife,' he added with a sigh, 'I came to live with 
+Agnes, and her family; she has several children, who are all dancing 
+on the green yonder, as merry as grasshoppers--and long may they be 
+so!  I hope to die among them, monsieur.  I am old now, and cannot 
+expect to live long, but there is some comfort in dying surrounded by 
+one's children.'
+
+'My good friend,' said St. Aubert, while his voice trembled, 'I hope 
+you will long live surrounded by them.'
+
+'Ah, sir! at my age I must not expect that!' replied the old man, and 
+he paused:  'I can scarcely wish it,' he resumed, 'for I trust that 
+whenever I die I shall go to heaven, where my poor wife is gone 
+before me.  I can sometimes almost fancy I see her of a still moon-
+light night, walking among these shades she loved so well.  Do you 
+believe, monsieur, that we shall be permitted to revisit the earth, 
+after we have quitted the body?'
+
+Emily could no longer stifle the anguish of her heart; her tears fell 
+fast upon her father's hand, which she yet held.  He made an effort 
+to speak, and at length said in a low voice, 'I hope we shall be 
+permitted to look down on those we have left on the earth, but I can 
+only hope it.  Futurity is much veiled from our eyes, and faith and 
+hope are our only guides concerning it.  We are not enjoined to 
+believe, that disembodied spirits watch over the friends they have 
+loved, but we may innocently hope it.  It is a hope which I will 
+never resign,' continued he, while he wiped the tears from his 
+daughter's eyes, 'it will sweeten the bitter moments of death!'  
+Tears fell slowly on his cheeks; La Voisin wept too, and there was a 
+pause of silence.  Then, La Voisin, renewing the subject, said, 'But 
+you believe, sir, that we shall meet in another world the relations 
+we have loved in this; I must believe this.'  'Then do believe it,' 
+replied St. Aubert, 'severe, indeed, would be the pangs of 
+separation, if we believed it to be eternal.  Look up, my dear Emily, 
+we shall meet again!'  He lifted his eyes towards heaven, and a gleam 
+of moon-light, which fell upon his countenance, discovered peace and 
+resignation, stealing on the lines of sorrow.
+
+La Voisin felt that he had pursued the subject too far, and he 
+dropped it, saying, 'We are in darkness, I forgot to bring a light.'
+
+'No,' said St. Aubert, 'this is a light I love.  Sit down, my good 
+friend.  Emily, my love, I find myself better than I have been all 
+day; this air refreshes me.  I can enjoy this tranquil hour, and that 
+music, which floats so sweetly at a distance.  Let me see you smile.  
+Who touches that guitar so tastefully? are there two instruments, or 
+is it an echo I hear?'
+
+'It is an echo, monsieur, I fancy.  That guitar is often heard at 
+night, when all is still, but nobody knows who touches it, and it is 
+sometimes accompanied by a voice so sweet, and so sad, one would 
+almost think the woods were haunted.'  'They certainly are haunted,' 
+said St. Aubert with a smile, 'but I believe it is by mortals.'  'I 
+have sometimes heard it at midnight, when I could not sleep,' 
+rejoined La Voisin, not seeming to notice this remark, 'almost under 
+my window, and I never heard any music like it.  It has often made me 
+think of my poor wife till I cried.  I have sometimes got up to the 
+window to look if I could see anybody, but as soon as I opened the 
+casement all was hushed, and nobody to be seen; and I have listened, 
+and listened till I have been so timorous, that even the trembling of 
+the leaves in the breeze has made me start.  They say it often comes 
+to warn people of their death, but I have heard it these many years, 
+and outlived the warning.'
+
+Emily, though she smiled at the mention of this ridiculous 
+superstition, could not, in the present tone of her spirits, wholly 
+resist its contagion.
+
+'Well, but, my good friend,' said St. Aubert, 'has nobody had courage 
+to follow the sounds?  If they had, they would probably have 
+discovered who is the musician.'  'Yes, sir, they have followed them 
+some way into the woods, but the music has still retreated, and 
+seemed as distant as ever, and the people have at last been afraid of 
+being led into harm, and would go no further.  It is very seldom that 
+I have heard these sounds so early in the evening.  They usually come 
+about midnight, when that bright planet, which is rising above the 
+turret yonder, sets below the woods on the left.'
+
+'What turret?' asked St. Aubert with quickness, 'I see none.'
+
+'Your pardon, monsieur, you do see one indeed, for the moon shines 
+full upon it;--up the avenue yonder, a long way off; the chateau it 
+belongs to is hid among the trees.'
+
+'Yes, my dear sir,' said Emily, pointing, 'don't you see something 
+glitter above the dark woods?  It is a fane, I fancy, which the rays 
+fall upon.'
+
+'O yes, I see what you mean; and who does the chateau belong to?'
+
+'The Marquis de Villeroi was its owner,' replied La Voisin, 
+emphatically.
+
+'Ah!' said St. Aubert, with a deep sigh, 'are we then so near Le-
+Blanc!'  He appeared much agitated.
+
+'It used to be the Marquis's favourite residence,' resumed La Voisin, 
+'but he took a dislike to the place, and has not been there for many 
+years.  We have heard lately that he is dead, and that it is fallen 
+into other hands.'  St. Aubert, who had sat in deep musing, was 
+roused by the last words.  'Dead!' he exclaimed, 'Good God! when did 
+he die?'
+
+'He is reported to have died about five weeks since,' replied La 
+Voisin.  'Did you know the Marquis, sir?'
+
+'This is very extraordinary!' said St. Aubert without attending to 
+the question.  'Why is it so, my dear sir?' said Emily, in a voice of 
+timid curiosity.  He made no reply, but sunk again into a reverie; 
+and in a few moments, when he seemed to have recovered himself, asked 
+who had succeeded to the estates.  'I have forgot his title, 
+monsieur,' said La Voisin; 'but my lord resides at Paris chiefly; I 
+hear no talk of his coming hither.'
+
+'The chateau is shut up then, still?'
+
+'Why, little better, sir; the old housekeeper, and her husband the 
+steward, have the care of it, but they live generally in a cottage 
+hard by.'
+
+'The chateau is spacious, I suppose,' said Emily, 'and must be 
+desolate for the residence of only two persons.'
+
+'Desolate enough, mademoiselle,' replied La Voisin, 'I would not pass 
+one night in the chateau, for the value of the whole domain.'
+
+'What is that?' said St. Aubert, roused again from thoughtfulness.  
+As his host repeated his last sentence, a groan escaped from St. 
+Aubert, and then, as if anxious to prevent it from being noticed, he 
+hastily asked La Voisin how long he had lived in this neighbourhood.  
+'Almost from my childhood, sir,' replied his host.
+
+'You remember the late marchioness, then?' said St. Aubert in an 
+altered voice.
+
+'Ah, monsieur!--that I do well.  There are many besides me who 
+remember her.'
+
+'Yes--' said St. Aubert, 'and I am one of those.'
+
+'Alas, sir! you remember, then, a most beautiful and excellent lady.  
+She deserved a better fate.'
+
+Tears stood in St. Aubert's eyes; 'Enough,' said he, in a voice 
+almost stifled by the violence of his emotions,--'it is enough, my 
+friend.'
+
+Emily, though extremely surprised by her father's manner, forbore to 
+express her feelings by any question.  La Voisin began to apologize, 
+but St. Aubert interrupted him; 'Apology is quite unnecessary,' said 
+he, 'let us change the topic.  You was speaking of the music we just 
+now heard.'
+
+'I was, monsieur--but hark!--it comes again; listen to that voice!'  
+They were all silent;
+
+ At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound
+ Rose, like a stream of rich distilled perfumes,
+ And stole upon the air, that even Silence
+ Was took ere she was 'ware, and wished she might
+ Deny her nature, and be never more
+ Still, to be so displaced.*
+     *Milton.
+
+
+In a few moments the voice died into air, and the instrument, which 
+had been heard before, sounded in low symphony.  St. Aubert now 
+observed, that it produced a tone much more full and melodious than 
+that of a guitar, and still more melancholy and soft than the lute.  
+They continued to listen, but the sounds returned no more.  'This is 
+strange!' said St. Aubert, at length interrupting the silence.  'Very 
+strange!' said Emily.  'It is so,' rejoined La Voisin, and they were 
+again silent.
+
+After a long pause, 'It is now about eighteen years since I first 
+heard that music,' said La Voisin; 'I remember it was on a fine 
+summer's night, much like this, but later, that I was walking in the 
+woods, and alone.  I remember, too, that my spirits were very low, 
+for one of my boys was ill, and we feared we should lose him.  I had 
+been watching at his bed-side all the evening while his mother slept; 
+for she had sat up with him the night before.  I had been watching, 
+and went out for a little fresh air, the day had been very sultry.  
+As I walked under the shades and mused, I heard music at a distance, 
+and thought it was Claude playing upon his flute, as he often did of 
+a fine evening, at the cottage door.  But, when I came to a place 
+where the trees opened, (I shall never forget it!) and stood looking 
+up at the north-lights, which shot up the heaven to a great height, I 
+heard all of a sudden such sounds!--they came so as I cannot 
+describe.  It was like the music of angels, and I looked up again 
+almost expecting to see them in the sky.  When I came home, I told 
+what I had heard, but they laughed at me, and said it must be some of 
+the shepherds playing on their pipes, and I could not persuade them 
+to the contrary.  A few nights after, however, my wife herself heard 
+the same sounds, and was as much surprised as I was, and Father Denis 
+frightened her sadly by saying, that it was music come to warn her of 
+her child's death, and that music often came to houses where there 
+was a dying person.'
+
+Emily, on hearing this, shrunk with a superstitious dread entirely 
+new to her, and could scarcely conceal her agitation from St. Aubert.
+
+'But the boy lived, monsieur, in spite of Father Denis.'
+
+'Father Denis!' said St. Aubert, who had listened to 'narrative old 
+age' with patient attention, 'are we near a convent, then?'
+
+'Yes, sir; the convent of St. Clair stands at no great distance, on 
+the sea shore yonder.'
+
+'Ah!' said St. Aubert, as if struck with some sudden remembrance, 
+'the convent of St. Clair!'  Emily observed the clouds of grief, 
+mingled with a faint expression of horror, gathering on his brow; his 
+countenance became fixed, and, touched as it now was by the silver 
+whiteness of the moon-light, he resembled one of those marble statues 
+of a monument, which seem to bend, in hopeless sorrow, over the ashes 
+of the dead, shewn
+
+     by the blunted light
+ That the dim moon through painted casements lends.*
+     * The Emigrants.
+
+
+'But, my dear sir,' said Emily, anxious to dissipate his thoughts, 
+'you forget that repose is necessary to you.  If our kind host will 
+give me leave, I will prepare your bed, for I know how you like it to 
+be made.'  St. Aubert, recollecting himself, and smiling 
+affectionately, desired she would not add to her fatigue by that 
+attention; and La Voisin, whose consideration for his guest had been 
+suspended by the interests which his own narrative had recalled, now 
+started from his seat, and, apologizing for not having called Agnes 
+from the green, hurried out of the room.
+
+In a few moments he returned with his daughter, a young woman of 
+pleasing countenance, and Emily learned from her, what she had not 
+before suspected, that, for their accommodation, it was necessary 
+part of La Voisin's family should leave their beds; she lamented this 
+circumstance, but Agnes, by her reply, fully proved that she 
+inherited, at least, a share of her father's courteous hospitality.  
+It was settled, that some of her children and Michael should sleep in 
+the neighbouring cottage.
+
+'If I am better, to-morrow, my dear,' said St. Aubert when Emily 
+returned to him, 'I mean to set out at an early hour, that we may 
+rest, during the heat of the day, and will travel towards home.  In 
+the present state of my health and spirits I cannot look on a longer 
+journey with pleasure, and I am also very anxious to reach La 
+Vallee.'  Emily, though she also desired to return, was grieved at 
+her father's sudden wish to do so, which she thought indicated a 
+greater degree of indisposition than he would acknowledge.  St. 
+Aubert now retired to rest, and Emily to her little chamber, but not 
+to immediate repose.  Her thoughts returned to the late conversation, 
+concerning the state of departed spirits; a subject, at this time, 
+particularly affecting to her, when she had every reason to believe 
+that her dear father would ere long be numbered with them.  She 
+leaned pensively on the little open casement, and in deep thought 
+fixed her eyes on the heaven, whose blue unclouded concave was 
+studded thick with stars, the worlds, perhaps, of spirits, unsphered 
+of mortal mould.  As her eyes wandered along the boundless aether, 
+her thoughts rose, as before, towards the sublimity of the Deity, and 
+to the contemplation of futurity.  No busy note of this world 
+interrupted the course of her mind; the merry dance had ceased, and 
+every cottager had retired to his home.  The still air seemed 
+scarcely to breathe upon the woods, and, now and then, the distant 
+sound of a solitary sheep-bell, or of a closing casement, was all 
+that broke on silence.  At length, even this hint of human being was 
+heard no more.  Elevated and enwrapt, while her eyes were often wet 
+with tears of sublime devotion and solemn awe, she continued at the 
+casement, till the gloom of mid-night hung over the earth, and the 
+planet, which La Voisin had pointed out, sunk below the woods.  She 
+then recollected what he had said concerning this planet, and the 
+mysterious music; and, as she lingered at the window, half hoping and 
+half fearing that it would return, her mind was led to the 
+remembrance of the extreme emotion her father had shewn on mention of 
+the Marquis La Villeroi's death, and of the fate of the Marchioness, 
+and she felt strongly interested concerning the remote cause of this 
+emotion.  Her surprise and curiosity were indeed the greater, because 
+she did not recollect ever to have heard him mention the name of 
+Villeroi.
+
+No music, however, stole on the silence of the night, and Emily, 
+perceiving the lateness of the hour, returned to a scene of fatigue, 
+remembered that she was to rise early in the morning, and withdrew 
+from the window to repose.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+     Let those deplore their doom,
+ Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn.
+ But lofty souls can look beyond the tomb,
+ Can smile at fate, and wonder how they mourn.
+ Shall Spring to these sad scenes no more return?
+ Is yonder wave the sun's eternal bed?--
+ Soon shall the orient with new lustre burn,
+ And Spring shall soon her vital influence shed,
+ Again attune the grove, again adorn the mead!
+     BEATTIE
+
+Emily, called, as she had requested, at an early hour, awoke, little 
+refreshed by sleep, for uneasy dreams had pursued her, and marred the 
+kindest blessing of the unhappy.  But, when she opened her casement, 
+looked out upon the woods, bright with the morning sun, and inspired 
+the pure air, her mind was soothed.  The scene was filled with that 
+cheering freshness, which seems to breathe the very spirit of health, 
+and she heard only sweet and PICTURESQUE sounds, if such an 
+expression may be allowed--the matin-bell of a distant convent, the 
+faint murmur of the sea-waves, the song of birds, and the far-off low 
+of cattle, which she saw coming slowly on between the trunks of 
+trees.  Struck with the circumstances of imagery around her, she 
+indulged the pensive tranquillity which they inspired; and while she 
+leaned on her window, waiting till St. Aubert should descend to 
+breakfast, her ideas arranged themselves in the following lines:
+
+THE FIRST HOUR OF MORNING
+
+ How sweet to wind the forest's tangled shade,
+  When early twilight, from the eastern bound,
+ Dawns on the sleeping landscape in the glade,
+  And fades as morning spreads her blush around!
+
+ When ev'ry infant flower, that wept in night,
+  Lifts its chill head soft glowing with a tear,
+ Expands its tender blossom to the light,
+  And gives its incense to the genial air.
+
+ How fresh the breeze that wafts the rich perfume,
+  And swells the melody of waking birds;
+ The hum of bees, beneath the verdant gloom,
+  And woodman's song, and low of distant herds!
+
+ Then, doubtful gleams the mountain's hoary head,
+  Seen through the parting foliage from afar;
+ And, farther still, the ocean's misty bed,
+  With flitting sails, that partial sun-beams share.
+
+ But, vain the sylvan shade--the breath of May,
+  The voice of music floating on the gale,
+ And forms, that beam through morning's dewy veil,
+ If health no longer bid the heart be gay!
+ O balmy hour! 'tis thine her wealth to give,
+ Here spread her blush, and bid the parent live!
+
+Emily now heard persons moving below in the cottage, and presently 
+the voice of Michael, who was talking to his mules, as he led them 
+forth from a hut adjoining.  As she left her room, St. Aubert, who 
+was now risen, met her at the door, apparently as little restored by 
+sleep as herself.  She led him down stairs to the little parlour, in 
+which they had supped on the preceding night, where they found a neat 
+breakfast set out, while the host and his daughter waited to bid them 
+good-morrow.
+
+'I envy you this cottage, my good friends,' said St. Aubert, as he 
+met them, 'it is so pleasant, so quiet, and so neat; and this air, 
+that one breathes--if any thing could restore lost health, it would 
+surely be this air.'
+
+La Voisin bowed gratefully, and replied, with the gallantry of a 
+Frenchman, 'Our cottage may be envied, sir, since you and 
+Mademoiselle have honoured it with your presence.'  St. Aubert gave 
+him a friendly smile for his compliment, and sat down to a table, 
+spread with cream, fruit, new cheese, butter, and coffee.  Emily, who 
+had observed her father with attention and thought he looked very 
+ill, endeavoured to persuade him to defer travelling till the 
+afternoon; but he seemed very anxious to be at home, and his anxiety 
+he expressed repeatedly, and with an earnestness that was unusual 
+with him.  He now said, he found himself as well as he had been of 
+late, and that he could bear travelling better in the cool hour of 
+the morning, than at any other time.  But, while he was talking with 
+his venerable host, and thanking him for his kind attentions, Emily 
+observed his countenance change, and, before she could reach him, he 
+fell back in his chair.  In a few moments he recovered from the 
+sudden faintness that had come over him, but felt so ill, that he 
+perceived himself unable to set out, and, having remained a little 
+while, struggling against the pressure of indisposition, he begged he 
+might be helped up stairs to bed.  This request renewed all the 
+terror which Emily had suffered on the preceding evening; but, though 
+scarcely able to support herself, under the sudden shock it gave her, 
+she tried to conceal her apprehensions from St. Aubert, and gave her 
+trembling arm to assist him to the door of his chamber.
+
+When he was once more in bed, he desired that Emily, who was then 
+weeping in her own room, might be called; and, as she came, he waved 
+his hand for every other person to quit the apartment.  When they 
+were alone, he held out his hand to her, and fixed his eyes upon her 
+countenance, with an expression so full of tenderness and grief, that 
+all her fortitude forsook her, and she burst into an agony of tears.  
+St. Aubert seemed struggling to acquire firmness, but was still 
+unable to speak; he could only press her hand, and check the tears 
+that stood trembling in his eyes.  At length he commanded his voice, 
+'My dear child,' said he, trying to smile through his anguish, 'my 
+dear Emily!'--and paused again.  He raised his eyes to heaven, as if 
+in prayer, and then, in a firmer tone, and with a look, in which the 
+tenderness of the father was dignified by the pious solemnity of the 
+saint, he said, "My dear child, I would soften the painful truth I 
+have to tell you, but I find myself quite unequal to the art.  Alas!  
+I would, at this moment, conceal it from you, but that it would be 
+most cruel to deceive you.  It cannot be long before we must part; 
+let us talk of it, that our thoughts and our prayers may prepare us 
+to bear it.'  His voice faltered, while Emily, still weeping, pressed 
+his hand close to her heart, which swelled with a convulsive sigh, 
+but she could not look up.
+
+'Let me not waste these moments,' said St. Aubert, recovering 
+himself, 'I have much to say.  There is a circumstance of solemn 
+consequence, which I have to mention, and a solemn promise to obtain 
+from you; when this is done I shall be easier.  You have observed, my 
+dear, how anxious I am to reach home, but know not all my reasons for 
+this.  Listen to what I am going to say.--Yet stay--before I say more 
+give me this promise, a promise made to your dying father!'--St. 
+Aubert was interrupted; Emily, struck by his last words, as if for 
+the first time, with a conviction of his immediate danger, raised her 
+head; her tears stopped, and, gazing at him for a moment with an 
+expression of unutterable anguish, a slight convulsion seized her, 
+and she sunk senseless in her chair.  St. Aubert's cries brought La 
+Voisin and his daughter to the room, and they administered every 
+means in their power to restore her, but, for a considerable time, 
+without effect.  When she recovered, St. Aubert was so exhausted by 
+the scene he had witnessed, that it was many minutes before he had 
+strength to speak; he was, however, somewhat revived by a cordial, 
+which Emily gave him; and, being again alone with her, he exerted 
+himself to tranquilize her spirits, and to offer her all the comfort 
+of which her situation admitted.  She threw herself into his arms, 
+wept on his neck, and grief made her so insensible to all he said, 
+that he ceased to offer the alleviations, which he himself could not, 
+at this moment, feel, and mingled his silent tears with hers.  
+Recalled, at length, to a sense of duty, she tried to spare her 
+father from a farther view of her suffering; and, quitting his 
+embrace, dried her tears, and said something, which she meant for 
+consolation.  'My dear Emily,' replied St. Aubert, 'my dear child, we 
+must look up with humble confidence to that Being, who has protected 
+and comforted us in every danger, and in every affliction we have 
+known; to whose eye every moment of our lives has been exposed; he 
+will not, he does not, forsake us now; I feel his consolations in my 
+heart.  I shall leave you, my child, still in his care; and, though I 
+depart from this world, I shall be still in his presence.  Nay, weep 
+not again, my Emily.  In death there is nothing new, or surprising, 
+since we all know, that we are born to die; and nothing terrible to 
+those, who can confide in an all-powerful God.  Had my life been 
+spared now, after a very few years, in the course of nature, I must 
+have resigned it; old age, with all its train of infirmity, its 
+privations and its sorrows, would have been mine; and then, at last, 
+death would have come, and called forth the tears you now shed.  
+Rather, my child, rejoice, that I am saved from such suffering, and 
+that I am permitted to die with a mind unimpaired, and sensible of 
+the comforts of faith and resignation.'  St. Aubert paused, fatigued 
+with speaking.  Emily again endeavoured to assume an air of 
+composure; and, in replying to what he had said, tried to sooth him 
+with a belief, that he had not spoken in vain.
+
+When he had reposed a while, he resumed the conversation.  'Let me 
+return,' said he, 'to a subject, which is very near my heart.  I said 
+I had a solemn promise to receive from you; let me receive it now, 
+before I explain the chief circumstance which it concerns; there are 
+others, of which your peace requires that you should rest in 
+ignorance.  Promise, then, that you will perform exactly what I shall 
+enjoin.'
+
+Emily, awed by the earnest solemnity of his manner, dried her tears, 
+that had begun again to flow, in spite of her efforts to suppress 
+them; and, looking eloquently at St. Aubert, bound herself to do 
+whatever he should require by a vow, at which she shuddered, yet knew 
+not why.
+
+He proceeded:  'I know you too well, my Emily, to believe, that you 
+would break any promise, much less one thus solemnly given; your 
+assurance gives me peace, and the observance of it is of the utmost 
+importance to your tranquillity.  Hear, then, what I am going to tell 
+you.  The closet, which adjoins my chamber at La Vallee, has a 
+sliding board in the floor.  You will know it by a remarkable knot in 
+the wood, and by its being the next board, except one, to the 
+wainscot, which fronts the door.  At the distance of about a yard 
+from that end, nearer the window, you will perceive a line across it, 
+as if the plank had been joined;--the way to open it is this:--Press 
+your foot upon the line; the end of the board will then sink, and you 
+may slide it with ease beneath the other.  Below, you will see a 
+hollow place.'  St. Aubert paused for breath, and Emily sat fixed in 
+deep attention.  'Do you understand these directions, my dear?' said 
+he.  Emily, though scarcely able to speak, assured him that she did.
+
+'When you return home, then,' he added with a deep sigh--
+
+At the mention of her return home, all the melancholy circumstances, 
+that must attend this return, rushed upon her fancy; she burst into 
+convulsive grief, and St. Aubert himself, affected beyond the 
+resistance of the fortitude which he had, at first, summoned, wept 
+with her.  After some moments, he composed himself.  'My dear child,' 
+said he, 'be comforted.  When I am gone, you will not be forsaken--I 
+leave you only in the more immediate care of that Providence, which 
+has never yet forsaken me.  Do not afflict me with this excess of 
+grief; rather teach me by your example to bear my own.'  He stopped 
+again, and Emily, the more she endeavoured to restrain her emotion, 
+found it the less possible to do so.
+
+St. Aubert, who now spoke with pain, resumed the subject.  'That 
+closet, my dear,--when you return home, go to it; and, beneath the 
+board I have described, you will find a packet of written papers.  
+Attend to me now, for the promise you have given particularly relates 
+to what I shall direct.  These papers you must burn--and, solemnly I 
+command you, WITHOUT EXAMINING THEM.'
+
+Emily's surprise, for a moment, overcame her grief, and she ventured 
+to ask, why this must be?  St. Aubert replied, that, if it had been 
+right for him to explain his reasons, her late promise would have 
+been unnecessarily exacted.  'It is sufficient for you, my love, to 
+have a deep sense of the importance of observing me in this 
+instance.'  St. Aubert proceeded.  'Under that board you will also 
+find about two hundred louis d'ors, wrapped in a silk purse; indeed, 
+it was to secure whatever money might be in the chateau, that this 
+secret place was contrived, at a time when the province was over-run 
+by troops of men, who took advantage of the tumults, and became 
+plunderers.
+
+'But I have yet another promise to receive from you, which is--that 
+you will never, whatever may be your future circumstances, SELL the 
+chateau.'  St. Aubert even enjoined her, whenever she might marry, to 
+make it an article in the contract, that the chateau should always be 
+hers.  He then gave her a more minute account of his present 
+circumstances than he had yet done, adding, 'The two hundred louis, 
+with what money you will now find in my purse, is all the ready money 
+I have to leave you.  I have told you how I am circumstanced with M. 
+Motteville, at Paris.  Ah, my child!  I leave you poor--but not 
+destitute,' he added, after a long pause.  Emily could make no reply 
+to any thing he now said, but knelt at the bed-side, with her face 
+upon the quilt, weeping over the hand she held there.
+
+After this conversation, the mind of St. Aubert appeared to be much 
+more at ease; but, exhausted by the effort of speaking, he sunk into 
+a kind of doze, and Emily continued to watch and weep beside him, 
+till a gentle tap at the chamber-door roused her.  It was La Voisin, 
+come to say, that a confessor from the neighbouring convent was 
+below, ready to attend St. Aubert.  Emily would not suffer her father 
+to be disturbed, but desired, that the priest might not leave the 
+cottage.  When St. Aubert awoke from this doze, his senses were 
+confused, and it was some moments before he recovered them 
+sufficiently to know, that it was Emily who sat beside him.  He then 
+moved his lips, and stretched forth his hand to her; as she received 
+which, she sunk back in her chair, overcome by the impression of 
+death on his countenance.  In a few minutes he recovered his voice, 
+and Emily then asked, if he wished to see the confessor; he replied, 
+that he did; and, when the holy father appeared, she withdrew.  They 
+remained alone together above half an hour; when Emily was called in, 
+she found St. Aubert more agitated than when she had left him, and 
+she gazed, with a slight degree of resentment, at the friar, as the 
+cause of this; who, however, looked mildly and mournfully at her, and 
+turned away.  St. Aubert, in a tremulous voice, said, he wished her 
+to join in prayer with him, and asked if La Voisin would do so too.  
+The old man and his daughter came; they both wept, and knelt with 
+Emily round the bed, while the holy father read in a solemn voice the 
+service for the dying.  St. Aubert lay with a serene countenance, and 
+seemed to join fervently in the devotion, while tears often stole 
+from beneath his closed eyelids, and Emily's sobs more than once 
+interrupted the service.
+
+When it was concluded, and extreme unction had been administered, the 
+friar withdrew.  St. Aubert then made a sign for La Voisin to come 
+nearer.  He gave him his hand, and was, for a moment, silent.  At 
+length, he said, in a trembling voice, 'My good friend, our 
+acquaintance has been short, but long enough to give you an 
+opportunity of shewing me much kind attention.  I cannot doubt, that 
+you will extend this kindness to my daughter, when I am gone; she 
+will have need of it.  I entrust her to your care during the few days 
+she will remain here.  I need say no more--you know the feelings of a 
+father, for you have children; mine would be, indeed, severe if I had 
+less confidence in you.'  He paused.  La Voisin assured him, and his 
+tears bore testimony to his sincerity, that he would do all he could 
+to soften her affliction, and that, if St. Aubert wished it, he would 
+even attend her into Gascony; an offer so pleasing to St. Aubert, 
+that he had scarcely words to acknowledge his sense of the old man's 
+kindness, or to tell him, that he accepted it.  The scene, that 
+followed between St. Aubert and Emily, affected La Voisin so much, 
+that he quitted the chamber, and she was again left alone with her 
+father, whose spirits seemed fainting fast, but neither his senses, 
+or his voice, yet failed him; and, at intervals, he employed much of 
+these last awful moments in advising his daughter, as to her future 
+conduct.  Perhaps, he never had thought more justly, or expressed 
+himself more clearly, than he did now.
+
+'Above all, my dear Emily,' said he, 'do not indulge in the pride of 
+fine feeling, the romantic error of amiable minds.  Those, who really 
+possess sensibility, ought early to be taught, that it is a dangerous 
+quality, which is continually extracting the excess of misery, or 
+delight, from every surrounding circumstance.  And, since, in our 
+passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more 
+frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I 
+fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victims of our 
+feelings, unless we can in some degree command them.  I know you will 
+say, (for you are young, my Emily) I know you will say, that you are 
+contented sometimes to suffer, rather than to give up your refined 
+sense of happiness, at others; but, when your mind has been long 
+harassed by vicissitude, you will be content to rest, and you will 
+then recover from your delusion.  You will perceive, that the phantom 
+of happiness is exchanged for the substance; for happiness arises in 
+a state of peace, not of tumult.  It is of a temperate and uniform 
+nature, and can no more exist in a heart, that is continually alive 
+to minute circumstances, than in one that is dead to feeling.  You 
+see, my dear, that, though I would guard you against the dangers of 
+sensibility, I am not an advocate for apathy.  At your age I should 
+have said THAT is a vice more hateful than all the errors of 
+sensibility, and I say so still.  I call it a VICE, because it leads 
+to positive evil; in this, however, it does no more than an ill-
+governed sensibility, which, by such a rule, might also be called a 
+vice; but the evil of the former is of more general consequence.  I 
+have exhausted myself,' said St. Aubert, feebly, 'and have wearied 
+you, my Emily; but, on a subject so important to your future comfort, 
+I am anxious to be perfectly understood.'
+
+Emily assured him, that his advice was most precious to her, and that 
+she would never forget it, or cease from endeavouring to profit by 
+it.  St. Aubert smiled affectionately and sorrowfully upon her.  'I 
+repeat it,' said he, 'I would not teach you to become insensible, if 
+I could; I would only warn you of the evils of susceptibility, and 
+point out how you may avoid them.  Beware, my love, I conjure you, of 
+that self-delusion, which has been fatal to the peace of so many 
+persons; beware of priding yourself on the gracefulness of 
+sensibility; if you yield to this vanity, your happiness is lost for 
+ever.  Always remember how much more valuable is the strength of 
+fortitude, than the grace of sensibility.  Do not, however, confound 
+fortitude with apathy; apathy cannot know the virtue.  Remember, too, 
+that one act of beneficence, one act of real usefulness, is worth all 
+the abstract sentiment in the world.  Sentiment is a disgrace, 
+instead of an ornament, unless it lead us to good actions.  The 
+miser, who thinks himself respectable, merely because he possesses 
+wealth, and thus mistakes the means of doing good, for the actual 
+accomplishment of it, is not more blameable than the man of 
+sentiment, without active virtue.  You may have observed persons, who 
+delight so much in this sort of sensibility to sentiment, which 
+excludes that to the calls of any practical virtue, that they turn 
+from the distressed, and, because their sufferings are painful to be 
+contemplated, do not endeavour to relieve them.  How despicable is 
+that humanity, which can be contented to pity, where it might 
+assuage!'
+
+St. Aubert, some time after, spoke of Madame Cheron, his sister.  
+'Let me inform you of a circumstance, that nearly affects your 
+welfare,' he added.  'We have, you know, had little intercourse for 
+some years, but, as she is now your only female relation, I have 
+thought it proper to consign you to her care, as you will see in my 
+will, till you are of age, and to recommend you to her protection 
+afterwards.  She is not exactly the person, to whom I would have 
+committed my Emily, but I had no alternative, and I believe her to be 
+upon the whole--a good kind of woman.  I need not recommend it to 
+your prudence, my love, to endeavour to conciliate her kindness; you 
+will do this for his sake, who has often wished to do so for yours.'
+
+Emily assured him, that, whatever he requested she would religiously 
+perform to the utmost of her ability.  'Alas!' added she, in a voice 
+interrupted by sighs, 'that will soon be all which remains for me; it 
+will be almost my only consolation to fulfil your wishes.'
+
+St. Aubert looked up silently in her face, as if would have spoken, 
+but his spirit sunk a while, and his eyes became heavy and dull.  She 
+felt that look at her heart.  'My dear father!' she exclaimed; and 
+then, checking herself, pressed his hand closer, and hid her face 
+with her handkerchief.  Her tears were concealed, but St. Aubert 
+heard her convulsive sobs.  His spirits returned.  'O my child!' said 
+he, faintly, 'let my consolations be yours.  I die in peace; for I 
+know, that I am about to return to the bosom of my Father, who will 
+still be your Father, when I am gone.  Always trust in him, my love, 
+and he will support you in these moments, as he supports me.'
+
+Emily could only listen, and weep; but the extreme composure of his 
+manner, and the faith and hope he expressed, somewhat soothed her 
+anguish.  Yet, whenever she looked upon his emaciated countenance, 
+and saw the lines of death beginning to prevail over it--saw his sunk 
+eyes, still bent on her, and their heavy lids pressing to a close, 
+there was a pang in her heart, such as defied expression, though it 
+required filial virtue, like hers, to forbear the attempt.
+
+He desired once more to bless her; 'Where are you, my dear?' said he, 
+as he stretched forth his hands.  Emily had turned to the window, 
+that he might not perceive her anguish; she now understood, that his 
+sight had failed him.  When he had given her his blessing, and it 
+seemed to be the last effort of expiring life, he sunk back on his 
+pillow.  She kissed his forehead; the damps of death had settled 
+there, and, forgetting her fortitude for a moment, her tears mingled 
+with them.  St. Aubert lifted up his eyes; the spirit of a father 
+returned to them, but it quickly vanished, and he spoke no more.
+
+St. Aubert lingered till about three o'clock in the afternoon, and, 
+thus gradually sinking into death, he expired without a struggle, or 
+a sigh.
+
+Emily was led from the chamber by La Voisin and his daughter, who did 
+what they could to comfort her.  The old man sat and wept with her.  
+Agnes was more erroneously officious.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ O'er him, whose doom thy virtues grieve,
+ Aerial forms shall sit at eve,
+ and bend the pensive head.
+     COLLINS
+
+The monk, who had before appeared, returned in the evening to offer 
+consolation to Emily, and brought a kind message from the lady 
+abbess, inviting her to the convent.  Emily, though she did not 
+accept the offer, returned an answer expressive of her gratitude.  
+The holy conversation of the friar, whose mild benevolence of manners 
+bore some resemblance to those of St. Aubert, soothed the violence of 
+her grief, and lifted her heart to the Being, who, extending through 
+all place and all eternity, looks on the events of this little world 
+as on the shadows of a moment, and beholds equally, and in the same 
+instant, the soul that has passed the gates of death, and that, which 
+still lingers in the body.  'In the sight of God,' said Emily, 'my 
+dear father now exists, as truly as he yesterday existed to me; it is 
+to me only that he is dead; to God and to himself he yet lives!'
+
+The good monk left her more tranquil than she had been since St. 
+Aubert died; and, before she retired to her little cabin for the 
+night, she trusted herself so far as to visit the corpse.  Silent, 
+and without weeping, she stood by its side.  The features, placid and 
+serene, told the nature of the last sensations, that had lingered in 
+the now deserted frame.  For a moment she turned away, in horror of 
+the stillness in which death had fixed that countenance, never till 
+now seen otherwise than animated; then gazed on it with a mixture of 
+doubt and awful astonishment.  Her reason could scarcely overcome an 
+involuntary and unaccountable expectation of seeing that beloved 
+countenance still susceptible.  She continued to gaze wildly; took up 
+the cold hand; spoke; still gazed, and then burst into a transport of 
+grief.  La Voisin, hearing her sobs, came into the room to lead her 
+away, but she heard nothing, and only begged that he would leave her.
+
+Again alone, she indulged her tears, and, when the gloom of evening 
+obscured the chamber, and almost veiled from her eyes the object of 
+her distress, she still hung over the body; till her spirits, at 
+length, were exhausted, and she became tranquil.  La Voisin again 
+knocked at the door, and entreated that she would come to the common 
+apartment.  Before she went, she kissed the lips of St. Aubert, as 
+she was wont to do when she bade him good night.  Again she kissed 
+them; her heart felt as if it would break, a few tears of agony 
+started to her eyes, she looked up to heaven, then at St. Aubert, and 
+left the room.
+
+Retired to her lonely cabin, her melancholy thoughts still hovered 
+round the body of her deceased parent; and, when she sunk into a kind 
+of slumber, the images of her waking mind still haunted her fancy.  
+She thought she saw her father approaching her with a benign 
+countenance; then, smiling mournfully and pointing upwards, his lips 
+moved, but, instead of words, she heard sweet music borne on the 
+distant air, and presently saw his features glow with the mild 
+rapture of a superior being.  The strain seemed to swell louder, and 
+she awoke.  The vision was gone, but music yet came to her ear in 
+strains such as angels might breathe.  She doubted, listened, raised 
+herself in the bed, and again listened.  It was music, and not an 
+illusion of her imagination.  After a solemn steady harmony, it 
+paused; then rose again, in mournful sweetness, and then died, in a 
+cadence, that seemed to bear away the listening soul to heaven.  She 
+instantly remembered the music of the preceding night, with the 
+strange circumstances, related by La Voisin, and the affecting 
+conversation it had led to, concerning the state of departed spirits.  
+All that St. Aubert had said, on that subject, now pressed upon her 
+heart, and overwhelmed it.  What a change in a few hours!  He, who 
+then could only conjecture, was now made acquainted with truth; was 
+himself become one of the departed!  As she listened, she was chilled 
+with superstitious awe, her tears stopped; and she rose, and went to 
+the window.  All without was obscured in shade; but Emily, turning 
+her eyes from the massy darkness of the woods, whose waving outline 
+appeared on the horizon, saw, on the left, that effulgent planet, 
+which the old man had pointed out, setting over the woods.  She 
+remembered what he had said concerning it, and, the music now coming 
+at intervals on the air, she unclosed the casement to listen to the 
+strains, that soon gradually sunk to a greater distance, and tried to 
+discover whence they came.  The obscurity prevented her from 
+distinguishing any object on the green platform below; and the sounds 
+became fainter and fainter, till they softened into silence.  She 
+listened, but they returned no more.  Soon after, she observed the 
+planet trembling between the fringed tops of the woods, and, in the 
+next moment, sink behind them.  Chilled with a melancholy awe, she 
+retired once more to her bed, and, at length, forgot for a while her 
+sorrows in sleep.
+
+On the following morning, she was visited by a sister of the convent, 
+who came, with kind offices and a second invitation from the lady 
+abbess; and Emily, though she could not forsake the cottage, while 
+the remains of her father were in it, consented, however painful such 
+a visit must be, in the present state of her spirits, to pay her 
+respects to the abbess, in the evening.
+
+About an hour before sun-set, La Voisin shewed her the way through 
+the woods to the convent, which stood in a small bay of the 
+Mediterranean, crowned by a woody amphitheatre; and Emily, had she 
+been less unhappy, would have admired the extensive sea view, that 
+appeared from the green slope, in front of the edifice, and the rich 
+shores, hung with woods and pastures, that extended on either hand.  
+But her thoughts were now occupied by one sad idea, and the features 
+of nature were to her colourless and without form.  The bell for 
+vespers struck, as she passed the ancient gate of the convent, and 
+seemed the funereal note for St. Aubert.  Little incidents affect a 
+mind, enervated by sorrow; Emily struggled against the sickening 
+faintness, that came over her, and was led into the presence of the 
+abbess, who received her with an air of maternal tenderness; an air 
+of such gentle solicitude and consideration, as touched her with an 
+instantaneous gratitude; her eyes were filled with tears, and the 
+words she would have spoken faltered on her lips.  The abbess led her 
+to a seat, and sat down beside her, still holding her hand and 
+regarding her in silence, as Emily dried her tears and attempted to 
+speak.  'Be composed, my daughter,' said the abbess in a soothing 
+voice, 'do not speak yet; I know all you would say.  Your spirits 
+must be soothed.  We are going to prayers;--will you attend our 
+evening service?  It is comfortable, my child, to look up in our 
+afflictions to a father, who sees and pities us, and who chastens in 
+his mercy.'
+
+Emily's tears flowed again, but a thousand sweet emotions mingled 
+with them.  The abbess suffered her to weep without interruption, and 
+watched over her with a look of benignity, that might have 
+characterized the countenance of a guardian angel.  Emily, when she 
+became tranquil, was encouraged to speak without reserve, and to 
+mention the motive, that made her unwilling to quit the cottage, 
+which the abbess did not oppose even by a hint; but praised the 
+filial piety of her conduct, and added a hope, that she would pass a 
+few days at the convent, before she returned to La Vallee.  'You must 
+allow yourself a little time to recover from your first shock, my 
+daughter, before you encounter a second; I will not affect to conceal 
+from you how much I know your heart must suffer, on returning to the 
+scene of your former happiness.  Here, you will have all, that quiet 
+and sympathy and religion can give, to restore your spirits.  But 
+come,' added she, observing the tears swell in Emily's eyes, 'we will 
+go to the chapel.'
+
+Emily followed to the parlour, where the nuns were assembled, to whom 
+the abbess committed her, saying, 'This is a daughter, for whom I 
+have much esteem; be sisters to her.'
+
+They passed on in a train to the chapel, where the solemn devotion, 
+with which the service was performed, elevated her mind, and brought 
+to it the comforts of faith and resignation.
+
+Twilight came on, before the abbess's kindness would suffer Emily to 
+depart, when she left the convent, with a heart much lighter than she 
+had entered it, and was reconducted by La Voisin through the woods, 
+the pensive gloom of which was in unison with the temper of her mind; 
+and she pursued the little wild path, in musing silence, till her 
+guide suddenly stopped, looked round, and then struck out of the path 
+into the high grass, saying he had mistaken the road.  He now walked 
+on quickly, and Emily, proceeding with difficulty over the obscured 
+and uneven ground, was left at some distance, till her voice arrested 
+him, who seemed unwilling to stop, and still hurried on.  'If you are 
+in doubt about the way,' said Emily, 'had we not better enquire it at 
+the chateau yonder, between the trees?'
+
+'No,' replied La Voisin, 'there is no occasion.  When we reach that 
+brook, ma'amselle, (you see the light upon the water there, beyond 
+the woods) when we reach that brook, we shall be at home presently.  
+I don't know how I happened to mistake the path; I seldom come this 
+way after sun-set.'
+
+'It is solitary enough,' said Emily, 'but you have no banditti here.'  
+'No, ma'amselle--no banditti.'
+
+'what are you afraid of then, my good friend? you are not 
+superstitious?'  'No, not superstitious; but, to tell you the truth, 
+lady, nobody likes to go near that chateau, after dusk.'  'By whom is 
+it inhabited,' said Emily, 'that it is so formidable?'  'Why, 
+ma'amselle, it is scarcely inhabited, for our lord the Marquis, and 
+the lord of all these find woods, too, is dead.  He had not once been 
+in it, for these many years, and his people, who have the care of it, 
+live in a cottage close by.'  Emily now understood this to be the 
+chateau, which La Voisin had formerly pointed out, as having belonged 
+to the Marquis Villeroi, on the mention of which her father had 
+appeared so much affected.
+
+'Ah! it is a desolate place now,' continued La Voisin, 'and such a 
+grand, fine place, as I remember it!'  Emily enquired what had 
+occasioned this lamentable change; but the old man was silent, and 
+Emily, whose interest was awakened by the fear he had expressed, and 
+above all by a recollection of her father's agitation, repeated the 
+question, and added, 'If you are neither afraid of the inhabitants, 
+my good friend, nor are superstitious, how happens it, that you dread 
+to pass near that chateau in the dark?'
+
+'Perhaps, then, I am a little superstitious, ma'amselle; and, if you 
+knew what I do, you might be so too.  Strange things have happened 
+there.  Monsieur, your good father, appeared to have known the late 
+Marchioness.' 'Pray inform me what did happen?' said Emily, with much 
+emotion.
+
+'Alas! ma'amselle,' answered La Voisin, 'enquire no further; it is 
+not for me to lay open the domestic secrets of my lord.'--Emily, 
+surprised by the old man's words, and his manner of delivering them, 
+forbore to repeat her question; a nearer interest, the remembrance of 
+St. Aubert, occupied her thoughts, and she was led to recollect the 
+music she heard on the preceding night, which she mentioned to La 
+Voisin.  'You was not alone, ma'amselle, in this,' he replied, 'I 
+heard it too; but I have so often heard it, at the same hour, that I 
+was scarcely surprised.'
+
+'You doubtless believe this music to have some connection with the 
+chateau,' said Emily suddenly, 'and are, therefore, superstitious.'  
+'It may be so, ma'amselle, but there are other circumstances, 
+belonging to that chateau, which I remember, and sadly too.'  A heavy 
+sigh followed:  but Emily's delicacy restrained the curiosity these 
+words revived, and she enquired no further.
+
+On reaching the cottage, all the violence of her grief returned; it 
+seemed as if she had escaped its heavy pressure only while she was 
+removed from the object of it.  She passed immediately to the 
+chamber, where the remains of her father were laid, and yielded to 
+all the anguish of hopeless grief.  La Voisin, at length, persuaded 
+her to leave the room, and she returned to her own, where, exhausted 
+by the sufferings of the day, she soon fell into deep sleep, and 
+awoke considerably refreshed.
+
+When the dreadful hour arrived, in which the remains of St. Aubert 
+were to be taken from her for ever, she went alone to the chamber to 
+look upon his countenance yet once again, and La Voisin, who had 
+waited patiently below stairs, till her despair should subside, with 
+the respect due to grief, forbore to interrupt the indulgence of it, 
+till surprise, at the length of her stay, and then apprehension 
+overcame his delicacy, and he went to lead her from the chamber.  
+Having tapped gently at the door, without receiving an answer, he 
+listened attentively, but all was still; no sigh, no sob of anguish 
+was heard.  Yet more alarmed by this silence, he opened the door, and 
+found Emily lying senseless across the foot of the bed, near which 
+stood the coffin.  His calls procured assistance, and she was carried 
+to her room, where proper applications, at length, restored her.
+
+During her state of insensibility, La Voisin had given directions for 
+the coffin to be closed, and he succeeded in persuading Emily to 
+forbear revisiting the chamber.  She, indeed, felt herself unequal to 
+this, and also perceived the necessity of sparing her spirits, and 
+recollecting fortitude sufficient to bear her through the approaching 
+scene.  St. Aubert had given a particular injunction, that his 
+remains should be interred in the church of the convent of St. Clair, 
+and, in mentioning the north chancel, near the ancient tomb of the 
+Villerois, had pointed out the exact spot, where he wished to be 
+laid.  The superior had granted this place for the interment, and 
+thither, therefore, the sad procession now moved, which was met, at 
+the gates, by the venerable priest, followed by a train of friars.  
+Every person, who heard the solemn chant of the anthem, and the peal 
+of the organ, that struck up, when the body entered the church, and 
+saw also the feeble steps, and the assumed tranquillity of Emily, 
+gave her involuntary tears.  She shed none, but walked, her face 
+partly shaded by a thin black veil, between two persons, who 
+supported her, preceded by the abbess, and followed by nuns, whose 
+plaintive voices mellowed the swelling harmony of the dirge.  When 
+the procession came to the grave the music ceased.  Emily drew the 
+veil entirely over her face, and, in a momentary pause, between the 
+anthem and the rest of the service, her sobs were distinctly audible.  
+The holy father began the service, and Emily again commanded her 
+feelings, till the coffin was let down, and she heard the earth 
+rattle on its lid.  Then, as she shuddered, a groan burst from her 
+heart, and she leaned for support on the person who stood next to 
+her.  In a few moments she recovered; and, when she heard those 
+affecting and sublime words:  'His body is buried in peace, and his 
+soul returns to Him that gave it,' her anguish softened into tears.
+
+The abbess led her from the church into her own parlour, and there 
+administered all the consolations, that religion and gentle sympathy 
+can give.  Emily struggled against the pressure of grief; but the 
+abbess, observing her attentively, ordered a bed to be prepared, and 
+recommended her to retire to repose.  She also kindly claimed her 
+promise to remain a few days at the convent; and Emily, who had no 
+wish to return to the cottage, the scene of all her sufferings, had 
+leisure, now that no immediate care pressed upon her attention, to 
+feel the indisposition, which disabled her from immediately 
+travelling.
+
+Meanwhile, the maternal kindness of the abbess, and the gentle 
+attentions of the nuns did all, that was possible, towards soothing 
+her spirits and restoring her health.  But the latter was too deeply 
+wounded, through the medium of her mind, to be quickly revived.  She 
+lingered for some weeks at the convent, under the influence of a slow 
+fever, wishing to return home, yet unable to go thither; often even 
+reluctant to leave the spot where her father's relics were deposited, 
+and sometimes soothing herself with the consideration, that, if she 
+died here, her remains would repose beside those of St. Aubert.  In 
+the meanwhile, she sent letters to Madame Cheron and to the old 
+housekeeper, informing them of the sad event, that had taken place, 
+and of her own situation.  From her aunt she received an answer, 
+abounding more in common-place condolement, than in traits of real 
+sorrow, which assured her, that a servant should be sent to conduct 
+her to La Vallee, for that her own time was so much occupied by 
+company, that she had no leisure to undertake so long a journey.  
+However Emily might prefer La Vallee to Tholouse, she could not be 
+insensible to the indecorous and unkind conduct of her aunt, in 
+suffering her to return thither, where she had no longer a relation 
+to console and protect her; a conduct, which was the more culpable, 
+since St. Aubert had appointed Madame Cheron the guardian of his 
+orphan daughter.
+
+Madame Cheron's servant made the attendance of the good La Voisin 
+unnecessary; and Emily, who felt sensibly her obligations to him, for 
+all his kind attention to her late father, as well as to herself, was 
+glad to spare him a long, and what, at his time of life, must have 
+been a troublesome journey.
+
+During her stay at the convent, the peace and sanctity that reigned 
+within, the tranquil beauty of the scenery without, and the delicate 
+attentions of the abbess and the nuns, were circumstances so soothing 
+to her mind, that they almost tempted her to leave a world, where she 
+had lost her dearest friends, and devote herself to the cloister, in 
+a spot, rendered sacred to her by containing the tomb of St. Aubert.  
+The pensive enthusiasm, too, so natural to her temper, had spread a 
+beautiful illusion over the sanctified retirement of a nun, that 
+almost hid from her view the selfishness of its security.  But the 
+touches, which a melancholy fancy, slightly tinctured with 
+superstition, gave to the monastic scene, began to fade, as her 
+spirits revived, and brought once more to her heart an image, which 
+had only transiently been banished thence.  By this she was silently 
+awakened to hope and comfort and sweet affections; visions of 
+happiness gleamed faintly at a distance, and, though she knew them to 
+be illusions, she could not resolve to shut them out for ever.  It 
+was the remembrance of Valancourt, of his taste, his genius, and of 
+the countenance which glowed with both, that, perhaps, alone 
+determined her to return to the world.  The grandeur and sublimity of 
+the scenes, amidst which they had first met, had fascinated her 
+fancy, and had imperceptibly contributed to render Valancourt more 
+interesting by seeming to communicate to him somewhat of their own 
+character.  The esteem, too, which St. Aubert had repeatedly 
+expressed for him, sanctioned this kindness; but, though his 
+countenance and manner had continually expressed his admiration of 
+her, he had not otherwise declared it; and even the hope of seeing 
+him again was so distant, that she was scarcely conscious of it, 
+still less that it influenced her conduct on this occasion.
+
+It was several days after the arrival of Madame Cheron's servant 
+before Emily was sufficiently recovered to undertake the journey to 
+La Vallee.  On the evening preceding her departure, she went to the 
+cottage to take leave of La Voisin and his family, and to make them a 
+return for their kindness.  The old man she found sitting on a bench 
+at his door, between his daughter, and his son-in-law, who was just 
+returned from his daily labour, and who was playing upon a pipe, 
+that, in tone, resembled an oboe.  A flask of wine stood beside the 
+old man, and, before him, a small table with fruit and bread, round 
+which stood several of his grandsons, fine rosy children, who were 
+taking their supper, as their mother distributed it.  On the edge of 
+the little green, that spread before the cottage, were cattle and a 
+few sheep reposing under the trees.  The landscape was touched with 
+the mellow light of the evening sun, whose long slanting beams played 
+through a vista of the woods, and lighted up the distant turrets of 
+the chateau.  She paused a moment, before she emerged from the shade, 
+to gaze upon the happy group before her--on the complacency and ease 
+of healthy age, depictured on the countenance of La Voisin; the 
+maternal tenderness of Agnes, as she looked upon her children, and 
+the innocency of infantine pleasures, reflected in their smiles.  
+Emily looked again at the venerable old man, and at the cottage; the 
+memory of her father rose with full force upon her mind, and she 
+hastily stepped forward, afraid to trust herself with a longer pause.  
+She took an affectionate and affecting leave of La Voisin and his 
+family; he seemed to love her as his daughter, and shed tears; Emily 
+shed many.  She avoided going into the cottage, since she knew it 
+would revive emotions, such as she could not now endure.
+
+One painful scene yet awaited her, for she determined to visit again 
+her father's grave; and that she might not be interrupted, or 
+observed in the indulgence of her melancholy tenderness, she deferred 
+her visit, till every inhabitant of the convent, except the nun who 
+promised to bring her the key of the church, should be retired to 
+rest.  Emily remained in her chamber, till she heard the convent bell 
+strike twelve, when the nun came, as she had appointed, with the key 
+of a private door, that opened into the church, and they descended 
+together the narrow winding stair-case, that led thither.  The nun 
+offered to accompany Emily to the grave, adding, 'It is melancholy to 
+go alone at this hour;' but the former, thanking her for the 
+consideration, could not consent to have any witness of her sorrow; 
+and the sister, having unlocked the door, gave her the lamp.  'You 
+will remember, sister,' said she, 'that in the east aisle, which you 
+must pass, is a newly opened grave; hold the light to the ground, 
+that you may not stumble over the loose earth.'  Emily, thanking her 
+again, took the lamp, and, stepping into the church, sister Mariette 
+departed.  But Emily paused a moment at the door; a sudden fear came 
+over her, and she returned to the foot of the stair-case, where, as 
+she heard the steps of the nun ascending, and, while she held up the 
+lamp, saw her black veil waving over the spiral balusters, she was 
+tempted to call her back.  While she hesitated, the veil disappeared, 
+and, in the next moment, ashamed of her fears, she returned to the 
+church.  The cold air of the aisles chilled her, and their deep 
+silence and extent, feebly shone upon by the moon-light, that 
+streamed through a distant gothic window, would at any other time 
+have awed her into superstition; now, grief occupied all her 
+attention.  She scarcely heard the whispering echoes of her own 
+steps, or thought of the open grave, till she found herself almost on 
+its brink.  A friar of the convent had been buried there on the 
+preceding evening, and, as she had sat alone in her chamber at 
+twilight, she heard, at distance, the monks chanting the requiem for 
+his soul.  This brought freshly to her memory the circumstances of 
+her father's death; and, as the voices, mingling with a low querulous 
+peal of the organ, swelled faintly, gloomy and affecting visions had 
+arisen upon her mind.  Now she remembered them, and, turning aside to 
+avoid the broken ground, these recollections made her pass on with 
+quicker steps to the grave of St. Aubert, when in the moon-light, 
+that fell athwart a remote part of the aisle, she thought she saw a 
+shadow gliding between the pillars.  She stopped to listen, and, not 
+hearing any footstep, believed that her fancy had deceived her, and, 
+no longer apprehensive of being observed, proceeded.  St. Aubert was 
+buried beneath a plain marble, bearing little more than his name and 
+the date of his birth and death, near the foot of the stately 
+monument of the Villerois.  Emily remained at his grave, till a 
+chime, that called the monks to early prayers, warned her to retire; 
+then, she wept over it a last farewel, and forced herself from the 
+spot.  After this hour of melancholy indulgence, she was refreshed by 
+a deeper sleep, than she had experienced for a long time, and, on 
+awakening, her mind was more tranquil and resigned, than it had been 
+since St. Aubert's death.
+
+But, when the moment of her departure from the convent arrived, all 
+her grief returned; the memory of the dead, and the kindness of the 
+living attached her to the place; and for the sacred spot, where her 
+father's remains were interred, she seemed to feel all those tender 
+affections which we conceive for home.  The abbess repeated many kind 
+assurances of regard at their parting, and pressed her to return, if 
+ever she should find her condition elsewhere unpleasant; many of the 
+nuns also expressed unaffected regret at her departure, and Emily 
+left the convent with many tears, and followed by sincere wishes for 
+her happiness.
+
+She had travelled several leagues, before the scenes of the country, 
+through which she passed, had power to rouse her for a moment from 
+the deep melancholy, into which she was sunk, and, when they did, it 
+was only to remind her, that, on her last view of them, St. Aubert 
+was at her side, and to call up to her remembrance the remarks he had 
+delivered on similar scenery.  Thus, without any particular 
+occurrence, passed the day in languor and dejection.  She slept that 
+night in a town on the skirts of Languedoc, and, on the following 
+morning, entered Gascony.
+
+Towards the close of this day, Emily came within view of the plains 
+in the neighbourhood of La Vallee, and the well-known objects of 
+former times began to press upon her notice, and with them 
+recollections, that awakened all her tenderness and grief.  Often, 
+while she looked through her tears upon the wild grandeur of the 
+Pyrenees, now varied with the rich lights and shadows of evening, she 
+remembered, that, when last she saw them, her father partook with her 
+of the pleasure they inspired.  Suddenly some scene, which he had 
+particularly pointed out to her, would present itself, and the sick 
+languor of despair would steal upon her heart.  'There!' she would 
+exclaim, 'there are the very cliffs, there the wood of pines, which 
+he looked at with such delight, as we passed this road together for 
+the last time.  There, too, under the crag of that mountain, is the 
+cottage, peeping from among the cedars, which he bade me remember, 
+and copy with my pencil.  O my father, shall I never see you more!'
+
+As she drew near the chateau, these melancholy memorials of past 
+times multiplied.  At length, the chateau itself appeared, amid the 
+glowing beauty of St. Aubert's favourite landscape.  This was an 
+object, which called for fortitude, not for tears; Emily dried hers, 
+and prepared to meet with calmness the trying moment of her return to 
+that home, where there was no longer a parent to welcome her.  'Yes,' 
+said she, 'let me not forget the lessons he has taught me!  How often 
+he has pointed out the necessity of resisting even virtuous sorrow; 
+how often we have admired together the greatness of a mind, that can 
+at once suffer and reason!  O my father! if you are permitted to look 
+down upon your child, it will please you to see, that she remembers, 
+and endeavours to practise, the precepts you have given her.'
+
+A turn on the road now allowed a nearer view of the chateau, the 
+chimneys, tipped with light, rising from behind St. Aubert's 
+favourite oaks, whose foliage partly concealed the lower part of the 
+building.  Emily could not suppress a heavy sigh.  'This, too, was 
+his favourite hour,' said she, as she gazed upon the long evening 
+shadows, stretched athwart the landscape.  'How deep the repose, how 
+lovely the scene! lovely and tranquil as in former days!'
+
+Again she resisted the pressure of sorrow, till her ear caught the 
+gay melody of the dance, which she had so often listened to, as she 
+walked with St. Aubert, on the margin of the Garonne, when all her 
+fortitude forsook her, and she continued to weep, till the carriage 
+stopped at the little gate, that opened upon what was now her own 
+territory.  She raised her eyes on the sudden stopping of the 
+carriage, and saw her father's old housekeeper coming to open the 
+gate.  Manchon also came running, and barking before her; and when 
+his young mistress alighted, fawned, and played round her, gasping 
+with joy.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle!' said Theresa, and paused, and looked as if she 
+would have offered something of condolement to Emily, whose tears now 
+prevented reply.  The dog still fawned and ran round her, and then 
+flew towards the carriage, with a short quick bark.  'Ah, 
+ma'amselle!--my poor master!' said Theresa, whose feelings were more 
+awakened than her delicacy, 'Manchon's gone to look for him.'  Emily 
+sobbed aloud; and, on looking towards the carriage, which still stood 
+with the door open, saw the animal spring into it, and instantly leap 
+out, and then with his nose on the ground run round the horses.
+
+'Don't cry so, ma'amselle,' said Theresa, 'it breaks my heart to see 
+you.'  The dog now came running to Emily, then returned to the 
+carriage, and then back again to her, whining and discontented.  
+'Poor rogue!' said Theresa, 'thou hast lost thy master, thou mayst 
+well cry!  But come, my dear young lady, be comforted.  What shall I 
+get to refresh you?'  Emily gave her hand to the old servant, and 
+tried to restrain her grief, while she made some kind enquiries 
+concerning her health.  But she still lingered in the walk which led 
+to the chateau, for within was no person to meet her with the kiss of 
+affection; her own heart no longer palpitated with impatient joy to 
+meet again the well-known smile, and she dreaded to see objects, 
+which would recall the full remembrance of her former happiness.  She 
+moved slowly towards the door, paused, went on, and paused again.  
+How silent, how forsaken, how forlorn did the chateau appear!  
+Trembling to enter it, yet blaming herself for delaying what she 
+could not avoid, she, at length, passed into the hall; crossed it 
+with a hurried step, as if afraid to look round, and opened the door 
+of that room, which she was wont to call her own.  The gloom of 
+evening gave solemnity to its silent and deserted air.  The chairs, 
+the tables, every article of furniture, so familiar to her in happier 
+times, spoke eloquently to her heart.  She seated herself, without 
+immediately observing it, in a window, which opened upon the garden, 
+and where St. Aubert had often sat with her, watching the sun retire 
+from the rich and extensive prospect, that appeared beyond the 
+groves.
+
+Having indulged her tears for some time, she became more composed; 
+and, when Theresa, after seeing the baggage deposited in her lady's 
+room, again appeared, she had so far recovered her spirits, as to be 
+able to converse with her.
+
+'I have made up the green bed for you, ma'amselle,' said Theresa, as 
+she set the coffee upon the table.  'I thought you would like it 
+better than your own now; but I little thought this day month, that 
+you would come back alone.  A-well-a-day! the news almost broke my 
+heart, when it did come.  Who would have believed, that my poor 
+master, when he went from home, would never return again!'  Emily hid 
+her face with her handkerchief, and waved her hand.
+
+'Do taste the coffee,' said Theresa.  'My dear young lady, be 
+comforted--we must all die.  My dear master is a saint above.'  Emily 
+took the handkerchief from her face, and raised her eyes full of 
+tears towards heaven; soon after she dried them, and, in a calm, but 
+tremulous voice, began to enquire concerning some of her late 
+father's pensioners.
+
+'Alas-a-day!' said Theresa, as she poured out the coffee, and handed 
+it to her mistress, 'all that could come, have been here every day to 
+enquire after you and my master.'  She then proceeded to tell, that 
+some were dead whom they had left well; and others, who were ill, had 
+recovered.  'And see, ma'amselle,' added Theresa, 'there is old Mary 
+coming up the garden now; she has looked every day these three years 
+as if she would die, yet she is alive still.  She has seen the chaise 
+at the door, and knows you are come home.'
+
+The sight of this poor old woman would have been too much for Emily, 
+and she begged Theresa would go and tell her, that she was too ill to 
+see any person that night.  'To-morrow I shall be better, perhaps; 
+but give her this token of my remembrance.'
+
+Emily sat for some time, given up to sorrow.  Not an object, on which 
+her eye glanced, but awakened some remembrance, that led immediately 
+to the subject of her grief.  Her favourite plants, which St. Aubert 
+had taught her to nurse; the little drawings, that adorned the room, 
+which his taste had instructed her to execute; the books, that he had 
+selected for her use, and which they had read together; her musical 
+instruments, whose sounds he loved so well, and which he sometimes 
+awakened himself--every object gave new force to sorrow.  At length, 
+she roused herself from this melancholy indulgence, and, summoning 
+all her resolution, stepped forward to go into those forlorn rooms, 
+which, though she dreaded to enter, she knew would yet more 
+powerfully affect her, if she delayed to visit them.
+
+Having passed through the green-house, her courage for a moment 
+forsook her, when she opened the door of the library; and, perhaps, 
+the shade, which evening and the foliage of the trees near the 
+windows threw across the room, heightened the solemnity of her 
+feelings on entering that apartment, where every thing spoke of her 
+father.  There was an arm chair, in which he used to sit; she shrunk 
+when she observed it, for she had so often seen him seated there, and 
+the idea of him rose so distinctly to her mind, that she almost 
+fancied she saw him before her.  But she checked the illusions of a 
+distempered imagination, though she could not subdue a certain degree 
+of awe, which now mingled with her emotions.  She walked slowly to 
+the chair, and seated herself in it; there was a reading-desk before 
+it, on which lay a book open, as it had been left by her father.  It 
+was some moments before she recovered courage enough to examine it; 
+and, when she looked at the open page, she immediately recollected, 
+that St. Aubert, on the evening before his departure from the 
+chateau, had read to her some passages from this his favourite 
+author.  The circumstance now affected her extremely; she looked at 
+the page, wept, and looked again.  To her the book appeared sacred 
+and invaluable, and she would not have moved it, or closed the page, 
+which he had left open, for the treasures of the Indies.  Still she 
+sat before the desk, and could not resolve to quit it, though the 
+increasing gloom, and the profound silence of the apartment, revived 
+a degree of painful awe.  Her thoughts dwelt on the probable state of 
+departed spirits, and she remembered the affecting conversation, 
+which had passed between St. Aubert and La Voisin, on the night 
+preceding his death.
+
+As she mused she saw the door slowly open, and a rustling sound in a 
+remote part of the room startled her.  Through the dusk she thought 
+she perceived something move.  The subject she had been considering, 
+and the present tone of her spirits, which made her imagination 
+respond to every impression of her senses, gave her a sudden terror 
+of something supernatural.  She sat for a moment motionless, and 
+then, her dissipated reason returning, 'What should I fear?' said 
+she.  'If the spirits of those we love ever return to us, it is in 
+kindness.'
+
+The silence, which again reigned, made her ashamed of her late fears, 
+and she believed, that her imagination had deluded her, or that she 
+had heard one of those unaccountable noises, which sometimes occur in 
+old houses.  The same sound, however, returned; and, distinguishing 
+something moving towards her, and in the next instant press beside 
+her into the chair, she shrieked; but her fleeting senses were 
+instantly recalled, on perceiving that it was Manchon who sat by her, 
+and who now licked her hands affectionately.
+
+Perceiving her spirits unequal to the task she had assigned herself 
+of visiting the deserted rooms of the chateau this night, when she 
+left the library, she walked into the garden, and down to the 
+terrace, that overhung the river.  The sun was now set; but, under 
+the dark branches of the almond trees, was seen the saffron glow of 
+the west, spreading beyond the twilight of middle air.  The bat 
+flitted silently by; and, now and then, the mourning note of the 
+nightingale was heard.  The circumstances of the hour brought to her 
+recollection some lines, which she had once heard St. Aubert recite 
+on this very spot, and she had now a melancholy pleasure in repeating 
+them.
+
+     SONNET
+
+ Now the bat circles on the breeze of eve,
+ That creeps, in shudd'ring fits, along the wave,
+ And trembles 'mid the woods, and through the cave
+ Whose lonely sighs the wanderer deceive;
+ For oft, when melancholy charms his mind,
+ He thinks the Spirit of the rock he hears,
+ Nor listens, but with sweetly-thrilling fears,
+ To the low, mystic murmurs of the wind!
+ Now the bat circles, and the twilight-dew
+ Falls silent round, and, o'er the mountain-cliff,
+ The gleaming wave, and far-discover'd skiff,
+ Spreads the gray veil of soft, harmonious hue.
+ So falls o'er Grief the dew of pity's tear
+ Dimming her lonely visions of despair.
+
+Emily, wandering on, came to St. Aubert's favourite plane-tree, where 
+so often, at this hour, they had sat beneath the shade together, and 
+with her dear mother so often had conversed on the subject of a 
+future state.  How often, too, had her father expressed the comfort 
+he derived from believing, that they should meet in another world!  
+Emily, overcome by these recollections, left the plane-tree, and, as 
+she leaned pensively on the wall of the terrace, she observed a group 
+of peasants dancing gaily on the banks of the Garonne, which spread 
+in broad expanse below, and reflected the evening light.  What a 
+contrast they formed to the desolate, unhappy Emily!  They were gay 
+and debonnaire, as they were wont to be when she, too, was gay--when 
+St. Aubert used to listen to their merry music, with a countenance 
+beaming pleasure and benevolence.  Emily, having looked for a moment 
+on this sprightly band, turned away, unable to bear the remembrances 
+it excited; but where, alas! could she turn, and not meet new objects 
+to give acuteness to grief?
+
+As she walked slowly towards the house, she was met by Theresa.  
+'Dear ma'amselle,' said she, 'I have been seeking you up and down 
+this half hour, and was afraid some accident had happened to you.  
+How can you like to wander about so in this night air!  Do come into 
+the house.  Think what my poor master would have said, if he could 
+see you.  I am sure, when my dear lady died, no gentleman could take 
+it more to heart than he did, yet you know he seldom shed a tear.'
+
+'Pray, Theresa, cease,' said Emily, wishing to interrupt this ill-
+judged, but well-meaning harangue; Theresa's loquacity, however, was 
+not to be silenced so easily.  'And when you used to grieve so,' she 
+added, 'he often told you how wrong it was--for that my mistress was 
+happy.  And, if she was happy, I am sure he is so too; for the 
+prayers of the poor, they say, reach heaven.'  During this speech, 
+Emily had walked silently into the chateau, and Theresa lighted her 
+across the hall into the common sitting parlour, where she had laid 
+the cloth, with one solitary knife and fork, for supper.  Emily was 
+in the room before she perceived that it was not her own apartment, 
+but she checked the emotion which inclined her to leave it, and 
+seated herself quietly by the little supper table.  Her father's hat 
+hung upon the opposite wall; while she gazed at it, a faintness came 
+over her.  Theresa looked at her, and then at the object, on which 
+her eyes were settled, and went to remove it; but Emily waved her 
+hand--'No,' said she, 'let it remain.  I am going to my chamber.'  
+'Nay, ma'amselle, supper is ready.'  'I cannot take it,' replied 
+Emily, 'I will go to my room, and try to sleep.  Tomorrow I shall be 
+better.'
+
+'This is poor doings!' said Theresa.  'Dear lady! do take some food!  
+I have dressed a pheasant, and a fine one it is.  Old Monsieur 
+Barreaux sent it this morning, for I saw him yesterday, and told him 
+you were coming.  And I know nobody that seemed more concerned, when 
+he heard the sad news, then he.'
+
+'Did he?' said Emily, in a tender voice, while she felt her poor 
+heart warmed for a moment by a ray of sympathy.
+
+At length, her spirits were entirely overcome, and she retired to her 
+room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+  Can Music's voice, can Beauty's eye,
+  Can Painting's glowing hand supply
+  A charm so suited to my mind,
+  As blows this hollow gust of wind?
+  As drops this little weeping rill,
+  Soft tinkling down the moss-grown hill;
+ While, through the west, where sinks the crimson day,
+ Meek Twilight slowly sails, and waves her banners gray?
+     MASON
+
+Emily, some time after her return to La Vallee, received letters from 
+her aunt, Madame Cheron, in which, after some common-place 
+condolement and advice, she invited her to Tholouse, and added, that, 
+as her late brother had entrusted Emily's EDUCATION to her, she 
+should consider herself bound to overlook her conduct.  Emily, at 
+this time, wished only to remain at La Vallee, in the scenes of her 
+early happiness, now rendered infinitely dear to her, as the late 
+residence of those, whom she had lost for ever, where she could weep 
+unobserved, retrace their steps, and remember each minute particular 
+of their manners.  But she was equally anxious to avoid the 
+displeasure of Madame Cheron.
+
+Though her affection would not suffer her to question, even a moment, 
+the propriety of St. Aubert's conduct in appointing Madame Cheron for 
+her guardian, she was sensible, that this step had made her happiness 
+depend, in a great degree, on the humour of her aunt.  In her reply, 
+she begged permission to remain, at present, at La Vallee, mentioning 
+the extreme dejection of her spirits, and the necessity she felt for 
+quiet and retirement to restore them.  These she knew were not to be 
+found at Madame Cheron's, whose inclinations led her into a life of 
+dissipation, which her ample fortune encouraged; and, having given 
+her answer, she felt somewhat more at ease.
+
+In the first days of her affliction, she was visited by Monsieur 
+Barreaux, a sincere mourner for St. Aubert.  'I may well lament my 
+friend,' said he, 'for I shall never meet with his resemblance.  If I 
+could have found such a man in what is called society, I should not 
+have left it.'
+
+M. Barreaux's admiration of her father endeared him extremely to 
+Emily, whose heart found almost its first relief in conversing of her 
+parents, with a man, whom she so much revered, and who, though with 
+such an ungracious appearance, possessed to much goodness of heart 
+and delicacy of mind.
+
+Several weeks passed away in quiet retirement, and Emily's affliction 
+began to soften into melancholy.  She could bear to read the books 
+she had before read with her father; to sit in his chair in the 
+library--to watch the flowers his hand had planted--to awaken the 
+tones of that instrument his fingers had pressed, and sometimes even 
+to play his favourite air.
+
+When her mind had recovered from the first shock of affliction, 
+perceiving the danger of yielding to indolence, and that activity 
+alone could restore its tone, she scrupulously endeavoured to pass 
+all her hours in employment.  And it was now that she understood the 
+full value of the education she had received from St. Aubert, for in 
+cultivating her understanding he had secured her an asylum from 
+indolence, without recourse to dissipation, and rich and varied 
+amusement and information, independent of the society, from which her 
+situation secluded her.  Nor were the good effects of this education 
+confined to selfish advantages, since, St. Aubert having nourished 
+every amiable qualify of her heart, it now expanded in benevolence to 
+all around her, and taught her, when she could not remove the 
+misfortunes of others, at least to soften them by sympathy and 
+tenderness;--a benevolence that taught her to feel for all, that 
+could suffer.
+
+Madame Cheron returned no answer to Emily's letter, who began to 
+hope, that she should be permitted to remain some time longer in her 
+retirement, and her mind had now so far recovered its strength, that 
+she ventured to view the scenes, which most powerfully recalled the 
+images of past times.  Among these was the fishing-house; and, to 
+indulge still more the affectionate melancholy of the visit, she took 
+thither her lute, that she might again hear there the tones, to which 
+St. Aubert and her mother had so often delighted to listen.  She went 
+alone, and at that still hour of the evening which is so soothing to 
+fancy and to grief.  The last time she had been here she was in 
+company with Monsieur and Madame St. Aubert, a few days preceding 
+that, on which the latter was seized with a fatal illness.  Now, when 
+Emily again entered the woods, that surrounded the building, they 
+awakened so forcibly the memory of former times, that her resolution 
+yielded for a moment to excess of grief.  She stopped, leaned for 
+support against a tree, and wept for some minutes, before she had 
+recovered herself sufficiently to proceed.  The little path, that led 
+to the building, was overgrown with grass and the flowers which St. 
+Aubert had scattered carelessly along the border were almost choked 
+with weeds--the tall thistle--the fox-glove, and the nettle.  She 
+often paused to look on the desolate spot, now so silent and 
+forsaken, and when, with a trembling hand, she opened the door of the 
+fishing-house, 'Ah!' said she, 'every thing--every thing remains as 
+when I left it last--left it with those who never must return!'  She 
+went to a window, that overhung the rivulet, and, leaning over it, 
+with her eyes fixed on the current, was soon lost in melancholy 
+reverie.  The lute she had brought lay forgotten beside her; the 
+mournful sighing of the breeze, as it waved the high pines above, and 
+its softer whispers among the osiers, that bowed upon the banks 
+below, was a kind of music more in unison with her feelings.  It did 
+not vibrate on the chords of unhappy memory, but was soothing to the 
+heart as the voice of Pity.  She continued to muse, unconscious of 
+the gloom of evening, and that the sun's last light trembled on the 
+heights above, and would probably have remained so much longer, if a 
+sudden footstep, without the building, had not alarmed her attention, 
+and first made her recollect that she was unprotected.  In the next 
+moment, a door opened, and a stranger appeared, who stopped on 
+perceiving Emily, and then began to apologize for his intrusion.  But 
+Emily, at the sound of his voice, lost her fear in a stronger 
+emotion:  its tones were familiar to her ear, and, though she could 
+not readily distinguish through the dusk the features of the person 
+who spoke, she felt a remembrance too strong to be distrusted.
+
+He repeated his apology, and Emily then said something in reply, when 
+the stranger eagerly advancing, exclaimed, 'Good God! can it be--
+surely I am not mistaken--ma'amselle St. Aubert?--is it not?'
+
+'It is indeed,' said Emily, who was confirmed in her first 
+conjecture, for she now distinguished the countenance of Valancourt, 
+lighted up with still more than its usual animation.  A thousand 
+painful recollections crowded to her mind, and the effort, which she 
+made to support herself, only served to increase her agitation.  
+Valancourt, meanwhile, having enquired anxiously after her health, 
+and expressed his hopes, that M. St. Aubert had found benefit from 
+travelling, learned from the flood of tears, which she could no 
+longer repress, the fatal truth.  He led her to a seat, and sat down 
+by her, while Emily continued to weep, and Valancourt to hold the 
+hand, which she was unconscious he had taken, till it was wet with 
+the tears, which grief for St. Aubert and sympathy for herself had 
+called forth.
+
+'I feel,' said he at length, 'I feel how insufficient all attempt at 
+consolation must be on this subject.  I can only mourn with you, for 
+I cannot doubt the source of your tears.  Would to God I were 
+mistaken!'
+
+Emily could still answer only by tears, till she rose, and begged 
+they might leave the melancholy spot, when Valancourt, though he saw 
+her feebleness, could not offer to detain her, but took her arm 
+within his, and led her from the fishing-house.  They walked silently 
+through the woods, Valancourt anxious to know, yet fearing to ask any 
+particulars concerning St. Aubert; and Emily too much distressed to 
+converse.  After some time, however, she acquired fortitude enough to 
+speak of her father, and to give a brief account of the manner of his 
+death; during which recital Valancourt's countenance betrayed strong 
+emotion, and, when he heard that St. Aubert had died on the road, and 
+that Emily had been left among strangers, he pressed her hand between 
+his, and involuntarily exclaimed, 'Why was I not there!' but in the 
+next moment recollected himself, for he immediately returned to the 
+mention of her father; till, perceiving that her spirits were 
+exhausted, he gradually changed the subject, and spoke of himself.  
+Emily thus learned that, after they had parted, he had wandered, for 
+some time, along the shores of the Mediterranean, and had then 
+returned through Languedoc into Gascony, which was his native 
+province, and where he usually resided.
+
+When he had concluded his little narrative, he sunk into a silence, 
+which Emily was not disposed to interrupt, and it continued, till 
+they reached the gate of the chateau, when he stopped, as if he had 
+known this to be the limit of his walk.  Here, saying, that it was 
+his intention to return to Estuviere on the following day, he asked 
+her if she would permit him to take leave of her in the morning; and 
+Emily, perceiving that she could not reject an ordinary civility, 
+without expressing by her refusal an expectation of something more, 
+was compelled to answer, that she should be at home.
+
+She passed a melancholy evening, during which the retrospect of all 
+that had happened, since she had seen Valancourt, would rise to her 
+imagination; and the scene of her father's death appeared in tints as 
+fresh, as if it had passed on the preceding day.  She remembered 
+particularly the earnest and solemn manner, in which he had required 
+her to destroy the manuscript papers, and, awakening from the 
+lethargy, in which sorrow had held her, she was shocked to think she 
+had not yet obeyed him, and determined, that another day should not 
+reproach her with the neglect.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+     Can such things be,
+ And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
+ Without our special wonder?
+     MACBETH
+
+On the next morning, Emily ordered a fire to be lighted in the stove 
+of the chamber, where St. Aubert used to sleep; and, as soon as she 
+had breakfasted, went thither to burn the papers.  Having fastened 
+the door to prevent interruption, she opened the closet where they 
+were concealed, as she entered which, she felt an emotion of unusual 
+awe, and stood for some moments surveying it, trembling, and almost 
+afraid to remove the board.  There was a great chair in one corner of 
+the closet, and, opposite to it, stood the table, at which she had 
+seen her father sit, on the evening that preceded his departure, 
+looking over, with so much emotion, what she believed to be these 
+very papers.
+
+The solitary life, which Emily had led of late, and the melancholy 
+subjects, on which she had suffered her thoughts to dwell, had 
+rendered her at times sensible to the 'thick-coming fancies' of a 
+mind greatly enervated.  It was lamentable, that her excellent 
+understanding should have yielded, even for a moment, to the reveries 
+of superstition, or rather to those starts of imagination, which 
+deceive the senses into what can be called nothing less than 
+momentary madness.  Instances of this temporary failure of mind had 
+more than once occurred since her return home; particularly when, 
+wandering through this lonely mansion in the evening twilight, she 
+had been alarmed by appearances, which would have been unseen in her 
+more cheerful days.  To this infirm state of her nerves may be 
+attributed what she imagined, when, her eyes glancing a second time 
+on the arm-chair, which stood in an obscure part of the closet, the 
+countenance of her dead father appeared there.  Emily stood fixed for 
+a moment to the floor, after which she left the closet.  Her spirits, 
+however, soon returned; she reproached herself with the weakness of 
+thus suffering interruption in an act of serious importance, and 
+again opened the door.  By the directions which St. Aubert had given 
+her, she readily found the board he had described in an opposite 
+corner of the closet, near the window; she distinguished also the 
+line he had mentioned, and, pressing it as he had bade her, it slid 
+down, and disclosed the bundle of papers, together with some 
+scattered ones, and the purse of louis.  With a trembling hand she 
+removed them, replaced the board, paused a moment, and was rising 
+from the floor, when, on looking up, there appeared to her alarmed 
+fancy the same countenance in the chair.  The illusion, another 
+instance of the unhappy effect which solitude and grief had gradually 
+produced upon her mind, subdued her spirits; she rushed forward into 
+the chamber, and sunk almost senseless into a chair.  Returning 
+reason soon overcame the dreadful, but pitiable attack of 
+imagination, and she turned to the papers, though still with so 
+little recollection, that her eyes involuntarily settled on the 
+writing of some loose sheets, which lay open; and she was 
+unconscious, that she was transgressing her father's strict 
+injunction, till a sentence of dreadful import awakened her attention 
+and her memory together.  She hastily put the papers from her; but 
+the words, which had roused equally her curiosity and terror, she 
+could not dismiss from her thoughts.  So powerfully had they affected 
+her, that she even could not resolve to destroy the papers 
+immediately; and the more she dwelt on the circumstance, the more it 
+inflamed her imagination.  Urged by the most forcible, and apparently 
+the most necessary, curiosity to enquire farther, concerning the 
+terrible and mysterious subject, to which she had seen an allusion, 
+she began to lament her promise to destroy the papers.  For a moment, 
+she even doubted, whether it could justly be obeyed, in contradiction 
+to such reasons as there appeared to be for further information.  But 
+the delusion was momentary.
+
+'I have given a solemn promise,' said she, 'to observe a solemn 
+injunction, and it is not my business to argue, but to obey.  Let me 
+hasten to remove the temptation, that would destroy my innocence, and 
+embitter my life with the consciousness of irremediable guilt, while 
+I have strength to reject it.'
+
+Thus re-animated with a sense of her duty, she completed the triumph 
+of her integrity over temptation, more forcible than any she had ever 
+known, and consigned the papers to the flames.  Her eyes watched them 
+as they slowly consumed, she shuddered at the recollection of the 
+sentence she had just seen, and at the certainty, that the only 
+opportunity of explaining it was then passing away for ever.
+
+It was long after this, that she recollected the purse; and as she 
+was depositing it, unopened, in a cabinet, perceiving that it 
+contained something of a size larger than coin, she examined it.  
+'His hand deposited them here,' said she, as she kissed some pieces 
+of the coin, and wetted them with her tears, 'his hand--which is now 
+dust!'  At the bottom of the purse was a small packet, having taken 
+out which, and unfolded paper after paper, she found to be an ivory 
+case, containing the miniature of a--lady!  She started--'The same,' 
+said she, 'my father wept over!'  On examining the countenance she 
+could recollect no person that it resembled.  It was of uncommon 
+beauty, and was characterized by an expression of sweetness, shaded 
+with sorrow, and tempered by resignation.
+
+St. Aubert had given no directions concerning this picture, nor had 
+even named it; she, therefore, thought herself justified in 
+preserving it.  More than once remembering his manner, when he had 
+spoken of the Marchioness of Villeroi, she felt inclined to believe 
+that this was her resemblance; yet there appeared no reason why he 
+should have preserved a picture of that lady, or, having preserved 
+it, why he should lament over it in a manner so striking and 
+affecting as she had witnessed on the night preceding his departure.
+
+Emily still gazed on the countenance, examining its features, but she 
+knew not where to detect the charm that captivated her attention, and 
+inspired sentiments of such love and pity.  Dark brown hair played 
+carelessly along the open forehead; the nose was rather inclined to 
+aquiline; the lips spoke in a smile, but it was a melancholy one; the 
+eyes were blue, and were directed upwards with an expression of 
+peculiar meekness, while the soft cloud of the brow spoke of the fine 
+sensibility of the temper.
+
+Emily was roused from the musing mood into which the picture had 
+thrown her, by the closing of the garden gate; and, on turning her 
+eyes to the window, she saw Valancourt coming towards the chateau.  
+Her spirits agitated by the subjects that had lately occupied her 
+mind, she felt unprepared to see him, and remained a few moments in 
+the chamber to recover herself.
+
+When she met him in the parlour, she was struck with the change that 
+appeared in his air and countenance since they had parted in 
+Rousillon, which twilight and the distress she suffered on the 
+preceding evening had prevented her from observing.  But dejection 
+and languor disappeared, for a moment, in the smile that now 
+enlightened his countenance, on perceiving her.  'You see,' said he, 
+'I have availed myself of the permission with which you honoured me--
+of bidding YOU farewell, whom I had the happiness of meeting only 
+yesterday.'
+
+Emily smiled faintly, and, anxious to say something, asked if he had 
+been long in Gascony.  'A few days only,' replied Valancourt, while a 
+blush passed over his cheek.  'I engaged in a long ramble after I had 
+the misfortune of parting with the friends who had made my wanderings 
+among the Pyrenees so delightful.'
+
+A tear came to Emily's eye, as Valancourt said this, which he 
+observed; and, anxious to draw off her attention from the remembrance 
+that had occasioned it, as well as shocked at his own 
+thoughtlessness, he began to speak on other subjects, expressing his 
+admiration of the chateau, and its prospects.  Emily, who felt 
+somewhat embarrassed how to support a conversation, was glad of such 
+an opportunity to continue it on indifferent topics.  They walked 
+down to the terrace, where Valancourt was charmed with the river 
+scenery, and the views over the opposite shores of Guienne.
+
+As he leaned on the wall of the terrace, watching the rapid current 
+of the Garonne, 'I was a few weeks ago,' said he, 'at the source of 
+this noble river; I had not then the happiness of knowing you, or I 
+should have regretted your absence--it was a scene so exactly suited 
+to your taste.  It rises in a part of the Pyrenees, still wilder and 
+more sublime, I think, than any we passed in the way to Rousillon.'  
+He then described its fall among the precipices of the mountains, 
+where its waters, augmented by the streams that descend from the 
+snowy summits around, rush into the Vallee d'Aran, between whose 
+romantic heights it foams along, pursuing its way to the north west 
+till it emerges upon the plains of Languedoc.  Then, washing the 
+walls of Tholouse, and turning again to the north west, it assumes a 
+milder character, as it fertilizes the pastures of Gascony and 
+Guienne, in its progress to the Bay of Biscay.
+
+Emily and Valancourt talked of the scenes they had passed among the 
+Pyrenean Alps; as he spoke of which there was often a tremulous 
+tenderness in his voice, and sometimes he expatiated on them with all 
+the fire of genius, sometimes would appear scarcely conscious of the 
+topic, though he continued to speak.  This subject recalled forcibly 
+to Emily the idea of her father, whose image appeared in every 
+landscape, which Valancourt particularized, whose remarks dwelt upon 
+her memory, and whose enthusiasm still glowed in her heart.  Her 
+silence, at length, reminded Valancourt how nearly his conversation 
+approached to the occasion of her grief, and he changed the subject, 
+though for one scarcely less affecting to Emily.  When he admired the 
+grandeur of the plane-tree, that spread its wide branches over the 
+terrace, and under whose shade they now sat, she remembered how often 
+she had sat thus with St. Aubert, and heard him express the same 
+admiration.
+
+'This was a favourite tree with my dear father,' said she; 'he used 
+to love to sit under its foliage with his family about him, in the 
+fine evenings of summer.'
+
+Valancourt understood her feelings, and was silent; had she raised 
+her eyes from the ground she would have seen tears in his.  He rose, 
+and leaned on the wall of the terrace, from which, in a few moments, 
+he returned to his seat, then rose again, and appeared to be greatly 
+agitated; while Emily found her spirits so much depressed, that 
+several of her attempts to renew the conversation were ineffectual.  
+Valancourt again sat down, but was still silent, and trembled.  At 
+length he said, with a hesitating voice, 'This lovely scene!--I am 
+going to leave--to leave you--perhaps for ever!  These moments may 
+never return; I cannot resolve to neglect, though I scarcely dare to 
+avail myself of them.  Let me, however, without offending the 
+delicacy of your sorrow, venture to declare the admiration I must 
+always feel of your goodness--O! that at some future period I might 
+be permitted to call it love!'
+
+Emily's emotion would not suffer her to reply; and Valancourt, who 
+now ventured to look up, observing her countenance change, expected 
+to see her faint, and made an involuntary effort to support her, 
+which recalled Emily to a sense of her situation, and to an exertion 
+of her spirits.  Valancourt did not appear to notice her 
+indisposition, but, when he spoke again, his voice told the tenderest 
+love.  'I will not presume,' he added, 'to intrude this subject 
+longer upon your attention at this time, but I may, perhaps, be 
+permitted to mention, that these parting moments would lose much of 
+their bitterness if I might be allowed to hope the declaration I have 
+made would not exclude me from your presence in future.'
+
+Emily made another effort to overcome the confusion of her thoughts, 
+and to speak.  She feared to trust the preference her heart 
+acknowledged towards Valancourt, and to give him any encouragement 
+for hope, on so short an acquaintance.  For though in this narrow 
+period she had observed much that was admirable in his taste and 
+disposition, and though these observations had been sanctioned by the 
+opinion of her father, they were not sufficient testimonies of his 
+general worth to determine her upon a subject so infinitely important 
+to her future happiness as that, which now solicited her attention.  
+Yet, though the thought of dismissing Valancourt was so very painful 
+to her, that she could scarcely endure to pause upon it, the 
+consciousness of this made her fear the partiality of her judgment, 
+and hesitate still more to encourage that suit, for which her own 
+heart too tenderly pleaded.  The family of Valancourt, if not his 
+circumstances, had been known to her father, and known to be 
+unexceptionable.  Of his circumstances, Valancourt himself hinted as 
+far as delicacy would permit, when he said he had at present little 
+else to offer but an heart, that adored her.  He had solicited only 
+for a distant hope, and she could not resolve to forbid, though she 
+scarcely dared to permit it; at length, she acquired courage to say, 
+that she must think herself honoured by the good opinion of any 
+person, whom her father had esteemed.
+
+'And was I, then, thought worthy of his esteem?' said Valancourt, in 
+a voice trembling with anxiety; then checking himself, he added, 'But 
+pardon the question; I scarcely know what I say.  If I might dare to 
+hope, that you think me not unworthy such honour, and might be 
+permitted sometimes to enquire after your health, I should now leave 
+you with comparative tranquillity.'
+
+Emily, after a moment's silence, said, 'I will be ingenuous with you, 
+for I know you will understand, and allow for my situation; you will 
+consider it as a proof of my--my esteem that I am so.  Though I live 
+here in what was my father's house, I live here alone.  I have, alas! 
+no longer a parent--a parent, whose presence might sanction your 
+visits.  It is unnecessary for me to point out the impropriety of my 
+receiving them.'
+
+'Nor will I affect to be insensible of this,' replied Valancourt, 
+adding mournfully--'but what is to console me for my candour?  I 
+distress you, and would now leave the subject, if I might carry with 
+me a hope of being some time permitted to renew it, of being allowed 
+to make myself known to your family.'
+
+Emily was again confused, and again hesitated what to reply; she felt 
+most acutely the difficulty--the forlornness of her situation, which 
+did not allow her a single relative, or friend, to whom she could 
+turn for even a look, that might support and guide her in the present 
+embarrassing circumstances.  Madame Cheron, who was her only 
+relative, and ought to have been this friend, was either occupied by 
+her own amusements, or so resentful of the reluctance her niece had 
+shewn to quit La Vallee, that she seemed totally to have abandoned 
+her.
+
+'Ah! I see,' said Valancourt, after a long pause, during which Emily 
+had begun, and left unfinished two or three sentences, 'I see that I 
+have nothing to hope; my fears were too just, you think me unworthy 
+of your esteem.  That fatal journey! which I considered as the 
+happiest period of my life--those delightful days were to embitter 
+all my future ones.  How often I have looked back to them with hope 
+and fear--yet never till this moment could I prevail with myself to 
+regret their enchanting influence.'
+
+His voice faltered, and he abruptly quitted his seat and walked on 
+the terrace.  There was an expression of despair on his countenance, 
+that affected Emily.  The pleadings of her heart overcame, in some 
+degree, her extreme timidity, and, when he resumed his seat, she 
+said, in an accent that betrayed her tenderness, 'You do both 
+yourself and me injustice when you say I think you unworthy of my 
+esteem; I will acknowledge that you have long possessed it, and--and-
+-'
+
+Valancourt waited impatiently for the conclusion of the sentence, but 
+the words died on her lips.  Her eyes, however, reflected all the 
+emotions of her heart.  Valancourt passed, in an instant, from the 
+impatience of despair, to that of joy and tenderness.  'O Emily!' he 
+exclaimed, 'my own Emily--teach me to sustain this moment!  Let me 
+seal it as the most sacred of my life!'
+
+He pressed her hand to his lips, it was cold and trembling; and, 
+raising her eyes, he saw the paleness of her countenance.  Tears came 
+to her relief, and Valancourt watched in anxious silence over her.  
+In a few moments, she recovered herself, and smiling faintly through 
+her tears, said, 'Can you excuse this weakness?  My spirits have not 
+yet, I believe, recovered from the shock they lately received.'
+
+'I cannot excuse myself,' said Valancourt, 'but I will forbear to 
+renew the subject, which may have contributed to agitate them, now 
+that I can leave you with the sweet certainty of possessing your 
+esteem.'
+
+Then, forgetting his resolution, he again spoke of himself.  'You 
+know not,' said he, 'the many anxious hours I have passed near you 
+lately, when you believed me, if indeed you honoured me with a 
+thought, far away.  I have wandered, near the chateau, in the still 
+hours of the night, when no eye could observe me.  It was delightful 
+to know I was so near you, and there was something particularly 
+soothing in the thought, that I watched round your habitation, while 
+you slept.  These grounds are not entirely new to me.  Once I 
+ventured within the fence, and spent one of the happiest, and yet 
+most melancholy hours of my life in walking under what I believed to 
+be your window.'
+
+Emily enquired how long Valancourt had been in the neighbourhood.  
+'Several days,' he replied.  'It was my design to avail myself of the 
+permission M. St. Aubert had given me.  I scarcely know how to 
+account for it; but, though I anxiously wished to do this, my 
+resolution always failed, when the moment approached, and I 
+constantly deferred my visit.  I lodged in a village at some 
+distance, and wandered with my dogs, among the scenes of this 
+charming country, wishing continually to meet you, yet not daring to 
+visit you.'
+
+Having thus continued to converse, without perceiving the flight of 
+time, Valancourt, at length, seemed to recollect himself.  'I must 
+go,' said he mournfully, 'but it is with the hope of seeing you 
+again, of being permitted to pay my respects to your family; let me 
+hear this hope confirmed by your voice.'  'My family will be happy to 
+see any friend of my dear father,' said Emily.  Valancourt kissed her 
+hand, and still lingered, unable to depart, while Emily sat silently, 
+with her eyes bent on the ground; and Valancourt, as he gazed on her, 
+considered that it would soon be impossible for him to recall, even 
+to his memory, the exact resemblance of the beautiful countenance he 
+then beheld; at this moment an hasty footstep approached from behind 
+the plane-tree, and, turning her eyes, Emily saw Madame Cheron.  She 
+felt a blush steal upon her cheek, and her frame trembled with the 
+emotion of her mind; but she instantly rose to meet her visitor.  
+'So, niece!' said Madame Cheron, casting a look of surprise and 
+enquiry on Valancourt, 'so niece, how do you do?  But I need not ask, 
+your looks tell me you have already recovered your loss.'
+
+'My looks do me injustice then, Madame, my loss I know can never be 
+recovered.'
+
+'Well--well!  I will not argue with you;  I see you have exactly your 
+father's disposition; and let me tell you it would have been much 
+happier for him, poor man! if it had been a different one.'
+
+A look of dignified displeasure, with which Emily regarded Madame 
+Cheron, while she spoke, would have touched almost any other heart; 
+she made no other reply, but introduced Valancourt, who could 
+scarcely stifle the resentment he felt, and whose bow Madame Cheron 
+returned with a slight curtsy, and a look of supercilious 
+examination.  After a few moments he took leave of Emily, in a 
+manner, that hastily expressed his pain both at his own departure, 
+and at leaving her to the society of Madame Cheron.
+
+'Who is that young man?' said her aunt, in an accent which equally 
+implied inquisitiveness and censure.  'Some idle admirer of yours I 
+suppose; but I believed niece you had a greater sense of propriety, 
+than to have received the visits of any young man in your present 
+unfriended situation.  Let me tell you the world will observe those 
+things, and it will talk, aye and very freely too.'
+
+Emily, extremely shocked at this coarse speech, attempted to 
+interrupt it; but Madame Cheron would proceed, with all the self-
+importance of a person, to whom power is new.
+
+'It is very necessary you should be under the eye of some person more 
+able to guide you than yourself.  I, indeed, have not much leisure 
+for such a task; however, since your poor father made it his last 
+request, that I should overlook your conduct--I must even take you 
+under my care.  But this let me tell you niece, that, unless you will 
+determine to be very conformable to my direction, I shall not trouble 
+myself longer about you.'
+
+Emily made no attempt to interrupt Madame Cheron a second time, grief 
+and the pride of conscious innocence kept her silent, till her aunt 
+said, 'I am now come to take you with me to Tholouse; I am sorry to 
+find, that your poor father died, after all, in such indifferent 
+circumstances; however, I shall take you home with me.  Ah! poor man, 
+he was always more generous than provident, or he would not have left 
+his daughter dependent on his relations.'
+
+'Nor has he done so, I hope, madam,' said Emily calmly, 'nor did his 
+pecuniary misfortunes arise from that noble generosity, which always 
+distinguished him.  The affairs of M. de Motteville may, I trust, yet 
+be settled without deeply injuring his creditors, and in the meantime 
+I should be very happy to remain at La Vallee.'
+
+'No doubt you would,' replied Madame Cheron, with a smile of irony, 
+'and I shall no doubt consent to this, since I see how necessary 
+tranquillity and retirement are to restore your spirits.  I did not 
+think you capable of so much duplicity, niece; when you pleaded this 
+excuse for remaining here, I foolishly believed it to be a just one, 
+nor expected to have found with you so agreeable a companion as this 
+M. La Val--, I forget his name.'
+
+Emily could no longer endure these cruel indignities.  'It was a just 
+one, madam,' said she; 'and now, indeed, I feel more than ever the 
+value of the retirement I then solicited; and, if the purport of your 
+visit is only to add insult to the sorrows of your brother's child, 
+she could well have spared it.'
+
+'I see that I have undertaken a very troublesome task,' said Madame 
+Cheron, colouring highly.  'I am sure, madam,' said Emily mildly, and 
+endeavouring to restrain her tears, 'I am sure my father did not mean 
+it should be such.  I have the happiness to reflect, that my conduct 
+under his eye was such as he often delighted to approve.  It would be 
+very painful to me to disobey the sister of such a parent, and, if 
+you believe the task will really be so troublesome, I must lament, 
+that it is yours.'
+
+'Well! niece, fine speaking signifies little.  I am willing, in 
+consideration of my poor brother, to overlook the impropriety of your 
+late conduct, and to try what your future will be.'
+
+Emily interrupted her, to beg she would explain what was the 
+impropriety she alluded to.
+
+'What impropriety! why that of receiving the visits of a lover 
+unknown to your family,' replied Madame Cheron, not considering the 
+impropriety of which she had herself been guilty, in exposing her 
+niece to the possibility of conduct so erroneous.
+
+A faint blush passed over Emily's countenance; pride and anxiety 
+struggled in her breast; and, till she recollected, that appearances 
+did, in some degree, justify her aunt's suspicions, she could not 
+resolve to humble herself so far as to enter into the defence of a 
+conduct, which had been so innocent and undesigning on her part.  She 
+mentioned the manner of Valancourt's introduction to her father; the 
+circumstances of his receiving the pistol-shot, and of their 
+afterwards travelling together; with the accidental way, in which she 
+had met him, on the preceding evening.  She owned he had declared a 
+partiality for her, and that he had asked permission to address her 
+family.
+
+'And who is this young adventurer, pray?' said Madame Cheron, 'and 
+what are his pretensions?'  'These he must himself explain, madam,' 
+replied Emily.  'Of his family my father was not ignorant, and I 
+believe it is unexceptionable.'  She then proceeded to mention what 
+she knew concerning it.
+
+'Oh, then, this it seems is a younger brother,' exclaimed her aunt, 
+'and of course a beggar.  A very fine tale indeed!  And so my brother 
+took a fancy to this young man after only a few days acquaintance!--
+but that was so like him!  In his youth he was always taking these 
+likes and dislikes, when no other person saw any reason for them at 
+all; nay, indeed, I have often thought the people he disapproved were 
+much more agreeable than those he admired;--but there is no 
+accounting for tastes.  He was always so much influenced by people's 
+countenances; now I, for my part, have no notion of this, it is all 
+ridiculous enthusiasm.  What has a man's face to do with his 
+character?  Can a man of good character help having a disagreeable 
+face?'--which last sentence Madame Cheron delivered with the decisive 
+air of a person who congratulates herself on having made a grand 
+discovery, and believes the question to be unanswerably settled.
+
+Emily, desirous of concluding the conversation, enquired if her aunt 
+would accept some refreshment, and Madame Cheron accompanied her to 
+the chateau, but without desisting from a topic, which she discussed 
+with so much complacency to herself, and severity to her niece.
+
+'I am sorry to perceive, niece,' said she, in allusion to somewhat 
+that Emily had said, concerning physiognomy, 'that you have a great 
+many of your father's prejudices, and among them those sudden 
+predilections for people from their looks.  I can perceive, that you 
+imagine yourself to be violently in love with this young adventurer, 
+after an acquaintance of only a few days.  There was something, too, 
+so charmingly romantic in the manner of your meeting!'
+
+Emily checked the tears, that trembled in her eyes, while she said, 
+'When my conduct shall deserve this severity, madam, you will do well 
+to exercise it; till then justice, if not tenderness, should surely 
+restrain it.  I have never willingly offended you; now I have lost my 
+parents, you are the only person to whom I can look for kindness.  
+Let me not lament more than ever the loss of such parents.'  The last 
+words were almost stifled by her emotions, and she burst into tears.  
+Remembering the delicacy and the tenderness of St. Aubert, the happy, 
+happy days she had passed in these scenes, and contrasting them with 
+the coarse and unfeeling behaviour of Madame Cheron, and from the 
+future hours of mortification she must submit to in her presence--a 
+degree of grief seized her, that almost reached despair.  Madame 
+Cheron, more offended by the reproof which Emily's words conveyed, 
+than touched by the sorrow they expressed, said nothing, that might 
+soften her grief; but, notwithstanding an apparent reluctance to 
+receive her niece, she desired her company.  The love of sway was her 
+ruling passion, and she knew it would be highly gratified by taking 
+into her house a young orphan, who had no appeal from her decisions, 
+and on whom she could exercise without controul the capricious humour 
+of the moment.
+
+On entering the chateau, Madame Cheron expressed a desire, that she 
+would put up what she thought necessary to take to Tholouse, as she 
+meant to set off immediately.  Emily now tried to persuade her to 
+defer the journey, at least till the next day, and, at length, with 
+much difficulty, prevailed.
+
+The day passed in the exercise of petty tyranny on the part of Madame 
+Cheron, and in mournful regret and melancholy anticipation on that of 
+Emily, who, when her aunt retired to her apartment for the night, 
+went to take leave of every other room in this her dear native home, 
+which she was now quitting for she knew not how long, and for a 
+world, to which she was wholly a stranger.  She could not conquer a 
+presentiment, which frequently occurred to her, this night--that she 
+should never more return to La Vallee.  Having passed a considerable 
+time in what had been her father's study, having selected some of his 
+favourite authors, to put up with her clothes, and shed many tears, 
+as she wiped the dust from their covers, she seated herself in his 
+chair before the reading desk, and sat lost in melancholy reflection, 
+till Theresa opened the door to examine, as was her custom before she 
+went to bed, if was all safe.  She started, on observing her young 
+lady, who bade her come in, and then gave her some directions for 
+keeping the chateau in readiness for her reception at all times.
+
+'Alas-a-day! that you should leave it!' said Theresa, 'I think you 
+would be happier here than where you are going, if one may judge.'  
+Emily made no reply to this remark; the sorrow Theresa proceeded to 
+express at her departure affected her, but she found some comfort in 
+the simple affection of this poor old servant, to whom she gave such 
+directions as might best conduce to her comfort during her own 
+absence.
+
+Having dismissed Theresa to bed, Emily wandered through every lonely 
+apartment of the chateau, lingering long in what had been her 
+father's bed-room, indulging melancholy, yet not unpleasing, 
+emotions, and, having often returned within the door to take another 
+look at it, she withdrew to her own chamber.  From her window she 
+gazed upon the garden below, shewn faintly by the moon, rising over 
+the tops of the palm-trees, and, at length, the calm beauty of the 
+night increased a desire of indulging the mournful sweetness of 
+bidding farewel to the beloved shades of her childhood, till she was 
+tempted to descend.  Throwing over her the light veil, in which she 
+usually walked, she silently passed into the garden, and, hastening 
+towards the distant groves, was glad to breathe once more the air of 
+liberty, and to sigh unobserved.  The deep repose of the scene, the 
+rich scents, that floated on the breeze, the grandeur of the wide 
+horizon and of the clear blue arch, soothed and gradually elevated 
+her mind to that sublime complacency, which renders the vexations of 
+this world so insignificant and mean in our eyes, that we wonder they 
+have had power for a moment to disturb us.  Emily forgot Madame 
+Cheron and all the circumstances of her conduct, while her thoughts 
+ascended to the contemplation of those unnumbered worlds, that lie 
+scattered in the depths of aether, thousands of them hid from human 
+eyes, and almost beyond the flight of human fancy.  As her 
+imagination soared through the regions of space, and aspired to that 
+Great First Cause, which pervades and governs all being, the idea of 
+her father scarcely ever left her; but it was a pleasing idea, since 
+she resigned him to God in the full confidence of a pure and holy 
+faith.  She pursued her way through the groves to the terrace, often 
+pausing as memory awakened the pang of affection, and as reason 
+anticipated the exile, into which she was going.
+
+And now the moon was high over the woods, touching their summits with 
+yellow light, and darting between the foliage long level beams; while 
+on the rapid Garonne below the trembling radiance was faintly 
+obscured by the lightest vapour.  Emily long watched the playing 
+lustre, listened to the soothing murmur of the current, and the yet 
+lighter sounds of the air, as it stirred, at intervals, the lofty 
+palm-trees.  'How delightful is the sweet breath of these groves,' 
+said she.  'This lovely scene!--how often shall I remember and regret 
+it, when I am far away.  Alas! what events may occur before I see it 
+again!  O, peaceful, happy shades!--scenes of my infant delights, of 
+parental tenderness now lost for ever!--why must I leave ye!--In your 
+retreats I should still find safety and repose.  Sweet hours of my 
+childhood--I am now to leave even your last memorials!  No objects, 
+that would revive your impressions, will remain for me!'
+
+Then drying her tears and looking up, her thoughts rose again to the 
+sublime subject she had contemplated; the same divine complacency 
+stole over her heart, and, hushing its throbs, inspired hope and 
+confidence and resignation to the will of the Deity, whose works 
+filled her mind with adoration.
+
+Emily gazed long on the plane-tree, and then seated herself, for the 
+last time, on the bench under its shade, where she had so often sat 
+with her parents, and where, only a few hours before, she had 
+conversed with Valancourt, at the remembrance of whom, thus revived, 
+a mingled sensation of esteem, tenderness and anxiety rose in her 
+breast.  With this remembrance occurred a recollection of his late 
+confession--that he had often wandered near her habitation in the 
+night, having even passed the boundary of the garden, and it 
+immediately occurred to her, that he might be at this moment in the 
+grounds.  The fear of meeting him, particularly after the declaration 
+he had made, and of incurring a censure, which her aunt might so 
+reasonably bestow, if it was known, that she was met by her lover, at 
+this hour, made her instantly leave her beloved plane-tree, and walk 
+towards the chateau.  She cast an anxious eye around, and often 
+stopped for a moment to examine the shadowy scene before she ventured 
+to proceed, but she passed on without perceiving any person, till, 
+having reached a clump of almond trees, not far from the house, she 
+rested to take a retrospect of the garden, and to sigh forth another 
+adieu.  As her eyes wandered over the landscape she thought she 
+perceived a person emerge from the groves, and pass slowly along a 
+moon-light alley that led between them; but the distance, and the 
+imperfect light would not suffer her to judge with any degree of 
+certainty whether this was fancy or reality.  She continued to gaze 
+for some time on the spot, till on the dead stillness of the air she 
+heard a sudden sound, and in the next instant fancied she 
+distinguished footsteps near her.  Wasting not another moment in 
+conjecture, she hurried to the chateau, and, having reached it, 
+retired to her chamber, where, as she closed her window she looked 
+upon the garden, and then again thought she distinguished a figure, 
+gliding between the almond trees she had just left.  She immediately 
+withdrew from the casement, and, though much agitated, sought in 
+sleep the refreshment of a short oblivion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+     I leave that flowery path for eye
+ Of childhood, where I sported many a day,
+ Warbling and sauntering carelessly along;
+ Where every face was innocent and gay,
+ Each vale romantic, tuneful every tongue,
+ Sweet, wild, and artless all.
+     THE MINSTREL
+
+At an early hour, the carriage, which was to take Emily and Madame 
+Cheron to Tholouse, appeared at the door of the chateau, and Madame 
+was already in the breakfast-room, when her niece entered it.  The 
+repast was silent and melancholy on the part of Emily; and Madame 
+Cheron, whose vanity was piqued on observing her dejection, reproved 
+her in a manner that did not contribute to remove it.  It was with 
+much reluctance, that Emily's request to take with her the dog, which 
+had been a favourite of her father, was granted.  Her aunt, impatient 
+to be gone, ordered the carriage to draw up; and, while she passed to 
+the hall door, Emily gave another look into the library, and another 
+farewell glance over the garden, and then followed.  Old Theresa 
+stood at the door to take leave of her young lady.  'God for ever 
+keep you, ma'amselle!' said she, while Emily gave her hand in 
+silence, and could answer only with a pressure of her hand, and a 
+forced smile.
+
+At the gate, which led out of the grounds, several of her father's 
+pensioners were assembled to bid her farewell, to whom she would have 
+spoken, if her aunt would have suffered the driver to stop; and, 
+having distributed to them almost all the money she had about her, 
+she sunk back in the carriage, yielding to the melancholy of her 
+heart.  Soon after, she caught, between the steep banks of the road, 
+another view of the chateau, peeping from among the high trees, and 
+surrounded by green slopes and tufted groves, the Garonne winding its 
+way beneath their shades, sometimes lost among the vineyards, and 
+then rising in greater majesty in the distant pastures.  The towering 
+precipices of the Pyrenees, that rose to the south, gave Emily a 
+thousand interesting recollections of her late journey; and these 
+objects of her former enthusiastic admiration, now excited only 
+sorrow and regret.  Having gazed on the chateau and its lovely 
+scenery, till the banks again closed upon them, her mind became too 
+much occupied by mournful reflections, to permit her to attend to the 
+conversation, which Madame Cheron had begun on some trivial topic, so 
+that they soon travelled in profound silence.
+
+Valancourt, mean while, was returned to Estuviere, his heart occupied 
+with the image of Emily; sometimes indulging in reveries of future 
+happiness, but more frequently shrinking with dread of the opposition 
+he might encounter from her family.  He was the younger son of an 
+ancient family of Gascony; and, having lost his parents at an early 
+period of his life, the care of his education and of his small 
+portion had devolved to his brother, the Count de Duvarney, his 
+senior by nearly twenty years.  Valancourt had been educated in all 
+the accomplishments of his age, and had an ardour of spirit, and a 
+certain grandeur of mind, that gave him particular excellence in the 
+exercises then thought heroic.  His little fortune had been 
+diminished by the necessary expences of his education; but M. La 
+Valancourt, the elder, seemed to think that his genius and 
+accomplishments would amply supply the deficiency of his inheritance.  
+They offered flattering hopes of promotion in the military 
+profession, in those times almost the only one in which a gentleman 
+could engage without incurring a stain on his name; and La Valancourt 
+was of course enrolled in the army.  The general genius of his mind 
+was but little understood by his brother.  That ardour for whatever 
+is great and good in the moral world, as well as in the natural one, 
+displayed itself in his infant years; and the strong indignation, 
+which he felt and expressed at a criminal, or a mean action, 
+sometimes drew upon him the displeasure of his tutor; who reprobated 
+it under the general term of violence of temper; and who, when 
+haranguing on the virtues of mildness and moderation, seemed to 
+forget the gentleness and compassion, which always appeared in his 
+pupil towards objects of misfortune.
+
+He had now obtained leave of absence from his regiment when he made 
+the excursion into the Pyrenees, which was the means of introducing 
+him to St. Aubert; and, as this permission was nearly expired, he was 
+the more anxious to declare himself to Emily's family, from whom he 
+reasonably apprehended opposition, since his fortune, though, with a 
+moderate addition from hers, it would be sufficient to support them, 
+would not satisfy the views, either of vanity, or ambition.  
+Valancourt was not without the latter, but he saw golden visions of 
+promotion in the army; and believed, that with Emily he could, in the 
+mean time, be delighted to live within the limits of his humble 
+income.  His thoughts were now occupied in considering the means of 
+making himself known to her family, to whom, however, he had yet no 
+address, for he was entirely ignorant of Emily's precipitate 
+departure from La Vallee, of whom he hoped to obtain it.
+
+Meanwhile, the travellers pursued their journey; Emily making 
+frequent efforts to appear cheerful, and too often relapsing into 
+silence and dejection.  Madame Cheron, attributing her melancholy 
+solely to the circumstance of her being removed to a distance from 
+her lover, and believing, that the sorrow, which her niece still 
+expressed for the loss of St. Aubert, proceeded partly from an 
+affectation of sensibility, endeavoured to make it appear ridiculous 
+to her, that such deep regret should continue to be felt so long 
+after the period usually allowed for grief.
+
+At length, these unpleasant lectures were interrupted by the arrival 
+of the travellers at Tholouse; and Emily, who had not been there for 
+many years, and had only a very faint recollection of it, was 
+surprised at the ostentatious style exhibited in her aunt's house and 
+furniture; the more so, perhaps, because it was so totally different 
+from the modest elegance, to which she had been accustomed.  She 
+followed Madame Cheron through a large hall, where several servants 
+in rich liveries appeared, to a kind of saloon, fitted up with more 
+shew than taste; and her aunt, complaining of fatigue, ordered supper 
+immediately.  'I am glad to find myself in my own house again,' said 
+she, throwing herself on a large settee, 'and to have my own people 
+about me.  I detest travelling; though, indeed, I ought to like it, 
+for what I see abroad always makes me delighted to return to my own 
+chateau.  what makes you so silent, child?--What is it that disturbs 
+you now?'
+
+Emily suppressed a starting tear, and tried to smile away the 
+expression of an oppressed heart; she was thinking of HER home, and 
+felt too sensibly the arrogance and ostentatious vanity of Madame 
+Cheron's conversation.  'Can this be my father's sister!' said she to 
+herself; and then the conviction that she was so, warming her heart 
+with something like kindness towards her, she felt anxious to soften 
+the harsh impression her mind had received of her aunt's character, 
+and to shew a willingness to oblige her.  The effort did not entirely 
+fail; she listened with apparent chearfulness, while Madame Cheron 
+expatiated on the splendour of her house, told of the numerous 
+parties she entertained, and what she should expect of Emily, whose 
+diffidence assumed the air of a reserve, which her aunt, believing it 
+to be that of pride and ignorance united, now took occasion to 
+reprehend.  She knew nothing of the conduct of a mind, that fears to 
+trust its own powers; which, possessing a nice judgment, and 
+inclining to believe, that every other person perceives still more 
+critically, fears to commit itself to censure, and seeks shelter in 
+the obscurity of silence.  Emily had frequently blushed at the 
+fearless manners, which she had seen admired, and the brilliant 
+nothings, which she had heard applauded; yet this applause, so far 
+from encouraging her to imitate the conduct that had won it, rather 
+made her shrink into the reserve, that would protect her from such 
+absurdity.
+
+Madame Cheron looked on her niece's diffidence with a feeling very 
+near to contempt, and endeavoured to overcome it by reproof, rather 
+than to encourage it by gentleness.
+
+The entrance of supper somewhat interrupted the complacent discourse 
+of Madame Cheron and the painful considerations, which it had forced 
+upon Emily.  When the repast, which was rendered ostentatious by the 
+attendance of a great number of servants, and by a profusion of 
+plate, was over, Madame Cheron retired to her chamber, and a female 
+servant came to shew Emily to hers.  Having passed up a large stair-
+case, and through several galleries, they came to a flight of back 
+stairs, which led into a short passage in a remote part of the 
+chateau, and there the servant opened the door of a small chamber, 
+which she said was Ma'amselle Emily's, who, once more alone, indulged 
+the tears she had long tried to restrain.
+
+Those, who know, from experience, how much the heart becomes attached 
+even to inanimate objects, to which it has been long accustomed, how 
+unwillingly it resigns them; how with the sensations of an old friend 
+it meets them, after temporary absence, will understand the 
+forlornness of Emily's feelings, of Emily shut out from the only home 
+she had known from her infancy, and thrown upon a scene, and among 
+persons, disagreeable for more qualities than their novelty.  Her 
+father's favourite dog, now in the chamber, thus seemed to acquire 
+the character and importance of a friend; and, as the animal fawned 
+over her when she wept, and licked her hands, 'Ah, poor Manchon!' 
+said she, 'I have nobody now to love me--but you!' and she wept the 
+more.  After some time, her thoughts returning to her father's 
+injunctions, she remembered how often he had blamed her for indulging 
+useless sorrow; how often he had pointed out to her the necessity of 
+fortitude and patience, assuring her, that the faculties of the mind 
+strengthen by exertion, till they finally unnerve affliction, and 
+triumph over it.  These recollections dried her tears, gradually 
+soothed her spirits, and inspired her with the sweet emulation of 
+practising precepts, which her father had so frequently inculcated.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+ Some pow'r impart the spear and shield,
+ At which the wizard passions fly,
+ By which the giant follies die.
+     COLLINS
+
+Madame Cheron's house stood at a little distance from the city of 
+Tholouse, and was surrounded by extensive gardens, in which Emily, 
+who had risen early, amused herself with wandering before breakfast.  
+From a terrace, that extended along the highest part of them, was a 
+wide view over Languedoc.  On the distant horizon to the south, she 
+discovered the wild summits of the Pyrenees, and her fancy 
+immediately painted the green pastures of Gascony at their feet.  Her 
+heart pointed to her peaceful home--to the neighbourhood where 
+Valancourt was--where St. Aubert had been; and her imagination, 
+piercing the veil of distance, brought that home to her eyes in all 
+its interesting and romantic beauty.  She experienced an 
+inexpressible pleasure in believing, that she beheld the country 
+around it, though no feature could be distinguished, except the 
+retiring chain of the Pyrenees; and, inattentive to the scene 
+immediately before her, and to the flight of time, she continued to 
+lean on the window of a pavilion, that terminated the terrace, with 
+her eyes fixed on Gascony, and her mind occupied with the interesting 
+ideas which the view of it awakened, till a servant came to tell her 
+breakfast was ready.  Her thoughts thus recalled to the surrounding 
+objects, the straight walks, square parterres, and artificial 
+fountains of the garden, could not fail, as she passed through it, to 
+appear the worse, opposed to the negligent graces, and natural 
+beauties of the grounds of La Vallee, upon which her recollection had 
+been so intensely employed.
+
+'Whither have you been rambling so early?' said Madame Cheron, as her 
+niece entered the breakfast-room.  'I don't approve of these solitary 
+walks;' and Emily was surprised, when, having informed her aunt, that 
+she had been no further than the gardens, she understood these to be 
+included in the reproof.  'I desire you will not walk there again at 
+so early an hour unattended,' said Madame Cheron; 'my gardens are 
+very extensive; and a young woman, who can make assignations by moon-
+light, at La Vallee, is not to be trusted to her own inclinations 
+elsewhere.'
+
+Emily, extremely surprised and shocked, had scarcely power to beg an 
+explanation of these words, and, when she did, her aunt absolutely 
+refused to give it, though, by her severe looks, and half sentences, 
+she appeared anxious to impress Emily with a belief, that she was 
+well informed of some degrading circumstances of her conduct.  
+Conscious innocence could not prevent a blush from stealing over 
+Emily's cheek; she trembled, and looked confusedly under the bold eye 
+of Madame Cheron, who blushed also; but hers was the blush of 
+triumph, such as sometimes stains the countenance of a person, 
+congratulating himself on the penetration which had taught him to 
+suspect another, and who loses both pity for the supposed criminal, 
+and indignation of his guilt, in the gratification of his own vanity.
+
+Emily, not doubting that her aunt's mistake arose from the having 
+observed her ramble in the garden on the night preceding her 
+departure from La Vallee, now mentioned the motive of it, at which 
+Madame Cheron smiled contemptuously, refusing either to accept this 
+explanation, or to give her reasons for refusing it; and, soon after, 
+she concluded the subject by saying, 'I never trust people's 
+assertions, I always judge of them by their actions; but I am willing 
+to try what will be your behaviour in future.'
+
+Emily, less surprised by her aunt's moderation and mysterious 
+silence, than by the accusation she had received, deeply considered 
+the latter, and scarcely doubted, that it was Valancourt whom she had 
+seen at night in the gardens of La Vallee, and that he had been 
+observed there by Madame Cheron; who now passing from one painful 
+topic only to revive another almost equally so, spoke of the 
+situation of her niece's property, in the hands of M. Motteville.  
+While she thus talked with ostentatious pity of Emily's misfortunes, 
+she failed not to inculcate the duties of humility and gratitude, or 
+to render Emily fully sensible of every cruel mortification, who soon 
+perceived, that she was to be considered as a dependant, not only by 
+her aunt, but by her aunt's servants.
+
+She was now informed, that a large party were expected to dinner, on 
+which account Madame Cheron repeated the lesson of the preceding 
+night, concerning her conduct in company, and Emily wished, that she 
+might have courage enough to practise it.  Her aunt then proceeded to 
+examine the simplicity of her dress, adding, that she expected to see 
+her attired with gaiety and taste; after which she condescended to 
+shew Emily the splendour of her chateau, and to point out the 
+particular beauty, or elegance, which she thought distinguished each 
+of her numerous suites of apartments.  she then withdrew to her 
+toilet, the throne of her homage, and Emily to her chamber, to unpack 
+her books, and to try to charm her mind by reading, till the hour of 
+dressing.
+
+When the company arrived, Emily entered the saloon with an air of 
+timidity, which all her efforts could not overcome, and which was 
+increased by the consciousness of Madame Cheron's severe observation.  
+Her mourning dress, the mild dejection of her beautiful countenance, 
+and the retiring diffidence of her manner, rendered her a very 
+interesting object to many of the company; among whom she 
+distinguished Signor Montoni, and his friend Cavigni, the late 
+visitors at M. Quesnel's, who now seemed to converse with Madame 
+Cheron with the familiarity of old acquaintance, and she to attend to 
+them with particular pleasure.
+
+This Signor Montoni had an air of conscious superiority, animated by 
+spirit, and strengthened by talents, to which every person seemed 
+involuntarily to yield.  The quickness of his perceptions was 
+strikingly expressed on his countenance, yet that countenance could 
+submit implicitly to occasion; and, more than once in this day, the 
+triumph of art over nature might have been discerned in it.  His 
+visage was long, and rather narrow, yet he was called handsome; and 
+it was, perhaps, the spirit and vigour of his soul, sparkling through 
+his features, that triumphed for him.  Emily felt admiration, but not 
+the admiration that leads to esteem; for it was mixed with a degree 
+of fear she knew not exactly wherefore.
+
+Cavigni was gay and insinuating as formerly; and, though he paid 
+almost incessant attention to Madame Cheron, he found some 
+opportunities of conversing with Emily, to whom he directed, at 
+first, the sallies of his wit, but now and then assumed an air of 
+tenderness, which she observed, and shrunk from.  Though she replied 
+but little, the gentleness and sweetness of her manners encouraged 
+him to talk, and she felt relieved when a young lady of the party, 
+who spoke incessantly, obtruded herself on his notice.  This lady, 
+who possessed all the sprightliness of a Frenchwoman, with all her 
+coquetry, affected to understand every subject, or rather there was 
+no affectation in the case; for, never looking beyond the limits of 
+her own ignorance, she believed she had nothing to learn.  She 
+attracted notice from all; amused some, disgusted others for a 
+moment, and was then forgotten.
+
+This day passed without any material occurrence; and Emily, though 
+amused by the characters she had seen, was glad when she could retire 
+to the recollections, which had acquired with her the character of 
+duties.
+
+A fortnight passed in a round of dissipation and company, and Emily, 
+who attended Madame Cheron in all her visits, was sometimes 
+entertained, but oftener wearied.  She was struck by the apparent 
+talents and knowledge displayed in the various conversations she 
+listened to, and it was long before she discovered, that the talents 
+were for the most part those of imposture, and the knowledge nothing 
+more than was necessary to assist them.  But what deceived her most, 
+was the air of constant gaiety and good spirits, displayed by every 
+visitor, and which she supposed to arise from content as constant, 
+and from benevolence as ready.  At length, from the over-acting of 
+some, less accomplished than the others, she could perceive, that, 
+though contentment and benevolence are the only sure sources of 
+cheerfulness, the immoderate and feverish animation, usually 
+exhibited in large parties, results partly from an insensibility to 
+the cares, which benevolence must sometimes derive from the 
+sufferings of others, and partly from a desire to display the 
+appearance of that prosperity, which they know will command 
+submission and attention to themselves.
+
+Emily's pleasantest hours were passed in the pavilion of the terrace, 
+to which she retired, when she could steal from observation, with a 
+book to overcome, or a lute to indulge, her melancholy.  There, as 
+she sat with her eyes fixed on the far-distant Pyrenees, and her 
+thoughts on Valancourt and the beloved scenes of Gascony, she would 
+play the sweet and melancholy songs of her native province--the 
+popular songs she had listened to from her childhood.
+
+One evening, having excused herself from accompanying her aunt 
+abroad, she thus withdrew to the pavilion, with books and her lute.  
+It was the mild and beautiful evening of a sultry day, and the 
+windows, which fronted the west, opened upon all the glory of a 
+setting sun.  Its rays illuminated, with strong splendour, the cliffs 
+of the Pyrenees, and touched their snowy tops with a roseate hue, 
+that remained, long after the sun had sunk below the horizon, and the 
+shades of twilight had stolen over the landscape.  Emily touched her 
+lute with that fine melancholy expression, which came from her heart.  
+The pensive hour and the scene, the evening light on the Garonne, 
+that flowed at no great distance, and whose waves, as they passed 
+towards La Vallee, she often viewed with a sigh,--these united 
+circumstances disposed her mind to tenderness, and her thoughts were 
+with Valancourt, of whom she had heard nothing since her arrival at 
+Tholouse, and now that she was removed from him, and in uncertainty, 
+she perceived all the interest he held in her heart.  Before she saw 
+Valancourt she had never met a mind and taste so accordant with her 
+own, and, though Madame Cheron told her much of the arts of 
+dissimulation, and that the elegance and propriety of thought, which 
+she so much admired in her lover, were assumed for the purpose of 
+pleasing her, she could scarcely doubt their truth.  This 
+possibility, however, faint as it was, was sufficient to harass her 
+mind with anxiety, and she found, that few conditions are more 
+painful than that of uncertainty, as to the merit of a beloved 
+object; an uncertainty, which she would not have suffered, had her 
+confidence in her own opinions been greater.
+
+She was awakened from her musing by the sound of horses' feet along a 
+road, that wound under the windows of the pavilion, and a gentleman 
+passed on horseback, whose resemblance to Valancourt, in air and 
+figure, for the twilight did not permit a view of his features, 
+immediately struck her.  She retired hastily from the lattice, 
+fearing to be seen, yet wishing to observe further, while the 
+stranger passed on without looking up, and, when she returned to the 
+lattice, she saw him faintly through the twilight, winding under the 
+high trees, that led to Tholouse.  This little incident so much 
+disturbed her spirits, that the temple and its scenery were no longer 
+interesting to her, and, after walking awhile on the terrace, she 
+returned to the chateau.
+
+Madame Cheron, whether she had seen a rival admired, had lost at 
+play, or had witnessed an entertainment more splendid than her own, 
+was returned from her visit with a temper more than usually 
+discomposed; and Emily was glad, when the hour arrived, in which she 
+could retire to the solitude of her own apartment.
+
+On the following morning, she was summoned to Madame Cheron, whose 
+countenance was inflamed with resentment, and, as Emily advanced, she 
+held out a letter to her.
+
+'Do you know this hand?' said she, in a severe tone, and with a look 
+that was intended to search her heart, while Emily examined the 
+letter attentively, and assured her, that she did not.
+
+'Do not provoke me,' said her aunt; 'you do know it, confess the 
+truth immediately.  I insist upon your confessing the truth 
+instantly.'
+
+Emily was silent, and turned to leave the room, but Madame called her 
+back.  'O you are guilty, then,' said she, 'you do know the hand.'  
+'If you was before in doubt of this, madam,' replied Emily calmly, 
+'why did you accuse me of having told a falsehood.'  Madame Cheron 
+did not blush; but her niece did, a moment after, when she heard the 
+name of Valancourt.  It was not, however, with the consciousness of 
+deserving reproof, for, if she ever had seen his hand-writing, the 
+present characters did not bring it to her recollection.
+
+'It is useless to deny it,' said Madame Cheron, 'I see in your 
+countenance, that you are no stranger to this letter; and, I dare 
+say, you have received many such from this impertinent young man, 
+without my knowledge, in my own house.'
+
+Emily, shocked at the indelicacy of this accusation, still more than 
+by the vulgarity of the former, instantly forgot the pride, that had 
+imposed silence, and endeavoured to vindicate herself from the 
+aspersion, but Madame Cheron was not to be convinced.
+
+'I cannot suppose,' she resumed, 'that this young man would have 
+taken the liberty of writing to me, if you had not encouraged him to 
+do so, and I must now'--'You will allow me to remind you, madam,' 
+said Emily timidly, 'of some particulars of a conversation we had at 
+La Vallee.  I then told you truly, that I had only not forbade 
+Monsieur Valancourt from addressing my family.'
+
+'I will not be interrupted,' said Madame Cheron, interrupting her 
+niece, 'I was going to say--I--I-have forgot what I was going to say.  
+But how happened it that you did not forbid him?'  Emily was silent.  
+'How happened it that you encouraged him to trouble me with this 
+letter?--A young man that nobody knows;--an utter stranger in the 
+place,--a young adventurer, no doubt, who is looking out for a good 
+fortune.  However, on that point he has mistaken his aim.'
+
+'His family was known to my father,' said Emily modestly, and without 
+appearing to be sensible of the last sentence.
+
+'O! that is no recommendation at all,' replied her aunt, with her 
+usual readiness upon this topic; 'he took such strange fancies to 
+people!  He was always judging persons by their countenances, and was 
+continually deceived.'  'Yet it was but now, madam, that you judged 
+me guilty by my countenance,' said Emily, with a design of reproving 
+Madame Cheron, to which she was induced by this disrespectful mention 
+of her father.
+
+'I called you here,' resumed her aunt, colouring, 'to tell you, that 
+I will not be disturbed in my own house by any letters, or visits 
+from young men, who may take a fancy to flatter you.  This M. de 
+Valantine--I think you call him, has the impertinence to beg I will 
+permit him to pay his respects to me!  I shall send him a proper 
+answer.  And for you, Emily, I repeat it once for all--if you are not 
+contented to conform to my directions, and to my way of live, I shall 
+give up the task of overlooking your conduct--I shall no longer 
+trouble myself with your education, but shall send you to board in a 
+convent.'
+
+'Dear madam,' said Emily, bursting into tears, and overcome by the 
+rude suspicions her aunt had expressed, 'how have I deserved these 
+reproofs?'  She could say no more; and so very fearful was she of 
+acting with any degree of impropriety in the affair itself, that, at 
+the present moment, Madame Cheron might perhaps have prevailed with 
+her to bind herself by a promise to renounce Valancourt for ever.  
+Her mind, weakened by her terrors, would no longer suffer her to view 
+him as she had formerly done; she feared the error of her own 
+judgment, not that of Madame Cheron, and feared also, that, in her 
+former conversation with him, at La Vallee, she had not conducted 
+herself with sufficient reserve.  She knew, that she did not deserve 
+the coarse suspicions, which her aunt had thrown out, but a thousand 
+scruples rose to torment her, such as would never have disturbed the 
+peace of Madame Cheron.  Thus rendered anxious to avoid every 
+opportunity of erring, and willing to submit to any restrictions, 
+that her aunt should think proper, she expressed an obedience, to 
+which Madame Cheron did not give much confidence, and which she 
+seemed to consider as the consequence of either fear, or artifice.
+
+'Well, then,' said she, 'promise me that you will neither see this 
+young man, nor write to him without my consent.'  'Dear madam,' 
+replied Emily, 'can you suppose I would do either, unknown to you!'  
+'I don't know what to suppose; there is no knowing how young women 
+will act.  It is difficult to place any confidence in them, for they 
+have seldom sense enough to wish for the respect of the world.'
+
+'Alas, madam!' said Emily, 'I am anxious for my own respect; my 
+father taught me the value of that; he said if I deserved my own 
+esteem, that the world would follow of course.'
+
+'My brother was a good kind of a man,' replied Madame Cheron, 'but he 
+did not know the world.  I am sure I have always felt a proper 
+respect for myself, yet--'  she stopped, but she might have added, 
+that the world had not always shewn respect to her, and this without 
+impeaching its judgment.
+
+'Well!' resumed Madame Cheron, 'you have not give me the promise, 
+though, that I demand.'  Emily readily gave it, and, being then 
+suffered to withdraw, she walked in the garden; tried to compose her 
+spirits, and, at length, arrived at her favourite pavilion at the end 
+of the terrace, where, seating herself at one of the embowered 
+windows, that opened upon a balcony, the stillness and seclusion of 
+the scene allowed her to recollect her thoughts, and to arrange them 
+so as to form a clearer judgment of her former conduct.  She 
+endeavoured to review with exactness all the particulars of her 
+conversation with Valancourt at La Vallee, had the satisfaction to 
+observe nothing, that could alarm her delicate pride, and thus to be 
+confirmed in the self-esteem, which was so necessary to her peace.  
+Her mind then became tranquil, and she saw Valancourt amiable and 
+intelligent, as he had formerly appeared, and Madame Cheron neither 
+the one, or the other.  The remembrance of her lover, however, 
+brought with it many very painful emotions, for it by no means 
+reconciled her to the thought of resigning him; and, Madame Cheron 
+having already shewn how highly she disapproved of the attachment, 
+she foresaw much suffering from the opposition of interests; yet with 
+all this was mingled a degree of delight, which, in spite of reason, 
+partook of hope.  She determined, however, that no consideration 
+should induce her to permit a clandestine correspondence, and to 
+observe in her conversation with Valancourt, should they ever meet 
+again, the same nicety of reserve, which had hitherto marked her 
+conduct.  As she repeated the words--'should we ever meet again!' she 
+shrunk as if this was a circumstance, which had never before occurred 
+to her, and tears came to her eyes, which she hastily dried, for she 
+heard footsteps approaching, and then the door of the pavilion open, 
+and, on turning, she saw--Valancourt.  An emotion of mingled 
+pleasure, surprise and apprehension pressed so suddenly upon her 
+heart as almost to overcome her spirits; the colour left her cheeks, 
+then returned brighter than before, and she was for a moment unable 
+to speak, or to rise from her chair.  His countenance was the mirror, 
+in which she saw her own emotions reflected, and it roused her to 
+self-command.  The joy, which had animated his features, when he 
+entered the pavilion, was suddenly repressed, as, approaching, he 
+perceived her agitation, and, in a tremulous voice, enquired after 
+her health.  Recovered from her first surprise, she answered him with 
+a tempered smile; but a variety of opposite emotions still assailed 
+her heart, and struggled to subdue the mild dignity of her manner.  
+It was difficult to tell which predominated--the joy of seeing 
+Valancourt, or the terror of her aunt's displeasure, when she should 
+hear of this meeting.  After some short and embarrassed conversation, 
+she led him into the gardens, and enquired if he had seen Madame 
+Cheron.  'No,' said he, 'I have not yet seen her, for they told me 
+she was engaged, and as soon as I learned that you were in the 
+gardens, I came hither.'  He paused a moment, in great agitation, and 
+then added, 'May I venture to tell you the purport of my visit, 
+without incurring your displeasure, and to hope, that you will not 
+accuse me of precipitation in now availing myself of the permission 
+you once gave me of addressing your family?'  Emily, who knew not 
+what to reply, was spared from further perplexity, and was sensible 
+only of fear, when on raising her eyes, she saw Madame Cheron turn 
+into the avenue.  As the consciousness of innocence returned, this 
+fear was so far dissipated as to permit her to appear tranquil, and, 
+instead of avoiding her aunt, she advanced with Valancourt to meet 
+her.  The look of haughty and impatient displeasure, with which 
+Madame Cheron regarded them, made Emily shrink, who understood from a 
+single glance, that this meeting was believed to have been more than 
+accidental:  having mentioned Valancourt's name, she became again too 
+much agitated to remain with them, and returned into the chateau; 
+where she awaited long, in a state of trembling anxiety, the 
+conclusion of the conference.  She knew not how to account for 
+Valancourt's visit to her aunt, before he had received the permission 
+he solicited, since she was ignorant of a circumstance, which would 
+have rendered the request useless, even if Madame Cheron had been 
+inclined to grant it.  Valancourt, in the agitation of his spirits, 
+had forgotten to date his letter, so that it was impossible for 
+Madame Cheron to return an answer; and, when he recollected this 
+circumstance, he was, perhaps, not so sorry for the omission as glad 
+of the excuse it allowed him for waiting on her before she could send 
+a refusal.
+
+Madame Cheron had a long conversation with Valancourt, and, when she 
+returned to the chateau, her countenance expressed ill-humour, but 
+not the degree of severity, which Emily had apprehended.  'I have 
+dismissed this young man, at last,' said she, 'and I hope my house 
+will never again be disturbed with similar visits.  He assures me, 
+that your interview was not preconcerted.'
+
+'Dear madam!' said Emily in extreme emotion, 'you surely did not ask 
+him the question!'  'Most certainly I did; you could not suppose I 
+should be so imprudent as to neglect it.'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed Emily, 'what an opinion must he form of me, 
+since you, Madam, could express a suspicion of such ill conduct!'
+
+'It is of very little consequence what opinion he may form of you,' 
+replied her aunt, 'for I have put an end to the affair; but I believe 
+he will not form a worse opinion of me for my prudent conduct.  I let 
+him see, that I was not to be trifled with, and that I had more 
+delicacy, than to permit any clandestine correspondence to be carried 
+on in my house.'
+
+Emily had frequently heard Madame Cheron use the word delicacy, but 
+she was now more than usually perplexed to understand how she meant 
+to apply it in this instance, in which her whole conduct appeared to 
+merit the very reverse of the term.
+
+'It was very inconsiderate of my brother,' resumed Madame Cheron, 'to 
+leave the trouble of overlooking your conduct to me; I wish you was 
+well settled in life.  But if I find, that I am to be further 
+troubled with such visitors as this M. Valancourt, I shall place you 
+in a convent at once;--so remember the alternative.  This young man 
+has the impertinence to own to me,--he owns it! that his fortune is 
+very small, and that he is chiefly dependent on an elder brother and 
+on the profession he has chosen!  He should have concealed these 
+circumstances, at least, if he expected to succeed with me.  Had he 
+the presumption to suppose I would marry my niece to a person such as 
+he describes himself!'
+
+Emily dried her tears when she heard of the candid confession of 
+Valancourt; and, though the circumstances it discovered were 
+afflicting to her hopes, his artless conduct gave her a degree of 
+pleasure, that overcame every other emotion.  But she was compelled, 
+even thus early in life, to observe, that good sense and noble 
+integrity are not always sufficient to cope with folly and narrow 
+cunning; and her heart was pure enough to allow her, even at this 
+trying moment, to look with more pride on the defeat of the former, 
+than with mortification on the conquests of the latter.
+
+Madame Cheron pursued her triumph.  'He has also thought proper to 
+tell me, that he will receive his dismission from no person but 
+yourself; this favour, however, I have absolutely refused him.  He 
+shall learn, that it is quite sufficient, that I disapprove him.  And 
+I take this opportunity of repeating,--that if you concert any means 
+of interview unknown to me, you shall leave my house immediately.'
+
+'How little do you know me, madam, that you should think such an 
+injunction necessary!' said Emily, trying to suppress her emotion, 
+'how little of the dear parents, who educated me!'
+
+Madame Cheron now went to dress for an engagement, which she had made 
+for the evening; and Emily, who would gladly have been excused from 
+attending her aunt, did not ask to remain at home lest her request 
+should be attributed to an improper motive.  When she retired to her 
+own room, the little fortitude, which had supported her in the 
+presence of her relation, forsook her; she remembered only that 
+Valancourt, whose character appeared more amiable from every 
+circumstance, that unfolded it, was banished from her presence, 
+perhaps, for ever, and she passed the time in weeping, which, 
+according to her aunt's direction, she ought to have employed in 
+dressing.  This important duty was, however, quickly dispatched; 
+though, when she joined Madame Cheron at table, her eyes betrayed, 
+that she had been in tears, and drew upon her a severe reproof.
+
+Her efforts to appear cheerful did not entirely fail when she joined 
+the company at the house of Madame Clairval, an elderly widow lady, 
+who had lately come to reside at Tholouse, on an estate of her late 
+husband.  She had lived many years at Paris in a splendid style; had 
+naturally a gay temper, and, since her residence at Tholouse, had 
+given some of the most magnificent entertainments, that had been seen 
+in that neighbourhood.
+
+These excited not only the envy, but the trifling ambition of Madame 
+Cheron, who, since she could not rival the splendour of her 
+festivities, was desirous of being ranked in the number of her most 
+intimate friends.  For this purpose she paid her the most obsequious 
+attention, and made a point of being disengaged, whenever she 
+received an invitation from Madame Clairval, of whom she talked, 
+wherever she went, and derived much self-consequence from impressing 
+a belief on her general acquaintance, that they were on the most 
+familiar footing.
+
+The entertainments of this evening consisted of a ball and supper; it 
+was a fancy ball, and the company danced in groups in the gardens, 
+which were very extensive.  The high and luxuriant trees, under which 
+the groups assembled, were illuminated with a profusion of lamps, 
+disposed with taste and fancy.  The gay and various dresses of the 
+company, some of whom were seated on the turf, conversing at their 
+ease, observing the cotillons, taking refreshments, and sometimes 
+touching sportively a guitar; the gallant manners of the gentlemen, 
+the exquisitely capricious air of the ladies; the light fantastic 
+steps of their dances; the musicians, with the lute, the hautboy, and 
+the tabor, seated at the foot of an elm, and the sylvan scenery of 
+woods around were circumstances, that unitedly formed a 
+characteristic and striking picture of French festivity.  Emily 
+surveyed the gaiety of the scene with a melancholy kind of pleasure, 
+and her emotion may be imagined when, as she stood with her aunt, 
+looking at one of the groups, she perceived Valancourt; saw him 
+dancing with a young and beautiful lady, saw him conversing with her 
+with a mixture of attention and familiarity, such as she had seldom 
+observed in his manner.  She turned hastily from the scene, and 
+attempted to draw away Madame Cheron, who was conversing with Signor 
+Cavigni, and neither perceived Valancourt, or was willing to be 
+interrupted.  A faintness suddenly came over Emily, and, unable to 
+support herself, she sat down on a turf bank beneath the trees, where 
+several other persons were seated.  One of these, observing the 
+extreme paleness of her countenance, enquired if she was ill, and 
+begged she would allow him to fetch her a glass of water, for which 
+politeness she thanked him, but did not accept it.  Her apprehension 
+lest Valancourt should observe her emotion made her anxious to 
+overcome it, and she succeeded so far as to re-compose her 
+countenance.  Madame Cheron was still conversing with Cavigni; and 
+the Count Bauvillers, who had addressed Emily, made some observations 
+upon the scene, to which she answered almost unconsciously, for her 
+mind was still occupied with the idea of Valancourt, to whom it was 
+with extreme uneasiness that she remained so near.  Some remarks, 
+however, which the Count made upon the dance obliged her to turn her 
+eyes towards it, and, at that moment, Valancourt's met hers.  Her 
+colour faded again, she felt, that she was relapsing into faintness, 
+and instantly averted her looks, but not before she had observed the 
+altered countenance of Valancourt, on perceiving her.  She would have 
+left the spot immediately, had she not been conscious, that this 
+conduct would have shewn him more obviously the interest he held in 
+her heart; and, having tried to attend to the Count's conversation, 
+and to join in it, she, at length, recovered her spirits.  But, when 
+he made some observation on Valancourt's partner, the fear of shewing 
+that she was interested in the remark, would have betrayed it to him, 
+had not the Count, while he spoke, looked towards the person of whom 
+he was speaking.  'The lady,' said he, 'dancing with that young 
+Chevalier, who appears to be accomplished in every thing, but in 
+dancing, is ranked among the beauties of Tholouse.  She is handsome, 
+and her fortune will be very large.  I hope she will make a better 
+choice in a partner for life than she has done in a partner for the 
+dance, for I observe he has just put the set into great confusion; he 
+does nothing but commit blunders.  I am surprised, that, with his air 
+and figure, he has not taken more care to accomplish himself in 
+dancing.'
+
+Emily, whose heart trembled at every word, that was now uttered, 
+endeavoured to turn the conversation from Valancourt, by enquiring 
+the name of the lady, with whom he danced; but, before the Count 
+could reply, the dance concluded, and Emily, perceiving that 
+Valancourt was coming towards her, rose and joined Madame Cheron.
+
+'Here is the Chevalier Valancourt, madam,' said she in a whisper, 
+'pray let us go.'  Her aunt immediately moved on, but not before 
+Valancourt had reached them, who bowed lowly to Madame Cheron, and 
+with an earnest and dejected look to Emily, with whom, 
+notwithstanding all her effort, an air of more than common reserve 
+prevailed.  The presence of Madame Cheron prevented Valancourt from 
+remaining, and he passed on with a countenance, whose melancholy 
+reproached her for having increased it.  Emily was called from the 
+musing fit, into which she had fallen, by the Count Bauvillers, who 
+was known to her aunt.
+
+'I have your pardon to beg, ma'amselle,' said he, 'for a rudeness, 
+which you will readily believe was quite unintentional.  I did not 
+know, that the Chevalier was your acquaintance, when I so freely 
+criticised his dancing.'  Emily blushed and smiled, and Madame Cheron 
+spared her the difficulty of replying.  'If you mean the person, who 
+has just passed us,' said she, 'I can assure you he is no 
+acquaintance of either mine, or ma'amselle St. Aubert's:  I know 
+nothing of him.'
+
+'O! that is the Chevalier Valancourt,' said Cavigni carelessly, and 
+looking back.  'You know him then?' said Madame Cheron.  'I am not 
+acquainted with him,' replied Cavigni.  'You don't know, then, the 
+reason I have to call him impertinent;--he has had the presumption to 
+admire my niece!'
+
+'If every man deserves the title of impertinent, who admires 
+ma'amselle St. Aubert,' replied Cavigni, 'I fear there are a great 
+many impertinents, and I am willing to acknowledge myself one of the 
+number.'
+
+'O Signor!' said Madame Cheron, with an affected smile, 'I perceive 
+you have learnt the art of complimenting, since you came into France.  
+But it is cruel to compliment children, since they mistake flattery 
+for truth.'
+
+Cavigni turned away his face for a moment, and then said with a 
+studied air, 'Whom then are we to compliment, madam? for it would be 
+absurd to compliment a woman of refined understanding; SHE is above 
+all praise.'  As he finished the sentence he gave Emily a sly look, 
+and the smile, that had lurked in his eye, stole forth.  She 
+perfectly understood it, and blushed for Madame Cheron, who replied, 
+'You are perfectly right, signor, no woman of understanding can 
+endure compliment.'
+
+'I have heard Signor Montoni say,' rejoined Cavigni, 'that he never 
+knew but one woman who deserved it.'
+
+'Well!' exclaimed Madame Cheron, with a short laugh, and a smile of 
+unutterable complacency, 'and who could she be?'
+
+'O!' replied Cavigni, 'it is impossible to mistake her, for certainly 
+there is not more than one woman in the world, who has both the merit 
+to deserve compliment and the wit to refuse it.  Most women reverse 
+the case entirely.'  He looked again at Emily, who blushed deeper 
+than before for her aunt, and turned from him with displeasure.
+
+'Well, signor!' said Madame Cheron, 'I protest you are a Frenchman; I 
+never heard a foreigner say any thing half so gallant as that!'
+
+'True, madam,' said the Count, who had been some time silent, and 
+with a low bow, 'but the gallantry of the compliment had been utterly 
+lost, but for the ingenuity that discovered the application.'
+
+Madame Cheron did not perceive the meaning of this too satirical 
+sentence, and she, therefore, escaped the pain, which Emily felt on 
+her account.  'O! here comes Signor Montoni himself,' said her aunt, 
+'I protest I will tell him all the fine things you have been saying 
+to me.'  The Signor, however, passed at this moment into another 
+walk.  'Pray, who is it, that has so much engaged your friend this 
+evening?' asked Madame Cheron, with an air of chagrin, 'I have not 
+seen him once.'
+
+'He had a very particular engagement with the Marquis La Riviere,' 
+replied Cavigni, 'which has detained him, I perceive, till this 
+moment, or he would have done himself the honour of paying his 
+respects to you, madam, sooner, as he commissioned me to say.  But, I 
+know not how it is--your conversation is so fascinating--that it can 
+charm even memory, I think, or I should certainly have delivered my 
+friend's apology before.'
+
+'The apology, sir, would have been more satisfactory from himself,' 
+said Madame Cheron, whose vanity was more mortified by Montoni's 
+neglect, than flattered by Cavigni's compliment.  Her manner, at this 
+moment, and Cavigni's late conversation, now awakened a suspicion in 
+Emily's mind, which, notwithstanding that some recollections served 
+to confirm it, appeared preposterous.  She thought she perceived, 
+that Montoni was paying serious addresses to her aunt, and that she 
+not only accepted them, but was jealously watchful of any appearance 
+of neglect on his part.--That Madame Cheron at her years should elect 
+a second husband was ridiculous, though her vanity made it not 
+impossible; but that Montoni, with his discernment, his figure, and 
+pretensions, should make a choice of Madame Cheron--appeared most 
+wonderful.  Her thoughts, however, did not dwell long on the subject; 
+nearer interests pressed upon them; Valancourt, rejected of her aunt, 
+and Valancourt dancing with a gay and beautiful partner, alternately 
+tormented her mind.  As she passed along the gardens she looked 
+timidly forward, half fearing and half hoping that he might appear in 
+the crowd; and the disappointment she felt on not seeing him, told 
+her, that she had hoped more than she had feared.
+
+Montoni soon after joined the party.  He muttered over some short 
+speech about regret for having been so long detained elsewhere, when 
+he knew he should have the pleasure of seeing Madame Cheron here; and 
+she, receiving the apology with the air of a pettish girl, addressed 
+herself entirely to Cavigni, who looked archly at Montoni, as if he 
+would have said, 'I will not triumph over you too much; I will have 
+the goodness to bear my honours meekly; but look sharp, Signor, or I 
+shall certainly run away with your prize.'
+
+The supper was served in different pavilions in the gardens, as well 
+as in one large saloon of the chateau, and with more of taste, than 
+either of splendour, or even of plenty.  Madame Cheron and her party 
+supped with Madame Clairval in the saloon, and Emily, with 
+difficulty, disguised her emotion, when she saw Valancourt placed at 
+the same table with herself.  There, Madame Cheron having surveyed 
+him with high displeasure, said to some person who sat next to her, 
+'Pray, who IS that young man?'  'It is the Chevalier Valancourt,' was 
+the answer.  'Yes, I am not ignorant of his name, but who is this 
+Chevalier Valancourt that thus intrudes himself at this table?'  The 
+attention of the person, who whom she spoke, was called off before 
+she received a second reply.  The table, at which they sat, was very 
+long, and, Valancourt being seated, with his partner, near the 
+bottom, and Emily near the top, the distance between them may account 
+for his not immediately perceiving her.  She avoided looking to that 
+end of the table, but whenever her eyes happened to glance towards 
+it, she observed him conversing with his beautiful companion, and the 
+observation did not contribute to restore her peace, any more than 
+the accounts she heard of the fortune and accomplishments of this 
+same lady.
+
+Madame Cheron, to whom these remarks were sometimes addressed, 
+because they supported topics for trivial conversation, seemed 
+indefatigable in her attempts to depreciate Valancourt, towards whom 
+she felt all the petty resentment of a narrow pride.  'I admire the 
+lady,' said she, 'but I must condemn her choice of a partner.'  'Oh, 
+the Chevalier Valancourt is one of the most accomplished young men we 
+have,' replied the lady, to whom this remark was addressed:  'it is 
+whispered, that Mademoiselle D'Emery, and her large fortune, are to 
+be his.'
+
+'Impossible!' exclaimed Madame Cheron, reddening with vexation, 'it 
+is impossible that she can be so destitute of taste; he has so little 
+the air of a person of condition, that, if I did not see him at the 
+table of Madame Clairval, I should never have suspected him to be 
+one.  I have besides particular reasons for believing the report to 
+be erroneous.'
+
+'I cannot doubt the truth of it,' replied the lady gravely, disgusted 
+by the abrupt contradiction she had received, concerning her opinion 
+of Valancourt's merit.  'You will, perhaps, doubt it,' said Madame 
+Cheron, 'when I assure you, that it was only this morning that I 
+rejected his suit.'  This was said without any intention of imposing 
+the meaning it conveyed, but simply from a habit of considering 
+herself to be the most important person in every affair that 
+concerned her niece, and because literally she had rejected 
+Valancourt.  'Your reasons are indeed such as cannot be doubted,' 
+replied the lady, with an ironical smile.  'Any more than the 
+discernment of the Chevalier Valancourt,' added Cavigni, who stood by 
+the chair of Madame Cheron, and had heard her arrogate to herself, as 
+he thought, a distinction which had been paid to her niece.  'His 
+discernment MAY be justly questioned, Signor,' said Madame Cheron, 
+who was not flattered by what she understood to be an encomium on 
+Emily.
+
+'Alas!' exclaimed Cavigni, surveying Madame Cheron with affected 
+ecstasy, 'how vain is that assertion, while that face--that shape--
+that air--combine to refute it!  Unhappy Valancourt! his discernment 
+has been his destruction.'
+
+Emily looked surprised and embarrassed; the lady, who had lately 
+spoke, astonished, and Madame Cheron, who, though she did not 
+perfectly understand this speech, was very ready to believe herself 
+complimented by it, said smilingly, 'O Signor! you are very gallant; 
+but those, who hear you vindicate the Chevalier's discernment, will 
+suppose that I am the object of it.'
+
+'They cannot doubt it,' replied Cavigni, bowing low.
+
+'And would not that be very mortifying, Signor?'
+
+'Unquestionably it would,' said Cavigni.
+
+'I cannot endure the thought,' said Madame Cheron.
+
+'It is not to be endured,' replied Cavigni.
+
+'What can be done to prevent so humiliating a mistake?' rejoined 
+Madame Cheron.
+
+'Alas! I cannot assist you,' replied Cavigni, with a deliberating 
+air.  'Your only chance of refuting the calumny, and of making people 
+understand what you wish them to believe, is to persist in your first 
+assertion; for, when they are told of the Chevalier's want of 
+discernment, it is possible they may suppose he never presumed to 
+distress you with his admiration.--But then again--that diffidence, 
+which renders you so insensible to your own perfections--they will 
+consider this, and Valancourt's taste will not be doubted, though you 
+arraign it.  In short, they will, in spite of your endeavours, 
+continue to believe, what might very naturally have occurred to them 
+without any hint of mine--that the Chevalier has taste enough to 
+admire a beautiful woman.'
+
+'All this is very distressing!' said Madame Cheron, with a profound 
+sigh.
+
+'May I be allowed to ask what is so distressing?' said Madame 
+Clairval, who was struck with the rueful countenance and doleful 
+accent, with which this was delivered.
+
+'It is a delicate subject,' replied Madame Cheron, 'a very mortifying 
+one to me.'  'I am concerned to hear it,' said Madame Clairval, 'I 
+hope nothing has occurred, this evening, particularly to distress 
+you?'  'Alas, yes! within this half hour; and I know not where the 
+report may end;--my pride was never so shocked before, but I assure 
+you the report is totally void of foundation.'  'Good God!' exclaimed 
+Madame Clairval,' what can be done?  Can you point out any way, by 
+which I can assist, or console you?'
+
+'The only way, by which you can do either,' replied Madame Cheron, 
+'is to contradict the report wherever you go.'
+
+'Well! but pray inform me what I am to contradict.'
+
+'It is so very humiliating, that I know not how to mention it,' 
+continued Madame Cheron, 'but you shall judge.  Do you observe that 
+young man seated near the bottom of the table, who is conversing with 
+Mademoiselle D'Emery?'  'Yes, I perceive whom you mean.'  'You 
+observe how little he has the air of a person of condition; I was 
+saying just now, that I should not have thought him a gentleman, if I 
+had not seen him at this table.'  'Well! but the report,' said Madame 
+Clairval, 'let me understand the subject of your distress.'  'Ah! the 
+subject of my distress,' replied Madame Cheron; 'this person, whom 
+nobody knows--(I beg pardon, madam, I did not consider what I said)--
+this impertinent young man, having had the presumption to address my 
+niece, has, I fear, given rise to a report, that he had declared 
+himself my admirer.  Now only consider how very mortifying such a 
+report must be!  You, I know, will feel for my situation.  A woman of 
+my condition!--think how degrading even the rumour of such an 
+alliance must be.'
+
+'Degrading indeed, my poor friend!' said Madame Clairval.  'You may 
+rely upon it I will contradict the report wherever I go;' as she said 
+which, she turned her attention upon another part of the company; and 
+Cavigni, who had hitherto appeared a grave spectator of the scene, 
+now fearing he should be unable to smother the laugh, that convulsed 
+him, walked abruptly away.
+
+'I perceive you do not know,' said the lady who sat near Madame 
+Cheron, 'that the gentleman you have been speaking of is Madame 
+Clairval's nephew!'  'Impossible!' exclaimed Madame Cheron, who now 
+began to perceive, that she had been totally mistaken in her judgment 
+of Valancourt, and to praise him aloud with as much servility, as she 
+had before censured him with frivolous malignity.
+
+Emily, who, during the greater part of this conversation, had been so 
+absorbed in thought as to be spared the pain of hearing it, was now 
+extremely surprised by her aunt's praise of Valancourt, with whose 
+relationship to Madame Clairval she was unacquainted; but she was not 
+sorry when Madame Cheron, who, though she now tried to appear 
+unconcerned, was really much embarrassed, prepared to withdraw 
+immediately after supper.  Montoni then came to hand Madame Cheron to 
+her carriage, and Cavigni, with an arch solemnity of countenance, 
+followed with Emily, who, as she wished them good night, and drew up 
+the glass, saw Valancourt among the crowd at the gates.  Before the 
+carriage drove off, he disappeared.  Madame Cheron forbore to mention 
+him to Emily, and, as soon as they reached the chateau, they 
+separated for the night.
+
+On the following morning, as Emily sat at breakfast with her aunt, a 
+letter was brought to her, of which she knew the handwriting upon the 
+cover; and, as she received it with a trembling hand, Madame Cheron 
+hastily enquired from whom it came.  Emily, with her leave, broke the 
+seal, and, observing the signature of Valancourt, gave it unread to 
+her aunt, who received it with impatience; and, as she looked it 
+over, Emily endeavoured to read on her countenance its contents.  
+Having returned the letter to her niece, whose eyes asked if she 
+might examine it, 'Yes, read it, child,' said Madame Cheron, in a 
+manner less severe than she had expected, and Emily had, perhaps, 
+never before so willingly obeyed her aunt.  In this letter Valancourt 
+said little of the interview of the preceding day, but concluded with 
+declaring, that he would accept his dismission from Emily only, and 
+with entreating, that she would allow him to wait upon her, on the 
+approaching evening.  When she read this, she was astonished at the 
+moderation of Madame Cheron, and looked at her with timid 
+expectation, as she said sorrowfully--'What am I to say, madam?'
+
+'Why--we must see the young man, I believe,' replied her aunt, 'and 
+hear what he has further to say for himself.  You may tell him he may 
+come.'  Emily dared scarcely credit what she heard.  'Yet, stay,' 
+added Madame Cheron, 'I will tell him so myself.'  She called for pen 
+and ink; Emily still not daring to trust the emotions she felt, and 
+almost sinking beneath them.  Her surprise would have been less had 
+she overheard, on the preceding evening, what Madame Cheron had not 
+forgotten--that Valancourt was the nephew of Madame Clairval.
+
+What were the particulars of her aunt's note Emily did not learn, but 
+the result was a visit from Valancourt in the evening, whom Madame 
+Cheron received alone, and they had a long conversation before Emily 
+was called down.  When she entered the room, her aunt was conversing 
+with complacency, and she saw the eyes of Valancourt, as he 
+impatiently rose, animated with hope.
+
+'We have been talking over this affair,' said Madame Cheron, 'the 
+chevalier has been telling me, that the late Monsieur Clairval was 
+the brother of the Countess de Duvarney, his mother.  I only wish he 
+had mentioned his relationship to Madame Clairval before; I certainly 
+should have considered that circumstance as a sufficient introduction 
+to my house.'  Valancourt bowed, and was going to address Emily, but 
+her aunt prevented him.  'I have, therefore, consented that you shall 
+receive his visits; and, though I will not bind myself by any 
+promise, or say, that I shall consider him as my nephew, yet I shall 
+permit the intercourse, and shall look forward to any further 
+connection as an event, which may possibly take place in a course of 
+years, provided the chevalier rises in his profession, or any 
+circumstance occurs, which may make it prudent for him to take a 
+wife.  But Mons. Valancourt will observe, and you too, Emily, that, 
+till that happens, I positively forbid any thoughts of marrying.'
+
+Emily's countenance, during this coarse speech, varied every instant, 
+and, towards its conclusion, her distress had so much increased, that 
+she was on the point of leaving the room.  Valancourt, meanwhile, 
+scarcely less embarrassed, did not dare to look at her, for whom he 
+was thus distressed; but, when Madame Cheron was silent, he said, 
+'Flattering, madam, as your approbation is to me--highly as I am 
+honoured by it--I have yet so much to fear, that I scarcely dare to 
+hope.'  'Pray, sir, explain yourself,' said Madame Cheron; an 
+unexpected requisition, which embarrassed Valancourt again, and 
+almost overcame him with confusion, at circumstances, on which, had 
+he been only a spectator of the scene, he would have smiled.
+
+'Till I receive Mademoiselle St. Aubert's permission to accept your 
+indulgence,' said he, falteringly--'till she allows me to hope--'
+
+'O! is that all?' interrupted Madame Cheron.  'Well, I will take upon 
+me to answer for her.  But at the same time, sir, give me leave to 
+observe to you, that I am her guardian, and that I expect, in every 
+instance, that my will is hers.'
+
+As she said this, she rose and quitted the room, leaving Emily and 
+Valancourt in a state of mutual embarrassment; and, when Valancourt's 
+hopes enabled him to overcome his fears, and to address her with the 
+zeal and sincerity so natural to him, it was a considerable time 
+before she was sufficiently recovered to hear with distinctness his 
+solicitations and inquiries.
+
+The conduct of Madame Cheron in this affair had been entirely 
+governed by selfish vanity.  Valancourt, in his first interview, had 
+with great candour laid open to her the true state of his present 
+circumstances, and his future expectancies, and she, with more 
+prudence than humanity, had absolutely and abruptly rejected his 
+suit.  She wished her niece to marry ambitiously, not because she 
+desired to see her in possession of the happiness, which rank and 
+wealth are usually believed to bestow, but because she desired to 
+partake the importance, which such an alliance would give.  When, 
+therefore, she discovered that Valancourt was the nephew of a person 
+of so much consequence as Madame Clairval, she became anxious for the 
+connection, since the prospect it afforded of future fortune and 
+distinction for Emily, promised the exaltation she coveted for 
+herself.  Her calculations concerning fortune in this alliance were 
+guided rather by her wishes, than by any hint of Valancourt, or 
+strong appearance of probability; and, when she rested her 
+expectation on the wealth of Madame Clairval, she seemed totally to 
+have forgotten, that the latter had a daughter.  Valancourt, however, 
+had not forgotten this circumstance, and the consideration of it had 
+made him so modest in his expectations from Madame Clairval, that he 
+had not even named the relationship in his first conversation with 
+Madame Cheron.  But, whatever might be the future fortune of Emily, 
+the present distinction, which the connection would afford for 
+herself, was certain, since the splendour of Madame Clairval's 
+establishment was such as to excite the general envy and partial 
+imitation of the neighbourhood.  Thus had she consented to involve 
+her niece in an engagement, to which she saw only a distant and 
+uncertain conclusion, with as little consideration of her happiness, 
+as when she had so precipitately forbade it:  for though she herself 
+possessed the means of rendering this union not only certain, but 
+prudent, yet to do so was no part of her present intention. 
+
+From this period Valancourt made frequent visits to Madame Cheron, 
+and Emily passed in his society the happiest hours she had known 
+since the death of her father.  They were both too much engaged by 
+the present moments to give serious consideration to the future.  
+They loved and were beloved, and saw not, that the very attachment, 
+which formed the delight of their present days, might possibly 
+occasion the sufferings of years.  Meanwhile, Madame Cheron's 
+intercourse with Madame Clairval became more frequent than before, 
+and her vanity was already gratified by the opportunity of 
+proclaiming, wherever she went, the attachment that subsisted between 
+their nephew and niece.
+
+Montoni was now also become a daily guest at the chateau, and Emily 
+was compelled to observe, that he really was a suitor, and a favoured 
+suitor, to her aunt.
+
+Thus passed the winter months, not only in peace, but in happiness, 
+to Valancourt and Emily; the station of his regiment being so near 
+Tholouse, as to allow this frequent intercourse.  The pavilion on the 
+terrace was the favourite scene of their interviews, and there Emily, 
+with Madame Cheron, would work, while Valancourt read aloud works of 
+genius and taste, listened to her enthusiasm, expressed his own, and 
+caught new opportunities of observing, that their minds were formed 
+to constitute the happiness of each other, the same taste, the same 
+noble and benevolent sentiments animating each.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+  As when a shepherd of the Hebrid-Isles,
+  Placed far amid the melancholy main,
+  (Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles,
+  Or that aerial beings sometimes deign
+  To stand embodied to our senses plain)
+  Sees on the naked hill, or valley low,
+  The whilst in ocean Phoebus dips his wain,
+  A vast assembly moving to and fro,
+ Then all at once in air dissolves the wondrous show.
+     CASTLE OF INDOLENCE
+
+Madame Cheron's avarice at length yielded to her vanity.  Some very 
+splendid entertainments, which Madame Clairval had given, and the 
+general adulation, which was paid her, made the former more anxious 
+than before to secure an alliance, that would so much exalt her in 
+her own opinion and in that of the world.  She proposed terms for the 
+immediate marriage of her niece, and offered to give Emily a dower, 
+provided Madame Clairval observed equal terms, on the part of her 
+nephew.  Madame Clairval listened to the proposal, and, considering 
+that Emily was the apparent heiress of her aunt's wealth, accepted 
+it.  Meanwhile, Emily knew nothing of the transaction, till Madame 
+Cheron informed her, that she must make preparation for the nuptials, 
+which would be celebrated without further delay; then, astonished and 
+wholly unable to account for this sudden conclusion, which Valancourt 
+had not solicited (for he was ignorant of what had passed between the 
+elder ladies, and had not dared to hope such good fortune), she 
+decisively objected to it.  Madame Cheron, however, quite as jealous 
+of contradiction now, as she had been formerly, contended for a 
+speedy marriage with as much vehemence as she had formerly opposed 
+whatever had the most remote possibility of leading to it; and 
+Emily's scruples disappeared, when she again saw Valancourt, who was 
+now informed of the happiness, designed for him, and came to claim a 
+promise of it from herself.
+
+While preparations were making for these nuptials, Montoni became the 
+acknowledged lover of Madame Cheron; and, though Madame Clairval was 
+much displeased, when she heard of the approaching connection, and 
+was willing to prevent that of Valancourt with Emily, her conscience 
+told her, that she had no right thus to trifle with their peace, and 
+Madame Clairval, though a woman of fashion, was far less advanced 
+than her friend in the art of deriving satisfaction from distinction 
+and admiration, rather than from conscience.
+
+Emily observed with concern the ascendancy, which Montoni had 
+acquired over Madame Cheron, as well as the increasing frequency of 
+his visits; and her own opinion of this Italian was confirmed by that 
+of Valancourt, who had always expressed a dislike of him.  As she 
+was, one morning, sitting at work in the pavilion, enjoying the 
+pleasant freshness of spring, whose colours were now spread upon the 
+landscape, and listening to Valancourt, who was reading, but who 
+often laid aside the book to converse, she received a summons to 
+attend Madame Cheron immediately, and had scarcely entered the 
+dressing-room, when she observed with surprise the dejection of her 
+aunt's countenance, and the contrasted gaiety of her dress.  'So, 
+niece!'--said Madame, and she stopped under some degree of 
+embarrassment.--'I sent for you--I--I wished to see you; I have news 
+to tell you.  From this hour you must consider the Signor Montoni as 
+your uncle--we were married this morning.'
+
+Astonished--not so much at the marriage, as at the secrecy with which 
+it had been concluded, and the agitation with which it was announced, 
+Emily, at length, attributed the privacy to the wish of Montoni, 
+rather than of her aunt.  His wife, however, intended, that the 
+contrary should be believed, and therefore added, 'you see I wished 
+to avoid a bustle; but now the ceremony is over I shall do so no 
+longer; and I wish to announce to my servants that they must receive 
+the Signor Montoni for their master.'  Emily made a feeble attempt to 
+congratulate her on these apparently imprudent nuptials.  'I shall 
+now celebrate my marriage with some splendour,' continued Madame 
+Montoni, 'and to save time I shall avail myself of the preparation 
+that has been made for yours, which will, of course, be delayed a 
+little while.  Such of your wedding clothes as are ready I shall 
+expect you will appear in, to do honour to this festival.  I also 
+wish you to inform Monsieur Valancourt, that I have changed my name, 
+and he will acquaint Madame Clairval.  In a few days I shall give a 
+grand entertainment, at which I shall request their presence.'
+
+Emily was so lost in surprise and various thought, that she made 
+Madame Montoni scarcely any reply, but, at her desire, she returned 
+to inform Valancourt of what had passed.  Surprise was not his 
+predominant emotion on hearing of these hasty nuptials; and, when he 
+learned, that they were to be the means of delaying his own, and that 
+the very ornaments of the chateau, which had been prepared to grace 
+the nuptial day of his Emily, were to be degraded to the celebration 
+of Madame Montoni's, grief and indignation agitated him alternately.  
+He could conceal neither from the observation of Emily, whose efforts 
+to abstract him from these serious emotions, and to laugh at the 
+apprehensive considerations, that assailed him, were ineffectual; 
+and, when, at length, he took leave, there was an earnest tenderness 
+in his manner, that extremely affected her; she even shed tears, when 
+he disappeared at the end of the terrace, yet knew not exactly why 
+she should do so.
+
+Montoni now took possession of the chateau, and the command of its 
+inhabitants, with the ease of a man, who had long considered it to be 
+his own.  His friend Cavigni, who had been extremely serviceable, in 
+having paid Madame Cheron the attention and flattery, which she 
+required, but from which Montoni too often revolted, had apartments 
+assigned to him, and received from the domestics an equal degree of 
+obedience with the master of the mansion.
+
+Within a few days, Madame Montoni, as she had promised, gave a 
+magnificent entertainment to a very numerous company, among whom was 
+Valancourt; but at which Madame Clairval excused herself from 
+attending.  There was a concert, ball and supper.  Valancourt was, of 
+course, Emily's partner, and though, when he gave a look to the 
+decorations of the apartments, he could not but remember, that they 
+were designed for other festivities, than those they now contributed 
+to celebrate, he endeavoured to check his concern by considering, 
+that a little while only would elapse before they would be given to 
+their original destination.  During this evening, Madame Montoni 
+danced, laughed and talked incessantly; while Montoni, silent, 
+reserved and somewhat haughty, seemed weary of the parade, and of the 
+frivolous company it had drawn together.
+
+This was the first and the last entertainment, given in celebration 
+of their nuptials.  Montoni, though the severity of his temper and 
+the gloominess of his pride prevented him from enjoying such 
+festivities, was extremely willing to promote them.  It was seldom, 
+that he could meet in any company a man of more address, and still 
+seldomer one of more understanding, than himself; the balance of 
+advantage in such parties, or in the connections, which might arise 
+from them, must, therefore, be on his side; and, knowing, as he did, 
+the selfish purposes, for which they are generally frequented, he had 
+no objection to measure his talents of dissimulation with those of 
+any other competitor for distinction and plunder.  But his wife, who, 
+when her own interest was immediately concerned, had sometimes more 
+discernment than vanity, acquired a consciousness of her inferiority 
+to other women, in personal attractions, which, uniting with the 
+jealousy natural to the discovery, counteracted his readiness for 
+mingling with all the parties Tholouse could afford.  Till she had, 
+as she supposed, the affections of an husband to lose, she had no 
+motive for discovering the unwelcome truth, and it had never obtruded 
+itself upon her; but, now that it influenced her policy, she opposed 
+her husband's inclination for company, with the more eagerness, 
+because she believed him to be really as well received in the female 
+society of the place, as, during his addresses to her, he had 
+affected to be.
+
+A few weeks only had elapsed, since the marriage, when Madame Montoni 
+informed Emily, that the Signor intended to return to Italy, as soon 
+as the necessary preparation could be made for so long a journey.  
+'We shall go to Venice,' said she, 'where the Signor has a fine 
+mansion, and from thence to his estate in Tuscany.  Why do you look 
+so grave, child?--You, who are so fond of a romantic country and fine 
+views, will doubtless be delighted with this journey.'
+
+'Am I then to be of the party, madam?' said Emily, with extreme 
+surprise and emotion.  'Most certainly,' replied her aunt, 'how could 
+you imagine we should leave you behind?  But I see you are thinking 
+of the Chevalier; he is not yet, I believe, informed of the journey, 
+but he very soon will be so.  Signor Montoni is gone to acquaint 
+Madame Clairval of our journey, and to say, that the proposed 
+connection between the families must from this time be thought of no 
+more.'
+
+The unfeeling manner, in which Madame Montoni thus informed her 
+niece, that she must be separated, perhaps for ever, from the man, 
+with whom she was on the point of being united for life, added to the 
+dismay, which she must otherwise have suffered at such intelligence.  
+When she could speak, she asked the cause of the sudden change in 
+Madame's sentiments towards Valancourt, but the only reply she could 
+obtain was, that the Signor had forbade the connection, considering 
+it to be greatly inferior to what Emily might reasonably expect.
+
+'I now leave the affair entirely to the Signor,' added Madame 
+Montoni, 'but I must say, that M. Valancourt never was a favourite 
+with me, and I was overpersuaded, or I should not have given my 
+consent to the connection.  I was weak enough--I am so foolish 
+sometimes!--to suffer other people's uneasiness to affect me, and so 
+my better judgment yielded to your affliction.  But the Signor has 
+very properly pointed out the folly of this, and he shall not have to 
+reprove me a second time.  I am determined, that you shall submit to 
+those, who know how to guide you better than yourself--I am 
+determined, that you shall be conformable.'
+
+Emily would have been astonished at the assertions of this eloquent 
+speech, had not her mind been so overwhelmed by the sudden shock it 
+had received, that she scarcely heard a word of what was latterly 
+addressed to her.  Whatever were the weaknesses of Madame Montoni, 
+she might have avoided to accuse herself with those of compassion and 
+tenderness to the feelings of others, and especially to those of 
+Emily.  It was the same ambition, that lately prevailed upon her to 
+solicit an alliance with Madame Clairval's family, which induced her 
+to withdraw from it, now that her marriage with Montoni had exalted 
+her self-consequence, and, with it, her views for her niece.
+
+Emily was, at this time, too much affected to employ either 
+remonstrance, or entreaty on this topic; and when, at length, she 
+attempted the latter, her emotion overcame her speech, and she 
+retired to her apartment, to think, if in the present state of her 
+mind to think was possible, upon this sudden and overwhelming 
+subject.  It was very long, before her spirits were sufficiently 
+composed to permit the reflection, which, when it came, was dark and 
+even terrible.  She saw, that Montoni sought to aggrandise himself in 
+his disposal of her, and it occurred, that his friend Cavigni was the 
+person, for whom he was interested.  The prospect of going to Italy 
+was still rendered darker, when she considered the tumultuous 
+situation of that country, then torn by civil commotion, where every 
+petty state was at war with its neighbour, and even every castle 
+liable to the attack of an invader.  She considered the person, to 
+whose immediate guidance she would be committed, and the vast 
+distance, that was to separate her from Valancourt, and, at the 
+recollection of him, every other image vanished from her mind, and 
+every thought was again obscured by grief.
+
+In this perturbed state she passed some hours, and, when she was 
+summoned to dinner, she entreated permission to remain in her own 
+apartment; but Madame Montoni was alone, and the request was refused.  
+Emily and her aunt said little during the repast; the one occupied by 
+her griefs, the other engrossed by the disappointment, which the 
+unexpected absence of Montoni occasioned; for not only was her vanity 
+piqued by the neglect, but her jealousy alarmed by what she 
+considered as a mysterious engagement.  When the cloth was drawn and 
+they were alone, Emily renewed the mention of Valancourt; but her 
+aunt, neither softened to pity, or awakened to remorse, became 
+enraged, that her will should be opposed, and the authority of 
+Montoni questioned, though this was done by Emily with her usual 
+gentleness, who, after a long, and torturing conversation, retired in 
+tears.
+
+As she crossed the hall, a person entered it by the great door, whom, 
+as her eyes hastily glanced that way, she imagined to be Montoni, and 
+she was passing on with quicker steps, when she heard the well-known 
+voice of Valancourt.
+
+'Emily, O! my Emily!' cried he in a tone faltering with impatience, 
+while she turned, and, as he advanced, was alarmed at the expression 
+of his countenance and the eager desperation of his air.  'In tears, 
+Emily!  I would speak with you,' said he, 'I have much to say; 
+conduct me to where we may converse.  But you tremble--you are ill!  
+Let me lead you to a seat.'
+
+He observed the open door of an apartment, and hastily took her hand 
+to lead her thither; but she attempted to withdraw it, and said, with 
+a languid smile, 'I am better already; if you wish to see my aunt she 
+is in the dining-parlour.'  'I must speak with YOU, my Emily,' 
+replied Valancourt, 'Good God! is it already come to this?  Are you 
+indeed so willing to resign me?'  But this is an improper place--I am 
+overheard.  Let me entreat your attention, if only for a few 
+minutes.'--'When you have seen my aunt,' said Emily.  'I was wretched 
+enough when I came hither,' exclaimed Valancourt, 'do not increase my 
+misery by this coldness--this cruel refusal.'
+
+The despondency, with which he spoke this, affected her almost to 
+tears, but she persisted in refusing to hear him, till he had 
+conversed with Madame Montoni.  'Where is her husband, where, then, 
+is Montoni?' said Valancourt, in an altered tone:  'it is he, to whom 
+I must speak.'
+
+Emily, terrified for the consequence of the indignation, that flashed 
+in his eyes, tremblingly assured him, that Montoni was not at home, 
+and entreated he would endeavour to moderate his resentment.  At the 
+tremulous accents of her voice, his eyes softened instantly from 
+wildness into tenderness.  'You are ill, Emily,' said he, 'they will 
+destroy us both!  Forgive me, that I dared to doubt your affection.'
+
+Emily no longer opposed him, as he led her into an adjoining parlour; 
+the manner, in which he had named Montoni, had so much alarmed her 
+for his own safety, that she was now only anxious to prevent the 
+consequences of his just resentment.  He listened to her entreaties, 
+with attention, but replied to them only with looks of despondency 
+and tenderness, concealing, as much as possible, the sentiments he 
+felt towards Montoni, that he might soothe the apprehensions, which 
+distressed her.  But she saw the veil he had spread over his 
+resentment, and, his assumed tranquillity only alarming her more, she 
+urged, at length, the impolicy of forcing an interview with Montoni, 
+and of taking any measure, which might render their separation 
+irremediable.  Valancourt yielded to these remonstrances, and her 
+affecting entreaties drew from him a promise, that, however Montoni 
+might persist in his design of disuniting them, he would not seek to 
+redress his wrongs by violence.  'For my sake,' said Emily, 'let the 
+consideration of what I should suffer deter you from such a mode of 
+revenge!'  'For your sake, Emily,' replied Valancourt, his eyes 
+filling with tears of tenderness and grief, while he gazed upon her.  
+'Yes--yes--I shall subdue myself.  But, though I have given you my 
+solemn promise to do this, do not expect, that I can tamely submit to 
+the authority of Montoni; if I could, I should be unworthy of you.  
+Yet, O Emily! how long may he condemn me to live without you,--how 
+long may it be before you return to France!'
+
+Emily endeavoured to sooth him with assurances of her unalterable 
+affection, and by representing, that, in little more than a year, she 
+should be her own mistress, as far as related to her aunt, from whose 
+guardianship her age would then release her; assurances, which gave 
+little consolation to Valancourt, who considered, that she would then 
+be in Italy and in the power of those, whose dominion over her would 
+not cease with their rights; but he affected to be consoled by them.  
+Emily, comforted by the promise she had obtained, and by his apparent 
+composure, was about to leave him, when her aunt entered the room.  
+She threw a glance of sharp reproof upon her niece, who immediately 
+withdrew, and of haughty displeasure upon Valancourt.
+
+'This is not the conduct I should have expected from you, sir;' said 
+she, 'I did not expect to see you in my house, after you had been 
+informed, that your visits were no longer agreeable, much less, that 
+you would seek a clandestine interview with my niece, and that she 
+would grant one.'
+
+Valancourt, perceiving it necessary to vindicate Emily from such a 
+design, explained, that the purpose of his own visit had been to 
+request an interview with Montoni, and he then entered upon the 
+subject of it, with the tempered spirit which the sex, rather than 
+the respectability, of Madame Montoni, demanded.
+
+His expostulations were answered with severe rebuke; she lamented 
+again, that her prudence had ever yielded to what she termed 
+compassion, and added, that she was so sensible of the folly of her 
+former consent, that, to prevent the possibility of a repetition, she 
+had committed the affair entirely to the conduct of Signor Montoni.
+
+The feeling eloquence of Valancourt, however, at length, made her 
+sensible in some measure of her unworthy conduct, and she became 
+susceptible to shame, but not remorse:  she hated Valancourt, who 
+awakened her to this painful sensation, and, in proportion as she 
+grew dissatisfied with herself, her abhorrence of him increased.  
+This was also the more inveterate, because his tempered words and 
+manner were such as, without accusing her, compelled her to accuse 
+herself, and neither left her a hope, that the odious portrait was 
+the caricature of his prejudice, or afforded her an excuse for 
+expressing the violent resentment, with which she contemplated it.  
+At length, her anger rose to such an height, that Valancourt was 
+compelled to leave the house abruptly, lest he should forfeit his own 
+esteem by an intemperate reply.  He was then convinced, that from 
+Madame Montoni he had nothing to hope, for what of either pity, or 
+justice could be expected from a person, who could feel the pain of 
+guilt, without the humility of repentance?
+
+To Montoni he looked with equal despondency, since it was nearly 
+evident, that this plan of separation originated with him, and it was 
+not probable, that he would relinquish his own views to entreaties, 
+or remonstrances, which he must have foreseen and have been prepared 
+to resist.  Yet, remembering his promise to Emily, and more 
+solicitous, concerning his love, than jealous of his consequence, 
+Valancourt was careful to do nothing that might unnecessarily 
+irritate Montoni,  he wrote to him, therefore, not to demand an 
+interview, but to solicit one, and, having done this, he endeavoured 
+to wait with calmness his reply.
+
+Madame Clairval was passive in the affair.  When she gave her 
+approbation to Valancourt's marriage, it was in the belief, that 
+Emily would be the heiress of Madame Montoni's fortune; and, though, 
+upon the nuptials of the latter, when she perceived the fallacy of 
+this expectation, her conscience had withheld her from adopting any 
+measure to prevent the union, her benevolence was not sufficiently 
+active to impel her towards any step, that might now promote it.  She 
+was, on the contrary, secretly pleased, that Valancourt was released 
+from an engagement, which she considered to be as inferior, in point 
+of fortune, to his merit, as his alliance was thought by Montoni to 
+be humiliating to the beauty of Emily; and, though her pride was 
+wounded by this rejection of a member of her family, she disdained to 
+shew resentment otherwise, than by silence.
+
+Montoni, in his reply to Valancourt, said, that as an interview could 
+neither remove the objections of the one, or overcome the wishes of 
+the other, it would serve only to produce useless altercation between 
+them.  He, therefore, thought proper to refuse it.
+
+In consideration of the policy, suggested by Emily, and of his 
+promise to her, Valancourt restrained the impulse, that urged him to 
+the house of Montoni, to demand what had been denied to his 
+entreaties.  He only repeated his solicitations to see him; seconding 
+them with all the arguments his situation could suggest.  Thus 
+several days passed, in remonstrance, on one side, and inflexible 
+denial, on the other; for, whether it was fear, or shame, or the 
+hatred, which results from both, that made Montoni shun the man he 
+had injured, he was peremptory in his refusal, and was neither 
+softened to pity by the agony, which Valancourt's letters pourtrayed, 
+or awakened to a repentance of his own injustice by the strong 
+remonstrances he employed.  At length, Valancourt's letters were 
+returned unopened, and then, in the first moments of passionate 
+despair, he forgot every promise to Emily, except the solemn one, 
+which bound him to avoid violence, and hastened to Montoni's chateau, 
+determined to see him by whatever other means might be necessary.  
+Montoni was denied, and Valancourt, when he afterwards enquired for 
+Madame, and Ma'amselle St. Aubert, was absolutely refused admittance 
+by the servants.  Not choosing to submit himself to a contest with 
+these, he, at length, departed, and, returning home in a state of 
+mind approaching to frenzy, wrote to Emily of what had passed, 
+expressed without restraint all the agony of his heart, and 
+entreated, that, since he must not otherwise hope to see her 
+immediately, she would allow him an interview unknown to Montoni.  
+Soon after he had dispatched this, his passions becoming more 
+temperate, he was sensible of the error he had committed in having 
+given Emily a new subject of distress in the strong mention of his 
+own suffering, and would have given half the world, had it been his, 
+to recover the letter.  Emily, however, was spared the pain she must 
+have received from it by the suspicious policy of Madame Montoni, who 
+had ordered, that all letters, addressed to her niece, should be 
+delivered to herself, and who, after having perused this and indulged 
+the expressions of resentment, which Valancourt's mention of Montoni 
+provoked, had consigned it to the flames.
+
+Montoni, meanwhile, every day more impatient to leave France, gave 
+repeated orders for dispatch to the servants employed in preparations 
+for the journey, and to the persons, with whom he was transacting 
+some particular business.  He preserved a steady silence to the 
+letters in which Valancourt, despairing of greater good, and having 
+subdued the passion, that had transgressed against his policy, 
+solicited only the indulgence of being allowed to bid Emily farewell.  
+But, when the latter [Valancourt] learned, that she was really to set 
+out in a very few days, and that it was designed he should see her no 
+more, forgetting every consideration of prudence, he dared, in a 
+second letter to Emily, to propose a clandestine marriage.  This also 
+was transmitted to Madame Montoni, and the last day of Emily's stay 
+at Tholouse arrived, without affording Valancourt even a line to 
+sooth his sufferings, or a hope, that he should be allowed a parting 
+interview.
+
+During this period of torturing suspense to Valancourt, Emily was 
+sunk into that kind of stupor, with which sudden and irremediable 
+misfortune sometimes overwhelms the mind.  Loving him with the 
+tenderest affection, and having long been accustomed to consider him 
+as the friend and companion of all her future days, she had no ideas 
+of happiness, that were not connected with him.  What, then, must 
+have been her suffering, when thus suddenly they were to be 
+separated, perhaps, for ever, certainly to be thrown into distant 
+parts of the world, where they could scarcely hear of each other's 
+existence; and all this in obedience to the will of a stranger, for 
+such as Montoni, and of a person, who had but lately been anxious to 
+hasten their nuptials!  It was in vain, that she endeavoured to 
+subdue her grief, and resign herself to an event, which she could not 
+avoid.  The silence of Valancourt afflicted more than it surprised 
+her, since she attributed it to its just occasion; but, when the day, 
+preceding that, on which she was to quit Tholouse, arrived, and she 
+had heard no mention of his being permitted to take leave of her, 
+grief overcame every consideration, that had made her reluctant to 
+speak of him, and she enquired of Madame Montoni, whether this 
+consolation had been refused.  Her aunt informed her that it had, 
+adding, that, after the provocation she had herself received from 
+Valancourt, in their last interview, and the persecution, which the 
+Signor had suffered from his letters, no entreaties should avail to 
+procure it.
+
+'If the Chevalier expected this favour from us,' said she, 'he should 
+have conducted himself in a very different manner; he should have 
+waited patiently, till he knew whether we were disposed to grant it, 
+and not have come and reproved me, because I did not think proper to 
+bestow my niece upon him,--and then have persisted in troubling the 
+Signor, because he did not think proper to enter into any dispute 
+about so childish an affair.  His behaviour throughout has been 
+extremely presumptuous and impertinent, and I desire, that I may 
+never hear his name repeated, and that you will get the better of 
+those foolish sorrows and whims, and look like other people, and not 
+appear with that dismal countenance, as if you were ready to cry.  
+For, though you say nothing, you cannot conceal your grief from my 
+penetration.  I can see you are ready to cry at this moment, though I 
+am reproving you for it; aye, even now, in spite of my commands.'
+
+Emily, having turned away to hide her tears, quitted the room to 
+indulge them, and the day was passed in an intensity of anguish, such 
+as she had, perhaps, never known before.  When she withdrew to her 
+chamber for the night, she remained in the chair where she had placed 
+herself, on entering the room, absorbed in her grief, till long after 
+every member of the family, except herself, was retired to rest.  She 
+could not divest herself of a belief, that she had parted with 
+Valancourt to meet no more; a belief, which did not arise merely from 
+foreseen circumstances, for, though the length of the journey she was 
+about to commence, the uncertainty as to the period of her return, 
+together with the prohibitions she had received, seemed to justify 
+it, she yielded also to an impression, which she mistook for a pre-
+sentiment, that she was going from Valancourt for ever.  How dreadful 
+to her imagination, too, was the distance that would separate them--
+the Alps, those tremendous barriers! would rise, and whole countries 
+extend between the regions where each must exist!  To live in 
+adjoining provinces, to live even in the same country, though without 
+seeing him, was comparative happiness to the conviction of this 
+dreadful length of distance.
+
+Her mind was, at length, so much agitated by the consideration of her 
+state, and the belief, that she had seen Valancourt for the last 
+time, that she suddenly became very faint, and, looking round the 
+chamber for something, that might revive her, she observed the 
+casements, and had just strength to throw one open, near which she 
+seated herself.  The air recalled her spirits, and the still moon-
+light, that fell upon the elms of a long avenue, fronting the window, 
+somewhat soothed them, and determined her to try whether exercise and 
+the open air would not relieve the intense pain that bound her 
+temples.  In the chateau all was still; and, passing down the great 
+stair-case into the hall, from whence a passage led immediately to 
+the garden, she softly and unheard, as she thought, unlocked the 
+door, and entered the avenue.  Emily passed on with steps now 
+hurried, and now faltering, as, deceived by the shadows among the 
+trees, she fancied she saw some person move in the distant 
+perspective, and feared, that it was a spy of Madame Montoni.  Her 
+desire, however, to re-visit the pavilion, where she had passed so 
+many happy hours with Valancourt, and had admired with him the 
+extensive prospect over Languedoc and her native Gascony, overcame 
+her apprehension of being observed, and she moved on towards the 
+terrace, which, running along the upper garden, commanded the whole 
+of the lower one, and communicated with it by a flight of marble 
+steps, that terminated the avenue.
+
+Having reached these steps, she paused a moment to look round, for 
+her distance from the chateau now increased the fear, which the 
+stillness and obscurity of the hour had awakened.  But, perceiving 
+nothing that could justify it, she ascended to the terrace, where the 
+moon-light shewed the long broad walk, with the pavilion at its 
+extremity, while the rays silvered the foliage of the high trees and 
+shrubs, that bordered it on the right, and the tufted summits of 
+those, that rose to a level with the balustrade on the left, from the 
+garden below.  Her distance from the chateau again alarming her, she 
+paused to listen; the night was so calm, that no sound could have 
+escaped her, but she heard only the plaintive sweetness of the 
+nightingale, with the light shiver of the leaves, and she pursued her 
+way towards the pavilion, having reached which, its obscurity did not 
+prevent the emotion, that a fuller view of its well-known scene would 
+have excited.  The lattices were thrown back, and shewed beyond their 
+embowered arch the moon-light landscape, shadowy and soft; its 
+groves, and plains extending gradually and indistinctly to the eye, 
+its distant mountains catching a stronger gleam, and the nearer river 
+reflecting the moon, and trembling to her rays.
+
+Emily, as she approached the lattice, was sensible of the features of 
+this scene only as they served to bring Valancourt more immediately 
+to her fancy.  'Ah!' said she, with a heavy sigh, as she threw 
+herself into a chair by the window, 'how often have we sat together 
+in this spot--often have looked upon that landscape!  Never, never 
+more shall we view it together--never--never more, perhaps, shall we 
+look upon each other!'
+
+Her tears were suddenly stopped by terror--a voice spoke near her in 
+the pavilion; she shrieked--it spoke again, and she distinguished the 
+well-known tones of Valancourt.  It was indeed Valancourt who 
+supported her in his arms!  For some moments their emotion would not 
+suffer either to speak.  'Emily,' said Valancourt at length, as he 
+pressed her hand in his.  'Emily!' and he was again silent, but the 
+accent, in which he had pronounced her name, expressed all his 
+tenderness and sorrow.
+
+'O my Emily!' he resumed, after a long pause, 'I do then see you once 
+again, and hear again the sound of that voice!  I have haunted this 
+place--these gardens, for many--many nights, with a faint, very faint 
+hope of seeing you.  This was the only chance that remained to me, 
+and thank heaven! it has at length succeeded--I am not condemned to 
+absolute despair!'
+
+Emily said something, she scarcely knew what, expressive of her 
+unalterable affection, and endeavoured to calm the agitation of his 
+mind; but Valancourt could for some time only utter incoherent 
+expressions of his emotions; and, when he was somewhat more composed, 
+he said, 'I came hither, soon after sun-set, and have been watching 
+in the gardens, and in this pavilion ever since; for, though I had 
+now given up all hope of seeing you, I could not resolve to tear 
+myself from a place so near to you, and should probably have lingered 
+about the chateau till morning dawned.  O how heavily the moments 
+have passed, yet with what various emotion have they been marked, as 
+I sometimes thought I heard footsteps, and fancied you were 
+approaching, and then again--perceived only a dead and dreary 
+silence!  But, when you opened the door of the pavilion, and the 
+darkness prevented my distinguishing with certainty, whether it was 
+my love--my heart beat so strongly with hopes and fears, that I could 
+not speak.  The instant I heard the plaintive accents of your voice, 
+my doubts vanished, but not my fears, till you spoke of me; then, 
+losing the apprehension of alarming you in the excess of my emotion, 
+I could no longer be silent.  O Emily! these are moments, in which 
+joy and grief struggle so powerfully for pre-eminence, that the heart 
+can scarcely support the contest!'
+
+Emily's heart acknowledged the truth of this assertion, but the joy 
+she felt on thus meeting Valancourt, at the very moment when she was 
+lamenting, that they must probably meet no more, soon melted into 
+grief, as reflection stole over her thoughts, and imagination 
+prompted visions of the future.  She struggled to recover the calm 
+dignity of mind, which was necessary to support her through this last 
+interview, and which Valancourt found it utterly impossible to 
+attain, for the transports of his joy changed abruptly into those of 
+suffering, and he expressed in the most impassioned language his 
+horror of this separation, and his despair of their ever meeting 
+again.  Emily wept silently as she listened to him, and then, trying 
+to command her own distress, and to sooth his, she suggested every 
+circumstance that could lead to hope.  But the energy of his fears 
+led him instantly to detect the friendly fallacies, which she 
+endeavoured to impose on herself and him, and also to conjure up 
+illusions too powerful for his reason.
+
+'You are going from me,' said he, 'to a distant country, O how 
+distant!--to new society, new friends, new admirers, with people too, 
+who will try to make you forget me, and to promote new connections!  
+How can I know this, and not know, that you will never return for me-
+-never can be mine.'  His voice was stifled by sighs.
+
+'You believe, then,' said Emily, 'that the pangs I suffer proceed 
+from a trivial and temporary interest; you believe--'
+
+'Suffer!' interrupted Valancourt, 'suffer for me!  O Emily--how 
+sweet--how bitter are those words; what comfort, what anguish do they 
+give!  I ought not to doubt the steadiness of your affection, yet 
+such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to 
+suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from 
+the object of its interest, and thus it is, that I always feel 
+revived, as by a new conviction, when your words tell me I am dear to 
+you; and, wanting these, I relapse into doubt, and too often into 
+despondency.'  Then seeming to recollect himself, he exclaimed, 'But 
+what a wretch am I, thus to torture you, and in these moments, too!  
+I, who ought to support and comfort you!'
+
+This reflection overcame Valancourt with tenderness, but, relapsing 
+into despondency, he again felt only for himself, and lamented again 
+this cruel separation, in a voice and words so impassioned, that 
+Emily could no longer struggle to repress her own grief, or to sooth 
+his.  Valancourt, between these emotions of love and pity, lost the 
+power, and almost the wish, of repressing his agitation; and, in the 
+intervals of convulsive sobs, he, at one moment, kissed away her 
+tears, then told her cruelly, that possibly she might never again 
+weep for him, and then tried to speak more calmly, but only 
+exclaimed, 'O Emily--my heart will break!--I cannot--cannot leave 
+you!  Now--I gaze upon that countenance, now I hold you in my arms! a 
+little while, and all this will appear a dream.  I shall look, and 
+cannot see you; shall try to recollect your features--and the 
+impression will be fled from my imagination;--to hear the tones of 
+your voice, and even memory will be silent!--I cannot, cannot leave 
+you!  why should we confide the happiness of our whole lives to the 
+will of people, who have no right to interrupt, and, except in giving 
+you to me, have no power to promote it?  O Emily! venture to trust 
+your own heart, venture to be mine for ever!'  His voice trembled, 
+and he was silent; Emily continued to weep, and was silent also, when 
+Valancourt proceeded to propose an immediate marriage, and that at an 
+early hour on the following morning, she should quit Madame Montoni's 
+house, and be conducted by him to the church of the Augustines, where 
+a friar should await to unite them.
+
+The silence, with which she listened to a proposal, dictated by love 
+and despair, and enforced at a moment, when it seemed scarcely 
+possible for her to oppose it;--when her heart was softened by the 
+sorrows of a separation, that might be eternal, and her reason 
+obscured by the illusions of love and terror, encouraged him to hope, 
+that it would not be rejected.  'Speak, my Emily!' said Valancourt 
+eagerly, 'let me hear your voice, let me hear you confirm my fate.'  
+she spoke not; her cheek was cold, and her senses seemed to fail her, 
+but she did not faint.  To Valancourt's terrified imagination she 
+appeared to be dying; he called upon her name, rose to go to the 
+chateau for assistance, and then, recollecting her situation, feared 
+to go, or to leave her for a moment.
+
+After a few minutes, she drew a deep sigh, and began to revive.  The 
+conflict she had suffered, between love and the duty she at present 
+owed to her father's sister; her repugnance to a clandestine 
+marriage, her fear of emerging on the world with embarrassments, such 
+as might ultimately involve the object of her affection in misery and 
+repentance;--all this various interest was too powerful for a mind, 
+already enervated by sorrow, and her reason had suffered a transient 
+suspension.  But duty, and good sense, however hard the conflict, at 
+length, triumphed over affection and mournful presentiment; above 
+all, she dreaded to involve Valancourt in obscurity and vain regret, 
+which she saw, or thought she saw, must be the too certain 
+consequence of a marriage in their present circumstances; and she 
+acted, perhaps, with somewhat more than female fortitude, when she 
+resolved to endure a present, rather than provoke a distant 
+misfortune.
+
+With a candour, that proved how truly she esteemed and loved him, and 
+which endeared her to him, if possible, more than ever, she told 
+Valancourt all her reasons for rejecting his proposals.  Those, which 
+influenced her concerning his future welfare, he instantly refuted, 
+or rather contradicted; but they awakened tender considerations for 
+her, which the frenzy of passion and despair had concealed before, 
+and love, which had but lately prompted him to propose a clandestine 
+and immediate marriage, now induced him to renounce it.  The triumph 
+was almost too much for his heart; for Emily's sake, he endeavoured 
+to stifle his grief, but the swelling anguish would not be 
+restrained.  'O Emily!' said he, 'I must leave you--I MUST leave you, 
+and I know it is for ever!'
+
+Convulsive sobs again interrupted his words, and they wept together 
+in silence, till Emily, recollecting the danger of being discovered, 
+and the impropriety of prolonging an interview, which might subject 
+her to censure, summoned all her fortitude to utter a last farewell.
+
+'Stay!' said Valancourt, 'I conjure you stay, for I have much to tell 
+you.  The agitation of my mind has hitherto suffered me to speak only 
+on the subject that occupied it;--I have forborne to mention a doubt 
+of much importance, partly, lest it should appear as if I told it 
+with an ungenerous view of alarming you into a compliance with my 
+late proposal.'
+
+Emily, much agitated, did not leave Valancourt, but she led him from 
+the pavilion, and, as they walked upon the terrace, he proceeded as 
+follows:
+
+'This Montoni:  I have heard some strange hints concerning him.  Are 
+you certain he is of Madame Quesnel's family, and that his fortune is 
+what it appears to be?'
+
+'I have no reason to doubt either,' replied Emily, in a voice of 
+alarm.  'Of the first, indeed, I cannot doubt, but I have no certain 
+means of judging of the latter, and I entreat you will tell me all 
+you have heard.'
+
+'That I certainly will, but it is very imperfect, and unsatisfactory 
+information.  I gathered it by accident from an Italian, who was 
+speaking to another person of this Montoni.  They were talking of his 
+marriage; the Italian said, that if he was the person he meant, he 
+was not likely to make Madame Cheron happy.  He proceeded to speak of 
+him in general terms of dislike, and then gave some particular hints, 
+concerning his character, that excited my curiosity, and I ventured 
+to ask him a few questions.  He was reserved in his replies, but, 
+after hesitating for some time, he owned, that he had understood 
+abroad, that Montoni was a man of desperate fortune and character.  
+He said something of a castle of Montoni's, situated among the 
+Apennines, and of some strange circumstances, that might be 
+mentioned, as to his former mode of life.  I pressed him to inform me 
+further, but I believe the strong interest I felt was visible in my 
+manner, and alarmed him; for no entreaties could prevail with him to 
+give any explanation of the circumstances he had alluded to, or to 
+mention any thing further concerning Montoni.  I observed to him, 
+that, if Montoni was possessed of a castle in the Apennines, it 
+appeared from such a circumstance, that he was of some family, and 
+also seemed to contradict the report, that he was a man of entirely 
+broken fortunes.  He shook his head, and looked as if he could have 
+said a great deal, but made no reply.
+
+'A hope of learning something more satisfactory, or more positive, 
+detained me in his company a considerable time, and I renewed the 
+subject repeatedly, but the Italian wrapped himself up in reserve, 
+said--that what he had mentioned he had caught only from a floating 
+report, and that reports frequently arose from personal malice, and 
+were very little to be depended upon.  I forbore to press the subject 
+farther, since it was obvious that he was alarmed for the consequence 
+of what he had already said, and I was compelled to remain in 
+uncertainty on a point where suspense is almost intolerable.  Think, 
+Emily, what I must suffer to see you depart for a foreign country, 
+committed to the power of a man of such doubtful character as is this 
+Montoni!  But I will not alarm you unnecessarily;--it is possible, as 
+the Italian said, at first, that this is not the Montoni he alluded 
+to.  Yet, Emily, consider well before you resolve to commit yourself 
+to him.  O! I must not trust myself to speak--or I shall renounce all 
+the motives, which so lately influenced me to resign the hope of your 
+becoming mine immediately.'
+
+Valancourt walked upon the terrace with hurried steps, while Emily 
+remained leaning on the balustrade in deep thought.  The information 
+she had just received excited, perhaps, more alarm than it could 
+justify, and raised once more the conflict of contrasted interests.  
+She had never liked Montoni.  The fire and keenness of his eye, its 
+proud exultation, its bold fierceness, its sullen watchfulness, as 
+occasion, and even slight occasion, had called forth the latent soul, 
+she had often observed with emotion; while from the usual expression 
+of his countenance she had always shrunk.  From such observations she 
+was the more inclined to believe, that it was this Montoni, of whom 
+the Italian had uttered his suspicious hints.  The thought of being 
+solely in his power, in a foreign land, was terrifying to her, but it 
+was not by terror alone that she was urged to an immediate marriage 
+with Valancourt.  The tenderest love had already pleaded his cause, 
+but had been unable to overcome her opinion, as to her duty, her 
+disinterested considerations for Valancourt, and the delicacy, which 
+made her revolt from a clandestine union.  It was not to be expected, 
+that a vague terror would be more powerful, than the united influence 
+of love and grief.  But it recalled all their energy, and rendered a 
+second conquest necessary.
+
+With Valancourt, whose imagination was now awake to the suggestion of 
+every passion; whose apprehensions for Emily had acquired strength by 
+the mere mention of them, and became every instant more powerful, as 
+his mind brooded over them--with Valancourt no second conquest was 
+attainable.  He thought he saw in the clearest light, and love 
+assisted the fear, that this journey to Italy would involve Emily in 
+misery; he determined, therefore, to persevere in opposing it, and in 
+conjuring her to bestow upon him the title of her lawful protector.
+
+'Emily!' said he, with solemn earnestness, 'this is no time for 
+scrupulous distinctions, for weighing the dubious and comparatively 
+trifling circumstances, that may affect our future comfort.  I now 
+see, much more clearly than before, the train of serious dangers you 
+are going to encounter with a man of Montoni's character.  Those dark 
+hints of the Italian spoke much, but not more than the idea I have of 
+Montoni's disposition, as exhibited even in his countenance.  I think 
+I see at this moment all that could have been hinted, written there.  
+He is the Italian, whom I fear, and I conjure you for your own sake, 
+as well as for mine, to prevent the evils I shudder to foresee.  O 
+Emily! let my tenderness, my arms withhold you from them--give me the 
+right to defend you!'
+
+Emily only sighed, while Valancourt proceeded to remonstrate and to 
+entreat with all the energy that love and apprehension could inspire.  
+But, as his imagination magnified to her the possible evils she was 
+going to meet, the mists of her own fancy began to dissipate, and 
+allowed her to distinguish the exaggerated images, which imposed on 
+his reason.  She considered, that there was no proof of Montoni being 
+the person, whom the stranger had meant; that, even if he was so, the 
+Italian had noticed his character and broken fortunes merely from 
+report; and that, though the countenance of Montoni seemed to give 
+probability to a part of the rumour, it was not by such circumstances 
+that an implicit belief of it could be justified.  These 
+considerations would probably not have arisen so distinctly to her 
+mind, at this time, had not the terrors of Valancourt presented to 
+her such obvious exaggerations of her danger, as incited her to 
+distrust the fallacies of passion.  But, while she endeavoured in the 
+gentlest manner to convince him of his error, she plunged him into a 
+new one.  His voice and countenance changed to an expression of dark 
+despair.  'Emily!' said he, 'this, this moment is the bitterest that 
+is yet come to me.  You do not--cannot love me!--It would be 
+impossible for you to reason thus coolly, thus deliberately, if you 
+did.  I, _I_ am torn with anguish at the prospect of our separation, 
+and of the evils that may await you in consequence of it; I would 
+encounter any hazards to prevent it--to save you.  No! Emily, no!--
+you cannot love me.'
+
+'We have now little time to waste in exclamation, or assertion,' said 
+Emily, endeavouring to conceal her emotion:  'if you are yet to learn 
+how dear you are, and ever must be, to my heart, no assurances of 
+mine can give you conviction.'
+
+The last words faltered on her lips, and her tears flowed fast.  
+These words and tears brought, once more, and with instantaneous 
+force, conviction of her love to Valancourt.  He could only exclaim, 
+'Emily! Emily!' and weep over the hand he pressed to his lips; but 
+she, after some moments, again roused herself from the indulgence of 
+sorrow, and said, 'I must leave you; it is late, and my absence from 
+the chateau may be discovered.  Think of me--love me--when I am far 
+away; the belief of this will be my comfort!'
+
+'Think of you!--love you!' exclaimed Valancourt.
+
+'Try to moderate these transports,' said Emily, 'for my sake, try.'
+
+'For your sake!'
+
+'Yes, for my sake,' replied Emily, in a tremulous voice, 'I cannot 
+leave you thus!'
+
+'Then do not leave me!' said Valancourt, with quickness.  'Why should 
+we part, or part for longer than till to-morrow?'
+
+'I am, indeed I am, unequal to these moments,' replied Emily, 'you 
+tear my heart, but I never can consent to this hasty, imprudent 
+proposal!'
+
+'If we could command our time, my Emily, it should not be thus hasty; 
+we must submit to circumstances.'
+
+'We must indeed!  I have already told you all my heart--my spirits 
+are gone.  You allowed the force of my objections, till your 
+tenderness called up vague terrors, which have given us both 
+unnecessary anguish.  Spare me! do not oblige me to repeat the 
+reasons I have already urged.'
+
+'Spare you!' cried Valancourt, 'I am a wretch--a very wretch, that 
+have felt only for myself!--I! who ought to have shewn the fortitude 
+of a man, who ought to have supported you, I! have increased your 
+sufferings by the conduct of a child!  Forgive me, Emily! think of 
+the distraction of my mind now that I am about to part with all that 
+is dear to me--and forgive me!  When you are gone, I shall recollect 
+with bitter remorse what I have made you suffer, and shall wish in 
+vain that I could see you, if only for a moment, that I might sooth 
+your grief.'
+
+Tears again interrupted his voice, and Emily wept with him.  'I will 
+shew myself more worthy of your love,' said Valancourt, at length; 'I 
+will not prolong these moments.  My Emily--my own Emily! never forget 
+me!  God knows when we shall meet again!  I resign you to his care.--
+O God!--O God!--protect and bless her!'
+
+He pressed her hand to his heart.  Emily sunk almost lifeless on his 
+bosom, and neither wept, nor spoke.  Valancourt, now commanding his 
+own distress, tried to comfort and re-assure her, but she appeared 
+totally unaffected by what he said, and a sigh, which she uttered, 
+now and then, was all that proved she had not fainted.
+
+He supported her slowly towards the chateau, weeping and speaking to 
+her; but she answered only in sighs, till, having reached the gate, 
+that terminated the avenue, she seemed to have recovered her 
+consciousness, and, looking round, perceived how near they were to 
+the chateau.  'We must part here,' said she, stopping, 'Why prolong 
+these moments?  Teach me the fortitude I have forgot.'
+
+Valancourt struggled to assume a composed air.  'Farewell, my love!' 
+said he, in a voice of solemn tenderness--'trust me we shall meet 
+again--meet for each other--meet to part no more!'  His voice 
+faltered, but, recovering it, he proceeded in a firmer tone.  'You 
+know not what I shall suffer, till I hear from you; I shall omit no 
+opportunity of conveying to you my letters, yet I tremble to think 
+how few may occur.  And trust me, love, for your dear sake, I will 
+try to bear this absence with fortitude.  O how little I have shewn 
+to-night!'
+
+'Farewell!' said Emily faintly.  'When you are gone, I shall think of 
+many things I would have said to you.'  'And I of many--many!' said 
+Valancourt; 'I never left you yet, that I did not immediately 
+remember some question, or some entreaty, or some circumstance, 
+concerning my love, that I earnestly wished to mention, and feel 
+wretched because I could not.  O Emily! this countenance, on which I 
+now gaze--will, in a moment, be gone from my eyes, and not all the 
+efforts of fancy will be able to recall it with exactness.  O! what 
+an infinite difference between this moment and the next!  NOW, I am 
+in your presence, can behold you! THEN, all will be a dreary blank--
+and I shall be a wanderer, exiled from my only home!'
+
+Valancourt again pressed her to his heart, and held her there in 
+silence, weeping.  Tears once again calmed her oppressed mind.  They 
+again bade each other farewell, lingered a moment, and then parted.  
+Valancourt seemed to force himself from the spot; he passed hastily 
+up the avenue, and Emily, as she moved slowly towards the chateau, 
+heard his distant steps.  she listened to the sounds, as they sunk 
+fainter and fainter, till the melancholy stillness of night alone 
+remained; and then hurried to her chamber, to seek repose, which, 
+alas! was fled from her wretchedness.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 2
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+ Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
+ My heart untravell'd still shall turn to thee.
+     GOLDSMITH
+
+The carriages were at the gates at an early hour; the bustle of the 
+domestics, passing to and fro in the galleries, awakened Emily from 
+harassing slumbers:  her unquiet mind had, during the night, 
+presented her with terrific images and obscure circumstances, 
+concerning her affection and her future life.  She now endeavoured to 
+chase away the impressions they had left on her fancy; but from 
+imaginary evils she awoke to the consciousness of real ones.  
+Recollecting that she had parted with Valancourt, perhaps for ever, 
+her heart sickened as memory revived.  But she tried to dismiss the 
+dismal forebodings that crowded on her mind, and to restrain the 
+sorrow which she could not subdue; efforts which diffused over the 
+settled melancholy of her countenance an expression of tempered 
+resignation, as a thin veil, thrown over the features of beauty, 
+renders them more interesting by a partial concealment.  But Madame 
+Montoni observed nothing in this countenance except its usual 
+paleness, which attracted her censure.  She told her niece, that she 
+had been indulging in fanciful sorrows, and begged she would have 
+more regard for decorum, than to let the world see that she could not 
+renounce an improper attachment; at which Emily's pale cheek became 
+flushed with crimson, but it was the blush of pride, and she made no 
+answer.  Soon after, Montoni entered the breakfast room, spoke 
+little, and seemed impatient to be gone.
+
+The windows of this room opened upon the garden.  As Emily passed 
+them, she saw the spot where she had parted with Valancourt on the 
+preceding night:  the remembrance pressed heavily on her heart, and 
+she turned hastily away from the object that had awakened it.
+
+The baggage being at length adjusted, the travellers entered their 
+carriages, and Emily would have left the chateau without one sigh of 
+regret, had it not been situated in the neighbourhood of Valancourt's 
+residence.
+
+From a little eminence she looked back upon Tholouse, and the far-
+seen plains of Gascony, beyond which the broken summits of the 
+Pyrenees appeared on the distant horizon, lighted up by a morning 
+sun.  'Dear pleasant mountains!' said she to herself, 'how long may 
+it be ere I see ye again, and how much may happen to make me 
+miserable in the interval!  Oh, could I now be certain, that I should 
+ever return to ye, and find that Valancourt still lived for me, I 
+should go in peace!  He will still gaze on ye, gaze when I am far 
+away!'
+
+The trees, that impended over the high banks of the road and formed a 
+line of perspective with the distant country, now threatened to 
+exclude the view of them; but the blueish mountains still appeared 
+beyond the dark foliage, and Emily continued to lean from the coach 
+window, till at length the closing branches shut them from her sight.
+
+Another object soon caught her attention.  She had scarcely looked at 
+a person who walked along the bank, with his hat, in which was the 
+military feather, drawn over his eyes, before, at the sound of 
+wheels, he suddenly turned, and she perceived that it was Valancourt 
+himself, who waved his hand, sprung into the road, and through the 
+window of the carriage put a letter into her hand.  He endeavoured to 
+smile through the despair that overspread his countenance as she 
+passed on.  The remembrance of that smile seemed impressed on Emily's 
+mind for ever.  She leaned from the window, and saw him on a knoll of 
+the broken bank, leaning against the high trees that waved over him, 
+and pursuing the carriage with his eyes.  He waved his hand, and she 
+continued to gaze till distance confused his figure, and at length 
+another turn of the road entirely separated him from her sight.
+
+Having stopped to take up Signor Cavigni at a chateau on the road, 
+the travellers, of whom Emily was disrespectfully seated with Madame 
+Montoni's woman in a second carriage, pursued their way over the 
+plains of Languedoc.  The presence of this servant restrained Emily 
+from reading Valancourt's letter, for she did not choose to expose 
+the emotions it might occasion to the observation of any person.  Yet 
+such was her wish to read this his last communication, that her 
+trembling hand was every moment on the point of breaking the seal.
+
+At length they reached the village, where they staid only to change 
+horses, without alighting, and it was not till they stopped to dine, 
+that Emily had an opportunity of reading the letter.  Though she had 
+never doubted the sincerity of Valancourt's affection, the fresh 
+assurances she now received of it revived her spirits; she wept over 
+his letter in tenderness, laid it by to be referred to when they 
+should be particularly depressed, and then thought of him with much 
+less anguish than she had done since they parted.  Among some other 
+requests, which were interesting to her, because expressive of his 
+tenderness, and because a compliance with them seemed to annihilate 
+for a while the pain of absence, he entreated she would always think 
+of him at sunset.  'You will then meet me in thought,' said he; 'I 
+shall constantly watch the sun-set, and I shall be happy in the 
+belief, that your eyes are fixed upon the same object with mine, and 
+that our minds are conversing.  You know not, Emily, the comfort I 
+promise myself from these moments; but I trust you will experience 
+it.'
+
+It is unnecessary to say with what emotion Emily, on this evening, 
+watched the declining sun, over a long extent of plains, on which she 
+saw it set without interruption, and sink towards the province which 
+Valancourt inhabited.  After this hour her mind became far more 
+tranquil and resigned, than it had been since the marriage of Montoni 
+and her aunt.
+
+During several days the travellers journeyed over the plains of 
+Languedoc; and then entering Dauphiny, and winding for some time 
+among the mountains of that romantic province, they quitted their 
+carriages and began to ascend the Alps.  And here such scenes of 
+sublimity opened upon them as no colours of language must dare to 
+paint!  Emily's mind was even so much engaged with new and wonderful 
+images, that they sometimes banished the idea of Valancourt, though 
+they more frequently revived it.  These brought to her recollection 
+the prospects among the Pyrenees, which they had admired together, 
+and had believed nothing could excel in grandeur.  How often did she 
+wish to express to him the new emotions which this astonishing 
+scenery awakened, and that he could partake of them!  Sometimes too 
+she endeavoured to anticipate his remarks, and almost imagined him 
+present.  she seemed to have arisen into another world, and to have 
+left every trifling thought, every trifling sentiment, in that below; 
+those only of grandeur and sublimity now dilated her mind, and 
+elevated the affections of her heart.
+
+With what emotions of sublimity, softened by tenderness, did she meet 
+Valancourt in thought, at the customary hour of sun-set, when, 
+wandering among the Alps, she watched the glorious orb sink amid 
+their summits, his last tints die away on their snowy points, and a 
+solemn obscurity steal over the scene!  And when the last gleam had 
+faded, she turned her eyes from the west with somewhat of the 
+melancholy regret that is experienced after the departure of a 
+beloved friend; while these lonely feelings were heightened by the 
+spreading gloom, and by the low sounds, heard only when darkness 
+confines attention, which make the general stillness more impressive-
+-leaves shook by the air, the last sigh of the breeze that lingers 
+after sun-set, or the murmur of distant streams.
+
+During the first days of this journey among the Alps, the scenery 
+exhibited a wonderful mixture of solitude and inhabitation, of 
+cultivation and barrenness.  On the edge of tremendous precipices, 
+and within the hollow of the cliffs, below which the clouds often 
+floated, were seen villages, spires, and convent towers; while green 
+pastures and vineyards spread their hues at the feet of perpendicular 
+rocks of marble, or of granite, whose points, tufted with alpine 
+shrubs, or exhibiting only massy crags, rose above each other, till 
+they terminated in the snow-topt mountain, whence the torrent fell, 
+that thundered along the valley.
+
+The snow was not yet melted on the summit of Mount Cenis, over which 
+the travellers passed; but Emily, as she looked upon its clear lake 
+and extended plain, surrounded by broken cliffs, saw, in imagination, 
+the verdant beauty it would exhibit when the snows should be gone, 
+and the shepherds, leading up the midsummer flocks from Piedmont, to 
+pasture on its flowery summit, should add Arcadian figures to 
+Arcadian landscape.
+
+As she descended on the Italian side, the precipices became still 
+more tremendous, and the prospects still more wild and majestic, over 
+which the shifting lights threw all the pomp of colouring.  Emily 
+delighted to observe the snowy tops of the mountains under the 
+passing influence of the day, blushing with morning, glowing with the 
+brightness of noon, or just tinted with the purple evening.  The 
+haunt of man could now only be discovered by the simple hut of the 
+shepherd and the hunter, or by the rough pine bridge thrown across 
+the torrent, to assist the latter in his chase of the chamois over 
+crags where, but for this vestige of man, it would have been believed 
+only the chamois or the wolf dared to venture.  As Emily gazed upon 
+one of these perilous bridges, with the cataract foaming beneath it, 
+some images came to her mind, which she afterwards combined in the 
+following
+
+     STORIED SONNET
+
+ The weary traveller, who, all night long,
+ Has climb'd among the Alps' tremendous steeps,
+ Skirting the pathless precipice, where throng
+ Wild forms of danger; as he onward creeps
+ If, chance, his anxious eye at distance sees
+ The mountain-shepherd's solitary home,
+ Peeping from forth the moon-illumin'd trees,
+ What sudden transports to his bosom come!
+ But, if between some hideous chasm yawn,
+ Where the cleft pine a doubtful bridge displays,
+ In dreadful silence, on the brink, forlorn
+ He stands, and views in the faint rays
+ Far, far below, the torrent's rising surge,
+ And listens to the wild impetuous roar;
+ Still eyes the depth, still shudders on the verge,
+ Fears to return, nor dares to venture o'er.
+ Desperate, at length the tottering plank he tries,
+ His weak steps slide, he shrieks, he sinks--he dies!
+
+Emily, often as she travelled among the clouds, watched in silent awe 
+their billowy surges rolling below; sometimes, wholly closing upon 
+the scene, they appeared like a world of chaos, and, at others, 
+spreading thinly, they opened and admitted partial catches of the 
+landscape--the torrent, whose astounding roar had never failed, 
+tumbling down the rocky chasm, huge cliffs white with snow, or the 
+dark summits of the pine forests, that stretched mid-way down the 
+mountains.  But who may describe her rapture, when, having passed 
+through a sea of vapour, she caught a first view of Italy; when, from 
+the ridge of one of those tremendous precipices that hang upon Mount 
+Cenis and guard the entrance of that enchanting country, she looked 
+down through the lower clouds, and, as they floated away, saw the 
+grassy vales of Piedmont at her feet, and, beyond, the plains of 
+Lombardy extending to the farthest distance, at which appeared, on 
+the faint horizon, the doubtful towers of Turin?
+
+The solitary grandeur of the objects that immediately surrounded her, 
+the mountain-region towering above, the deep precipices that fell 
+beneath, the waving blackness of the forests of pine and oak, which 
+skirted their feet, or hung within their recesses, the headlong 
+torrents that, dashing among their cliffs, sometimes appeared like a 
+cloud of mist, at others like a sheet of ice--these were features 
+which received a higher character of sublimity from the reposing 
+beauty of the Italian landscape below, stretching to the wide 
+horizon, where the same melting blue tint seemed to unite earth and 
+sky.
+
+Madame Montoni only shuddered as she looked down precipices near 
+whose edge the chairmen trotted lightly and swiftly, almost, as the 
+chamois bounded, and from which Emily too recoiled; but with her 
+fears were mingled such various emotions of delight, such admiration, 
+astonishment, and awe, as she had never experienced before.
+
+Meanwhile the carriers, having come to a landing-place, stopped to 
+rest, and the travellers being seated on the point of a cliff, 
+Montoni and Cavigni renewed a dispute concerning Hannibal's passage 
+over the Alps, Montoni contending that he entered Italy by way of 
+Mount Cenis, and Cavigni, that he passed over Mount St. Bernard.  The 
+subject brought to Emily's imagination the disasters he had suffered 
+in this bold and perilous adventure.  She saw his vast armies winding 
+among the defiles, and over the tremendous cliffs of the mountains, 
+which at night were lighted up by his fires, or by the torches which 
+he caused to be carried when he pursued his indefatigable march.  In 
+the eye of fancy, she perceived the gleam of arms through the 
+duskiness of night, the glitter of spears and helmets, and the 
+banners floating dimly on the twilight; while now and then the blast 
+of a distant trumpet echoed along the defile, and the signal was 
+answered by a momentary clash of arms.  She looked with horror upon 
+the mountaineers, perched on the higher cliffs, assailing the troops 
+below with broken fragments of the mountain; on soldiers and 
+elephants tumbling headlong down the lower precipices; and, as she 
+listened to the rebounding rocks, that followed their fall, the 
+terrors of fancy yielded to those of reality, and she shuddered to 
+behold herself on the dizzy height, whence she had pictured the 
+descent of others.
+
+Madame Montoni, meantime, as she looked upon Italy, was contemplating 
+in imagination the splendour of palaces and the grandeur of castles, 
+such as she believed she was going to be mistress of at Venice and in 
+the Apennine, and she became, in idea, little less than a princess.  
+Being no longer under the alarms which had deterred her from giving 
+entertainments to the beauties of Tholouse, whom Montoni had 
+mentioned with more eclat to his own vanity than credit to their 
+discretion, or regard to truth, she determined to give concerts, 
+though she had neither ear nor taste for music; conversazioni, though 
+she had no talents for conversation; and to outvie, if possible, in 
+the gaieties of her parties and the magnificence of her liveries, all 
+the noblesse of Venice.  This blissful reverie was somewhat obscured, 
+when she recollected the Signor, her husband, who, though he was not 
+averse to the profit which sometimes results from such parties, had 
+always shewn a contempt of the frivolous parade that sometimes 
+attends them; till she considered that his pride might be gratified 
+by displaying, among his own friends, in his native city, the wealth 
+which he had neglected in France; and she courted again the splendid 
+illusions that had charmed her before.
+
+The travellers, as they descended, gradually, exchanged the region of 
+winter for the genial warmth and beauty of spring.  The sky began to 
+assume that serene and beautiful tint peculiar to the climate of 
+Italy; patches of young verdure, fragrant shrubs and flowers looked 
+gaily among the rocks, often fringing their rugged brows, or hanging 
+in tufts from their broken sides; and the buds of the oak and 
+mountain ash were expanding into foliage.  Descending lower, the 
+orange and the myrtle, every now and then, appeared in some sunny 
+nook, with their yellow blossoms peeping from among the dark green of 
+their leaves, and mingling with the scarlet flowers of the 
+pomegranate and the paler ones of the arbutus, that ran mantling to 
+the crags above; while, lower still, spread the pastures of Piedmont, 
+where early flocks were cropping the luxuriant herbage of spring.
+
+The river Doria, which, rising on the summit of Mount Cenis, had 
+dashed for many leagues over the precipices that bordered the road, 
+now began to assume a less impetuous, though scarcely less romantic 
+character, as it approached the green vallies of Piedmont, into which 
+the travellers descended with the evening sun; and Emily found 
+herself once more amid the tranquil beauty of pastoral scenery; among 
+flocks and herds, and slopes tufted with woods of lively verdure and 
+with beautiful shrubs, such as she had often seen waving luxuriantly 
+over the alps above.  The verdure of the pasturage, now varied with 
+the hues of early flowers, among which were yellow ranunculuses and 
+pansey violets of delicious fragrance, she had never seen excelled.--
+Emily almost wished to become a peasant of Piedmont, to inhabit one 
+of the pleasant embowered cottages which she saw peeping beneath the 
+cliffs, and to pass her careless hours among these romantic 
+landscapes.  To the hours, the months, she was to pass under the 
+dominion of Montoni, she looked with apprehension; while those which 
+were departed she remembered with regret and sorrow.
+
+In the present scenes her fancy often gave her the figure of 
+Valancourt, whom she saw on a point of the cliffs, gazing with awe 
+and admiration on the imagery around him; or wandering pensively 
+along the vale below, frequently pausing to look back upon the 
+scenery, and then, his countenance glowing with the poet's fire, 
+pursuing his way to some overhanging heights.  When she again 
+considered the time and the distance that were to separate them, that 
+every step she now took lengthened this distance, her heart sunk, and 
+the surrounding landscape charmed her no more.
+
+The travellers, passing Novalesa, reached, after the evening had 
+closed, the small and antient town of Susa, which had formerly 
+guarded this pass of the Alps into Piedmont.  The heights which 
+command it had, since the invention of artillery, rendered its 
+fortifications useless; but these romantic heights, seen by moon-
+light, with the town below, surrounded by its walls and watchtowers, 
+and partially illumined, exhibited an interesting picture to Emily.  
+Here they rested for the night at an inn, which had little 
+accommodation to boast of; but the travellers brought with them the 
+hunger that gives delicious flavour to the coarsest viands, and the 
+weariness that ensures repose; and here Emily first caught a strain 
+of Italian music, on Italian ground.  As she sat after supper at a 
+little window, that opened upon the country, observing an effect of 
+the moon-light on the broken surface of the mountains, and 
+remembering that on such a night as this she once had sat with her 
+father and Valancourt, resting upon a cliff of the Pyrenees, she 
+heard from below the long-drawn notes of a violin, of such tone and 
+delicacy of expression, as harmonized exactly with the tender 
+emotions she was indulging, and both charmed and surprised her.  
+Cavigni, who approached the window, smiled at her surprise.  'This is 
+nothing extraordinary,' said he, 'you will hear the same, perhaps, at 
+every inn on our way.  It is one of our landlord's family who plays, 
+I doubt not,'  Emily, as she listened, thought he could be scarcely 
+less than a professor of music whom she heard; and the sweet and 
+plaintive strains soon lulled her into a reverie, from which she was 
+very unwillingly roused by the raillery of Cavigni, and by the voice 
+of Montoni, who gave orders to a servant to have the carriages ready 
+at an early hour on the following morning; and added, that he meant 
+to dine at Turin.
+
+Madame Montoni was exceedingly rejoiced to be once more on level 
+ground; and, after giving a long detail of the various terrors she 
+had suffered, which she forgot that she was describing to the 
+companions of her dangers, she added a hope, that she should soon be 
+beyond the view of these horrid mountains, 'which all the world,' 
+said she, 'should not tempt me to cross again.'  Complaining of 
+fatigue she soon retired to rest, and Emily withdrew to her own room, 
+when she understood from Annette, her aunt's woman, that Cavigni was 
+nearly right in his conjecture concerning the musician, who had 
+awakened the violin with so much taste, for that he was the son of a 
+peasant inhabiting the neighbouring valley.  'He is going to the 
+Carnival at Venice,' added Annette, 'for they say he has a fine hand 
+at playing, and will get a world of money; and the Carnival is just 
+going to begin:  but for my part, I should like to live among these 
+pleasant woods and hills, better than in a town; and they say 
+Ma'moiselle, we shall see no woods, or hills, or fields, at Venice, 
+for that it is built in the very middle of the sea.'
+
+Emily agreed with the talkative Annette, that this young man was 
+making a change for the worse, and could not forbear silently 
+lamenting, that he should be drawn from the innocence and beauty of 
+these scenes, to the corrupt ones of that voluptuous city.
+
+When she was alone, unable to sleep, the landscapes of her native 
+home, with Valancourt, and the circumstances of her departure, 
+haunted her fancy; she drew pictures of social happiness amidst the 
+grand simplicity of nature, such as she feared she had bade farewel 
+to for ever; and then, the idea of this young Piedmontese, thus 
+ignorantly sporting with his happiness, returned to her thoughts, 
+and, glad to escape awhile from the pressure of nearer interests, she 
+indulged her fancy in composing the following lines.
+
+     THE PIEDMONTESE
+
+ Ah, merry swain, who laugh'd along the vales,
+ And with your gay pipe made the mountains ring,
+ Why leave your cot, your woods, and thymy gales,
+ And friends belov'd, for aught that wealth can bring?
+ He goes to wake o'er moon-light seas the string,
+ Venetian gold his untaught fancy hails!
+ Yet oft of home his simple carols sing,
+ And his steps pause, as the last Alp he scales.
+ Once more he turns to view his native scene--
+ Far, far below, as roll the clouds away,
+ He spies his cabin 'mid the pine-tops green,
+ The well-known woods, clear brook, and pastures gay;
+ And thinks of friends and parents left behind,
+ Of sylvan revels, dance, and festive song;
+ And hears the faint reed swelling in the wind;
+ And his sad sighs the distant notes prolong!
+ Thus went the swain, till mountain-shadows fell,
+ And dimm'd the landscape to his aching sight;
+ And must he leave the vales he loves so well!
+ Can foreign wealth, and shows, his heart delight?
+ No, happy vales! your wild rocks still shall hear
+ His pipe, light sounding on the morning breeze;
+ Still shall he lead the flocks to streamlet clear,
+ And watch at eve beneath the western trees.
+ Away, Venetian gold--your charm is o'er!
+ And now his swift step seeks the lowland bow'rs,
+ Where, through the leaves, his cottage light ONCE MORE
+ Guides him to happy friends, and jocund hours.
+ Ah, merry swain! that laugh along the vales,
+ And with your gay pipe make the mountains ring,
+ Your cot, your woods, your thymy-scented gales--
+ And friends belov'd--more joy than wealth can bring!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+ TITANIA.  If you will patiently dance in our round,
+  And see our moon-light revels, go with us.
+     MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
+
+Early on the following morning, the travellers set out for Turin.  
+The luxuriant plain, that extends from the feet of the Alps to that 
+magnificent city, was not then, as now, shaded by an avenue of trees 
+nine miles in length; but plantations of olives, mulberry and palms, 
+festooned with vines, mingled with the pastoral scenery, through with 
+the rapid Po, after its descent from the mountains, wandered to meet 
+the humble Doria at Turin.  As they advanced towards this city, the 
+Alps, seen at some distance, began to appear in all their awful 
+sublimity; chain rising over chain in long succession, their higher 
+points darkened by the hovering clouds, sometimes hid, and at others 
+seen shooting up far above them; while their lower steeps, broken 
+into fantastic forms, were touched with blue and purplish tints, 
+which, as they changed in light and shade, seemed to open new scenes 
+to the eye.  To the east stretched the plains of Lombardy, with the 
+towers of Turin rising at a distance; and beyond, the Apennines, 
+bounding the horizon.
+
+The general magnificence of that city, with its vistas of churches 
+and palaces, branching from the grand square, each opening to a 
+landscape of the distant Alps or Apennines, was not only such as 
+Emily had never seen in France, but such as she had never imagined.
+
+Montoni, who had been often at Turin, and cared little about views of 
+any kind, did not comply with his wife's request, that they might 
+survey some of the palaces; but staying only till the necessary 
+refreshments could be obtained, they set forward for Venice with all 
+possible rapidity.  Montoni's manner, during this journey, was grave, 
+and even haughty; and towards Madame Montoni he was more especially 
+reserved; but it was not the reserve of respect so much as of pride 
+and discontent.  Of Emily he took little notice.  With Cavigni his 
+conversations were commonly on political or military topics, such as 
+the convulsed state of their country rendered at this time 
+particularly interesting, Emily observed, that, at the mention of any 
+daring exploit, Montoni's eyes lost their sullenness, and seemed 
+instantaneously to gleam with fire; yet they still retained somewhat 
+of a lurking cunning, and she sometimes thought that their fire 
+partook more of the glare of malice than the brightness of valour, 
+though the latter would well have harmonized with the high chivalric 
+air of his figure, in which Cavigni, with all his gay and gallant 
+manners, was his inferior.
+
+On entering the Milanese, the gentlemen exchanged their French hats 
+for the Italian cap of scarlet cloth, embroidered; and Emily was 
+somewhat surprised to observe, that Montoni added to his the military 
+plume, while Cavigni retained only the feather:  which was usually 
+worn with such caps:  but she at length concluded, that Montoni 
+assumed this ensign of a soldier for convenience, as a means of 
+passing with more safety through a country over-run with parties of 
+the military.
+
+Over the beautiful plains of this country the devastations of war 
+were frequently visible.  Where the lands had not been suffered to 
+lie uncultivated, they were often tracked with the steps of the 
+spoiler; the vines were torn down from the branches that had 
+supported them, the olives trampled upon the ground, and even the 
+groves of mulberry trees had been hewn by the enemy to light fires 
+that destroyed the hamlets and villages of their owners.  Emily 
+turned her eyes with a sigh from these painful vestiges of 
+contention, to the Alps of the Grison, that overlooked them to the 
+north, whose awful solitudes seemed to offer to persecuted man a 
+secure asylum.
+
+The travellers frequently distinguished troops of soldiers moving at 
+a distance; and they experienced, at the little inns on the road, the 
+scarcity of provision and other inconveniences, which are a part of 
+the consequence of intestine war; but they had never reason to be 
+much alarmed for their immediate safety, and they passed on to Milan 
+with little interruption of any kind, where they staid not to survey 
+the grandeur of the city, or even to view its vast cathedral, which 
+was then building.
+
+Beyond Milan, the country wore the aspect of a ruder devastation; and 
+though every thing seemed now quiet, the repose was like that of 
+death, spread over features, which retain the impression of the last 
+convulsions.
+
+It was not till they had passed the eastern limits of the Milanese, 
+that the travellers saw any troops since they had left Milan, when, 
+as the evening was drawing to a close, they descried what appeared to 
+be an army winding onward along the distant plains, whose spears and 
+other arms caught the last rays of the sun.  As the column advanced 
+through a part of the road, contracted between two hillocks, some of 
+the commanders, on horseback, were distinguished on a small eminence, 
+pointing and making signals for the march; while several of the 
+officers were riding along the line directing its progress, according 
+to the signs communicated by those above; and others, separating from 
+the vanguard, which had emerged from the pass, were riding carelessly 
+along the plains at some distance to the right of the army.
+
+As they drew nearer, Montoni, distinguishing the feathers that waved 
+in their caps, and the banners and liveries of the bands that 
+followed them, thought he knew this to be the small army commanded by 
+the famous captain Utaldo, with whom, as well as with some of the 
+other chiefs, he was personally acquainted.  He, therefore, gave 
+orders that the carriages should draw up by the side of the road, to 
+await their arrival, and give them the pass.  A faint strain of 
+martial music now stole by, and, gradually strengthening as the 
+troops approached, Emily distinguished the drums and trumpets, with 
+the clash of cymbals and of arms, that were struck by a small party, 
+in time to the march.
+
+Montoni being now certain that these were the bands of the victorious 
+Utaldo, leaned from the carriage window, and hailed their general by 
+waving his cap in the air; which compliment the chief returned by 
+raising his spear, and then letting it down again suddenly, while 
+some of his officers, who were riding at a distance from the troops, 
+came up to the carriage, and saluted Montoni as an old acquaintance.  
+The captain himself soon after arriving, his bands halted while he 
+conversed with Montoni, whom he appeared much rejoiced to see; and 
+from what he said, Emily understood that this was a victorious army, 
+returning into their own principality; while the numerous waggons, 
+that accompanied them, contained the rich spoils of the enemy, their 
+own wounded soldiers, and the prisoners they had taken in battle, who 
+were to be ransomed when the peace, then negociating between the 
+neighbouring states, should be ratified.  The chiefs on the following 
+day were to separate, and each, taking his share of the spoil, was to 
+return with his own band to his castle.  This was therefore to be an 
+evening of uncommon and general festivity, in commemoration of the 
+victory they had accomplished together, and of the farewell which the 
+commanders were about to take of each other.
+
+Emily, as these officers conversed with Montoni, observed with 
+admiration, tinctured with awe, their high martial air, mingled with 
+the haughtiness of the nobless of those days, and heightened by the 
+gallantry of their dress, by the plumes towering on their caps, the 
+armorial coat, Persian sash, and ancient Spanish cloak.  Utaldo, 
+telling Montoni that his army were going to encamp for the night near 
+a village at only a few miles distance, invited him to turn back and 
+partake of their festivity, assuring the ladies also, that they 
+should be pleasantly accommodated; but Montoni excused himself, 
+adding, that it was his design to reach Verona that evening; and, 
+after some conversation concerning the state of the country towards 
+that city, they parted.
+
+The travellers proceeded without any interruption; but it was some 
+hours after sun-set before they arrived at Verona, whose beautiful 
+environs were therefore not seen by Emily till the following morning; 
+when, leaving that pleasant town at an early hour, they set off for 
+Padua, where they embarked on the Brenta for Venice.  Here the scene 
+was entirely changed; no vestiges of war, such as had deformed the 
+plains of the Milanese, appeared; on the contrary, all was peace and 
+elegance.  The verdant banks of the Brenta exhibited a continued 
+landscape of beauty, gaiety, and splendour.  Emily gazed with 
+admiration on the villas of the Venetian noblesse, with their cool 
+porticos and colonnades, overhung with poplars and cypresses of 
+majestic height and lively verdure; on their rich orangeries, whose 
+blossoms perfumed the air, and on the luxuriant willows, that dipped 
+their light leaves in the wave, and sheltered from the sun the gay 
+parties whose music came at intervals on the breeze.  The Carnival 
+did, indeed, appear to extend from Venice along the whole line of 
+these enchanting shores; the river was gay with boats passing to that 
+city, exhibiting the fantastic diversity of a masquerade in the 
+dresses of the people within them; and, towards evening, groups of 
+dancers frequently were seen beneath the trees.
+
+Cavigni, meanwhile, informed her of the names of the noblemen to whom 
+the several villas they passed belonged, adding light sketches of 
+their characters, such as served to amuse rather than to inform, 
+exhibiting his own wit instead of the delineation of truth.  Emily 
+was sometimes diverted by his conversation; but his gaiety did not 
+entertain Madame Montoni, as it had formerly done; she was frequently 
+grave, and Montoni retained his usual reserve.
+
+Nothing could exceed Emily's admiration on her first view of Venice, 
+with its islets, palaces, and towers rising out of the sea, whose 
+clear surface reflected the tremulous picture in all its colours.  
+The sun, sinking in the west, tinted the waves and the lofty 
+mountains of Friuli, which skirt the northern shores of the Adriatic, 
+with a saffron glow, while on the marble porticos and colonnades of 
+St. Mark were thrown the rich lights and shades of evening.  As they 
+glided on, the grander features of this city appeared more 
+distinctly:  its terraces, crowned with airy yet majestic fabrics, 
+touched, as they now were, with the splendour of the setting sun, 
+appeared as if they had been called up from the ocean by the wand of 
+an enchanter, rather than reared by mortal hands.
+
+The sun, soon after, sinking to the lower world, the shadow of the 
+earth stole gradually over the waves, and then up the towering sides 
+of the mountains of Friuli, till it extinguished even the last upward 
+beams that had lingered on their summits, and the melancholy purple 
+of evening drew over them, like a thin veil.  How deep, how beautiful 
+was the tranquillity that wrapped the scene!  All nature seemed to 
+repose; the finest emotions of the soul were alone awake.  Emily's 
+eyes filled with tears of admiration and sublime devotion, as she 
+raised them over the sleeping world to the vast heavens, and heard 
+the notes of solemn music, that stole over the waters from a 
+distance.  She listened in still rapture, and no person of the party 
+broke the charm by an enquiry.  The sounds seemed to grow on the air; 
+for so smoothly did the barge glide along, that its motion was not 
+perceivable, and the fairy city appeared approaching to welcome the 
+strangers.  They now distinguished a female voice, accompanied by a 
+few instruments, singing a soft and mournful air; and its fine 
+expression, as sometimes it seemed pleading with the impassioned 
+tenderness of love, and then languishing into the cadence of hopeless 
+grief, declared, that it flowed from no feigned sensibility.  Ah! 
+thought Emily, as she sighed and remembered Valancourt, those strains 
+come from the heart!
+
+She looked round, with anxious enquiry; the deep twilight, that had 
+fallen over the scene, admitted only imperfect images to the eye, 
+but, at some distance on the sea, she thought she perceived a 
+gondola:  a chorus of voices and instruments now swelled on the air--
+so sweet, so solemn! it seemed like the hymn of angels descending 
+through the silence of night!  Now it died away, and fancy almost 
+beheld the holy choir reascending towards heaven; then again it 
+swelled with the breeze, trembled awhile, and again died into 
+silence.  It brought to Emily's recollection some lines of her late 
+father, and she repeated in a low voice,
+
+     Oft I hear,
+ Upon the silence of the midnight air,
+ Celestial voices swell in holy chorus
+ That bears the soul to heaven!
+
+The deep stillness, that succeeded, was as expressive as the strain 
+that had just ceased.  It was uninterrupted for several minutes, till 
+a general sigh seemed to release the company from their enchantment.  
+Emily, however, long indulged the pleasing sadness, that had stolen 
+upon her spirits; but the gay and busy scene that appeared, as the 
+barge approached St. Mark's Place, at length roused her attention.  
+The rising moon, which threw a shadowy light upon the terraces, and 
+illumined the porticos and magnificent arcades that crowned them, 
+discovered the various company, whose light steps, soft guitars, and 
+softer voices, echoed through the colonnades.
+
+The music they heard before now passed Montoni's barge, in one of the 
+gondolas, of which several were seen skimming along the moon-light 
+sea, full of gay parties, catching the cool breeze.  Most of these 
+had music, made sweeter by the waves over which it floated, and by 
+the measured sound of oars, as they dashed the sparkling tide.  Emily 
+gazed, and listened, and thought herself in a fairy scene; even 
+Madame Montoni was pleased; Montoni congratulated himself on his 
+return to Venice, which he called the first city in the world, and 
+Cavigni was more gay and animated than ever.
+
+The barge passed on to the grand canal, where Montoni's mansion was 
+situated.  And here, other forms of beauty and of grandeur, such as 
+her imagination had never painted, were unfolded to Emily in the 
+palaces of Sansovino and Palladio, as she glided along the waves.  
+The air bore no sounds, but those of sweetness, echoing along each 
+margin of the canal, and from gondolas on its surface, while groups 
+of masks were seen dancing on the moon-light terraces, and seemed 
+almost to realize the romance of fairyland.
+
+The barge stopped before the portico of a large house, from whence a 
+servant of Montoni crossed the terrace, and immediately the party 
+disembarked.  From the portico they passed a noble hall to a stair-
+case of marble, which led to a saloon, fitted up in a style of 
+magnificence that surprised Emily.  The walls and ceilings were 
+adorned with historical and allegorical paintings, in fresco; silver 
+tripods, depending from chains of the same metal, illumined the 
+apartment, the floor of which was covered with Indian mats painted in 
+a variety of colours and devices; the couches and drapery of the 
+lattices were of pale green silk, embroidered and fringed with green 
+and gold.  Balcony lattices opened upon the grand canal, whence rose 
+a confusion of voices and of musical instruments, and the breeze that 
+gave freshness to the apartment.  Emily, considering the gloomy 
+temper of Montoni, looked upon the splendid furniture of this house 
+with surprise, and remembered the report of his being a man of broken 
+fortune, with astonishment.  'Ah!' said she to herself, 'if 
+Valancourt could but see this mansion, what peace would it give him!  
+He would then be convinced that the report was groundless.'
+
+Madame Montoni seemed to assume the air of a princess; but Montoni 
+was restless and discontented, and did not even observe the civility 
+of bidding her welcome to her home.
+
+Soon after his arrival, he ordered his gondola, and, with Cavigni, 
+went out to mingle in the scenes of the evening.  Madame then became 
+serious and thoughtful.  Emily, who was charmed with every thing she 
+saw, endeavoured to enliven her; but reflection had not, with Madame 
+Montoni, subdued caprice and ill-humour, and her answers discovered 
+so much of both, that Emily gave up the attempt of diverting her, and 
+withdrew to a lattice, to amuse herself with the scene without, so 
+new and so enchanting.
+
+The first object that attracted her notice was a group of dancers on 
+the terrace below, led by a guitar and some other instruments.  The 
+girl, who struck the guitar, and another, who flourished a 
+tambourine, passed on in a dancing step, and with a light grace and 
+gaiety of heart, that would have subdued the goddess of spleen in her 
+worst humour.  After these came a group of fantastic figures, some 
+dressed as gondolieri, others as minstrels, while others seemed to 
+defy all description.  They sung in parts, their voices accompanied 
+by a few soft instruments.  At a little distance from the portico 
+they stopped, and Emily distinguished the verses of Ariosto.  They 
+sung of the wars of the Moors against Charlemagne, and then of the 
+woes of Orlando:  afterwards the measure changed, and the melancholy 
+sweetness of Petrarch succeeded.  The magic of his grief was assisted 
+by all that Italian music and Italian expression, heightened by the 
+enchantments of Venetian moonlight, could give.
+
+Emily, as she listened, caught the pensive enthusiasm; her tears 
+flowed silently, while her fancy bore her far away to France and to 
+Valancourt.  Each succeeding sonnet, more full of charming sadness 
+than the last, seemed to bind the spell of melancholy:  with extreme 
+regret she saw the musicians move on, and her attention followed the 
+strain till the last faint warble died in air.  She then remained 
+sunk in that pensive tranquillity which soft music leaves on the 
+mind--a state like that produced by the view of a beautiful landscape 
+by moon-light, or by the recollection of scenes marked with the 
+tenderness of friends lost for ever, and with sorrows, which time has 
+mellowed into mild regret.  Such scenes are indeed, to the mind, like 
+'those faint traces which the memory bears of music that is past'.
+
+Other sounds soon awakened her attention:  it was the solemn harmony 
+of horns, that swelled from a distance; and, observing the gondolas 
+arrange themselves along the margin of the terraces, she threw on her 
+veil, and, stepping into the balcony, discerned, in the distant 
+perspective of the canal, something like a procession, floating on 
+the light surface of the water:  as it approached, the horns and 
+other instruments mingled sweetly, and soon after the fabled deities 
+of the city seemed to have arisen from the ocean; for Neptune, with 
+Venice personified as his queen, came on the undulating waves, 
+surrounded by tritons and sea-nymphs.  The fantastic splendour of 
+this spectacle, together with the grandeur of the surrounding 
+palaces, appeared like the vision of a poet suddenly embodied, and 
+the fanciful images, which it awakened in Emily's mind, lingered 
+there long after the procession had passed away.  She indulged 
+herself in imagining what might be the manners and delights of a sea-
+nymph, till she almost wished to throw off the habit of mortality, 
+and plunge into the green wave to participate them.
+
+'How delightful,' said she, 'to live amidst the coral bowers and 
+crystal caverns of the ocean, with my sister nymphs, and listen to 
+the sounding waters above, and to the soft shells of the tritons! and 
+then, after sun-set, to skim on the surface of the waves round wild 
+rocks and along sequestered shores, where, perhaps, some pensive 
+wanderer comes to weep!  Then would I soothe his sorrows with my 
+sweet music, and offer him from a shell some of the delicious fruit 
+that hangs round Neptune's palace.'
+
+She was recalled from her reverie to a mere mortal supper, and could 
+not forbear smiling at the fancies she had been indulging, and at her 
+conviction of the serious displeasure, which Madame Montoni would 
+have expressed, could she have been made acquainted with them.
+
+After supper, her aunt sat late, but Montoni did not return, and she 
+at length retired to rest.  If Emily had admired the magnificence of 
+the saloon, she was not less surprised, on observing the half-
+furnished and forlorn appearance of the apartments she passed in the 
+way to her chamber, whither she went through long suites of noble 
+rooms, that seemed, from their desolate aspect, to have been 
+unoccupied for many years.  On the walls of some were the faded 
+remains of tapestry; from others, painted in fresco, the damps had 
+almost withdrawn both colours and design.  At length she reached her 
+own chamber, spacious, desolate, and lofty, like the rest, with high 
+lattices that opened towards the Adriatic.  It brought gloomy images 
+to her mind, but the view of the Adriatic soon gave her others more 
+airy, among which was that of the sea-nymph, whose delights she had 
+before amused herself with picturing; and, anxious to escape from 
+serious reflections, she now endeavoured to throw her fanciful ideas 
+into a train, and concluded the hour with composing the following 
+lines:
+
+     THE SEA-NYMPH
+
+ Down, down a thousand fathom deep,
+ Among the sounding seas I go;
+ Play round the foot of ev'ry steep
+ Whose cliffs above the ocean grow.
+
+ There, within their secret cares,
+ I hear the mighty rivers roar;
+ And guide their streams through Neptune's waves
+ To bless the green earth's inmost shore:
+
+ And bid the freshen'd waters glide,
+ For fern-crown'd nymphs of lake, or brook,
+ Through winding woods and pastures wide,
+ And many a wild, romantic nook.
+
+ For this the nymphs, at fall of eave,
+ Oft dance upon the flow'ry banks,
+ And sing my name, and garlands weave
+ To bear beneath the wave their thanks.
+
+ In coral bow'rs I love to lie,
+ And hear the surges roll above,
+ And through the waters view on high
+ The proud ships sail, and gay clouds move.
+
+ And oft at midnight's stillest hour,
+ When summer seas the vessel lave,
+ I love to prove my charmful pow'r
+ While floating on the moon-light wave.
+
+ And when deep sleep the crew has bound,
+ And the sad lover musing leans
+ O'er the ship's side, I breathe around
+ Such strains as speak no mortal means!
+ 
+ O'er the dim waves his searching eye
+ Sees but the vessel's lengthen'd shade;
+ Above--the moon and azure sky;
+ Entranc'd he hears, and half afraid!
+
+ Sometimes, a single note I swell,
+ That, softly sweet, at distance dies;
+ Then wake the magic of my shell,
+ And choral voices round me rise!
+
+ The trembling youth, charm'd by my strain,
+ Calls up the crew, who, silent, bend
+ O'er the high deck, but list in vain;
+ My song is hush'd, my wonders end!
+
+ Within the mountain's woody bay,
+ Where the tall bark at anchor rides,
+ At twilight hour, with tritons gay,
+ I dance upon the lapsing tides:
+
+ And with my sister-nymphs I sport,
+ Till the broad sun looks o'er the floods;
+ Then, swift we seek our crystal court,
+ Deep in the wave, 'mid Neptune's woods.
+
+ In cool arcades and glassy halls
+ We pass the sultry hours of noon,
+ Beyond wherever sun-beam falls,
+ Weaving sea-flowers in gay festoon.
+
+ The while we chant our ditties sweet
+ To some soft shell that warbles near;
+ Join'd by the murmuring currents, fleet,
+ That glide along our halls so clear.
+
+ There, the pale pearl and sapphire blue,
+ And ruby red, and em'rald green,
+ Dart from the domes a changing hue,
+ And sparry columns deck the scene.
+
+ When the dark storm scowls o'er the deep,
+ And long, long peals of thunder sound,
+ On some high cliff my watch I keep
+ O'er all the restless seas around:
+
+ Till on the ridgy wave afar
+ Comes the lone vessel, labouring slow,
+ Spreading the white foam in the air,
+ With sail and top-mast bending low.
+
+ Then, plunge I 'mid the ocean's roar,
+ My way by quiv'ring lightnings shewn,
+ To guide the bark to peaceful shore,
+ And hush the sailor's fearful groan.
+
+ And if too late I reach its side
+ To save it from the 'whelming surge,
+ I call my dolphins o'er the tide,
+ To bear the crew where isles emerge.
+
+ Their mournful spirits soon I cheer,
+ While round the desert coast I go,
+ With warbled songs they faintly hear,
+ Oft as the stormy gust sinks low.
+
+ My music leads to lofty groves,
+ That wild upon the sea-bank wave;
+ Where sweet fruits bloom, and fresh spring roves,
+ And closing boughs the tempest brave.
+
+ Then, from the air spirits obey
+ My potent voice they love so well,
+ And, on the clouds, paint visions gay,
+ While strains more sweet at distance swell.
+
+ And thus the lonely hours I cheat,
+ Soothing the ship-wreck'd sailor's heart,
+ Till from the waves the storms retreat,
+ And o'er the east the day-beams dart.
+
+ Neptune for this oft binds me fast
+ To rocks below, with coral chain,
+ Till all the tempest's over-past,
+ And drowning seamen cry in vain.
+
+ Whoe'er ye are that love my lay,
+ Come, when red sun-set tints the wave,
+ To the still sands, where fairies play;
+ There, in cool seas, I love to lave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+ He is a great observer, and he looks
+ Quite through the deeds of men:  he loves no plays,
+     he hears no music;
+ Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,
+ As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
+ that could be mov'd to smile at any thing.
+ Such men as he be never at heart's ease,
+ While they behold a greater than themselves.
+     JULIUS CAESAR
+
+Montoni and his companion did not return home, till many hours after 
+the dawn had blushed upon the Adriatic.  The airy groups, which had 
+danced all night along the colonnade of St. Mark, dispersed before 
+the morning, like so many spirits.  Montoni had been otherwise 
+engaged; his soul was little susceptible of light pleasures.  He 
+delighted in the energies of the passions; the difficulties and 
+tempests of life, which wreck the happiness of others, roused and 
+strengthened all the powers of his mind, and afforded him the highest 
+enjoyments, of which his nature was capable.  Without some object of 
+strong interest, life was to him little more than a sleep; and, when 
+pursuits of real interest failed, he substituted artificial ones, 
+till habit changed their nature, and they ceased to be unreal.  Of 
+this kind was the habit of gaming, which he had adopted, first, for 
+the purpose of relieving him from the languor of inaction, but had 
+since pursued with the ardour of passion.  In this occupation he had 
+passed the night with Cavigni and a party of young men, who had more 
+money than rank, and more vice than either.  Montoni despised the 
+greater part of these for the inferiority of their talents, rather 
+than for their vicious inclinations, and associated with them only to 
+make them the instruments of his purposes.  Among these, however, 
+were some of superior abilities, and a few whom Montoni admitted to 
+his intimacy, but even towards these he still preserved a decisive 
+and haughty air, which, while it imposed submission on weak and timid 
+minds, roused the fierce hatred of strong ones.  He had, of course, 
+many and bitter enemies; but the rancour of their hatred proved the 
+degree of his power; and, as power was his chief aim, he gloried more 
+in such hatred, than it was possible he could in being esteemed.  A 
+feeling so tempered as that of esteem, he despised, and would have 
+despised himself also had he thought himself capable of being 
+flattered by it.
+
+Among the few whom he distinguished, were the Signors Bertolini, 
+Orsino, and Verezzi.  The first was a man of gay temper, strong 
+passions, dissipated, and of unbounded extravagance, but generous, 
+brave, and unsuspicious.  Orsino was reserved, and haughty; loving 
+power more than ostentation; of a cruel and suspicious temper; quick 
+to feel an injury, and relentless in avenging it; cunning and 
+unsearchable in contrivance, patient and indefatigable in the 
+execution of his schemes.  He had a perfect command of feature and of 
+his passions, of which he had scarcely any, but pride, revenge and 
+avarice; and, in the gratification of these, few considerations had 
+power to restrain him, few obstacles to withstand the depth of his 
+stratagems.  This man was the chief favourite of Montoni.  Verezzi 
+was a man of some talent, of fiery imagination, and the slave of 
+alternate passions.  He was gay, voluptuous, and daring; yet had 
+neither perseverance or true courage, and was meanly selfish in all 
+his aims.  Quick to form schemes, and sanguine in his hope of 
+success, he was the first to undertake, and to abandon, not only his 
+own plans, but those adopted from other persons.  Proud and 
+impetuous, he revolted against all subordination; yet those who were 
+acquainted with his character, and watched the turn of his passions, 
+could lead him like a child.
+
+Such were the friends whom Montoni introduced to his family and his 
+table, on the day after his arrival at Venice.  There were also of 
+the party a Venetian nobleman, Count Morano, and a Signora Livona, 
+whom Montoni had introduced to his wife, as a lady of distinguished 
+merit, and who, having called in the morning to welcome her to 
+Venice, had been requested to be of the dinner party.
+
+Madame Montoni received with a very ill grace, the compliments of the 
+Signors.  She disliked them, because they were the friends of her 
+husband; hated them, because she believed they had contributed to 
+detain him abroad till so late an hour of the preceding morning; and 
+envied them, since, conscious of her own want of influence, she was 
+convinced, that he preferred their society to her own.  The rank of 
+Count Morano procured him that distinction which she refused to the 
+rest of the company.  The haughty sullenness of her countenance and 
+manner, and the ostentatious extravagance of her dress, for she had 
+not yet adopted the Venetian habit, were strikingly contrasted by the 
+beauty, modesty, sweetness and simplicity of Emily, who observed, 
+with more attention than pleasure, the party around her.  The beauty 
+and fascinating manners of Signora Livona, however, won her 
+involuntary regard; while the sweetness of her accents and her air of 
+gentle kindness awakened with Emily those pleasing affections, which 
+so long had slumbered.
+
+In the cool of the evening the party embarked in Montoni's gondola, 
+and rowed out upon the sea.  The red glow of sun-set still touched 
+the waves, and lingered in the west, where the melancholy gleam 
+seemed slowly expiring, while the dark blue of the upper aether began 
+to twinkle with stars.  Emily sat, given up to pensive and sweet 
+emotions.  The smoothness of the water, over which she glided, its 
+reflected images--a new heaven and trembling stars below the waves, 
+with shadowy outlines of towers and porticos, conspired with the 
+stillness of the hour, interrupted only by the passing wave, or the 
+notes of distant music, to raise those emotions to enthusiasm.  As 
+she listened to the measured sound of the oars, and to the remote 
+warblings that came in the breeze, her softened mind returned to the 
+memory of St. Aubert and to Valancourt, and tears stole to her eyes.  
+The rays of the moon, strengthening as the shadows deepened, soon 
+after threw a silvery gleam upon her countenance, which was partly 
+shaded by a thin black veil, and touched it with inimitable softness.  
+Hers was the CONTOUR of a Madona, with the sensibility of a Magdalen; 
+and the pensive uplifted eye, with the tear that glittered on her 
+cheek, confirmed the expression of the character.
+
+The last strain of distant music now died in air, for the gondola was 
+far upon the waves, and the party determined to have music of their 
+own.  The Count Morano, who sat next to Emily, and who had been 
+observing her for some time in silence, snatched up a lute, and 
+struck the chords with the finger of harmony herself, while his 
+voice, a fine tenor, accompanied them in a rondeau full of tender 
+sadness.  To him, indeed, might have been applied that beautiful 
+exhortation of an English poet, had it then existed:
+
+     Strike up, my master,
+ But touch the strings with a religious softness!
+ Teach sounds to languish through the night's dull ear
+ Till Melancholy starts from off her couch,
+ And Carelessness grows concert to attention!
+
+With such powers of expression the Count sung the following
+
+     RONDEAU
+
+ Soft as yon silver ray, that sleeps
+ Upon the ocean's trembling tide;
+ Soft as the air, that lightly sweeps
+ Yon said, that swells in stately pride:
+
+ Soft as the surge's stealing note,
+ That dies along the distant shores,
+ Or warbled strain, that sinks remote--
+ So soft the sigh my bosom pours!
+
+ True as the wave to Cynthia's ray,
+ True as the vessel to the breeze,
+ True as the soul to music's sway,
+ Or music to Venetian seas:
+
+ Soft as yon silver beams, that sleep
+ Upon the ocean's trembling breast;
+ So soft, so true, fond Love shall weep,
+ So soft, so true, with THEE shall rest.
+
+The cadence with which he returned from the last stanza to a 
+repetition of the first; the fine modulation in which his voice stole 
+upon the first line, and the pathetic energy with which it pronounced 
+the last, were such as only exquisite taste could give.  When he had 
+concluded, he gave the lute with a sigh to Emily, who, to avoid any 
+appearance of affectation, immediately began to play.  She sung a 
+melancholy little air, one of the popular songs of her native 
+province, with a simplicity and pathos that made it enchanting.  But 
+its well-known melody brought so forcibly to her fancy the scenes and 
+the persons, among which she had often heard it, that her spirits 
+were overcome, her voice trembled and ceased--and the strings of the 
+lute were struck with a disordered hand; till, ashamed of the emotion 
+she had betrayed, she suddenly passed on to a song so gay and airy, 
+that the steps of the dance seemed almost to echo to the notes.  
+BRAVISSIMO! burst instantly from the lips of her delighted auditors, 
+and she was compelled to repeat the air.  Among the compliments that 
+followed, those of the Count were not the least audible, and they had 
+not concluded, when Emily gave the instrument to Signora Livona, 
+whose voice accompanied it with true Italian taste.
+
+Afterwards, the Count, Emily, Cavigni, and the Signora, sung 
+canzonettes, accompanied by a couple of lutes and a few other 
+instruments.  Sometimes the instruments suddenly ceased, and the 
+voices dropped from the full swell of harmony into a low chant; then, 
+after a deep pause, they rose by degrees, the instruments one by one 
+striking up, till the loud and full chorus soared again to heaven!
+
+Meanwhile, Montoni, who was weary of this harmony, was considering 
+how he might disengage himself from his party, or withdraw with such 
+of it as would be willing to play, to a Casino.  In a pause of the 
+music, he proposed returning to shore, a proposal which Orsino 
+eagerly seconded, but which the Count and the other gentlemen as 
+warmly opposed.
+
+Montoni still meditated how he might excuse himself from longer 
+attendance upon the Count, for to him only he thought excuse 
+necessary, and how he might get to land, till the gondolieri of an 
+empty boat, returning to Venice, hailed his people.  Without 
+troubling himself longer about an excuse, he seized this opportunity 
+of going thither, and, committing the ladies to the care of his 
+friends, departed with Orsino, while Emily, for the first time, saw 
+him go with regret; for she considered his presence a protection, 
+though she knew not what she should fear.  He landed at St. Mark's, 
+and, hurrying to a Casino, was soon lost amidst a crowd of gamesters.
+
+Meanwhile, the Count having secretly dispatched a servant in 
+Montoni's boat, for his own gondola and musicians, Emily heard, 
+without knowing his project, the gay song of gondolieri approaching, 
+as they sat on the stern of the boat, and saw the tremulous gleam of 
+the moon-light wave, which their oars disturbed.  Presently she heard 
+the sound of instruments, and then a full symphony swelled on the 
+air, and, the boats meeting, the gondolieri hailed each other.  The 
+count then explaining himself, the party removed into his gondola, 
+which was embellished with all that taste could bestow.
+
+While they partook of a collation of fruits and ice, the whole band, 
+following at a distance in the other boat, played the most sweet and 
+enchanting strains, and the Count, who had again seated himself by 
+Emily, paid her unremitted attention, and sometimes, in a low but 
+impassioned voice, uttered compliments which she could not 
+misunderstand.  To avoid them she conversed with Signora Livona, and 
+her manner to the Count assumed a mild reserve, which, though 
+dignified, was too gentle to repress his assiduities:  he could see, 
+hear, speak to no person, but Emily while Cavigni observed him now 
+and then, with a look of displeasure, and Emily, with one of 
+uneasiness.  she now wished for nothing so much as to return to 
+Venice, but it was near mid-night before the gondolas approached St. 
+Mark's Place, where the voice of gaiety and song was loud.  The busy 
+hum of mingling sounds was heard at a considerable distance on the 
+water, and, had not a bright moon-light discovered the city, with its 
+terraces and towers, a stranger would almost have credited the fabled 
+wonders of Neptune's court, and believed, that the tumult arose from 
+beneath the waves.
+
+They landed at St. Mark's, where the gaiety of the colonnades and the 
+beauty of the night, made Madame Montoni willingly submit to the 
+Count's solicitations to join the promenade, and afterwards to take a 
+supper with the rest of the party, at his Casino.  If any thing could 
+have dissipated Emily's uneasiness, it would have been the grandeur, 
+gaiety, and novelty of the surrounding scene, adorned with Palladio's 
+palaces, and busy with parties of masqueraders.
+
+At length they withdrew to the Casino, which was fitted up with 
+infinite taste, and where a splendid banquet was prepared; but here 
+Emily's reserve made the Count perceive, that it was necessary for 
+his interest to win the favour of Madame Montoni, which, from the 
+condescension she had already shewn to him, appeared to be an 
+achievement of no great difficulty.  He transferred, therefore, part 
+of his attention from Emily to her aunt, who felt too much flattered 
+by the distinction even to disguise her emotion; and before the party 
+broke up, he had entirely engaged the esteem of Madame Montoni.  
+whenever he addressed her, her ungracious countenance relaxed into 
+smiles, and to whatever he proposed she assented.  He invited her, 
+with the rest of the party, to take coffee, in his box at the opera, 
+on the following evening, and Emily heard the invitation accepted, 
+with strong anxiety, concerning the means of excusing herself from 
+attending Madame Montoni thither.
+
+It was very late before their gondola was ordered, and Emily's 
+surprise was extreme, when, on quitting the Casino, she beheld the 
+broad sun rising out of the Adriatic, while St. Mark's Place was yet 
+crowded with company.  Sleep had long weighed heavily on her eyes, 
+but now the fresh sea-breeze revived her, and she would have quitted 
+the scene with regret, had not the Count been present, performing the 
+duty, which he had imposed upon himself, of escorting them home.  
+There they heard that Montoni was not yet returned; and his wife, 
+retiring in displeasure to her apartment, at length released Emily 
+from the fatigue of further attendance.
+
+Montoni came home late in the morning, in a very ill humour, having 
+lost considerably at play, and, before he withdrew to rest, had a 
+private conference with Cavigni, whose manner, on the following day, 
+seemed to tell, that the subject of it had not been pleasing to him.
+
+In the evening, Madame Montoni, who, during the day, had observed a 
+sullen silence towards her husband, received visits from some 
+Venetian ladies, with whose sweet manners Emily was particularly 
+charmed.  They had an air of ease and kindness towards the strangers, 
+as if they had been their familiar friends for years; and their 
+conversation was by turns tender, sentimental and gay.  Madame, 
+though she had no taste for such conversation, and whose coarseness 
+and selfishness sometimes exhibited a ludicrous contrast to their 
+excessive refinement, could not remain wholly insensible to the 
+captivations of their manner.
+
+In a pause of conversation, a lady who was called Signora Herminia 
+took up a lute, and began to play and sing, with as much easy gaiety, 
+as if she had been alone.  Her voice was uncommonly rich in tone, and 
+various in expression; yet she appeared to be entirely unconscious of 
+its powers, and meant nothing less than to display them.  She sung 
+from the gaiety of her heart, as she sat with her veil half thrown 
+back, holding gracefully the lute, under the spreading foliage and 
+flowers of some plants, that rose from baskets, and interlaced one of 
+the lattices of the saloon.  Emily, retiring a little from the 
+company, sketched her figure, with the miniature scenery around her, 
+and drew a very interesting picture, which, though it would not, 
+perhaps, have borne criticism, had spirit and taste enough to awaken 
+both the fancy and the heart.  When she had finished it, she 
+presented it to the beautiful original, who was delighted with the 
+offering, as well as the sentiment it conveyed, and assured Emily, 
+with a smile of captivating sweetness, that she should preserve it as 
+a pledge of her friendship.
+
+In the evening Cavigni joined the ladies, but Montoni had other 
+engagements; and they embarked in the gondola for St. Mark's, where 
+the same gay company seemed to flutter as on the preceding night.  
+The cool breeze, the glassy sea, the gentle sound of its waves, and 
+the sweeter murmur of distant music; the lofty porticos and arcades, 
+and the happy groups that sauntered beneath them; these, with every 
+feature and circumstance of the scene, united to charm Emily, no 
+longer teased by the officious attentions of Count Morano.  But, as 
+she looked upon the moon-light sea, undulating along the walls of St. 
+Mark, and, lingering for a moment over those walls, caught the sweet 
+and melancholy song of some gondolier as he sat in his boat below, 
+waiting for his master, her softened mind returned to the memory of 
+her home, of her friends, and of all that was dear in her native 
+country.
+
+After walking some time, they sat down at the door of a Casino, and, 
+while Cavigni was accommodating them with coffee and ice, were joined 
+by Count Morano.  He sought Emily with a look of impatient delight, 
+who, remembering all the attention he had shewn her on the preceding 
+evening, was compelled, as before, to shrink from his assiduities 
+into a timid reserve, except when she conversed with Signora Herminia 
+and the other ladies of her party.
+
+It was near midnight before they withdrew to the opera, where Emily 
+was not so charmed but that, when she remembered the scene she had 
+just quitted, she felt how infinitely inferior all the splendour of 
+art is to the sublimity of nature.  Her heart was not now affected, 
+tears of admiration did not start to her eyes, as when she viewed the 
+vast expanse of ocean, the grandeur of the heavens, and listened to 
+the rolling waters, and to the faint music that, at intervals, 
+mingled with their roar.  Remembering these, the scene before her 
+faded into insignificance.
+
+Of the evening, which passed on without any particular incident, she 
+wished the conclusion, that she might escape from the attentions of 
+the Count; and, as opposite qualities frequently attract each other 
+in our thoughts, thus Emily, when she looked on Count Morano, 
+remembered Valancourt, and a sigh sometimes followed the 
+recollection.
+
+Several weeks passed in the course of customary visits, during which 
+nothing remarkable occurred.  Emily was amused by the manners and 
+scenes that surrounded her, so different from those of France, but 
+where Count Morano, too frequently for her comfort, contrived to 
+introduce himself.  His manner, figure and accomplishments, which 
+were generally admired, Emily would, perhaps, have admired also, had 
+her heart been disengaged from Valancourt, and had the Count forborne 
+to persecute her with officious attentions, during which she observed 
+some traits in his character, that prejudiced her against whatever 
+might otherwise be good in it.
+
+Soon after his arrival at Venice, Montoni received a packet from M. 
+Quesnel, in which the latter mentioned the death of his wife's uncle, 
+at his villa on the Brenta; and that, in consequence of this event, 
+he should hasten to take possession of that estate and of other 
+effects bequeathed to him.  This uncle was the brother of Madame 
+Quesnel's late mother; Montoni was related to her by the father's 
+side, and though he could have had neither claim nor expectation 
+concerning these possessions, he could scarcely conceal the envy 
+which M. Quesnel's letter excited.
+
+Emily had observed with concern, that, since they left France, 
+Montoni had not even affected kindness towards her aunt, and that, 
+after treating her, at first, with neglect, he now met her with 
+uniform ill-humour and reserve.  She had never supposed, that her 
+aunt's foibles could have escaped the discernment of Montoni, or that 
+her mind or figure were of a kind to deserve his attention.  Her 
+surprise, therefore, at this match, had been extreme; but since he 
+had made the choice, she did not suspect that he would so openly have 
+discovered his contempt of it.  But Montoni, who had been allured by 
+the seeming wealth of Madame Cheron, was now severely disappointed by 
+her comparative poverty, and highly exasperated by the deceit she had 
+employed to conceal it, till concealment was no longer necessary.  He 
+had been deceived in an affair, wherein he meant to be the deceiver; 
+out-witted by the superior cunning of a woman, whose understanding he 
+despised, and to whom he had sacrificed his pride and his liberty, 
+without saving himself from the ruin, which had impended over his 
+head.  Madame Montoni had contrived to have the greatest part of what 
+she really did possess, settled upon herself:  what remained, though 
+it was totally inadequate both to her husband's expectations, and to 
+his necessities, he had converted into money, and brought with him to 
+Venice, that he might a little longer delude society, and make a last 
+effort to regain the fortunes he had lost.
+
+The hints which had been thrown out to Valancourt, concerning 
+Montoni's character and condition, were too true; but it was now left 
+to time and occasion, to unfold the circumstances, both of what had, 
+and of what had not been hinted, and to time and occasion we commit 
+them.
+
+Madame Montoni was not of a nature to bear injuries with meekness, or 
+to resent them with dignity:  her exasperated pride displayed itself 
+in all the violence and acrimony of a little, or at least of an ill-
+regulated mind.  She would not acknowledge, even to herself, that she 
+had in any degree provoked contempt by her duplicity, but weakly 
+persisted in believing, that she alone was to be pitied, and Montoni 
+alone to be censured; for, as her mind had naturally little 
+perception of moral obligation, she seldom understood its force but 
+when it happened to be violated towards herself:  her vanity had 
+already been severely shocked by a discovery of Montoni's contempt; 
+it remained to be farther reproved by a discovery of his 
+circumstances.  His mansion at Venice, though its furniture 
+discovered a part of the truth to unprejudiced persons, told nothing 
+to those who were blinded by a resolution to believe whatever they 
+wished.  Madame Montoni still thought herself little less than a 
+princess, possessing a palace at Venice, and a castle among the 
+Apennines.  To the castle di Udolpho, indeed, Montoni sometimes 
+talked of going for a few weeks to examine into its condition, and to 
+receive some rents; for it appeared that he had not been there for 
+two years, and that, during this period, it had been inhabited only 
+by an old servant, whom he called his steward.
+
+Emily listened to the mention of this journey with pleasure, for she 
+not only expected from it new ideas, but a release from the 
+persevering assiduities of Count Morano.  In the country, too, she 
+would have leisure to think of Valancourt, and to indulge the 
+melancholy, which his image, and a recollection of the scenes of La 
+Vallee, always blessed with the memory of her parents, awakened.  The 
+ideal scenes were dearer, and more soothing to her heart, than all 
+the splendour of gay assemblies; they were a kind of talisman that 
+expelled the poison of temporary evils, and supported her hopes of 
+happy days:  they appeared like a beautiful landscape, lighted up by 
+a gleam of sun-shine, and seen through a perspective of dark and 
+rugged rocks.
+
+But Count Morano did not long confine himself to silent assiduities; 
+he declared his passion to Emily, and made proposals to Montoni, who 
+encouraged, though Emily rejected, him:  with Montoni for his friend, 
+and an abundance of vanity to delude him, he did not despair of 
+success.  Emily was astonished and highly disgusted at his 
+perseverance, after she had explained her sentiments with a frankness 
+that would not allow him to misunderstand them.
+
+He now passed the greater part of his time at Montoni's, dining there 
+almost daily, and attending Madame and Emily wherever they went; and 
+all this, notwithstanding the uniform reserve of Emily, whose aunt 
+seemed as anxious as Montoni to promote this marriage; and would 
+never dispense with her attendance at any assembly where the Count 
+proposed to be present.
+
+Montoni now said nothing of his intended journey, of which Emily 
+waited impatiently to hear; and he was seldom at home but when the 
+Count, or Signor Orsino, was there, for between himself and Cavigni a 
+coolness seemed to subsist, though the latter remained in his house.  
+With Orsino, Montoni was frequently closeted for hours together, and, 
+whatever might be the business, upon which they consulted, it 
+appeared to be of consequence, since Montoni often sacrificed to it 
+his favourite passion for play, and remained at home the whole night.  
+There was somewhat of privacy, too, in the manner of Orsino's visits, 
+which had never before occurred, and which excited not only surprise, 
+but some degree of alarm in Emily's mind, who had unwillingly 
+discovered much of his character when he had most endeavoured to 
+disguise it.  After these visits, Montoni was often more thoughtful 
+than usual; sometimes the deep workings of his mind entirely 
+abstracted him from surrounding objects, and threw a gloom over his 
+visage that rendered it terrible; at others, his eyes seemed almost 
+to flash fire, and all the energies of his soul appeared to be roused 
+for some great enterprise.  Emily observed these written characters 
+of his thoughts with deep interest, and not without some degree of 
+awe, when she considered that she was entirely in his power; but 
+forbore even to hint her fears, or her observations, to Madame 
+Montoni, who discerned nothing in her husband, at these times, but 
+his usual sternness.
+
+A second letter from M. Quesnel announced the arrival of himself and 
+his lady at the Villa Miarenti; stated several circumstances of his 
+good fortune, respecting the affair that had brought him into Italy; 
+and concluded with an earnest request to see Montoni, his wife and 
+niece, at his new estate.
+
+Emily received, about the same period, a much more interesting 
+letter, and which soothed for a while every anxiety of her heart.  
+Valancourt, hoping she might be still at Venice, had trusted a letter 
+to the ordinary post, that told her of his health, and of his 
+unceasing and anxious affection.  He had lingered at Tholouse for 
+some time after her departure, that he might indulge the melancholy 
+pleasure of wandering through the scenes where he had been accustomed 
+to behold her, and had thence gone to his brother's chateau, which 
+was in the neighbourhood of La Vallee.  Having mentioned this, he 
+added, 'If the duty of attending my regiment did not require my 
+departure, I know not when I should have resolution enough to quit 
+the neighbourhood of a place which is endeared by the remembrance of 
+you.  The vicinity to La Vallee has alone detained me thus long at 
+Estuviere:  I frequently ride thither early in the morning, that I 
+may wander, at leisure, through the day, among scenes, which were 
+once your home, where I have been accustomed to see you, and to hear 
+you converse.  I have renewed my acquaintance with the good old 
+Theresa, who rejoiced to see me, that she might talk of you:  I need 
+not say how much this circumstance attached me to her, or how eagerly 
+I listened to her upon her favourite subject.  You will guess the 
+motive that first induced me to make myself known to Theresa:  it 
+was, indeed, no other than that of gaining admittance into the 
+chateau and gardens, which my Emily had so lately inhabited:  here, 
+then, I wander, and meet your image under every shade:  but chiefly I 
+love to sit beneath the spreading branches of your favourite plane, 
+where once, Emily, we sat together; where I first ventured to tell 
+you, that I loved.  O Emily! the remembrance of those moments 
+overcomes me--I sit lost in reverie--I endeavour to see you dimly 
+through my tears, in all the heaven of peace and innocence, such as 
+you then appeared to me; to hear again the accents of that voice, 
+which then thrilled my heart with tenderness and hope.  I lean on the 
+wall of the terrace, where we together watched the rapid current of 
+the Garonne below, while I described the wild scenery about its 
+source, but thought only of you.  O Emily! are these moments passed 
+for ever--will they never more return?'
+
+In another part of his letter he wrote thus.  'You see my letter is 
+dated on many different days, and, if you look back to the first, you 
+will perceive, that I began to write soon after your departure from 
+France.  To write was, indeed, the only employment that withdrew me 
+from my own melancholy, and rendered your absence supportable, or 
+rather, it seemed to destroy absence; for, when I was conversing with 
+you on paper, and telling you every sentiment and affection of my 
+heart, you almost appeared to be present.  This employment has been 
+from time to time my chief consolation, and I have deferred sending 
+off my packet, merely for the comfort of prolonging it, though it was 
+certain, that what I had written, was written to no purpose till you 
+received it.  Whenever my mind has been more than usually depressed I 
+have come to pour forth its sorrows to you, and have always found 
+consolation; and, when any little occurrence has interested my heart, 
+and given a gleam of joy to my spirits, I have hastened to 
+communicate it to you, and have received reflected satisfaction.  
+Thus, my letter is a kind of picture of my life and of my thoughts 
+for the last month, and thus, though it has been deeply interesting 
+to me, while I wrote it, and I dare hope will, for the same reason, 
+be not indifferent to you, yet to other readers it would seem to 
+abound only in frivolities.  Thus it is always, when we attempt to 
+describe the finer movements of the heart, for they are too fine to 
+be discerned, they can only be experienced, and are therefore passed 
+over by the indifferent observer, while the interested one feels, 
+that all description is imperfect and unnecessary, except as it may 
+prove the sincerity of the writer, and sooth his own sufferings.  You 
+will pardon all this egotism--for I am a lover.'
+
+'I have just heard of a circumstance, which entirely destroys all my 
+fairy paradise of ideal delight, and which will reconcile me to the 
+necessity of returning to my regiment, for I must no longer wander 
+beneath the beloved shades, where I have been accustomed to meet you 
+in thought.--La Vallee is let!  I have reason to believe this is 
+without your knowledge, from what Theresa told me this morning, and, 
+therefore, I mention the circumstance.  She shed tears, while she 
+related, that she was going to leave the service of her dear 
+mistress, and the chateau where she had lived so many happy years; 
+and all this, added she, without even a letter from Mademoiselle to 
+soften the news; but it is all Mons. Quesnel's doings, and I dare say 
+she does not even know what is going forward.'
+
+'Theresa added, That she had received a letter from him, informing 
+her the chateau was let, and that, as her services would no longer be 
+required, she must quit the place, on that day week, when the new 
+tenant would arrive.'
+
+'Theresa had been surprised by a visit from M. Quesnel, some time 
+before the receipt of this letter, who was accompanied by a stranger 
+that viewed the premises with much curiosity.'
+
+Towards the conclusion of his letter, which is dated a week after 
+this sentence, Valancourt adds, 'I have received a summons from my 
+regiment, and I join it without regret, since I am shut out from the 
+scenes that are so interesting to my heart.  I rode to La Vallee this 
+morning, and heard that the new tenant was arrived, and that Theresa 
+was gone.  I should not treat the subject thus familiarly if I did 
+not believe you to be uninformed of this disposal of your house; for 
+your satisfaction I have endeavoured to learn something of the 
+character and fortune of your tenant, but without success.  He is a 
+gentleman, they say, and this is all I can hear.  The place, as I 
+wandered round the boundaries, appeared more melancholy to my 
+imagination, than I had ever seen it.  I wished earnestly to have got 
+admittance, that I might have taken another leave of your favourite 
+plane-tree, and thought of you once more beneath its shade:  but I 
+forbore to tempt the curiosity of strangers:  the fishing-house in 
+the woods, however, was still open to me; thither I went, and passed 
+an hour, which I cannot even look back upon without emotion.  O 
+Emily! surely we are not separated for ever--surely we shall live for 
+each other!'
+
+This letter brought many tears to Emily's eyes; tears of tenderness 
+and satisfaction on learning that Valancourt was well, and that time 
+and absence had in no degree effaced her image from his heart.  There 
+were passages in this letter which particularly affected her, such as 
+those describing his visits to La Vallee, and the sentiments of 
+delicate affection that its scenes had awakened.  It was a 
+considerable time before her mind was sufficiently abstracted from 
+Valancourt to feel the force of his intelligence concerning La 
+Vallee.  That Mons. Quesnel should let it, without even consulting 
+her on the measure, both surprised and shocked her, particularly as 
+it proved the absolute authority he thought himself entitled to 
+exercise in her affairs.  It is true, he had proposed, before she 
+left France, that the chateau should be let, during her absence, and 
+to the oeconomical prudence of this she had nothing to object; but 
+the committing what had been her father's villa to the power and 
+caprice of strangers, and the depriving herself of a sure home, 
+should any unhappy circumstances make her look back to her home as an 
+asylum, were considerations that made her, even then, strongly oppose 
+the measure.  Her father, too, in his last hour, had received from 
+her a solemn promise never to dispose of La Vallee; and this she 
+considered as in some degree violated if she suffered the place to be 
+let.  But it was now evident with how little respect M. Quesnel had 
+regarded these objections, and how insignificant he considered every 
+obstacle to pecuniary advantage.  It appeared, also, that he had not 
+even condescended to inform Montoni of the step he had taken, since 
+no motive was evident for Montoni's concealing the circumstance from 
+her, if it had been made known to him:  this both displeased and 
+surprised her; but the chief subjects of her uneasiness were--the 
+temporary disposal of La Vallee, and the dismission of her father's 
+old and faithful servant.--'Poor Theresa,' said Emily, 'thou hadst 
+not saved much in thy servitude, for thou wast always tender towards 
+the poor, and believd'st thou shouldst die in the family, where thy 
+best years had been spent.  Poor Theresa!--now thou art turned out in 
+thy old age to seek thy bread!'
+
+Emily wept bitterly as these thoughts passed over her mind, and she 
+determined to consider what could be done for Theresa, and to talk 
+very explicitly to M. Quesnel on the subject; but she much feared 
+that his cold heart could feel only for itself.  She determined also 
+to enquire whether he had made any mention of her affairs, in his 
+letter to Montoni, who soon gave her the opportunity she sought, by 
+desiring that she would attend him in his study.  She had little 
+doubt, that the interview was intended for the purpose of 
+communicating to her a part of M. Quesnel's letter concerning the 
+transactions at La Vallee, and she obeyed him immediately.  Montoni 
+was alone.
+
+'I have just been writing to Mons. Quesnel,' said he when Emily 
+appeared, 'in reply to the letter I received from him a few days ago, 
+and I wished to talk to you upon a subject that occupied part of it.'
+
+'I also wished to speak with you on this topic, sir,' said Emily.
+
+'It is a subject of some interest to you, undoubtedly,' rejoined 
+Montoni, 'and I think you must see it in the light that I do; indeed 
+it will not bear any other.  I trust you will agree with me, that any 
+objection founded on sentiment, as they call it, ought to yield to 
+circumstances of solid advantage.'
+
+'Granting this, sir,' replied Emily, modestly, 'those of humanity 
+ought surely to be attended to.  But I fear it is now too late to 
+deliberate upon this plan, and I must regret, that it is no longer in 
+my power to reject it.'
+
+'It is too late,' said Montoni; 'but since it is so, I am pleased to 
+observe, that you submit to reason and necessity without indulging 
+useless complaint.  I applaud this conduct exceedingly, the more, 
+perhaps, since it discovers a strength of mind seldom observable in 
+your sex.  When you are older you will look back with gratitude to 
+the friends who assisted in rescuing you from the romantic illusions 
+of sentiment, and will perceive, that they are only the snares of 
+childhood, and should be vanquished the moment you escape from the 
+nursery.  I have not closed my letter, and you may add a few lines to 
+inform your uncle of your acquiescence.  You will soon see him, for 
+it is my intention to take you, with Madame Montoni, in a few days to 
+Miarenti, and you can then talk over the affair.'
+
+Emily wrote on the opposite page of the paper as follows:
+
+'It is now useless, sir, for me to remonstrate upon the circumstances 
+of which Signor Montoni informs me that he has written.  I could have 
+wished, at least, that the affair had been concluded with less 
+precipitation, that I might have taught myself to subdue some 
+prejudices, as the Signor calls them, which still linger in my heart.  
+As it is, I submit.  In point of prudence nothing certainly can be 
+objected; but, though I submit, I have yet much to say on some other 
+points of the subject, when I shall have the honour of seeing you.  
+In the meantime I entreat you will take care of Theresa, for the sake 
+of,
+     Sir,
+     Your affectionate niece,
+     EMILY ST. AUBERT.'
+
+Montoni smiled satirically at what Emily had written, but did not 
+object to it, and she withdrew to her own apartment, where she sat 
+down to begin a letter to Valancourt, in which she related the 
+particulars of her journey, and her arrival at Venice, described some 
+of the most striking scenes in the passage over the Alps; her 
+emotions on her first view of Italy; the manners and characters of 
+the people around her, and some few circumstances of Montoni's 
+conduct.  But she avoided even naming Count Morano, much more the 
+declaration he had made, since she well knew how tremblingly alive to 
+fear is real love, how jealously watchful of every circumstance that 
+may affect its interest; and she scrupulously avoided to give 
+Valancourt even the slightest reason for believing he had a rival.
+
+On the following day Count Morano dined again at Montoni's.  He was 
+in an uncommon flow of spirits, and Emily thought there was somewhat 
+of exultation in his manner of addressing her, which she had never 
+observed before.  She endeavoured to repress this by more than her 
+usual reserve, but the cold civility of her air now seemed rather to 
+encourage than to depress him.  He appeared watchful of an 
+opportunity of speaking with her alone, and more than once solicited 
+this; but Emily always replied, that she could hear nothing from him 
+which he would be unwilling to repeat before the whole company.
+
+In the evening, Madame Montoni and her party went out upon the sea, 
+and as the Count led Emily to his zendaletto, he carried her hand to 
+his lips, and thanked her for the condescension she had shown him.  
+Emily, in extreme surprise and displeasure, hastily withdrew her 
+hand, and concluded that he had spoken ironically; but, on reaching 
+the steps of the terrace, and observing by the livery, that it was 
+the Count's zendaletto which waited below, while the rest of the 
+party, having arranged themselves in the gondolas, were moving on, 
+she determined not to permit a separate conversation, and, wishing 
+him a good evening, returned to the portico.  The Count followed to 
+expostulate and entreat, and Montoni, who then came out, rendered 
+solicitation unnecessary, for, without condescending to speak, he 
+took her hand, and led her to the zendaletto.  Emily was not silent; 
+she entreated Montoni, in a low voice, to consider the impropriety of 
+these circumstances, and that he would spare her the mortification of 
+submitting to them; he, however, was inflexible.
+
+'This caprice is intolerable,' said he, 'and shall not be indulged:  
+there is no impropriety in the case.'
+
+At this moment, Emily's dislike of Count Morano rose to abhorrence.  
+That he should, with undaunted assurance, thus pursue her, 
+notwithstanding all she had expressed on the subject of his 
+addresses, and think, as it was evident he did, that her opinion of 
+him was of no consequence, so long as his pretensions were sanctioned 
+by Montoni, added indignation to the disgust which she had felt 
+towards him.  She was somewhat relieved by observing that Montoni was 
+to be of the party, who seated himself on one side of her, while 
+Morano placed himself on the other.  There was a pause for some 
+moments as the gondolieri prepared their oars, and Emily trembled 
+from apprehension of the discourse that might follow this silence.  
+At length she collected courage to break it herself, in the hope of 
+preventing fine speeches from Morano, and reproof from Montoni.  To 
+some trivial remark which she made, the latter returned a short and 
+disobliging reply; but Morano immediately followed with a general 
+observation, which he contrived to end with a particular compliment, 
+and, though Emily passed it without even the notice of a smile, he 
+was not discouraged.
+
+'I have been impatient,' said he, addressing Emily, 'to express my 
+gratitude; to thank you for your goodness; but I must also thank 
+Signor Montoni, who has allowed me this opportunity of doing so.'
+
+Emily regarded the Count with a look of mingled astonishment and 
+displeasure.
+
+'Why,' continued he, 'should you wish to diminish the delight of this 
+moment by that air of cruel reserve?--Why seek to throw me again into 
+the perplexities of doubt, by teaching your eyes to contradict the 
+kindness of your late declaration?  You cannot doubt the sincerity, 
+the ardour of my passion; it is therefore unnecessary, charming 
+Emily! surely unnecessary, any longer to attempt a disguise of your 
+sentiments.'
+
+'If I ever had disguised them, sir,' said Emily, with recollected 
+spirit, 'it would certainly be unnecessary any longer to do so.  I 
+had hoped, sir, that you would have spared me any farther necessity 
+of alluding to them; but, since you do not grant this, hear me 
+declare, and for the last time, that your perseverance has deprived 
+you even of the esteem, which I was inclined to believe you merited.'
+
+'Astonishing!' exclaimed Montoni:  'this is beyond even my 
+expectation, though I have hitherto done justice to the caprice of 
+the sex!  But you will observe, Mademoiselle Emily, that I am no 
+lover, though Count Morano is, and that I will not be made the 
+amusement of your capricious moments.  Here is the offer of an 
+alliance, which would do honour to any family; yours, you will 
+recollect, is not noble; you long resisted my remonstrances, but my 
+honour is now engaged, and it shall not be trifled with.--You shall 
+adhere to the declaration, which you have made me an agent to convey 
+to the Count.'
+
+'I must certainly mistake you, sir,' said Emily; 'my answers on the 
+subject have been uniform; it is unworthy of you to accuse me of 
+caprice.  If you have condescended to be my agent, it is an honour I 
+did not solicit.  I myself have constantly assured Count Morano, and 
+you also, sir, that I never can accept the honour he offers me, and I 
+now repeat the declaration.'
+
+The Count looked with an air of surprise and enquiry at Montoni, 
+whose countenance also was marked with surprise, but it was surprise 
+mingled with indignation.
+
+'Here is confidence, as well as caprice!' said the latter.  'Will you 
+deny your own words, Madam?'
+
+'Such a question is unworthy of an answer, sir;' said Emily blushing; 
+'you will recollect yourself, and be sorry that you have asked it.'
+
+'Speak to the point,' rejoined Montoni, in a voice of increasing 
+vehemence.  'Will you deny your own words; will you deny, that you 
+acknowledged, only a few hours ago, that it was too late to recede 
+from your engagements, and that you accepted the Count's hand?'
+
+'I will deny all this, for no words of mine ever imported it.'
+
+'Astonishing!  Will you deny what you wrote to Mons. Quesnel, your 
+uncle? if you do, your own hand will bear testimony against you.  
+What have you now to say?' continued Montoni, observing the silence 
+and confusion of Emily.
+
+'I now perceive, sir, that you are under a very great error, and that 
+I have been equally mistaken.'
+
+'No more duplicity, I entreat; be open and candid, if it be 
+possible.'
+
+'I have always been so, sir; and can claim no merit in such conduct, 
+for I have had nothing to conceal.'
+
+'How is this, Signor?' cried Morano, with trembling emotion.
+
+'Suspend your judgment, Count,' replied Montoni, 'the wiles of a 
+female heart are unsearchable.  Now, Madame, your EXPLANATION.'
+
+'Excuse me, sir, if I withhold my explanation till you appear willing 
+to give me your confidence; assertion as present can only subject me 
+to insult.'
+
+'Your explanation, I entreat you!' said Morano.
+
+'Well, well,' rejoined Montoni, 'I give you my confidence; let us 
+hear this explanation.'
+
+'Let me lead to it then, by asking a question.'
+
+'As many as you please,' said Montoni, contemptuously.
+
+'What, then, was the subject of your letter to Mons. Quesnel?'
+
+'The same that was the subject of your note to him, certainly.  You 
+did well to stipulate for my confidence before you demanded that 
+question.'
+
+'I must beg you will be more explicit, sir; what was that subject?'
+
+'What could it be, but the noble offer of Count Morano,' said 
+Montoni.
+
+'Then, sir, we entirely misunderstood each other,' replied Emily.
+
+'We entirely misunderstood each other too, I suppose,' rejoined 
+Montoni, 'in the conversation which preceded the writing of that 
+note?  I must do you the justice to own, that you are very ingenious 
+at this same art of misunderstanding.'
+
+Emily tried to restrain the tears that came to her eyes, and to 
+answer with becoming firmness.  'Allow me, sir, to explain myself 
+fully, or to be wholly silent.'
+
+'The explanation may now be dispensed with; it is anticipated.  If 
+Count Morano still thinks one necessary, I will give him an honest 
+one--You have changed your intention since our last conversation; 
+and, if he can have patience and humility enough to wait till to-
+morrow, he will probably find it changed again:  but as I have 
+neither the patience or the humility, which you expect from a lover, 
+I warn you of the effect of my displeasure!'
+
+'Montoni, you are too precipitate,' said the Count, who had listened 
+to this conversation in extreme agitation and impatience;--'Signora, 
+I entreat your own explanation of this affair!'
+
+'Signor Montoni has said justly,' replied Emily, 'that all 
+explanation may now be dispensed with; after what has passed I cannot 
+suffer myself to give one.  It is sufficient for me, and for you, 
+sir, that I repeat my late declaration; let me hope this is the last 
+time it will be necessary for me to repeat it--I never can accept the 
+honour of your alliance.'
+
+'Charming Emily!' exclaimed the Count in an impassioned tone, 'let 
+not resentment make you unjust; let me not suffer for the offence of 
+Montoni!--Revoke--'
+
+'Offence!' interrupted Montoni--'Count, this language is ridiculous, 
+this submission is childish!--speak as becomes a man, not as the 
+slave of a pretty tyrant.'
+
+'You distract me, Signor; suffer me to plead my own cause; you have 
+already proved insufficient to it.'
+
+'All conversation on this subject, sir,' said Emily, 'is worse than 
+useless, since it can bring only pain to each of us:  if you would 
+oblige me, pursue it no farther.'
+
+'It is impossible, Madam, that I can thus easily resign the object of 
+a passion, which is the delight and torment of my life.--I must still 
+love--still pursue you with unremitting ardour;--when you shall be 
+convinced of the strength and constancy of my passion, your heart 
+must soften into pity and repentance.'
+
+'Is this generous, sir? is this manly?  can it either deserve or 
+obtain the esteem you solicit, thus to continue a persecution from 
+which I have no present means of escaping?'
+
+A gleam of moonlight that fell upon Morano's countenance, revealed 
+the strong emotions of his soul; and, glancing on Montoni discovered 
+the dark resentment, which contrasted his features.
+
+'By heaven this is too much!' suddenly exclaimed the Count; 'Signor 
+Montoni, you treat me ill; it is from you that I shall look for 
+explanation.'
+
+'From me, sir! you shall have it;' muttered Montoni, 'if your 
+discernment is indeed so far obscured by passion, as to make 
+explanation necessary.  And for you, Madam, you should learn, that a 
+man of honour is not to be trifled with, though you may, perhaps, 
+with impunity, treat a BOY like a puppet.'
+
+This sarcasm roused the pride of Morano, and the resentment which he 
+had felt at the indifference of Emily, being lost in indignation of 
+the insolence of Montoni, he determined to mortify him, by defending 
+her.
+
+'This also,' said he, replying to Montoni's last words, 'this also, 
+shall not pass unnoticed.  I bid you learn, sir, that you have a 
+stronger enemy than a woman to contend with:  I will protect Signora 
+St. Aubert from your threatened resentment.  You have misled me, and 
+would revenge your disappointed views upon the innocent.'
+
+'Misled you!' retorted Montoni with quickness, 'is my conduct--my 
+word'--then pausing, while he seemed endeavouring to restrain the 
+resentment, that flashed in his eyes, in the next moment he added, in 
+a subdued voice, 'Count Morano, this is a language, a sort of conduct 
+to which I am not accustomed:  it is the conduct of a passionate boy-
+-as such, I pass it over in contempt.'
+
+'In contempt, Signor?'
+
+'The respect I owe myself,' rejoined Montoni, 'requires, that I 
+should converse more largely with you upon some points of the subject 
+in dispute.  Return with me to Venice, and I will condescend to 
+convince you of your error.'
+
+'Condescend, sir! but I will not condescend to be so conversed with.'
+
+Montoni smiled contemptuously; and Emily, now terrified for the 
+consequences of what she saw and heard, could no longer be silent.  
+She explained the whole subject upon which she had mistaken Montoni 
+in the morning, declaring, that she understood him to have consulted 
+her solely concerning the disposal of La Vallee, and concluding with 
+entreating, that he would write immediately to M. Quesnel, and 
+rectify the mistake.
+
+But Montoni either was, or affected to be, still incredulous; and 
+Count Morano was still entangled in perplexity.  While she was 
+speaking, however, the attention of her auditors had been diverted 
+from the immediate occasion of their resentment, and their passion 
+consequently became less.  Montoni desired the Count would order his 
+servants to row back to Venice, that he might have some private 
+conversation with him; and Morano, somewhat soothed by his softened 
+voice and manner, and eager to examine into the full extent of his 
+difficulties, complied.
+
+Emily, comforted by this prospect of release, employed the present 
+moments in endeavouring, with conciliating care, to prevent any fatal 
+mischief between the persons who so lately had persecuted and 
+insulted her.
+
+Her spirits revived, when she heard once more the voice of song and 
+laughter, resounding from the grand canal, and at length entered 
+again between its stately piazzas.  The zendaletto stopped at 
+Montoni's mansion, and the Count hastily led her into the hall, where 
+Montoni took his arm, and said something in a low voice, on which 
+Morano kissed the hand he held, notwithstanding Emily's effort to 
+disengage it, and, wishing her a good evening, with an accent and 
+look she could not misunderstand, returned to his zendaletto with 
+Montoni.
+
+Emily, in her own apartment, considered with intense anxiety all the 
+unjust and tyrannical conduct of Montoni, the dauntless perseverance 
+of Morano, and her own desolate situation, removed from her friends 
+and country.  She looked in vain to Valancourt, confined by his 
+profession to a distant kingdom, as her protector; but it gave her 
+comfort to know, that there was, at least, one person in the world, 
+who would sympathize in her afflictions, and whose wishes would fly 
+eagerly to release her.  Yet she determined not to give him 
+unavailing pain by relating the reasons she had to regret the having 
+rejected his better judgment concerning Montoni; reasons, however, 
+which could not induce her to lament the delicacy and disinterested 
+affection that had made her reject his proposal for a clandestine 
+marriage.  The approaching interview with her uncle she regarded with 
+some degree of hope, for she determined to represent to him the 
+distresses of her situation, and to entreat that he would allow her 
+to return to France with him and Madame Quesnel.  Then, suddenly 
+remembering that her beloved La Vallee, her only home, was no longer 
+at her command, her tears flowed anew, and she feared that she had 
+little pity to expect from a man who, like M. Quesnel, could dispose 
+of it without deigning to consult with her, and could dismiss an aged 
+and faithful servant, destitute of either support or asylum.  But, 
+though it was certain, that she had herself no longer a home in 
+France, and few, very few friends there, she determined to return, if 
+possible, that she might be released from the power of Montoni, whose 
+particularly oppressive conduct towards herself, and general 
+character as to others, were justly terrible to her imagination.  She 
+had no wish to reside with her uncle, M. Quesnel, since his behaviour 
+to her late father and to herself, had been uniformly such as to 
+convince her, that in flying to him she could only obtain an exchange 
+of oppressors; neither had she the slightest intention of consenting 
+to the proposal of Valancourt for an immediate marriage, though this 
+would give her a lawful and a generous protector, for the chief 
+reasons, which had formerly influenced her conduct, still existed 
+against it, while others, which seemed to justify the step, would not 
+be done away; and his interest, his fame were at all times too dear 
+to her, to suffer her to consent to a union, which, at this early 
+period of their lives, would probably defeat both.  One sure, and 
+proper asylum, however, would still be open to her in France.  She 
+knew that she could board in the convent, where she had formerly 
+experienced so much kindness, and which had an affecting and solemn 
+claim upon her heart, since it contained the remains of her late 
+father.  Here she could remain in safety and tranquillity, till the 
+term, for which La Vallee might be let, should expire; or, till the 
+arrangement of M. Motteville's affairs enabled her so far to estimate 
+the remains of her fortune, as to judge whether it would be prudent 
+for her to reside there.
+
+Concerning Montoni's conduct with respect to his letters to M. 
+Quesnel, she had many doubts; however he might be at first mistaken 
+on the subject, she much suspected that he wilfully persevered in his 
+error, as a means of intimidating her into a compliance with his 
+wishes of uniting her to Count Morano.  Whether this was or was not 
+the fact, she was extremely anxious to explain the affair to M. 
+Quesnel, and looked forward with a mixture of impatience, hope and 
+fear, to her approaching visit.
+
+On the following day, Madame Montoni, being alone with Emily, 
+introduced the mention of Count Morano, by expressing her surprise, 
+that she had not joined the party on the water the preceding evening, 
+and at her abrupt departure to Venice.  Emily then related what had 
+passed, expressed her concern for the mutual mistake that had 
+occurred between Montoni and herself, and solicited her aunt's kind 
+offices in urging him to give a decisive denial to the count's 
+further addresses; but she soon perceived, that Madame Montoni had 
+not been ignorant of the late conversation, when she introduced the 
+present.
+
+'You have no encouragement to expect from me,' said her aunt, 'in 
+these notions.  I have already given my opinion on the subject, and 
+think Signor Montoni right in enforcing, by any means, your consent.  
+If young persons will be blind to their interest, and obstinately 
+oppose it, why, the greatest blessings they can have are friends, who 
+will oppose their folly.  Pray what pretensions of any kind do you 
+think you have to such a match as is now offered you?'
+
+'Not any whatever, Madam,' replied Emily, 'and, therefore, at least, 
+suffer me to be happy in my humility.'
+
+'Nay, niece, it cannot be denied, that you have pride enough; my poor 
+brother, your father, had his share of pride too; though, let me add, 
+his fortune did not justify it.'
+
+Emily, somewhat embarrassed by the indignation, which this malevolent 
+allusion to her father excited, and by the difficulty of rendering 
+her answer as temperate as it should be reprehensive, hesitated for 
+some moments, in a confusion, which highly gratified her aunt.  At 
+length she said, 'My father's pride, Madam, had a noble object--the 
+happiness which he knew could be derived only from goodness, 
+knowledge and charity.  As it never consisted in his superiority, in 
+point of fortune, to some persons, it was not humbled by his 
+inferiority, in that respect, to others.  He never disdained those, 
+who were wretched by poverty and misfortune; he did sometimes despise 
+persons, who, with many opportunities of happiness, rendered 
+themselves miserable by vanity, ignorance and cruelty.  I shall think 
+it my highest glory to emulate such pride.'
+
+'I do not pretend to understand any thing of these high-flown 
+sentiments, niece; you have all that glory to yourself:  I would 
+teach you a little plain sense, and not have you so wise as to 
+despise happiness.'
+
+'That would indeed not be wisdom, but folly,' said Emily, 'for wisdom 
+can boast no higher attainment than happiness; but you will allow, 
+Madam, that our ideas of happiness may differ.  I cannot doubt, that 
+you wish me to be happy, but I must fear you are mistaken in the 
+means of making me so.'
+
+'I cannot boast of a learned education, niece, such as your father 
+thought proper to give you, and, therefore, do not pretend to 
+understand all these fine speeches about happiness.  I must be 
+contented to understand only common sense, and happy would it have 
+been for you and your father, if that had been included in his 
+education.'
+
+Emily was too much shocked by these reflections on her father's 
+memory, to despise this speech as it deserved.
+
+Madame Montoni was about to speak, but Emily quitted the room, and 
+retired to her own, where the little spirit she had lately exerted 
+yielded to grief and vexation, and left her only to her tears.  From 
+every review of her situation she could derive, indeed, only new 
+sorrow.  To the discovery, which had just been forced upon her, of 
+Montoni's unworthiness, she had now to add, that of the cruel vanity, 
+for the gratification of which her aunt was about to sacrifice her; 
+of the effrontery and cunning, with which, at the time that she 
+meditated the sacrifice, she boasted of her tenderness, or insulted 
+her victim; and of the venomous envy, which, as it did not scruple to 
+attack her father's character, could scarcely be expected to withhold 
+from her own.
+
+During the few days that intervened between this conversation and the 
+departure for Miarenti, Montoni did not once address himself to 
+Emily.  His looks sufficiently declared his resentment; but that he 
+should forbear to renew a mention of the subject of it, exceedingly 
+surprised her, who was no less astonished, that, during three days, 
+Count Morano neither visited Montoni, or was named by him.  Several 
+conjectures arose in her mind.  Sometimes she feared that the dispute 
+between them had been revived, and had ended fatally to the Count.  
+Sometimes she was inclined to hope, that weariness, or disgust at her 
+firm rejection of his suit had induced him to relinquish it; and, at 
+others, she suspected that he had now recourse to stratagem, and 
+forbore his visits, and prevailed with Montoni to forbear the 
+repetition of his name, in the expectation that gratitude and 
+generosity would prevail with her to give him the consent, which he 
+could not hope from love.
+
+Thus passed the time in vain conjecture, and alternate hopes and 
+fears, till the day arrived when Montoni was to set out for the villa 
+of Miarenti, which, like the preceding ones, neither brought the 
+Count, or the mention of him.
+
+Montoni having determined not to leave Venice, till towards evening, 
+that he might avoid the heats, and catch the cool breezes of night, 
+embarked about an hour before sun-set, with his family, in a barge, 
+for the Brenta.  Emily sat alone near the stern of the vessel, and, 
+as it floated slowly on, watched the gay and lofty city lessening 
+from her view, till its palaces seemed to sink in the distant waves, 
+while its loftier towers and domes, illumined by the declining sun, 
+appeared on the horizon, like those far-seen clouds which, in more 
+northern climes, often linger on the western verge, and catch the 
+last light of a summer's evening.  Soon after, even these grew dim, 
+and faded in distance from her sight; but she still sat gazing on the 
+vast scene of cloudless sky, and mighty waters, and listening in 
+pleasing awe to the deep-sounding waves, while, as her eyes glanced 
+over the Adriatic, towards the opposite shores, which were, however, 
+far beyond the reach of sight, she thought of Greece, and, a thousand 
+classical remembrances stealing to her mind, she experienced that 
+pensive luxury which is felt on viewing the scenes of ancient story, 
+and on comparing their present state of silence and solitude with 
+that of their former grandeur and animation.  The scenes of the 
+Illiad illapsed in glowing colours to her fancy--scenes, once the 
+haunt of heroes--now lonely, and in ruins; but which still shone, in 
+the poet's strain, in all their youthful splendour.
+
+As her imagination painted with melancholy touches, the deserted 
+plains of Troy, such as they appeared in this after-day, she 
+reanimated the landscape with the following little story.
+
+     STANZAS
+
+ O'er Ilion's plains, where once the warrior bled,
+ And once the poet rais'd his deathless strain,
+ O'er Ilion's plains a weary driver led
+ His stately camels:  For the ruin'd fane
+
+ Wide round the lonely scene his glance he threw,
+ For now the red cloud faded in the west,
+ And twilight o'er the silent landscape drew
+ Her deep'ning veil; eastward his course he prest:
+
+ There, on the grey horizon's glimm'ring bound,
+ Rose the proud columns of deserted Troy,
+ And wandering shepherds now a shelter found
+ Within those walls, where princes wont to joy.
+
+ Beneath a lofty porch the driver pass'd,
+ Then, from his camels heav'd the heavy load;
+ Partook with them the simple, cool repast,
+ And in short vesper gave himself to God.
+
+ From distant lands with merchandise he came,
+ His all of wealth his patient servants bore;
+ Oft deep-drawn sighs his anxious wish proclaim
+ To reach, again, his happy cottage door;
+
+ For there, his wife, his little children, dwell;
+ Their smiles shall pay the toil of many an hour:
+ Ev'n now warm tears to expectation swell,
+ As fancy o'er his mind extends her pow'r.
+
+ A death-like stillness reign'd, where once the song,
+ The song of heroes, wak'd the midnight air,
+ Save, when a solemn murmur roll'd along,
+ That seem'd to say--'for future worlds prepare.'
+
+ For Time's imperious voice was frequent heard
+ Shaking the marble temple to its fall,
+ (By hands he long had conquer'd, vainly rear'd),
+ And distant ruins answer'd to his call.
+
+ While Hamet slept, his camels round him lay,
+ Beneath him, all his store of wealth was piled;
+ And here, his cruse and empty wallet lay,
+ And there, the flute that chear'd him in the wild.
+
+ The robber Tartar on his slumber stole,
+ For o'er the waste, at eve, he watch'd his train;
+ Ah! who his thirst of plunder shall control?
+ Who calls on him for mercy--calls in vain!
+
+ A poison'd poignard in his belt he wore,
+ A crescent sword depended at his side,
+ The deathful quiver at his back he bore,
+ And infants--at his very look had died!
+
+ The moon's cold beam athwart the temple fell,
+ And to his sleeping prey the Tartar led;
+ But soft!--a startled camel shook his bell,
+ Then stretch'd his limbs, and rear'd his drowsy head.
+
+ Hamet awoke! the poignard glitter'd high!
+ Swift from his couch he sprung, and 'scap'd the blow;
+ When from an unknown hand the arrows fly,
+ That lay the ruffian, in his vengeance, low.
+
+ He groan'd, he died! from forth a column'd gate
+ A fearful shepherd, pale and silent, crept,
+ Who, as he watch'd his folded flock star-late,
+ Had mark'd the robber steal where Hamet slept.
+
+ He fear'd his own, and sav'd a stranger's life!
+ Poor Hamet clasp'd him to his grateful heart;
+ Then, rous'd his camels for the dusty strife,
+ And, with the shepherd, hasten'd to depart.
+
+ And now, aurora breathes her fresh'ning gale,
+ And faintly trembles on the eastern cloud;
+ And now, the sun, from under twilight's veil,
+ Looks gaily forth, and melts her airy shroud.
+
+ Wide o'er the level plains, his slanting beams
+ Dart their long lines on Ilion's tower'd site;
+ The distant Hellespont with morning gleams,
+ And old Scamander winds his waves in light.
+
+ All merry sound the camel bells, so gay,
+ And merry beats fond Hamet's heart, for he,
+ E'er the dim evening steals upon the day,
+ His children, wife and happy home shall see.
+
+As Emily approached the shores of Italy she began to discriminate the 
+rich features and varied colouring of the landscape--the purple 
+hills, groves of orange pine and cypress, shading magnificent villas, 
+and towns rising among vineyards and plantations.  The noble Brenta, 
+pouring its broad waves into the sea, now appeared, and, when she 
+reached its mouth, the barge stopped, that the horses might be 
+fastened which were now to tow it up the stream.  This done, Emily 
+gave a last look to the Adriatic, and to the dim sail,
+
+     that from the sky-mix'd wave
+ Dawns on the sight,
+
+and the barge slowly glided between the green and luxuriant slopes of 
+the river.  The grandeur of the Palladian villas, that adorn these 
+shores, was considerably heightened by the setting rays, which threw 
+strong contrasts of light and shade upon the porticos and long 
+arcades, and beamed a mellow lustre upon the orangeries and the tall 
+groves of pine and cypress, that overhung the buildings.  The scent 
+of oranges, of flowering myrtles, and other odoriferous plants was 
+diffused upon the air, and often, from these embowered retreats, a 
+strain of music stole on the calm, and 'softened into silence.'
+
+The sun now sunk below the horizon, twilight fell over the landscape, 
+and Emily, wrapt in musing silence, continued to watch its features 
+gradually vanishing into obscurity.  she remembered her many happy 
+evenings, when with St. Aubert she had observed the shades of 
+twilight steal over a scene as beautiful as this, from the gardens of 
+La Vallee, and a tear fell to the memory of her father.  Her spirits 
+were softened into melancholy by the influence of the hour, by the 
+low murmur of the wave passing under the vessel, and the stillness of 
+the air, that trembled only at intervals with distant music:--why 
+else should she, at these moments, have looked on her attachment to 
+Valancourt with presages so very afflicting, since she had but lately 
+received letters from him, that had soothed for a while all her 
+anxieties?  It now seemed to her oppressed mind, that she had taken 
+leave of him for ever, and that the countries, which separated them, 
+would never more be re-traced by her.  She looked upon Count Morano 
+with horror, as in some degree the cause of this; but apart from him, 
+a conviction, if such that may be called, which arises from no proof, 
+and which she knew not how to account for, seized her mind--that she 
+should never see Valancourt again.  Though she knew, that neither 
+Morano's solicitations, nor Montoni's commands had lawful power to 
+enforce her obedience, she regarded both with a superstitious dread, 
+that they would finally prevail.
+
+Lost in this melancholy reverie, and shedding frequent tears, Emily 
+was at length roused by Montoni, and she followed him to the cabin, 
+where refreshments were spread, and her aunt was seated alone.  The 
+countenance of Madame Montoni was inflamed with resentment, that 
+appeared to be the consequence of some conversation she had held with 
+her husband, who regarded her with a kind of sullen disdain, and both 
+preserved, for some time, a haughty silence.  Montoni then spoke to 
+Emily of Mons. Quesnel:  'You will not, I hope, persist in 
+disclaiming your knowledge of the subject of my letter to him?'
+
+'I had hoped, sir, that it was no longer necessary for me to disclaim 
+it,' said Emily, 'I had hoped, from your silence, that you was 
+convinced of your error.'
+
+'You have hoped impossibilities then,' replied Montoni; 'I might as 
+reasonably have expected to find sincerity and uniformity of conduct 
+in one of your sex, as you to convict me of error in this affair.'
+
+Emily blushed, and was silent; she now perceived too clearly, that 
+she had hoped an impossibility, for, where no mistake had been 
+committed no conviction could follow; and it was evident, that 
+Montoni's conduct had not been the consequence of mistake, but of 
+design.
+
+Anxious to escape from conversation, which was both afflicting and 
+humiliating to her, she soon returned to the deck, and resumed her 
+station near the stern, without apprehension of cold, for no vapour 
+rose from the water, and the air was dry and tranquil; here, at 
+least, the benevolence of nature allowed her the quiet which Montoni 
+had denied her elsewhere.  It was now past midnight.  The stars shed 
+a kind of twilight, that served to shew the dark outline of the 
+shores on either hand, and the grey surface of the river; till the 
+moon rose from behind a high palm grove, and shed her mellow lustre 
+over the scene.  The vessel glided smoothly on:  amid the stillness 
+of the hour Emily heard, now and then, the solitary voice of the 
+barge-men on the bank, as they spoke to their horses; while, from a 
+remote part of the vessel, with melancholy song,
+
+     The sailor sooth'd,
+ Beneath the trembling moon, the midnight wave.
+
+Emily, meanwhile, anticipated her reception by Mons, and Madame 
+Quesnel; considered what she should say on the subject of La Vallee; 
+and then, to with-hold her mind from more anxious topics, tried to 
+amuse herself by discriminating the faint-drawn features of the 
+landscape, reposing in the moon-light.  While her fancy thus 
+wandered, she saw, at a distance, a building peeping between the 
+moon-light trees, and, as the barge approached, heard voices 
+speaking, and soon distinguished the lofty portico of a villa, 
+overshadowed by groves of pine and sycamore, which she recollected to 
+be the same, that had formerly been pointed out to her, as belonging 
+to Madame Quesnel's relative.
+
+The barge stopped at a flight of marble steps, which led up the bank 
+to a lawn.  Lights appeared between some pillars beyond the portico.  
+Montoni sent forward his servant, and then disembarked with his 
+family.  They found Mons. and Madame Quesnel, with a few friends, 
+seated on sofas in the portico, enjoying the cool breeze of the 
+night, and eating fruits and ices, while some of their servants at a 
+little distance, on the river's bank, were performing a simple 
+serenade.  Emily was now accustomed to the way of living in this warm 
+country, and was not surprised to find Mons. and Madame Quesnel in 
+their portico, two hours after midnight.
+
+The usual salutations being over, the company seated themselves in 
+the portico, and refreshments were brought them from the adjoining 
+hall, where a banquet was spread, and servants attended.  When the 
+bustle of this meeting had subsided, and Emily had recovered from the 
+little flutter into which it had thrown her spirits, she was struck 
+with the singular beauty of the hall, so perfectly accommodated to 
+the luxuries of the season.  It was of white marble, and the roof, 
+rising into an open cupola, was supported by columns of the same 
+material.  Two opposite sides of the apartment, terminating in open 
+porticos, admitted to the hall a full view of the gardens, and of the 
+river scenery; in the centre a fountain continually refreshed the 
+air, and seemed to heighten the fragrance, that breathed from the 
+surrounding orangeries, while its dashing waters gave an agreeable 
+and soothing sound.  Etruscan lamps, suspended from the pillars, 
+diffused a brilliant light over the interior part of the hall, 
+leaving the remoter porticos to the softer lustre of the moon.
+
+Mons. Quesnel talked apart to Montoni of his own affairs, in his 
+usual strain of self-importance; boasted of his new acquisitions, and 
+then affected to pity some disappointments, which Montoni had lately 
+sustained.  Meanwhile, the latter, whose pride at least enabled him 
+to despise such vanity as this, and whose discernment at once 
+detected under this assumed pity, the frivolous malignity of 
+Quesnel's mind, listened to him in contemptuous silence, till he 
+named his niece, and then they left the portico, and walked away into 
+the gardens.
+
+Emily, however, still attended to Madame Quesnel, who spoke of France 
+(for even the name of her native country was dear to her) and she 
+found some pleasure in looking at a person, who had lately been in 
+it.  That country, too, was inhabited by Valancourt, and she listened 
+to the mention of it, with a faint hope, that he also would be named.  
+Madame Quesnel, who, when she was in France, had talked with rapture 
+of Italy, now, that she was in Italy, talked with equal praise of 
+France, and endeavoured to excite the wonder and the envy of her 
+auditors by accounts of places, which they had not been happy enough 
+to see.  In these descriptions she not only imposed upon them, but 
+upon herself, for she never thought a present pleasure equal to one, 
+that was passed; and thus the delicious climate, the fragrant 
+orangeries and all the luxuries, which surrounded her, slept 
+unnoticed, while her fancy wandered over the distant scenes of a 
+northern country.
+
+Emily listened in vain for the name of Valancourt.  Madame Montoni 
+spoke in her turn of the delights of Venice, and of the pleasure she 
+expected from visiting the fine castle of Montoni, on the Apennine; 
+which latter mention, at least, was merely a retaliating boast, for 
+Emily well knew, that her aunt had no taste for solitary grandeur, 
+and, particularly, for such as the castle of Udolpho promised.  Thus 
+the party continued to converse, and, as far as civility would 
+permit, to torture each other by mutual boasts, while they reclined 
+on sofas in the portico, and were environed with delights both from 
+nature and art, by which any honest minds would have been tempered to 
+benevolence, and happy imaginations would have been soothed into 
+enchantment.
+
+The dawn, soon after, trembled in the eastern horizon, and the light 
+tints of morning, gradually expanding, shewed the beautifully 
+declining forms of the Italian mountains and the gleaming landscapes, 
+stretched at their feet.  Then the sun-beams, shooting up from behind 
+the hills, spread over the scene that fine saffron tinge, which seems 
+to impart repose to all it touches.  The landscape no longer gleamed; 
+all its glowing colours were revealed, except that its remoter 
+features were still softened and united in the mist of distance, 
+whose sweet effect was heightened to Emily by the dark verdure of the 
+pines and cypresses, that over-arched the foreground of the river.
+
+The market people, passing with their boats to Venice, now formed a 
+moving picture on the Brenta.  Most of these had little painted 
+awnings, to shelter their owners from the sun-beams, which, together 
+with the piles of fruit and flowers, displayed beneath, and the 
+tasteful simplicity of the peasant girls, who watched the rural 
+treasures, rendered them gay and striking objects.  The swift 
+movement of the boats down the current, the quick glance of oars in 
+the water, and now and then the passing chorus of peasants, who 
+reclined under the sail of their little bark, or the tones of some 
+rustic instrument, played by a girl, as she sat near her sylvan 
+cargo, heightened the animation and festivity of the scene.
+
+When Montoni and M. Quesnel had joined the ladies, the party left the 
+portico for the gardens, where the charming scenery soon withdrew 
+Emily's thoughts from painful subjects.  The majestic forms and rich 
+verdure of cypresses she had never seen so perfect before:  groves of 
+cedar, lemon, and orange, the spiry clusters of the pine and poplar, 
+the luxuriant chesnut and oriental plane, threw all their pomp of 
+shade over these gardens; while bowers of flowering myrtle and other 
+spicy shrubs mingled their fragrance with that of flowers, whose 
+vivid and various colouring glowed with increased effect beneath the 
+contrasted umbrage of the groves.  The air also was continually 
+refreshed by rivulets, which, with more taste than fashion, had been 
+suffered to wander among the green recesses.
+
+Emily often lingered behind the party, to contemplate the distant 
+landscape, that closed a vista, or that gleamed beneath the dark 
+foliage of the foreground;--the spiral summits of the mountains, 
+touched with a purple tint, broken and steep above, but shelving 
+gradually to their base; the open valley, marked by no formal lines 
+of art; and the tall groves of cypress, pine and poplar, sometimes 
+embellished by a ruined villa, whose broken columns appeared between 
+the branches of a pine, that seemed to droop over their fall.
+
+From other parts of the gardens, the character of the view was 
+entirely changed, and the fine solitary beauty of the landscape 
+shifted for the crowded features and varied colouring of 
+inhabitation.
+
+The sun was now gaining fast upon the sky, and the party quitted the 
+gardens, and retired to repose.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+ And poor Misfortune feels the lash of Vice.
+     THOMSON
+
+Emily seized the first opportunity of conversing alone with Mons. 
+Quesnel, concerning La Vallee.  His answers to her enquiries were 
+concise, and delivered with the air of a man, who is conscious of 
+possessing absolute power and impatient of hearing it questioned.  He 
+declared, that the disposal of the place was a necessary measure; and 
+that she might consider herself indebted to his prudence for even the 
+small income that remained for her.  'But, however,' added he, 'when 
+this Venetian Count (I have forgot his name) marries you, your 
+present disagreeable state of dependence will cease.  As a relation 
+to you I rejoice in the circumstance, which is so fortunate for you, 
+and, I may add, so unexpected by your friends.'  For some moments 
+Emily was chilled into silence by this speech; and, when she 
+attempted to undeceive him, concerning the purport of the note she 
+had inclosed in Montoni's letter,  he appeared to have some private 
+reason for disbelieving her assertion, and, for a considerable time, 
+persevered in accusing her of capricious conduct.  Being, at length, 
+however, convinced that she really disliked Morano and had positively 
+rejected his suit, his resentment was extravagant, and he expressed 
+it in terms equally pointed and inhuman; for, secretly flattered by 
+the prospect of a connection with a nobleman, whose title he had 
+affected to forget, he was incapable of feeling pity for whatever 
+sufferings of his niece might stand in the way of his ambition.
+
+Emily saw at once in his manner all the difficulties, that awaited 
+her, and, though no oppression could have power to make her renounce 
+Valancourt for Morano, her fortitude now trembled at an encounter 
+with the violent passions of her uncle.
+
+She opposed his turbulence and indignation only by the mild dignity 
+of a superior mind; but the gentle firmness of her conduct served to 
+exasperate still more his resentment, since it compelled him to feel 
+his own inferiority, and, when he left her, he declared, that, if she 
+persisted in her folly, both himself and Montoni would abandon her to 
+the contempt of the world.
+
+The calmness she had assumed in his presence failed Emily, when 
+alone, and she wept bitterly, and called frequently upon the name of 
+her departed father, whose advice to her from his death-bed she then 
+remembered.  'Alas!' said she, 'I do indeed perceive how much more 
+valuable is the strength of fortitude than the grace of sensibility, 
+and I will also endeavour to fulfil the promise I then made; I will 
+not indulge in unavailing lamentation, but will try to endure, with 
+firmness, the oppression I cannot elude.'
+
+Somewhat soothed by the consciousness of performing a part of St. 
+Aubert's last request, and of endeavouring to pursue the conduct 
+which he would have approved, she overcame her tears, and, when the 
+company met at dinner, had recovered her usual serenity of 
+countenance.
+
+In the cool of the evening, the ladies took the FRESCO along the bank 
+of the Brenta in Madame Quesnel's carriage.  The state of Emily's 
+mind was in melancholy contrast with the gay groups assembled beneath 
+the shades that overhung this enchanting stream.  Some were dancing 
+under the trees, and others reclining on the grass, taking ices and 
+coffee and calmly enjoying the effect of a beautiful evening, on a 
+luxuriant landscape.  Emily, when she looked at the snow-capt 
+Apennines, ascending in the distance, thought of Montoni's castle, 
+and suffered some terror, lest he should convey her thither, for the 
+purpose of enforcing her obedience; but the thought vanished, when 
+she considered, that she was as much in his power at Venice as she 
+could be elsewhere.
+
+It was moonlight before the party returned to the villa, where supper 
+was spread in the airy hall, which had so much enchanted Emily's 
+fancy, on the preceding night.  The ladies seated themselves in the 
+portico, till Mons. Quesnel, Montoni, and other gentlemen should join 
+them at table, and Emily endeavoured to resign herself to the 
+tranquillity of the hour.  Presently, a barge stopped at the steps 
+that led into the gardens, and, soon after, she distinguished the 
+voices of Montoni and Quesnel, and then that of Morano, who, in the 
+next moment, appeared.  His compliments she received in silence, and 
+her cold air seemed at first to discompose him; but he soon recovered 
+his usual gaiety of manner, though the officious kindness of M. and 
+Madame Quesnel Emily perceived disgusted him.  Such a degree of 
+attention she had scarcely believed could be shewn by M. Quesnel, for 
+she had never before seen him otherwise than in the presence of his 
+inferiors or equals.
+
+When she could retire to her own apartment, her mind almost 
+involuntarily dwelt on the most probable means of prevailing with the 
+Count to withdraw his suit, and to her liberal mind none appeared 
+more probable, than that of acknowledging to him a prior attachment 
+and throwing herself upon his generosity for a release.  When, 
+however, on the following day, he renewed his addresses, she shrunk 
+from the adoption of the plan she had formed.  There was something so 
+repugnant to her just pride, in laying open the secret of her heart 
+to such a man as Morano, and in suing to him for compassion, that she 
+impatiently rejected this design and wondered, that she could have 
+paused upon it for a moment.  The rejection of his suit she repeated 
+in the most decisive terms she could select, mingling with it a 
+severe censure of his conduct; but, though the Count appeared 
+mortified by this, he persevered in the most ardent professions of 
+admiration, till he was interrupted and Emily released by the 
+presence of Madame Quesnel.
+
+During her stay at this pleasant villa, Emily was thus rendered 
+miserable by the assiduities of Morano, together with the cruelly 
+exerted authority of M. Quesnel and Montoni, who, with her aunt, 
+seemed now more resolutely determined upon this marriage than they 
+had even appeared to be at Venice.  M. Quesnel, finding, that both 
+argument and menace were ineffectual in enforcing an immediate 
+conclusion to it, at length relinquished his endeavours, and trusted 
+to the power of Montoni and to the course of events at Venice.  
+Emily, indeed, looked to Venice with hope, for there she would be 
+relieved in some measure from the persecution of Morano, who would no 
+longer be an inhabitant of the same house with herself, and from that 
+of Montoni, whose engagements would not permit him to be continually 
+at home.  But amidst the pressure of her own misfortunes, she did not 
+forget those of poor Theresa, for whom she pleaded with courageous 
+tenderness to Quesnel, who promised, in slight and general terms, 
+that she should not be forgotten.
+
+Montoni, in a long conversation with M. Quesnel, arranged the plan to 
+be pursued respecting Emily, and M. Quesnel proposed to be at Venice, 
+as soon as he should be informed, that the nuptials were concluded.
+
+It was new to Emily to part with any person, with whom she was 
+connected, without feeling of regret; the moment, however, in which 
+she took leave of M. and Madame Quesnel, was, perhaps, the only 
+satisfactory one she had known in their presence.
+
+Morano returned in Montoni's barge, and Emily, as she watched her 
+gradual approach to that magic city, saw at her side the only person, 
+who occasioned her to view it with less than perfect delight.  They 
+arrived there about midnight, when Emily was released from the 
+presence of the Count, who, with Montoni, went to a Casino, and she 
+was suffered to retire to her own apartment.
+
+On the following day, Montoni, in a short conversation, which he held 
+with Emily, informed her, that he would no longer be TRIFLED with, 
+and that, since her marriage with the Count would be so highly 
+advantageous to her, that folly only could object to it, and folly of 
+such extent as was incapable of conviction, it should be celebrated 
+without further delay, and, if that was necessary, without her 
+consent.
+
+Emily, who had hitherto tried remonstrance, had now recourse to 
+supplication, for distress prevented her from foreseeing, that, with 
+a man of Montoni's disposition, supplication would be equally 
+useless.  She afterwards enquired by what right he exerted this 
+unlimited authority over her? a question, which her better judgment 
+would have with-held her, in a calmer moment, from making, since it 
+could avail her nothing, and would afford Montoni another opportunity 
+of triumphing over her defenceless condition.
+
+'By what right!' cried Montoni, with a malicious smile, 'by the right 
+of my will; if you can elude that, I will not inquire by what right 
+you do so.  I now remind you, for the last time, that you are a 
+stranger, in a foreign country, and that it is your interest to make 
+me your friend; you know the means; if you compel me to become your 
+enemy--I will venture to tell you, that the punishment shall exceed 
+your expectation.  You may know _I_ am not to be trifled with.'
+
+Emily continued, for some time after Montoni had left her, in a state 
+of despair, or rather stupefaction; a consciousness of misery was all 
+that remained in her mind.  In this situation Madame Montoni found 
+her, at the sound of whose voice Emily looked up, and her aunt, 
+somewhat softened by the expression of despair, that fixed her 
+countenance, spoke in a manner more kind than she had ever yet done.  
+Emily's heart was touched; she shed tears, and, after weeping for 
+some time, recovered sufficient composure to speak on the subject of 
+her distress, and to endeavour to interest Madame Montoni in her 
+behalf.  But, though the compassion of her aunt had been surprised, 
+her ambition was not to be overcome, and her present object was to be 
+the aunt of a Countess.  Emily's efforts, therefore, were as 
+unsuccessful as they had been with Montoni, and she withdrew to her 
+apartment to think and weep alone.  How often did she remember the 
+parting scene with Valancourt, and wish, that the Italian had 
+mentioned Montoni's character with less reserve!  When her mind, 
+however, had recovered from the first shock of this behaviour, she 
+considered, that it would be impossible for him to compel her 
+alliance with Morano, if she persisted in refusing to repeat any part 
+of the marriage ceremony; and she persevered in her resolution to 
+await Montoni's threatened vengeance rather than give herself for 
+life to a man, whom she must have despised for his present conduct, 
+had she never even loved Valancourt; yet she trembled at the revenge 
+she thus resolved to brave.
+
+An affair, however, soon after occurred, which somewhat called off 
+Montoni's attention from Emily.  The mysterious visits of Orsino were 
+renewed with more frequency since the return of the former to Venice.  
+There were others, also, besides Orsino, admitted to these midnight 
+councils, and among them Cavigni and Verezzi.  Montoni became more 
+reserved and austere in his manner than ever; and Emily, if her own 
+interests had not made her regardless of his, might have perceived, 
+that something extraordinary was working in his mind.
+
+One night, on which a council was not held, Orsino came in great 
+agitation of spirits, and dispatched his confidential servant to 
+Montoni, who was at a Casino, desiring that he would return home 
+immediately; but charging the servant not to mention his name.  
+Montoni obeyed the summons, and, on meeting Orsino, was informed of 
+the circumstances, that occasioned his visit and his visible alarm, 
+with a part of which he was already acquainted.
+
+A Venetian nobleman, who had, on some late occasion, provoked the 
+hatred of Orsino, had been way-laid and poniarded by hired assassins:  
+and, as the murdered person was of the first connections, the Senate 
+had taken up the affair.  One of the assassins was now apprehended, 
+who had confessed, that Orsino was his employer in the atrocious 
+deed; and the latter, informed of his danger, had now come to Montoni 
+to consult on the measures necessary to favour his escape.  He knew, 
+that, at this time, the officers of the police were upon the watch 
+for him, all over the city; to leave it, at present, therefore, was 
+impracticable, and Montoni consented to secrete him for a few days 
+till the vigilance of justice should relax, and then to assist him in 
+quitting Venice.  He knew the danger he himself incurred by 
+permitting Orsino to remain in his house, but such was the nature of 
+his obligations to this man, that he did not think it prudent to 
+refuse him an asylum.
+
+Such was the person whom Montoni had admitted to his confidence, and 
+for whom he felt as much friendship as was compatible with his 
+character.
+
+While Orsino remained concealed in his house, Montoni was unwilling 
+to attract public observation by the nuptials of Count Morano; but 
+this obstacle was, in a few days, overcome by the departure of his 
+criminal visitor, and he then informed Emily, that her marriage was 
+to be celebrated on the following morning.  To her repeated 
+assurances, that it should not take place, he replied only by a 
+malignant smile; and, telling her that the Count and a priest would 
+be at his house, early in the morning, he advised her no further to 
+dare his resentment, by opposition to his will and to her own 
+interest.  'I am now going out for the evening,' said he, 'remember, 
+that I shall give your hand to Count Morano in the morning.'  Emily, 
+having, ever since his late threats, expected, that her trials would 
+at length arrive to this crisis, was less shocked by the declaration, 
+that she otherwise would have been, and she endeavoured to support 
+herself by the belief, that the marriage could not be valid, so long 
+as she refused before the priest to repeat any part of the ceremony.  
+Yet, as the moment of trial approached, her long-harassed spirits 
+shrunk almost equally from the encounter of his vengeance, and from 
+the hand of Count Morano.  She was not even perfectly certain of the 
+consequence of her steady refusal at the altar, and she trembled, 
+more than ever, at the power of Montoni, which seemed unlimited as 
+his will, for she saw, that he would not scruple to transgress any 
+law, if, by so doing, he could accomplish his project.
+
+While her mind was thus suffering and in a state little short of 
+distraction, she was informed that Morano asked permission to see 
+her, and the servant had scarcely departed with an excuse, before she 
+repented that she had sent one.  In the next moment, reverting to her 
+former design, and determining to try, whether expostulation and 
+entreaty would not succeed, where a refusal and a just disdain had 
+failed, she recalled the servant, and, sending a different message, 
+prepared to go down to the Count.
+
+The dignity and assumed composure with which she met him, and the 
+kind of pensive resignation, that softened her countenance, were 
+circumstances not likely to induce him to relinquish her, serving, as 
+they did, to heighten a passion, which had already intoxicated his 
+judgment.  He listened to all she said with an appearance of 
+complacency and of a wish to oblige her; but his resolution remained 
+invariably the same, and he endeavoured to win her admiration by 
+every insinuating art he so well knew how to practise.  Being, at 
+length, assured, that she had nothing to hope from his justice, she 
+repeated, in a solemn and impressive manner, her absolute rejection 
+of his suit, and quitted him with an assurance, that her refusal 
+would be effectually maintained against every circumstance, that 
+could be imagined for subduing it.  A just pride had restrained her 
+tears in his presence, but now they flowed from the fulness of her 
+heart.  She often called upon the name of her late father, and often 
+dwelt with unutterable anguish on the idea of Valancourt.
+
+She did not go down to supper, but remained alone in her apartment, 
+sometimes yielding to the influence of grief and terror, and, at 
+others, endeavouring to fortify her mind against them, and to prepare 
+herself to meet, with composed courage, the scene of the following 
+morning, when all the stratagem of Morano and the violence of Montoni 
+would be united against her.
+
+The evening was far advanced, when Madame Montoni came to her chamber 
+with some bridal ornaments, which the Count had sent to Emily.  She 
+had, this day, purposely avoided her niece; perhaps, because her 
+usual insensibility failed her, and she feared to trust herself with 
+a view of Emily's distress; or possibly, though her conscience was 
+seldom audible, it now reproached her with her conduct to her 
+brother's orphan child, whose happiness had been entrusted to her 
+care by a dying father.
+
+Emily could not look at these presents, and made a last, though 
+almost hopeless, effort to interest the compassion of Madame Montoni, 
+who, if she did feel any degree of pity, or remorse, successfully 
+concealed it, and reproached her niece with folly in being miserable, 
+concerning a marriage, which ought only to make her happy.  'I am 
+sure,' said she, 'if I was unmarried, and the Count had proposed to 
+me, I should have been flattered by the distinction:  and if I should 
+have been so, I am sure, niece, you, who have no fortune, ought to 
+feel yourself highly honoured, and shew a proper gratitude and 
+humility towards the Count, for his condescension.  I am often 
+surprised, I must own, to observe how humbly he deports himself to 
+you, notwithstanding the haughty airs you give yourself; I wonder he 
+has patience to humour you so:  if I was he, I know, I should often 
+be ready to reprehend you, and make you know yourself a little 
+better.  I would not have flattered you, I can tell you, for it is 
+this absurd flattery that makes you fancy yourself of so much 
+consequence, that you think nobody can deserve you, and I often tell 
+the Count so, for I have no patience to hear him pay you such 
+extravagant compliments, which you believe every word of!'
+
+'Your patience, madam, cannot suffer more cruelly on such occasions, 
+than my own,' said Emily.
+
+'O! that is all mere affectation,' rejoined her aunt.  'I know that 
+his flattery delights you, and makes you so vain, that you think you 
+may have the whole world at your feet.  But you are very much 
+mistaken; I can assure you, niece, you will not meet with many such 
+suitors as the Count:  every other person would have turned upon his 
+heel, and left you to repent at your leisure, long ago.'
+
+'O that the Count had resembled every other person, then!' said 
+Emily, with a heavy sigh.
+
+'It is happy for you, that he does not,' rejoined Madame Montoni; 
+'and what I am now saying is from pure kindness.  I am endeavouring 
+to convince you of your good fortune, and to persuade you to submit 
+to necessity with a good grace.  It is nothing to me, you know, 
+whether you like this marriage or not, for it must be; what I say, 
+therefore, is from pure kindness.  I wish to see you happy, and it is 
+your own fault if you are not so.  I would ask you, now, seriously 
+and calmly, what kind of a match you can expect, since a Count cannot 
+content your ambition?'
+
+'I have no ambition whatever, madam,' replied Emily, 'my only wish is 
+to remain in my present station.'
+
+'O! that is speaking quite from the purpose,' said her aunt, 'I see 
+you are still thinking of Mons. Valancourt.  Pray get rid of all 
+those fantastic notions about love, and this ridiculous pride, and be 
+something like a reasonable creature.  But, however, this is nothing 
+to the purpose--for your marriage with the Count takes place 
+tomorrow, you know, whether you approve it or not.  The Count will be 
+trifled with no longer.'
+
+Emily made no attempt to reply to this curious speech; she felt it 
+would be mean, and she knew it would be useless.  Madame Montoni laid 
+the Count's presents upon the table, on which Emily was leaning, and 
+then, desiring she would be ready early in the morning, bade her 
+good-night.  'Good-night, madam,' said Emily, with a deep sigh, as 
+the door closed upon her aunt, and she was left once more to her own 
+sad reflections.  For some time she sat so lost in thought, as to be 
+wholly unconscious where she was; at length, raising her head, and 
+looking round the room, its gloom and profound stillness awed her.  
+She fixed her eyes on the door, through which her aunt had 
+disappeared, and listened anxiously for some sound, that might 
+relieve the deep dejection of her spirits; but it was past midnight, 
+and all the family except the servant, who sat up for Montoni, had 
+retired to bed.  Her mind, long harassed by distress, now yielded to 
+imaginary terrors; she trembled to look into the obscurity of her 
+spacious chamber, and feared she knew not what; a state of mind, 
+which continued so long, that she would have called up Annette, her 
+aunt's woman, had her fears permitted her to rise from her chair, and 
+to cross the apartment.
+
+These melancholy illusions at length began to disperse, and she 
+retired to her bed, not to sleep, for that was scarcely possible, but 
+to try, at least, to quiet her disturbed fancy, and to collect 
+strength of spirits sufficient to bear her through the scene of the 
+approaching morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+ Dark power! with shudd'ring, meek submitted thought
+ Be mine to read the visions old
+ Which thy awak'ning bards have told,
+ And, lest they meet my blasted view,
+ Hold each strange tale devoutly true.
+     COLLINS' ODE TO FEAR
+
+Emily was recalled from a kind of slumber, into which she had, at 
+length, sunk, by a quick knocking at her chamber door.  She started 
+up in terror, for Montoni and Count Morano instantly came to her 
+mind; but, having listened in silence for some time, and recognizing 
+the voice of Annette, she rose and opened the door.  'What brings you 
+hither so early?' said Emily, trembling excessively.  She was unable 
+to support herself, and sat down on the bed.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle!' said Annette, 'do not look so pale.  I am quite 
+frightened to see you.  Here is a fine bustle below stairs, all the 
+servants running to and fro, and none of them fast enough!  Here is a 
+bustle, indeed, all of a sudden, and nobody knows for what!'
+
+'Who is below besides them?' said Emily, 'Annette, do not trifle with 
+me!'
+
+'Not for the world, ma'amselle, I would not trifle for the world; but 
+one cannot help making one's remarks, and there is the Signor in such 
+a bustle, as I never saw him before; and he has sent me to tell you, 
+ma'am, to get ready immediately.'
+
+'Good God support me!' cried Emily, almost fainting, 'Count Morano is 
+below, then!'
+
+'No, ma'amselle, he is not below that I know of,' replied Annette, 
+'only his excellenza sent me to desire you would get ready directly 
+to leave Venice, for that the gondolas would be at the steps of the 
+canal in a few minutes:  but I must hurry back to my lady, who is 
+just at her wits end, and knows not which way to turn for haste.'
+
+'Explain, Annette, explain the meaning of all this before you go,' 
+said Emily, so overcome with surprise and timid hope, that she had 
+scarcely breath to speak.
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, that is more than I can do.  I only know that the 
+Signor is just come home in a very ill humour, that he has had us all 
+called out of our beds, and tells us we are all to leave Venice 
+immediately.'
+
+'Is Count Morano to go with the signor?' said Emily, 'and whither are 
+we going?'
+
+'I know neither, ma'am, for certain; but I heard Ludovico say 
+something about going, after we get to terra-firma, to the signor's 
+castle among some mountains, that he talked of.'
+
+'The Apennines!' said Emily, eagerly, 'O! then I have little to 
+hope!'
+
+'That is the very place, ma'am.  But cheer up, and do not take it so 
+much to heart, and think what a little time you have to get ready in, 
+and how impatient the Signor is.  Holy St. Mark! I hear the oars on 
+the canal; and now they come nearer, and now they are dashing at the 
+steps below; it is the gondola, sure enough.'
+
+Annette hastened from the room; and Emily prepared for this 
+unexpected flight, as fast as her trembling hands would permit, not 
+perceiving, that any change in her situation could possibly be for 
+the worse.  She had scarcely thrown her books and clothes into her 
+travelling trunk, when, receiving a second summons, she went down to 
+her aunt's dressing-room, where she found Montoni impatiently 
+reproving his wife for delay.  He went out, soon after, to give some 
+further orders to his people, and Emily then enquired the occasion of 
+this hasty journey; but her aunt appeared to be as ignorant as 
+herself, and to undertake the journey with more reluctance.
+
+The family at length embarked, but neither Count Morano, nor Cavigni, 
+was of the party.  Somewhat revived by observing this, Emily, when 
+the gondolieri dashed their oars in the water, and put off from the 
+steps of the portico, felt like a criminal, who receives a short 
+reprieve.  Her heart beat yet lighter, when they emerged from the 
+canal into the ocean, and lighter still, when they skimmed past the 
+walls of St. Mark, without having stopped to take up Count Morano.
+
+The dawn now began to tint the horizon, and to break upon the shores 
+of the Adriatic.  Emily did not venture to ask any questions of 
+Montoni, who sat, for some time, in gloomy silence, and then rolled 
+himself up in his cloak, as if to sleep, while Madame Montoni did the 
+same; but Emily, who could not sleep, undrew one of the little 
+curtains of the gondola, and looked out upon the sea.  The rising 
+dawn now enlightened the mountain-tops of Friuli, but their lower 
+sides, and the distant waves, that rolled at their feet, were still 
+in deep shadow.  Emily, sunk in tranquil melancholy, watched the 
+strengthening light spreading upon the ocean, shewing successively 
+Venice and her islets, and the shores of Italy, along which boats, 
+with their pointed latin sails, began to move.
+
+The gondolieri were frequently hailed, at this early hour, by the 
+market-people, as they glided by towards Venice, and the lagune soon 
+displayed a gay scene of innumerable little barks, passing from 
+terra-firma with provisions.  Emily gave a last look to that splendid 
+city, but her mind was then occupied by considering the probable 
+events, that awaited her, in the scenes, to which she was removing, 
+and with conjectures, concerning the motive of this sudden journey.  
+It appeared, upon calmer consideration, that Montoni was removing her 
+to his secluded castle, because he could there, with more probability 
+of success, attempt to terrify her into obedience; or, that, should 
+its gloomy and sequestered scenes fail of this effect, her forced 
+marriage with the Count could there be solemnized with the secrecy, 
+which was necessary to the honour of Montoni.  The little spirit, 
+which this reprieve had recalled, now began to fail, and, when Emily 
+reached the shore, her mind had sunk into all its former depression.
+
+Montoni did not embark on the Brenta, but pursued his way in 
+carriages across the country, towards the Apennine; during which 
+journey, his manner to Emily was so particularly severe, that this 
+alone would have confirmed her late conjecture, had any such 
+confirmation been necessary.  Her senses were now dead to the 
+beautiful country, through which she travelled.  Sometimes she was 
+compelled to smile at the naivete of Annette, in her remarks on what 
+she saw, and sometimes to sigh, as a scene of peculiar beauty 
+recalled Valancourt to her thoughts, who was indeed seldom absent 
+from them, and of whom she could never hope to hear in the solitude, 
+to which she was hastening.
+
+At length, the travellers began to ascend among the Apennines.  The 
+immense pine-forests, which, at that period, overhung these 
+mountains, and between which the road wound, excluded all view but of 
+the cliffs aspiring above, except, that, now and then, an opening 
+through the dark woods allowed the eye a momentary glimpse of the 
+country below.  The gloom of these shades, their solitary silence, 
+except when the breeze swept over their summits, the tremendous 
+precipices of the mountains, that came partially to the eye, each 
+assisted to raise the solemnity of Emily's feelings into awe; she saw 
+only images of gloomy grandeur, or of dreadful sublimity, around her; 
+other images, equally gloomy and equally terrible, gleamed on her 
+imagination.  She was going she scarcely knew whither, under the 
+dominion of a person, from whose arbitrary disposition she had 
+already suffered so much, to marry, perhaps, a man who possessed 
+neither her affection, or esteem; or to endure, beyond the hope of 
+succour, whatever punishment revenge, and that Italian revenge, might 
+dictate.--The more she considered what might be the motive of the 
+journey, the more she became convinced, that it was for the purpose 
+of concluding her nuptials with Count Morano, with that secrecy, 
+which her resolute resistance had made necessary to the honour, if 
+not to the safety, of Montoni.  From the deep solitudes, into which 
+she was immerging, and from the gloomy castle, of which she had heard 
+some mysterious hints, her sick heart recoiled in despair, and she 
+experienced, that, though her mind was already occupied by peculiar 
+distress, it was still alive to the influence of new and local 
+circumstance; why else did she shudder at the idea of this desolate 
+castle?
+
+As the travellers still ascended among the pine forests, steep rose 
+over steep, the mountains seemed to multiply, as they went, and what 
+was the summit of one eminence proved to be only the base of another.  
+At length, they reached a little plain, where the drivers stopped to 
+rest the mules, whence a scene of such extent and magnificence opened 
+below, as drew even from Madame Montoni a note of admiration.  Emily 
+lost, for a moment, her sorrows, in the immensity of nature.  Beyond 
+the amphitheatre of mountains, that stretched below, whose tops 
+appeared as numerous almost, as the waves of the sea, and whose feet 
+were concealed by the forests--extended the campagna of Italy, where 
+cities and rivers, and woods and all the glow of cultivation were 
+mingled in gay confusion.  The Adriatic bounded the horizon, into 
+which the Po and the Brenta, after winding through the whole extent 
+of the landscape, poured their fruitful waves.  Emily gazed long on 
+the splendours of the world she was quitting, of which the whole 
+magnificence seemed thus given to her sight only to increase her 
+regret on leaving it; for her, Valancourt alone was in that world; to 
+him alone her heart turned, and for him alone fell her bitter tears.
+
+From this sublime scene the travellers continued to ascend among the 
+pines, till they entered a narrow pass of the mountains, which shut 
+out every feature of the distant country, and, in its stead, 
+exhibited only tremendous crags, impending over the road, where no 
+vestige of humanity, or even of vegetation, appeared, except here and 
+there the trunk and scathed branches of an oak, that hung nearly 
+headlong from the rock, into which its strong roots had fastened.  
+This pass, which led into the heart of the Apennine, at length opened 
+to day, and a scene of mountains stretched in long perspective, as 
+wild as any the travellers had yet passed.  Still vast pine-forests 
+hung upon their base, and crowned the ridgy precipice, that rose 
+perpendicularly from the vale, while, above, the rolling mists caught 
+the sun-beams, and touched their cliffs with all the magical 
+colouring of light and shade.  The scene seemed perpetually changing, 
+and its features to assume new forms, as the winding road brought 
+them to the eye in different attitudes; while the shifting vapours, 
+now partially concealing their minuter beauties and now illuminating 
+them with splendid tints, assisted the illusions of the sight.
+
+Though the deep vallies between these mountains were, for the most 
+part, clothed with pines, sometimes an abrupt opening presented a 
+perspective of only barren rocks, with a cataract flashing from their 
+summit among broken cliffs, till its waters, reaching the bottom, 
+foamed along with unceasing fury; and sometimes pastoral scenes 
+exhibited their 'green delights' in the narrow vales, smiling amid 
+surrounding horror.  There herds and flocks of goats and sheep, 
+browsing under the shade of hanging woods, and the shepherd's little 
+cabin, reared on the margin of a clear stream, presented a sweet 
+picture of repose.
+
+Wild and romantic as were these scenes, their character had far less 
+of the sublime, that had those of the Alps, which guard the entrance 
+of Italy.  Emily was often elevated, but seldom felt those emotions 
+of indescribable awe which she had so continually experienced, in her 
+passage over the Alps.
+
+Towards the close of day, the road wound into a deep valley.  
+Mountains, whose shaggy steeps appeared to be inaccessible, almost 
+surrounded it.  To the east, a vista opened, that exhibited the 
+Apennines in their darkest horrors; and the long perspective of 
+retiring summits, rising over each other, their ridges clothed with 
+pines, exhibited a stronger image of grandeur, than any that Emily 
+had yet seen.  The sun had just sunk below the top of the mountains 
+she was descending, whose long shadow stretched athwart the valley, 
+but his sloping rays, shooting through an opening of the cliffs, 
+touched with a yellow gleam the summits of the forest, that hung upon 
+the opposite steeps, and streamed in full splendour upon the towers 
+and battlements of a castle, that spread its extensive ramparts along 
+the brow of a precipice above.  The splendour of these illumined 
+objects was heightened by the contrasted shade, which involved the 
+valley below.
+
+'There,' said Montoni, speaking for the first time in several hours, 
+'is Udolpho.'
+
+Emily gazed with melancholy awe upon the castle, which she understood 
+to be Montoni's; for, though it was now lighted up by the setting 
+sun, the gothic greatness of its features, and its mouldering walls 
+of dark grey stone, rendered it a gloomy and sublime object.  As she 
+gazed, the light died away on its walls, leaving a melancholy purple 
+tint, which spread deeper and deeper, as the thin vapour crept up the 
+mountain, while the battlements above were still tipped with 
+splendour.  From those, too, the rays soon faded, and the whole 
+edifice was invested with the solemn duskiness of evening.  Silent, 
+lonely, and sublime, it seemed to stand the sovereign of the scene, 
+and to frown defiance on all, who dared to invade its solitary reign.  
+As the twilight deepened, its features became more awful in 
+obscurity, and Emily continued to gaze, till its clustering towers 
+were alone seen, rising over the tops of the woods, beneath whose 
+thick shade the carriages soon after began to ascend.
+
+The extent and darkness of these tall woods awakened terrific images 
+in her mind, and she almost expected to see banditti start up from 
+under the trees.  At length, the carriages emerged upon a heathy 
+rock, and, soon after, reached the castle gates, where the deep tone 
+of the portal bell, which was struck upon to give notice of their 
+arrival, increased the fearful emotions, that had assailed Emily.  
+While they waited till the servant within should come to open the 
+gates, she anxiously surveyed the edifice:  but the gloom, that 
+overspread it, allowed her to distinguish little more than a part of 
+its outline, with the massy walls of the ramparts, and to know, that 
+it was vast, ancient and dreary.  From the parts she saw, she judged 
+of the heavy strength and extent of the whole.  The gateway before 
+her, leading into the courts, was of gigantic size, and was defended 
+by two round towers, crowned by overhanging turrets, embattled, 
+where, instead of banners, now waved long grass and wild plants, that 
+had taken root among the mouldering stones, and which seemed to sigh, 
+as the breeze rolled past, over the desolation around them.  The 
+towers were united by a curtain, pierced and embattled also, below 
+which appeared the pointed arch of a huge portcullis, surmounting the 
+gates:  from these, the walls of the ramparts extended to other 
+towers, overlooking the precipice, whose shattered outline, appearing 
+on a gleam, that lingered in the west, told of the ravages of war.--
+Beyond these all was lost in the obscurity of evening.
+
+While Emily gazed with awe upon the scene, footsteps were heard 
+within the gates, and the undrawing of bolts; after which an ancient 
+servant of the castle appeared, forcing back the huge folds of the 
+portal, to admit his lord.  As the carriage-wheels rolled heavily 
+under the portcullis, Emily's heart sunk, and she seemed, as if she 
+was going into her prison; the gloomy court, into which she passed, 
+served to confirm the idea, and her imagination, ever awake to 
+circumstance, suggested even more terrors, than her reason could 
+justify.
+
+Another gate delivered them into the second court, grass-grown, and 
+more wild than the first, where, as she surveyed through the twilight 
+its desolation--its lofty walls, overtopt with briony, moss and 
+nightshade, and the embattled towers that rose above,--long-suffering 
+and murder came to her thoughts.  One of those instantaneous and 
+unaccountable convictions, which sometimes conquer even strong minds, 
+impressed her with its horror.  The sentiment was not diminished, 
+when she entered an extensive gothic hall, obscured by the gloom of 
+evening, which a light, glimmering at a distance through a long 
+perspective of arches, only rendered more striking.  As a servant 
+brought the lamp nearer partial gleams fell upon the pillars and the 
+pointed arches, forming a strong contrast with their shadows, that 
+stretched along the pavement and the walls.
+
+The sudden journey of Montoni had prevented his people from making 
+any other preparations for his reception, than could be had in the 
+short interval, since the arrival of the servant, who had been sent 
+forward from Venice; and this, in some measure, may account for the 
+air of extreme desolation, that everywhere appeared.
+
+The servant, who came to light Montoni, bowed in silence, and the 
+muscles of his countenance relaxed with no symptom of joy.--Montoni 
+noticed the salutation by a slight motion of his hand, and passed on, 
+while his lady, following, and looking round with a degree of 
+surprise and discontent, which she seemed fearful of expressing, and 
+Emily, surveying the extent and grandeur of the hall in timid wonder, 
+approached a marble stair-case.  The arches here opened to a lofty 
+vault, from the centre of which hung a tripod lamp, which a servant 
+was hastily lighting; and the rich fret-work of the roof, a corridor, 
+leading into several upper apartments, and a painted window, 
+stretching nearly from the pavement to the ceiling of the hall, 
+became gradually visible.
+
+Having crossed the foot of the stair-case, and passed through an 
+ante-room, they entered a spacious apartment, whose walls, wainscoted 
+with black larch-wood, the growth of the neighbouring mountains, were 
+scarcely distinguishable from darkness itself.  'Bring more light,' 
+said Montoni, as he entered.  The servant, setting down his lamp, was 
+withdrawing to obey him, when Madame Montoni observing, that the 
+evening air of this mountainous region was cold, and that she should 
+like a fire, Montoni ordered that wood might be brought.
+
+While he paced the room with thoughtful steps, and Madame Montoni sat 
+silently on a couch, at the upper end of it, waiting till the servant 
+returned, Emily was observing the singular solemnity and desolation 
+of the apartment, viewed, as it now was, by the glimmer of the single 
+lamp, placed near a large Venetian mirror, that duskily reflected the 
+scene, with the tall figure of Montoni passing slowly along, his arms 
+folded, and his countenance shaded by the plume, that waved in his 
+hat.
+
+From the contemplation of this scene, Emily's mind proceeded to the 
+apprehension of what she might suffer in it, till the remembrance of 
+Valancourt, far, far distant! came to her heart, and softened it into 
+sorrow.  A heavy sigh escaped her:  but, trying to conceal her tears, 
+she walked away to one of the high windows, that opened upon the 
+ramparts, below which, spread the woods she had passed in her 
+approach to the castle.  But the night-shade sat deeply on the 
+mountains beyond, and their indented outline alone could be faintly 
+traced on the horizon, where a red streak yet glimmered in the west.  
+The valley between was sunk in darkness.
+
+The scene within, upon which Emily turned on the opening of the door, 
+was scarcely less gloomy.  The old servant, who had received them at 
+the gates, now entered, bending under a load of pine-branches, while 
+two of Montoni's Venetian servants followed with lights.
+
+'Your excellenza is welcome to the castle,' said the old man, as he 
+raised himself from the hearth, where he had laid the wood:  'it has 
+been a lonely place a long while; but you will excuse it, Signor, 
+knowing we had but short notice.  It is near two years, come next 
+feast of St. Mark, since your excellenza was within these walls.'
+
+'You have a good memory, old Carlo,' said Montoni:  'it is there-
+about; and how hast thou contrived to live so long?'
+
+'A-well-a-day, sir, with much ado; the cold winds, that blow through 
+the castle in winter, are almost too much for me; and I thought 
+sometimes of asking your excellenza to let me leave the mountains, 
+and go down into the lowlands.  But I don't know how it is--I am loth 
+to quit these old walls I have lived in so long.'
+
+'Well, how have you gone on in the castle, since I left it?' said 
+Montoni.
+
+'Why much as usual, Signor, only it wants a good deal of repairing.  
+There is the north tower--some of the battlements have tumbled down, 
+and had liked one day to have knocked my poor wife (God rest her 
+soul!) on the head.  Your excellenza must know'--
+
+'Well, but the repairs,' interrupted Montoni.
+
+'Aye, the repairs,' said Carlo:  'a part of the roof of the great 
+hall has fallen in, and all the winds from the mountains rushed 
+through it last winter, and whistled through the whole castle so, 
+that there was no keeping one's self warm, be where one would.  
+There, my wife and I used to sit shivering over a great fire in one 
+corner of the little hall, ready to die with cold, and'--
+
+'But there are no more repairs wanted,' said Montoni, impatiently.
+
+'O Lord! Your excellenza, yes--the wall of the rampart has tumbled 
+down in three places; then, the stairs, that lead to the west 
+gallery, have been a long time so bad, that it is dangerous to go up 
+them; and the passage leading to the great oak chamber, that 
+overhangs the north rampart--one night last winter I ventured to go 
+there by myself, and your excellenza'--
+
+'Well, well, enough of this,' said Montoni, with quickness:  'I will 
+talk more with thee to-morrow.'
+
+The fire was now lighted; Carlo swept the hearth, placed chairs, 
+wiped the dust from a large marble table that stood near it, and then 
+left the room.
+
+Montoni and his family drew round the fire.  Madame Montoni made 
+several attempts at conversation, but his sullen answers repulsed 
+her, while Emily sat endeavouring to acquire courage enough to speak 
+to him.  At length, in a tremulous voice, she said, 'May I ask, sir, 
+the motive of this sudden journey?'--After a long pause, she 
+recovered sufficient courage to repeat the question.
+
+'It does not suit me to answer enquiries,' said Montoni, 'nor does it 
+become you to make them; time may unfold them all:  but I desire I 
+may be no further harassed, and I recommend it to you to retire to 
+your chamber, and to endeavour to adopt a more rational conduct, than 
+that of yielding to fancies, and to a sensibility, which, to call it 
+by the gentlest name, is only a weakness.'
+
+Emily rose to withdraw.  'Good night, madam,' said she to her aunt, 
+with an assumed composure, that could not disguise her emotion.
+
+'Good night, my dear,' said Madame Montoni, in a tone of kindness, 
+which her niece had never before heard from her; and the unexpected 
+endearment brought tears to Emily's eyes.  She curtsied to Montoni, 
+and was retiring; 'But you do not know the way to your chamber,' said 
+her aunt.  Montoni called the servant, who waited in the ante-room, 
+and bade him send Madame Montoni's woman, with whom, in a few 
+minutes, Emily withdrew.
+
+'Do you know which is my room?' said she to Annette, as they crossed 
+the hall.
+
+'Yes, I believe I do, ma'amselle; but this is such a strange rambling 
+place!  I have been lost in it already:  they call it the double 
+chamber, over the south rampart, and I went up this great stair-case 
+to it.  My lady's room is at the other end of the castle.'
+
+Emily ascended the marble staircase, and came to the corridor, as 
+they passed through which, Annette resumed her chat--'What a wild 
+lonely place this is, ma'am!  I shall be quite frightened to live in 
+it.  How often, and often have I wished myself in France again!  I 
+little thought, when I came with my lady to see the world, that I 
+should ever be shut up in such a place as this, or I would never have 
+left my own country!  This way, ma'amselle, down this turning.  I can 
+almost believe in giants again, and such like, for this is just like 
+one of their castles; and, some night or other, I suppose I shall see 
+fairies too, hopping about in that great old hall, that looks more 
+like a church, with its huge pillars, than any thing else.'
+
+'Yes,' said Emily, smiling, and glad to escape from more serious 
+thought, 'if we come to the corridor, about midnight, and look down 
+into the hall, we shall certainly see it illuminated with a thousand 
+lamps, and the fairies tripping in gay circles to the sound of 
+delicious music; for it is in such places as this, you know, that 
+they come to hold their revels.  But I am afraid, Annette, you will 
+not be able to pay the necessary penance for such a sight:  and, if 
+once they hear your voice, the whole scene will vanish in an 
+instant.'
+
+'O! if you will bear me company, ma'amselle, I will come to the 
+corridor, this very night, and I promise you I will hold my tongue; 
+it shall not be my fault if the show vanishes.--But do you think they 
+will come?'
+
+'I cannot promise that with certainty, but I will venture to say, it 
+will not be your fault if the enchantment should vanish.'
+
+'Well, ma'amselle, that is saying more than I expected of you:  but I 
+am not so much afraid of fairies, as of ghosts, and they say there 
+are a plentiful many of them about the castle:  now I should be 
+frightened to death, if I should chance to see any of them.  But 
+hush! ma'amselle, walk softly!  I have thought, several times, 
+something passed by me.'
+
+'Ridiculous!' said Emily, 'you must not indulge such fancies.'
+
+'O ma'am! they are not fancies, for aught I know; Benedetto says 
+these dismal galleries and halls are fit for nothing but ghosts to 
+live in; and I verily believe, if I LIVE long in them I shall turn to 
+one myself!'
+
+'I hope,' said Emily, 'you will not suffer Signor Montoni to hear of 
+these weak fears; they would highly displease him.'
+
+'What, you know then, ma'amselle, all about it!' rejoined Annette.  
+'No, no, I do know better than to do so; though, if the Signor can 
+sleep sound, nobody else in the castle has any right to lie awake, I 
+am sure.'  Emily did not appear to notice this remark.
+
+'Down this passage, ma'amselle; this leads to a back stair-case.  O! 
+if I see any thing, I shall be frightened out of my wits!'
+
+'That will scarcely be possible,' said Emily smiling, as she followed 
+the winding of the passage, which opened into another gallery: and 
+then Annette, perceiving that she had missed her way, while she had 
+been so eloquently haranguing on ghosts and fairies, wandered about 
+through other passages and galleries, till, at length, frightened by 
+their intricacies and desolation, she called aloud for assistance:  
+but they were beyond the hearing of the servants, who were on the 
+other side of the castle, and Emily now opened the door of a chamber 
+on the left.
+
+'O! do not go in there, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'you will only 
+lose yourself further.'
+
+'Bring the light forward,' said Emily, 'we may possibly find our way 
+through these rooms.'
+
+Annette stood at the door, in an attitude of hesitation, with the 
+light held up to shew the chamber, but the feeble rays spread through 
+not half of it.  'Why do you hesitate?' said Emily, 'let me see 
+whither this room leads.'
+
+Annette advanced reluctantly.  It opened into a suite of spacious and 
+ancient apartments, some of which were hung with tapestry, and others 
+wainscoted with cedar and black larch-wood.  What furniture there 
+was, seemed to be almost as old as the rooms, and retained an 
+appearance of grandeur, though covered with dust, and dropping to 
+pieces with the damps, and with age.
+
+'How cold these rooms are, ma'amselle!' said Annette:  'nobody has 
+lived in them for many, many years, they say.  Do let us go.'
+
+'They may open upon the great stair-case, perhaps,' said Emily, 
+passing on till she came to a chamber, hung with pictures, and took 
+the light to examine that of a soldier on horseback in a field of 
+battle.--He was darting his spear upon a man, who lay under the feet 
+of the horse, and who held up one hand in a supplicating attitude.  
+The soldier, whose beaver was up, regarded him with a look of 
+vengeance, and the countenance, with that expression, struck Emily as 
+resembling Montoni.  She shuddered, and turned from it.  Passing the 
+light hastily over several other pictures, she came to one concealed 
+by a veil of black silk.  The singularity of the circumstance struck 
+her, and she stopped before it, wishing to remove the veil, and 
+examine what could thus carefully be concealed, but somewhat wanting 
+courage.  'Holy Virgin! what can this mean?' exclaimed Annette.  
+'This is surely the picture they told me of at Venice.'
+
+'What picture?' said Emily.  'Why a picture--a picture,' replied 
+Annette, hesitatingly--'but I never could make out exactly what it 
+was about, either.'
+
+'Remove the veil, Annette.'
+
+'What!  I, ma'amselle!--I! not for the world!'  Emily, turning round, 
+saw Annette's countenance grow pale.  'And pray, what have you heard 
+of this picture, to terrify you so, my good girl?' said she. 
+'Nothing, ma'amselle:  I have heard nothing, only let us find our way 
+out.'
+
+'Certainly:  but I wish first to examine the picture; take the light, 
+Annette, while I lift the veil.'  Annette took the light, and 
+immediately walked away with it, disregarding Emily's call to stay, 
+who, not choosing to be left alone in the dark chamber, at length 
+followed her.  'What is the reason of this, Annette?' said Emily, 
+when she overtook her, 'what have you heard concerning that picture, 
+which makes you so unwilling to stay when I bid you?'
+
+'I don't know what is the reason, ma'amselle, replied Annette, 'nor 
+any thing about the picture, only I have heard there is something 
+very dreadful belonging to it--and that it has been covered up in 
+black EVER SINCE--and that nobody has looked at it for a great many 
+years--and it somehow has to do with the owner of this castle before 
+Signor Montoni came to the possession of it--and'---
+
+'Well, Annette,' said Emily, smiling, 'I perceive it is as you say--
+that you know nothing about the picture.'
+
+'No, nothing, indeed, ma'amselle, for they made me promise never to 
+tell:--but'--
+
+'Well,' rejoined Emily, who observed that she was struggling between 
+her inclination to reveal a secret, and her apprehension for the 
+consequence, 'I will enquire no further'---
+
+'No, pray, ma'am, do not.'
+
+'Lest you should tell all,' interrupted Emily.
+
+Annette blushed, and Emily smiled, and they passed on to the 
+extremity of this suite of apartments, and found themselves, after 
+some further perplexity, once more at the top of the marble stair-
+case, where Annette left Emily, while she went to call one of the 
+servants of the castle to shew them to the chamber, for which they 
+had been seeking.
+
+While she was absent, Emily's thoughts returned to the picture; an 
+unwillingness to tamper with the integrity of a servant, had checked 
+her enquiries on this subject, as well as concerning some alarming 
+hints, which Annette had dropped respecting Montoni; though her 
+curiosity was entirely awakened, and she had perceived, that her 
+questions might easily be answered.  She was now, however, inclined 
+to go back to the apartment and examine the picture; but the 
+loneliness of the hour and of the place, with the melancholy silence 
+that reigned around her, conspired with a certain degree of awe, 
+excited by the mystery attending this picture, to prevent her.  She 
+determined, however, when day-light should have re-animated her 
+spirits, to go thither and remove the veil.  As she leaned from the 
+corridor, over the stair-case, and her eyes wandered round, she again 
+observed, with wonder, the vast strength of the walls, now somewhat 
+decayed, and the pillars of solid marble, that rose from the hall, 
+and supported the roof.
+
+A servant now appeared with Annette, and conducted Emily to her 
+chamber, which was in a remote part of the castle, and at the very 
+end of the corridor, from whence the suite of apartments opened, 
+through which they had been wandering.  The lonely aspect of her room 
+made Emily unwilling that Annette should leave her immediately, and 
+the dampness of it chilled her with more than fear.  She begged 
+Caterina, the servant of the castle, to bring some wood and light a 
+fire.
+
+'Aye, lady, it's many a year since a fire was lighted here,' said 
+Caterina.
+
+'You need not tell us that, good woman,' said Annette; 'every room in 
+the castle feels like a well.  I wonder how you contrive to live 
+here; for my part, I wish myself at Venice again.'  Emily waved her 
+hand for Caterina to fetch the wood.
+
+'I wonder, ma'am, why they call this the double chamber?' said 
+Annette, while Emily surveyed it in silence and saw that it was lofty 
+and spacious, like the others she had seen, and, like many of them, 
+too, had its walls lined with dark larch-wood.  The bed and other 
+furniture was very ancient, and had an air of gloomy grandeur, like 
+all that she had seen in the castle.  One of the high casements, 
+which she opened, overlooked a rampart, but the view beyond was hid 
+in darkness.
+
+In the presence of Annette, Emily tried to support her spirits, and 
+to restrain the tears, which, every now and then, came to her eyes.  
+She wished much to enquire when Count Morano was expected at the 
+castle, but an unwillingness to ask unnecessary questions, and to 
+mention family concerns to a servant, withheld her.  Meanwhile, 
+Annette's thoughts were engaged upon another subject:  she dearly 
+loved the marvellous, and had heard of a circumstance, connected with 
+the castle, that highly gratified this taste.  Having been enjoined 
+not to mention it, her inclination to tell it was so strong, that she 
+was every instant on the point of speaking what she had heard.  Such 
+a strange circumstance, too, and to be obliged to conceal it, was a 
+severe punishment; but she knew, that Montoni might impose one much 
+severer, and she feared to incur it by offending him.
+
+Caterina now brought the wood, and its bright blaze dispelled, for a 
+while, the gloom of the chamber.  She told Annette, that her lady had 
+enquired for her, and Emily was once again left to her own sad 
+reflections.  Her heart was not yet hardened against the stern 
+manners of Montoni, and she was nearly as much shocked now, as she 
+had been when she first witnessed them.  The tenderness and 
+affection, to which she had been accustomed, till she lost her 
+parents, had made her particularly sensible to any degree of 
+unkindness, and such a reverse as this no apprehension had prepared 
+her to support.
+
+To call off her attention from subjects, that pressed heavily on her 
+spirits, she rose and again examined her room and its furniture.  As 
+she walked round it, she passed a door, that was not quite shut, and, 
+perceiving, that it was not the one, through which she entered, she 
+brought the light forward to discover whither it led.  She opened it, 
+and, going forward, had nearly fallen down a steep, narrow stair-case 
+that wound from it, between two stone walls.  She wished to know to 
+what it led, and was the more anxious, since it communicated so 
+immediately with her apartment; but, in the present state of her 
+spirits, she wanted courage to venture into the darkness alone.  
+Closing the door, therefore, she endeavoured to fasten it, but, upon 
+further examination, perceived, that it had no bolts on the chamber 
+side, though it had two on the other.  By placing a heavy chair 
+against it, she in some measure remedied the defect; yet she was 
+still alarmed at the thought of sleeping in this remote room alone, 
+with a door opening she knew not whither, and which could not be 
+perfectly fastened on the inside.  Sometimes she wished to entreat of 
+Madame Montoni, that Annette might have leave to remain with her all 
+night, but was deterred by an apprehension of betraying what would be 
+thought childish fears, and by an unwillingness to increase the apt 
+terrors of Annette.
+
+Her gloomy reflections were, soon after, interrupted by a footstep in 
+the corridor, and she was glad to see Annette enter with some supper, 
+sent by Madame Montoni.  Having a table near the fire, she made the 
+good girl sit down and sup with her; and, when their little repast 
+was over, Annette, encouraged by her kindness and stirring the wood 
+into a blaze, drew her chair upon the hearth, nearer to Emily, and 
+said--'Did you ever hear, ma'amselle, of the strange accident, that 
+made the Signor lord of this castle?'
+
+'What wonderful story have you now to tell?' said Emily, concealing 
+the curiosity, occasioned by the mysterious hints she had formerly 
+heard on that subject.
+
+'I have heard all about it, ma'amselle,' said Annette, looking round 
+the chamber and drawing closer to Emily; 'Benedetto told it me as we 
+travelled together:  says he, "Annette, you don't know about this 
+castle here, that we are going to?"  No, says I, Mr. Benedetto, pray 
+what do you know?  But, ma'amselle, you can keep a secret, or I would 
+not tell it you for the world; for I promised never to tell, and they 
+say, that the Signor does not like to have it talked of.'
+
+'If you promised to keep this secret,' said Emily, 'you do right not 
+to mention it.'
+
+Annette paused a moment, and then said, 'O, but to you, ma'amselle, 
+to you I may tell it safely, I know.'
+
+Emily smiled, 'I certainly shall keep it as faithful as yourself, 
+Annette.'
+
+Annette replied very gravely, that would do, and proceeded--'This 
+castle, you must know, ma'amselle, is very old, and very strong, and 
+has stood out many sieges as they say.  Now it was not Signor 
+Montoni's always, nor his father's; no; but, by some law or other, it 
+was to come to the Signor, if the lady died unmarried.'
+
+'What lady?' said Emily.
+
+'I am not come to that yet,' replied Annette, 'it is the lady I am 
+going to tell you about, ma'amselle:  but, as I was saying, this lady 
+lived in the castle, and had everything very grand about her, as you 
+may suppose, ma'amselle.  The Signor used often to come to see her, 
+and was in love with her, and offered to marry her; for, though he 
+was somehow related, that did not signify.  But she was in love with 
+somebody else, and would not have him, which made him very angry, as 
+they say, and you know, ma'amselle, what an ill-looking gentleman he 
+is, when he is angry.  Perhaps she saw him in a passion, and 
+therefore would not have him.  But, as I was saying, she was very 
+melancholy and unhappy, and all that, for a long while, and--Holy 
+Virgin! what noise is that? did not you hear a sound, ma'amselle?'
+
+'It was only the wind,' said Emily, 'but do come to the end of your 
+story.'
+
+'As I was saying--O, where was I?--as I was saying--she was very 
+melancholy and unhappy a long while, and used to walk about upon the 
+terrace, there, under the windows, by herself, and cry so! it would 
+have done your heart good to hear her.  That is--I don't mean good, 
+but it would have made you cry too, as they tell me.'
+
+'Well, but, Annette, do tell me the substance of your tale.'
+
+'All in good time, ma'am; all this I heard before at Venice, but what 
+is to come I never heard till to-day.  This happened a great many 
+years ago, when Signor Montoni was quite a young man.  The lady--they 
+called her Signora Laurentini, was very handsome, but she used to be 
+in great passions, too, sometimes, as well as the Signor.  Finding he 
+could not make her listen to him--what does he do, but leave the 
+castle, and never comes near it for a long time! but it was all one 
+to her; she was just as unhappy whether he was here or not, till one 
+evening, Holy St. Peter! ma'amselle,' cried Annette, 'look at that 
+lamp, see how blue it burns!'  She looked fearfully round the 
+chamber.  'Ridiculous girl!' said Emily, 'why will you indulge those 
+fancies?  Pray let me hear the end of your story, I am weary.'
+
+Annette still kept her eyes on the lamp, and proceeded in a lower 
+voice.  'It was one evening, they say, at the latter end of the year, 
+it might be about the middle of September, I suppose, or the 
+beginning of October; nay, for that matter, it might be November, for 
+that, too, is the latter end of the year, but that I cannot say for 
+certain, because they did not tell me for certain themselves.  
+However, it was at the latter end of the year, this grand lady walked 
+out of the castle into the woods below, as she had often done before, 
+all alone, only her maid was with her.  The wind blew cold, and 
+strewed the leaves about, and whistled dismally among those great old 
+chesnut trees, that we passed, ma'amselle, as we came to the castle--
+for Benedetto shewed me the trees as he was talking--the wind blew 
+cold, and her woman would have persuaded her to return:  but all 
+would not do, for she was fond of walking in the woods, at evening 
+time, and, if the leaves were falling about her, so much the better.
+
+'Well, they saw her go down among the woods, but night came, and she 
+did not return:  ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock came, 
+and no lady!  Well, the servants thought to be sure, some accident 
+had befallen her, and they went out to seek her.  They searched all 
+night long, but could not find her, or any trace of her; and, from 
+that day to this, ma'amselle, she has never been heard of.'
+
+'Is this true, Annette?' said Emily, in much surprise.
+
+'True, ma'am!' said Annette, with a look of horror, 'yes, it is true, 
+indeed.  But they do say,' she added, lowering her voice, 'they do 
+say, that the Signora has been seen, several times since, walking in 
+the woods and about the castle in the night:  several of the old 
+servants, who remained here some time after, declare they saw her; 
+and, since then, she has been seen by some of the vassals, who have 
+happened to be in the castle, at night.  Carlo, the old steward, 
+could tell such things, they say, if he would.'
+
+'How contradictory is this, Annette!' said Emily, 'you say nothing 
+has been since known of her, and yet she has been seen!'
+
+'But all this was told me for a great secret,' rejoined Annette, 
+without noticing the remark, 'and I am sure, ma'am, you would not 
+hurt either me or Benedetto, so much as to go and tell it again.'  
+Emily remained silent, and Annette repeated her last sentence.
+
+'You have nothing to fear from my indiscretion,' replied Emily, 'and 
+let me advise you, my good Annette, be discreet yourself, and never 
+mention what you have just told me to any other person.  Signor 
+Montoni, as you say, may be angry if he hears of it.  But what 
+inquiries were made concerning the lady?'
+
+'O! a great deal, indeed, ma'amselle, for the Signor laid claim to 
+the castle directly, as being the next heir, and they said, that is, 
+the judges, or the senators, or somebody of that sort, said, he could 
+not take possession of it till so many years were gone by, and then, 
+if, after all, the lady could not be found, why she would be as good 
+as dead, and the castle would be his own; and so it is his own.  But 
+the story went round, and many strange reports were spread, so very 
+strange, ma'amselle, that I shall not tell them.'
+
+'That is stranger still, Annette,' said Emily, smiling, and rousing 
+herself from her reverie.  'But, when Signora Laurentini was 
+afterwards seen in the castle, did nobody speak to her?'
+
+'Speak--speak to her!' cried Annette, with a look of terror; 'no, to 
+be sure.'
+
+'And why not?' rejoined Emily, willing to hear further.
+
+'Holy Mother! speak to a spirit!'
+
+'But what reason had they to conclude it was a spirit, unless they 
+had approached, and spoken to it?'  'O ma'amselle, I cannot tell.  
+How can you ask such shocking questions?  But nobody ever saw it come 
+in, or go out of the castle; and it was in one place now, and then 
+the next minute in quite another part of the castle; and then it 
+never spoke, and, if it was alive, what should it do in the castle if 
+it never spoke?  Several parts of the castle have never been gone 
+into since, they say, for that very reason.'
+
+'What, because it never spoke?' said Emily, trying to laugh away the 
+fears that began to steal upon her.--'No, ma'amselle, no;' replied 
+Annette, rather angrily 'but because something has been seen there.  
+They say, too, there is an old chapel adjoining the west side of the 
+castle, where, any time at midnight, you may hear such groans!--it 
+makes one shudder to think of them!--and strange sights have been 
+seen there--'
+
+'Pr'ythee, Annette, no more of these silly tales,' said Emily.
+
+'Silly tales, ma'amselle!  O, but I will tell you one story about 
+this, if you please, that Caterina told me.  It was one cold winter's 
+night that Caterina (she often came to the castle then, she says, to 
+keep old Carlo and his wife company, and so he recommended her 
+afterwards to the Signor, and she has lived here ever since) Caterina 
+was sitting with them in the little hall, says Carlo, "I wish we had 
+some of those figs to roast, that lie in the store-closet, but it is 
+a long way off, and I am loath to fetch them; do, Caterina," says he, 
+"for you are young and nimble, do bring us some, the fire is in nice 
+trim for roasting them; they lie," says he, "in such a corner of the 
+store-room, at the end of the north-gallery; here, take the lamp," 
+says he, "and mind, as you go up the great stair-case, that the wind, 
+through the roof, does not blow it out."  So, with that, Caterina 
+took the lamp--Hush! ma'amselle, I surely heard a noise!'
+
+Emily, whom Annette had now infected with her own terrors, listened 
+attentively; but every thing was still, and Annette proceeded:
+
+'Caterina went to the north-gallery, that is the wide gallery we 
+passed, ma'am, before we came to the corridor, here.  As she went 
+with the lamp in her hand, thinking of nothing at all--There, again!' 
+cried Annette suddenly--'I heard it again!--it was not fancy, 
+ma'amselle!'
+
+'Hush!' said Emily, trembling.  They listened, and, continuing to sit 
+quite still, Emily heard a low knocking against the wall.  It came 
+repeatedly.  Annette then screamed loudly, and the chamber door 
+slowly opened.--It was Caterina, come to tell Annette, that her lady 
+wanted her.  Emily, though she now perceived who it was, could not 
+immediately overcome her terror; while Annette, half laughing, half 
+crying, scolded Caterina heartily for thus alarming them; and was 
+also terrified lest what she had told had been overheard.--Emily, 
+whose mind was deeply impressed by the chief circumstance of 
+Annette's relation, was unwilling to be left alone, in the present 
+state of her spirits; but, to avoid offending Madame Montoni, and 
+betraying her own weakness, she struggled to overcome the illusions 
+of fear, and dismissed Annette for the night.
+
+When she was alone, her thoughts recurred to the strange history of 
+Signora Laurentini and then to her own strange situation, in the wild 
+and solitary mountains of a foreign country, in the castle, and the 
+power of a man, to whom, only a few preceding months, she was an 
+entire stranger; who had already exercised an usurped authority over 
+her, and whose character she now regarded, with a degree of terror, 
+apparently justified by the fears of others.  She knew, that he had 
+invention equal to the conception and talents to the execution of any 
+project, and she greatly feared he had a heart too void of feeling to 
+oppose the perpetration of whatever his interest might suggest.  She 
+had long observed the unhappiness of Madame Montoni, and had often 
+been witness to the stern and contemptuous behaviour she received 
+from her husband.  To these circumstances, which conspired to give 
+her just cause for alarm, were now added those thousand nameless 
+terrors, which exist only in active imaginations, and which set 
+reason and examination equally at defiance.
+
+Emily remembered all that Valancourt had told her, on the eve of her 
+departure from Languedoc, respecting Montoni, and all that he had 
+said to dissuade her from venturing on the journey.  His fears had 
+often since appeared to her prophetic--now they seemed confirmed.  
+Her heart, as it gave her back the image of Valancourt, mourned in 
+vain regret, but reason soon came with a consolation which, though 
+feeble at first, acquired vigour from reflection.  She considered, 
+that, whatever might be her sufferings, she had withheld from 
+involving him in misfortune, and that, whatever her future sorrows 
+could be, she was, at least, free from self-reproach.
+
+Her melancholy was assisted by the hollow sighings of the wind along 
+the corridor and round the castle.  The cheerful blaze of the wood 
+had long been extinguished, and she sat with her eyes fixed on the 
+dying embers, till a loud gust, that swept through the corridor, and 
+shook the doors and casements, alarmed her, for its violence had 
+moved the chair she had placed as a fastening, and the door, leading 
+to the private stair-case stood half open.  Her curiosity and her 
+fears were again awakened.  She took the lamp to the top of the 
+steps, and stood hesitating whether to go down; but again the 
+profound stillness and the gloom of the place awed her, and, 
+determining to enquire further, when day-light might assist the 
+search, she closed the door, and placed against it a stronger guard.
+
+She now retired to her bed, leaving the lamp burning on the table; 
+but its gloomy light, instead of dispelling her fear, assisted it; 
+for, by its uncertain rays, she almost fancied she saw shapes flit 
+past her curtains and glide into the remote obscurity of her 
+chamber.--The castle clock struck one before she closed her eyes to 
+sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+      I think it is the weakness of mine eyes,
+ That shapes this monstrous apparition.
+ It comes upon me!
+      JULIUS CAESAR
+
+Daylight dispelled from Emily's mind the glooms of superstition, but 
+not those of apprehension.  The Count Morano was the first image, 
+that occurred to her waking thoughts, and then came a train of 
+anticipated evils, which she could neither conquer, nor avoid.  She 
+rose, and, to relieve her mind from the busy ideas, that tormented 
+it, compelled herself to notice external objects.  From her casement 
+she looked out upon the wild grandeur of the scene, closed nearly on 
+all sides by alpine steeps, whose tops, peeping over each other, 
+faded from the eye in misty hues, while the promontories below were 
+dark with woods, that swept down to their base, and stretched along 
+the narrow vallies.  The rich pomp of these woods was particularly 
+delightful to Emily; and she viewed with astonishment the 
+fortifications of the castle spreading along a vast extent of rock, 
+and now partly in decay, the grandeur of the ramparts below, and the 
+towers and battlements and various features of the fabric above.  
+From these her sight wandered over the cliffs and woods into the 
+valley, along which foamed a broad and rapid stream, seen falling 
+among the crags of an opposite mountain, now flashing in the sun-
+beams, and now shadowed by over-arching pines, till it was entirely 
+concealed by their thick foliage.  Again it burst from beneath this 
+darkness in one broad sheet of foam, and fell thundering into the 
+vale.  Nearer, towards the west, opened the mountain-vista, which 
+Emily had viewed with such sublime emotion, on her approach to the 
+castle:  a thin dusky vapour, that rose from the valley, overspread 
+its features with a sweet obscurity.  As this ascended and caught the 
+sun-beams, it kindled into a crimson tint, and touched with exquisite 
+beauty the woods and cliffs, over which it passed to the summit of 
+the mountains; then, as the veil drew up, it was delightful to watch 
+the gleaming objects, that progressively disclosed themselves in the 
+valley--the green turf--dark woods--little rocky recesses--a few 
+peasants' huts--the foaming stream--a herd of cattle, and various 
+images of pastoral beauty.  Then, the pine-forests brightened, and 
+then the broad breast of the mountains, till, at length, the mist 
+settled round their summit, touching them with a ruddy glow.  The 
+features of the vista now appeared distinctly, and the broad deep 
+shadows, that fell from the lower cliffs, gave strong effect to the 
+streaming splendour above; while the mountains, gradually sinking in 
+the perspective, appeared to shelve into the Adriatic sea, for such 
+Emily imagined to be the gleam of blueish light, that terminated the 
+view.
+
+Thus she endeavoured to amuse her fancy, and was not unsuccessful.  
+The breezy freshness of the morning, too, revived her.  She raised 
+her thoughts in prayer, which she felt always most disposed to do, 
+when viewing the sublimity of nature, and her mind recovered its 
+strength.
+
+When she turned from the casement, her eyes glanced upon the door she 
+had so carefully guarded, on the preceding night, and she now 
+determined to examine whither it led; but, on advancing to remove the 
+chairs, she perceived, that they were already moved a little way.  
+Her surprise cannot be easily imagined, when, in the next minute, she 
+perceived that the door was fastened.--She felt, as if she had seen 
+an apparition.  The door of the corridor was locked as she had left 
+it, but this door, which could be secured only on the outside, must 
+have been bolted, during the night.  She became seriously uneasy at 
+the thought of sleeping again in a chamber, thus liable to intrusion, 
+so remote, too, as it was from the family, and she determined to 
+mention the circumstance to Madame Montoni, and to request a change.
+
+After some perplexity she found her way into the great hall, and to 
+the room, which she had left, on the preceding night, where breakfast 
+was spread, and her aunt was alone, for Montoni had been walking over 
+the environs of the castle, examining the condition of its 
+fortifications, and talking for some time with Carlo.  Emily observed 
+that her aunt had been weeping, and her heart softened towards her, 
+with an affection, that shewed itself in her manner, rather than in 
+words, while she carefully avoided the appearance of having noticed, 
+that she was unhappy.  She seized the opportunity of Montoni's 
+absence to mention the circumstance of the door, to request that she 
+might be allowed another apartment, and to enquire again, concerning 
+the occasion of their sudden journey.  On the first subject her aunt 
+referred her to Montoni, positively refusing to interfere in the 
+affair; on the last, she professed utter ignorance.
+
+Emily, then, with a wish of making her aunt more reconciled to her 
+situation, praised the grandeur of the castle and the surrounding 
+scenery, and endeavoured to soften every unpleasing circumstance 
+attending it.  But, though misfortune had somewhat conquered the 
+asperities of Madame Montoni's temper, and, by increasing her cares 
+for herself, had taught her to feel in some degree for others, the 
+capricious love of rule, which nature had planted and habit had 
+nourished in her heart, was not subdued.  She could not now deny 
+herself the gratification of tyrannizing over the innocent and 
+helpless Emily, by attempting to ridicule the taste she could not 
+feel.
+
+Her satirical discourse was, however, interrupted by the entrance of 
+Montoni, and her countenance immediately assumed a mingled expression 
+of fear and resentment, while he seated himself at the breakfast-
+table, as if unconscious of there being any person but himself in the 
+room.
+
+Emily, as she observed him in silence, saw, that his countenance was 
+darker and sterner than usual.  'O could I know,' said she to 
+herself, 'what passes in that mind; could I know the thoughts, that 
+are known there, I should no longer be condemned to this torturing 
+suspense!'  Their breakfast passed in silence, till Emily ventured to 
+request, that another apartment might be allotted to her, and related 
+the circumstance which made her wish it.
+
+'I have no time to attend to these idle whims,' said Montoni, 'that 
+chamber was prepared for you, and you must rest contented with it.  
+It is not probable, that any person would take the trouble of going 
+to that remote stair-case, for the purpose of fastening a door.  If 
+it was not fastened, when you entered the chamber, the wind, perhaps, 
+shook the door and made the bolts slide.  But I know not why I should 
+undertake to account for so trifling an occurrence.'
+
+This explanation was by no means satisfactory to Emily, who had 
+observed, that the bolts were rusted, and consequently could not be 
+thus easily moved; but she forbore to say so, and repeated her 
+request.
+
+
+'If you will not release yourself from the slavery of these fears,' 
+said Montoni, sternly, 'at least forbear to torment others by the 
+mention of them.  Conquer such whims, and endeavour to strengthen 
+your mind.  No existence is more contemptible than that, which is 
+embittered by fear.'  As he said this, his eye glanced upon Madame 
+Montoni, who coloured highly, but was still silent.  Emily, wounded 
+and disappointed, thought her fears were, in this instance, too 
+reasonable to deserve ridicule; but, perceiving, that, however they 
+might oppress her, she must endure them, she tried to withdraw her 
+attention from the subject.
+
+Carlo soon after entered with some fruit:
+
+'Your excellenza is tired after your long ramble,' said he, as he set 
+the fruit upon the table; 'but you have more to see after breakfast.  
+There is a place in the vaulted passage leading to--'
+
+Montoni frowned upon him, and waved his hand for him to leave the 
+room.  Carlo stopped, looked down, and then added, as he advanced to 
+the breakfast-table, and took up the basket of fruit, 'I made bold, 
+your excellenza, to bring some cherries, here, for my honoured lady 
+and my young mistress.  Will your ladyship taste them, madam?' said 
+Carlo, presenting the basket, 'they are very fine ones, though I 
+gathered them myself, and from an old tree, that catches all the 
+south sun; they are as big as plums, your ladyship.'
+
+'Very well, old Carlo,' said Madame Montoni; 'I am obliged to you.'
+
+'And the young Signora, too, she may like some of them,' rejoined 
+Carlo, turning with the basket to Emily, 'it will do me good to see 
+her eat some.'
+
+'Thank you, Carlo,' said Emily, taking some cherries, and smiling 
+kindly.
+
+'Come, come,' said Montoni, impatiently, 'enough of this.  Leave the 
+room, but be in waiting.  I shall want you presently.'
+
+Carlo obeyed, and Montoni, soon after, went out to examine further 
+into the state of the castle; while Emily remained with her aunt, 
+patiently enduring her ill humour, and endeavouring, with much 
+sweetness, to soothe her affliction, instead of resenting its effect.
+
+When Madame Montoni retired to her dressing-room, Emily endeavoured 
+to amuse herself by a view of the castle.  Through a folding door she 
+passed from the great hall to the ramparts, which extended along the 
+brow of the precipice, round three sides of the edifice; the fourth 
+was guarded by the high walls of the courts, and by the gateway, 
+through which she had passed, on the preceding evening.  The grandeur 
+of the broad ramparts, and the changing scenery they overlooked, 
+excited her high admiration; for the extent of the terraces allowed 
+the features of the country to be seen in such various points of 
+view, that they appeared to form new landscapes.  She often paused to 
+examine the gothic magnificence of Udolpho, its proud irregularity, 
+its lofty towers and battlements, its high-arched casements, and its 
+slender watch-towers, perched upon the corners of turrets.  Then she 
+would lean on the wall of the terrace, and, shuddering, measure with 
+her eye the precipice below, till the dark summits of the woods 
+arrested it.  Wherever she turned, appeared mountain-tops, forests of 
+pine and narrow glens, opening among the Apennines and retiring from 
+the sight into inaccessible regions.
+
+While she thus leaned, Montoni, followed by two men, appeared, 
+ascending a winding path, cut in the rock below.  He stopped upon a 
+cliff, and, pointing to the ramparts, turned to his followers, and 
+talked with much eagerness of gesticulation.--Emily perceived, that 
+one of these men was Carlo; the other was in the dress of a peasant, 
+and he alone seemed to be receiving the directions of Montoni.
+
+She withdrew from the walls, and pursued her walk, till she heard at 
+a distance the sound of carriage wheels, and then the loud bell of 
+the portal, when it instantly occurred to her, that Count Morano was 
+arrived.  As she hastily passed the folding doors from the terrace, 
+towards her own apartment, several persons entered the hall by an 
+opposite door.  She saw them at the extremities of the arcades, and 
+immediately retreated; but the agitation of her spirits, and the 
+extent and duskiness of the hall, had prevented her from 
+distinguishing the persons of the strangers.  Her fears, however, had 
+but one object, and they had called up that object to her fancy:--she 
+believed that she had seen Count Morano.
+
+When she thought that they had passed the hall, she ventured again to 
+the door, and proceeded, unobserved, to her room, where she remained, 
+agitated with apprehensions, and listening to every distant sound.  
+At length, hearing voices on the rampart, she hastened to her window, 
+and observed Montoni, with Signor Cavigni, walking below, conversing 
+earnestly, and often stopping and turning towards each other, at 
+which time their discourse seemed to be uncommonly interesting.
+
+Of the several persons who had appeared in the hall, here was Cavigni 
+alone:  but Emily's alarm was soon after heightened by the steps of 
+some one in the corridor, who, she apprehended, brought a message 
+from the Count.  In the next moment, Annette appeared.
+
+'Ah! ma'amselle,' said she, 'here is the Signor Cavigni arrived!  I 
+am sure I rejoiced to see a christian person in this place; and then 
+he is so good natured too, he always takes so much notice of me!--And 
+here is also Signor Verezzi, and who do you think besides, 
+ma'amselle?'
+
+'I cannot guess, Annette; tell me quickly.'
+
+'Nay, ma'am, do guess once.'
+
+'Well, then,' said Emily, with assumed composure, 'it is--Count 
+Morano, I suppose.'
+
+'Holy Virgin!' cried Annette, 'are you ill, ma'amselle? you are going 
+to faint! let me get some water.'
+
+Emily sunk into a chair.  'Stay, Annette,' said she, feebly, 'do not 
+leave me--I shall soon be better; open the casement.--The Count, you 
+say--he is come, then?'
+
+'Who, I!--the Count!  No, ma'amselle, I did not say so.'  'He is NOT 
+come then?' said Emily eagerly.  'No, ma'amselle.'
+
+'You are sure of it?'
+
+'Lord bless me!' said Annette, 'you recover very suddenly, ma'am! 
+why, I thought you was dying, just now.'
+
+'But the Count--you are sure, is not come?'
+
+'O yes, quite sure of that, ma'amselle.  Why, I was looking out 
+through the grate in the north turret, when the carriages drove into 
+the court-yard, and I never expected to see such a goodly sight in 
+this dismal old castle! but here are masters and servants, too, 
+enough to make the place ring again.  O! I was ready to leap through 
+the rusty old bars for joy!--O! who would ever have thought of seeing 
+a christian face in this huge dreary house?  I could have kissed the 
+very horses that brought them.'
+
+'Well, Annette, well, I am better now.'
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, I see you are.  O! all the servants will lead merry 
+lives here, now; we shall have singing and dancing in the little 
+hall, for the Signor cannot hear us there--and droll stories--
+Ludovico's come, ma'am; yes, there is Ludovico come with them!  You 
+remember Ludovico, ma'am--a tall, handsome young man--Signor 
+Cavigni's lacquey--who always wears his cloak with such a grace, 
+thrown round his left arm, and his hat set on so smartly, all on one 
+side, and--'
+
+'No,' said Emily, who was wearied by her loquacity.
+
+'What, ma'amselle, don't you remember Ludovico--who rowed the 
+Cavaliero's gondola, at the last regatta, and won the prize?  And who 
+used to sing such sweet verses about Orlandos and about the Black-a-
+moors, too; and Charly--Charly--magne, yes, that was the name, all 
+under my lattice, in the west portico, on the moon-light nights at 
+Venice?  O!  I have listened to him!'---
+
+'I fear, to thy peril, my good Annette,' said Emily; 'for it seems 
+his verses have stolen thy heart.  But let me advise you; if it is 
+so, keep the secret; never let him know it.'
+
+'Ah--ma'amselle!--how can one keep such a secret as that?'
+
+'Well, Annette, I am now so much better, that you may leave me.'
+
+'O, but, ma'amselle, I forgot to ask--how did you sleep in this 
+dreary old chamber last night?'--'As well as usual.'--'Did you hear 
+no noises?'--'None.'--'Nor see anything?'--'Nothing.'--'Well, that is 
+surprising!'--'Not in the least:  and now tell me, why you ask these 
+questions.'
+
+'O, ma'amselle!  I would not tell you for the world, nor all I have 
+heard about this chamber, either; it would frighten you so.'
+
+'If that is all, you have frightened me already, and may therefore 
+tell me what you know, without hurting your conscience.'
+
+'O Lord! they say the room is haunted, and has been so these many 
+years.'
+
+'It is by a ghost, then, who can draw bolts,' said Emily, 
+endeavouring to laugh away her apprehensions; 'for I left the door 
+open, last night, and found it fastened this morning.'
+
+Annette turned pale, and said not a word.
+
+'Do you know whether any of the servants fastened this door in the 
+morning, before I rose?'
+
+'No, ma'am, that I will be bound they did not; but I don't know:  
+shall I go and ask, ma'amselle?' said Annette, moving hastily towards 
+the corridor.
+
+'Stay, Annette, I have another question to ask; tell me what you have 
+heard concerning this room, and whither that stair-case leads.'
+
+'I will go and ask it all directly, ma'am; besides, I am sure my lady 
+wants me.  I cannot stay now, indeed, ma'am.'
+
+She hurried from the room, without waiting Emily's reply, whose 
+heart, lightened by the certainty, that Morano was not arrived, 
+allowed her to smile at the superstitious terror, which had seized on 
+Annette; for, though she sometimes felt its influence herself, she 
+could smile at it, when apparent in other persons.
+
+Montoni having refused Emily another chamber, she determined to bear 
+with patience the evil she could not remove, and, in order to make 
+the room as comfortable as possible, unpacked her books, her sweet 
+delight in happier days, and her soothing resource in the hours of 
+moderate sorrow:  but there were hours when even these failed of 
+their effect; when the genius, the taste, the enthusiasm of the 
+sublimest writers were felt no longer.
+
+Her little library being arranged on a high chest, part of the 
+furniture of the room, she took out her drawing utensils, and was 
+tranquil enough to be pleased with the thought of sketching the 
+sublime scenes, beheld from her windows; but she suddenly checked 
+this pleasure, remembering how often she had soothed herself by the 
+intention of obtaining amusement of this kind, and had been prevented 
+by some new circumstance of misfortune.
+
+'How can I suffer myself to be deluded by hope,' said she, 'and, 
+because Count Morano is not yet arrived, feel a momentary happiness?  
+Alas! what is it to me, whether he is here to-day, or to-morrow, if 
+he comes at all?--and that he will come--it were weakness to doubt.'
+
+To withdraw her thoughts, however, from the subject of her 
+misfortunes, she attempted to read, but her attention wandered from 
+the page, and, at length, she threw aside the book, and determined to 
+explore the adjoining chambers of the castle.  Her imagination was 
+pleased with the view of ancient grandeur, and an emotion of 
+melancholy awe awakened all its powers, as she walked through rooms, 
+obscure and desolate, where no footsteps had passed probably for many 
+years, and remembered the strange history of the former possessor of 
+the edifice.  This brought to her recollection the veiled picture, 
+which had attracted her curiosity, on the preceding night, and she 
+resolved to examine it.  As she passed through the chambers, that led 
+to this, she found herself somewhat agitated; its connection with the 
+late lady of the castle, and the conversation of Annette, together 
+with the circumstance of the veil, throwing a mystery over the 
+subject, that excited a faint degree of terror.  But a terror of this 
+nature, as it occupies and expands the mind, and elevates it to high 
+expectation, is purely sublime, and leads us, by a kind of 
+fascination, to seek even the object, from which we appear to shrink.
+
+Emily passed on with faltering steps, and having paused a moment at 
+the door, before she attempted to open it, she then hastily entered 
+the chamber, and went towards the picture, which appeared to be 
+enclosed in a frame of uncommon size, that hung in a dark part of the 
+room.  She paused again, and then, with a timid hand, lifted the 
+veil; but instantly let it fall--perceiving that what it had 
+concealed was no picture, and, before she could leave the chamber, 
+she dropped senseless on the floor.
+
+When she recovered her recollection, the remembrance of what she had 
+seen had nearly deprived her of it a second time.  She had scarcely 
+strength to remove from the room, and regain her own; and, when 
+arrived there, wanted courage to remain alone.  Horror occupied her 
+mind, and excluded, for a time, all sense of past, and dread of 
+future misfortune:  she seated herself near the casement, because 
+from thence she heard voices, though distant, on the terrace, and 
+might see people pass, and these, trifling as they were, were 
+reviving circumstances.  When her spirits had recovered their tone, 
+she considered, whether she should mention what she had seen to 
+Madame Montoni, and various and important motives urged her to do so, 
+among which the least was the hope of the relief, which an 
+overburdened mind finds in speaking of the subject of its interest.  
+But she was aware of the terrible consequences, which such a 
+communication might lead to; and, dreading the indiscretion of her 
+aunt, at length, endeavoured to arm herself with resolution to 
+observe a profound silence, on the subject.  Montoni and Verezzi soon 
+after passed under the casement, speaking cheerfully, and their 
+voices revived her.  Presently the Signors Bertolini and Cavigni 
+joined the party on the terrace, and Emily, supposing that Madame 
+Montoni was then alone, went to seek her; for the solitude of her 
+chamber, and its proximity to that where she had received so severe a 
+shock, again affected her spirit.
+
+She found her aunt in her dressing-room, preparing for dinner.  
+Emily's pale and affrighted countenance alarmed even Madame Montoni; 
+but she had sufficient strength of mind to be silent on the subject, 
+that still made her shudder, and which was ready to burst from her 
+lips.  In her aunt's apartment she remained, till they both descended 
+to dinner.  There she met the gentlemen lately arrived, who had a 
+kind of busy seriousness in their looks, which was somewhat unusual 
+with them, while their thoughts seemed too much occupied by some deep 
+interest, to suffer them to bestow much attention either on Emily, or 
+Madame Montoni.  They spoke little, and Montoni less.  Emily, as she 
+now looked on him, shuddered.  The horror of the chamber rushed on 
+her mind.  Several times the colour faded from her cheeks, and she 
+feared, that illness would betray her emotions, and compel her to 
+leave the room; but the strength of her resolution remedied the 
+weakness of her frame; she obliged herself to converse, and even 
+tried to look cheerful.
+
+Montoni evidently laboured under some vexation, such as would 
+probably have agitated a weaker mind, or a more susceptible heart, 
+but which appeared, from the sternness of his countenance, only to 
+bend up his faculties to energy and fortitude.
+
+It was a comfortless and silent meal.  The gloom of the castle seemed 
+to have spread its contagion even over the gay countenance of 
+Cavigni, and with this gloom was mingled a fierceness, such as she 
+had seldom seen him indicate.  Count Morano was not named, and what 
+conversation there was, turned chiefly upon the wars, which at that 
+time agitated the Italian states, the strength of the Venetian 
+armies, and the characters of their generals.
+
+After dinner, when the servants had withdrawn, Emily learned, that 
+the cavalier, who had drawn upon himself the vengeance of Orsino, had 
+since died of his wounds, and that strict search was still making for 
+his murderer.  The intelligence seemed to disturb Montoni, who mused, 
+and then enquired, where Orsino had concealed himself.  His guests, 
+who all, except Cavigni, were ignorant, that Montoni had himself 
+assisted him to escape from Venice, replied, that he had fled in the 
+night with such precipitation and secrecy, that his most intimate 
+companions knew not whither.  Montoni blamed himself for having asked 
+the question, for a second thought convinced him, that a man of 
+Orsino's suspicious temper was not likely to trust any of the persons 
+present with the knowledge of his asylum.  He considered himself, 
+however, as entitled to his utmost confidence, and did not doubt, 
+that he should soon hear of him.
+
+Emily retired with Madame Montoni, soon after the cloth was 
+withdrawn, and left the cavaliers to their secret councils, but not 
+before the significant frowns of Montoni had warned his wife to 
+depart, who passed from the hall to the ramparts, and walked, for 
+some time, in silence, which Emily did not interrupt, for her mind 
+was also occupied by interests of its own.  It required all her 
+resolution, to forbear communicating to Madame Montoni the terrible 
+subject, which still thrilled her every nerve with horror; and 
+sometimes she was on the point of doing so, merely to obtain the 
+relief of a moment; but she knew how wholly she was in the power of 
+Montoni, and, considering, that the indiscretion of her aunt might 
+prove fatal to them both, she compelled herself to endure a present 
+and an inferior evil, rather than to tempt a future and a heavier 
+one.  A strange kind of presentiment frequently, on this day, 
+occurred to her;--it seemed as if her fate rested here, and was by 
+some invisible means connected with this castle.
+
+'Let me not accelerate it,' said she to herself:  'for whatever I may 
+be reserved, let me, at least, avoid self-reproach.'
+
+As she looked on the massy walls of the edifice, her melancholy 
+spirits represented it to be her prison; and she started as at a new 
+suggestion, when she considered how far distant she was from her 
+native country, from her little peaceful home, and from her only 
+friend--how remote was her hope of happiness, how feeble the 
+expectation of again seeing him!  Yet the idea of Valancourt, and her 
+confidence in his faithful love, had hitherto been her only solace, 
+and she struggled hard to retain them.  A few tears of agony started 
+to her eyes, which she turned aside to conceal.
+
+While she afterwards leaned on the wall of the rampart, some 
+peasants, at a little distance, were seen examining a breach, before 
+which lay a heap of stones, as if to repair it, and a rusty old 
+cannon, that appeared to have fallen from its station above.  Madame 
+Montoni stopped to speak to the men, and enquired what they were 
+going to do.  'To repair the fortifications, your ladyship,' said one 
+of them; a labour which she was somewhat surprised, that Montoni 
+should think necessary, particularly since he had never spoken of the 
+castle, as of a place, at which he meant to reside for any 
+considerable time; but she passed on towards a lofty arch, that led 
+from the south to the east rampart, and which adjoined the castle, on 
+one side, while, on the other, it supported a small watch-tower, that 
+entirely commanded the deep valley below.  As she approached this 
+arch, she saw, beyond it, winding along the woody descent of a 
+distant mountain, a long troop of horse and foot, whom she knew to be 
+soldiers, only by the glitter of their pikes and other arms, for the 
+distance did not allow her to discover the colour of their liveries.  
+As she gazed, the vanguard issued from the woods into the valley, but 
+the train still continued to pour over the remote summit of the 
+mountain, in endless succession; while, in the front, the military 
+uniform became distinguishable, and the commanders, riding first, and 
+seeming, by their gestures, to direct the march of those that 
+followed, at length, approached very near to the castle.
+
+Such a spectacle, in these solitary regions, both surprised and 
+alarmed Madame Montoni, and she hastened towards some peasants, who 
+were employed in raising bastions before the south rampart, where the 
+rock was less abrupt than elsewhere.  These men could give no 
+satisfactory answers to her enquiries, but, being roused by them, 
+gazed in stupid astonishment upon the long cavalcade.  Madame 
+Montoni, then thinking it necessary to communicate further the object 
+of her alarm, sent Emily to say, that she wished to speak to Montoni; 
+an errand her niece did not approve, for she dreaded his frowns, 
+which she knew this message would provoke; but she obeyed in silence.
+
+As she drew near the apartment, in which he sat with his guests, she 
+heard them in earnest and loud dispute, and she paused a moment, 
+trembling at the displeasure, which her sudden interruption would 
+occasion.  In the next, their voices sunk all together; she then 
+ventured to open the door, and, while Montoni turned hastily and 
+looked at her, without speaking, she delivered her message.
+
+'Tell Madam Montoni I am engaged,' said he.
+
+Emily then thought it proper to mention the subject of her alarm.  
+Montoni and his companions rose instantly and went to the windows, 
+but, these not affording them a view of the troops, they at length 
+proceeded to the ramparts, where Cavigni conjectured it to be a 
+legion of condottieri, on their march towards Modena.
+
+One part of the cavalcade now extended along the valley, and another 
+wound among the mountains towards the north, while some troops still 
+lingered on the woody precipices, where the first had appeared, so 
+that the great length of the procession seemed to include an whole 
+army.  While Montoni and his family watched its progress, they heard 
+the sound of trumpets and the clash of cymbals in the vale, and then 
+others, answering from the heights.  Emily listened with emotion to 
+the shrill blast, that woke the echoes of the mountains, and Montoni 
+explained the signals, with which he appeared to be well acquainted, 
+and which meant nothing hostile.  The uniforms of the troops, and the 
+kind of arms they bore, confirmed to him the conjecture of Cavigni, 
+and he had the satisfaction to see them pass by, without even 
+stopping to gaze upon his castle.  He did not, however, leave the 
+rampart, till the bases of the mountains had shut them from his view, 
+and the last murmur of the trumpet floated away on the wind.  Cavigni 
+and Verezzi were inspirited by this spectacle, which seemed to have 
+roused all the fire of their temper; Montoni turned into the castle 
+in thoughtful silence.
+
+Emily's mind had not yet sufficiently recovered from its late shock, 
+to endure the loneliness of her chamber, and she remained upon the 
+ramparts; for Madame Montoni had not invited her to her dressing-
+room, whither she had gone evidently in low spirits, and Emily, from 
+her late experience, had lost all wish to explore the gloomy and 
+mysterious recesses of the castle.  The ramparts, therefore, were 
+almost her only retreat, and here she lingered, till the gray haze of 
+evening was again spread over the scene.
+
+The cavaliers supped by themselves, and Madame Montoni remained in 
+her apartment, whither Emily went, before she retired to her own.  
+She found her aunt weeping, and in much agitation.  The tenderness of 
+Emily was naturally so soothing, that it seldom failed to give 
+comfort to the drooping heart:  but Madame Montoni's was torn, and 
+the softest accents of Emily's voice were lost upon it.  With her 
+usual delicacy, she did not appear to observe her aunt's distress, 
+but it gave an involuntary gentleness to her manners, and an air of 
+solicitude to her countenance, which Madame Montoni was vexed to 
+perceive, who seemed to feel the pity of her niece to be an insult to 
+her pride, and dismissed her as soon as she properly could.  Emily 
+did not venture to mention again the reluctance she felt to her 
+gloomy chamber, but she requested that Annette might be permitted to 
+remain with her till she retired to rest; and the request was 
+somewhat reluctantly granted.  Annette, however, was now with the 
+servants, and Emily withdrew alone.
+
+With light and hasty steps she passed through the long galleries, 
+while the feeble glimmer of the lamp she carried only shewed the 
+gloom around her, and the passing air threatened to extinguish it.  
+The lonely silence, that reigned in this part of the castle, awed 
+her; now and then, indeed, she heard a faint peal of laughter rise 
+from a remote part of the edifice, where the servants were assembled, 
+but it was soon lost, and a kind of breathless stillness remained.  
+As she passed the suite of rooms which she had visited in the 
+morning, her eyes glanced fearfully on the door, and she almost 
+fancied she heard murmuring sounds within, but she paused not a 
+moment to enquire.
+
+Having reached her own apartment, where no blazing wood on the hearth 
+dissipated the gloom, she sat down with a book, to enliven her 
+attention, till Annette should come, and a fire could be kindled.  
+She continued to read till her light was nearly expired, but Annette 
+did not appear, and the solitude and obscurity of her chamber again 
+affected her spirits, the more, because of its nearness to the scene 
+of horror, that she had witnessed in the morning.  Gloomy and 
+fantastic images came to her mind.  She looked fearfully towards the 
+door of the stair-case, and then, examining whether it was still 
+fastened, found that it was so.  Unable to conquer the uneasiness she 
+felt at the prospect of sleeping again in this remote and insecure 
+apartment, which some person seemed to have entered during the 
+preceding night, her impatience to see Annette, whom she had bidden 
+to enquire concerning this circumstance, became extremely painful.  
+She wished also to question her, as to the object, which had excited 
+so much horror in her own mind, and which Annette on the preceding 
+evening had appeared to be in part acquainted with, though her words 
+were very remote from the truth, and it appeared plainly to Emily, 
+that the girl had been purposely misled by a false report:  above all 
+she was surprised, that the door of the chamber, which contained it, 
+should be left unguarded.  Such an instance of negligence almost 
+surpassed belief.  But her light was now expiring; the faint flashes 
+it threw upon the walls called up all the terrors of fancy, and she 
+rose to find her way to the habitable part of the castle, before it 
+was quite extinguished.  As she opened the chamber door, she heard 
+remote voices, and, soon after, saw a light issue upon the further 
+end of the corridor, which Annette and another servant approached.  
+'I am glad you are come,' said Emily:  'what has detained you so 
+long?  Pray light me a fire immediately.'
+
+'My lady wanted me, ma'amselle,' replied Annette in some confusion; 
+'I will go and get the wood.'
+
+'No,' said Caterina, 'that is my business,' and left the room 
+instantly, while Annette would have followed; but, being called back, 
+she began to talk very loud, and laugh, and seemed afraid to trust a 
+pause of silence.
+
+Caterina soon returned with the wood, and then, when the cheerful 
+blaze once more animated the room, and this servant had withdrawn, 
+Emily asked Annette, whether she had made the enquiry she bade her.  
+'Yes, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'but not a soul knows any thing 
+about the matter:  and old Carlo--I watched him well, for they say he 
+knows strange things--old Carlo looked so as I don't know how to 
+tell, and he asked me again and again, if I was sure the door was 
+ever unfastened.  Lord, says I--am I sure I am alive?  And as for me, 
+ma'am, I am all astounded, as one may say, and would no more sleep in 
+this chamber, than I would on the great cannon at the end of the east 
+rampart.'
+
+'And what objection have you to that cannon, more than to any of the 
+rest?' said Emily smiling:  'the best would be rather a hard bed.'
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, any of them would be hard enough for that matter; 
+but they do say, that something has been seen in the dead of night, 
+standing beside the great cannon, as if to guard it.'
+
+'Well! my good Annette, the people who tell such stories, are happy 
+in having you for an auditor, for I perceive you believe them all.'
+
+'Dear ma'amselle!  I will shew you the very cannon; you can see it 
+from these windows!'
+
+'Well,' said Emily, 'but that does not prove, that an apparition 
+guards it.'
+
+'What! not if I shew you the very cannon!  Dear ma'am, you will 
+believe nothing.'
+
+'Nothing probably upon this subject, but what I see,' said Emily.--
+'Well, ma'am, but you shall see it, if you will only step this way to 
+the casement.'--Emily could not forbear laughing, and Annette looked 
+surprised.  Perceiving her extreme aptitude to credit the marvellous, 
+Emily forbore to mention the subject she had intended, lest it should 
+overcome her with idle terrors, and she began to speak on a lively 
+topic--the regattas of Venice.
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle, those rowing matches,' said Annette, 'and the fine 
+moon-light nights, are all, that are worth seeing in Venice.  To be 
+sure the moon is brighter than any I ever saw; and then to hear such 
+sweet music, too, as Ludovico has often and often sung under the 
+lattice by the west portico!  Ma'amselle, it was Ludovico, that told 
+me about that picture, which you wanted so to look at last night, 
+and---'
+
+'What picture?' said Emily, wishing Annette to explain herself.
+
+'O! that terrible picture with the black veil over it.'
+
+'You never saw it, then?' said Emily.
+
+'Who, I!--No, ma'amselle, I never did.  But this morning,' continued 
+Annette, lowering her voice, and looking round the room, 'this 
+morning, as it was broad daylight, do you know, ma'am, I took a 
+strange fancy to see it, as I had heard such odd hints about it, and 
+I got as far as the door, and should have opened it, if it had not 
+been locked!'
+
+Emily, endeavouring to conceal the emotion this circumstance 
+occasioned, enquired at what hour she went to the chamber, and found, 
+that it was soon after herself had been there.  She also asked 
+further questions, and the answers convinced her, that Annette, and 
+probably her informer, were ignorant of the terrible truth, though in 
+Annette's account something very like the truth, now and then, 
+mingled with the falsehood.  Emily now began to fear, that her visit 
+to the chamber had been observed, since the door had been closed, so 
+immediately after her departure; and dreaded lest this should draw 
+upon her the vengeance of Montoni.  Her anxiety, also, was excited to 
+know whence, and for what purpose, the delusive report, which had 
+been imposed upon Annette, had originated, since Montoni could only 
+have wished for silence and secrecy; but she felt, that the subject 
+was too terrible for this lonely hour, and she compelled herself to 
+leave it, to converse with Annette, whose chat, simple as it was, she 
+preferred to the stillness of total solitude.
+
+Thus they sat, till near midnight, but not without many hints from 
+Annette, that she wished to go.  The embers were now nearly burnt 
+out; and Emily heard, at a distance, the thundering sound of the hall 
+doors, as they were shut for the night.  She, therefore, prepared for 
+rest, but was still unwilling that Annette should leave her.  At this 
+instant, the great bell of the portal sounded.  They listened in 
+fearful expectation, when, after a long pause of silence, it sounded 
+again.  Soon after, they heard the noise of carriage wheels in the 
+court-yard.  Emily sunk almost lifeless in her chair; 'It is the 
+Count,' said she.
+
+'What, at this time of night, ma'am!' said Annette:  'no, my dear 
+lady.  But, for that matter, it is a strange time of night for any 
+body to come!'
+
+'Nay, pr'ythee, good Annette, stay not talking,' said Emily in a 
+voice of agony--'Go, pr'ythee, go, and see who it is.'
+
+Annette left the room, and carried with her the light, leaving Emily 
+in darkness, which a few moments before would have terrified her in 
+this room, but was now scarcely observed by her.  She listened and 
+waited, in breathless expectation, and heard distant noises, but 
+Annette did not return.  Her patience, at length, exhausted, she 
+tried to find her way to the corridor, but it was long before she 
+could touch the door of the chamber, and, when she had opened it, the 
+total darkness without made her fear to proceed.  Voices were now 
+heard, and Emily even thought she distinguished those of Count 
+Morano, and Montoni.  Soon after, she heard steps approaching, and 
+then a ray of light streamed through the darkness, and Annette 
+appeared, whom Emily went to meet.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle,' said she, 'you was right, it is the Count sure 
+enough.'
+
+'It is he!' exclaimed Emily, lifting her eyes towards heaven and 
+supporting herself by Annette's arm.
+
+'Good Lord! my dear lady, don't be in such a FLUSTER, and look so 
+pale, we shall soon hear more.'
+
+'We shall, indeed!' said Emily, moving as fast as she was able 
+towards her apartment.  'I am not well; give me air.'  Annette opened 
+a casement, and brought water.  The faintness soon left Emily, but 
+she desired Annette would not go till she heard from Montoni.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle! he surely will not disturb you at this time of 
+night; why he must think you are asleep.'
+
+'Stay with me till I am so, then,' said Emily, who felt temporary 
+relief from this suggestion, which appeared probable enough, though 
+her fears had prevented its occurring to her.  Annette, with secret 
+reluctance, consented to stay, and Emily was now composed enough to 
+ask her some questions; among others, whether she had seen the Count.
+
+'Yes, ma'am, I saw him alight, for I went from hence to the grate in 
+the north turret, that overlooks the inner court-yard, you know.  
+There I saw the Count's carriage, and the Count in it, waiting at the 
+great door,--for the porter was just gone to bed--with several men on 
+horseback all by the light of the torches they carried.'  Emily was 
+compelled to smile.  'When the door was opened, the Count said 
+something, that I could not make out, and then got out, and another 
+gentleman with him.  I thought, to be sure, the Signor was gone to 
+bed, and I hastened away to my lady's dressing-room, to see what I 
+could hear.  But in the way I met Ludovico, and he told me that the 
+Signor was up, counselling with his master and the other Signors, in 
+the room at the end of the north gallery; and Ludovico held up his 
+finger, and laid it on his lips, as much as to say--There is more 
+going on, than you think of, Annette, but you must hold your tongue.  
+And so I did hold my tongue, ma'amselle, and came away to tell you 
+directly.'
+
+Emily enquired who the cavalier was, that accompanied the Count, and 
+how Montoni received them; but Annette could not inform her.
+
+'Ludovico,' she added, 'had just been to call Signor Montoni's valet, 
+that he might tell him they were arrived, when I met him.'
+
+Emily sat musing, for some time, and then her anxiety was so much 
+increased, that she desired Annette would go to the servants' hall, 
+where it was possible she might hear something of the Count's 
+intention, respecting his stay at the castle.
+
+'Yes, ma'am,' said Annette with readiness; 'but how am I to find the 
+way, if I leave the lamp with you?'
+
+Emily said she would light her, and they immediately quitted the 
+chamber.  When they had reached the top of the great stair-case, 
+Emily recollected, that she might be seen by the Count, and, to avoid 
+the great hall, Annette conducted her through some private passages 
+to a back stair-case, which led directly to that of the servants.
+
+As she returned towards her chamber, Emily began to fear, that she 
+might again lose herself in the intricacies of the castle, and again 
+be shocked by some mysterious spectacle; and, though she was already 
+perplexed by the numerous turnings, she feared to open one of the 
+many doors that offered.  While she stepped thoughtfully along, she 
+fancied, that she heard a low moaning at no great distance, and, 
+having paused a moment, she heard it again and distinctly.  Several 
+doors appeared on the right hand of the passage.  She advanced, and 
+listened.  When she came to the second, she heard a voice, apparently 
+in complaint, within, to which she continued to listen, afraid to 
+open the door, and unwilling to leave it.  Convulsive sobs followed, 
+and then the piercing accents of an agonizing spirit burst forth.  
+Emily stood appalled, and looked through the gloom, that surrounded 
+her, in fearful expectation.  The lamentations continued.  Pity now 
+began to subdue terror; it was possible she might administer comfort 
+to the sufferer, at least, by expressing sympathy, and she laid her 
+hand on the door.  While she hesitated she thought she knew this 
+voice, disguised as it was by tones of grief.  Having, therefore, set 
+down the lamp in the passage, she gently opened the door, within 
+which all was dark, except that from an inner apartment a partial 
+light appeared; and she stepped softly on.  Before she reached it, 
+the appearance of Madame Montoni, leaning on her dressing-table, 
+weeping, and with a handkerchief held to her eyes, struck her, and 
+she paused.
+
+Some person was seated in a chair by the fire, but who it was she 
+could not distinguish.  He spoke, now and then, in a low voice, that 
+did not allow Emily to hear what was uttered, but she thought, that 
+Madame Montoni, at those times, wept the more, who was too much 
+occupied by her own distress, to observe Emily, while the latter, 
+though anxious to know what occasioned this, and who was the person 
+admitted at so late an hour to her aunt's dressing-room, forbore to 
+add to her sufferings by surprising her, or to take advantage of her 
+situation, by listening to a private discourse.  She, therefore, 
+stepped softly back, and, after some further difficulty, found the 
+way to her own chamber, where nearer interests, at length, excluded 
+the surprise and concern she had felt, respecting Madame Montoni.
+
+Annette, however, returned without satisfactory intelligence, for the 
+servants, among whom she had been, were either entirely ignorant, or 
+affected to be so, concerning the Count's intended stay at the 
+castle.  They could talk only of the steep and broken road they had 
+just passed, and of the numerous dangers they had escaped and express 
+wonder how their lord could choose to encounter all these, in the 
+darkness of night; for they scarcely allowed, that the torches had 
+served for any other purpose but that of shewing the dreariness of 
+the mountains.  Annette, finding she could gain no information, left 
+them, making noisy petitions, for more wood on the fire and more 
+supper on the table.
+
+'And now, ma'amselle,' added she, 'I am so sleepy!--I am sure, if you 
+was so sleepy, you would not desire me to sit up with you.'
+
+Emily, indeed, began to think it was cruel to wish it; she had also 
+waited so long, without receiving a summons from Montoni, that it 
+appeared he did not mean to disturb her, at this late hour, and she 
+determined to dismiss Annette.  But, when she again looked round her 
+gloomy chamber, and recollected certain circumstances, fear seized 
+her spirits, and she hesitated.
+
+'And yet it were cruel of me to ask you to stay, till I am asleep, 
+Annette,' said she, 'for I fear it will be very long before I forget 
+myself in sleep.'
+
+'I dare say it will be very long, ma'amselle,' said Annette.
+
+'But, before you go,' rejoined Emily, 'let me ask you--Had Signor 
+Montoni left Count Morano, when you quitted the hall?'
+
+'O no, ma'am, they were alone together.'
+
+'Have you been in my aunt's dressing-room, since you left me?'
+
+'No, ma'amselle, I called at the door as I passed, but it was 
+fastened; so I thought my lady was gone to bed.'
+
+'Who, then, was with your lady just now?' said Emily, forgetting, in 
+surprise, her usual prudence.
+
+'Nobody, I believe, ma'am,' replied Annette, 'nobody has been with 
+her, I believe, since I left you.'
+
+Emily took no further notice of the subject, and, after some struggle 
+with imaginary fears, her good nature prevailed over them so far, 
+that she dismissed Annette for the night.  She then sat, musing upon 
+her own circumstances and those of Madame Montoni, till her eye 
+rested on the miniature picture, which she had found, after her 
+father's death, among the papers he had enjoined her to destroy.  It 
+was open upon the table, before her, among some loose drawings, 
+having, with them, been taken out of a little box by Emily, some 
+hours before.  The sight of it called up many interesting 
+reflections, but the melancholy sweetness of the countenance soothed 
+the emotions, which these had occasioned.  It was the same style of 
+countenance as that of her late father, and, while she gazed on it 
+with fondness on this account, she even fancied a resemblance in the 
+features.  But this tranquillity was suddenly interrupted, when she 
+recollected the words in the manuscript, that had been found with 
+this picture, and which had formerly occasioned her so much doubt and 
+horror.  At length, she roused herself from the deep reverie, into 
+which this remembrance had thrown her; but, when she rose to undress, 
+the silence and solitude, to which she was left, at this midnight 
+hour, for not even a distant sound was now heard, conspired with the 
+impression the subject she had been considering had given to her 
+mind, to appall her.  Annette's hints, too, concerning this chamber, 
+simple as they were, had not failed to affect her, since they 
+followed a circumstance of peculiar horror, which she herself had 
+witnessed, and since the scene of this was a chamber nearly adjoining 
+her own.
+
+The door of the stair-case was, perhaps, a subject of more reasonable 
+alarm, and she now began to apprehend, such was the aptitude of her 
+fears, that this stair-case had some private communication with the 
+apartment, which she shuddered even to remember.  Determined not to 
+undress, she lay down to sleep in her clothes, with her late father's 
+dog, the faithful MANCHON, at the foot of the bed, whom she 
+considered as a kind of guard.
+
+Thus circumstanced, she tried to banish reflection, but her busy 
+fancy would still hover over the subjects of her interest, and she 
+heard the clock of the castle strike two, before she closed her eyes.
+
+From the disturbed slumber, into which she then sunk, she was soon 
+awakened by a noise, which seemed to arise within her chamber; but 
+the silence, that prevailed, as she fearfully listened, inclined her 
+to believe, that she had been alarmed by such sounds as sometimes 
+occur in dreams, and she laid her head again upon the pillow.
+
+A return of the noise again disturbed her; it seemed to come from 
+that part of the room, which communicated with the private stair-
+case, and she instantly remembered the odd circumstance of the door 
+having been fastened, during the preceding night, by some unknown 
+hand.  Her late alarming suspicion, concerning its communication, 
+also occurred to her.  Her heart became faint with terror.  Half 
+raising herself from the bed, and gently drawing aside the curtain, 
+she looked towards the door of the stair-case, but the lamp, that 
+burnt on the hearth, spread so feeble a light through the apartment, 
+that the remote parts of it were lost in shadow.  The noise, however, 
+which, she was convinced, came from the door, continued.  It seemed 
+like that made by the undrawing of rusty bolts, and often ceased, and 
+was then renewed more gently, as if the hand, that occasioned it, was 
+restrained by a fear of discovery.
+
+While Emily kept her eyes fixed on the spot, she saw the door move, 
+and then slowly open, and perceived something enter the room, but the 
+extreme duskiness prevented her distinguishing what it was.  Almost 
+fainting with terror, she had yet sufficient command over herself, to 
+check the shriek, that was escaping from her lips, and, letting the 
+curtain drop from her hand, continued to observe in silence the 
+motions of the mysterious form she saw.  It seemed to glide along the 
+remote obscurity of the apartment, then paused, and, as it approached 
+the hearth, she perceived, in the stronger light, what appeared to be 
+a human figure.  Certain remembrances now struck upon her heart, and 
+almost subdued the feeble remains of her spirits; she continued, 
+however, to watch the figure, which remained for some time 
+motionless, but then, advancing slowly towards the bed, stood 
+silently at the feet, where the curtains, being a little open, 
+allowed her still to see it; terror, however, had now deprived her of 
+the power of discrimination, as well as of that of utterance.
+
+Having continued there a moment, the form retreated towards the 
+hearth, when it took the lamp, held it up, surveyed the chamber, for 
+a few moments, and then again advanced towards the bed.  The light at 
+that instant awakening the dog, that had slept at Emily's feet, he 
+barked loudly, and, jumping to the floor, flew at the stranger, who 
+struck the animal smartly with a sheathed sword, and, springing 
+towards the bed, Emily discovered--Count Morano!
+
+She gazed at him for a moment in speechless affright, while he, 
+throwing himself on his knee at the bed-side, besought her to fear 
+nothing, and, having thrown down his sword, would have taken her 
+hand, when the faculties, that terror had suspended, suddenly 
+returned, and she sprung from the bed, in the dress, which surely a 
+kind of prophetic apprehension had prevented her, on this night, from 
+throwing aside.
+
+Morano rose, followed her to the door, through which he had entered, 
+and caught her hand, as she reached the top of the stair-case, but 
+not before she had discovered, by the gleam of a lamp, another man 
+half-way down the steps.  She now screamed in despair, and, believing 
+herself given up by Montoni, saw, indeed, no possibility of escape.
+
+The Count, who still held her hand, led her back into the chamber.
+
+'Why all this terror?' said he, in a tremulous voice.  'Hear me, 
+Emily:  I come not to alarm you; no, by Heaven!  I love you too well-
+-too well for my own peace.'
+
+Emily looked at him for a moment, in fearful doubt.
+
+'Then leave me, sir,' said she, 'leave me instantly.'
+
+'Hear me, Emily,' resumed Morano, 'hear me!  I love, and am in 
+despair--yes--in despair.  How can I gaze upon you, and know, that it 
+is, perhaps, for the last time, without suffering all the phrensy of 
+despair?  But it shall not be so; you shall be mine, in spite of 
+Montoni and all his villany.'
+
+'In spite of Montoni!' cried Emily eagerly:  'what is it I hear?'
+
+'You hear, that Montoni is a villain,' exclaimed Morano with 
+vehemence,--'a villain who would have sold you to my love!--Who---'
+
+'And is he less, who would have bought me?' said Emily, fixing on the 
+Count an eye of calm contempt.  'Leave the room, sir, instantly,' she 
+continued in a voice, trembling between joy and fear, 'or I will 
+alarm the family, and you may receive that from Signor Montoni's 
+vengeance, which I have vainly supplicated from his pity.'  But Emily 
+knew, that she was beyond the hearing of those, who might protect 
+her.
+
+'You can never hope any thing from his pity,' said Morano, 'he has 
+used me infamously, and my vengeance shall pursue him.  And for you, 
+Emily, for you, he has new plans more profitable than the last, no 
+doubt.'  The gleam of hope, which the Count's former speech had 
+revived, was now nearly extinguished by the latter; and, while 
+Emily's countenance betrayed the emotions of her mind, he endeavoured 
+to take advantage of the discovery.
+
+'I lose time,' said he:  'I came not to exclaim against Montoni; I 
+came to solicit, to plead--to Emily; to tell her all I suffer, to 
+entreat her to save me from despair, and herself from destruction.  
+Emily! the schemes of Montoni are insearchable, but, I warn you, they 
+are terrible; he has no principle, when interest, or ambition leads.  
+Can I love you, and abandon you to his power?  Fly, then, fly from 
+this gloomy prison, with a lover, who adores you!  I have bribed a 
+servant of the castle to open the gates, and, before tomorrow's dawn, 
+you shall be far on the way to Venice.'
+
+Emily, overcome by the sudden shock she had received, at the moment, 
+too, when she had begun to hope for better days, now thought she saw 
+destruction surround her on every side.  Unable to reply, and almost 
+to think, she threw herself into a chair, pale and breathless.  That 
+Montoni had formerly sold her to Morano, was very probable; that he 
+had now withdrawn his consent to the marriage, was evident from the 
+Count's present conduct; and it was nearly certain, that a scheme of 
+stronger interest only could have induced the selfish Montoni to 
+forego a plan, which he had hitherto so strenuously pursued.  These 
+reflections made her tremble at the hints, which Morano had just 
+given, which she no longer hesitated to believe; and, while she 
+shrunk from the new scenes of misery and oppression, that might await 
+her in the castle of Udolpho, she was compelled to observe, that 
+almost her only means of escaping them was by submitting herself to 
+the protection of this man, with whom evils more certain and not less 
+terrible appeared,--evils, upon which she could not endure to pause 
+for an instant.
+
+Her silence, though it was that of agony, encouraged the hopes of 
+Morano, who watched her countenance with impatience, took again the 
+resisting hand she had withdrawn, and, as he pressed it to his heart, 
+again conjured her to determine immediately.  'Every moment we lose, 
+will make our departure more dangerous,' said he:  'these few moments 
+lost may enable Montoni to overtake us.'
+
+'I beseech you, sir, be silent,' said Emily faintly:  'I am indeed 
+very wretched, and wretched I must remain.  Leave me--I command you, 
+leave me to my fate.'
+
+'Never!' cried the Count vehemently:  'let me perish first!  But 
+forgive my violence! the thought of losing you is madness.  You 
+cannot be ignorant of Montoni's character, you may be ignorant of his 
+schemes--nay, you must be so, or you would not hesitate between my 
+love and his power.'
+
+'Nor do I hesitate,' said Emily.
+
+'Let us go, then,' said Morano, eagerly kissing her hand, and rising, 
+'my carriage waits, below the castle walls.'
+
+'You mistake me, sir,' said Emily.  'Allow me to thank you for the 
+interest you express in my welfare, and to decide by my own choice.  
+I shall remain under the protection of Signor Montoni.'
+
+'Under his protection!' exclaimed Morano, proudly, 'his PROTECTION!  
+Emily, why will you suffer yourself to be thus deluded?  I have 
+already told you what you have to expect from his PROTECTION.'
+
+'And pardon me, sir, if, in this instance, I doubt mere assertion, 
+and, to be convinced, require something approaching to proof.'
+
+'I have now neither the time, or the means of adducing proof,' 
+replied the Count.
+
+'Nor have I, sir, the inclination to listen to it, if you had.'
+
+'But you trifle with my patience and my distress,' continued Morano.  
+'Is a marriage with a man, who adores you, so very terrible in your 
+eyes, that you would prefer to it all the misery, to which Montoni 
+may condemn you in this remote prison?  Some wretch must have stolen 
+those affections, which ought to be mine, or you would not thus 
+obstinately persist in refusing an offer, that would place you beyond 
+the reach of oppression.'  Morano walked about the room, with quick 
+steps, and a disturbed air.
+
+'This discourse, Count Morano, sufficiently proves, that my 
+affections ought not to be yours,' said Emily, mildly, 'and this 
+conduct, that I should not be placed beyond the reach of oppression, 
+so long as I remained in your power.  If you wish me to believe 
+otherwise, cease to oppress me any longer by your presence.  If you 
+refuse this, you will compel me to expose you to the resentment of 
+Signor Montoni.'
+
+'Yes, let him come,' cried Morano furiously, 'and brave MY 
+resentment!  Let him dare to face once more the man he has so 
+courageously injured; danger shall teach him morality, and vengeance 
+justice--let him come, and receive my sword in his heart!'
+
+The vehemence, with which this was uttered, gave Emily new cause of 
+alarm, who arose from her chair, but her trembling frame refused to 
+support her, and she resumed her seat;--the words died on her lips, 
+and, when she looked wistfully towards the door of the corridor, 
+which was locked, she considered it was impossible for her to leave 
+the apartment, before Morano would be apprised of, and able to 
+counteract, her intention.
+
+Without observing her agitation, he continued to pace the room in the 
+utmost perturbation of spirits.  His darkened countenance expressed 
+all the rage of jealousy and revenge; and a person, who had seen his 
+features under the smile of ineffable tenderness, which he so lately 
+assumed, would now scarcely have believed them to be the same.
+
+'Count Morano,' said Emily, at length recovering her voice, 'calm, I 
+entreat you, these transports, and listen to reason, if you will not 
+to pity.  You have equally misplaced your love, and your hatred.--I 
+never could have returned the affection, with which you honour me, 
+and certainly have never encouraged it; neither has Signor Montoni 
+injured you, for you must have known, that he had no right to dispose 
+of my hand, had he even possessed the power to do so.  Leave, then, 
+leave the castle, while you may with safety.  Spare yourself the 
+dreadful consequences of an unjust revenge, and the remorse of having 
+prolonged to me these moments of suffering.'
+
+'Is it for mine, or for Montoni's safety, that you are thus alarmed?' 
+said Morano, coldly, and turning towards her with a look of acrimony.
+
+'For both,' replied Emily, in a trembling voice.
+
+'Unjust revenge!' cried the Count, resuming the abrupt tones of 
+passion.  'Who, that looks upon that face, can imagine a punishment 
+adequate to the injury he would have done me?  Yes, I will leave the 
+castle; but it shall not be alone.  I have trifled too long.  Since 
+my prayers and my sufferings cannot prevail, force shall.  I have 
+people in waiting, who shall convey you to my carriage.  Your voice 
+will bring no succour; it cannot be heard from this remote part of 
+the castle; submit, therefore, in silence, to go with me.'
+
+This was an unnecessary injunction, at present; for Emily was too 
+certain, that her call would avail her nothing; and terror had so 
+entirely disordered her thoughts, that she knew not how to plead to 
+Morano, but sat, mute and trembling, in her chair, till he advanced 
+to lift her from it, when she suddenly raised herself, and, with a 
+repulsive gesture, and a countenance of forced serenity, said, 'Count 
+Morano!  I am now in your power; but you will observe, that this is 
+not the conduct which can win the esteem you appear so solicitous to 
+obtain, and that you are preparing for yourself a load of remorse, in 
+the miseries of a friendless orphan, which can never leave you.  Do 
+you believe your heart to be, indeed, so hardened, that you can look 
+without emotion on the suffering, to which you would condemn me?'---
+
+Emily was interrupted by the growling of the dog, who now came again 
+from the bed, and Morano looked towards the door of the stair-case, 
+where no person appearing, he called aloud, 'Cesario!'
+
+'Emily,' said the Count, 'why will you reduce me to adopt this 
+conduct?  How much more willingly would I persuade, than compel you 
+to become my wife! but, by Heaven! I will not leave you to be sold by 
+Montoni.  Yet a thought glances across my mind, that brings madness 
+with it.  I know not how to name it.  It is preposterous--it cannot 
+be.--Yet you tremble--you grow pale!  It is! it is so;--you--you--
+love Montoni!' cried Morano, grasping Emily's wrist, and stamping his 
+foot on the floor.
+
+An involuntary air of surprise appeared on her countenance.  'If you 
+have indeed believed so,' said she, 'believe so still.'
+
+'That look, those words confirm it,' exclaimed Morano, furiously.  
+'No, no, no, Montoni had a richer prize in view, than gold.  But he 
+shall not live to triumph over me!--This very instant---'
+
+He was interrupted by the loud barking of the dog.
+
+'Stay, Count Morano,' said Emily, terrified by his words, and by the 
+fury expressed in his eyes, 'I will save you from this error.--Of all 
+men, Signor Montoni is not your rival; though, if I find all other 
+means of saving myself vain, I will try whether my voice may not 
+arouse his servants to my succour.'
+
+'Assertion,' replied Morano, 'at such a moment, is not to be depended 
+upon.  How could I suffer myself to doubt, even for an instant, that 
+he could see you, and not love?--But my first care shall be to convey 
+you from the castle.  Cesario! ho,--Cesario!'
+
+A man now appeared at the door of the stair-case, and other steps 
+were heard ascending.  Emily uttered a loud shriek, as Morano hurried 
+her across the chamber, and, at the same moment, she heard a noise at 
+the door, that opened upon the corridor.  The Count paused an 
+instant, as if his mind was suspended between love and the desire of 
+vengeance; and, in that instant, the door gave way, and Montoni, 
+followed by the old steward and several other persons, burst into the 
+room.
+
+'Draw!' cried Montoni to the Count, who did not pause for a second 
+bidding, but, giving Emily into the hands of the people, that 
+appeared from the stair-case, turned fiercely round.  'This in thine 
+heart, villain!' said he, as he made a thrust at Montoni with his 
+sword, who parried the blow, and aimed another, while some of the 
+persons, who had followed him into the room, endeavoured to part the 
+combatants, and others rescued Emily from the hands of Morano's 
+servants.
+
+'Was it for this, Count Morano,' said Montoni, in a cool sarcastic 
+tone of voice, 'that I received you under my roof, and permitted you, 
+though my declared enemy, to remain under it for the night?  Was it, 
+that you might repay my hospitality with the treachery of a fiend, 
+and rob me of my niece?'
+
+'Who talks of treachery?' said Morano, in a tone of unrestrained 
+vehemence.  'Let him that does, shew an unblushing face of innocence.  
+Montoni, you are a villain!  If there is treachery in this affair, 
+look to yourself as the author of it.  IF--do I say?  I--whom you 
+have wronged with unexampled baseness, whom you have injured almost 
+beyond redress!  But why do I use words?--Come on, coward, and 
+receive justice at my hands!'
+
+'Coward!' cried Montoni, bursting from the people who held him, and 
+rushing on the Count, when they both retreated into the corridor, 
+where the fight continued so desperately, that none of the spectators 
+dared approach them, Montoni swearing, that the first who interfered, 
+should fall by his sword.
+
+Jealousy and revenge lent all their fury to Morano, while the 
+superior skill and the temperance of Montoni enabled him to wound his 
+adversary, whom his servants now attempted to seize, but he would not 
+be restrained, and, regardless of his wound, continued to fight.  He 
+seemed to be insensible both of pain and loss of blood, and alive 
+only to the energy of his passions.  Montoni, on the contrary, 
+persevered in the combat, with a fierce, yet wary, valour; he 
+received the point of Morano's sword on his arm, but, almost in the 
+same instant, severely wounded and disarmed him.  The Count then fell 
+back into the arms of his servant, while Montoni held his sword over 
+him, and bade him ask his life.  Morano, sinking under the anguish of 
+his wound, had scarcely replied by a gesture, and by a few words, 
+feebly articulated, that he would not--when he fainted; and Montoni 
+was then going to have plunged the sword into his breast, as he lay 
+senseless, but his arm was arrested by Cavigni.  To the interruption 
+he yielded without much difficulty, but his complexion changed almost 
+to blackness, as he looked upon his fallen adversary, and ordered, 
+that he should be carried instantly from the castle.
+
+In the mean time, Emily, who had been with-held from leaving the 
+chamber during the affray, now came forward into the corridor, and 
+pleaded a cause of common humanity, with the feelings of the warmest 
+benevolence, when she entreated Montoni to allow Morano the 
+assistance in the castle, which his situation required.  But Montoni, 
+who had seldom listened to pity, now seemed rapacious of vengeance, 
+and, with a monster's cruelty, again ordered his defeated enemy to be 
+taken from the castle, in his present state, though there were only 
+the woods, or a solitary neighbouring cottage, to shelter him from 
+the night.
+
+The Count's servants having declared, that they would not move him 
+till he revived, Montoni's stood inactive, Cavigni remonstrating, and 
+Emily, superior to Montoni's menaces, giving water to Morano, and 
+directing the attendants to bind up his wound.  At length, Montoni 
+had leisure to feel pain from his own hurt, and he withdrew to 
+examine it.
+
+The Count, meanwhile, having slowly recovered, the first object he 
+saw, on raising his eyes, was Emily, bending over him with a 
+countenance strongly expressive of solicitude.  He surveyed her with 
+a look of anguish.
+
+'I have deserved this,' said he, 'but not from Montoni.  It is from 
+you, Emily, that I have deserved punishment, yet I receive only 
+pity!'  He paused, for he had spoken with difficulty.  After a 
+moment, he proceeded.  'I must resign you, but not to Montoni.  
+Forgive me the sufferings I have already occasioned you!  But for 
+THAT villain--his infamy shall not go unpunished.  Carry me from this 
+place,' said he to his servants.  'I am in no condition to travel:  
+you must, therefore, take me to the nearest cottage, for I will not 
+pass the night under his roof, although I may expire on the way from 
+it.'
+
+Cesario proposed to go out, and enquire for a cottage, that might 
+receive his master, before he attempted to remove him:  but Morano 
+was impatient to be gone; the anguish of his mind seemed to be even 
+greater than that of his wound, and he rejected, with disdain, the 
+offer of Cavigni to entreat Montoni, that he might be suffered to 
+pass the night in the castle.  Cesario was now going to call up the 
+carriage to the great gate, but the Count forbade him.  'I cannot 
+bear the motion of a carriage,' said he:  'call some others of my 
+people, that they may assist in bearing me in their arms.'
+
+At length, however, Morano submitted to reason, and consented, that 
+Cesario should first prepare some cottage to receive him.  Emily, now 
+that he had recovered his senses, was about to withdraw from the 
+corridor, when a message from Montoni commanded her to do so, and 
+also that the Count, if he was not already gone, should quit the 
+castle immediately.  Indignation flashed from Morano's eyes, and 
+flushed his cheeks.
+
+'Tell Montoni,' said he, 'that I shall go when it suits my own 
+convenience; that I quit the castle, he dares to call his, as I would 
+the nest of a serpent, and that this is not the last he shall hear 
+from me.  Tell him, I will not leave ANOTHER murder on his 
+conscience, if I can help it.'
+
+'Count Morano! do you know what you say?' said Cavigni.
+
+'Yes, Signor, I know well what I say, and he will understand well 
+what I mean.  His conscience will assist his understanding, on this 
+occasion.'
+
+'Count Morano,' said Verezzi, who had hitherto silently observed him, 
+'dare again to insult my friend, and I will plunge this sword in your 
+body.'
+
+'It would be an action worthy the friend of a villain!' said Morano, 
+as the strong impulse of his indignation enabled him to raise himself 
+from the arms of his servants; but the energy was momentary, and he 
+sunk back, exhausted by the effort.  Montoni's people, meanwhile, 
+held Verezzi, who seemed inclined, even in this instant, to execute 
+his threat; and Cavigni, who was not so depraved as to abet the 
+cowardly malignity of Verezzi, endeavoured to withdraw him from the 
+corridor; and Emily, whom a compassionate interest had thus long 
+detained, was now quitting it in new terror, when the supplicating 
+voice of Morano arrested her, and, by a feeble gesture, he beckoned 
+her to draw nearer.  She advanced with timid steps, but the fainting 
+languor of his countenance again awakened her pity, and overcame her 
+terror.
+
+'I am going from hence for ever,' said he:  'perhaps, I shall never 
+see you again.  I would carry with me your forgiveness, Emily; nay 
+more--I would also carry your good wishes.'
+
+'You have my forgiveness, then,' said Emily, 'and my sincere wishes 
+for your recovery.'
+
+'And only for my recovery?' said Morano, with a sigh.  'For your 
+general welfare,' added Emily.
+
+'Perhaps I ought to be contented with this,' he resumed; 'I certainly 
+have not deserved more; but I would ask you, Emily, sometimes to 
+think of me, and, forgetting my offence, to remember only the passion 
+which occasioned it.  I would ask, alas! impossibilities:  I would 
+ask you to love me!  At this moment, when I am about to part with 
+you, and that, perhaps, for ever, I am scarcely myself.  Emily--may 
+you never know the torture of a passion like mine!  What do I say?  
+O, that, for me, you might be sensible of such a passion!'
+
+Emily looked impatient to be gone.  'I entreat you, Count, to consult 
+your own safety,' said she, 'and linger here no longer.  I tremble 
+for the consequences of Signor Verezzi's passion, and of Montoni's 
+resentment, should he learn that you are still here.'
+
+Morano's face was overspread with a momentary crimson, his eyes 
+sparkled, but he seemed endeavouring to conquer his emotion, and 
+replied in a calm voice, 'Since you are interested for my safety, I 
+will regard it, and be gone.  But, before I go, let me again hear you 
+say, that you wish me well,' said he, fixing on her an earnest and 
+mournful look.
+
+Emily repeated her assurances.  He took her hand, which she scarcely 
+attempted to withdraw, and put it to his lips.  'Farewell, Count 
+Morano!' said Emily; and she turned to go, when a second message 
+arrived from Montoni, and she again conjured Morano, as he valued his 
+life, to quit the castle immediately.  He regarded her in silence, 
+with a look of fixed despair.  But she had no time to enforce her 
+compassionate entreaties, and, not daring to disobey the second 
+command of Montoni, she left the corridor, to attend him.
+
+He was in the cedar parlour, that adjoined the great hall, laid upon 
+a couch, and suffering a degree of anguish from his wound, which few 
+persons could have disguised, as he did.  His countenance, which was 
+stern, but calm, expressed the dark passion of revenge, but no 
+symptom of pain; bodily pain, indeed, he had always despised, and had 
+yielded only to the strong and terrible energies of the soul.  He was 
+attended by old Carlo and by Signor Bertolini, but Madame Montoni was 
+not with him.
+
+Emily trembled, as she approached and received his severe rebuke, for 
+not having obeyed his first summons; and perceived, also, that he 
+attributed her stay in the corridor to a motive, that had not even 
+occurred to her artless mind.
+
+'This is an instance of female caprice,' said he, 'which I ought to 
+have foreseen.  Count Morano, whose suit you obstinately rejected, so 
+long as it was countenanced by me, you favour, it seems, since you 
+find I have dismissed him.'
+
+Emily looked astonished.  'I do not comprehend you, sir,' said she:  
+'You certainly do not mean to imply, that the design of the Count to 
+visit the double-chamber, was founded upon any approbation of mine.'
+
+'To that I reply nothing,' said Montoni; 'but it must certainly be a 
+more than common interest, that made you plead so warmly in his 
+cause, and that could detain you thus long in his presence, contrary 
+to my express order--in the presence of a man, whom you have 
+hitherto, on all occasions, most scrupulously shunned!'
+
+'I fear, sir, it was a more than common interest, that detained me,' 
+said Emily calmly; 'for of late I have been inclined to think, that 
+of compassion is an uncommon one.  But how could I, could YOU, sir, 
+witness Count Morano's deplorable condition, and not wish to relieve 
+it?'
+
+'You add hypocrisy to caprice,' said Montoni, frowning, 'and an 
+attempt at satire, to both; but, before you undertake to regulate the 
+morals of other persons, you should learn and practise the virtues, 
+which are indispensable to a woman--sincerity, uniformity of conduct 
+and obedience.'
+
+Emily, who had always endeavoured to regulate her conduct by the 
+nicest laws, and whose mind was finely sensible, not only of what is 
+just in morals, but of whatever is beautiful in the female character, 
+was shocked by these words; yet, in the next moment, her heart 
+swelled with the consciousness of having deserved praise, instead of 
+censure, and she was proudly silent.  Montoni, acquainted with the 
+delicacy of her mind, knew how keenly she would feel his rebuke; but 
+he was a stranger to the luxury of conscious worth, and, therefore, 
+did not foresee the energy of that sentiment, which now repelled his 
+satire.  Turning to a servant who had lately entered the room, he 
+asked whether Morano had quitted the castle.  The man answered, that 
+his servants were then removing him, on a couch, to a neighbouring 
+cottage.  Montoni seemed somewhat appeased, on hearing this; and, 
+when Ludovico appeared, a few moments after, and said, that Morano 
+was gone, he told Emily she might retire to her apartment.
+
+She withdrew willingly from his presence; but the thought of passing 
+the remainder of the night in a chamber, which the door from the 
+stair-case made liable to the intrusion of any person, now alarmed 
+her more than ever, and she determined to call at Madame Montoni's 
+room, and request, that Annette might be permitted to be with her.
+
+On reaching the great gallery, she heard voices seemingly in dispute, 
+and, her spirits now apt to take alarm, she paused, but soon 
+distinguished some words of Cavigni and Verezzi, and went towards 
+them, in the hope of conciliating their difference.  They were alone.  
+Verezzi's face was still flushed with rage; and, as the first object 
+of it was now removed from him, he appeared willing to transfer his 
+resentment to Cavigni, who seemed to be expostulating, rather than 
+disputing, with him.
+
+Verezzi was protesting, that he would instantly inform Montoni of the 
+insult, which Morano had thrown out against him, and above all, that, 
+wherein he had accused him of murder.
+
+'There is no answering,' said Cavigni, 'for the words of a man in a 
+passion; little serious regard ought to be paid to them.  If you 
+persist in your resolution, the consequences may be fatal to both.  
+We have now more serious interests to pursue, than those of a petty 
+revenge.'
+
+Emily joined her entreaties to Cavigni's arguments, and they, at 
+length, prevailed so far, as that Verezzi consented to retire, 
+without seeing Montoni.
+
+On calling at her aunt's apartment, she found it fastened.  In a few 
+minutes, however, it was opened by Madame Montoni herself.
+
+It may be remembered, that it was by a door leading into the bedroom 
+from a back passage, that Emily had secretly entered a few hours 
+preceding.  She now conjectured, by the calmness of Madame Montoni's 
+air, that she was not apprised of the accident, which had befallen 
+her husband, and was beginning to inform her of it, in the tenderest 
+manner she could, when her aunt interrupted her, by saying, she was 
+acquainted with the whole affair.
+
+Emily knew indeed, that she had little reason to love Montoni, but 
+could scarcely have believed her capable of such perfect apathy, as 
+she now discovered towards him; having obtained permission, however, 
+for Annette to sleep in her chamber, she went thither immediately.
+
+A track of blood appeared along the corridor, leading to it; and on 
+the spot, where the Count and Montoni had fought, the whole floor was 
+stained.  Emily shuddered, and leaned on Annette, as she passed.  
+When she reached her apartment, she instantly determined, since the 
+door of the stair-case had been left open, and that Annette was now 
+with her, to explore whither it led,--a circumstance now materially 
+connected with her own safety.  Annette accordingly, half curious and 
+half afraid, proposed to descend the stairs; but, on approaching the 
+door, they perceived, that it was already fastened without, and their 
+care was then directed to the securing it on the inside also, by 
+placing against it as much of the heavy furniture of the room, as 
+they could lift.  Emily then retired to bed, and Annette continued on 
+a chair by the hearth, where some feeble embers remained.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+ Of aery tongues, that syllable men's names
+ On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.
+      MILTON
+
+It is now necessary to mention some circumstances, which could not be 
+related amidst the events of Emily's hasty departure from Venice, or 
+together with those, which so rapidly succeeded to her arrival in the 
+castle.
+
+On the morning of her journey, Count Morano had gone at the appointed 
+hour to the mansion of Montoni, to demand his bride.  When he reached 
+it, he was somewhat surprised by the silence and solitary air of the 
+portico, where Montoni's lacqueys usually loitered; but surprise was 
+soon changed to astonishment, and astonishment to the rage of 
+disappointment, when the door was opened by an old woman, who told 
+his servants, that her master and his family had left Venice, early 
+in the morning, for terra-firma.  Scarcely believing what his 
+servants told, he left his gondola, and rushed into the hall to 
+enquire further.  The old woman, who was the only person left in care 
+of the mansion, persisted in her story, which the silent and deserted 
+apartments soon convinced him was no fiction.  He then seized her 
+with a menacing air, as if he meant to wreak all his vengeance upon 
+her, at the same time asking her twenty questions in a breath, and 
+all these with a gesticulation so furious, that she was deprived of 
+the power of answering them; then suddenly letting her go, he stamped 
+about the hall, like a madman, cursing Montoni and his own folly.
+
+When the good woman was at liberty, and had somewhat recovered from 
+her fright, she told him all she knew of the affair, which was, 
+indeed, very little, but enough to enable Morano to discover, that 
+Montoni was gone to his castle on the Apennine.  Thither he followed, 
+as soon as his servants could complete the necessary preparation for 
+the journey, accompanied by a friend, and attended by a number of his 
+people, determined to obtain Emily, or a full revenge on Montoni.  
+When his mind had recovered from the first effervescence of rage, and 
+his thoughts became less obscured, his conscience hinted to him 
+certain circumstances, which, in some measure, explained the conduct 
+of Montoni:  but how the latter could have been led to suspect an 
+intention, which, he had believed, was known only to himself, he 
+could not even guess.  On this occasion, however, he had been partly 
+betrayed by that sympathetic intelligence, which may be said to exist 
+between bad minds, and which teaches one man to judge what another 
+will do in the same circumstances.  Thus it was with Montoni, who had 
+now received indisputable proof of a truth, which he had some time 
+suspected--that Morano's circumstances, instead of being affluent, as 
+he had been bidden to believe, were greatly involved.  Montoni had 
+been interested in his suit, by motives entirely selfish, those of 
+avarice and pride; the last of which would have been gratified by an 
+alliance with a Venetian nobleman, the former by Emily's estate in 
+Gascony, which he had stipulated, as the price of his favour, should 
+be delivered up to him from the day of her marriage.  In the 
+meantime, he had been led to suspect the consequence of the Count's 
+boundless extravagance; but it was not till the evening, preceding 
+the intended nuptials, that he obtained certain information of his 
+distressed circumstances.  He did not hesitate then to infer, that 
+Morano designed to defraud him of Emily's estate; and in this 
+supposition he was confirmed, and with apparent reason, by the 
+subsequent conduct of the Count, who, after having appointed to meet 
+him on that night, for the purpose of signing the instrument, which 
+was to secure to him his reward, failed in his engagement.  Such a 
+circumstance, indeed, in a man of Morano's gay and thoughtless 
+character, and at a time when his mind was engaged by the bustle of 
+preparation for his nuptials, might have been attributed to a cause 
+less decisive, than design; but Montoni did not hesitate an instant 
+to interpret it his own way, and, after vainly waiting the Count's 
+arrival, for several hours, he gave orders for his people to be in 
+readiness to set off at a moment's notice.  By hastening to Udolpho 
+he intended to remove Emily from the reach of Morano, as well as to 
+break off the affair, without submitting himself to useless 
+altercation:  and, if the Count meant what he called honourably, he 
+would doubtless follow Emily, and sign the writings in question.  If 
+this was done, so little consideration had Montoni for her welfare, 
+that he would not have scrupled to sacrifice her to a man of ruined 
+fortune, since by that means he could enrich himself; and he forbore 
+to mention to her the motive of his sudden journey, lest the hope it 
+might revive should render her more intractable, when submission 
+would be required.
+
+With these considerations, he had left Venice; and, with others 
+totally different, Morano had, soon after, pursued his steps across 
+the rugged Apennines.  When his arrival was announced at the castle, 
+Montoni did not believe, that he would have presumed to shew himself, 
+unless he had meant to fulfil his engagement, and he, therefore, 
+readily admitted him; but the enraged countenance and expressions of 
+Morano, as he entered the apartment, instantly undeceived him; and, 
+when Montoni had explained, in part, the motives of his abrupt 
+departure from Venice, the Count still persisted in demanding Emily, 
+and reproaching Montoni, without even naming the former stipulation.
+
+Montoni, at length, weary of the dispute, deferred the settling of it 
+till the morrow, and Morano retired with some hope, suggested by 
+Montoni's apparent indecision.  When, however, in the silence of his 
+own apartment, he began to consider the past conversation, the 
+character of Montoni, and some former instances of his duplicity, the 
+hope, which he had admitted, vanished, and he determined not to 
+neglect the present possibility of obtaining Emily by other means.  
+To his confidential valet he told his design of carrying away Emily, 
+and sent him back to Montoni's servants to find out one among them, 
+who might enable him to execute it.  The choice of this person he 
+entrusted to the fellow's own discernment, and not imprudently; for 
+he discovered a man, whom Montoni had, on some former occasion, 
+treated harshly, and who was now ready to betray him.  This man 
+conducted Cesario round the castle, through a private passage, to the 
+stair-case, that led to Emily's chamber; then shewed him a short way 
+out of the building, and afterwards procured him the keys, that would 
+secure his retreat.  The man was well rewarded for his trouble; how 
+the Count was rewarded for his treachery, had already appeared.
+
+Meanwhile, old Carlo had overheard two of Morano's servants, who had 
+been ordered to be in waiting with the carriage, beyond the castle 
+walls, expressing their surprise at their master's sudden, and secret 
+departure, for the valet had entrusted them with no more of Morano's 
+designs, than it was necessary for them to execute.  They, however, 
+indulged themselves in surmises, and in expressing them to each 
+other; and from these Carlo had drawn a just conclusion.  But, before 
+he ventured to disclose his apprehensions to Montoni, he endeavoured 
+to obtain further confirmation of them, and, for this purpose, placed 
+himself, with one of his fellow-servants, at the door of Emily's 
+apartment, that opened upon the corridor.  He did not watch long in 
+vain, though the growling of the dog had once nearly betrayed him.  
+When he was convinced, that Morano was in the room, and had listened 
+long enough to his conversation, to understand his scheme, he 
+immediately alarmed Montoni, and thus rescued Emily from the designs 
+of the Count.
+
+Montoni, on the following morning, appeared as usual, except that he 
+wore his wounded arm in a sling; he went out upon the ramparts; 
+overlooked the men employed in repairing them; gave orders for 
+additional workmen, and then came into the castle to give audience to 
+several persons, who were just arrived, and who were shewn into a 
+private apartment, where he communicated with them, for near an hour.  
+Carlo was then summoned, and ordered to conduct the strangers to a 
+part of the castle, which, in former times, had been occupied by the 
+upper servants of the family, and to provide them with every 
+necessary refreshment.--When he had done this, he was bidden to 
+return to his master.
+
+Meanwhile, the Count remained in a cottage in the skirts of the woods 
+below, suffering under bodily and mental pain, and meditating deep 
+revenge against Montoni.  His servant, whom he had dispatched for a 
+surgeon to the nearest town, which was, however, at a considerable 
+distance, did not return till the following day, when, his wounds 
+being examined and dressed, the practitioner refused to deliver any 
+positive opinion, concerning the degree of danger attending them; but 
+giving his patient a composing draught and ordering him to be quiet, 
+remained at the cottage to watch the event.
+
+Emily, for the remainder of the late eventful night, had been 
+suffered to sleep, undisturbed; and, when her mind recovered from the 
+confusion of slumber, and she remembered, that she was now released 
+from the addresses of Count Morano, her spirits were suddenly 
+relieved from a part of the terrible anxiety, that had long oppressed 
+them; that which remained, arose chiefly from a recollection of 
+Morano's assertions, concerning the schemes of Montoni.  He had said, 
+that plans of the latter, concerning Emily, were insearchable, yet 
+that he knew them to be terrible.  At the time he uttered this, she 
+almost believed it to be designed for the purpose of prevailing with 
+her to throw herself into his protection, and she still thought it 
+might be chiefly so accounted for; but his assertions had left an 
+impression on her mind, which a consideration of the character and 
+former conduct of Montoni did not contribute to efface.  She, 
+however, checked her propensity to anticipate evil; and, determined 
+to enjoy this respite from actual misfortune, tried to dismiss 
+thought, took her instruments for drawing, and placed herself at a 
+window, to select into a landscape some features of the scenery 
+without.
+
+As she was thus employed, she saw, walking on the rampart below, the 
+men, who had so lately arrived at the castle.  The sight of strangers 
+surprised her, but still more, of strangers such as these.  There was 
+a singularity in their dress, and a certain fierceness in their air, 
+that fixed all her attention.  She withdrew from the casement, while 
+they passed, but soon returned to observe them further.  Their 
+figures seemed so well suited to the wildness of the surrounding 
+objects, that, as they stood surveying the castle, she sketched them 
+for banditti, amid the mountain-view of her picture, when she had 
+finished which, she was surprised to observe the spirit of her group.  
+But she had copied from nature.
+
+Carlo, when he had placed refreshment before these men in the 
+apartment assigned to them, returned, as he was ordered, to Montoni, 
+who was anxious to discover by what servant the keys of the castle 
+had been delivered to Morano, on the preceding night.  But this man, 
+though he was too faithful to his master quietly to see him injured, 
+would not betray a fellow-servant even to justice; he, therefore, 
+pretended to be ignorant who it was, that had conspired with Count 
+Morano, and related, as before, that he had only overheard some of 
+the strangers describing the plot.
+
+Montoni's suspicions naturally fell upon the porter, whom he ordered 
+now to attend.  Carlo hesitated, and then with slow steps went to 
+seek him.
+
+Barnardine, the porter, denied the accusation with a countenance so 
+steady and undaunted, that Montoni could scarcely believe him guilty, 
+though he knew not how to think him innocent.  At length, the man was 
+dismissed from his presence, and, though the real offender, escaped 
+detection.
+
+Montoni then went to his wife's apartment, whither Emily followed 
+soon after, but, finding them in high dispute, was instantly leaving 
+the room, when her aunt called her back, and desired her to stay.--
+'You shall be a witness,' said she, 'of my opposition.  Now, sir, 
+repeat the command, I have so often refused to obey.'
+
+Montoni turned, with a stern countenance, to Emily, and bade her quit 
+the apartment, while his wife persisted in desiring, that she would 
+stay.  Emily was eager to escape from this scene of contention, and 
+anxious, also, to serve her aunt; but she despaired of conciliating 
+Montoni, in whose eyes the rising tempest of his soul flashed 
+terribly.
+
+'Leave the room,' said he, in a voice of thunder.  Emily obeyed, and, 
+walking down to the rampart, which the strangers had now left, 
+continued to meditate on the unhappy marriage of her father's sister, 
+and on her own desolate situation, occasioned by the ridiculous 
+imprudence of her, whom she had always wished to respect and love.  
+Madame Montoni's conduct had, indeed, rendered it impossible for 
+Emily to do either; but her gentle heart was touched by her distress, 
+and, in the pity thus awakened, she forgot the injurious treatment 
+she had received from her.
+
+As she sauntered on the rampart, Annette appeared at the hall door, 
+looked cautiously round, and then advanced to meet her.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle, I have been looking for you all over the castle,' 
+said she.  'If you will step this way, I will shew you a picture.'
+
+'A picture!' exclaimed Emily, and shuddered.
+
+'Yes, ma'am, a picture of the late lady of this place.  Old Carlo 
+just now told me it was her, and I thought you would be curious to 
+see it.  As to my lady, you know, ma'amselle, one cannot talk about 
+such things to her.'--
+
+'And so,' said Emily smilingly, 'as you must talk of them to 
+somebody--'
+
+'Why, yes, ma'amselle; what can one do in such a place as this, if 
+one must not talk?  If I was in a dungeon, if they would let me talk-
+-it would be some comfort; nay, I would talk, if it was only to the 
+walls.  But come, ma'amselle, we lose time--let me shew you to the 
+picture.'
+
+'Is it veiled?' said Emily, pausing.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle!' said Annette, fixing her eyes on Emily's face, 
+'what makes you look so pale?--are you ill?'
+
+'No, Annette, I am well enough, but I have no desire to see this 
+picture; return into the hall.'
+
+'What! ma'am, not to see the lady of this castle?' said the girl--
+'the lady, who disappeared to strangely?  Well! now, I would have run 
+to the furthest mountain we can see, yonder, to have got a sight of 
+such a picture; and, to speak my mind, that strange story is all, 
+that makes me care about this old castle, though it makes me thrill 
+all over, as it were, whenever I think of it.'
+
+'Yes, Annette, you love the wonderful; but do you know, that, unless 
+you guard against this inclination, it will lead you into all the 
+misery of superstition?'
+
+Annette might have smiled in her turn, at this sage observation of 
+Emily, who could tremble with ideal terrors, as much as herself, and 
+listen almost as eagerly to the recital of a mysterious story.  
+Annette urged her request.
+
+'Are you sure it is a picture?' said Emily, 'Have you seen it?--Is it 
+veiled?'
+
+'Holy Maria! ma'amselle, yes, no, yes.  I am sure it is a picture--I 
+have seen it, and it is not veiled!'
+
+The tone and look of surprise, with which this was uttered, recalled 
+Emily's prudence; who concealed her emotion under a smile, and bade 
+Annette lead her to the picture.  It was in an obscure chamber, 
+adjoining that part of the castle, allotted to the servants.  Several 
+other portraits hung on the walls, covered, like this, with dust and 
+cobweb.
+
+'That is it, ma'amselle,' said Annette, in a low voice, and pointing.  
+Emily advanced, and surveyed the picture.  It represented a lady in 
+the flower of youth and beauty; her features were handsome and noble, 
+full of strong expression, but had little of the captivating 
+sweetness, that Emily had looked for, and still less of the pensive 
+mildness she loved.  It was a countenance, which spoke the language 
+of passion, rather than that of sentiment; a haughty impatience of 
+misfortune--not the placid melancholy of a spirit injured, yet 
+resigned.
+
+'How many years have passed, since this lady disappeared, Annette?' 
+said Emily.
+
+'Twenty years, ma'amselle, or thereabout, as they tell me; I know it 
+is a long while ago.'  Emily continued to gaze upon the portrait.
+
+'I think,' resumed Annette, 'the Signor would do well to hang it in a 
+better place, than this old chamber.  Now, in my mind, he ought to 
+place the picture of a lady, who gave him all these riches, in the 
+handsomest room in the castle.  But he may have good reasons for what 
+he does:  and some people do say that he has lost his riches, as well 
+as his gratitude.  But hush, ma'am, not a word!' added Annette, 
+laying her finger on her lips.  Emily was too much absorbed in 
+thought, to hear what she said.
+
+''Tis a handsome lady, I am sure,' continued Annette:  'the Signor 
+need not be ashamed to put her in the great apartment, where the 
+veiled picture hangs.'  Emily turned round.  'But for that matter, 
+she would be as little seen there, as here, for the door is always 
+locked, I find.'
+
+'Let us leave this chamber,' said Emily:  'and let me caution you 
+again, Annette; be guarded in your conversation, and never tell, that 
+you know any thing of that picture.'
+
+'Holy Mother!' exclaimed Annette, 'it is no secret; why all the 
+servants have seen it already!'
+
+Emily started.  'How is this?' said she--'Have seen it!  When?--how?'
+
+'Dear, ma'amselle, there is nothing surprising in that; we had all a 
+little more CURIOUSNESS than you had.'
+
+'I thought you told me, the door was kept locked?' said Emily.
+
+'If that was the case, ma'amselle,' replied Annette, looking about 
+her, 'how could we get here?'
+
+'Oh, you mean THIS picture,' said Emily, with returning calmness.  
+'Well, Annette, here is nothing more to engage my attention; we will 
+go.'
+
+Emily, as she passed to her own apartment, saw Montoni go down to the 
+hall, and she turned into her aunt's dressing-room, whom she found 
+weeping and alone, grief and resentment struggling on her 
+countenance.  Pride had hitherto restrained complaint.  Judging of 
+Emily's disposition from her own, and from a consciousness of what 
+her treatment of her deserved, she had believed, that her griefs 
+would be cause of triumph to her niece, rather than of sympathy; that 
+she would despise, not pity her.  But she knew not the tenderness and 
+benevolence of Emily's heart, that had always taught her to forget 
+her own injuries in the misfortunes of her enemy.  The sufferings of 
+others, whoever they might be, called forth her ready compassion, 
+which dissipated at once every obscuring cloud to goodness, that 
+passion or prejudice might have raised in her mind.
+
+Madame Montoni's sufferings, at length, rose above her pride, and, 
+when Emily had before entered the room, she would have told them all, 
+had not her husband prevented her; now that she was no longer 
+restrained by his presence, she poured forth all her complaints to 
+her niece.
+
+'O Emily!' she exclaimed, 'I am the most wretched of women--I am 
+indeed cruelly treated!  Who, with my prospects of happiness, could 
+have foreseen such a wretched fate as this?--who could have thought, 
+when I married such a man as the Signor, I should ever have to bewail 
+my lot?  But there is no judging what is for the best--there is no 
+knowing what is for our good!  The most flattering prospects often 
+change--the best judgments may be deceived--who could have foreseen, 
+when I married the Signor, that I should ever repent my GENEROSITY?'
+
+Emily thought she might have foreseen it, but this was not a thought 
+of triumph.  She placed herself in a chair near her aunt, took her 
+hand, and, with one of those looks of soft compassion, which might 
+characterize the countenance of a guardian angel, spoke to her in the 
+tenderest accents.  But these did not sooth Madame Montoni, whom 
+impatience to talk made unwilling to listen.  She wanted to complain, 
+not to be consoled; and it was by exclamations of complaint only, 
+that Emily learned the particular circumstances of her affliction.
+
+'Ungrateful man!' said Madame Montoni, 'he has deceived me in every 
+respect; and now he has taken me from my country and friends, to shut 
+me up in this old castle; and, here he thinks he can compel me to do 
+whatever he designs!  But he shall find himself mistaken, he shall 
+find that no threats can alter--But who would have believed! who 
+would have supposed, that a man of his family and apparent wealth had 
+absolutely no fortune?--no, scarcely a sequin of his own!  I did all 
+for the best; I thought he was a man of consequence, of great 
+property, or I am sure I would never have married him,--ungrateful, 
+artful man!'  She paused to take breath.
+
+'Dear Madam, be composed,' said Emily:  'the Signor may not be so 
+rich as you had reason to expect, but surely he cannot be very poor, 
+since this castle and the mansion at Venice are his.  May I ask what 
+are the circumstances, that particularly affect you?'
+
+'What are the circumstances!' exclaimed Madame Montoni with 
+resentment:  'why is it not sufficient, that he had long ago ruined 
+his own fortune by play, and that he has since lost what I brought 
+him--and that now he would compel me to sign away my settlement (it 
+was well I had the chief of my property settled on myself!) that he 
+may lose this also, or throw it away in wild schemes, which nobody 
+can understand but himself?  And, and--is not all this sufficient?'
+
+'It is, indeed,' said Emily, 'but you must recollect, dear madam, 
+that I knew nothing of all this.'
+
+'Well, and is it not sufficient,' rejoined her aunt, 'that he is also 
+absolutely ruined, that he is sunk deeply in debt, and that neither 
+this castle, or the mansion at Venice, is his own, if all his debts, 
+honourable and dishonourable, were paid!'
+
+'I am shocked by what you tell me, madam,' said Emily.
+
+'And is it not enough,' interrupted Madame Montoni, 'that he has 
+treated me with neglect, with cruelty, because I refused to 
+relinquish my settlements, and, instead of being frightened by his 
+menaces, resolutely defied him, and upbraided him with his shameful 
+conduct?  But I bore all meekly,--you know, niece, I never uttered a 
+word of complaint, till now; no!  That such a disposition as mine 
+should be so imposed upon!  That I, whose only faults are too much 
+kindness, too much generosity, should be chained for life to such a 
+vile, deceitful, cruel monster!'
+
+Want of breath compelled Madame Montoni to stop.  If any thing could 
+have made Emily smile in these moments, it would have been this 
+speech of her aunt, delivered in a voice very little below a scream, 
+and with a vehemence of gesticulation and of countenance, that turned 
+the whole into burlesque.  Emily saw, that her misfortunes did not 
+admit of real consolation, and, contemning the commonplace terms of 
+superficial comfort, she was silent; while Madame Montoni, jealous of 
+her own consequence, mistook this for the silence of indifference, or 
+of contempt, and reproached her with want of duty and feeling.
+
+'O! I suspected what all this boasted sensibility would prove to be!' 
+rejoined she; 'I thought it would not teach you to feel either duty, 
+or affection, for your relations, who have treated you like their own 
+daughter!'
+
+'Pardon me, madam,' said Emily, mildly, 'it is not natural to me to 
+boast, and if it was, I am sure I would not boast of sensibility--a 
+quality, perhaps, more to be feared, than desired.'
+
+'Well, well, niece, I will not dispute with you.  But, as I said, 
+Montoni threatens me with violence, if I any longer refuse to sign 
+away my settlements, and this was the subject of our contest, when 
+you came into the room before.  Now, I am determined no power on 
+earth shall make me do this.  Neither will I bear all this tamely.  
+He shall hear his true character from me; I will tell him all he 
+deserves, in spite of his threats and cruel treatment.'
+
+Emily seized a pause of Madame Montoni's voice, to speak.  'Dear 
+madam,' said she, 'but will not this serve to irritate the Signor 
+unnecessarily? will it not provoke the harsh treatment you dread?'
+
+'I do not care,' replied Madame Montoni, 'it does not signify:  I 
+will not submit to such usage.  You would have me give up my 
+settlements, too, I suppose!'
+
+'No, madam, I do not exactly mean that.'
+
+'What is it you do mean then?'
+
+'You spoke of reproaching the Signor,'--said Emily, with hesitation.  
+'Why, does he not deserve reproaches?' said her aunt.
+
+'Certainly he does; but will it be prudent in you, madam, to make 
+them?'
+
+'Prudent!' exclaimed Madame Montoni.  'Is this a time to talk of 
+prudence, when one is threatened with all sorts of violence?'
+
+'It is to avoid that violence, that prudence is necessary.' said 
+Emily.
+
+'Of prudence!' continued Madame Montoni, without attending to her, 
+'of prudence towards a man, who does not scruple to break all the 
+common ties of humanity in his conduct to me!  And is it for me to 
+consider prudence in my behaviour towards him!  I am not so mean.'
+
+'It is for your own sake, not for the Signor's, madam,' said Emily 
+modestly, 'that you should consult prudence.  Your reproaches, 
+however just, cannot punish him, but they may provoke him to further 
+violence against you.'
+
+'What! would you have me submit, then, to whatever he commands--would 
+you have me kneel down at his feet, and thank him for his cruelties?  
+Would you have me give up my settlements?'
+
+'How much you mistake me, madam!' said Emily, 'I am unequal to advise 
+you on a point so important as the last:  but you will pardon me for 
+saying, that, if you consult your own peace, you will try to 
+conciliate Signor Montoni, rather than to irritate him by 
+reproaches.'
+
+'Conciliate indeed!  I tell you, niece, it is utterly impossible; I 
+disdain to attempt it.'
+
+Emily was shocked to observe the perverted understanding and 
+obstinate temper of Madame Montoni; but, not less grieved for her 
+sufferings, she looked round for some alleviating circumstance to 
+offer her.  'Your situation is, perhaps, not so desperate, dear 
+madam,' said Emily, 'as you may imagine.  The Signor may represent 
+his affairs to be worse than they are, for the purpose of pleading a 
+stronger necessity for his possession of your settlement.  Besides, 
+so long as you keep this, you may look forward to it as a resource, 
+at least, that will afford you a competence, should the Signor's 
+future conduct compel you to sue for separation.'
+
+Madame Montoni impatiently interrupted her.  'Unfeeling, cruel girl!' 
+said she, 'and so you would persuade me, that I have no reason to 
+complain; that the Signor is in very flourishing circumstances, that 
+my future prospects promise nothing but comfort, and that my griefs 
+are as fanciful and romantic as your own!  Is it the way to console 
+me, to endeavour to persuade me out of my senses and my feelings, 
+because you happen to have no feelings yourself?  I thought I was 
+opening my heart to a person, who could sympathize in my distress, 
+but I find, that your people of sensibility can feel for nobody but 
+themselves!  You may retire to your chamber.'
+
+Emily, without replying, immediately left the room, with a mingled 
+emotion of pity and contempt, and hastened to her own, where she 
+yielded to the mournful reflections, which a knowledge of her aunt's 
+situation had occasioned.  The conversation of the Italian with 
+Valancourt, in France, again occurred to her.  His hints, respecting 
+the broken fortunes of Montoni, were now completely justified; those, 
+also, concerning his character, appeared not less so, though the 
+particular circumstances, connected with his fame, to which the 
+stranger had alluded, yet remained to be explained.  Notwithstanding, 
+that her own observations and the words of Count Morano had convinced 
+her, that Montoni's situation was not what it formerly appeared to 
+be, the intelligence she had just received from her aunt on this 
+point, struck her with all the force of astonishment, which was not 
+weakened, when she considered the present style of Montoni's living, 
+the number of servants he maintained, and the new expences he was 
+incurring, by repairing and fortifying his castle.  Her anxiety for 
+her aunt and for herself increased with reflection.  Several 
+assertions of Morano, which, on the preceding night, she had believed 
+were prompted either by interest, or by resentment, now returned to 
+her mind with the strength of truth.  She could not doubt, that 
+Montoni had formerly agreed to give her to the Count, for a pecuniary 
+reward;--his character, and his distressed circumstances justified 
+the belief; these, also, seemed to confirm Morano's assertion, that 
+he now designed to dispose of her, more advantageously for himself, 
+to a richer suitor.
+
+Amidst the reproaches, which Morano had thrown out against Montoni, 
+he had said--he would not quit the castle HE DARED TO CALL HIS, nor 
+willingly leave ANOTHER murder on his conscience--hints, which might 
+have no other origin than the passion of the moment:  but Emily was 
+now inclined to account for them more seriously, and she shuddered to 
+think, that she was in the hands of a man, to whom it was even 
+possible they could apply.  At length, considering, that reflection 
+could neither release her from her melancholy situation, or enable 
+her to bear it with greater fortitude, she tried to divert her 
+anxiety, and took down from her little library a volume of her 
+favourite Ariosto; but his wild imagery and rich invention could not 
+long enchant her attention; his spells did not reach her heart, and 
+over her sleeping fancy they played, without awakening it.
+
+She now put aside the book, and took her lute, for it was seldom that 
+her sufferings refused to yield to the magic of sweet sounds; when 
+they did so, she was oppressed by sorrow, that came from excess of 
+tenderness and regret; and there were times, when music had increased 
+such sorrow to a degree, that was scarcely endurable; when, if it had 
+not suddenly ceased, she might have lost her reason.  Such was the 
+time, when she mourned for her father, and heard the midnight 
+strains, that floated by her window near the convent in Languedoc, on 
+the night that followed his death.
+
+She continued to play, till Annette brought dinner into her chamber, 
+at which Emily was surprised, and enquired whose order she obeyed.  
+'My lady's, ma'amselle,' replied Annette:  'the Signor ordered her 
+dinner to be carried to her own apartment, and so she has sent you 
+yours.  There have been sad doings between them, worse than ever, I 
+think.'
+
+Emily, not appearing to notice what she said, sat down to the little 
+table, that was spread for her.  But Annette was not to be silenced 
+thus easily.  While she waited, she told of the arrival of the men, 
+whom Emily had observed on the ramparts, and expressed much surprise 
+at their strange appearance, as well as at the manner, in which they 
+had been attended by Montoni's order.  'Do they dine with the Signor, 
+then?' said Emily.
+
+'No, ma'amselle, they dined long ago, in an apartment at the north 
+end of the castle, but I know not when they are to go, for the Signor 
+told old Carlo to see them provided with every thing necessary.  They 
+have been walking all about the castle, and asking questions of the 
+workmen on the ramparts.  I never saw such strange-looking men in my 
+life; I am frightened whenever I see them.'
+
+Emily enquired, if she had heard of Count Morano, and whether he was 
+likely to recover:  but Annette only knew, that he was lodged in a 
+cottage in the wood below, and that every body said he must die.  
+Emily's countenance discovered her emotion.
+
+'Dear ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'to see how young ladies will 
+disguise themselves, when they are in love!  I thought you hated the 
+Count, or I am sure I would not have told you; and I am sure you have 
+cause enough to hate him.'
+
+'I hope I hate nobody,' replied Emily, trying to smile; 'but 
+certainly I do not love Count Morano.  I should be shocked to hear of 
+any person dying by violent means.'
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, but it is his own fault.'
+
+Emily looked displeased; and Annette, mistaking the cause of her 
+displeasure, immediately began to excuse the Count, in her way.  'To 
+be sure, it was very ungenteel behaviour,' said she, 'to break into a 
+lady's room, and then, when he found his discoursing was not 
+agreeable to her, to refuse to go; and then, when the gentleman of 
+the castle comes to desire him to walk about his business--to turn 
+round, and draw his sword, and swear he'll run him through the body!-
+-To be sure it was very ungenteel behaviour, but then he was 
+disguised in love, and so did not know what he was about.'
+
+'Enough of this,' said Emily, who now smiled without an effort; and 
+Annette returned to a mention of the disagreement between Montoni, 
+and her lady.  'It is nothing new,' said she:  'we saw and heard 
+enough of this at Venice, though I never told you of it, ma'amselle.'
+
+'Well, Annette, it was very prudent of you not to mention it then:  
+be as prudent now; the subject is an unpleasant one.'
+
+'Ah dear, ma'amselle!--to see now how considerate you can be about 
+some folks, who care so little about you!  I cannot bear to see you 
+so deceived, and I must tell you.  But it is all for your own good, 
+and not to spite my lady, though, to speak truth, I have little 
+reason to love her; but--'
+
+'You are not speaking thus of my aunt, I hope, Annette?' said Emily, 
+gravely.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, but I am, though; and if you knew as much as I do, 
+you would not look so angry.  I have often, and often, heard the 
+Signor and her talking over your marriage with the Count, and she 
+always advised him never to give up to your foolish whims, as she was 
+pleased to call them, but to be resolute, and compel you to be 
+obedient, whether you would, or no.  And I am sure, my heart has 
+ached a thousand times, and I have thought, when she was so unhappy 
+herself, she might have felt a little for other people, and--'
+
+'I thank you for your pity, Annette,' said Emily, interrupting her:  
+'but my aunt was unhappy then, and that disturbed her temper perhaps, 
+or I think--I am sure--You may take away, Annette, I have done.'
+
+'Dear ma'amselle, you have eat nothing at all!  Do try, and take a 
+little bit more.  Disturbed her temper truly! why, her temper is 
+always disturbed, I think.  And at Tholouse too I have heard my lady 
+talking of you and Mons. Valancourt to Madame Merveille and Madame 
+Vaison, often and often, in a very ill-natured way, as I thought, 
+telling them what a deal of trouble she had to keep you in order, and 
+what a fatigue and distress it was to her, and that she believed you 
+would run away with Mons. Valancourt, if she was not to watch you 
+closely; and that you connived at his coming about the house at 
+night, and--'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed Emily, blushing deeply, 'it is surely 
+impossible my aunt could thus have represented me!'
+
+'Indeed, ma'am, I say nothing more than the truth, and not all of 
+that.  But I thought, myself, she might have found something better 
+to discourse about, than the faults of her own niece, even if you had 
+been in fault, ma'amselle; but I did not believe a word of what she 
+said.  But my lady does not care what she says against any body, for 
+that matter.'
+
+'However that may be, Annette,' interrupted Emily, recovering her 
+composure, 'it does not become you to speak of the faults of my aunt 
+to me.  I know you have meant well, but--say no more.--I have quite 
+dined.'
+
+Annette blushed, looked down, and then began slowly to clear the 
+table.
+
+'Is this, then, the reward of my ingenuousness?' said Emily, when she 
+was alone; 'the treatment I am to receive from a relation--an aunt--
+who ought to have been the guardian, not the slanderer of my 
+reputation,--who, as a woman, ought to have respected the delicacy of 
+female honour, and, as a relation, should have protected mine!  But, 
+to utter falsehoods on so nice a subject--to repay the openness, and, 
+I may say with honest pride, the propriety of my conduct, with 
+slanders--required a depravity of heart, such as I could scarcely 
+have believed existed, such as I weep to find in a relation.  O! what 
+a contrast does her character present to that of my beloved father; 
+while envy and low cunning form the chief traits of hers, his was 
+distinguished by benevolence and philosophic wisdom!  But now, let me 
+only remember, if possible, that she is unfortunate.'
+
+Emily threw her veil over her, and went down to walk upon the 
+ramparts, the only walk, indeed, which was open to her, though she 
+often wished, that she might be permitted to ramble among the woods 
+below, and still more, that she might sometimes explore the sublime 
+scenes of the surrounding country.  But, as Montoni would not suffer 
+her to pass the gates of the castle, she tried to be contented with 
+the romantic views she beheld from the walls.  The peasants, who had 
+been employed on the fortifications, had left their work, and the 
+ramparts were silent and solitary.  Their lonely appearance, together 
+with the gloom of a lowering sky, assisted the musings of her mind, 
+and threw over it a kind of melancholy tranquillity, such as she 
+often loved to indulge.  She turned to observe a fine effect of the 
+sun, as his rays, suddenly streaming from behind a heavy cloud, 
+lighted up the west towers of the castle, while the rest of the 
+edifice was in deep shade, except, that, through a lofty gothic arch, 
+adjoining the tower, which led to another terrace, the beams darted 
+in full splendour, and shewed the three strangers she had observed in 
+the morning.  Perceiving them, she started, and a momentary fear came 
+over her, as she looked up the long rampart, and saw no other 
+persons.  While she hesitated, they approached.  The gate at the end 
+of the terrace, whither they were advancing, she knew, was always 
+locked, and she could not depart by the opposite extremity, without 
+meeting them; but, before she passed them, she hastily drew a thin 
+veil over her face, which did, indeed, but ill conceal her beauty.  
+They looked earnestly at her, and spoke to each other in bad Italian, 
+of which she caught only a few words; but the fierceness of their 
+countenances, now that she was near enough to discriminate them, 
+struck her yet more than the wild singularity of their air and dress 
+had formerly done.  It was the countenance and figure of him, who 
+walked between the other two, that chiefly seized her attention, 
+which expressed a sullen haughtiness and a kind of dark watchful 
+villany, that gave a thrill of horror to her heart.  All this was so 
+legibly written on his features, as to be seen by a single glance, 
+for she passed the group swiftly, and her timid eyes scarcely rested 
+on them a moment.  Having reached the terrace, she stopped, and 
+perceived the strangers standing in the shadow of one of the turrets, 
+gazing after her, and seemingly, by their action, in earnest 
+conversation.  She immediately left the rampart, and retired to her 
+apartment.
+
+In the evening, Montoni sat late, carousing with his guests in the 
+cedar chamber.  His recent triumph over Count Morano, or, perhaps, 
+some other circumstance, contributed to elevate his spirits to an 
+unusual height.  He filled the goblet often, and gave a loose to 
+merriment and talk.  The gaiety of Cavigni, on the contrary, was 
+somewhat clouded by anxiety.  He kept a watchful eye upon Verezzi, 
+whom, with the utmost difficulty, he had hitherto restrained from 
+exasperating Montoni further against Morano, by a mention of his late 
+taunting words.
+
+One of the company exultingly recurred to the event of the preceding 
+evening.  Verezzi's eyes sparkled.  The mention of Morano led to that 
+of Emily, of whom they were all profuse in the praise, except 
+Montoni, who sat silent, and then interrupted the subject.
+
+When the servants had withdrawn, Montoni and his friends entered into 
+close conversation, which was sometimes checked by the irascible 
+temper of Verezzi, but in which Montoni displayed his conscious 
+superiority, by that decisive look and manner, which always 
+accompanied the vigour of his thought, and to which most of his 
+companions submitted, as to a power, that they had no right to 
+question, though of each other's self-importance they were jealously 
+scrupulous.  Amidst this conversation, one of them imprudently 
+introduced again the name of Morano; and Verezzi, now more heated by 
+wine, disregarded the expressive looks of Cavigni, and gave some dark 
+hints of what had passed on the preceding night.  These, however, 
+Montoni did not appear to understand, for he continued silent in his 
+chair, without discovering any emotion, while, the choler of Verezzi 
+increasing with the apparent insensibility of Montoni, he at length 
+told the suggestion of Morano, that this castle did not lawfully 
+belong to him, and that he would not willingly leave another murder 
+on his conscience.
+
+'Am I to be insulted at my own table, and by my own friends?' said 
+Montoni, with a countenance pale in anger.  'Why are the words of 
+that madman repeated to me?'  Verezzi, who had expected to hear 
+Montoni's indignation poured forth against Morano, and answered by 
+thanks to himself, looked with astonishment at Cavigni, who enjoyed 
+his confusion.  'Can you be weak enough to credit the assertions of a 
+madman?' rejoined Montoni, 'or, what is the same thing, a man 
+possessed by the spirit of vengeance?  But he has succeeded too well; 
+you believe what he said.'
+
+'Signor,' said Verezzi, 'we believe only what we know.'--'How!' 
+interrupted Montoni, sternly:  'produce your proof.'
+
+'We believe only what we know,' repeated Verezzi, 'and we know 
+nothing of what Morano asserts.'  Montoni seemed to recover himself.  
+'I am hasty, my friends,' said he, 'with respect to my honour; no man 
+shall question it with impunity--you did not mean to question it.  
+These foolish words are not worth your remembrance, or my resentment.  
+Verezzi, here is to your first exploit.'
+
+'Success to your first exploit,' re-echoed the whole company.
+
+'Noble Signor,' replied Verezzi, glad to find he had escaped 
+Montoni's resentment, 'with my good will, you shall build your 
+ramparts of gold.'  
+
+'Pass the goblet,' cried Montoni.  'We will drink to Signora St. 
+Aubert,' said Cavigni.  'By your leave we will first drink to the 
+lady of the castle.' said Bertolini.--Montoni was silent.  'To the 
+lady of the castle,' said his guests.  He bowed his head.
+
+'It much surprises me, Signor,' said Bertolini, 'that you have so 
+long neglected this castle; it is a noble edifice.'
+
+'It suits our purpose,' replied Montoni, 'and IS a noble edifice.  
+You know not, it seems, by what mischance it came to me.'
+
+'It was a lucky mischance, be it what it may, Signor,' replied 
+Bertolini, smiling.  'I would, that one so lucky had befallen me.'
+
+Montoni looked gravely at him.  'If you will attend to what I say,' 
+he resumed, 'you shall hear the story.'
+
+The countenances of Bertolini and Verezzi expressed something more 
+than curiosity; Cavigni, who seemed to feel none, had probably heard 
+the relation before.
+
+'It is now near twenty years,' said Montoni, 'since this castle came 
+into my possession.  I inherit it by the female line.  The lady, my 
+predecessor, was only distantly related to me; I am the last of her 
+family.  She was beautiful and rich; I wooed her; but her heart was 
+fixed upon another, and she rejected me.  It is probable, however, 
+that she was herself rejected of the person, whoever he might be, on 
+whom she bestowed her favour, for a deep and settled melancholy took 
+possession of her; and I have reason to believe she put a period to 
+her own life.  I was not at the castle at the time; but, as there are 
+some singular and mysterious circumstances attending that event, I 
+shall repeat them.'
+
+'Repeat them!' said a voice.
+
+Montoni was silent; the guests looked at each other, to know who 
+spoke; but they perceived, that each was making the same enquiry.  
+Montoni, at length, recovered himself.  'We are overheard,' said he:  
+'we will finish this subject another time.  Pass the goblet.'
+
+The cavaliers looked round the wide chamber.
+
+'Here is no person, but ourselves,' said Verezzi:  'pray, Signor, 
+proceed.'
+
+'Did you hear any thing?' said Montoni.
+
+'We did,' said Bertolini.
+
+'It could be only fancy,' said Verezzi, looking round again.  'We see 
+no person besides ourselves; and the sound I thought I heard seemed 
+within the room.  Pray, Signor, go on.'
+
+Montoni paused a moment, and then proceeded in a lowered voice, while 
+the cavaliers drew nearer to attend.
+
+'Ye are to know, Signors, that the Lady Laurentini had for some 
+months shewn symptoms of a dejected mind, nay, of a disturbed 
+imagination.  Her mood was very unequal; sometimes she was sunk in 
+calm melancholy, and, at others, as I have been told, she betrayed 
+all the symptoms of frantic madness.  It was one night in the month 
+of October, after she had recovered from one of those fits of excess, 
+and had sunk again into her usual melancholy, that she retired alone 
+to her chamber, and forbade all interruption.  It was the chamber at 
+the end of the corridor, Signors, where we had the affray, last 
+night.  From that hour, she was seen no more.'
+
+'How! seen no more!' said Bertolini, 'was not her body found in the 
+chamber?'
+
+'Were her remains never found?' cried the rest of the company all 
+together.
+
+'Never!' replied Montoni.
+
+'What reasons were there to suppose she destroyed herself, then?' 
+said Bertolini.--'Aye, what reasons?' said Verezzi.--'How happened 
+it, that her remains were never found?  Although she killed herself, 
+she could not bury herself.'  Montoni looked indignantly at Verezzi, 
+who began to apologize.  'Your pardon, Signor,' said he:  'I did not 
+consider, that the lady was your relative, when I spoke of her so 
+lightly.'
+
+Montoni accepted the apology.
+
+'But the Signor will oblige us with the reasons, which urged him to 
+believe, that the lady committed suicide.'
+
+'Those I will explain hereafter,' said Montoni:  'at present let me 
+relate a most extraordinary circumstance.  This conversation goes no 
+further, Signors.  Listen, then, to what I am going to say.'
+
+'Listen!' said a voice.
+
+They were all again silent, and the countenance of Montoni changed.  
+'This is no illusion of the fancy,' said Cavigni, at length breaking 
+the profound silence.--'No,' said Bertolini; 'I heard it myself, now.  
+Yet here is no person in the room but ourselves!'
+
+'This is very extraordinary,' said Montoni, suddenly rising.  'This 
+is not to be borne; here is some deception, some trick.  I will know 
+what it means.'
+
+All the company rose from their chairs in confusion.
+
+'It is very odd!' said Bertolini.  'Here is really no stranger in the 
+room.  If it is a trick, Signor, you will do well to punish the 
+author of it severely.'
+
+'A trick! what else can it be?' said Cavigni, affecting a laugh.
+
+The servants were now summoned, and the chamber was searched, but no 
+person was found.  The surprise and consternation of the company 
+increased.  Montoni was discomposed.  'We will leave this room,' said 
+he, 'and the subject of our conversation also; it is too solemn.'  
+His guests were equally ready to quit the apartment; but the subject 
+had roused their curiosity, and they entreated Montoni to withdraw to 
+another chamber, and finish it; no entreaties could, however, prevail 
+with him.  Notwithstanding his efforts to appear at ease, he was 
+visibly and greatly disordered.
+
+'Why, Signor, you are not superstitious,' cried Verezzi, jeeringly; 
+'you, who have so often laughed at the credulity of others!'
+
+'I am not superstitious,' replied Montoni, regarding him with stern 
+displeasure, 'though I know how to despise the common-place 
+sentences, which are frequently uttered against superstition.  I will 
+enquire further into this affair.'  He then left the room; and his 
+guests, separating for the night, retired to their respective 
+apartments.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ He wears the rose of youth upon his cheek.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+We now return to Valancourt, who, it may be remembered, remained at 
+Tholouse, some time after the departure of Emily, restless and 
+miserable.  Each morrow that approached, he designed should carry him 
+from thence; yet to-morrow and to-morrow came, and still saw him 
+lingering in the scene of his former happiness.  He could not 
+immediately tear himself from the spot, where he had been accustomed 
+to converse with Emily, or from the objects they had viewed together, 
+which appeared to him memorials of her affection, as well as a kind 
+of surety for its faithfulness; and, next to the pain of bidding her 
+adieu, was that of leaving the scenes which so powerfully awakened 
+her image.  Sometimes he had bribed a servant, who had been left in 
+the care of Madame Montoni's chateau, to permit him to visit the 
+gardens, and there he would wander, for hours together, rapt in a 
+melancholy, not unpleasing.  The terrace, and the pavilion at the end 
+of it, where he had taken leave of Emily, on the eve of her departure 
+from Tholouse, were his most favourite haunts.  There, as he walked, 
+or leaned from the window of the building, he would endeavour to 
+recollect all she had said, on that night; to catch the tones of her 
+voice, as they faintly vibrated on his memory, and to remember the 
+exact expression of her countenance, which sometimes came suddenly to 
+his fancy, like a vision; that beautiful countenance, which awakened, 
+as by instantaneous magic, all the tenderness of his heart, and 
+seemed to tell with irresistible eloquence--that he had lost her 
+forever!  At these moments, his hurried steps would have discovered 
+to a spectator the despair of his heart.  The character of Montoni, 
+such as he had received from hints, and such as his fears represented 
+it, would rise to his view, together with all the dangers it seemed 
+to threaten to Emily and to his love.  He blamed himself, that he had 
+not urged these more forcibly to her, while it might have been in his 
+power to detain her, and that he had suffered an absurd and criminal 
+delicacy, as he termed it, to conquer so soon the reasonable 
+arguments he had opposed to this journey.  Any evil, that might have 
+attended their marriage, seemed so inferior to those, which now 
+threatened their love, or even to the sufferings, that absence 
+occasioned, that he wondered how he could have ceased to urge his 
+suit, till he had convinced her of its propriety; and he would 
+certainly now have followed her to Italy, if he could have been 
+spared from his regiment for so long a journey.  His regiment, 
+indeed, soon reminded him, that he had other duties to attend, than 
+those of love.
+
+A short time after his arrival at his brother's house, he was 
+summoned to join his brother officers, and he accompanied a battalion 
+to Paris; where a scene of novelty and gaiety opened upon him, such 
+as, till then, he had only a faint idea of.  But gaiety disgusted, 
+and company fatigued, his sick mind; and he became an object of 
+unceasing raillery to his companions, from whom, whenever he could 
+steal an opportunity, he escaped, to think of Emily.  The scenes 
+around him, however, and the company with whom he was obliged to 
+mingle, engaged his attention, though they failed to amuse his fancy, 
+and thus gradually weakened the habit of yielding to lamentation, 
+till it appeared less a duty to his love to indulge it.  Among his 
+brother-officers were many, who added to the ordinary character of a 
+French soldier's gaiety some of those fascinating qualities, which 
+too frequently throw a veil over folly, and sometimes even soften the 
+features of vice into smiles.  To these men the reserved and 
+thoughtful manners of Valancourt were a kind of tacit censure on 
+their own, for which they rallied him when present, and plotted 
+against him when absent; they gloried in the thought of reducing him 
+to their own level, and, considering it to be a spirited frolic, 
+determined to accomplish it.
+
+Valancourt was a stranger to the gradual progress of scheme and 
+intrigue, against which he could not be on his guard.  He had not 
+been accustomed to receive ridicule, and he could ill endure its 
+sting; he resented it, and this only drew upon him a louder laugh.  
+To escape from such scenes, he fled into solitude, and there the 
+image of Emily met him, and revived the pangs of love and despair.  
+He then sought to renew those tasteful studies, which had been the 
+delight of his early years; but his mind had lost the tranquillity, 
+which is necessary for their enjoyment.  To forget himself and the 
+grief and anxiety, which the idea of her recalled, he would quit his 
+solitude, and again mingle in the crowd--glad of a temporary relief, 
+and rejoicing to snatch amusement for the moment.
+
+Thus passed weeks after weeks, time gradually softening his sorrow, 
+and habit strengthening his desire of amusement, till the scenes 
+around him seemed to awaken into a new character, and Valancourt, to 
+have fallen among them from the clouds.
+
+His figure and address made him a welcome visitor, wherever he had 
+been introduced, and he soon frequented the most gay and fashionable 
+circles of Paris.  Among these, was the assembly of the Countess 
+Lacleur, a woman of eminent beauty and captivating manners.  She had 
+passed the spring of youth, but her wit prolonged the triumph of its 
+reign, and they mutually assisted the fame of each other; for those, 
+who were charmed by her loveliness, spoke with enthusiasm of her 
+talents; and others, who admired her playful imagination, declared, 
+that her personal graces were unrivalled.  But her imagination was 
+merely playful, and her wit, if such it could be called, was 
+brilliant, rather than just; it dazzled, and its fallacy escaped the 
+detection of the moment; for the accents, in which she pronounced it, 
+and the smile, that accompanied them, were a spell upon the judgment 
+of the auditors.  Her petits soupers were the most tasteful of any in 
+Paris, and were frequented by many of the second class of literati.  
+She was fond of music, was herself a scientific performer, and had 
+frequently concerts at her house.  Valancourt, who passionately loved 
+music, and who sometimes assisted at these concerts, admired her 
+execution, but remembered with a sigh the eloquent simplicity of 
+Emily's songs and the natural expression of her manner, which waited 
+not to be approved by the judgment, but found their way at once to 
+the heart.
+
+Madame La Comtesse had often deep play at her house, which she 
+affected to restrain, but secretly encouraged; and it was well known 
+among her friends, that the splendour of her establishment was 
+chiefly supplied from the profits of her tables.  But her petits 
+soupers were the most charming imaginable!  Here were all the 
+delicacies of the four quarters of the world, all the wit and the 
+lighter efforts of genius, all the graces of conversation--the smiles 
+of beauty, and the charm of music; and Valancourt passed his 
+pleasantest, as well as most dangerous hours in these parties.
+
+His brother, who remained with his family in Gascony, had contented 
+himself with giving him letters of introduction to such of his 
+relations, residing at Paris, as the latter was not already known to.  
+All these were persons of some distinction; and, as neither the 
+person, mind, or manners of Valancourt the younger threatened to 
+disgrace their alliance, they received him with as much kindness as 
+their nature, hardened by uninterrupted prosperity, would admit of; 
+but their attentions did not extend to acts of real friendship; for 
+they were too much occupied by their own pursuits, to feel any 
+interest in his; and thus he was set down in the midst of Paris, in 
+the pride of youth, with an open, unsuspicious temper and ardent 
+affections, without one friend, to warn him of the dangers, to which 
+he was exposed.  Emily, who, had she been present, would have saved 
+him from these evils by awakening his heart, and engaging him in 
+worthy pursuits, now only increased his danger;--it was to lose the 
+grief, which the remembrance of her occasioned, that he first sought 
+amusement; and for this end he pursued it, till habit made it an 
+object of abstract interest.
+
+There was also a Marchioness Champfort, a young widow, at whose 
+assemblies he passed much of his time.  She was handsome, still more 
+artful, gay and fond of intrigue.  The society, which she drew round 
+her, was less elegant and more vicious, than that of the Countess 
+Lacleur:  but, as she had address enough to throw a veil, though but 
+a slight one, over the worst part of her character, she was still 
+visited by many persons of what is called distinction.  Valancourt 
+was introduced to her parties by two of his brother officers, whose 
+late ridicule he had now forgiven so far, that he could sometimes 
+join in the laugh, which a mention of his former manners would renew.
+
+The gaiety of the most splendid court in Europe, the magnificence of 
+the palaces, entertainments, and equipages, that surrounded him--all 
+conspired to dazzle his imagination, and re-animate his spirits, and 
+the example and maxims of his military associates to delude his mind.  
+Emily's image, indeed, still lived there; but it was no longer the 
+friend, the monitor, that saved him from himself, and to which he 
+retired to weep the sweet, yet melancholy, tears of tenderness.  When 
+he had recourse to it, it assumed a countenance of mild reproach, 
+that wrung his soul, and called forth tears of unmixed misery; his 
+only escape from which was to forget the object of it, and he 
+endeavoured, therefore, to think of Emily as seldom as he could.
+
+Thus dangerously circumstanced was Valancourt, at the time, when 
+Emily was suffering at Venice, from the persecuting addresses of 
+Count Morano, and the unjust authority of Montoni; at which period we 
+leave him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+ The image of a wicked, heinous fault
+ Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his
+ Does shew the mood of a much-troubled breast.
+     KING JOHN
+
+Leaving the gay scenes of Paris, we return to those of the gloomy 
+Apennine, where Emily's thoughts were still faithful to Valancourt.  
+Looking to him as to her only hope, she recollected, with jealous 
+exactness, every assurance and every proof she had witnessed of his 
+affection; read again and again the letters she had received from 
+him; weighed, with intense anxiety, the force of every word, that 
+spoke of his attachment; and dried her tears, as she trusted in his 
+truth.
+
+Montoni, meanwhile, had made strict enquiry concerning the strange 
+circumstance of his alarm, without obtaining information; and was, at 
+length, obliged to account for it by the reasonable supposition, that 
+it was a mischievous trick played off by one of his domestics.  His 
+disagreements with Madame Montoni, on the subject of her settlements, 
+were now more frequent than ever; he even confined her entirely to 
+her own apartment, and did not scruple to threaten her with much 
+greater severity, should she persevere in a refusal.
+
+Reason, had she consulted it, would now have perplexed her in the 
+choice of a conduct to be adopted.  It would have pointed out the 
+danger of irritating by further opposition a man, such as Montoni had 
+proved himself to be, and to whose power she had so entirely 
+committed herself; and it would also have told her, of what extreme 
+importance to her future comfort it was, to reserve for herself those 
+possessions, which would enable her to live independently of Montoni, 
+should she ever escape from his immediate controul.  But she was 
+directed by a more decisive guide than reason--the spirit of revenge, 
+which urged her to oppose violence to violence, and obstinacy to 
+obstinacy.
+
+Wholly confined to the solitude of her apartment, she was now reduced 
+to solicit the society she had lately rejected; for Emily was the 
+only person, except Annette, with whom she was permitted to converse.
+
+Generously anxious for her peace, Emily, therefore, tried to 
+persuade, when she could not convince, and sought by every gentle 
+means to induce her to forbear that asperity of reply, which so 
+greatly irritated Montoni.  The pride of her aunt did sometimes 
+soften to the soothing voice of Emily, and there even were moments, 
+when she regarded her affectionate attentions with goodwill.
+
+The scenes of terrible contention, to which Emily was frequently 
+compelled to be witness, exhausted her spirits more than any 
+circumstances, that had occurred since her departure from Tholouse.  
+The gentleness and goodness of her parents, together with the scenes 
+of her early happiness, often stole on her mind, like the visions of 
+a higher world; while the characters and circumstances, now passing 
+beneath her eye, excited both terror and surprise.  She could 
+scarcely have imagined, that passions so fierce and so various, as 
+those which Montoni exhibited, could have been concentrated in one 
+individual; yet what more surprised her, was, that, on great 
+occasions, he could bend these passions, wild as they were, to the 
+cause of his interest, and generally could disguise in his 
+countenance their operation on his mind; but she had seen him too 
+often, when he had thought it unnecessary to conceal his nature, to 
+be deceived on such occasions.
+
+Her present life appeared like the dream of a distempered 
+imagination, or like one of those frightful fictions, in which the 
+wild genius of the poets sometimes delighted.  Reflection brought 
+only regret, and anticipation terror.  How often did she wish to 
+'steal the lark's wing, and mount the swiftest gale,' that Languedoc 
+and repose might once more be hers!
+
+Of Count Morano's health she made frequent enquiry; but Annette heard 
+only vague reports of his danger, and that his surgeon had said he 
+would never leave the cottage alive; while Emily could not but be 
+shocked to think, that she, however innocently, might be the means of 
+his death; and Annette, who did not fail to observe her emotion, 
+interpreted it in her own way.
+
+But a circumstance soon occurred, which entirely withdrew Annette's 
+attention from this subject, and awakened the surprise and curiosity 
+so natural to her.  Coming one day to Emily's apartment, with a 
+countenance full of importance, 'What can all this mean, ma'amselle?' 
+said she.  'Would I was once safe in Languedoc again, they should 
+never catch me going on my travels any more!  I must think it a fine 
+thing, truly, to come abroad, and see foreign parts!  I little 
+thought I was coming to be catched up in a old castle, among such 
+dreary mountains, with the chance of being murdered, or, what is as 
+good, having my throat cut!'
+
+'What can all this mean, indeed, Annette?' said Emily, in 
+astonishment.
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle, you may look surprised; but you won't believe it, 
+perhaps, till they have murdered you, too.  You would not believe 
+about the ghost I told you of, though I shewed you the very place, 
+where it used to appear!--You will believe nothing, ma'amselle.'
+
+'Not till you speak more reasonably, Annette; for Heaven's sake, 
+explain your meaning.  You spoke of murder!'
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle, they are coming to murder us all, perhaps; but what 
+signifies explaining?--you will not believe.'
+
+Emily again desired her to relate what she had seen, or heard.
+
+'O, I have seen enough, ma'am, and heard too much, as Ludovico can 
+prove.  Poor soul! they will murder him, too!  I little thought, when 
+he sung those sweet verses under my lattice, at Venice!'--Emily 
+looked impatient and displeased.  'Well, ma'amselle, as I was saying, 
+these preparations about the castle, and these strange-looking 
+people, that are calling here every day, and the Signor's cruel usage 
+of my lady, and his odd goings-on--all these, as I told Ludovico, can 
+bode no good.  And he bid me hold my tongue.  So, says I, the 
+Signor's strangely altered, Ludovico, in this gloomy castle, to what 
+he was in France; there, all so gay!  Nobody so gallant to my lady, 
+then; and he could smile, too, upon a poor servant, sometimes, and 
+jeer her, too, good-naturedly enough.  I remember once, when he said 
+to me, as I was going out of my lady's dressing-room--Annette, says 
+he--'
+
+'Never mind what the Signor said,' interrupted Emily; 'but tell me, 
+at once, the circumstance, which has thus alarmed you.'
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle,' rejoined Annette, 'that is just what Ludovico 
+said:  says he, Never mind what the Signor says to you.  So I told 
+him what I thought about the Signor.  He is so strangely altered, 
+said I:  for now he is so haughty, and so commanding, and so sharp 
+with my lady; and, if he meets one, he'll scarcely look at one, 
+unless it be to frown.  So much the better, says Ludovico, so much 
+the better.  And to tell you the truth, ma'amselle, I thought this 
+was a very ill-natured speech of Ludovico:  but I went on.  And then, 
+says I, he is always knitting his brows; and if one speaks to him, he 
+does not hear; and then he sits up counselling so, of a night, with 
+the other Signors--there they are, till long past midnight, 
+discoursing together!  Aye, but says Ludovico, you don't know what 
+they are counselling about.  No, said I, but I can guess--it is about 
+my young lady.  Upon that, Ludovico burst out a-laughing, quite loud; 
+so he put me in a huff, for I did not like that either I or you, 
+ma'amselle, should be laughed at; and I turned away quick, but he 
+stopped me.  "Don't be affronted, Annette," said he, "but I cannot 
+help laughing;" and with that he laughed again.  "What!" says he, "do 
+you think the Signors sit up, night after night, only to counsel 
+about thy young lady!  No, no, there is something more in the wind 
+than that.  And these repairs about the castle, and these 
+preparations about the ramparts--they are not making about young 
+ladies."  Why, surely, said I, the Signor, my master, is not going to 
+make war?  "Make war!" said Ludovico, "what, upon the mountains and 
+the woods? for here is no living soul to make war upon that I see."
+
+'What are these preparations for, then? said I; why surely nobody is 
+coming to take away my master's castle!  "Then there are so many ill-
+looking fellows coming to the castle every day," says Ludovico, 
+without answering my question, "and the Signor sees them all, and 
+talks with them all, and they all stay in the neighbourhood!  By holy 
+St. Marco! some of them are the most cut-throat-looking dogs I ever 
+set my eyes upon."
+
+'I asked Ludovico again, if he thought they were coming to take away 
+my master's castle; and he said, No, he did not think they were, but 
+he did not know for certain.  "Then yesterday," said he, but you must 
+not tell this, ma'amselle, "yesterday, a party of these men came, and 
+left all their horses in the castle stables, where, it seems, they 
+are to stay, for the Signor ordered them all to be entertained with 
+the best provender in the manger; but the men are, most of them, in 
+the neighbouring cottages."
+
+'So, ma'amselle, I came to tell you all this, for I never heard any 
+thing so strange in my life.  But what can these ill-looking men be 
+come about, if it is not to murder us?  And the Signor knows this, or 
+why should he be so civil to them?  And why should he fortify the 
+castle, and counsel so much with the other Signors, and be so 
+thoughtful?'
+
+'Is this all you have to tell, Annette?' said Emily.  'Have you heard 
+nothing else, that alarms you?'
+
+'Nothing else, ma'amselle!' said Annette; 'why, is not this enough?'  
+'Quite enough for my patience, Annette, but not quite enough to 
+convince me we are all to be murdered, though I acknowledge here is 
+sufficient food for curiosity.'  She forbore to speak her 
+apprehensions, because she would not encourage Annette's wild 
+terrors; but the present circumstances of the castle both surprised, 
+and alarmed her.  Annette, having told her tale, left the chamber, on 
+the wing for new wonders.
+
+In the evening, Emily had passed some melancholy hours with Madame 
+Montoni, and was retiring to rest, when she was alarmed by a strange 
+and loud knocking at her chamber door, and then a heavy weight fell 
+against it, that almost burst it open.  She called to know who was 
+there, and receiving no answer, repeated the call; but a chilling 
+silence followed.  It occurred to her--for, at this moment, she could 
+not reason on the probability of circumstances--that some one of the 
+strangers, lately arrived at the castle, had discovered her 
+apartment, and was come with such intent, as their looks rendered too 
+possible--to rob, perhaps to murder, her.  The moment she admitted 
+this possibility, terror supplied the place of conviction, and a kind 
+of instinctive remembrance of her remote situation from the family 
+heightened it to a degree, that almost overcame her senses.  She 
+looked at the door, which led to the staircase, expecting to see it 
+open, and listening, in fearful silence, for a return of the noise, 
+till she began to think it had proceeded from this door, and a wish 
+of escaping through the opposite one rushed upon her mind.  She went 
+to the gallery door, and then, fearing to open it, lest some person 
+might be silently lurking for her without, she stopped, but with her 
+eyes fixed in expectation upon the opposite door of the stair-case.  
+As thus she stood, she heard a faint breathing near her, and became 
+convinced, that some person was on the other side of the door, which 
+was already locked.  She sought for other fastening, but there was 
+none.
+
+While she yet listened, the breathing was distinctly heard, and her 
+terror was not soothed, when, looking round her wide and lonely 
+chamber, she again considered her remote situation.  As she stood 
+hesitating whether to call for assistance, the continuance of the 
+stillness surprised her; and her spirits would have revived, had she 
+not continued to hear the faint breathing, that convinced her, the 
+person, whoever it was, had not quitted the door.
+
+At length, worn out with anxiety, she determined to call loudly for 
+assistance from her casement, and was advancing to it, when, whether 
+the terror of her mind gave her ideal sounds, or that real ones did 
+come, she thought footsteps were ascending the private stair-case; 
+and, expecting to see its door unclose, she forgot all other cause of 
+alarm, and retreated towards the corridor.  Here she endeavoured to 
+make her escape, but, on opening the door, was very near falling over 
+a person, who lay on the floor without.  She screamed, and would have 
+passed, but her trembling frame refused to support her; and the 
+moment, in which she leaned against the wall of the gallery, allowed 
+her leisure to observe the figure before her, and to recognise the 
+features of Annette.  Fear instantly yielded to surprise.  She spoke 
+in vain to the poor girl, who remained senseless on the floor, and 
+then, losing all consciousness of her own weakness, hurried to her 
+assistance.
+
+When Annette recovered, she was helped by Emily into the chamber, but 
+was still unable to speak, and looked round her, as if her eyes 
+followed some person in the room.  Emily tried to sooth her disturbed 
+spirits, and forbore, at present, to ask her any questions; but the 
+faculty of speech was never long with-held from Annette, and she 
+explained, in broken sentences, and in her tedious way, the occasion 
+of her disorder.  She affirmed, and with a solemnity of conviction, 
+that almost staggered the incredulity of Emily, that she had seen an 
+apparition, as she was passing to her bedroom, through the corridor.
+
+'I had heard strange stories of that chamber before,' said Annette:  
+'but as it was so near yours, ma'amselle, I would not tell them to 
+you, because they would frighten you.  The servants had told me, 
+often and often, that it was haunted, and that was the reason why it 
+was shut up:  nay, for that matter, why the whole string of these 
+rooms, here, are shut up.  I quaked whenever I went by, and I must 
+say, I did sometimes think I heard odd noises within it.  But, as I 
+said, as I was passing along the corridor, and not thinking a word 
+about the matter, or even of the strange voice that the Signors heard 
+the other night, all of a sudden comes a great light, and, looking 
+behind me, there was a tall figure, (I saw it as plainly, ma'amselle, 
+as I see you at this moment), a tall figure gliding along (Oh! I 
+cannot describe how!) into the room, that is always shut up, and 
+nobody has the key of it but the Signor, and the door shut directly.'
+
+'Then it doubtless was the Signor,' said Emily.
+
+'O no, ma'amselle, it could not be him, for I left him busy a-
+quarrelling in my lady's dressing-room!'
+
+'You bring me strange tales, Annette,' said Emily:  'it was but this 
+morning, that you would have terrified me with the apprehension of 
+murder; and now you would persuade me, you have seen a ghost!  These 
+wonderful stories come too quickly.'
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, I will say no more, only, if I had not been 
+frightened, I should not have fainted dead away, so.  I ran as fast 
+as I could, to get to your door; but, what was worst of all, I could 
+not call out; then I thought something must be strangely the matter 
+with me, and directly I dropt down.'
+
+'Was it the chamber where the black veil hangs?' said Emily.  'O! no, 
+ma'amselle, it was one nearer to this.  What shall I do, to get to my 
+room?  I would not go out into the corridor again, for the whole 
+world!'  Emily, whose spirits had been severely shocked, and who, 
+therefore, did not like the thought of passing the night alone, told 
+her she might sleep where she was.  'O, no, ma'amselle,' replied 
+Annette, 'I would not sleep in the room, now, for a thousand 
+sequins!'
+
+Wearied and disappointed, Emily first ridiculed, though she shared, 
+her fears, and then tried to sooth them; but neither attempt 
+succeeded, and the girl persisted in believing and affirming, that 
+what she had seen was nothing human.  It was not till some time after 
+Emily had recovered her composure, that she recollected the steps she 
+had heard on the stair-case--a remembrance, however, which made her 
+insist that Annette should pass the night with her, and, with much 
+difficulty, she, at length, prevailed, assisted by that part of the 
+girl's fear, which concerned the corridor.
+
+Early on the following morning, as Emily crossed the hall to the 
+ramparts, she heard a noisy bustle in the court-yard, and the clatter 
+of horses' hoofs.  Such unusual sounds excited her curiosity; and, 
+instead of going to the ramparts, she went to an upper casement, from 
+whence she saw, in the court below, a large party of horsemen, 
+dressed in a singular, but uniform, habit, and completely, though 
+variously, armed.  They wore a kind of short jacket, composed of 
+black and scarlet, and several of them had a cloak, of plain black, 
+which, covering the person entirely, hung down to the stirrups.  As 
+one of these cloaks glanced aside, she saw, beneath, daggers, 
+apparently of different sizes, tucked into the horseman's belt.  She 
+further observed, that these were carried, in the same manner, by 
+many of the horsemen without cloaks, most of whom bore also pikes, or 
+javelins.  On their heads, were the small Italian caps, some of which 
+were distinguished by black feathers.  Whether these caps gave a 
+fierce air to the countenance, or that the countenances they 
+surmounted had naturally such an appearance, Emily thought she had 
+never, till then, seen an assemblage of faces so savage and terrific.  
+While she gazed, she almost fancied herself surrounded by banditti; 
+and a vague thought glanced athwart her fancy--that Montoni was the 
+captain of the group before her, and that this castle was to be the 
+place of rendezvous.  The strange and horrible supposition was but 
+momentary, though her reason could supply none more probable, and 
+though she discovered, among the band, the strangers she had formerly 
+noticed with so much alarm, who were now distinguished by the black 
+plume.
+
+While she continued gazing, Cavigni, Verezzi, and Bertolini came 
+forth from the hall, habited like the rest, except that they wore 
+hats, with a mixed plume of black and scarlet, and that their arms 
+differed from those of the rest of the party.  As they mounted their 
+horses, Emily was struck with the exulting joy, expressed on the 
+visage of Verezzi, while Cavigni was gay, yet with a shade of thought 
+on his countenance; and, as he managed his horse with dexterity, his 
+graceful and commanding figure, which exhibited the majesty of a 
+hero, had never appeared to more advantage.  Emily, as she observed 
+him, thought he somewhat resembled Valancourt, in the spirit and 
+dignity of his person; but she looked in vain for the noble, 
+benevolent countenance--the soul's intelligence, which overspread the 
+features of the latter.
+
+As she was hoping, she scarcely knew why, that Montoni would 
+accompany the party, he appeared at the hall door, but un-accoutred.  
+Having carefully observed the horsemen, conversed awhile with the 
+cavaliers, and bidden them farewel, the band wheeled round the court, 
+and, led by Verezzi, issued forth under the portcullis; Montoni 
+following to the portal, and gazing after them for some time.  Emily 
+then retired from the casement, and, now certain of being unmolested, 
+went to walk on the ramparts, from whence she soon after saw the 
+party winding among the mountains to the west, appearing and 
+disappearing between the woods, till distance confused their figures, 
+consolidated their numbers, and only a dingy mass appeared moving 
+along the heights.
+
+Emily observed, that no workmen were on the ramparts, and that the 
+repairs of the fortifications seemed to be completed.  While she 
+sauntered thoughtfully on, she heard distant footsteps, and, raising 
+her eyes, saw several men lurking under the castle walls, who were 
+evidently not workmen, but looked as if they would have accorded well 
+with the party, which was gone.  Wondering where Annette had hid 
+herself so long, who might have explained some of the late 
+circumstances, and then considering that Madame Montoni was probably 
+risen, she went to her dressing-room, where she mentioned what had 
+occurred; but Madame Montoni either would not, or could not, give any 
+explanation of the event.  The Signor's reserve to his wife, on this 
+subject, was probably nothing more than usual; yet, to Emily, it gave 
+an air of mystery to the whole affair, that seemed to hint, there was 
+danger, if not villany, in his schemes.
+
+Annette presently came, and, as usual, was full of alarm; to her 
+lady's eager enquiries of what she had heard among the servants, she 
+replied:
+
+'Ah, madam! nobody knows what it is all about, but old Carlo; he 
+knows well enough, I dare say, but he is as close as his master.  
+Some say the Signor is going out to frighten the enemy, as they call 
+it:  but where is the enemy?  Then others say, he is going to take 
+away some body's castle:  but I am sure he has room enough in his 
+own, without taking other people's; and I am sure I should like it a 
+great deal better, if there were more people to fill it.'
+
+'Ah! you will soon have your wish, I fear,' replied Madame Montoni.
+
+'No, madam, but such ill-looking fellows are not worth having.  I 
+mean such gallant, smart, merry fellows as Ludovico, who is always 
+telling droll stories, to make one laugh.  It was but yesterday, he 
+told me such a HUMOURSOME tale!  I can't help laughing at it now.--
+Says he--'
+
+'Well, we can dispense with the story,' said her lady.  'Ah!' 
+continued Annette, 'he sees a great way further than other people!  
+Now he sees into all the Signor's meaning, without knowing a word 
+about the matter!'
+
+'How is that?' said Madame Montoni.
+
+'Why he says--but he made me promise not to tell, and I would not 
+disoblige him for the world.'
+
+'What is it he made you promise not to tell?' said her lady, sternly.  
+'I insist upon knowing immediately--what is it he made you promise?'
+
+'O madam,' cried Annette, 'I would not tell for the universe!'  'I 
+insist upon your telling this instant,' said Madame Montoni.  'O dear 
+madam!  I would not tell for a hundred sequins!  You would not have 
+me forswear myself madam!' exclaimed Annette.
+
+'I will not wait another moment,' said Madame Montoni.  Annette was 
+silent.
+
+'The Signor shall be informed of this directly,' rejoined her 
+mistress:  'he will make you discover all.'
+
+'It is Ludovico, who has discovered,' said Annette:  'but for mercy's 
+sake, madam, don't tell the Signor, and you shall know all directly.'  
+Madame Montoni said, that she would not.
+
+'Well then, madam, Ludovico says, that the Signor, my master, is--is-
+-that is, he only thinks so, and any body, you know, madam, is free 
+to think--that the Signor, my master, is--is--'
+
+'Is what?' said her lady, impatiently.
+
+'That the Signor, my master, is going to be--a great robber--that is-
+-he is going to rob on his own account;--to be, (but I am sure I 
+don't understand what he means) to be a--captain of--robbers.'
+
+'Art thou in thy senses, Annette?' said Madame Montoni; 'or is this a 
+trick to deceive me?  Tell me, this instant, what Ludovico DID say to 
+thee;--no equivocation;--this instant.'
+
+'Nay, madam,' cried Annette, 'if this is all I am to get for having 
+told the secret'--Her mistress thus continued to insist, and Annette 
+to protest, till Montoni, himself, appeared, who bade the latter 
+leave the room, and she withdrew, trembling for the fate of her 
+story.  Emily also was retiring, but her aunt desired she would stay; 
+and Montoni had so often made her a witness of their contention, that 
+he no longer had scruples on that account.
+
+'I insist upon knowing this instant, Signor, what all this means:'  
+said his wife--'what are all these armed men, whom they tell me of, 
+gone out about?'  Montoni answered her only with a look of scorn; and 
+Emily whispered something to her.  'It does not signify,' said her 
+aunt:  'I will know; and I will know, too, what the castle has been 
+fortified for.'
+
+'Come, come,' said Montoni, 'other business brought me here.  I must 
+be trifled with no longer.  I have immediate occasion for what I 
+demand--those estates must be given up, without further contention; 
+or I may find a way--'
+
+'They never shall be given up,' interrupted Madame Montoni:  'they 
+never shall enable you to carry on your wild schemes;--but what are 
+these?  I will know.  Do you expect the castle to be attacked?  Do 
+you expect enemies?  Am I to be shut up here, to be killed in a 
+siege?'
+
+'Sign the writings,' said Montoni, 'and you shall know more.'
+
+'What enemy can be coming?' continued his wife.  'Have you entered 
+into the service of the state?  Am I to be blocked up here to die?'
+
+'That may possibly happen,' said Montoni, 'unless you yield to my 
+demand:  for, come what may, you shall not quit the castle till 
+then.'  Madame Montoni burst into loud lamentation, which she as 
+suddenly checked, considering, that her husband's assertions might be 
+only artifices, employed to extort her consent.  She hinted this 
+suspicion, and, in the next moment, told him also, that his designs 
+were not so honourable as to serve the state, and that she believed 
+he had only commenced a captain of banditti, to join the enemies of 
+Venice, in plundering and laying waste the surrounding country.
+
+Montoni looked at her for a moment with a steady and stern 
+countenance; while Emily trembled, and his wife, for once, thought 
+she had said too much.  'You shall be removed, this night,' said he, 
+'to the east turret:  there, perhaps, you may understand the danger 
+of offending a man, who has an unlimited power over you.'
+
+Emily now fell at his feet, and, with tears of terror, supplicated 
+for her aunt, who sat, trembling with fear, and indignation; now 
+ready to pour forth execrations, and now to join the intercessions of 
+Emily.  Montoni, however, soon interrupted these entreaties with an 
+horrible oath; and, as he burst from Emily, leaving his cloak, in her 
+hand, she fell to the floor, with a force, that occasioned her a 
+severe blow on the forehead.  But he quitted the room, without 
+attempting to raise her, whose attention was called from herself, by 
+a deep groan from Madame Montoni, who continued otherwise unmoved in 
+her chair, and had not fainted.  Emily, hastening to her assistance, 
+saw her eyes rolling, and her features convulsed.
+
+Having spoken to her, without receiving an answer, she brought water, 
+and supported her head, while she held it to her lips; but the 
+increasing convulsions soon compelled Emily to call for assistance.  
+On her way through the hall, in search of Annette, she met Montoni, 
+whom she told what had happened, and conjured to return and comfort 
+her aunt; but he turned silently away, with a look of indifference, 
+and went out upon the ramparts.  At length she found old Carlo and 
+Annette, and they hastened to the dressing-room, where Madame Montoni 
+had fallen on the floor, and was lying in strong convulsions.  Having 
+lifted her into the adjoining room, and laid her on the bed, the 
+force of her disorder still made all their strength necessary to hold 
+her, while Annette trembled and sobbed, and old Carlo looked silently 
+and piteously on, as his feeble hands grasped those of his mistress, 
+till, turning his eyes upon Emily, he exclaimed, 'Good God! Signora, 
+what is the matter?'
+
+Emily looked calmly at him, and saw his enquiring eyes fixed on her:  
+and Annette, looking up, screamed loudly; for Emily's face was 
+stained with blood, which continued to fall slowly from her forehead:  
+but her attention had been so entirely occupied by the scene before 
+her, that she had felt no pain from the wound.  She now held an 
+handkerchief to her face, and, notwithstanding her faintness, 
+continued to watch Madame Montoni, the violence of whose convulsions 
+was abating, till at length they ceased, and left her in a kind of 
+stupor.
+
+'My aunt must remain quiet,' said Emily.  'Go, good Carlo; if we 
+should want your assistance, I will send for you.  In the mean time, 
+if you have an opportunity, speak kindly of your mistress to your 
+master.'
+
+'Alas!' said Carlo, 'I have seen too much!  I have little influence 
+with the Signor.  But do, dear young lady, take some care of 
+yourself; that is an ugly wound, and you look sadly.'
+
+'Thank you, my friend, for your consideration,' said Emily, smiling 
+kindly:  'the wound is trifling, it came by a fall.'
+
+Carlo shook his head, and left the room; and Emily, with Annette, 
+continued to watch by her aunt.  'Did my lady tell the Signor what 
+Ludovico said, ma'amselle?' asked Annette in a whisper; but Emily 
+quieted her fears on the subject.
+
+'I thought what this quarrelling would come to,' continued Annette:  
+'I suppose the Signor has been beating my lady.'
+
+'No, no, Annette, you are totally mistaken, nothing extra-ordinary 
+has happened.'
+
+'Why, extraordinary things happen here so often, ma'amselle, that 
+there is nothing in them.  Here is another legion of those ill-
+looking fellows, come to the castle, this morning.'
+
+'Hush!  Annette, you will disturb my aunt; we will talk of that by 
+and bye.'
+
+They continued watching silently, till Madame Montoni uttered a low 
+sigh, when Emily took her hand, and spoke soothingly to her; but the 
+former gazed with unconscious eyes, and it was long before she knew 
+her niece.  Her first words then enquired for Montoni; to which Emily 
+replied by an entreaty, that she would compose her spirits, and 
+consent to be kept quiet, adding, that, if she wished any message to 
+be conveyed to him, she would herself deliver it.  'No,' said her 
+aunt faintly, 'no--I have nothing new to tell him.  Does he persist 
+in saying I shall be removed from my chamber?'
+
+Emily replied, that he had not spoken, on the subject, since Madame 
+Montoni heard him; and then she tried to divert her attention to some 
+other topic; but her aunt seemed to be inattentive to what she said, 
+and lost in secret thoughts.  Emily, having brought her some 
+refreshment, now left her to the care of Annette, and went in search 
+of Montoni, whom she found on a remote part of the rampart, 
+conversing among a group of the men described by Annette.  They stood 
+round him with fierce, yet subjugated, looks, while he, speaking 
+earnestly, and pointing to the walls, did not perceive Emily, who 
+remained at some distance, waiting till he should be at leisure, and 
+observing involuntarily the appearance of one man, more savage than 
+his fellows, who stood resting on his pike, and looking, over the 
+shoulders of a comrade, at Montoni, to whom he listened with uncommon 
+earnestness.  This man was apparently of low condition; yet his looks 
+appeared not to acknowledge the superiority of Montoni, as did those 
+of his companions; and sometimes they even assumed an air of 
+authority, which the decisive manner of the Signor could not repress.  
+Some few words of Montoni then passed in the wind; and, as the men 
+were separating, she heard him say, 'This evening, then, begin the 
+watch at sun-set.'
+
+'At sun-set, Signor,' replied one or two of them, and walked away; 
+while Emily approached Montoni, who appeared desirous of avoiding 
+her:  but, though she observed this, she had courage to proceed.  She 
+endeavoured to intercede once more for her aunt, represented to him 
+her sufferings, and urged the danger of exposing her to a cold 
+apartment in her present state.  'She suffers by her own folly,' said 
+Montoni, 'and is not to be pitied;--she knows how she may avoid these 
+sufferings in future--if she is removed to the turret, it will be her 
+own fault.  Let her be obedient, and sign the writings you heard of, 
+and I will think no more of it.'
+
+When Emily ventured still to plead, he sternly silenced and rebuked 
+her for interfering in his domestic affairs, but, at length, 
+dismissed her with this concession--That he would not remove Madame 
+Montoni, on the ensuing night, but allow her till the next to 
+consider, whether she would resign her settlements, or be imprisoned 
+in the east turret of the castle, 'where she shall find,' he added, 
+'a punishment she may not expect.'
+
+Emily then hastened to inform her aunt of this short respite and of 
+the alternative, that awaited her, to which the latter made no reply, 
+but appeared thoughtful, while Emily, in consideration of her extreme 
+languor, wished to sooth her mind by leading it to less interesting 
+topics:  and, though these efforts were unsuccessful, and Madame 
+Montoni became peevish, her resolution, on the contended point, 
+seemed somewhat to relax, and Emily recommended, as her only means of 
+safety, that she should submit to Montoni's demand.  'You know not 
+what you advise,' said her aunt.  'Do you understand, that these 
+estates will descend to you at my death, if I persist in a refusal?'
+
+'I was ignorant of that circumstance, madam,' replied Emily, 'but the 
+knowledge of it cannot with-hold me from advising you to adopt the 
+conduct, which not only your peace, but, I fear, your safety 
+requires, and I entreat, that you will not suffer a consideration 
+comparatively so trifling, to make you hesitate a moment in resigning 
+them.'
+
+'Are you sincere, niece?'  'Is it possible you can doubt it, madam?'  
+Her aunt appeared to be affected.  'You are not unworthy of these 
+estates, niece,' said she:  'I would wish to keep them for your sake-
+-you shew a virtue I did not expect.'
+
+'How have I deserved this reproof, madam?' said Emily sorrowfully.
+
+'Reproof!' replied Madame Montoni:  'I meant to praise your virtue.'
+
+'Alas! here is no exertion of virtue,' rejoined Emily, 'for here is 
+no temptation to be overcome.'
+
+'Yet Monsieur Valancourt'--said her aunt.  'O, madam!' interrupted 
+Emily, anticipating what she would have said, 'do not let me glance 
+on that subject:  do not let my mind be stained with a wish so 
+shockingly self-interested.'  She immediately changed the topic, and 
+continued with Madame Montoni, till she withdrew to her apartment for 
+the night.
+
+At that hour, the castle was perfectly still, and every inhabitant of 
+it, except herself, seemed to have retired to rest.  As she passed 
+along the wide and lonely galleries, dusky and silent, she felt 
+forlorn and apprehensive of--she scarcely knew what; but when, 
+entering the corridor, she recollected the incident of the preceding 
+night, a dread seized her, lest a subject of alarm, similar to that, 
+which had befallen Annette, should occur to her, and which, whether 
+real, or ideal, would, she felt, have an almost equal effect upon her 
+weakened spirits.  The chamber, to which Annette had alluded, she did 
+not exactly know, but understood it to be one of those she must pass 
+in the way to her own; and, sending a fearful look forward into the 
+gloom, she stepped lightly and cautiously along, till, coming to a 
+door, from whence issued a low sound, she hesitated and paused; and, 
+during the delay of that moment, her fears so much increased, that 
+she had no power to move from the spot.  Believing, that she heard a 
+human voice within, she was somewhat revived; but, in the next 
+moment, the door was opened, and a person, whom she conceived to be 
+Montoni, appeared, who instantly started back, and closed it, though 
+not before she had seen, by the light that burned in the chamber, 
+another person, sitting in a melancholy attitude by the fire.  Her 
+terror vanished, but her astonishment only began, which was now 
+roused by the mysterious secrecy of Montoni's manner, and by the 
+discovery of a person, whom he thus visited at midnight, in an 
+apartment, which had long been shut up, and of which such 
+extraordinary reports were circulated.
+
+While she thus continued hesitating, strongly prompted to watch 
+Montoni's motions, yet fearing to irritate him by appearing to notice 
+them, the door was again opened cautiously, and as instantly closed 
+as before.  She then stepped softly to her chamber, which was the 
+next but one to this, but, having put down her lamp, returned to an 
+obscure corner of the corridor, to observe the proceedings of this 
+half-seen person, and to ascertain, whether it was indeed Montoni.
+
+Having waited in silent expectation for a few minutes, with her eyes 
+fixed on the door, it was again opened, and the same person appeared, 
+whom she now knew to be Montoni.  He looked cautiously round, without 
+perceiving her, then, stepping forward, closed the door, and left the 
+corridor.  Soon after, Emily heard the door fastened on the inside, 
+and she withdrew to her chamber, wondering at what she had witnessed.
+
+It was now twelve o'clock.  As she closed her casement, she heard 
+footsteps on the terrace below, and saw imperfectly, through the 
+gloom, several persons advancing, who passed under the casement.  She 
+then heard the clink of arms, and, in the next moment, the watch-
+word; when, recollecting the command she had overheard from Montoni, 
+and the hour of the night, she understood, that these men were, for 
+the first time, relieving guard in the castle.  Having listened till 
+all was again still, she retired to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+ And shall no lay of death
+ With pleasing murmur sooth
+ Her parted soul?
+ Shall no tear wet her grave?
+     SAYERS
+
+On the following morning, Emily went early to the apartment of Madame 
+Montoni, who had slept well, and was much recovered.  Her spirits had 
+also returned with her health, and her resolution to oppose Montoni's 
+demands revived, though it yet struggled with her fears, which Emily, 
+who trembled for the consequence of further opposition, endeavoured 
+to confirm.
+
+Her aunt, as has been already shewn, had a disposition, which 
+delighted in contradiction, and which taught her, when unpleasant 
+circumstances were offered to her understanding, not to enquire into 
+their truth, but to seek for arguments, by which she might make them 
+appear false.  Long habit had so entirely confirmed this natural 
+propensity, that she was not conscious of possessing it.  Emily's 
+remonstrances and representations, therefore, roused her pride, 
+instead of alarming, or convincing her judgment, and she still relied 
+upon the discovery of some means, by which she might yet avoid 
+submitting to the demand of her husband.  Considering, that, if she 
+could once escape from his castle, she might defy his power, and, 
+obtaining a decisive separation, live in comfort on the estates, that 
+yet remained for her, she mentioned this to her niece, who accorded 
+with her in the wish, but differed from her, as to the probability of 
+its completion.  She represented the impossibility of passing the 
+gates, secured and guarded as they were, and the extreme danger of 
+committing her design to the discretion of a servant, who might 
+either purposely betray, or accidentally disclose it.--Montoni's 
+vengeance would also disdain restraint, if her intention was 
+detected:  and, though Emily wished, as fervently as she could do, to 
+regain her freedom, and return to France, she consulted only Madame 
+Montoni's safety, and persevered in advising her to relinquish her 
+settlement, without braving further outrage.
+
+The struggle of contrary emotions, however, continued to rage in her 
+aunt's bosom, and she still brooded over the chance of effecting an 
+escape.  While she thus sat, Montoni entered the room, and, without 
+noticing his wife's indisposition, said, that he came to remind her 
+of the impolicy of trifling with him, and that he gave her only till 
+the evening to determine, whether she would consent to his demand, or 
+compel him, by a refusal, to remove her to the east turret.  He 
+added, that a party of cavaliers would dine with him, that day, and 
+that he expected that she would sit at the head of the table, where 
+Emily, also, must be present.  Madame Montoni was now on the point of 
+uttering an absolute refusal, but, suddenly considering, that her 
+liberty, during this entertainment, though circumscribed, might 
+favour her further plans, she acquiesced, with seeming reluctance, 
+and Montoni, soon after, left the apartment.  His command struck 
+Emily with surprise and apprehension, who shrank from the thought of 
+being exposed to the gaze of strangers, such as her fancy represented 
+these to be, and the words of Count Morano, now again recollected, 
+did not sooth her fears.
+
+When she withdrew to prepare for dinner, she dressed herself with 
+even more simplicity than usual, that she might escape observation--a 
+policy, which did not avail her, for, as she re-passed to her aunt's 
+apartment, she was met by Montoni, who censured what he called her 
+prudish appearance, and insisted, that she should wear the most 
+splendid dress she had, even that, which had been prepared for her 
+intended nuptials with Count Morano, and which, it now appeared, her 
+aunt had carefully brought with her from Venice.  This was made, not 
+in the Venetian, but, in the Neapolitan fashion, so as to set off the 
+shape and figure, to the utmost advantage.  In it, her beautiful 
+chestnut tresses were negligently bound up in pearls, and suffered to 
+fall back again on her neck.  The simplicity of a better taste, than 
+Madame Montoni's, was conspicuous in this dress, splendid as it was, 
+and Emily's unaffected beauty never had appeared more captivatingly.  
+She had now only to hope, that Montoni's order was prompted, not by 
+any extraordinary design, but by an ostentation of displaying his 
+family, richly attired, to the eyes of strangers; yet nothing less 
+than his absolute command could have prevailed with her to wear a 
+dress, that had been designed for such an offensive purpose, much 
+less to have worn it on this occasion.  As she descended to dinner, 
+the emotion of her mind threw a faint blush over her countenance, and 
+heightened its interesting expression; for timidity had made her 
+linger in her apartment, till the utmost moment, and, when she 
+entered the hall, in which a kind of state dinner was spread, Montoni 
+and his guests were already seated at the table.  She was then going 
+to place herself by her aunt; but Montoni waved his hand, and two of 
+the cavaliers rose, and seated her between them.
+
+The eldest of these was a tall man, with strong Italian features, an 
+aquiline nose, and dark penetrating eyes, that flashed with fire, 
+when his mind was agitated, and, even in its state of rest, retained 
+somewhat of the wildness of the passions.  His visage was long and 
+narrow, and his complexion of a sickly yellow.
+
+The other, who appeared to be about forty, had features of a 
+different cast, yet Italian, and his look was slow, subtle and 
+penetrating; his eyes, of a dark grey, were small, and hollow; his 
+complexion was a sun-burnt brown, and the contour of his face, though 
+inclined to oval, was irregular and ill-formed.
+
+Eight other guests sat round the table, who were all dressed in an 
+uniform, and had all an expression, more or less, of wild fierceness, 
+of subtle design, or of licentious passions.  As Emily timidly 
+surveyed them, she remembered the scene of the preceding morning, and 
+again almost fancied herself surrounded by banditti; then, looking 
+back to the tranquillity of her early life, she felt scarcely less 
+astonishment, than grief, at her present situation.  The scene, in 
+which they sat, assisted the illusion; it was an antient hall, gloomy 
+from the style of its architecture, from its great extent, and 
+because almost the only light it received was from one large gothic 
+window, and from a pair of folding doors, which, being open, admitted 
+likewise a view of the west rampart, with the wild mountains of the 
+Apennine beyond.
+
+The middle compartment of this hall rose into a vaulted roof, 
+enriched with fretwork, and supported, on three sides, by pillars of 
+marble; beyond these, long colonades retired in gloomy grandeur, till 
+their extent was lost in twilight.  The lightest footsteps of the 
+servants, as they advanced through these, were returned in whispering 
+echoes, and their figures, seen at a distance imperfectly through the 
+dusk, frequently awakened Emily's imagination.  She looked 
+alternately at Montoni, at his guests and on the surrounding scene; 
+and then, remembering her dear native province, her pleasant home and 
+the simplicity and goodness of the friends, whom she had lost, grief 
+and surprise again occupied her mind.
+
+When her thoughts could return from these considerations, she fancied 
+she observed an air of authority towards his guests, such as she had 
+never before seen him assume, though he had always been distinguished 
+by an haughty carriage; there was something also in the manners of 
+the strangers, that seemed perfectly, though not servilely, to 
+acknowledge his superiority.
+
+During dinner, the conversation was chiefly on war and politics.  
+They talked with energy of the state of Venice, its dangers, the 
+character of the reigning Doge and of the chief senators; and then 
+spoke of the state of Rome.  When the repast was over, they rose, 
+and, each filling his goblet with wine from the gilded ewer, that 
+stood beside him, drank 'Success to our exploits!'  Montoni was 
+lifting his goblet to his lips to drink this toast, when suddenly the 
+wine hissed, rose to the brim, and, as he held the glass from him, it 
+burst into a thousand pieces.
+
+To him, who constantly used that sort of Venice glass, which had the 
+quality of breaking, upon receiving poisoned liquor, a suspicion, 
+that some of his guests had endeavoured to betray him, instantly 
+occurred, and he ordered all the gates to be closed, drew his sword, 
+and, looking round on them, who stood in silent amazement, exclaimed, 
+'Here is a traitor among us; let those, that are innocent, assist in 
+discovering the guilty.'
+
+Indignation flashed from the eyes of the cavaliers, who all drew 
+their swords; and Madame Montoni, terrified at what might ensue, was 
+hastening from the hall, when her husband commanded her to stay; but 
+his further words could not now be distinguished, for the voice of 
+every person rose together.  His order, that all the servants should 
+appear, was at length obeyed, and they declared their ignorance of 
+any deceit--a protestation which could not be believed; for it was 
+evident, that, as Montoni's liquor, and his only, had been poisoned, 
+a deliberate design had been formed against his life, which could not 
+have been carried so far towards its accomplishment, without the 
+connivance of the servant, who had the care of the wine ewers.
+
+This man, with another, whose face betrayed either the consciousness 
+of guilt, or the fear of punishment, Montoni ordered to be chained 
+instantly, and confined in a strong room, which had formerly been 
+used as a prison.  Thither, likewise, he would have sent all his 
+guests, had he not foreseen the consequence of so bold and 
+unjustifiable a proceeding.  As to those, therefore, he contented 
+himself with swearing, that no man should pass the gates, till this 
+extraordinary affair had been investigated, and then sternly bade his 
+wife retire to her apartment, whither he suffered Emily to attend 
+her.
+
+In about half an hour, he followed to the dressing-room; and Emily 
+observed, with horror, his dark countenance and quivering lip, and 
+heard him denounce vengeance on her aunt.
+
+'It will avail you nothing,' said he to his wife, 'to deny the fact; 
+I have proof of your guilt.  Your only chance of mercy rests on a 
+full confession;--there is nothing to hope from sullenness, or 
+falsehood; your accomplice has confessed all.'
+
+Emily's fainting spirits were roused by astonishment, as she heard 
+her aunt accused of a crime so atrocious, and she could not, for a 
+moment, admit the possibility of her guilt.  Meanwhile Madame 
+Montoni's agitation did not permit her to reply; alternately her 
+complexion varied from livid paleness to a crimson flush; and she 
+trembled,--but, whether with fear, or with indignation, it were 
+difficult to decide.
+
+'Spare your words,' said Montoni, seeing her about to speak, 'your 
+countenance makes full confession of your crime.--You shall be 
+instantly removed to the east turret.'
+
+'This accusation,' said Madame Montoni, speaking with difficulty, 'is 
+used only as an excuse for your cruelty; I disdain to reply to it.  
+You do not believe me guilty.'
+
+'Signor!' said Emily solemnly, 'this dreadful charge, I would answer 
+with my life, is false.  Nay, Signor,' she added, observing the 
+severity of his countenance, 'this is no moment for restraint, on my 
+part; I do not scruple to tell you, that you are deceived--most 
+wickedly deceived, by the suggestion of some person, who aims at the 
+ruin of my aunt:--it is impossible, that you could yourself have 
+imagined a crime so hideous.'
+
+Montoni, his lips trembling more than before, replied only, 'If you 
+value your own safety,' addressing Emily, 'you will be silent.  I 
+shall know how to interpret your remonstrances, should you persevere 
+in them.'
+
+Emily raised her eyes calmly to heaven.  'Here is, indeed, then, 
+nothing to hope!' said she.
+
+'Peace!' cried Montoni, 'or you shall find there is something to 
+fear.'
+
+He turned to his wife, who had now recovered her spirits, and who 
+vehemently and wildly remonstrated upon this mysterious suspicion:  
+but Montoni's rage heightened with her indignation, and Emily, 
+dreading the event of it, threw herself between them, and clasped his 
+knees in silence, looking up in his face with an expression, that 
+might have softened the heart of a fiend.  Whether his was hardened 
+by a conviction of Madame Montoni's guilt, or that a bare suspicion 
+of it made him eager to exercise vengeance, he was totally and alike 
+insensible to the distress of his wife, and to the pleading looks of 
+Emily, whom he made no attempt to raise, but was vehemently menacing 
+both, when he was called out of the room by some person at the door.  
+As he shut the door, Emily heard him turn the lock and take out the 
+key; so that Madame Montoni and herself were now prisoners; and she 
+saw that his designs became more and more terrible.  Her endeavours 
+to explain his motives for this circumstance were almost as 
+ineffectual as those to sooth the distress of her aunt, whose 
+innocence she could not doubt; but she, at length, accounted for 
+Montoni's readiness to suspect his wife by his own consciousness of 
+cruelty towards her, and for the sudden violence of his present 
+conduct against both, before even his suspicions could be completely 
+formed, by his general eagerness to effect suddenly whatever he was 
+led to desire and his carelessness of justice, or humanity, in 
+accomplishing it.
+
+Madame Montoni, after some time, again looked round, in search of a 
+possibility of escape from the castle, and conversed with Emily on 
+the subject, who was now willing to encounter any hazard, though she 
+forbore to encourage a hope in her aunt, which she herself did not 
+admit.  How strongly the edifice was secured, and how vigilantly 
+guarded, she knew too well; and trembled to commit their safety to 
+the caprice of the servant, whose assistance they must solicit.  Old 
+Carlo was compassionate, but he seemed to be too much in his master's 
+interest to be trusted by them; Annette could of herself do little, 
+and Emily knew Ludovico only from her report.  At present, however, 
+these considerations were useless, Madame Montoni and her niece being 
+shut up from all intercourse, even with the persons, whom there might 
+be these reasons to reject.
+
+In the hall, confusion and tumult still reigned.  Emily, as she 
+listened anxiously to the murmur, that sounded along the gallery, 
+sometimes fancied she heard the clashing of swords, and, when she 
+considered the nature of the provocation, given by Montoni, and his 
+impetuosity, it appeared probable, that nothing less than arms would 
+terminate the contention.  Madame Montoni, having exhausted all her 
+expressions of indignation, and Emily, hers of comfort, they remained 
+silent, in that kind of breathless stillness, which, in nature, often 
+succeeds to the uproar of conflicting elements; a stillness, like the 
+morning, that dawns upon the ruins of an earthquake.
+
+An uncertain kind of terror pervaded Emily's mind; the circumstances 
+of the past hour still came dimly and confusedly to her memory; and 
+her thoughts were various and rapid, though without tumult.
+
+From this state of waking visions she was recalled by a knocking at 
+the chamber-door, and, enquiring who was there, heard the whispering 
+voice of Annette.
+
+'Dear madam, let me come in, I have a great deal to say,' said the 
+poor girl.
+
+'The door is locked,' answered the lady.
+
+'Yes, ma'am, but do pray open it.'
+
+'The Signor has the key,' said Madame Montoni.
+
+'O blessed Virgin! what will become of us?' exclaimed Annette.
+
+'Assist us to escape,' said her mistress.  'Where is Ludovico?'
+
+'Below in the hall, ma'am, amongst them all, fighting with the best 
+of them!'
+
+'Fighting!  Who are fighting?' cried Madame Montoni.
+
+'Why the Signor, ma'am, and all the Signors, and a great many more.'
+
+'Is any person much hurt?' said Emily, in a tremulous voice.  'Hurt!  
+Yes, ma'amselle,--there they lie bleeding, and the swords are 
+clashing, and--O holy saints!  Do let me in, ma'am, they are coming 
+this way--I shall be murdered!'
+
+'Fly!' cried Emily, 'fly! we cannot open the door.'
+
+Annette repeated, that they were coming, and in the same moment fled.
+
+'Be calm, madam,' said Emily, turning to her aunt, 'I entreat you to 
+be calm, I am not frightened--not frightened in the least, do not you 
+be alarmed.'
+
+'You can scarcely support yourself,' replied her aunt; 'Merciful God! 
+what is it they mean to do with us?'
+
+'They come, perhaps, to liberate us,' said Emily, 'Signor Montoni 
+perhaps is--is conquered.'
+
+The belief of his death gave her spirits a sudden shock, and she grew 
+faint as she saw him in imagination, expiring at her feet.
+
+'They are coming!' cried Madame Montoni--'I hear their steps--they 
+are at the door!'
+
+Emily turned her languid eyes to the door, but terror deprived her of 
+utterance.  The key sounded in the lock; the door opened, and Montoni 
+appeared, followed by three ruffian-like men.  'Execute your orders,' 
+said he, turning to them, and pointing to his wife, who shrieked, but 
+was immediately carried from the room; while Emily sunk, senseless, 
+on a couch, by which she had endeavoured to support herself.  When 
+she recovered, she was alone, and recollected only, that Madame 
+Montoni had been there, together with some unconnected particulars of 
+the preceding transaction, which were, however, sufficient to renew 
+all her terror.  She looked wildly round the apartment, as if in 
+search of some means of intelligence, concerning her aunt, while 
+neither her own danger, or an idea of escaping from the room, 
+immediately occurred.
+
+When her recollection was more complete, she raised herself and went, 
+but with only a faint hope, to examine whether the door was 
+unfastened.  It was so, and she then stepped timidly out into the 
+gallery, but paused there, uncertain which way she should proceed.  
+Her first wish was to gather some information, as to her aunt, and 
+she, at length, turned her steps to go to the lesser hall, where 
+Annette and the other servants usually waited.
+
+Every where, as she passed, she heard, from a distance, the uproar of 
+contention, and the figures and faces, which she met, hurrying along 
+the passages, struck her mind with dismay.  Emily might now have 
+appeared, like an angel of light, encompassed by fiends.  At length, 
+she reached the lesser hall, which was silent and deserted, but, 
+panting for breath, she sat down to recover herself.  The total 
+stillness of this place was as awful as the tumult, from which she 
+had escaped:  but she had now time to recall her scattered thoughts, 
+to remember her personal danger, and to consider of some means of 
+safety.  She perceived, that it was useless to seek Madame Montoni, 
+through the wide extent and intricacies of the castle, now, too, when 
+every avenue seemed to be beset by ruffians; in this hall she could 
+not resolve to stay, for she knew not how soon it might become their 
+place of rendezvous; and, though she wished to go to her chamber, she 
+dreaded again to encounter them on the way.
+
+Thus she sat, trembling and hesitating, when a distant murmur broke 
+on the silence, and grew louder and louder, till she distinguished 
+voices and steps approaching.  She then rose to go, but the sounds 
+came along the only passage, by which she could depart, and she was 
+compelled to await in the hall, the arrival of the persons, whose 
+steps she heard.  As these advanced, she distinguished groans, and 
+then saw a man borne slowly along by four others.  Her spirits 
+faltered at the sight, and she leaned against the wall for support.  
+The bearers, meanwhile, entered the hall, and, being too busily 
+occupied to detain, or even notice Emily, she attempted to leave it, 
+but her strength failed, and she again sat down on the bench.  A damp 
+chillness came over her; her sight became confused; she knew not what 
+had passed, or where she was, yet the groans of the wounded person 
+still vibrated on her heart.  In a few moments, the tide of life 
+seemed again to flow; she began to breathe more freely, and her 
+senses revived.  She had not fainted, nor had ever totally lost her 
+consciousness, but had contrived to support herself on the bench; 
+still without courage to turn her eyes upon the unfortunate object, 
+which remained near her, and about whom the men were yet too much 
+engaged to attend to her.
+
+When her strength returned, she rose, and was suffered to leave the 
+hall, though her anxiety, having produced some vain enquiries, 
+concerning Madame Montoni, had thus made a discovery of herself.  
+Towards her chamber she now hastened, as fast as her steps would bear 
+her, for she still perceived, upon her passage, the sounds of 
+confusion at a distance, and she endeavoured, by taking her way 
+through some obscure rooms, to avoid encountering the persons, whose 
+looks had terrified her before, as well as those parts of the castle, 
+where the tumult might still rage.
+
+At length, she reached her chamber, and, having secured the door of 
+the corridor, felt herself, for a moment, in safety.  A profound 
+stillness reigned in this remote apartment, which not even the faint 
+murmur of the most distant sounds now reached.  She sat down, near 
+one of the casements, and, as she gazed on the mountain-view beyond, 
+the deep repose of its beauty struck her with all the force of 
+contrast, and she could scarcely believe herself so near a scene of 
+savage discord.  The contending elements seemed to have retired from 
+their natural spheres, and to have collected themselves into the 
+minds of men, for there alone the tempest now reigned.
+
+Emily tried to tranquillize her spirits, but anxiety made her 
+constantly listen for some sound, and often look out upon the 
+ramparts, where all, however, was lonely and still.  As a sense of 
+her own immediate danger had decreased, her apprehension concerning 
+Madame Montoni heightened, who, she remembered, had been fiercely 
+threatened with confinement in the east turret, and it was possible, 
+that her husband had satisfied his present vengeance with this 
+punishment.  She, therefore, determined, when night should return, 
+and the inhabitants of the castle should be asleep, to explore the 
+way to the turret, which, as the direction it stood in was mentioned, 
+appeared not very difficult to be done.  She knew, indeed, that 
+although her aunt might be there, she could afford her no effectual 
+assistance, but it might give her some comfort even to know, that she 
+was discovered, and to hear the sound of her niece's voice; for 
+herself, any certainty, concerning Madame Montoni's fate, appeared 
+more tolerable, than this exhausting suspense.
+
+Meanwhile, Annette did not appear, and Emily was surprised, and 
+somewhat alarmed for her, whom, in the confusion of the late scene, 
+various accidents might have befallen, and it was improbable, that 
+she would have failed to come to her apartment, unless something 
+unfortunate had happened.
+
+Thus the hours passed in solitude, in silence, and in anxious 
+conjecturing.  Being not once disturbed by a message, or a sound, it 
+appeared, that Montoni had wholly forgotten her, and it gave her some 
+comfort to find, that she could be so unnoticed.  She endeavoured to 
+withdraw her thoughts from the anxiety, that preyed upon them, but 
+they refused controul; she could neither read, or draw, and the tones 
+of her lute were so utterly discordant with the present state of her 
+feelings, that she could not endure them for a moment.
+
+The sun, at length, set behind the western mountains; his fiery beams 
+faded from the clouds, and then a dun melancholy purple drew over 
+them, and gradually involved the features of the country below.  Soon 
+after, the sentinels passed on the rampart to commence the watch.
+
+Twilight had now spread its gloom over every object; the dismal 
+obscurity of her chamber recalled fearful thoughts, but she 
+remembered, that to procure a light she must pass through a great 
+extent of the castle, and, above all, through the halls, where she 
+had already experienced so much horror.  Darkness, indeed, in the 
+present state of her spirits, made silence and solitude terrible to 
+her; it would also prevent the possibility of her finding her way to 
+the turret, and condemn her to remain in suspense, concerning the 
+fate of her aunt; yet she dared not to venture forth for a lamp.
+
+Continuing at the casement, that she might catch the last lingering 
+gleam of evening, a thousand vague images of fear floated on her 
+fancy.  'What if some of these ruffians,' said she, 'should find out 
+the private stair-case, and in the darkness of night steal into my 
+chamber!'  Then, recollecting the mysterious inhabitant of the 
+neighbouring apartment, her terror changed its object.  'He is not a 
+prisoner,' said she, 'though he remains in one chamber, for Montoni 
+did not fasten the door, when he left it; the unknown person himself 
+did this; it is certain, therefore, he can come out when he pleases.'
+
+She paused, for, notwithstanding the terrors of darkness, she 
+considered it to be very improbable, whoever he was, that he could 
+have any interest in intruding upon her retirement; and again the 
+subject of her emotion changed, when, remembering her nearness to the 
+chamber, where the veil had formerly disclosed a dreadful spectacle, 
+she doubted whether some passage might not communicate between it and 
+the insecure door of the stair-case.
+
+It was now entirely dark, and she left the casement.  As she sat with 
+her eyes fixed on the hearth, she thought she perceived there a spark 
+of light; it twinkled and disappeared, and then again was visible.  
+At length, with much care, she fanned the embers of a wood fire, that 
+had been lighted in the morning, into flame, and, having communicated 
+it to a lamp, which always stood in her room, felt a satisfaction not 
+to be conceived, without a review of her situation.  Her first care 
+was to guard the door of the stair-case, for which purpose she placed 
+against it all the furniture she could move, and she was thus 
+employed, for some time, at the end of which she had another instance 
+how much more oppressive misfortune is to the idle, than to the busy; 
+for, having then leisure to think over all the circumstances of her 
+present afflictions, she imagined a thousand evils for futurity, and 
+these real and ideal subjects of distress alike wounded her mind.
+
+Thus heavily moved the hours till midnight, when she counted the 
+sullen notes of the great clock, as they rolled along the rampart, 
+unmingled with any sound, except the distant foot-fall of a sentinel, 
+who came to relieve guard.  She now thought she might venture towards 
+the turret, and, having gently opened the chamber door to examine the 
+corridor, and to listen if any person was stirring in the castle, 
+found all around in perfect stillness.  Yet no sooner had she left 
+the room, than she perceived a light flash on the walls of the 
+corridor, and, without waiting to see by whom it was carried, she 
+shrunk back, and closed her door.  No one approaching, she 
+conjectured, that it was Montoni going to pay his mid-night visit to 
+her unknown neighbour, and she determined to wait, till he should 
+have retired to his own apartment.
+
+When the chimes had tolled another half hour, she once more opened 
+the door, and, perceiving that no person was in the corridor, hastily 
+crossed into a passage, that led along the south side of the castle 
+towards the stair-case, whence she believed she could easily find her 
+way to the turret.  Often pausing on her way, listening 
+apprehensively to the murmurs of the wind, and looking fearfully 
+onward into the gloom of the long passages, she, at length, reached 
+the stair-case; but there her perplexity began.  Two passages 
+appeared, of which she knew not how to prefer one, and was compelled, 
+at last, to decide by chance, rather than by circumstances.  That she 
+entered, opened first into a wide gallery, along which she passed 
+lightly and swiftly; for the lonely aspect of the place awed her, and 
+she started at the echo of her own steps.
+
+On a sudden, she thought she heard a voice, and, not distinguishing 
+from whence it came, feared equally to proceed, or to return.  For 
+some moments, she stood in an attitude of listening expectation, 
+shrinking almost from herself and scarcely daring to look round her.  
+The voice came again, but, though it was now near her, terror did not 
+allow her to judge exactly whence it proceeded.  She thought, 
+however, that it was the voice of complaint, and her belief was soon 
+confirmed by a low moaning sound, that seemed to proceed from one of 
+the chambers, opening into the gallery.  It instantly occurred to 
+her, that Madame Montoni might be there confined, and she advanced to 
+the door to speak, but was checked by considering, that she was, 
+perhaps, going to commit herself to a stranger, who might discover 
+her to Montoni; for, though this person, whoever it was, seemed to be 
+in affliction, it did not follow, that he was a prisoner.
+
+While these thoughts passed over her mind, and left her still in 
+hesitation, the voice spoke again, and, calling 'Ludovico,' she then 
+perceived it to be that of Annette; on which, no longer hesitating, 
+she went in joy to answer her.
+
+'Ludovico!' cried Annette, sobbing--'Ludovico!'
+
+'It is not Ludovico, it is I--Mademoiselle Emily.'
+
+Annette ceased sobbing, and was silent.
+
+'If you can open the door, let me in,' said Emily, 'here is no person 
+to hurt you.'
+
+'Ludovico!--O, Ludovico!' cried Annette.
+
+Emily now lost her patience, and her fear of being overheard 
+increasing, she was even nearly about to leave the door, when she 
+considered, that Annette might, possibly, know something of the 
+situation of Madame Montoni, or direct her to the turret.  At length, 
+she obtained a reply, though little satisfactory, to her questions, 
+for Annette knew nothing of Madame Montoni, and only conjured Emily 
+to tell her what was become of Ludovico.  Of him she had no 
+information to give, and she again asked who had shut Annette up.
+
+'Ludovico,' said the poor girl, 'Ludovico shut me up.  When I ran 
+away from the dressing-room door to-day, I went I scarcely knew 
+where, for safety; and, in this gallery, here, I met Ludovico, who 
+hurried me into this chamber, and locked me up to keep me out of 
+harm, as he said.  But he was in such a hurry himself, he hardly 
+spoke ten words, but he told me he would come, and let me out, when 
+all was quiet, and he took away the key with him.  Now all these 
+hours are passed, and I have neither seen, or heard a word of him; 
+they have murdered him--I know they have!'
+
+Emily suddenly remembered the wounded person, whom she had seen borne 
+into the servants' hall, and she scarcely doubted, that he was 
+Ludovico, but she concealed the circumstance from Annette, and 
+endeavoured to comfort her.  Then, impatient to learn something of 
+her aunt, she again enquired the way to the turret.
+
+'O! you are not going, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'for Heaven's sake, 
+do not go, and leave me here by myself.'
+
+'Nay, Annette, you do not think I can wait in the gallery all night,' 
+replied Emily.  'Direct me to the turret; in the morning I will 
+endeavour to release you.'
+
+'O holy Mary!' exclaimed Annette, 'am I to stay here by myself all 
+night!  I shall be frightened out of my senses, and I shall die of 
+hunger; I have had nothing to eat since dinner!'
+
+Emily could scarcely forbear smiling at the heterogeneous distresses 
+of Annette, though she sincerely pitied them, and said what she could 
+to sooth her.  At length, she obtained something like a direction to 
+the east turret, and quitted the door, from whence, after many 
+intricacies and perplexities, she reached the steep and winding 
+stairs of the turret, at the foot of which she stopped to rest, and 
+to re-animate her courage with a sense of her duty.  As she surveyed 
+this dismal place, she perceived a door on the opposite side of the 
+stair-case, and, anxious to know whether it would lead her to Madame 
+Montoni, she tried to undraw the bolts, which fastened it.  A fresher 
+air came to her face, as she unclosed the door, which opened upon the 
+east rampart, and the sudden current had nearly extinguished her 
+light, which she now removed to a distance; and again, looking out 
+upon the obscure terrace, she perceived only the faint outline of the 
+walls and of some towers, while, above, heavy clouds, borne along the 
+wind, seemed to mingle with the stars, and wrap the night in thicker 
+darkness.  As she gazed, now willing to defer the moment of 
+certainty, from which she expected only confirmation of evil, a 
+distant footstep reminded her, that she might be observed by the men 
+on watch, and, hastily closing the door, she took her lamp, and 
+passed up the stair-case.  Trembling came upon her, as she ascended 
+through the gloom.  To her melancholy fancy this seemed to be a place 
+of death, and the chilling silence, that reigned, confirmed its 
+character.  Her spirits faltered.  'Perhaps,' said she, 'I am come 
+hither only to learn a dreadful truth, or to witness some horrible 
+spectacle; I feel that my senses would not survive such an addition 
+of horror.'
+
+The image of her aunt murdered--murdered, perhaps, by the hand of 
+Montoni, rose to her mind; she trembled, gasped for breath--repented 
+that she had dared to venture hither, and checked her steps.  But, 
+after she had paused a few minutes, the consciousness of her duty 
+returned, and she went on.  Still all was silent.  At length a track 
+of blood, upon a stair, caught her eye; and instantly she perceived, 
+that the wall and several other steps were stained.  She paused, 
+again struggled to support herself, and the lamp almost fell from her 
+trembling hand.  Still no sound was heard, no living being seemed to 
+inhabit the turret; a thousand times she wished herself again in her 
+chamber; dreaded to enquire farther--dreaded to encounter some 
+horrible spectacle, and yet could not resolve, now that she was so 
+near the termination of her efforts, to desist from them.  Having 
+again collected courage to proceed, after ascending about half way up 
+the turret, she came to another door, but here again she stopped in 
+hesitation; listened for sounds within, and then, summoning all her 
+resolution, unclosed it, and entered a chamber, which, as her lamp 
+shot its feeble rays through the darkness, seemed to exhibit only 
+dew-stained and deserted walls.  As she stood examining it, in 
+fearful expectation of discovering the remains of her unfortunate 
+aunt, she perceived something lying in an obscure corner of the room, 
+and, struck with an horrible conviction, she became, for an instant, 
+motionless and nearly insensible.  Then, with a kind of desperate 
+resolution, she hurried towards the object that excited her terror, 
+when, perceiving the clothes of some person, on the floor, she caught 
+hold of them, and found in her grasp the old uniform of a soldier, 
+beneath which appeared a heap of pikes and other arms.  Scarcely 
+daring to trust her sight, she continued, for some moments, to gaze 
+on the object of her late alarm, and then left the chamber, so much 
+comforted and occupied by the conviction, that her aunt was not 
+there, that she was going to descend the turret, without enquiring 
+farther; when, on turning to do so, she observed upon some steps on 
+the second flight an appearance of blood, and remembering, that there 
+was yet another chamber to be explored, she again followed the 
+windings of the ascent.  Still, as she ascended, the track of blood 
+glared upon the stairs.
+
+It led her to the door of a landing-place, that terminated them, but 
+she was unable to follow it farther.  Now that she was so near the 
+sought-for certainty, she dreaded to know it, even more than before, 
+and had not fortitude sufficient to speak, or to attempt opening the 
+door.
+
+Having listened, in vain, for some sound, that might confirm, or 
+destroy her fears, she, at length, laid her hand on the lock, and, 
+finding it fastened, called on Madame Montoni; but only a chilling 
+silence ensued.
+
+'She is dead!' she cried,--'murdered!--her blood is on the stairs!'
+
+Emily grew very faint; could support herself no longer, and had 
+scarcely presence of mind to set down the lamp, and place herself on 
+a step.
+
+When her recollection returned, she spoke again at the door, and 
+again attempted to open it, and, having lingered for some time, 
+without receiving any answer, or hearing a sound, she descended the 
+turret, and, with all the swiftness her feebleness would permit, 
+sought her own apartment.
+
+As she turned into the corridor, the door of a chamber opened, from 
+whence Montoni came forth; but Emily, more terrified than ever to 
+behold him, shrunk back into the passage soon enough to escape being 
+noticed, and heard him close the door, which she had perceived was 
+the same she formerly observed.  Having here listened to his 
+departing steps, till their faint sound was lost in distance, she 
+ventured to her apartment, and, securing it once again, retired to 
+her bed, leaving the lamp burning on the hearth.  But sleep was fled 
+from her harassed mind, to which images of horror alone occurred.  
+She endeavoured to think it possible, that Madame Montoni had not 
+been taken to the turret; but, when she recollected the former 
+menaces of her husband and the terrible spirit of vengeance, which he 
+had displayed on a late occasion; when she remembered his general 
+character, the looks of the men, who had forced Madame Montoni from 
+her apartment, and the written traces on the stairs of the turret--
+she could not doubt, that her aunt had been carried thither, and 
+could scarcely hope, that she had not been carried to be murdered.
+
+The grey of morning had long dawned through her casements, before 
+Emily closed her eyes in sleep; when wearied nature, at length, 
+yielded her a respite from suffering.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+ Who rears the bloody hand?
+     SAYERS
+
+Emily remained in her chamber, on the following morning, without 
+receiving any notice from Montoni, or seeing a human being, except 
+the armed men, who sometimes passed on the terrace below.  Having 
+tasted no food since the dinner of the preceding day, extreme 
+faintness made her feel the necessity of quitting the asylum of her 
+apartment to obtain refreshment, and she was also very anxious to 
+procure liberty for Annette.  Willing, however, to defer venturing 
+forth, as long as possible, and considering, whether she should apply 
+to Montoni, or to the compassion of some other person, her excessive 
+anxiety concerning her aunt, at length, overcame her abhorrence of 
+his presence, and she determined to go to him, and to entreat, that 
+he would suffer her to see Madame Montoni.
+
+Meanwhile, it was too certain, from the absence of Annette, that some 
+accident had befallen Ludovico, and that she was still in 
+confinement; Emily, therefore, resolved also to visit the chamber, 
+where she had spoken to her, on the preceding night, and, if the poor 
+girl was yet there, to inform Montoni of her situation.
+
+It was near noon, before she ventured from her apartment, and went 
+first to the south gallery, whither she passed without meeting a 
+single person, or hearing a sound, except, now and then, the echo of 
+a distant footstep.
+
+It was unnecessary to call Annette, whose lamentations were audible 
+upon the first approach to the gallery, and who, bewailing her own 
+and Ludovico's fate, told Emily, that she should certainly be starved 
+to death, if she was not let out immediately.  Emily replied, that 
+she was going to beg her release of Montoni; but the terrors of 
+hunger now yielded to those of the Signor, and, when Emily left her, 
+she was loudly entreating, that her place of refuge might be 
+concealed from him.
+
+As Emily drew near the great hall, the sounds she heard and the 
+people she met in the passages renewed her alarm.  The latter, 
+however, were peaceable, and did not interrupt her, though they 
+looked earnestly at her, as she passed, and sometimes spoke.  On 
+crossing the hall towards the cedar room, where Montoni usually sat, 
+she perceived, on the pavement, fragments of swords, some tattered 
+garments stained with blood, and almost expected to have seen among 
+them a dead body; but from such a spectacle she was, at present, 
+spared.  As she approached the room, the sound of several voices 
+issued from within, and a dread of appearing before many strangers, 
+as well as of irritating Montoni by such an intrusion, made her pause 
+and falter from her purpose.  She looked up through the long arcades 
+of the hall, in search of a servant, who might bear a message, but no 
+one appeared, and the urgency of what she had to request made her 
+still linger near the door.  The voices within were not in 
+contention, though she distinguished those of several of the guests 
+of the preceding day; but still her resolution failed, whenever she 
+would have tapped at the door, and she had determined to walk in the 
+hall, till some person should appear, who might call Montoni from the 
+room, when, as she turned from the door, it was suddenly opened by 
+himself.  Emily trembled, and was confused, while he almost started 
+with surprise, and all the terrors of his countenance unfolded 
+themselves.  She forgot all she would have said, and neither enquired 
+for her aunt, or entreated for Annette, but stood silent and 
+embarrassed.
+
+After closing the door he reproved her for a meanness, of which she 
+had not been guilty, and sternly questioned her what she had 
+overheard; an accusation, which revived her recollection so far, that 
+she assured him she had not come thither with an intention to listen 
+to his conversation, but to entreat his compassion for her aunt, and 
+for Annette.  Montoni seemed to doubt this assertion, for he regarded 
+her with a scrutinizing look; and the doubt evidently arose from no 
+trifling interest.  Emily then further explained herself, and 
+concluded with entreating him to inform her, where her aunt was 
+placed, and to permit, that she might visit her; but he looked upon 
+her only with a malignant smile, which instantaneously confirmed her 
+worst fears for her aunt, and, at that moment, she had not courage to 
+renew her entreaties.
+
+'For Annette,' said he,--'if you go to Carlo, he will release the 
+girl; the foolish fellow, who shut her up, died yesterday.'  Emily 
+shuddered.--'But my aunt, Signor'--said she, 'O tell me of my aunt!'
+
+'She is taken care of,' replied Montoni hastily, 'I have no time to 
+answer idle questions.'
+
+He would have passed on, but Emily, in a voice of agony, that could 
+not be wholly resisted, conjured him to tell her, where Madame 
+Montoni was; while he paused, and she anxiously watched his 
+countenance, a trumpet sounded, and, in the next moment, she heard 
+the heavy gates of the portal open, and then the clattering of 
+horses' hoofs in the court, with the confusion of many voices.  She 
+stood for a moment hesitating whether she should follow Montoni, who, 
+at the sound of the trumpet, had passed through the hall, and, 
+turning her eyes whence it came, she saw through the door, that 
+opened beyond a long perspective of arches into the courts, a party 
+of horsemen, whom she judged, as well as the distance and her 
+embarrassment would allow, to be the same she had seen depart, a few 
+days before.  But she staid not to scrutinize, for, when the trumpet 
+sounded again, the chevaliers rushed out of the cedar room, and men 
+came running into the hall from every quarter of the castle.  Emily 
+once more hurried for shelter to her own apartment.  Thither she was 
+still pursued by images of horror.  She re-considered Montoni's 
+manner and words, when he had spoken of his wife, and they served 
+only to confirm her most terrible suspicions.  Tears refused any 
+longer to relieve her distress, and she had sat for a considerable 
+time absorbed in thought, when a knocking at the chamber door aroused 
+her, on opening which she found old Carlo.
+
+'Dear young lady,' said he, 'I have been so flurried, I never once 
+thought of you till just now.  I have brought you some fruit and 
+wine, and I am sure you must stand in need of them by this time.'
+
+'Thank you, Carlo,' said Emily, 'this is very good of you  Did the 
+Signor remind you of me?'
+
+'No, Signora,' replied Carlo, 'his excellenza has business enough on 
+his hands.'  Emily then renewed her enquiries, concerning Madame 
+Montoni, but Carlo had been employed at the other end of the castle, 
+during the time, that she was removed, and he had heard nothing 
+since, concerning her.
+
+While he spoke, Emily looked steadily at him, for she scarcely knew 
+whether he was really ignorant, or concealed his knowledge of the 
+truth from a fear of offending his master.  To several questions, 
+concerning the contentions of yesterday, he gave very limited 
+answers; but told, that the disputes were now amicably settled, and 
+that the Signor believed himself to have been mistaken in his 
+suspicions of his guests.  'The fighting was about that, Signora,' 
+said Carlo; 'but I trust I shall never see such another day in this 
+castle, though strange things are about to be done.'
+
+On her enquiring his meaning, 'Ah, Signora!' added he, 'it is not for 
+me to betray secrets, or tell all I think, but time will tell.'
+
+She then desired him to release Annette, and, having described the 
+chamber in which the poor girl was confined, he promised to obey her 
+immediately, and was departing, when she remembered to ask who were 
+the persons just arrived.  Her late conjecture was right; it was 
+Verezzi, with his party.
+
+Her spirits were somewhat soothed by this short conversation with 
+Carlo; for, in her present circumstances, it afforded some comfort to 
+hear the accents of compassion, and to meet the look of sympathy.
+
+An hour passed before Annette appeared, who then came weeping and 
+sobbing.  'O Ludovico--Ludovico!' cried she.
+
+'My poor Annette!' said Emily, and made her sit down.
+
+'Who could have foreseen this, ma'amselle?  O miserable, wretched, 
+day--that ever I should live to see it!' and she continued to moan 
+and lament, till Emily thought it necessary to check her excess of 
+grief.  'We are continually losing dear friends by death,' said she, 
+with a sigh, that came from her heart.  'We must submit to the will 
+of Heaven--our tears, alas! cannot recall the dead!'
+
+Annette took the handkerchief from her face.
+
+'You will meet Ludovico in a better world, I hope,' added Emily.
+
+'Yes--yes,--ma'amselle,' sobbed Annette, 'but I hope I shall meet him 
+again in this--though he is so wounded!'
+
+'Wounded!' exclaimed Emily, 'does he live?'
+
+'Yes, ma'am, but--but he has a terrible wound, and could not come to 
+let me out.  They thought him dead, at first, and he has not been 
+rightly himself, till within this hour.'
+
+'Well, Annette, I rejoice to hear he lives.'
+
+'Lives!  Holy Saints! why he will not die, surely!'
+
+Emily said she hoped not, but this expression of hope Annette thought 
+implied fear, and her own increased in proportion, as Emily 
+endeavoured to encourage her.  To enquiries, concerning Madame 
+Montoni, she could give no satisfactory answers.
+
+'I quite forgot to ask among the servants, ma'amselle,' said she, 
+'for I could think of nobody but poor Ludovico.'
+
+Annette's grief was now somewhat assuaged, and Emily sent her to make 
+enquiries, concerning her lady, of whom, however, she could obtain no 
+intelligence, some of the people she spoke with being really ignorant 
+of her fate, and others having probably received orders to conceal 
+it.
+
+This day passed with Emily in continued grief and anxiety for her 
+aunt; but she was unmolested by any notice from Montoni; and, now 
+that Annette was liberated, she obtained food, without exposing 
+herself to danger, or impertinence.
+
+Two following days passed in the same manner, unmarked by any 
+occurrence, during which she obtained no information of Madame 
+Montoni.  On the evening of the second, having dismissed Annette, and 
+retired to bed, her mind became haunted by the most dismal images, 
+such as her long anxiety, concerning her aunt, suggested; and, unable 
+to forget herself, for a moment, or to vanquish the phantoms, that 
+tormented her, she rose from her bed, and went to one of the 
+casements of her chamber, to breathe a freer air.
+
+All without was silent and dark, unless that could be called light, 
+which was only the faint glimmer of the stars, shewing imperfectly 
+the outline of the mountains, the western towers of the castle and 
+the ramparts below, where a solitary sentinel was pacing.  What an 
+image of repose did this scene present!  The fierce and terrible 
+passions, too, which so often agitated the inhabitants of this 
+edifice, seemed now hushed in sleep;--those mysterious workings, that 
+rouse the elements of man's nature into tempest--were calm.  Emily's 
+heart was not so; but her sufferings, though deep, partook of the 
+gentle character of her mind.  Hers was a silent anguish, weeping, 
+yet enduring; not the wild energy of passion, inflaming imagination, 
+bearing down the barriers of reason and living in a world of its own.
+
+The air refreshed her, and she continued at the casement, looking on 
+the shadowy scene, over which the planets burned with a clear light, 
+amid the deep blue aether, as they silently moved in their destined 
+course.  She remembered how often she had gazed on them with her dear 
+father, how often he had pointed out their way in the heavens, and 
+explained their laws; and these reflections led to others, which, in 
+an almost equal degree, awakened her grief and astonishment.
+
+They brought a retrospect of all the strange and mournful events, 
+which had occurred since she lived in peace with her parents.  And to 
+Emily, who had been so tenderly educated, so tenderly loved, who once 
+knew only goodness and happiness--to her, the late events and her 
+present situation--in a foreign land--in a remote castle--surrounded 
+by vice and violence--seemed more like the visions of a distempered 
+imagination, than the circumstances of truth.  She wept to think of 
+what her parents would have suffered, could they have foreseen the 
+events of her future life.
+
+While she raised her streaming eyes to heaven, she observed the same 
+planet, which she had seen in Languedoc, on the night, preceding her 
+father's death, rise above the eastern towers of the castle, while 
+she remembered the conversation, which has passed, concerning the 
+probable state of departed souls; remembered, also, the solemn music 
+she had heard, and to which the tenderness of her spirits had, in 
+spite of her reason, given a superstitious meaning.  At these 
+recollections she wept again, and continued musing, when suddenly the 
+notes of sweet music passed on the air.  A superstitious dread stole 
+over her; she stood listening, for some moments, in trembling 
+expectation, and then endeavoured to re-collect her thoughts, and to 
+reason herself into composure; but human reason cannot establish her 
+laws on subjects, lost in the obscurity of imagination, any more than 
+the eye can ascertain the form of objects, that only glimmer through 
+the dimness of night.
+
+Her surprise, on hearing such soothing and delicious sounds, was, at 
+least, justifiable; for it was long--very long, since she had 
+listened to any thing like melody.  The fierce trumpet and the shrill 
+fife were the only instruments she had heard, since her arrival at 
+Udolpho.
+
+When her mind was somewhat more composed, she tried to ascertain from 
+what quarter the sounds proceeded, and thought they came from below; 
+but whether from a room of the castle, or from the terrace, she could 
+not with certainty judge.  Fear and surprise now yielded to the 
+enchantment of a strain, that floated on the silent night, with the 
+most soft and melancholy sweetness.  Suddenly, it seemed removed to a 
+distance, trembled faintly, and then entirely ceased.
+
+She continued to listen, sunk in that pleasing repose, which soft 
+music leaves on the mind--but it came no more.  Upon this strange 
+circumstance her thoughts were long engaged, for strange it certainly 
+was to hear music at midnight, when every inhabitant of the castle 
+had long since retired to rest, and in a place, where nothing like 
+harmony had been heard before, probably, for many years.  Long-
+suffering had made her spirits peculiarly sensible to terror, and 
+liable to be affected by the illusions of superstition.--It now 
+seemed to her, as if her dead father had spoken to her in that 
+strain, to inspire her with comfort and confidence, on the subject, 
+which had then occupied her mind.  Yet reason told her, that this was 
+a wild conjecture, and she was inclined to dismiss it; but, with the 
+inconsistency so natural, when imagination guides the thoughts, she 
+then wavered towards a belief as wild.  She remembered the singular 
+event, connected with the castle, which had given it into the 
+possession of its present owner; and, when she considered the 
+mysterious manner, in which its late possessor had disappeared, and 
+that she had never since been heard of, her mind was impressed with 
+an high degree of solemn awe; so that, though there appeared no clue 
+to connect that event with the late music, she was inclined 
+fancifully to think they had some relation to each other.  At this 
+conjecture, a sudden chillness ran through her frame; she looked 
+fearfully upon the duskiness of her chamber, and the dead silence, 
+that prevailed there, heightened to her fancy its gloomy aspect.
+
+At length, she left the casement, but her steps faltered, as she 
+approached the bed, and she stopped and looked round.  The single 
+lamp, that burned in her spacious chamber, was expiring; for a 
+moment, she shrunk from the darkness beyond; and then, ashamed of the 
+weakness, which, however, she could not wholly conquer, went forward 
+to the bed, where her mind did not soon know the soothings of sleep.  
+She still mused on the late occurrence, and looked with anxiety to 
+the next night, when, at the same hour, she determined to watch 
+whether the music returned.  'If those sounds were human,' said she, 
+'I shall probably hear them again.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+  Then, oh, you blessed ministers above,
+ Keep me in patience; and, in ripen'd time,
+ Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up
+ In countenance.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+Annette came almost breathless to Emily's apartment in the morning.  
+'O ma'amselle!' said she, in broken sentences, 'what news I have to 
+tell!  I have found out who the prisoner is--but he was no prisoner, 
+neither;--he that was shut up in the chamber I told you of.  I must 
+think him a ghost, forsooth!'
+
+'Who was the prisoner?' enquired Emily, while her thoughts glanced 
+back to the circumstance of the preceding night.
+
+'You mistake, ma'am,' said Annette; 'he was not a prisoner, after 
+all.'
+
+'Who is the person, then?'
+
+'Holy Saints!' rejoined Annette; 'How I was surprised!  I met him 
+just now, on the rampart below, there.  I never was so surprised in 
+my life!  Ah! ma'amselle! this is a strange place!  I should never 
+have done wondering, if I was to live here an hundred years.  But, as 
+I was saying, I met him just now on the rampart, and I was thinking 
+of nobody less than of him.'
+
+'This trifling is insupportable,' said Emily; 'prythee, Annette, do 
+not torture my patience any longer.'
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, guess--guess who it was; it was somebody you know 
+very well.'
+
+'I cannot guess,' said Emily impatiently.
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, I'll tell you something to guess by--A tall Signor, 
+with a longish face, who walks so stately, and used to wear such a 
+high feather in his hat; and used often to look down upon the ground, 
+when people spoke to him; and to look at people from under his 
+eyebrows, as it were, all so dark and frowning.  You have seen him, 
+often and often, at Venice, ma'am.  Then he was so intimate with the 
+Signor, too.  And, now I think of it, I wonder what he could be 
+afraid of in this lonely old castle, that he should shut himself up 
+for.  But he is come abroad now, for I met him on the rampart just 
+this minute.  I trembled when I saw him, for I always was afraid of 
+him, somehow; but I determined I would not let him see it; so I went 
+up to him, and made him a low curtesy, "You are welcome to the 
+castle, Signor Orsino," said I.'
+
+'O, it was Signor Orsino, then!' said Emily.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, Signor Orsino, himself, who caused that Venetian 
+gentleman to be killed, and has been popping about from place to 
+place, ever since, as I hear.'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed Emily, recovering from the shock of this 
+intelligence; 'and is HE come to Udolpho!  He does well to endeavour 
+to conceal himself.'
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle, but if that was all, this desolate place would 
+conceal him, without his shutting himself up in one room.  Who would 
+think of coming to look for him here?  I am sure I should as soon 
+think of going to look for any body in the other world.'
+
+'There is some truth in that,' said Emily, who would now have 
+concluded it was Orsino's music, which she had heard, on the 
+preceding night, had she not known, that he had neither taste, or 
+skill in the art.  But, though she was unwilling to add to the number 
+of Annette's surprises, by mentioning the subject of her own, she 
+enquired, whether any person in the castle played on a musical 
+instrument?
+
+'O yes, ma'amselle! there is Benedetto plays the great drum to 
+admiration; and then, there is Launcelot the trumpeter; nay, for that 
+matter, Ludovico himself can play on the trumpet;--but he is ill now.  
+I remember once'--
+
+Emily interrupted her; 'Have you heard no other music since you came 
+to the castle--none last night?'
+
+'Why, did YOU hear any last night, ma'amselle?'
+
+Emily evaded this question, by repeating her own.
+
+'Why, no, ma'am,' replied Annette; 'I never heard any music here, I 
+must say, but the drums and the trumpet; and, as for last night, I 
+did nothing but dream I saw my late lady's ghost.'
+
+'Your LATE lady's,' said Emily in a tremulous voice; 'you have heard 
+more, then.  Tell me--tell me all, Annette, I entreat; tell me the 
+worst at once.'
+
+'Nay, ma'amselle, you know the worst already.'
+
+'I know nothing,' said Emily.
+
+'Yes, you do, ma'amselle; you know, that nobody knows any thing about 
+her; and it is plain, therefore, she is gone, the way of the first 
+lady of the castle--nobody ever knew any thing about her.'
+
+Emily leaned her head upon her hand, and was, for some time, silent; 
+then, telling Annette she wished to be alone, the latter left the 
+room.
+
+The remark of Annette had revived Emily's terrible suspicion, 
+concerning the fate of Madame Montoni; and she resolved to make 
+another effort to obtain certainty on this subject, by applying to 
+Montoni once more.
+
+When Annette returned, a few hours after, she told Emily, that the 
+porter of the castle wished very much to speak with her, for that he 
+had something of importance to say; her spirits had, however, of late 
+been so subject to alarm, that any new circumstance excited it; and 
+this message from the porter, when her first surprise was over, made 
+her look round for some lurking danger, the more suspiciously, 
+perhaps, because she had frequently remarked the unpleasant air and 
+countenance of this man.  She now hesitated, whether to speak with 
+him, doubting even, that this request was only a pretext to draw her 
+into some danger; but a little reflection shewed her the 
+improbability of this, and she blushed at her weak fears.
+
+'I will speak to him, Annette,' said she; 'desire him to come to the 
+corridor immediately.'
+
+Annette departed, and soon after returned.
+
+'Barnardine, ma'amselle,' said she, 'dare not come to the corridor, 
+lest he should be discovered, it is so far from his post; and he dare 
+not even leave the gates for a moment now; but, if you will come to 
+him at the portal, through some roundabout passages he told me of, 
+without crossing the courts, he has that to tell, which will surprise 
+you.  But you must not come through the courts, lest the Signor 
+should see you.'
+
+Emily, neither approving these 'roundabout passage,' nor the other 
+part of the request, now positively refused to go.  'Tell him,' said 
+she, 'if he has any thing of consequence to impart, I will hear him 
+in the corridor, whenever he has an opportunity of coming thither.'
+
+Annette went to deliver this message, and was absent a considerable 
+time.  When she returned, 'It won't do, ma'amselle,' said she.  
+'Barnardine has been considering all this time what can be done, for 
+it is as much as his place is worth to leave his post now.  But, if 
+you will come to the east rampart in the dusk of the evening, he can, 
+perhaps, steal away, and tell you all he has to say.'
+
+Emily was surprised and alarmed, at the secrecy which this man seemed 
+to think so necessary, and hesitated whether to meet him, till, 
+considering, that he might mean to warn her of some serious danger, 
+she resolved to go.
+
+'Soon after sun-set,' said she, 'I will be at the end of the east 
+rampart.  But then the watch will be set,' she added, recollecting 
+herself, 'and how can Barnardine pass unobserved?'
+
+'That is just what I said to him, ma'am, and he answered me, that he 
+had the key of the gate, at the end of the rampart, that leads 
+towards the courts, and could let himself through that way; and as 
+for the sentinels, there were none at this end of the terrace, 
+because the place is guarded enough by the high walls of the castle, 
+and the east turret; and he said those at the other end were too far 
+off to see him, if it was pretty duskyish.'
+
+'Well,' said Emily, 'I must hear what he has to tell; and, therefore, 
+desire you will go with me to the terrace, this evening.'
+
+'He desired it might be pretty duskyish, ma'amselle,' repeated 
+Annette, 'because of the watch.'
+
+Emily paused, and then said she would be on the terrace, an hour 
+after sun-set;--'and tell Barnardine,' she added, 'to be punctual to 
+the time; for that I, also, may be observed by Signor Montoni.  Where 
+is the Signor?  I would speak with him.'
+
+'He is in the cedar chamber, ma'am, counselling with the other 
+Signors.  He is going to give them a sort of treat to-day, to make up 
+for what passed at the last, I suppose; the people are all very busy 
+in the kitchen.'
+
+Emily now enquired, if Montoni expected any new guests? and Annette 
+believed that he did not.  'Poor Ludovico!' added she, 'he would be 
+as merry as the best of them, if he was well; but he may recover yet.  
+Count Morano was wounded as bad, as he, and he is got well again, and 
+is gone back to Venice.'
+
+'Is he so?' said Emily, 'when did you hear this?'
+
+'I heard it, last night, ma'amselle, but I forgot to tell it.'
+
+Emily asked some further questions, and then, desiring Annette would 
+observe and inform her, when Montoni was alone, the girl went to 
+deliver her message to Barnardine.
+
+Montoni was, however, so much engaged, during the whole day, that 
+Emily had no opportunity of seeking a release from her terrible 
+suspense, concerning her aunt.  Annette was employed in watching his 
+steps, and in attending upon Ludovico, whom she, assisted by 
+Caterina, nursed with the utmost care; and Emily was, of course, left 
+much alone.  Her thoughts dwelt often on the message of the porter, 
+and were employed in conjecturing the subject, that occasioned it, 
+which she sometimes imagined concerned the fate of Madame Montoni; at 
+others, that it related to some personal danger, which threatened 
+herself.  The cautious secrecy which Barnardine observed in his 
+conduct, inclined her to believe the latter.
+
+As the hour of appointment drew near, her impatience increased.  At 
+length, the sun set; she heard the passing steps of the sentinels 
+going to their posts; and waited only for Annette to accompany her to 
+the terrace, who, soon after, came, and they descended together.  
+When Emily expressed apprehensions of meeting Montoni, or some of his 
+guests, 'O, there is no fear of that, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 
+'they are all set in to feasting yet, and that Barnardine knows.'
+
+They reached the first terrace, where the sentinels demanded who 
+passed; and Emily, having answered, walked on to the east rampart, at 
+the entrance of which they were again stopped; and, having again 
+replied, were permitted to proceed.  But Emily did not like to expose 
+herself to the discretion of these men, at such an hour; and, 
+impatient to withdraw from the situation, she stepped hastily on in 
+search of Barnardine.  He was not yet come.  She leaned pensively on 
+the wall of the rampart, and waited for him.  The gloom of twilight 
+sat deep on the surrounding objects, blending in soft confusion the 
+valley, the mountains, and the woods, whose tall heads, stirred by 
+the evening breeze, gave the only sounds, that stole on silence, 
+except a faint, faint chorus of distant voices, that arose from 
+within the castle.
+
+'What voices are those?' said Emily, as she fearfully listened.
+
+'It is only the Signor and his guests, carousing,' replied Annette.
+
+'Good God!' thought Emily, 'can this man's heart be so gay, when he 
+has made another being so wretched; if, indeed, my aunt is yet 
+suffered to feel her wretchedness?  O! whatever are my own 
+sufferings, may my heart never, never be hardened against those of 
+others!'
+
+She looked up, with a sensation of horror, to the east turret, near 
+which she then stood; a light glimmered through the grates of the 
+lower chamber, but those of the upper one were dark.  Presently, she 
+perceived a person moving with a lamp across the lower room; but this 
+circumstance revived no hope, concerning Madame Montoni, whom she had 
+vainly sought in that apartment, which had appeared to contain only 
+soldiers' accoutrements.  Emily, however, determined to attempt the 
+outer door of the turret, as soon as Barnardine should withdraw; and, 
+if it was unfastened, to make another effort to discover her aunt.
+
+The moments passed, but still Barnardine did not appear; and Emily, 
+becoming uneasy, hesitated whether to wait any longer.  She would 
+have sent Annette to the portal to hasten him, but feared to be left 
+alone, for it was now almost dark, and a melancholy streak of red, 
+that still lingered in the west, was the only vestige of departed 
+day.  The strong interest, however, which Barnardine's message had 
+awakened, overcame other apprehensions, and still detained her.
+
+While she was conjecturing with Annette what could thus occasion his 
+absence, they heard a key turn in the lock of the gate near them, and 
+presently saw a man advancing.  It was Barnardine, of whom Emily 
+hastily enquired what he had to communicate, and desired, that he 
+would tell her quickly, 'for I am chilled with this evening air,' 
+said she.
+
+'You must dismiss your maid, lady,' said the man in a voice, the deep 
+tone of which shocked her, 'what I have to tell is to you only.'
+
+Emily, after some hesitation, desired Annette to withdraw to a little 
+distance.  'Now, my friend, what would you say?'
+
+He was silent a moment, as if considering, and then said,--
+
+'That which would cost me my place, at least, if it came to the 
+Signor's ears.  You must promise, lady, that nothing shall ever make 
+you tell a syllable of the matter; I have been trusted in this 
+affair, and, if it was known, that I betrayed my trust, my life, 
+perhaps, might answer it.  But I was concerned for you, lady, and I 
+resolved to tell you.'  He paused.--
+
+Emily thanked him, assured him that he might repose on her 
+discretion, and entreated him to dispatch.
+
+'Annette told us in the hall how unhappy you was about Signora 
+Montoni, and how much you wished to know what was become of her.'
+
+'Most true,' said Emily eagerly, 'and you can inform me.  I conjure 
+you tell me the worst, without hesitation.'  She rested her trembling 
+arm upon the wall.
+
+'I can tell you,' said Barnardine, and paused.--
+
+Emily had no power to enforce her entreaties.
+
+'I CAN tell you,' resumed Barnardine,--'but'--
+
+'But what?' exclaimed Emily, recovering her resolution.
+
+'Here I am, ma'amselle,' said Annette, who, having heard the eager 
+tone, in which Emily pronounced these words, came running towards 
+her.
+
+'Retire!' said Barnardine, sternly; 'you are not wanted;' and, as 
+Emily said nothing, Annette obeyed.
+
+'I CAN tell you,' repeated the porter,--'but I know not how--you was 
+afflicted before.'--
+
+'I am prepared for the worst, my friend,' said Emily, in a firm and 
+solemn voice.  'I can support any certainty better than this 
+suspense.'
+
+'Well, Signora, if that is the case, you shall hear.--You know, I 
+suppose, that the Signor and his lady used sometimes to disagree.  It 
+is none of my concerns to enquire what it was about, but I believe 
+you know it was so.'
+
+'Well,' said Emily, 'proceed.'
+
+'The Signor, it seems, had lately been very wrath against her.  I saw 
+all, and heard all,--a great deal more than people thought for; but 
+it was none of my business, so I said nothing.  A few days ago, the 
+Signor sent for me.  "Barnardine," says he, "you are--an honest man, 
+I think I can trust you."  I assured his excellenza that he could.  
+"Then," says he, as near as I can remember, "I have an affair in 
+hand, which I want you to assist me in."--Then he told me what I was 
+to do; but that I shall say nothing about--it concerned only the 
+Signora.'
+
+'O Heavens!' exclaimed Emily--'what have you done?'
+
+Barnardine hesitated, and was silent.
+
+'What fiend could tempt him, or you, to such an act!' cried Emily, 
+chilled with horror, and scarcely able to support her fainting 
+spirits.
+
+'It was a fiend,' said Barnardine in a gloomy tone of voice.  They 
+were now both silent;--Emily had not courage to enquire further, and 
+Barnardine seemed to shrink from telling more.  At length he said, 
+'It is of no use to think of the past; the Signor was cruel enough, 
+but he would be obeyed.  What signified my refusing?  He would have 
+found others, who had no scruples.'
+
+'You have murdered her, then!' said Emily, in a hollow and inward 
+voice--'I am talking with a murderer!'  Barnardine stood silent; 
+while Emily turned from him, and attempted to leave the place.
+
+'Stay, lady!' said he, 'You deserve to think so still--since you can 
+believe me capable of such a deed.'
+
+'If you are innocent, tell me quickly,' said Emily, in faint accents, 
+'for I feel I shall not be able to hear you long.'
+
+'I will tell you no more,' said he, and walked away.  Emily had just 
+strength enough to bid him stay, and then to call Annette, on whose 
+arm she leaned, and they walked slowly up the rampart, till they 
+heard steps behind them.  It was Barnardine again.
+
+'Send away the girl,' said he, 'and I will tell you more.'
+
+'She must not go,' said Emily; 'what you have to say, she may hear.'
+
+'May she so, lady?' said he.  'You shall know no more, then;' and he 
+was going, though slowly, when Emily's anxiety, overcoming the 
+resentment and fear, which the man's behaviour had roused, she 
+desired him to stay, and bade Annette retire.
+
+'The Signora is alive,' said he, 'for me.  She is my prisoner, 
+though; his excellenza has shut her up in the chamber over the great 
+gates of the court, and I have the charge of her.  I was going to 
+have told you, you might see her--but now--'
+
+Emily, relieved from an unutterable load of anguish by this speech, 
+had now only to ask Barnardine's forgiveness, and to conjure, that he 
+would let her visit her aunt.
+
+He complied with less reluctance, than she expected, and told her, 
+that, if she would repair, on the following night, when the Signor 
+was retired to rest, to the postern-gate of the castle, she should, 
+perhaps, see Madame Montoni.
+
+Amid all the thankfulness, which Emily felt for this concession, she 
+thought she observed a malicious triumph in his manner, when he 
+pronounced the last words; but, in the next moment, she dismissed the 
+thought, and, having again thanked him, commended her aunt to his 
+pity, and assured him, that she would herself reward him, and would 
+be punctual to her appointment, she bade him good night, and retired, 
+unobserved, to her chamber.  It was a considerable time, before the 
+tumult of joy, which Barnardine's unexpected intelligence had 
+occasioned, allowed Emily to think with clearness, or to be conscious 
+of the real dangers, that still surrounded Madame Montoni and 
+herself.  When this agitation subsided, she perceived, that her aunt 
+was yet the prisoner of a man, to whose vengeance, or avarice, she 
+might fall a sacrifice; and, when she further considered the savage 
+aspect of the person, who was appointed to guard Madame Montoni, her 
+doom appeared to be already sealed, for the countenance of Barnardine 
+seemed to bear the stamp of a murderer; and, when she had looked upon 
+it, she felt inclined to believe, that there was no deed, however 
+black, which he might not be prevailed upon to execute.  These 
+reflections brought to her remembrance the tone of voice, in which he 
+had promised to grant her request to see his prisoner; and she mused 
+upon it long in uneasiness and doubt.  Sometimes, she even hesitated, 
+whether to trust herself with him at the lonely hour he had 
+appointed; and once, and only once, it struck her, that Madame 
+Montoni might be already murdered, and that this ruffian was 
+appointed to decoy herself to some secret place, where her life also 
+was to be sacrificed to the avarice of Montoni, who then would claim 
+securely the contested estates in Languedoc.  The consideration of 
+the enormity of such guilt did, at length, relieve her from the 
+belief of its probability, but not from all the doubts and fears, 
+which a recollection of Barnardine's manner had occasioned.  From 
+these subjects, her thoughts, at length, passed to others; and, as 
+the evening advanced, she remembered, with somewhat more than 
+surprise, the music she had heard, on the preceding night, and now 
+awaited its return, with more than curiosity.
+
+She distinguished, till a late hour, the distant carousals of Montoni 
+and his companions--the loud contest, the dissolute laugh and the 
+choral song, that made the halls re-echo.  At length, she heard the 
+heavy gates of the castle shut for the night, and those sounds 
+instantly sunk into a silence, which was disturbed only by the 
+whispering steps of persons, passing through the galleries to their 
+remote rooms.  Emily now judging it to be about the time, when she 
+had heard the music, on the preceding night, dismissed Annette, and 
+gently opened the casement to watch for its return.  The planet she 
+had so particularly noticed, at the recurrence of the music, was not 
+yet risen; but, with superstitious weakness, she kept her eyes fixed 
+on that part of the hemisphere, where it would rise, almost 
+expecting, that, when it appeared, the sounds would return.  At 
+length, it came, serenely bright, over the eastern towers of the 
+castle.  Her heart trembled, when she perceived it, and she had 
+scarcely courage to remain at the casement, lest the returning music 
+should confirm her terror, and subdue the little strength she yet 
+retained.  The clock soon after struck one, and, knowing this to be 
+about the time, when the sounds had occurred, she sat down in a 
+chair, near the casement, and endeavoured to compose her spirits; but 
+the anxiety of expectation yet disturbed them.  Every thing, however, 
+remained still; she heard only the solitary step of a sentinel, and 
+the lulling murmur of the woods below, and she again leaned from the 
+casement, and again looked, as if for intelligence, to the planet, 
+which was now risen high above the towers.
+
+Emily continued to listen, but no music came.  'Those were surely no 
+mortal sounds!' said she, recollecting their entrancing melody.  'No 
+inhabitant of this castle could utter such; and, where is the 
+feeling, that could modulate such exquisite expression?  We all know, 
+that it has been affirmed celestial sounds have sometimes been heard 
+on earth.  Father Pierre and Father Antoine declared, that they had 
+sometimes heard them in the stillness of night, when they alone were 
+waking to offer their orisons to heaven.  Nay, my dear father 
+himself, once said, that, soon after my mother's death, as he lay 
+watchful in grief, sounds of uncommon sweetness called him from his 
+bed; and, on opening his window, he heard lofty music pass along the 
+midnight air.  It soothed him, he said; he looked up with confidence 
+to heaven, and resigned her to his God.'
+
+Emily paused to weep at this recollection.  'Perhaps,' resumed she, 
+'perhaps, those strains I heard were sent to comfort,--to encourage 
+me!  Never shall I forget those I heard, at this hour, in Languedoc!  
+Perhaps, my father watches over me, at this moment!'  She wept again 
+in tenderness.  Thus passed the hour in watchfulness and solemn 
+thought; but no sounds returned; and, after remaining at the 
+casement, till the light tint of dawn began to edge the mountain-tops 
+and steal upon the night-shade, she concluded, that they would not 
+return, and retired reluctantly to repose.
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 3
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+ I will advise you where to plant yourselves;
+ Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
+ The moment on 't; for 't must be done to-night.
+     MACBETH
+
+Emily was somewhat surprised, on the following day, to find that 
+Annette had heard of Madame Montoni's confinement in the chamber over 
+the portal, as well as of her purposed visit there, on the 
+approaching night.  That the circumstance, which Barnardine had so 
+solemnly enjoined her to conceal, he had himself told to so 
+indiscreet an hearer as Annette, appeared very improbable, though he 
+had now charged her with a message, concerning the intended 
+interview.  He requested, that Emily would meet him, unattended, on 
+the terrace, at a little after midnight, when he himself would lead 
+her to the place he had promised; a proposal, from which she 
+immediately shrunk, for a thousand vague fears darted athwart her 
+mind, such as had tormented her on the preceding night, and which she 
+neither knew how to trust, or to dismiss.  It frequently occurred to 
+her, that Barnardine might have deceived her, concerning Madame 
+Montoni, whose murderer, perhaps, he really was; and that he had 
+deceived her by order of Montoni, the more easily to draw her into 
+some of the desperate designs of the latter.  The terrible suspicion, 
+that Madame Montoni no longer lived, thus came, accompanied by one 
+not less dreadful for herself.  Unless the crime, by which the aunt 
+had suffered, was instigated merely by resentment, unconnected with 
+profit, a motive, upon which Montoni did not appear very likely to 
+act, its object must be unattained, till the niece was also dead, to 
+whom Montoni knew that his wife's estates must descend.  Emily 
+remembered the words, which had informed her, that the contested 
+estates in France would devolve to her, if Madame Montoni died, 
+without consigning them to her husband, and the former obstinate 
+perseverance of her aunt made it too probable, that she had, to the 
+last, withheld them.  At this instant, recollecting Barnardine's 
+manner, on the preceding night, she now believed, what she had then 
+fancied, that it expressed malignant triumph.  She shuddered at the 
+recollection, which confirmed her fears, and determined not to meet 
+him on the terrace.  Soon after, she was inclined to consider these 
+suspicions as the extravagant exaggerations of a timid and harassed 
+mind, and could not believe Montoni liable to such preposterous 
+depravity as that of destroying, from one motive, his wife and her 
+niece.  She blamed herself for suffering her romantic imagination to 
+carry her so far beyond the bounds of probability, and determined to 
+endeavour to check its rapid flights, lest they should sometimes 
+extend into madness.  Still, however, she shrunk from the thought of 
+meeting Barnardine, on the terrace, at midnight; and still the wish 
+to be relieved from this terrible suspense, concerning her aunt, to 
+see her, and to sooth her sufferings, made her hesitate what to do.
+
+'Yet how is it possible, Annette, I can pass to the terrace at that 
+hour?' said she, recollecting herself, 'the sentinels will stop me, 
+and Signor Montoni will hear of the affair.'
+
+'O ma'amselle! that is well thought of,' replied Annette.  'That is 
+what Barnardine told me about.  He gave me this key, and bade me say 
+it unlocks the door at the end of the vaulted gallery, that opens 
+near the end of the east rampart, so that you need not pass any of 
+the men on watch.  He bade me say, too, that his reason for 
+requesting you to come to the terrace was, because he could take you 
+to the place you want to go to, without opening the great doors of 
+the hall, which grate so heavily.'
+
+Emily's spirits were somewhat calmed by this explanation, which 
+seemed to be honestly given to Annette.  'But why did he desire I 
+would come alone, Annette?' said she.
+
+'Why that was what I asked him myself, ma'amselle.  Says I, Why is my 
+young lady to come alone?--Surely I may come with her!--What harm can 
+I do?  But he said "No--no--I tell you not," in his gruff way.  Nay, 
+says I, I have been trusted in as great affairs as this, I warrant, 
+and it's a hard matter if _I_ can't keep a secret now.  Still he 
+would say nothing but--"No--no--no."  Well, says I, if you will only 
+trust me, I will tell you a great secret, that was told me a month 
+ago, and I have never opened my lips about it yet--so you need not be 
+afraid of telling me.  But all would not do.  Then, ma'amselle, I 
+went so far as to offer him a beautiful new sequin, that Ludovico 
+gave me for a keep sake, and I would not have parted with it for all 
+St. Marco's Place; but even that would not do!  Now what can be the 
+reason of this?  But I know, you know, ma'am, who you are going to 
+see.'
+
+'Pray did Barnardine tell you this?'
+
+'He!  No, ma'amselle, that he did not.'
+
+Emily enquired who did, but Annette shewed, that she COULD keep a 
+secret.
+
+During the remainder of the day, Emily's mind was agitated with 
+doubts and fears and contrary determinations, on the subject of 
+meeting this Barnardine on the rampart, and submitting herself to his 
+guidance, she scarcely knew whither.  Pity for her aunt and anxiety 
+for herself alternately swayed her determination, and night came, 
+before she had decided upon her conduct.  She heard the castle clock 
+strike eleven--twelve--and yet her mind wavered.  The time, however, 
+was now come, when she could hesitate no longer:  and then the 
+interest she felt for her aunt overcame other considerations, and, 
+bidding Annette follow her to the outer door of the vaulted gallery, 
+and there await her return, she descended from her chamber.  The 
+castle was perfectly still, and the great hall, where so lately she 
+had witnessed a scene of dreadful contention, now returned only the 
+whispering footsteps of the two solitary figures gliding fearfully 
+between the pillars, and gleamed only to the feeble lamp they 
+carried.  Emily, deceived by the long shadows of the pillars and by 
+the catching lights between, often stopped, imagining she saw some 
+person, moving in the distant obscurity of the perspective; and, as 
+she passed these pillars, she feared to turn her eyes toward them, 
+almost expecting to see a figure start out from behind their broad 
+shaft.  She reached, however, the vaulted gallery, without 
+interruption, but unclosed its outer door with a trembling hand, and, 
+charging Annette not to quit it and to keep it a little open, that 
+she might be heard if she called, she delivered to her the lamp, 
+which she did not dare to take herself because of the men on watch, 
+and, alone, stepped out upon the dark terrace.  Every thing was so 
+still, that she feared, lest her own light steps should be heard by 
+the distant sentinels, and she walked cautiously towards the spot, 
+where she had before met Barnardine, listening for a sound, and 
+looking onward through the gloom in search of him.  At length, she 
+was startled by a deep voice, that spoke near her, and she paused, 
+uncertain whether it was his, till it spoke again, and she then 
+recognized the hollow tones of Barnardine, who had been punctual to 
+the moment, and was at the appointed place, resting on the rampart 
+wall.  After chiding her for not coming sooner, and saying, that he 
+had been waiting nearly half an hour, he desired Emily, who made no 
+reply, to follow him to the door, through which he had entered the 
+terrace.
+
+While he unlocked it, she looked back to that she had left, and, 
+observing the rays of the lamp stream through a small opening, was 
+certain, that Annette was still there.  But her remote situation 
+could little befriend Emily, after she had quitted the terrace; and, 
+when Barnardine unclosed the gate, the dismal aspect of the passage 
+beyond, shewn by a torch burning on the pavement, made her shrink 
+from following him alone, and she refused to go, unless Annette might 
+accompany her.  This, however, Barnardine absolutely refused to 
+permit, mingling at the same time with his refusal such artful 
+circumstances to heighten the pity and curiosity of Emily towards her 
+aunt, that she, at length, consented to follow him alone to the 
+portal.
+
+He then took up the torch, and led her along the passage, at the 
+extremity of which he unlocked another door, whence they descended, a 
+few steps, into a chapel, which, as Barnardine held up the torch to 
+light her, Emily observed to be in ruins, and she immediately 
+recollected a former conversation of Annette, concerning it, with 
+very unpleasant emotions.  She looked fearfully on the almost 
+roofless walls, green with damps, and on the gothic points of the 
+windows, where the ivy and the briony had long supplied the place of 
+glass, and ran mantling among the broken capitals of some columns, 
+that had once supported the roof.  Barnardine stumbled over the 
+broken pavement, and his voice, as he uttered a sudden oath, was 
+returned in hollow echoes, that made it more terrific.  Emily's heart 
+sunk; but she still followed him, and he turned out of what had been 
+the principal aisle of the chapel.  'Down these steps, lady,' said 
+Barnardine, as he descended a flight, which appeared to lead into the 
+vaults; but Emily paused on the top, and demanded, in a tremulous 
+tone, whither he was conducting her.
+
+'To the portal,' said Barnardine.
+
+'Cannot we go through the chapel to the portal?' said Emily.
+
+'No, Signora, that leads to the inner court, which I don't choose to 
+unlock.  This way, and we shall reach the outer court presently.'
+
+Emily still hesitated; fearing not only to go on, but, since she had 
+gone thus far, to irritate Barnardine by refusing to go further.
+
+'Come, lady,' said the man, who had nearly reached the bottom of the 
+flight, 'make a little haste; I cannot wait here all night.'
+
+'Whither do these steps lead?' said Emily, yet pausing.
+
+'To the portal,' repeated Barnardine, in an angry tone, 'I will wait 
+no longer.'  As he said this, he moved on with the light, and Emily, 
+fearing to provoke him by further delay, reluctantly followed.  From 
+the steps, they proceeded through a passage, adjoining the vaults, 
+the walls of which were dropping with unwholesome dews, and the 
+vapours, that crept along the ground, made the torch burn so dimly, 
+that Emily expected every moment to see it extinguished, and 
+Barnardine could scarcely find his way.  As they advanced, these 
+vapours thickened, and Barnardine, believing the torch was expiring, 
+stopped for a moment to trim it.  As he then rested against a pair of 
+iron gates, that opened from the passage, Emily saw, by uncertain 
+flashes of light, the vaults beyond, and, near her, heaps of earth, 
+that seemed to surround an open grave.  Such an object, in such a 
+scene, would, at any time, have disturbed her; but now she was 
+shocked by an instantaneous presentiment, that this was the grave of 
+her unfortunate aunt, and that the treacherous Barnardine was leading 
+herself to destruction.  The obscure and terrible place, to which he 
+had conducted her, seemed to justify the thought; it was a place 
+suited for murder, a receptacle for the dead, where a deed of horror 
+might be committed, and no vestige appear to proclaim it.  Emily was 
+so overwhelmed with terror, that, for a moment, she was unable to 
+determine what conduct to pursue.  She then considered, that it would 
+be vain to attempt an escape from Barnardine, by flight, since the 
+length and the intricacy of the way she had passed would soon enable 
+him to overtake her, who was unacquainted with the turnings, and 
+whose feebleness would not suffer her to run long with swiftness.  
+She feared equally to irritate him by a disclosure of her suspicions, 
+which a refusal to accompany him further certainly would do; and, 
+since she was already as much in his power as it was possible she 
+could be, if she proceeded, she, at length, determined to suppress, 
+as far as she could, the appearance of apprehension, and to follow 
+silently whither he designed to lead her.  Pale with horror and 
+anxiety, she now waited till Barnardine had trimmed the torch, and, 
+as her sight glanced again upon the grave, she could not forbear 
+enquiring, for whom it was prepared.  He took his eyes from the 
+torch, and fixed them upon her face without speaking.  She faintly 
+repeated the question, but the man, shaking the torch, passed on; and 
+she followed, trembling, to a second flight of steps, having ascended 
+which, a door delivered them into the first court of the castle.  As 
+they crossed it, the light shewed the high black walls around them, 
+fringed with long grass and dank weeds, that found a scanty soil 
+among the mouldering stones; the heavy buttresses, with, here and 
+there, between them, a narrow grate, that admitted a freer 
+circulation of air to the court, the massy iron gates, that led to 
+the castle, whose clustering turrets appeared above, and, opposite, 
+the huge towers and arch of the portal itself.  In this scene the 
+large, uncouth person of Barnardine, bearing the torch, formed a 
+characteristic figure.  This Barnardine was wrapt in a long dark 
+cloak, which scarcely allowed the kind of half-boots, or sandals, 
+that were laced upon his legs, to appear, and shewed only the point 
+of a broad sword, which he usually wore, slung in a belt across his 
+shoulders.  On his head was a heavy flat velvet cap, somewhat 
+resembling a turban, in which was a short feather; the visage beneath 
+it shewed strong features, and a countenance furrowed with the lines 
+of cunning and darkened by habitual discontent.
+
+The view of the court, however, reanimated Emily, who, as she crossed 
+silently towards the portal, began to hope, that her own fears, and 
+not the treachery of Barnardine, had deceived her.  She looked 
+anxiously up at the first casement, that appeared above the lofty 
+arch of the portcullis; but it was dark, and she enquired, whether it 
+belonged to the chamber, where Madame Montoni was confined.  Emily 
+spoke low, and Barnardine, perhaps, did not hear her question, for he 
+returned no answer; and they, soon after, entered the postern door of 
+the gate-way, which brought them to the foot of a narrow stair-case, 
+that wound up one of the towers.
+
+'Up this stair-case the Signora lies,' said Barnardine.
+
+'Lies!' repeated Emily faintly, as she began to ascend.
+
+'She lies in the upper chamber,' said Barnardine.
+
+As they passed up, the wind, which poured through the narrow cavities 
+in the wall, made the torch flare, and it threw a stronger gleam upon 
+the grim and sallow countenance of Barnardine, and discovered more 
+fully the desolation of the place--the rough stone walls, the spiral 
+stairs, black with age, and a suit of antient armour, with an iron 
+visor, that hung upon the walls, and appeared a trophy of some former 
+victory.
+
+Having reached a landing-place, 'You may wait here, lady,' said he, 
+applying a key to the door of a chamber, 'while I go up, and tell the 
+Signora you are coming.'
+
+'That ceremony is unnecessary,' replied Emily, 'my aunt will rejoice 
+to see me.'
+
+'I am not so sure of that,' said Barnardine, pointing to the room he 
+had opened:  'Come in here, lady, while I step up.'
+
+Emily, surprised and somewhat shocked, did not dare to oppose him 
+further, but, as he was turning away with the torch, desired he would 
+not leave her in darkness.  He looked around, and, observing a tripod 
+lamp, that stood on the stairs, lighted and gave it to Emily, who 
+stepped forward into a large old chamber, and he closed the door.  As 
+she listened anxiously to his departing steps, she thought he 
+descended, instead of ascending, the stairs; but the gusts of wind, 
+that whistled round the portal, would not allow her to hear 
+distinctly any other sound.  Still, however, she listened, and, 
+perceiving no step in the room above, where he had affirmed Madame 
+Montoni to be, her anxiety increased, though she considered, that the 
+thickness of the floor in this strong building might prevent any 
+sound reaching her from the upper chamber.  The next moment, in a 
+pause of the wind, she distinguished Barnardine's step descending to 
+the court, and then thought she heard his voice; but, the rising gust 
+again overcoming other sounds, Emily, to be certain on this point, 
+moved softly to the door, which, on attempting to open it, she 
+discovered was fastened.  All the horrid apprehensions, that had 
+lately assailed her, returned at this instant with redoubled force, 
+and no longer appeared like the exaggerations of a timid spirit, but 
+seemed to have been sent to warn her of her fate.  She now did not 
+doubt, that Madame Montoni had been murdered, perhaps in this very 
+chamber; or that she herself was brought hither for the same purpose.  
+The countenance, the manners and the recollected words of Barnardine, 
+when he had spoken of her aunt, confirmed her worst fears.  For some 
+moments, she was incapable of considering of any means, by which she 
+might attempt an escape.  Still she listened, but heard footsteps 
+neither on the stairs, or in the room above; she thought, however, 
+that she again distinguished Barnardine's voice below, and went to a 
+grated window, that opened upon the court, to enquire further.  Here, 
+she plainly heard his hoarse accents, mingling with the blast, that 
+swept by, but they were lost again so quickly, that their meaning 
+could not be interpreted; and then the light of a torch, which seemed 
+to issue from the portal below, flashed across the court, and the 
+long shadow of a man, who was under the arch-way, appeared upon the 
+pavement.  Emily, from the hugeness of this sudden portrait, 
+concluded it to be that of Barnardine; but other deep tones, which 
+passed in the wind, soon convinced her he was not alone, and that his 
+companion was not a person very liable to pity.
+
+When her spirits had overcome the first shock of her situation, she 
+held up the lamp to examine, if the chamber afforded a possibility of 
+an escape.  It was a spacious room, whose walls, wainscoted with 
+rough oak, shewed no casement but the grated one, which Emily had 
+left, and no other door than that, by which she had entered.  The 
+feeble rays of the lamp, however, did not allow her to see at once 
+its full extent; she perceived no furniture, except, indeed, an iron 
+chair, fastened in the centre of the chamber, immediately over which, 
+depending on a chain from the ceiling, hung an iron ring.  Having 
+gazed upon these, for some time, with wonder and horror, she next 
+observed iron bars below, made for the purpose of confining the feet, 
+and on the arms of the chair were rings of the same metal.  As she 
+continued to survey them, she concluded, that they were instruments 
+of torture, and it struck her, that some poor wretch had once been 
+fastened in this chair, and had there been starved to death.  She was 
+chilled by the thought; but, what was her agony, when, in the next 
+moment, it occurred to her, that her aunt might have been one of 
+these victims, and that she herself might be the next!  An acute pain 
+seized her head, she was scarcely able to hold the lamp, and, looking 
+round for support, was seating herself, unconsciously, in the iron 
+chair itself; but suddenly perceiving where she was, she started from 
+it in horror, and sprung towards a remote end of the room.  Here 
+again she looked round for a seat to sustain her, and perceived only 
+a dark curtain, which, descending from the ceiling to the floor, was 
+drawn along the whole side of the chamber.  Ill as she was, the 
+appearance of this curtain struck her, and she paused to gaze upon 
+it, in wonder and apprehension.
+
+It seemed to conceal a recess of the chamber; she wished, yet 
+dreaded, to lift it, and to discover what it veiled:  twice she was 
+withheld by a recollection of the terrible spectacle her daring hand 
+had formerly unveiled in an apartment of the castle, till, suddenly 
+conjecturing, that it concealed the body of her murdered aunt, she 
+seized it, in a fit of desperation, and drew it aside.  Beyond, 
+appeared a corpse, stretched on a kind of low couch, which was 
+crimsoned with human blood, as was the floor beneath.  The features, 
+deformed by death, were ghastly and horrible, and more than one livid 
+wound appeared in the face.  Emily, bending over the body, gazed, for 
+a moment, with an eager, frenzied eye; but, in the next, the lamp 
+dropped from her hand, and she fell senseless at the foot of the 
+couch.
+
+When her senses returned, she found herself surrounded by men, among 
+whom was Barnardine, who were lifting her from the floor, and then 
+bore her along the chamber.  She was sensible of what passed, but the 
+extreme languor of her spirits did not permit her to speak, or move, 
+or even to feel any distinct fear.  They carried her down the stair-
+case, by which she had ascended; when, having reached the arch-way, 
+they stopped, and one of the men, taking the torch from Barnardine, 
+opened a small door, that was cut in the great gate, and, as he 
+stepped out upon the road, the light he bore shewed several men on 
+horseback, in waiting.  Whether it was the freshness of the air, that 
+revived Emily, or that the objects she now saw roused the spirit of 
+alarm, she suddenly spoke, and made an ineffectual effort to 
+disengage herself from the grasp of the ruffians, who held her.
+
+Barnardine, meanwhile, called loudly for the torch, while distant 
+voices answered, and several persons approached, and, in the same 
+instant, a light flashed upon the court of the castle.  Again he 
+vociferated for the torch, and the men hurried Emily through the 
+gate.  At a short distance, under the shelter of the castle walls, 
+she perceived the fellow, who had taken the light from the porter, 
+holding it to a man, busily employed in altering the saddle of a 
+horse, round which were several horsemen, looking on, whose harsh 
+features received the full glare of the torch; while the broken 
+ground beneath them, the opposite walls, with the tufted shrubs, that 
+overhung their summits, and an embattled watch-tower above, were 
+reddened with the gleam, which, fading gradually away, left the 
+remoter ramparts and the woods below to the obscurity of night.
+
+'What do you waste time for, there?' said Barnardine with an oath, as 
+he approached the horsemen.  'Dispatch--dispatch!'
+
+'The saddle will be ready in a minute,' replied the man who was 
+buckling it, at whom Barnardine now swore again, for his negligence, 
+and Emily, calling feebly for help, was hurried towards the horses, 
+while the ruffians disputed on which to place her, the one designed 
+for her not being ready.  At this moment a cluster of lights issued 
+from the great gates, and she immediately heard the shrill voice of 
+Annette above those of several other persons, who advanced.  In the 
+same moment, she distinguished Montoni and Cavigni, followed by a 
+number of ruffian-faced fellows, to whom she no longer looked with 
+terror, but with hope, for, at this instant, she did not tremble at 
+the thought of any dangers, that might await her within the castle, 
+whence so lately, and so anxiously she had wished to escape.  Those, 
+which threatened her from without, had engrossed all her 
+apprehensions.
+
+A short contest ensued between the parties, in which that of Montoni, 
+however, were presently victors, and the horsemen, perceiving that 
+numbers were against them, and being, perhaps, not very warmly 
+interested in the affair they had undertaken, galloped off, while 
+Barnardine had run far enough to be lost in the darkness, and Emily 
+was led back into the castle.  As she re-passed the courts, the 
+remembrance of what she had seen in the portal-chamber came, with all 
+its horror, to her mind; and when, soon after, she heard the gate 
+close, that shut her once more within the castle walls, she shuddered 
+for herself, and, almost forgetting the danger she had escaped, could 
+scarcely think, that any thing less precious than liberty and peace 
+was to be found beyond them.
+
+Montoni ordered Emily to await him in the cedar parlour, whither he 
+soon followed, and then sternly questioned her on this mysterious 
+affair.  Though she now viewed him with horror, as the murderer of 
+her aunt, and scarcely knew what she said in reply to his impatient 
+enquiries, her answers and her manner convinced him, that she had not 
+taken a voluntary part in the late scheme, and he dismissed her upon 
+the appearance of his servants, whom he had ordered to attend, that 
+he might enquire further into the affair, and discover those, who had 
+been accomplices in it.
+
+Emily had been some time in her apartment, before the tumult of her 
+mind allowed her to remember several of the past circumstances.  
+Then, again, the dead form, which the curtain in the portal-chamber 
+had disclosed, came to her fancy, and she uttered a groan, which 
+terrified Annette the more, as Emily forbore to satisfy her 
+curiosity, on the subject of it, for she feared to trust her with so 
+fatal a secret, lest her indiscretion should call down the immediate 
+vengeance of Montoni on herself.
+
+Thus compelled to bear within her own mind the whole horror of the 
+secret, that oppressed it, her reason seemed to totter under the 
+intolerable weight.  She often fixed a wild and vacant look on 
+Annette, and, when she spoke, either did not hear her, or answered 
+from the purpose.  Long fits of abstraction succeeded; Annette spoke 
+repeatedly, but her voice seemed not to make any impression on the 
+sense of the long agitated Emily, who sat fixed and silent, except 
+that, now and then, she heaved a heavy sigh, but without tears.
+
+Terrified at her condition, Annette, at length, left the room, to 
+inform Montoni of it, who had just dismissed his servants, without 
+having made any discoveries on the subject of his enquiry.  The wild 
+description, which this girl now gave of Emily, induced him to follow 
+her immediately to the chamber.
+
+At the sound of his voice, Emily turned her eyes, and a gleam of 
+recollection seemed to shoot athwart her mind, for she immediately 
+rose from her seat, and moved slowly to a remote part of the room.  
+He spoke to her in accents somewhat softened from their usual 
+harshness, but she regarded him with a kind of half curious, half 
+terrified look, and answered only 'yes,' to whatever he said.  Her 
+mind still seemed to retain no other impression, than that of fear.
+
+Of this disorder Annette could give no explanation, and Montoni, 
+having attempted, for some time, to persuade Emily to talk, retired, 
+after ordering Annette to remain with her, during the night, and to 
+inform him, in the morning, of her condition.
+
+When he was gone, Emily again came forward, and asked who it was, 
+that had been there to disturb her.  Annette said it was the Signor-
+Signor Montoni.  Emily repeated the name after her, several times, as 
+if she did not recollect it, and then suddenly groaned, and relapsed 
+into abstraction.
+
+With some difficulty, Annette led her to the bed, which Emily 
+examined with an eager, frenzied eye, before she lay down, and then, 
+pointing, turned with shuddering emotion, to Annette, who, now more 
+terrified, went towards the door, that she might bring one of the 
+female servants to pass the night with them; but Emily, observing her 
+going, called her by name, and then in the naturally soft and 
+plaintive tone of her voice, begged, that she, too, would not forsake 
+her.- -'For since my father died,' added she, sighing, 'every body 
+forsakes me.'
+
+'Your father, ma'amselle!' said Annette, 'he was dead before you knew 
+me.'
+
+'He was, indeed!' rejoined Emily, and her tears began to flow.  She 
+now wept silently and long, after which, becoming quite calm, she at 
+length sunk to sleep, Annette having had discretion enough not to 
+interrupt her tears.  This girl, as affectionate as she was simple, 
+lost in these moments all her former fears of remaining in the 
+chamber, and watched alone by Emily, during the whole night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+     unfold
+ What worlds, or what vast regions, hold
+ Th' immortal mind, that hath forsook
+ Her mansion in this fleshly nook!
+     IL PENSEROSO
+
+Emily's mind was refreshed by sleep.  On waking in the morning, she 
+looked with surprise on Annette, who sat sleeping in a chair beside 
+the bed, and then endeavoured to recollect herself; but the 
+circumstances of the preceding night were swept from her memory, 
+which seemed to retain no trace of what had passed, and she was still 
+gazing with surprise on Annette, when the latter awoke.
+
+'O dear ma'amselle! do you know me?' cried she.
+
+'Know you!  Certainly,' replied Emily, 'you are Annette; but why are 
+you sitting by me thus?'
+
+'O you have been very ill, ma'amselle,--very ill indeed! and I am 
+sure I thought--'
+
+'This is very strange!' said Emily, still trying to recollect the 
+past.--'But I think I do remember, that my fancy has been haunted by 
+frightful dreams.  Good God!' she added, suddenly starting--'surely 
+it was nothing more than a dream!'
+
+She fixed a terrified look upon Annette, who, intending to quiet her, 
+said 'Yes, ma'amselle, it was more than a dream, but it is all over 
+now.'
+
+'She IS murdered, then!' said Emily in an inward voice, and 
+shuddering instantaneously.  Annette screamed; for, being ignorant of 
+the circumstance to which Emily referred, she attributed her manner 
+to a disordered fancy; but, when she had explained to what her own 
+speech alluded, Emily, recollecting the attempt that had been made to 
+carry her off, asked if the contriver of it had been discovered.  
+Annette replied, that he had not, though he might easily be guessed 
+at; and then told Emily she might thank her for her deliverance, who, 
+endeavouring to command the emotion, which the remembrance of her 
+aunt had occasioned, appeared calmly to listen to Annette, though, in 
+truth, she heard scarcely a word that was said.
+
+'And so, ma'amselle,' continued the latter, 'I was determined to be 
+even with Barnardine for refusing to tell me the secret, by finding 
+it out myself; so I watched you, on the terrace, and, as soon as he 
+had opened the door at the end, I stole out from the castle, to try 
+to follow you; for, says I, I am sure no good can be planned, or why 
+all this secrecy?  So, sure enough, he had not bolted the door after 
+him, and, when I opened it, I saw, by the glimmer of the torch, at 
+the other end of the passage, which way you were going.  I followed 
+the light, at a distance, till you came to the vaults of the chapel, 
+and there I was afraid to go further, for I had heard strange things 
+about these vaults.  But then, again, I was afraid to go back, all in 
+darkness, by myself; so by the time Barnardine had trimmed the light, 
+I had resolved to follow you, and I did so, till you came to the 
+great court, and there I was afraid he would see me; so I stopped at 
+the door again, and watched you across to the gates, and, when you 
+was gone up the stairs, I whipt after.  There, as I stood under the 
+gate-way, I heard horses' feet without, and several men talking; and 
+I heard them swearing at Barnardine for not bringing you out, and 
+just then, he had like to have caught me, for he came down the stairs 
+again, and I had hardly time to get out of his way.  But I had heard 
+enough of his secret now, and I determined to be even with him, and 
+to save you, too, ma'amselle, for I guessed it to be some new scheme 
+of Count Morano, though he was gone away.  I ran into the castle, but 
+I had hard work to find my way through the passage under the chapel, 
+and what is very strange, I quite forgot to look for the ghosts they 
+had told me about, though I would not go into that place again by 
+myself for all the world!  Luckily the Signor and Signor Cavigni were 
+up, so we had soon a train at our heels, sufficient to frighten that 
+Barnardine and his rogues, all together.'
+
+Annette ceased to speak, but Emily still appeared to listen.  At 
+length she said, suddenly, 'I think I will go to him myself;--where 
+is he?'
+
+Annette asked who was meant.
+
+'Signor Montoni,' replied Emily.  'I would speak with him;' and 
+Annette, now remembering the order he had given, on the preceding 
+night, respecting her young lady, rose, and said she would seek him 
+herself.
+
+This honest girl's suspicions of Count Morano were perfectly just; 
+Emily, too, when she thought on the scheme, had attributed it to him; 
+and Montoni, who had not a doubt on this subject, also, began to 
+believe, that it was by the direction of Morano, that poison had 
+formerly been mingled with his wine.
+
+The professions of repentance, which Morano had made to Emily, under 
+the anguish of his wound, was sincere at the moment he offered them; 
+but he had mistaken the subject of his sorrow, for, while he thought 
+he was condemning the cruelty of his late design, he was lamenting 
+only the state of suffering, to which it had reduced him.  As these 
+sufferings abated, his former views revived, till, his health being 
+re-established, he again found himself ready for enterprise and 
+difficulty.  The porter of the castle, who had served him, on a 
+former occasion, willingly accepted a second bribe; and, having 
+concerted the means of drawing Emily to the gates, Morano publicly 
+left the hamlet, whither he had been carried after the affray, and 
+withdrew with his people to another at several miles distance.  From 
+thence, on a night agreed upon by Barnardine, who had discovered from 
+the thoughtless prattle of Annette, the most probable means of 
+decoying Emily, the Count sent back his servants to the castle, while 
+he awaited her arrival at the hamlet, with an intention of carrying 
+her immediately to Venice.  How this, his second scheme, was 
+frustrated, has already appeared; but the violent, and various 
+passions with which this Italian lover was now agitated, on his 
+return to that city, can only be imagined.
+
+Annette having made her report to Montoni of Emily's health and of 
+her request to see him, he replied, that she might attend him in the 
+cedar room, in about an hour.  It was on the subject, that pressed so 
+heavily on her mind, that Emily wished to speak to him, yet she did 
+not distinctly know what good purpose this could answer, and 
+sometimes she even recoiled in horror from the expectation of his 
+presence.  She wished, also, to petition, though she scarcely dared 
+to believe the request would be granted, that he would permit her, 
+since her aunt was no more, to return to her native country.
+
+As the moment of interview approached, her agitation increased so 
+much, that she almost resolved to excuse herself under what could 
+scarcely be called a pretence of illness; and, when she considered 
+what could be said, either concerning herself, or the fate of her 
+aunt, she was equally hopeless as to the event of her entreaty, and 
+terrified as to its effect upon the vengeful spirit of Montoni.  Yet, 
+to pretend ignorance of her death, appeared, in some degree, to be 
+sharing its criminality, and, indeed, this event was the only ground, 
+on which Emily could rest her petition for leaving Udolpho.
+
+While her thoughts thus wavered, a message was brought, importing, 
+that Montoni could not see her, till the next day; and her spirits 
+were then relieved, for a moment, from an almost intolerable weight 
+of apprehension.  Annette said, she fancied the Chevaliers were going 
+out to the wars again, for the court-yard was filled with horses, and 
+she heard, that the rest of the party, who went out before, were 
+expected at the castle.  'And I heard one of the soldiers, too,' 
+added she, 'say to his comrade, that he would warrant they'd bring 
+home a rare deal of booty.--So, thinks I, if the Signor can, with a 
+safe conscience, send his people out a-robbing--why it is no business 
+of mine.  I only wish I was once safe out of this castle; and, if it 
+had not been for poor Ludovico's sake, I would have let Count 
+Morano's people run away with us both, for it would have been serving 
+you a good turn, ma'amselle, as well as myself.'
+
+Annette might have continued thus talking for hours for any 
+interruption she would have received from Emily, who was silent, 
+inattentive, absorbed in thought, and passed the whole of this day in 
+a kind of solemn tranquillity, such as is often the result of 
+faculties overstrained by suffering.
+
+When night returned, Emily recollected the mysterious strains of 
+music, that she had lately heard, in which she still felt some degree 
+of interest, and of which she hoped to hear again the soothing 
+sweetness.  The influence of superstition now gained on the weakness 
+of her long-harassed mind; she looked, with enthusiastic expectation, 
+to the guardian spirit of her father, and, having dismissed Annette 
+for the night, determined to watch alone for their return.  It was 
+not yet, however, near the time when she had heard the music on a 
+former night, and anxious to call off her thoughts from distressing 
+subjects, she sat down with one of the few books, that she had 
+brought from France; but her mind, refusing controul, became restless 
+and agitated, and she went often to the casement to listen for a 
+sound.  Once, she thought she heard a voice, but then, every thing 
+without the casement remaining still, she concluded, that her fancy 
+had deceived her.
+
+Thus passed the time, till twelve o'clock, soon after which the 
+distant sounds, that murmured through the castle, ceased, and sleep 
+seemed to reign over all.  Emily then seated herself at the casement, 
+where she was soon recalled from the reverie, into which she sunk, by 
+very unusual sounds, not of music, but like the low mourning of some 
+person in distress.  As she listened, her heart faltered in terror, 
+and she became convinced, that the former sound was more than 
+imaginary.  Still, at intervals, she heard a kind of feeble 
+lamentation, and sought to discover whence it came.  There were 
+several rooms underneath, adjoining the rampart, which had been long 
+shut up, and, as the sound probably rose from one of these, she 
+leaned from the casement to observe, whether any light was visible 
+there.  The chambers, as far as she could perceive, were quite dark, 
+but, at a little distance, on the rampart below, she thought she saw 
+something moving.
+
+The faint twilight, which the stars shed, did not enable her to 
+distinguish what it was; but she judged it to be a sentinel, on 
+watch, and she removed her light to a remote part of the chamber, 
+that she might escape notice, during her further observation.
+
+The same object still appeared.  Presently, it advanced along the 
+rampart, towards her window, and she then distinguished something 
+like a human form, but the silence, with which it moved, convinced 
+her it was no sentinel.  As it drew near, she hesitated whether to 
+retire; a thrilling curiosity inclined her to stay, but a dread of 
+she scarcely knew what warned her to withdraw.
+
+While she paused, the figure came opposite to her casement, and was 
+stationary.  Every thing remained quiet; she had not heard even a 
+foot-fall; and the solemnity of this silence, with the mysterious 
+form she saw, subdued her spirits, so that she was moving from the 
+casement, when, on a sudden, she observed the figure start away, and 
+glide down the rampart, after which it was soon lost in the obscurity 
+of night.  Emily continued to gaze, for some time, on the way it had 
+passed, and then retired within her chamber, musing on this strange 
+circumstance, and scarcely doubting, that she had witnessed a 
+supernatural appearance.
+
+When her spirits recovered composure, she looked round for some other 
+explanation.  Remembering what she had heard of the daring 
+enterprises of Montoni, it occurred to her, that she had just seen 
+some unhappy person, who, having been plundered by his banditti, was 
+brought hither a captive; and that the music she had formerly heard, 
+came from him.  Yet, if they had plundered him, it still appeared 
+improbable, that they should have brought him to the castle, and it 
+was also more consistent with the manners of banditti to murder those 
+they rob, than to make them prisoners.  But what, more than any other 
+circumstance, contradicted the supposition, that it was a prisoner, 
+was that it wandered on the terrace, without a guard:  a 
+consideration, which made her dismiss immediately her first surmise.
+
+Afterwards, she was inclined to believe, that Count Morano had 
+obtained admittance into the castle; but she soon recollected the 
+difficulties and dangers, that must have opposed such an enterprise, 
+and that, if he had so far succeeded, to come alone and in silence to 
+her casement at midnight was not the conduct he would have adopted, 
+particularly since the private stair-case, communicating with her 
+apartment, was known to him; neither would he have uttered the dismal 
+sounds she had heard.
+
+Another suggestion represented, that this might be some person, who 
+had designs upon the castle; but the mournful sounds destroyed, also, 
+that probability.  Thus, enquiry only perplexed her.  Who, or what, 
+it could be that haunted this lonely hour, complaining in such 
+doleful accents and in such sweet music (for she was still inclined 
+to believe, that the former strains and the late appearance were 
+connected,) she had no means of ascertaining; and imagination again 
+assumed her empire, and roused the mysteries of superstition.
+
+She determined, however, to watch on the following night, when her 
+doubts might, perhaps, be cleared up; and she almost resolved to 
+address the figure, if it should appear again.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+ Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp,
+ Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres,
+ Lingering, and sitting, by a new-made grave.
+     MILTON
+
+On the following day, Montoni sent a second excuse to Emily, who was 
+surprised at the circumstance.  'This is very strange!' said she to 
+herself.  'His conscience tells him the purport of my visit, and he 
+defers it, to avoid an explanation.'  She now almost resolved to 
+throw herself in his way, but terror checked the intention, and this 
+day passed, as the preceding one, with Emily, except that a degree of 
+awful expectation, concerning the approaching night, now somewhat 
+disturbed the dreadful calmness that had pervaded her mind.
+
+Towards evening, the second part of the band, which had made the 
+first excursion among the mountains, returned to the castle, where, 
+as they entered the courts, Emily, in her remote chamber, heard their 
+loud shouts and strains of exultation, like the orgies of furies over 
+some horrid sacrifice.  She even feared they were about to commit 
+some barbarous deed; a conjecture from which, however, Annette soon 
+relieved her, by telling, that the people were only exulting over the 
+plunder they had brought with them.  This circumstance still further 
+confirmed her in the belief, that Montoni had really commenced to be 
+a captain of banditti, and meant to retrieve his broken fortunes by 
+the plunder of travellers!  Indeed, when she considered all the 
+circumstances of his situation--in an armed, and almost inaccessible 
+castle, retired far among the recesses of wild and solitary 
+mountains, along whose distant skirts were scattered towns, and 
+cities, whither wealthy travellers were continually passing--this 
+appeared to be the situation of all others most suited for the 
+success of schemes of rapine, and she yielded to the strange thought, 
+that Montoni was become a captain of robbers.  His character also, 
+unprincipled, dauntless, cruel and enterprising, seemed to fit him 
+for the situation.  Delighting in the tumult and in the struggles of 
+life, he was equally a stranger to pity and to fear; his very courage 
+was a sort of animal ferocity; not the noble impulse of a principle, 
+such as inspirits the mind against the oppressor, in the cause of the 
+oppressed; but a constitutional hardiness of nerve, that cannot feel, 
+and that, therefore, cannot fear.
+
+Emily's supposition, however natural, was in part erroneous, for she 
+was a stranger to the state of this country and to the circumstances, 
+under which its frequent wars were partly conducted.  The revenues of 
+the many states of Italy being, at that time, insufficient to the 
+support of standing armies, even during the short periods, which the 
+turbulent habits both of the governments and the people permitted to 
+pass in peace, an order of men arose not known in our age, and but 
+faintly described in the history of their own.  Of the soldiers, 
+disbanded at the end of every war, few returned to the safe, but 
+unprofitable occupations, then usual in peace.  Sometimes they passed 
+into other countries, and mingled with armies, which still kept the 
+field.  Sometimes they formed themselves into bands of robbers, and 
+occupied remote fortresses, where their desperate character, the 
+weakness of the governments which they offended, and the certainty, 
+that they could be recalled to the armies, when their presence should 
+be again wanted, prevented them from being much pursued by the civil 
+power; and, sometimes, they attached themselves to the fortunes of a 
+popular chief, by whom they were led into the service of any state, 
+which could settle with him the price of their valour.  From this 
+latter practice arose their name--CONDOTTIERI; a term formidable all 
+over Italy, for a period, which concluded in the earlier part of the 
+seventeenth century, but of which it is not so easy to ascertain the 
+commencement.
+
+Contests between the smaller states were then, for the most part, 
+affairs of enterprize alone, and the probabilities of success were 
+estimated, not from the skill, but from the personal courage of the 
+general, and the soldiers.  The ability, which was necessary to the 
+conduct of tedious operations, was little valued.  It was enough to 
+know how a party might be led towards their enemies, with the 
+greatest secrecy, or conducted from them in the compactest order.  
+The officer was to precipitate himself into a situation, where, but 
+for his example, the soldiers might not have ventured; and, as the 
+opposed parties knew little of each other's strength, the event of 
+the day was frequently determined by the boldness of the first 
+movements.  In such services the condottieri were eminent, and in 
+these, where plunder always followed success, their characters 
+acquired a mixture of intrepidity and profligacy, which awed even 
+those whom they served.
+
+When they were not thus engaged, their chief had usually his own 
+fortress, in which, or in its neighbourhood, they enjoyed an irksome 
+rest; and, though their wants were, at one time, partly supplied from 
+the property of the inhabitants, the lavish distribution of their 
+plunder at others, prevented them from being obnoxious; and the 
+peasants of such districts gradually shared the character of their 
+warlike visitors.  The neighbouring governments sometimes professed, 
+but seldom endeavoured, to suppress these military communities; both 
+because it was difficult to do so, and because a disguised protection 
+of them ensured, for the service of their wars, a body of men, who 
+could not otherwise be so cheaply maintained, or so perfectly 
+qualified.  The commanders sometimes even relied so far upon this 
+policy of the several powers, as to frequent their capitals; and 
+Montoni, having met them in the gaming parties of Venice and Padua, 
+conceived a desire to emulate their characters, before his ruined 
+fortunes tempted him to adopt their practices.  It was for the 
+arrangement of his present plan of life, that the midnight councils 
+were held at his mansion in Venice, and at which Orsino and some 
+other members of the present community then assisted with 
+suggestions, which they had since executed with the wreck of their 
+fortunes.
+
+On the return of night, Emily resumed her station at the casement.  
+There was now a moon; and, as it rose over the tufted woods, its 
+yellow light served to shew the lonely terrace and the surrounding 
+objects, more distinctly, than the twilight of the stars had done, 
+and promised Emily to assist her observations, should the mysterious 
+form return.  On this subject, she again wavered in conjecture, and 
+hesitated whether to speak to the figure, to which a strong and 
+almost irresistible interest urged her; but terror, at intervals, 
+made her reluctant to do so.
+
+'If this is a person who has designs upon the castle,' said she, 'my 
+curiosity may prove fatal to me; yet the mysterious music, and the 
+lamentations I heard, must surely have proceeded from him:  if so, he 
+cannot be an enemy.'
+
+She then thought of her unfortunate aunt, and, shuddering with grief 
+and horror, the suggestions of imagination seized her mind with all 
+the force of truth, and she believed, that the form she had seen was 
+supernatural.  She trembled, breathed with difficulty, an icy 
+coldness touched her cheeks, and her fears for a while overcame her 
+judgment.  Her resolution now forsook her, and she determined, if the 
+figure should appear, not to speak to it.
+
+Thus the time passed, as she sat at her casement, awed by 
+expectation, and by the gloom and stillness of midnight; for she saw 
+obscurely in the moon-light only the mountains and woods, a cluster 
+of towers, that formed the west angle of the castle, and the terrace 
+below; and heard no sound, except, now and then, the lonely watch-
+word, passed by the centinels on duty, and afterwards the steps of 
+the men who came to relieve guard, and whom she knew at a distance on 
+the rampart by their pikes, that glittered in the moonbeam, and then, 
+by the few short words, in which they hailed their fellows of the 
+night.  Emily retired within her chamber, while they passed the 
+casement.  When she returned to it, all was again quiet.  It was now 
+very late, she was wearied with watching, and began to doubt the 
+reality of what she had seen on the preceding night; but she still 
+lingered at the window, for her mind was too perturbed to admit of 
+sleep.  The moon shone with a clear lustre, that afforded her a 
+complete view of the terrace; but she saw only a solitary centinel, 
+pacing at one end of it; and, at length, tired with expectation, she 
+withdrew to seek rest.
+
+Such, however, was the impression, left on her mind by the music, and 
+the complaining she had formerly heard, as well as by the figure, 
+which she fancied she had seen, that she determined to repeat the 
+watch, on the following night.
+
+Montoni, on the next day, took no notice of Emily's appointed visit, 
+but she, more anxious than before to see him, sent Annette to 
+enquire, at what hour he would admit her.  He mentioned eleven 
+o'clock, and Emily was punctual to the moment; at which she called up 
+all her fortitude to support the shock of his presence and the 
+dreadful recollections it enforced.  He was with several of his 
+officers, in the cedar room; on observing whom she paused; and her 
+agitation increased, while he continued to converse with them, 
+apparently not observing her, till some of his officers, turning 
+round, saw Emily, and uttered an exclamation.  She was hastily 
+retiring, when Montoni's voice arrested her, and, in a faultering 
+accent, she said,--'I would speak with you, Signor Montoni, if you 
+are at leisure.'
+
+'These are my friends,' he replied, 'whatever you would say, they may 
+hear.'
+
+Emily, without replying, turned from the rude gaze of the chevaliers, 
+and Montoni then followed her to the hall, whence he led her to a 
+small room, of which he shut the door with violence.  As she looked 
+on his dark countenance, she again thought she saw the murderer of 
+her aunt; and her mind was so convulsed with horror, that she had not 
+power to recal thought enough to explain the purport of her visit; 
+and to trust herself with the mention of Madame Montoni was more than 
+she dared.
+
+Montoni at length impatiently enquired what she had to say?  'I have 
+no time for trifling,' he added, 'my moments are important.'
+
+Emily then told him, that she wished to return to France, and came to 
+beg, that he would permit her to do so.--But when he looked 
+surprised, and enquired for the motive of the request, she hesitated, 
+became paler than before, trembled, and had nearly sunk at his feet.  
+He observed her emotion, with apparent indifference, and interrupted 
+the silence by telling her, he must be gone.  Emily, however, 
+recalled her spirits sufficiently to enable her to repeat her 
+request.  And, when Montoni absolutely refused it, her slumbering 
+mind was roused.
+
+'I can no longer remain here with propriety, sir,' said she, 'and I 
+may be allowed to ask, by what right you detain me.'
+
+'It is my will that you remain here,' said Montoni, laying his hand 
+on the door to go; 'let that suffice you.'
+
+Emily, considering that she had no appeal from this will, forbore to 
+dispute his right, and made a feeble effort to persuade him to be 
+just.  'While my aunt lived, sir,' said she, in a tremulous voice, 
+'my residence here was not improper; but now, that she is no more, I 
+may surely be permitted to depart.  My stay cannot benefit you, sir, 
+and will only distress me.'
+
+'Who told you, that Madame Montoni was dead?' said Montoni, with an 
+inquisitive eye.  Emily hesitated, for nobody had told her so, and 
+she did not dare to avow the having seen that spectacle in the 
+portal-chamber, which had compelled her to the belief.
+
+'Who told you so?' he repeated, more sternly.
+
+'Alas!  I know it too well,' replied Emily:  'spare me on this 
+terrible subject!'
+
+She sat down on a bench to support herself.
+
+'If you wish to see her,' said Montoni, 'you may; she lies in the 
+east turret.'
+
+He now left the room, without awaiting her reply, and returned to the 
+cedar chamber, where such of the chevaliers as had not before seen 
+Emily, began to rally him, on the discovery they had made; but 
+Montoni did not appear disposed to bear this mirth, and they changed 
+the subject.
+
+Having talked with the subtle Orsino, on the plan of an excursion, 
+which he meditated for a future day, his friend advised, that they 
+should lie in wait for the enemy, which Verezzi impetuously opposed, 
+reproached Orsino with want of spirit, and swore, that, if Montoni 
+would let him lead on fifty men, he would conquer all that should 
+oppose him.
+
+Orsino smiled contemptuously; Montoni smiled too, but he also 
+listened.  Verezzi then proceeded with vehement declamation and 
+assertion, till he was stopped by an argument of Orsino, which he 
+knew not how to answer better than by invective.  His fierce spirit 
+detested the cunning caution of Orsino, whom he constantly opposed, 
+and whose inveterate, though silent, hatred he had long ago incurred.  
+And Montoni was a calm observer of both, whose different 
+qualifications he knew, and how to bend their opposite character to 
+the perfection of his own designs.  But Verezzi, in the heat of 
+opposition, now did not scruple to accuse Orsino of cowardice, at 
+which the countenance of the latter, while he made no reply, was 
+overspread with a livid paleness; and Montoni, who watched his 
+lurking eye, saw him put his hand hastily into his bosom.  But 
+Verezzi, whose face, glowing with crimson, formed a striking contrast 
+to the complexion of Orsino, remarked not the action, and continued 
+boldly declaiming against cowards to Cavigni, who was slily laughing 
+at his vehemence, and at the silent mortification of Orsino, when the 
+latter, retiring a few steps behind, drew forth a stilletto to stab 
+his adversary in the back.  Montoni arrested his half-extended arm, 
+and, with a significant look, made him return the poinard into his 
+bosom, unseen by all except himself; for most of the party were 
+disputing at a distant window, on the situation of a dell where they 
+meant to form an ambuscade.
+
+When Verezzi had turned round, the deadly hatred, expressed on the 
+features of his opponent, raising, for the first time, a suspicion of 
+his intention, he laid his hand on his sword, and then, seeming to 
+recollect himself, strode up to Montoni.
+
+'Signor,' said he, with a significant look at Orsino, 'we are not a 
+band of assassins; if you have business for brave men employ me on 
+this expedition:  you shall have the last drop of my blood; if you 
+have only work for cowards--keep him,' pointing to Orsino, 'and let 
+me quit Udolpho.'
+
+Orsino, still more incensed, again drew forth his stilletto, and 
+rushed towards Verezzi, who, at the same instant, advanced with his 
+sword, when Montoni and the rest of the party interfered and 
+separated them.
+
+'This is the conduct of a boy,' said Montoni to Verezzi, 'not of a 
+man:  be more moderate in your speech.'
+
+'Moderation is the virtue of cowards,' retorted Verezzi; 'they are 
+moderate in every thing--but in fear.'
+
+'I accept your words,' said Montoni, turning upon him with a fierce 
+and haughty look, and drawing his sword out of the scabbard.
+
+'With all my heart,' cried Verezzi, 'though I did not mean them for 
+you.'
+
+He directed a pass at Montoni; and, while they fought, the villain 
+Orsino made another attempt to stab Verezzi, and was again prevented.
+
+The combatants were, at length, separated; and, after a very long and 
+violent dispute, reconciled.  Montoni then left the room with Orsino, 
+whom he detained in private consultation for a considerable time.
+
+Emily, meanwhile, stunned by the last words of Montoni, forgot, for 
+the moment, his declaration, that she should continue in the castle, 
+while she thought of her unfortunate aunt, who, he had said, was laid 
+in the east turret.  In suffering the remains of his wife to lie thus 
+long unburied, there appeared a degree of brutality more shocking 
+than she had suspected even Montoni could practise.
+
+After a long struggle, she determined to accept his permission to 
+visit the turret, and to take a last look of her ill-fated aunt:  
+with which design she returned to her chamber, and, while she waited 
+for Annette to accompany her, endeavoured to acquire fortitude 
+sufficient to support her through the approaching scene; for, though 
+she trembled to encounter it, she knew that to remember the 
+performance of this last act of duty would hereafter afford her 
+consoling satisfaction.
+
+Annette came, and Emily mentioned her purpose, from which the former 
+endeavoured to dissuade her, though without effect, and Annette was, 
+with much difficulty, prevailed upon to accompany her to the turret; 
+but no consideration could make her promise to enter the chamber of 
+death.
+
+They now left the corridor, and, having reached the foot of the 
+stair-case, which Emily had formerly ascended, Annette declared she 
+would go no further, and Emily proceeded alone.  When she saw the 
+track of blood, which she had before observed, her spirits fainted, 
+and, being compelled to rest on the stairs, she almost determined to 
+proceed no further.  The pause of a few moments restored her 
+resolution, and she went on.
+
+As she drew near the landing-place, upon which the upper chamber 
+opened, she remembered, that the door was formerly fastened, and 
+apprehended, that it might still be so.  In this expectation, 
+however, she was mistaken; for the door opened at once, into a dusky 
+and silent chamber, round which she fearfully looked, and then slowly 
+advanced, when a hollow voice spoke.  Emily, who was unable to speak, 
+or to move from the spot, uttered no sound of terror.  The voice 
+spoke again; and, then, thinking that it resembled that of Madame 
+Montoni, Emily's spirits were instantly roused; she rushed towards a 
+bed, that stood in a remote part of the room, and drew aside the 
+curtains.  Within, appeared a pale and emaciated face.  She started 
+back, then again advanced, shuddered as she took up the skeleton 
+hand, that lay stretched upon the quilt; then let it drop, and then 
+viewed the face with a long, unsettled gaze.  It was that of Madame 
+Montoni, though so changed by illness, that the resemblance of what 
+it had been, could scarcely be traced in what it now appeared.  she 
+was still alive, and, raising her heavy eyes, she turned them on her 
+niece.
+
+'Where have you been so long?' said she, in the same hollow tone, 'I 
+thought you had forsaken me.'
+
+'Do you indeed live,' said Emily, at length, 'or is this but a 
+terrible apparition?'  she received no answer, and again she snatched 
+up the hand.  'This is substance,' she exclaimed, 'but it is cold--
+cold as marble!'  She let it fall.  'O, if you really live, speak!' 
+said Emily, in a voice of desperation, 'that I may not lose my 
+senses--say you know me!'
+
+'I do live,' replied Madame Montoni, 'but--I feel that I am about to 
+die.'
+
+Emily clasped the hand she held, more eagerly, and groaned.  They 
+were both silent for some moments.  Then Emily endeavoured to soothe 
+her, and enquired what had reduced her to this present deplorable 
+state.
+
+Montoni, when he removed her to the turret under the improbable 
+suspicion of having attempted his life, had ordered the men employed 
+on the occasion, to observe a strict secrecy concerning her.  To this 
+he was influenced by a double motive.  He meant to debar her from the 
+comfort of Emily's visits, and to secure an opportunity of privately 
+dispatching her, should any new circumstances occur to confirm the 
+present suggestions of his suspecting mind.  His consciousness of the 
+hatred he deserved it was natural enough should at first led him to 
+attribute to her the attempt that had been made upon his life; and, 
+though there was no other reason to believe that she was concerned in 
+that atrocious design, his suspicions remained; he continued to 
+confine her in the turret, under a strict guard; and, without pity or 
+remorse, had suffered her to lie, forlorn and neglected, under a 
+raging fever, till it had reduced her to the present state.
+
+The track of blood, which Emily had seen on the stairs, had flowed 
+from the unbound wound of one of the men employed to carry Madame 
+Montoni, and which he had received in the late affray.  At night 
+these men, having contented themselves with securing the door of 
+their prisoner's room, had retired from guard; and then it was, that 
+Emily, at the time of her first enquiry, had found the turret so 
+silent and deserted.
+
+When she had attempted to open the door of the chamber, her aunt was 
+sleeping, and this occasioned the silence, which had contributed to 
+delude her into a belief, that she was no more; yet had her terror 
+permitted her to persevere longer in the call, she would probably 
+have awakened Madame Montoni, and have been spared much suffering.  
+The spectacle in the portal-chamber, which afterwards confirmed 
+Emily's horrible suspicion, was the corpse of a man, who had fallen 
+in the affray, and the same which had been borne into the servants' 
+hall, where she took refuge from the tumult.  This man had lingered 
+under his wounds for some days; and, soon after his death, his body 
+had been removed on the couch, on which he died, for interment in the 
+vault beneath the chapel, through which Emily and Barnardine had 
+passed to the chamber.
+
+Emily, after asking Madame Montoni a thousand questions concerning 
+herself, left her, and sought Montoni; for the more solemn interest 
+she felt for her aunt, made her now regardless of the resentment her 
+remonstrances might draw upon herself, and of the improbability of 
+his granting what she meant to entreat.
+
+'Madame Montoni is now dying, sir,' said Emily, as soon as she saw 
+him--'Your resentment, surely will not pursue her to the last moment!  
+Suffer her to be removed from that forlorn room to her own apartment, 
+and to have necessary comforts administered.'
+
+'Of what service will that be, if she is dying?' said Montoni, with 
+apparent indifference.
+
+'The service, at leave, of saving you, sir, from a few of those pangs 
+of conscience you must suffer, when you shall be in the same 
+situation,' said Emily, with imprudent indignation, of which Montoni 
+soon made her sensible, by commanding her to quit his presence.  
+Then, forgetting her resentment, and impressed only by compassion for 
+the piteous state of her aunt, dying without succour, she submitted 
+to humble herself to Montoni, and to adopt every persuasive means, 
+that might induce him to relent towards his wife.
+
+For a considerable time he was proof against all she said, and all 
+she looked; but at length the divinity of pity, beaming in Emily's 
+eyes, seemed to touch his heart.  He turned away, ashamed of his 
+better feelings, half sullen and half relenting; but finally 
+consented, that his wife should be removed to her own apartment, and 
+that Emily should attend her.  Dreading equally, that this relief 
+might arrive too late, and that Montoni might retract his concession, 
+Emily scarcely staid to thank him for it, but, assisted by Annette, 
+she quickly prepared Madame Montoni's bed, and they carried her a 
+cordial, that might enable her feeble frame to sustain the fatigue of 
+a removal.
+
+Madame was scarcely arrived in her own apartment, when an order was 
+given by her husband, that she should remain in the turret; but 
+Emily, thankful that she had made such dispatch, hastened to inform 
+him of it, as well as that a second removal would instantly prove 
+fatal, and he suffered his wife to continue where she was.
+
+During this day, Emily never left Madame Montoni, except to prepare 
+such little nourishing things as she judged necessary to sustain her, 
+and which Madame Montoni received with quiet acquiescence, though she 
+seemed sensible that they could not save her from approaching 
+dissolution, and scarcely appeared to wish for life.  Emily meanwhile 
+watched over her with the most tender solicitude, no longer seeing 
+her imperious aunt in the poor object before her, but the sister of 
+her late beloved father, in a situation that called for all her 
+compassion and kindness.  When night came, she determined to sit up 
+with her aunt, but this the latter positively forbade, commanding her 
+to retire to rest, and Annette alone to remain in her chamber.  Rest 
+was, indeed, necessary to Emily, whose spirits and frame were equally 
+wearied by the occurrences and exertions of the day; but she would 
+not leave Madame Montoni, till after the turn of midnight, a period 
+then thought so critical by the physicians.
+
+Soon after twelve, having enjoined Annette to be wakeful, and to call 
+her, should any change appear for the worse, Emily sorrowfully bade 
+Madame Montoni good night, and withdrew to her chamber.  Her spirits 
+were more than usually depressed by the piteous condition of her 
+aunt, whose recovery she scarcely dared to expect.  To her own 
+misfortunes she saw no period, inclosed as she was, in a remote 
+castle, beyond the reach of any friends, had she possessed such, and 
+beyond the pity even of strangers; while she knew herself to be in 
+the power of a man capable of any action, which his interest, or his 
+ambition, might suggest.
+
+Occupied by melancholy reflections and by anticipations as sad, she 
+did not retire immediately to rest, but leaned thoughtfully on her 
+open casement.  The scene before her of woods and mountains, reposing 
+in the moon-light, formed a regretted contrast with the state of her 
+mind; but the lonely murmur of these woods, and the view of this 
+sleeping landscape, gradually soothed her emotions and softened her 
+to tears.
+
+She continued to weep, for some time, lost to every thing, but to a 
+gentle sense of her misfortunes.  When she, at length, took the 
+handkerchief from her eyes, she perceived, before her, on the terrace 
+below, the figure she had formerly observed, which stood fixed and 
+silent, immediately opposite to her casement.  On perceiving it, she 
+started back, and terror for some time overcame curiosity;--at 
+length, she returned to the casement, and still the figure was before 
+it, which she now compelled herself to observe, but was utterly 
+unable to speak, as she had formerly intended.  The moon shone with a 
+clear light, and it was, perhaps, the agitation of her mind, that 
+prevented her distinguishing, with any degree of accuracy, the form 
+before her.  It was still stationary, and she began to doubt, whether 
+it was really animated.
+
+Her scattered thoughts were now so far returned as to remind her, 
+that her light exposed her to dangerous observation, and she was 
+stepping back to remove it, when she perceived the figure move, and 
+then wave what seemed to be its arm, as if to beckon her; and, while 
+she gazed, fixed in fear, it repeated the action.  She now attempted 
+to speak, but the words died on her lips, and she went from the 
+casement to remove her light; as she was doing which, she heard, from 
+without, a faint groan.  Listening, but not daring to return, she 
+presently heard it repeated.
+
+'Good God!--what can this mean!' said she.
+
+Again she listened, but the sound came no more; and, after a long 
+interval of silence, she recovered courage enough to go to the 
+casement, when she again saw the same appearance!  It beckoned again, 
+and again uttered a low sound.
+
+'That groan was surely human!' said she.  'I WILL speak.'  'Who is 
+it,' cried Emily in a faint voice, 'that wanders at this late hour?'
+
+The figure raised its head but suddenly started away, and glided down 
+the terrace.  She watched it, for a long while, passing swiftly in 
+the moon-light, but heard no footstep, till a sentinel from the other 
+extremity of the rampart walked slowly along.  The man stopped under 
+her window, and, looking up, called her by name.  She was retiring 
+precipitately, but, a second summons inducing her to reply, the 
+soldier then respectfully asked if she had seen any thing pass.  On 
+her answering, that she had; he said no more, but walked away down 
+the terrace, Emily following him with her eyes, till he was lost in 
+the distance.  But, as he was on guard, she knew he could not go 
+beyond the rampart, and, therefore, resolved to await his return.
+
+Soon after, his voice was heard, at a distance, calling loudly; and 
+then a voice still more distant answered, and, in the next moment, 
+the watch-word was given, and passed along the terrace.  As the 
+soldiers moved hastily under the casement, she called to enquire what 
+had happened, but they passed without regarding her.
+
+Emily's thoughts returning to the figure she had seen, 'It cannot be 
+a person, who has designs upon the castle,' said she; 'such an one 
+would conduct himself very differently.  He would not venture where 
+sentinels were on watch, nor fix himself opposite to a window, where 
+he perceived he must be observed; much less would he beckon, or utter 
+a sound of complaint.  Yet it cannot be a prisoner, for how could he 
+obtain the opportunity to wander thus?'
+
+If she had been subject to vanity, she might have supposed this 
+figure to be some inhabitant of the castle, who wandered under her 
+casement in the hope of seeing her, and of being allowed to declare 
+his admiration; but this opinion never occurred to Emily, and, if it 
+had, she would have dismissed it as improbable, on considering, that, 
+when the opportunity of speaking had occurred, it had been suffered 
+to pass in silence; and that, even at the moment in which she had 
+spoken, the form had abruptly quitted the place.
+
+While she mused, two sentinels walked up the rampart in earnest 
+conversation, of which she caught a few words, and learned from 
+these, that one of their comrades had fallen down senseless.  Soon 
+after, three other soldiers appeared slowly advancing from the bottom 
+of the terrace, but she heard only a low voice, that came at 
+intervals.  As they drew near, she perceived this to be the voice of 
+him, who walked in the middle, apparently supported by his comrades; 
+and she again called to them, enquiring what had happened.  At the 
+sound of her voice, they stopped, and looked up, while she repeated 
+her question, and was told, that Roberto, their fellow of the watch, 
+had been seized with a fit, and that his cry, as he fell, had caused 
+a false alarm.
+
+'Is he subject to fits?' said Emily.
+
+'Yes, Signora,' replied Roberto; 'but if I had not, what I saw was 
+enough to have frightened the Pope himself.'
+
+'What was it?' enquired Emily, trembling.
+
+'I cannot tell what it was, lady, or what I saw, or how it vanished,' 
+replied the soldier, who seemed to shudder at the recollection.
+
+'Was it the person, whom you followed down the rampart, that has 
+occasioned you this alarm?' said Emily, endeavouring to conceal her 
+own.
+
+'Person!' exclaimed the man,--'it was the devil, and this is not the 
+first time I have seen him!'
+
+'Nor will it be the last,' observed one of his comrades, laughing.
+
+'No, no, I warrant not,' said another.
+
+'Well,' rejoined Roberto, 'you may be as merry now, as you please; 
+you was none so jocose the other night, Sebastian, when you was on 
+watch with Launcelot.'
+
+"Launcelot need not talk of that,' replied Sebastian, 'let him 
+remember how he stood trembling, and unable to give the WORD, till 
+the man was gone,  If the man had not come so silently upon us, I 
+would have seized him, and soon made him tell who he was.'
+
+'What man?' enquired Emily.
+
+'It was no man, lady,' said Launcelot, who stood by, 'but the devil 
+himself, as my comrade says.  What man, who does not live in the 
+castle, could get within the walls at midnight?  Why, I might just as 
+well pretend to march to Venice, and get among all the Senators, when 
+they are counselling; and I warrant I should have more chance of 
+getting out again alive, than any fellow, that we should catch within 
+the gates after dark.  So I think I have proved plainly enough, that 
+this can be nobody that lives out of the castle; and now I will 
+prove, that it can be nobody that lives in the castle--for, if he 
+did--why should he be afraid to be seen?  So after this, I hope 
+nobody will pretend to tell me it was anybody.  No, I say again, by 
+holy Pope! it was the devil, and Sebastian, there, knows this is not 
+the first time we have seen him.'
+
+'When did you see the figure, then, before?' said Emily half smiling, 
+who, though she thought the conversation somewhat too much, felt an 
+interest, which would not permit her to conclude it.
+
+'About a week ago, lady,' said Sebastian, taking up the story.
+
+'And where?'
+
+'On the rampart, lady, higher up.'
+
+'Did you pursue it, that it fled?'
+
+'No, Signora.  Launcelot and I were on watch together, and every 
+thing was so still, you might have heard a mouse stir, when, 
+suddenly, Launcelot says--Sebastian! do you see nothing?  I turned my 
+head a little to the left, as it might be--thus.  No, says I.  Hush! 
+said Launcelot,--look yonder--just by the last cannon on the rampart!  
+I looked, and then thought I did see something move; but there being 
+no light, but what the stars gave, I could not be certain.  We stood 
+quite silent, to watch it, and presently saw something pass along the 
+castle wall just opposite to us!'
+
+'Why did you not seize it, then?' cried a soldier, who had scarcely 
+spoken till now.
+
+'Aye, why did you not seize it?' said Roberto.
+
+'You should have been there to have done that,' replied Sebastian.  
+'You would have been bold enough to have taken it by the throat, 
+though it had been the devil himself; we could not take such a 
+liberty, perhaps, because we are not so well acquainted with him, as 
+you are.  But, as I was saying, it stole by us so quickly, that we 
+had not time to get rid of our surprise, before it was gone.  Then, 
+we knew it was in vain to follow.  We kept constant watch all that 
+night, but we saw it no more.  Next morning, we told some of our 
+comrades, who were on duty on other parts of the ramparts, what we 
+had seen; but they had seen nothing, and laughed at us, and it was 
+not till to-night, that the same figure walked again.'
+
+'Where did you lose it, friend?' said Emily to Roberto.
+
+'When I left you, lady,' replied the man, 'you might see me go down 
+the rampart, but it was not till I reached the east terrace, that I 
+saw any thing.  Then, the moon shining bright, I saw something like a 
+shadow flitting before me, as it were, at some distance.  I stopped, 
+when I turned the corner of the east tower, where I had seen this 
+figure not a moment before,--but it was gone!  As I stood, looking 
+through the old arch, which leads to the east rampart, and where I am 
+sure it had passed, I heard, all of a sudden, such a sound!--it was 
+not like a groan, or a cry, or a shout, or any thing I ever heard in 
+my life.  I heard it only once, and that was enough for me; for I 
+know nothing that happened after, till I found my comrades, here, 
+about me.'
+
+'Come,' said Sebastian, 'let us go to our posts--the moon is setting.  
+Good night, lady!'
+
+'Aye, let us go,' rejoined Roberto.  'Good night, lady.'
+
+'Good night; the holy mother guard you!' said Emily, as she closed 
+her casement and retired to reflect upon the strange circumstance 
+that had just occurred, connecting which with what had happened on 
+former nights, she endeavoured to derive from the whole something 
+more positive, than conjecture.  But her imagination was inflamed, 
+while her judgment was not enlightened, and the terrors of 
+superstition again pervaded her mind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+     There is one within,
+ Besides the things, that we have heard and seen,
+ Recounts most horrid sights, seen by the watch.
+     JULIUS CAESAR
+
+In the morning, Emily found Madame Montoni nearly in the same 
+condition, as on the preceding night; she had slept little, and that 
+little had not refreshed her; she smiled on her niece, and seemed 
+cheered by her presence, but spoke only a few words, and never named 
+Montoni, who, however, soon after, entered the room.  His wife, when 
+she understood that he was there, appeared much agitated, but was 
+entirely silent, till Emily rose from a chair at the bed-side, when 
+she begged, in a feeble voice, that she would not leave her.
+
+The visit of Montoni was not to sooth his wife, whom he knew to be 
+dying, or to console, or to ask her forgiveness, but to make a last 
+effort to procure that signature, which would transfer her estates in 
+Languedoc, after her death, to him rather than to Emily.  This was a 
+scene, that exhibited, on his part, his usual inhumanity, and, on 
+that of Madame Montoni, a persevering spirit, contending with a 
+feeble frame; while Emily repeatedly declared to him her willingness 
+to resign all claim to those estates, rather than that the last hours 
+of her aunt should be disturbed by contention.  Montoni, however, did 
+not leave the room, till his wife, exhausted by the obstinate 
+dispute, had fainted, and she lay so long insensible, that Emily 
+began to fear that the spark of life was extinguished.  At length, 
+she revived, and, looking feebly up at her niece, whose tears were 
+falling over her, made an effort to speak, but her words were 
+unintelligible, and Emily again apprehended she was dying.  
+Afterwards, however, she recovered her speech, and, being somewhat 
+restored by a cordial, conversed for a considerable time, on the 
+subject of her estates in France, with clearness and precision.  She 
+directed her niece where to find some papers relative to them, which 
+she had hitherto concealed from the search of Montoni, and earnestly 
+charged her never to suffer these papers to escape her.
+
+Soon after this conversation, Madame Montoni sunk into a dose, and 
+continued slumbering, till evening, when she seemed better than she 
+had been since her removal from the turret.  Emily never left her, 
+for a moment, till long after midnight, and even then would not have 
+quitted the room, had not her aunt entreated, that she would retire 
+to rest.  She then obeyed, the more willingly, because her patient 
+appeared somewhat recruited by sleep; and, giving Annette the same 
+injunction, as on the preceding night, she withdrew to her own 
+apartment.  But her spirits were wakeful and agitated, and, finding 
+it impossible to sleep, she determined to watch, once more, for the 
+mysterious appearance, that had so much interested and alarmed her.
+
+It was now the second watch of the night, and about the time when the 
+figure had before appeared.  Emily heard the passing steps of the 
+sentinels, on the rampart, as they changed guard; and, when all was 
+again silent, she took her station at the casement, leaving her lamp 
+in a remote part of the chamber, that she might escape notice from 
+without.  The moon gave a faint and uncertain light, for heavy 
+vapours surrounded it, and, often rolling over the disk, left the 
+scene below in total darkness.  It was in one of these moments of 
+obscurity, that she observed a small and lambent flame, moving at 
+some distance on the terrace.  While she gazed, it disappeared, and, 
+the moon again emerging from the lurid and heavy thunder clouds, she 
+turned her attention to the heavens, where the vivid lightnings 
+darted from cloud to cloud, and flashed silently on the woods below.  
+She loved to catch, in the momentary gleam, the gloomy landscape.  
+Sometimes, a cloud opened its light upon a distant mountain, and, 
+while the sudden splendour illumined all its recesses of rock and 
+wood, the rest of the scene remained in deep shadow; at others, 
+partial features of the castle were revealed by the glimpse--the 
+antient arch leading to the east rampart, the turret above, or the 
+fortifications beyond; and then, perhaps, the whole edifice with all 
+its towers, its dark massy walls and pointed casements would appear, 
+and vanish in an instant.
+
+Emily, looking again upon the rampart, perceived the flame she had 
+seen before; it moved onward; and, soon after, she thought she heard 
+a footstep.  The light appeared and disappeared frequently, while, as 
+she watched, it glided under her casements, and, at the same instant, 
+she was certain, that a footstep passed, but the darkness did not 
+permit her to distinguish any object except the flame.  It moved 
+away, and then, by a gleam of lightning, she perceived some person on 
+the terrace.  All the anxieties of the preceding night returned.  
+This person advanced, and the playing flame alternately appeared and 
+vanished.  Emily wished to speak, to end her doubts, whether this 
+figure were human or supernatural; but her courage failed as often as 
+she attempted utterance, till the light moved again under the 
+casement, and she faintly demanded, who passed.
+
+'A friend,' replied a voice.
+
+'What friend?' said Emily, somewhat encouraged 'who are you, and what 
+is that light you carry?'
+
+'I am Anthonio, one of the Signor's soldiers,' replied the voice.
+
+'And what is that tapering light you bear?' said Emily, 'see how it 
+darts upwards,--and now it vanishes!'
+
+'This light, lady,' said the soldier, 'has appeared to-night as you 
+see it, on the point of my lance, ever since I have been on watch; 
+but what it means I cannot tell.'
+
+'This is very strange!' said Emily.
+
+'My fellow-guard,' continued the man, 'has the same flame on his 
+arms; he says he has sometimes seen it before.  I never did; I am but 
+lately come to the castle, for I have not been long a soldier.'
+
+'How does your comrade account for it?' said Emily.
+
+'He says it is an omen, lady, and bodes no good.'
+
+'And what harm can it bode?' rejoined Emily.
+
+'He knows not so much as that, lady.'
+
+Whether Emily was alarmed by this omen, or not, she certainly was 
+relieved from much terror by discovering this man to be only a 
+soldier on duty, and it immediately occurred to her, that it might be 
+he, who had occasioned so much alarm on the preceding night.  There 
+were, however, some circumstances, that still required explanation.  
+As far as she could judge by the faint moon-light, that had assisted 
+her observation, the figure she had seen did not resemble this man 
+either in shape or size; besides, she was certain it had carried no 
+arms.  The silence of its steps, if steps it had, the moaning sounds, 
+too, which it had uttered, and its strange disappearance, were 
+circumstances of mysterious import, that did not apply, with 
+probability, to a soldier engaged in the duty of his guard.
+
+She now enquired of the sentinel, whether he had seen any person 
+besides his fellow watch, walking on the terrace, about midnight; and 
+then briefly related what she had herself observed.
+
+'I was not on guard that night, lady,' replied the man, 'but I heard 
+of what happened.  There are amongst us, who believe strange things.  
+Strange stories, too, have long been told of this castle, but it is 
+no business of mine to repeat them; and, for my part, I have no 
+reason to complain; our Chief does nobly by us.'
+
+'I commend your prudence,' said Emily.  'Good night, and accept this 
+from me,' she added, throwing him a small piece of coin, and then 
+closing the casement to put an end to the discourse.
+
+When he was gone, she opened it again, listened with a gloomy 
+pleasure to the distant thunder, that began to murmur among the 
+mountains, and watched the arrowy lightnings, which broke over the 
+remoter scene.  The pealing thunder rolled onward, and then, reverbed 
+by the mountains, other thunder seemed to answer from the opposite 
+horizon; while the accumulating clouds, entirely concealing the moon, 
+assumed a red sulphureous tinge, that foretold a violent storm.
+
+Emily remained at her casement, till the vivid lightning, that now, 
+every instant, revealed the wide horizon and the landscape below, 
+made it no longer safe to do so, and she went to her couch; but, 
+unable to compose her mind to sleep, still listened in silent awe to 
+the tremendous sounds, that seemed to shake the castle to its 
+foundation.
+
+She had continued thus for a considerable time, when, amidst the 
+uproar of the storm, she thought she heard a voice, and, raising 
+herself to listen, saw the chamber door open, and Annette enter with 
+a countenance of wild affright.
+
+'She is dying, ma'amselle, my lady is dying!' said she.
+
+Emily started up, and ran to Madame Montoni's room.  When she 
+entered, her aunt appeared to have fainted, for she was quite still, 
+and insensible; and Emily with a strength of mind, that refused to 
+yield to grief, while any duty required her activity, applied every 
+means that seemed likely to restore her.  But the last struggle was 
+over--she was gone for ever.
+
+When Emily perceived, that all her efforts were ineffectual, she 
+interrogated the terrified Annette, and learned, that Madame Montoni 
+had fallen into a doze soon after Emily's departure, in which she had 
+continued, until a few minutes before her death.
+
+'I wondered, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'what was the reason my lady 
+did not seem frightened at the thunder, when I was so terrified, and 
+I went often to the bed to speak to her, but she appeared to be 
+asleep; till presently I heard a strange noise, and, on going to her, 
+saw she was dying.'
+
+Emily, at this recital, shed tears.  She had no doubt but that the 
+violent change in the air, which the tempest produced, had effected 
+this fatal one, on the exhausted frame of Madame Montoni.
+
+After some deliberation, she determined that Montoni should not be 
+informed of this event till the morning, for she considered, that he 
+might, perhaps, utter some inhuman expressions, such as in the 
+present temper of her spirits she could not bear.  With Annette 
+alone, therefore, whom she encouraged by her own example, she 
+performed some of the last solemn offices for the dead, and compelled 
+herself to watch during the night, by the body of her deceased aunt.  
+During this solemn period, rendered more awful by the tremendous 
+storm that shook the air, she frequently addressed herself to Heaven 
+for support and protection, and her pious prayers, we may believe, 
+were accepted of the God, that giveth comfort.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+ The midnight clock has toll'd; and hark, the bell
+ Of Death beats slow! heard ye the note profound?
+ It pauses now; and now, with rising knell,
+ Flings to the hollow gale its sullen sound.
+     MASON
+
+When Montoni was informed of the death of his wife, and considered 
+that she had died without giving him the signature so necessary to 
+the accomplishment of his wishes, no sense of decency restrained the 
+expression of his resentment.  Emily anxiously avoided his presence, 
+and watched, during two days and two nights, with little 
+intermission, by the corpse of her late aunt.  Her mind deeply 
+impressed with the unhappy fate of this object, she forgot all her 
+faults, her unjust and imperious conduct to herself; and, remembering 
+only her sufferings, thought of her only with tender compassion.  
+Sometimes, however, she could not avoid musing upon the strange 
+infatuation that had proved so fatal to her aunt, and had involved 
+herself in a labyrinth of misfortune, from which she saw no means of 
+escaping,--the marriage with Montoni.  But, when she considered this 
+circumstance, it was 'more in sorrow than in anger,'--more for the 
+purpose of indulging lamentation, than reproach.
+
+In her pious cares she was not disturbed by Montoni, who not only 
+avoided the chamber, where the remains of his wife were laid, but 
+that part of the castle adjoining to it, as if he had apprehended a 
+contagion in death.  He seemed to have given no orders respecting the 
+funeral, and Emily began to fear he meant to offer a new insult to 
+the memory of Madame Montoni; but from this apprehension she was 
+relieved, when, on the evening of the second day, Annette informed 
+her, that the interment was to take place that night.  She knew, that 
+Montoni would not attend; and it was so very grievous to her to think 
+that the remains of her unfortunate aunt would pass to the grave 
+without one relative, or friend to pay them the last decent rites, 
+that she determined to be deterred by no considerations for herself, 
+from observing this duty.  She would otherwise have shrunk from the 
+circumstance of following them to the cold vault, to which they were 
+to be carried by men, whose air and countenances seemed to stamp them 
+for murderers, at the midnight hour of silence and privacy, which 
+Montoni had chosen for committing, if possible, to oblivion the 
+reliques of a woman, whom his harsh conduct had, at least, 
+contributed to destroy.
+
+Emily, shuddering with emotions of horror and grief, assisted by 
+Annette, prepared the corpse for interment; and, having wrapt it in 
+cerements, and covered it with a winding-sheet, they watched beside 
+it, till past midnight, when they heard the approaching footsteps of 
+the men, who were to lay it in its earthy bed.  It was with 
+difficulty, that Emily overcame her emotion, when, the door of the 
+chamber being thrown open, their gloomy countenances were seen by the 
+glare of the torch they carried, and two of them, without speaking, 
+lifted the body on their shoulders, while the third preceding them 
+with the light, descended through the castle towards the grave, which 
+was in the lower vault of the chapel within the castle walls.
+
+They had to cross two courts, towards the east wing of the castle, 
+which, adjoining the chapel, was, like it, in ruins:  but the silence 
+and gloom of these courts had now little power over Emily's mind, 
+occupied as it was, with more mournful ideas; and she scarcely heard 
+the low and dismal hooting of the night-birds, that roosted among the 
+ivyed battlements of the ruin, or perceived the still flittings of 
+the bat, which frequently crossed her way.  But, when, having entered 
+the chapel, and passed between the mouldering pillars of the aisles, 
+the bearers stopped at a flight of steps, that led down to a low 
+arched door, and, their comrade having descended to unlock it, she 
+saw imperfectly the gloomy abyss beyond;--saw the corpse of her aunt 
+carried down these steps, and the ruffian-like figure, that stood 
+with a torch at the bottom to receive it--all her fortitude was lost 
+in emotions of inexpressible grief and terror.  She turned to lean 
+upon Annette, who was cold and trembling like herself, and she 
+lingered so long on the summit of the flight, that the gleam of the 
+torch began to die away on the pillars of the chapel, and the men 
+were almost beyond her view.  Then, the gloom around her awakening 
+other fears, and a sense of what she considered to be her duty 
+overcoming her reluctance, she descended to the vaults, following the 
+echo of footsteps and the faint ray, that pierced the darkness, till 
+the harsh grating of a distant door, that was opened to receive the 
+corpse, again appalled her.
+
+After the pause of a moment, she went on, and, as she entered the 
+vaults, saw between the arches, at some distance, the men lay down 
+the body near the edge of an open grave, where stood another of 
+Montoni's men and a priest, whom she did not observe, till he began 
+the burial service; then, lifting her eyes from the ground, she saw 
+the venerable figure of the friar, and heard him in a low voice, 
+equally solemn and affecting, perform the service for the dead.  At 
+the moment, in which they let down the body into the earth, the scene 
+was such as only the dark pencil of a Domenichino, perhaps, could 
+have done justice to.  The fierce features and wild dress of the 
+condottieri, bending with their torches over the grave, into which 
+the corpse was descending, were contrasted by the venerable figure of 
+the monk, wrapt in long black garments, his cowl thrown back from his 
+pale face, on which the light gleaming strongly shewed the lines of 
+affliction softened by piety, and the few grey locks, which time had 
+spared on his temples:  while, beside him, stood the softer form of 
+Emily, who leaned for support upon Annette; her face half averted, 
+and shaded by a thin veil, that fell over her figure; and her mild 
+and beautiful countenance fixed in grief so solemn as admitted not of 
+tears, while she thus saw committed untimely to the earth her last 
+relative and friend.  The gleams, thrown between the arches of the 
+vaults, where, here and there, the broken ground marked the spots in 
+which other bodies had been recently interred, and the general 
+obscurity beyond were circumstances, that alone would have led on the 
+imagination of a spectator to scenes more horrible, than even that, 
+which was pictured at the grave of the misguided and unfortunate 
+Madame Montoni.
+
+When the service was over, the friar regarded Emily with attention 
+and surprise, and looked as if he wished to speak to her, but was 
+restrained by the presence of the condottieri, who, as they now led 
+the way to the courts, amused themselves with jokes upon his holy 
+order, which he endured in silence, demanding only to be conducted 
+safely to his convent, and to which Emily listened with concern and 
+even horror.  When they reached the court, the monk gave her his 
+blessing, and, after a lingering look of pity, turned away to the 
+portal, whither one of the men carried a torch; while Annette, 
+lighting another, preceded Emily to her apartment.  The appearance of 
+the friar and the expression of tender compassion, with which he had 
+regarded her, had interested Emily, who, though it was at her earnest 
+supplication, that Montoni had consented to allow a priest to perform 
+the last rites for his deceased wife, knew nothing concerning this 
+person, till Annette now informed her, that he belonged to a 
+monastery, situated among the mountains at a few miles distance.  The 
+Superior, who regarded Montoni and his associates, not only with 
+aversion, but with terror, had probably feared to offend him by 
+refusing his request, and had, therefore, ordered a monk to officiate 
+at the funeral, who, with the meek spirit of a christian, had 
+overcome his reluctance to enter the walls of such a castle, by the 
+wish of performing what he considered to be his duty, and, as the 
+chapel was built on consecrated ground, had not objected to commit to 
+it the remains of the late unhappy Madame Montoni.
+
+Several days passed with Emily in total seclusion, and in a state of 
+mind partaking both of terror for herself, and grief for the 
+departed.  She, at length, determined to make other efforts to 
+persuade Montoni to permit her return to France.  Why he should wish 
+to detain her, she could scarcely dare to conjecture; but it was too 
+certain that he did so, and the absolute refusal he had formerly 
+given to her departure allowed her little hope, that he would now 
+consent to it.  But the horror, which his presence inspired, made her 
+defer, from day to day, the mention of this subject; and at last she 
+was awakened from her inactivity only by a message from him, desiring 
+her attendance at a certain hour.  She began to hope he meant to 
+resign, now that her aunt was no more, the authority he had usurped 
+over her; till she recollected, that the estates, which had 
+occasioned so much contention, were now hers, and she then feared 
+Montoni was about to employ some stratagem for obtaining them, and 
+that he would detain her his prisoner, till he succeeded.  This 
+thought, instead of overcoming her with despondency, roused all the 
+latent powers of her fortitude into action; and the property, which 
+she would willingly have resigned to secure the peace of her aunt, 
+she resolved, that no common sufferings of her own should ever compel 
+her to give to Montoni.  For Valancourt's sake also she determined to 
+preserve these estates, since they would afford that competency, by 
+which she hoped to secure the comfort of their future lives.  As she 
+thought of this, she indulged the tenderness of tears, and 
+anticipated the delight of that moment, when, with affectionate 
+generosity, she might tell him they were his own.  She saw the smile, 
+that lighted up his features--the affectionate regard, which spoke at 
+once his joy and thanks; and, at this instant, she believed she could 
+brave any suffering, which the evil spirit of Montoni might be 
+preparing for her.  Remembering then, for the first time since her 
+aunt's death, the papers relative to the estates in question, she 
+determined to search for them, as soon as her interview with Montoni 
+was over.
+
+With these resolutions she met him at the appointed time, and waited 
+to hear his intention before she renewed her request.  With him were 
+Orsino and another officer, and both were standing near a table, 
+covered with papers, which he appeared to be examining.
+
+'I sent for you, Emily,' said Montoni, raising his head, 'that you 
+might be a witness in some business, which I am transacting with my 
+friend Orsino.  All that is required of you will be to sign your name 
+to this paper:' he then took one up, hurried unintelligibly over some 
+lines, and, laying it before her on the table, offered her a pen.  
+She took it, and was going to write--when the design of Montoni came 
+upon her mind like a flash of lightning; she trembled, let the pen 
+fall, and refused to sign what she had not read.  Montoni affected to 
+laugh at her scruples, and, taking up the paper, again pretended to 
+read; but Emily, who still trembled on perceiving her danger, and was 
+astonished, that her own credulity had so nearly betrayed her, 
+positively refused to sign any paper whatever.  Montoni, for some 
+time, persevered in affecting to ridicule this refusal; but, when he 
+perceived by her steady perseverance, that she understood his design, 
+he changed his manner, and bade her follow him to another room.  
+There he told her, that he had been willing to spare himself and her 
+the trouble of useless contest, in an affair, where his will was 
+justice, and where she should find it law; and had, therefore, 
+endeavoured to persuade, rather than to compel, her to the practice 
+of her duty.
+
+'I, as the husband of the late Signora Montoni,' he added, 'am the 
+heir of all she possessed; the estates, therefore, which she refused 
+to me in her life-time, can no longer be withheld, and, for your own 
+sake, I would undeceive you, respecting a foolish assertion she once 
+made to you in my hearing--that these estates would be yours, if she 
+died without resigning them to me.  She knew at that moment, she had 
+no power to withhold them from me, after her decease; and I think you 
+have more sense, than to provoke my resentment by advancing an unjust 
+claim.  I am not in the habit of flattering, and you will, therefore, 
+receive, as sincere, the praise I bestow, when I say, that you 
+possess an understanding superior to that of your sex; and that you 
+have none of those contemptible foibles, that frequently mark the 
+female character--such as avarice and the love of power, which latter 
+makes women delight to contradict and to tease, when they cannot 
+conquer.  If I understand your disposition and your mind, you hold in 
+sovereign contempt these common failings of your sex.'
+
+Montoni paused; and Emily remained silent and expecting; for she knew 
+him too well, to believe he would condescend to such flattery, unless 
+he thought it would promote his own interest; and, though he had 
+forborne to name vanity among the foibles of women, it was evident, 
+that he considered it to be a predominant one, since he designed to 
+sacrifice to hers the character and understanding of her whole sex.
+
+'Judging as I do,' resumed Montoni, 'I cannot believe you will 
+oppose, where you know you cannot conquer, or, indeed, that you would 
+wish to conquer, or be avaricious of any property, when you have not 
+justice on your side.  I think it proper, however, to acquaint you 
+with the alternative.  If you have a just opinion of the subject in 
+question, you shall be allowed a safe conveyance to France, within a 
+short period; but, if you are so unhappy as to be misled by the late 
+assertion of the Signora, you shall remain my prisoner, till you are 
+convinced of your error.'
+
+Emily calmly said,
+
+'I am not so ignorant, Signor, of the laws on this subject, as to be 
+misled by the assertion of any person.  The law, in the present 
+instance, gives me the estates in question, and my own hand shall 
+never betray my right.'
+
+'I have been mistaken in my opinion of you, it appears,' rejoined 
+Montoni, sternly.  'You speak boldly, and presumptuously, upon a 
+subject, which you do not understand.  For once, I am willing to 
+pardon the conceit of ignorance; the weakness of your sex, too, from 
+which, it seems, you are not exempt, claims some allowance; but, if 
+you persist in this strain--you have every thing to fear from my 
+justice.'
+
+'From your justice, Signor,' rejoined Emily, 'I have nothing to fear-
+-I have only to hope.'
+
+Montoni looked at her with vexation, and seemed considering what to 
+say.  'I find that you are weak enough,' he resumed, 'to credit the 
+idle assertion I alluded to!  For your own sake I lament this; as to 
+me, it is of little consequence.  Your credulity can punish only 
+yourself; and I must pity the weakness of mind, which leads you to so 
+much suffering as you are compelling me to prepare for you.'
+
+'You may find, perhaps, Signor,' said Emily, with mild dignity, 'that 
+the strength of my mind is equal to the justice of my cause; and that 
+I can endure with fortitude, when it is in resistance of oppression.'
+
+'You speak like a heroine,' said Montoni, contemptuously; 'we shall 
+see whether you can suffer like one.'
+
+Emily was silent, and he left the room.
+
+Recollecting, that it was for Valancourt's sake she had thus 
+resisted, she now smiled complacently upon the threatened sufferings, 
+and retired to the spot, which her aunt had pointed out as the 
+repository of the papers, relative to the estates, where she found 
+them as described; and, since she knew of no better place of 
+concealment, than this, returned them, without examining their 
+contents, being fearful of discovery, while she should attempt a 
+perusal.
+
+To her own solitary chamber she once more returned, and there thought 
+again of the late conversation with Montoni, and of the evil she 
+might expect from opposition to his will.  But his power did not 
+appear so terrible to her imagination, as it was wont to do:  a 
+sacred pride was in her heart, that taught it to swell against the 
+pressure of injustice, and almost to glory in the quiet sufferance of 
+ills, in a cause, which had also the interest of Valancourt for its 
+object.  For the first time, she felt the full extent of her own 
+superiority to Montoni, and despised the authority, which, till now, 
+she had only feared.
+
+As she sat musing, a peal of laughter rose from the terrace, and, on 
+going to the casement, she saw, with inexpressible surprise, three 
+ladies, dressed in the gala habit of Venice, walking with several 
+gentlemen below.  She gazed in an astonishment that made her remain 
+at the window, regardless of being observed, till the group passed 
+under it; and, one of the strangers looking up, she perceived the 
+features of Signora Livona, with whose manners she had been so much 
+charmed, the day after her arrival at Venice, and who had been there 
+introduced at the table of Montoni.  This discovery occasioned her an 
+emotion of doubtful joy; for it was matter of joy and comfort to 
+know, that a person, of a mind so gentle, as that of Signora Livona 
+seemed to be, was near her; yet there was something so extraordinary 
+in her being at this castle, circumstanced as it now was, and 
+evidently, by the gaiety of her air, with her own consent, that a 
+very painful surmise arose, concerning her character.  But the 
+thought was so shocking to Emily, whose affection the fascinating 
+manners of the Signora had won, and appeared so improbable, when she 
+remembered these manners, that she dismissed it almost instantly.
+
+On Annette's appearance, however, she enquired, concerning these 
+strangers; and the former was as eager to tell, as Emily was to 
+learn.
+
+'They are just come, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'with two Signors 
+from Venice, and I was glad to see such Christian faces once again.--
+But what can they mean by coming here?  They must surely be stark mad 
+to come freely to such a place as this!  Yet they do come freely, for 
+they seem merry enough, I am sure.'
+
+'They were taken prisoners, perhaps?' said Emily.
+
+'Taken prisoners!' exclaimed Annette; 'no, indeed, ma'amselle, not 
+they.  I remember one of them very well at Venice:  she came two or 
+three times, to the Signor's you know, ma'amselle, and it was said, 
+but I did not believe a word of it--it was said, that the Signor 
+liked her better than he should do.  Then why, says I, bring her to 
+my lady?  Very true, said Ludovico; but he looked as if he knew more, 
+too.'
+
+Emily desired Annette would endeavour to learn who these ladies were, 
+as well as all she could concerning them; and she then changed the 
+subject, and spoke of distant France.
+
+'Ah, ma'amselle! we shall never see it more!' said Annette, almost 
+weeping.--'I must come on my travels, forsooth!'
+
+Emily tried to sooth and to cheer her, with a hope, in which she 
+scarcely herself indulged.
+
+'How--how, ma'amselle, could you leave France, and leave Mons. 
+Valancourt, too?' said Annette, sobbing.  'I--I--am sure, if Ludovico 
+had been in France, I would never have left it.'
+
+'Why do you lament quitting France, then?' said Emily, trying to 
+smile, 'since, if you had remained there, you would not have found 
+Ludovico.'
+
+'Ah, ma'amselle!  I only wish I was out of this frightful castle, 
+serving you in France, and I would care about nothing else!'
+
+'Thank you, my good Annette, for your affectionate regard; the time 
+will come, I hope, when you may remember the expression of that wish 
+with pleasure.'
+
+Annette departed on her business, and Emily sought to lose the sense 
+of her own cares, in the visionary scenes of the poet; but she had 
+again to lament the irresistible force of circumstances over the 
+taste and powers of the mind; and that it requires a spirit at ease 
+to be sensible even to the abstract pleasures of pure intellect.  The 
+enthusiasm of genius, with all its pictured scenes, now appeared 
+cold, and dim.  As she mused upon the book before her, she 
+involuntarily exclaimed, 'Are these, indeed, the passages, that have 
+so often given me exquisite delight?  Where did the charm exist?--Was 
+it in my mind, or in the imagination of the poet?  It lived in each,' 
+said she, pausing.  'But the fire of the poet is vain, if the mind of 
+his reader is not tempered like his own, however it may be inferior 
+to his in power.'
+
+Emily would have pursued this train of thinking, because it relieved 
+her from more painful reflection, but she found again, that thought 
+cannot always be controlled by will; and hers returned to the 
+consideration of her own situation.
+
+In the evening, not choosing to venture down to the ramparts, where 
+she would be exposed to the rude gaze of Montoni's associates, she 
+walked for air in the gallery, adjoining her chamber; on reaching the 
+further end of which she heard distant sounds of merriment and 
+laughter.  It was the wild uproar of riot, not the cheering gaiety of 
+tempered mirth; and seemed to come from that part of the castle, 
+where Montoni usually was.  Such sounds, at this time, when her aunt 
+had been so few days dead, particularly shocked her, consistent as 
+they were with the late conduct of Montoni.
+
+As she listened, she thought she distinguished female voices mingling 
+with the laughter, and this confirmed her worst surmise, concerning 
+the character of Signora Livona and her companions. It was evident, 
+that they had not been brought hither by compulsion; and she beheld 
+herself in the remote wilds of the Apennine, surrounded by men, whom 
+she considered to be little less than ruffians, and their worst 
+associates, amid scenes of vice, from which her soul recoiled in 
+horror.  It was at this moment, when the scenes of the present and 
+the future opened to her imagination, that the image of Valancourt 
+failed in its influence, and her resolution shook with dread.  She 
+thought she understood all the horrors, which Montoni was preparing 
+for her, and shrunk from an encounter with such remorseless 
+vengeance, as he could inflict.  The disputed estates she now almost 
+determined to yield at once, whenever he should again call upon her, 
+that she might regain safety and freedom; but then, the remembrance 
+of Valancourt would steal to her heart, and plunge her into the 
+distractions of doubt.
+
+She continued walking in the gallery, till evening threw its 
+melancholy twilight through the painted casements, and deepened the 
+gloom of the oak wainscoting around her; while the distant 
+perspective of the corridor was so much obscured, as to be 
+discernible only by the glimmering window, that terminated it.
+
+Along the vaulted halls and passages below, peals of laughter echoed 
+faintly, at intervals, to this remote part of the castle, and seemed 
+to render the succeeding stillness more dreary.  Emily, however, 
+unwilling to return to her more forlorn chamber, whither Annette was 
+not yet come, still paced the gallery.  As she passed the door of the 
+apartment, where she had once dared to lift the veil, which 
+discovered to her a spectacle so horrible, that she had never after 
+remembered it, but with emotions of indescribable awe, this 
+remembrance suddenly recurred.  It now brought with it reflections 
+more terrible, than it had yet done, which the late conduct of 
+Montoni occasioned; and, hastening to quit the gallery, while she had 
+power to do so, she heard a sudden step behind her.--It might be that 
+of Annette; but, turning fearfully to look, she saw, through the 
+gloom, a tall figure following her, and all the horrors of that 
+chamber rushed upon her mind.  In the next moment, she found herself 
+clasped in the arms of some person, and heard a deep voice murmur in 
+her ear.
+
+When she had power to speak, or to distinguish articulated sounds, 
+she demanded who detained her.
+
+'It is I,' replied the voice--'Why are you thus alarmed?'
+
+She looked on the face of the person who spoke, but the feeble light, 
+that gleamed through the high casement at the end of the gallery, did 
+not permit her to distinguish the features.
+
+'Whoever you are,' said Emily, in a trembling voice, 'for heaven's 
+sake let me go!'
+
+'My charming Emily,' said the man, 'why will you shut yourself up in 
+this obscure place, when there is so much gaiety below?  Return with 
+me to the cedar parlour, where you will be the fairest ornament of 
+the party;--you shall not repent the exchange.'
+
+Emily disdained to reply, and still endeavoured to liberate herself.
+
+'Promise, that you will come,' he continued, 'and I will release you 
+immediately; but first give me a reward for so doing.'
+
+'Who are you?' demanded Emily, in a tone of mingled terror and 
+indignation, while she still struggled for liberty--'who are you, 
+that have the cruelty thus to insult me?'
+
+'Why call me cruel?' said the man, 'I would remove you from this 
+dreary solitude to a merry party below.  Do you not know me?'
+
+Emily now faintly remembered, that he was one of the officers who 
+were with Montoni when she attended him in the morning.  'I thank you 
+for the kindness of your intention,' she replied, without appearing 
+to understand him, 'but I wish for nothing so much as that you would 
+leave me.'
+
+'Charming Emily!' said he, 'give up this foolish whim for solitude, 
+and come with me to the company, and eclipse the beauties who make 
+part of it; you, only, are worthy of my love.'  He attempted to kiss 
+her hand, but the strong impulse of her indignation gave her power to 
+liberate herself, and she fled towards the chamber.  She closed the 
+door, before he reached it, having secured which, she sunk in a 
+chair, overcome by terror and by the exertion she had made, while she 
+heard his voice, and his attempts to open the door, without having 
+the power to raise herself.  At length, she perceived him depart, and 
+had remained, listening, for a considerable time, and was somewhat 
+revived by not hearing any sound, when suddenly she remembered the 
+door of the private stair-case, and that he might enter that way, 
+since it was fastened only on the other side.  She then employed 
+herself in endeavouring to secure it, in the manner she had formerly 
+done.  It appeared to her, that Montoni had already commenced his 
+scheme of vengeance, by withdrawing from her his protection, and she 
+repented of the rashness, that had made her brave the power of such a 
+man.  To retain the estates seemed to be now utterly impossible, and 
+to preserve her life, perhaps her honour, she resolved, if she should 
+escape the horrors of this night, to give up all claims to the 
+estates, on the morrow, provided Montoni would suffer her to depart 
+from Udolpho.
+
+When she had come to this decision, her mind became more composed, 
+though she still anxiously listened, and often started at ideal 
+sounds, that appeared to issue from the stair-case.
+
+Having sat in darkness for some hours, during all which time Annette 
+did not appear, she began to have serious apprehensions for her; but, 
+not daring to venture down into the castle, was compelled to remain 
+in uncertainty, as to the cause of this unusual absence.
+
+Emily often stole to the stair-case door, to listen if any step 
+approached, but still no sound alarmed her:  determining, however, to 
+watch, during the night, she once more rested on her dark and 
+desolate couch, and bathed the pillow with innocent tears.  She 
+thought of her deceased parents and then of the absent Valancourt, 
+and frequently called upon their names; for the profound stillness, 
+that now reigned, was propitious to the musing sorrow of her mind.
+
+While she thus remained, her ear suddenly caught the notes of distant 
+music, to which she listened attentively, and, soon perceiving this 
+to be the instrument she had formerly heard at midnight, she rose, 
+and stepped softly to the casement, to which the sounds appeared to 
+come from a lower room.
+
+In a few moments, their soft melody was accompanied by a voice so 
+full of pathos, that it evidently sang not of imaginary sorrows.  Its 
+sweet and peculiar tones she thought she had somewhere heard before; 
+yet, if this was not fancy, it was, at most, a very faint 
+recollection.  It stole over her mind, amidst the anguish of her 
+present suffering, like a celestial strain, soothing, and re-assuring 
+her;--'Pleasant as the gale of spring, that sighs on the hunter's 
+ear, when he awakens from dreams of joy, and has heard the music of 
+the spirits of the hill.'*
+
+(*Ossian.  [A. R.])
+
+
+But her emotion can scarcely be imagined, when she heard sung, with 
+the taste and simplicity of true feeling, one of the popular airs of 
+her native province, to which she had so often listened with delight, 
+when a child, and which she had so often heard her father repeat!  To 
+this well-known song, never, till now, heard but in her native 
+country, her heart melted, while the memory of past times returned.  
+The pleasant, peaceful scenes of Gascony, the tenderness and goodness 
+of her parents, the taste and simplicity of her former life--all rose 
+to her fancy, and formed a picture, so sweet and glowing, so 
+strikingly contrasted with the scenes, the characters and the 
+dangers, which now surrounded her--that her mind could not bear to 
+pause upon the retrospect, and shrunk at the acuteness of its own 
+sufferings.
+
+Her sighs were deep and convulsed; she could no longer listen to the 
+strain, that had so often charmed her to tranquillity, and she 
+withdrew from the casement to a remote part of the chamber.  But she 
+was not yet beyond the reach of the music; she heard the measure 
+change, and the succeeding air called her again to the window, for 
+she immediately recollected it to be the same she had formerly heard 
+in the fishing-house in Gascony.  Assisted, perhaps, by the mystery, 
+which had then accompanied this strain, it had made so deep an 
+impression on her memory, that she had never since entirely forgotten 
+it; and the manner, in which it was now sung, convinced her, however 
+unaccountable the circumstances appeared, that this was the same 
+voice she had then heard.  Surprise soon yielded to other emotions; a 
+thought darted, like lightning, upon her mind, which discovered a 
+train of hopes, that revived all her spirits.  Yet these hopes were 
+so new, so unexpected, so astonishing, that she did not dare to 
+trust, though she could not resolve to discourage them.  She sat down 
+by the casement, breathless, and overcome with the alternate emotions 
+of hope and fear; then rose again, leaned from the window, that she 
+might catch a nearer sound, listened, now doubting and then 
+believing, softly exclaimed the name of Valancourt, and then sunk 
+again into the chair.  Yes, it was possible, that Valancourt was near 
+her, and she recollected circumstances, which induced her to believe 
+it was his voice she had just heard.  She remembered he had more than 
+once said that the fishing-house, where she had formerly listened to 
+this voice and air, and where she had seen pencilled sonnets, 
+addressed to herself, had been his favourite haunt, before he had 
+been made known to her; there, too, she had herself unexpectedly met 
+him.  It appeared, from these circumstances, more than probable, that 
+he was the musician, who had formerly charmed her attention, and the 
+author of the lines, which had expressed such tender admiration;--who 
+else, indeed, could it be?  She was unable, at that time, to form a 
+conjecture, as to the writer, but, since her acquaintance with 
+Valancourt, whenever he had mentioned the fishing-house to have been 
+known to him, she had not scrupled to believe that he was the author 
+of the sonnets.
+
+As these considerations passed over her mind, joy, fear and 
+tenderness contended at her heart; she leaned again from the casement 
+to catch the sounds, which might confirm, or destroy her hope, though 
+she did not recollect to have ever heard him sing; but the voice, and 
+the instrument, now ceased.
+
+She considered for a moment whether she should venture to speak:  
+then, not choosing, lest it should be he, to mention his name, and 
+yet too much interested to neglect the opportunity of enquiring, she 
+called from the casement, 'Is that song from Gascony?'  Her anxious 
+attention was not cheered by any reply; every thing remained silent.  
+Her impatience increasing with her fears, she repeated the question; 
+but still no sound was heard, except the sighings of the wind among 
+the battlements above; and she endeavoured to console herself with a 
+belief, that the stranger, whoever he was, had retired, before she 
+had spoken, beyond the reach of her voice, which, it appeared 
+certain, had Valancourt heard and recognized, he would instantly have 
+replied to.  Presently, however, she considered, that a motive of 
+prudence, and not an accidental removal, might occasion his silence; 
+but the surmise, that led to this reflection, suddenly changed her 
+hope and joy to terror and grief; for, if Valancourt were in the 
+castle, it was too probable, that he was here a prisoner, taken with 
+some of his countrymen, many of whom were at that time engaged in the 
+wars of Italy, or intercepted in some attempt to reach her.  Had he 
+even recollected Emily's voice, he would have feared, in these 
+circumstances, to reply to it, in the presence of the men, who 
+guarded his prison.
+
+What so lately she had eagerly hoped she now believed she dreaded;--
+dreaded to know, that Valancourt was near her; and, while she was 
+anxious to be relieved from her apprehension for his safety, she 
+still was unconscious, that a hope of soon seeing him, struggled with 
+the fear.
+
+She remained listening at the casement, till the air began to 
+freshen, and one high mountain in the east to glimmer with the 
+morning; when, wearied with anxiety, she retired to her couch, where 
+she found it utterly impossible to sleep, for joy, tenderness, doubt 
+and apprehension, distracted her during the whole night.  Now she 
+rose from the couch, and opened the casement to listen; then she 
+would pace the room with impatient steps, and, at length, return with 
+despondence to her pillow.  Never did hours appear to move so 
+heavily, as those of this anxious night; after which she hoped that 
+Annette might appear, and conclude her present state of torturing 
+suspense.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+     might we but hear
+ The folded flocks penn'd in their watled cotes,
+ Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops,
+ Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock
+ Count the night watches to his feathery dames,
+ 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering
+ In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs.
+     MILTON
+
+In the morning, Emily was relieved from her fears for Annette, who 
+came at an early hour.
+
+'Here were fine doings in the castle, last night, ma'amselle,' said 
+she, as soon as she entered the room,--'fine doings, indeed!  Was you 
+not frightened, ma'amselle, at not seeing me?'
+
+'I was alarmed both on your account and on my own,' replied Emily--
+'What detained you?'
+
+'Aye, I said so, I told him so; but it would not do.  It was not my 
+fault, indeed, ma'amselle, for I could not get out.  That rogue 
+Ludovico locked me up again.'
+
+'Locked you up!' said Emily, with displeasure, 'Why do you permit 
+Ludovico to lock you up?'
+
+'Holy Saints!' exclaimed Annette, 'how can I help it!  If he will 
+lock the door, ma'amselle, and take away the key, how am I to get 
+out, unless I jump through the window?  But that I should not mind so 
+much, if the casements here were not all so high; one can hardly 
+scramble up to them on the inside, and one should break one's neck, I 
+suppose, going down on the outside.  But you know, I dare say, ma'am, 
+what a hurly-burly the castle was in, last night; you must have heard 
+some of the uproar.'
+
+'What, were they disputing, then?' said Emily.
+
+'No, ma'amselle, nor fighting, but almost as good, for I believe 
+there was not one of the Signors sober; and what is more, not one of 
+those fine ladies sober, either.  I thought, when I saw them first, 
+that all those fine silks and fine veils,--why, ma'amselle, their 
+veils were worked with silver! and fine trimmings--boded no good--I 
+guessed what they were!'
+
+'Good God!' exclaimed Emily, 'what will become of me!'
+
+'Aye, ma'am, Ludovico said much the same thing of me.  Good God! said 
+he, Annette, what is to become of you, if you are to go running about 
+the castle among all these drunken Signors?'
+
+'O! says I, for that matter, I only want to go to my young lady's 
+chamber, and I have only to go, you know, along the vaulted passage 
+and across the great hall and up the marble stair-case and along the 
+north gallery and through the west wing of the castle and I am in the 
+corridor in a minute.'  'Are you so? says he, and what is to become 
+of you, if you meet any of those noble cavaliers in the way?'  'Well, 
+says I, if you think there is danger, then, go with me, and guard me; 
+I am never afraid when you are by.'  'What! says he, when I am 
+scarcely recovered of one wound, shall I put myself in the way of 
+getting another? for if any of the cavaliers meet you, they will fall 
+a-fighting with me directly.  No, no, says he, I will cut the way 
+shorter, than through the vaulted passage and up the marble stair-
+case, and along the north gallery and through the west wing of the 
+castle, for you shall stay here, Annette; you shall not go out of 
+this room, to-night.'  'So, with that I says'--
+
+'Well, well,' said Emily, impatiently, and anxious to enquire on 
+another subject,--'so he locked you up?'
+
+'Yes, he did indeed, ma'amselle, notwithstanding all I could say to 
+the contrary; and Caterina and I and he staid there all night.  And 
+in a few minutes after I was not so vexed, for there came Signor 
+Verezzi roaring along the passage, like a mad bull, and he mistook 
+Ludovico's hall, for old Carlo's; so he tried to burst open the door, 
+and called out for more wine, for that he had drunk all the flasks 
+dry, and was dying of thirst.  So we were all as still as night, that 
+he might suppose there was nobody in the room; but the Signor was as 
+cunning as the best of us, and kept calling out at the door, "Come 
+forth, my antient hero!" said he, "here is no enemy at the gate, that 
+you need hide yourself:  come forth, my valorous Signor Steward!"  
+Just then old Carlo opened his door, and he came with a flask in his 
+hand; for, as soon as the Signor saw him, he was as tame as could be, 
+and followed him away as naturally as a dog does a butcher with a 
+piece of meat in his basket.  All this I saw through the key-hole.  
+Well, Annette, said Ludovico, jeeringly, shall I let you out now?  O 
+no, says I, I would not'--
+
+'I have some questions to ask you on another subject,' interrupted 
+Emily, quite wearied by this story.  'Do you know whether there are 
+any prisoners in the castle, and whether they are confined at this 
+end of the edifice?'
+
+'I was not in the way, ma'amselle,' replied Annette, 'when the first 
+party came in from the mountains, and the last party is not come back 
+yet, so I don't know, whether there are any prisoners; but it is 
+expected back to-night, or to-morrow, and I shall know then, 
+perhaps.'
+
+Emily enquired if she had ever heard the servants talk of prisoners.
+
+'Ah ma'amselle!' said Annette archly, 'now I dare say you are 
+thinking of Monsieur Valancourt, and that he may have come among the 
+armies, which, they say, are come from our country, to fight against 
+this state, and that he has met with some of OUR people, and is taken 
+captive.  O Lord! how glad I should be, if it was so!'
+
+'Would you, indeed, be glad?' said Emily, in a tone of mournful 
+reproach.
+
+'To be sure I should, ma'am,' replied Annette, 'and would not you be 
+glad too, to see Signor Valancourt?  I don't know any chevalier I 
+like better, I have a very great regard for the Signor, truly.'
+
+'Your regard for him cannot be doubted,' said Emily, 'since you wish 
+to see him a prisoner.'
+
+'Why no, ma'amselle, not a prisoner either; but one must be glad to 
+see him, you know.  And it was only the other night I dreamt--I 
+dreamt I saw him drive into the castle-yard all in a coach and six, 
+and dressed out, with a laced coat and a sword, like a lord as he 
+is.'
+
+Emily could not forbear smiling at Annette's ideas of Valancourt, and 
+repeated her enquiry, whether she had heard the servants talk of 
+prisoners.
+
+'No, ma'amselle,' replied she, 'never; and lately they have done 
+nothing but talk of the apparition, that has been walking about of a 
+night on the ramparts, and that frightened the sentinels into fits.  
+It came among them like a flash of fire, they say, and they all fell 
+down in a row, till they came to themselves again; and then it was 
+gone, and nothing to be seen but the old castle walls; so they helped 
+one another up again as fast as they could.  You would not believe, 
+ma'amselle, though I shewed you the very cannon, where it used to 
+appear.'
+
+'And are you, indeed, so simple, Annette,' said Emily, smiling at 
+this curious exaggeration of the circumstances she had witnessed, 'as 
+to credit these stories?'
+
+'Credit them, ma'amselle! why all the world could not persuade me out 
+of them.  Roberto and Sebastian and half a dozen more of them went 
+into fits!  To be sure, there was no occasion for that; I said, 
+myself, there was no need of that, for, says I, when the enemy comes, 
+what a pretty figure they will cut, if they are to fall down in fits, 
+all of a row!  The enemy won't be so civil, perhaps, as to walk off, 
+like the ghost, and leave them to help one another up, but will fall 
+to, cutting and slashing, till he makes them all rise up dead men.  
+No, no, says I, there is reason in all things:  though I might have 
+fallen down in a fit that was no rule for them, being, because it is 
+no business of mine to look gruff, and fight battles.'
+
+Emily endeavoured to correct the superstitious weakness of Annette, 
+though she could not entirely subdue her own; to which the latter 
+only replied, 'Nay, ma'amselle, you will believe nothing; you are 
+almost as bad as the Signor himself, who was in a great passion when 
+they told of what had happened, and swore that the first man, who 
+repeated such nonsense, should be thrown into the dungeon under the 
+east turret.  This was a hard punishment too, for only talking 
+nonsense, as he called it, but I dare say he had other reasons for 
+calling it so, than you have, ma'am.'
+
+Emily looked displeased, and made no reply.  As she mused upon the 
+recollected appearance, which had lately so much alarmed her, and 
+considered the circumstances of the figure having stationed itself 
+opposite to her casement, she was for a moment inclined to believe it 
+was Valancourt, whom she had seen.  Yet, if it was he, why did he not 
+speak to her, when he had the opportunity of doing so--and, if he was 
+a prisoner in the castle, and he could be here in no other character, 
+how could he obtain the means of walking abroad on the rampart?  Thus 
+she was utterly unable to decide, whether the musician and the form 
+she had observed, were the same, or, if they were, whether this was 
+Valancourt.  She, however, desired that Annette would endeavour to 
+learn whether any prisoners were in the castle, and also their names.
+
+'O dear, ma'amselle!' said Annette, 'I forget to tell you what you 
+bade me ask about, the ladies, as they call themselves, who are 
+lately come to Udolpho.  Why that Signora Livona, that the Signor 
+brought to see my late lady at Venice, is his mistress now, and was 
+little better then, I dare say.  And Ludovico says (but pray be 
+secret, ma'am) that his excellenza introduced her only to impose upon 
+the world, that had begun to make free with her character.  So when 
+people saw my lady notice her, they thought what they had heard must 
+be scandal.  The other two are the mistresses of Signor Verezzi and 
+Signor Bertolini; and Signor Montoni invited them all to the castle; 
+and so, yesterday, he gave a great entertainment; and there they 
+were, all drinking Tuscany wine and all sorts, and laughing and 
+singing, till they made the castle ring again.  But I thought they 
+were dismal sounds, so soon after my poor lady's death too; and they 
+brought to my mind what she would have thought, if she had heard 
+them--but she cannot hear them now, poor soul! said I.'
+
+Emily turned away to conceal her emotion, and then desired Annette to 
+go, and make enquiry, concerning the prisoners, that might be in the 
+castle, but conjured her to do it with caution, and on no account to 
+mention her name, or that of Monsieur Valancourt.
+
+'Now I think of it, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'I do believe there 
+are prisoners, for I overheard one of the Signor's men, yesterday, in 
+the servants hall, talking something about ransoms, and saying what a 
+fine thing it was for his excellenza to catch up men, and they were 
+as good booty as any other, because of the ransoms.  And the other 
+man was grumbling, and saying it was fine enough for the Signor, but 
+none so fine for his soldiers, because, said he, we don't go shares 
+there.'
+
+This information heightened Emily's impatience to know more, and 
+Annette immediately departed on her enquiry.
+
+The late resolution of Emily to resign her estates to Montoni, now 
+gave way to new considerations; the possibility, that Valancourt was 
+near her, revived her fortitude, and she determined to brave the 
+threatened vengeance, at least, till she could be assured whether he 
+was really in the castle.  She was in this temper of mind, when she 
+received a message from Montoni, requiring her attendance in the 
+cedar parlour, which she obeyed with trembling, and, on her way 
+thither, endeavoured to animate her fortitude with the idea of 
+Valancourt.
+
+Montoni was alone.  'I sent for you,' said he, 'to give you another 
+opportunity of retracting your late mistaken assertions concerning 
+the Languedoc estates.  I will condescend to advise, where I may 
+command.--If you are really deluded by an opinion, that you have any 
+right to these estates, at least, do not persist in the error--an 
+error, which you may perceive, too late, has been fatal to you.  Dare 
+my resentment no further, but sign the papers.'
+
+'If I have no right in these estates, sir,' said Emily, 'of what 
+service can it be to you, that I should sign any papers, concerning 
+them?  If the lands are yours by law, you certainly may possess them, 
+without my interference, or my consent.'
+
+'I will have no more argument,' said Montoni, with a look that made 
+her tremble.  'What had I but trouble to expect, when I condescended 
+to reason with a baby!  But I will be trifled with no longer:  let 
+the recollection of your aunt's sufferings, in consequence of her 
+folly and obstinacy, teach you a lesson.--Sign the papers.'
+
+Emily's resolution was for a moment awed:--she shrunk at the 
+recollections he revived, and from the vengeance he threatened; but 
+then, the image of Valancourt, who so long had loved her, and who was 
+now, perhaps, so near her, came to her heart, and, together with the 
+strong feelings of indignation, with which she had always, from her 
+infancy, regarded an act of injustice, inspired her with a noble, 
+though imprudent, courage.
+
+'Sign the papers,' said Montoni, more impatiently than before.
+
+'Never, sir,' replied Emily; 'that request would have proved to me 
+the injustice of your claim, had I even been ignorant of my right.'
+
+Montoni turned pale with anger, while his quivering lip and lurking 
+eye made her almost repent the boldness of her speech.
+
+'Then all my vengeance falls upon you,' he exclaimed, with an 
+horrible oath.  'and think not it shall be delayed.  Neither the 
+estates in Languedoc, or Gascony, shall be yours; you have dared to 
+question my right,--now dare to question my power.  I have a 
+punishment which you think not of; it is terrible!  This night--this 
+very night'--
+
+'This night!' repeated another voice.
+
+Montoni paused, and turned half round, but, seeming to recollect 
+himself, he proceeded in a lower tone.
+
+'You have lately seen one terrible example of obstinacy and folly; 
+yet this, it appears, has not been sufficient to deter you.--I could 
+tell you of others--I could make you tremble at the bare recital.'
+
+He was interrupted by a groan, which seemed to rise from underneath 
+the chamber they were in; and, as he threw a glance round it, 
+impatience and rage flashed from his eyes, yet something like a shade 
+of fear passed over his countenance.  Emily sat down in a chair, near 
+the door, for the various emotions she had suffered, now almost 
+overcame her; but Montoni paused scarcely an instant, and, commanding 
+his features, resumed his discourse in a lower, yet sterner voice.
+
+'I say, I could give you other instances of my power and of my 
+character, which it seems you do not understand, or you would not 
+defy me.--I could tell you, that, when once my resolution is taken--
+but I am talking to a baby.  Let me, however, repeat, that terrible 
+as are the examples I could recite, the recital could not now benefit 
+you; for, though your repentance would put an immediate end to 
+opposition, it would not now appease my indignation.--I will have 
+vengeance as well as justice.'
+
+Another groan filled the pause which Montoni made.
+
+'Leave the room instantly!' said he, seeming not to notice this 
+strange occurrence.  Without power to implore his pity, she rose to 
+go, but found that she could not support herself; awe and terror 
+overcame her, and she sunk again into the chair.
+
+'Quit my presence!' cried Montoni.  'This affectation of fear ill 
+becomes the heroine who has just dared to brave my indignation.'
+
+'Did you hear nothing, Signor?' said Emily, trembling, and still 
+unable to leave the room.
+
+'I heard my own voice,' rejoined Montoni, sternly.
+
+'And nothing else?' said Emily, speaking with difficulty.--'There 
+again!  Do you hear nothing now?'
+
+'Obey my order,' repeated Montoni.  'And for these fool's tricks--I 
+will soon discover by whom they are practised.'
+
+Emily again rose, and exerted herself to the utmost to leave the 
+room, while Montoni followed her; but, instead of calling aloud to 
+his servants to search the chamber, as he had formerly done on a 
+similar occurrence, passed to the ramparts.
+
+As, in her way to the corridor, she rested for a moment at an open 
+casement, Emily saw a party of Montoni's troops winding down a 
+distant mountain, whom she noticed no further, than as they brought 
+to her mind the wretched prisoners they were, perhaps, bringing to 
+the castle.  At length, having reached her apartment, she threw 
+herself upon the couch, overcome with the new horrors of her 
+situation.  Her thoughts lost in tumult and perplexity, she could 
+neither repent of, or approve, her late conduct; she could only 
+remember, that she was in the power of a man, who had no principle of 
+action--but his will; and the astonishment and terrors of 
+superstition, which had, for a moment, so strongly assailed her, now 
+yielded to those of reason.
+
+She was, at length, roused from the reverie, which engaged her, by a 
+confusion of distant voices, and a clattering of hoofs, that seemed 
+to come, on the wind, from the courts.  A sudden hope, that some good 
+was approaching, seized her mind, till she remembered the troops she 
+had observed from the casement, and concluded this to be the party, 
+which Annette had said were expected at Udolpho.
+
+Soon after, she heard voices faintly from the halls, and the noise of 
+horses' feet sunk away in the wind; silence ensued.  Emily listened 
+anxiously for Annette's step in the corridor, but a pause of total 
+stillness continued, till again the castle seemed to be all tumult 
+and confusion.  She heard the echoes of many footsteps, passing to 
+and fro in the halls and avenues below, and then busy tongues were 
+loud on the rampart.  Having hurried to her casement, she perceived 
+Montoni, with some of his officers, leaning on the walls, and 
+pointing from them; while several soldiers were employed at the 
+further end of the rampart about some cannon; and she continued to 
+observe them, careless of the passing time.
+
+Annette at length appeared, but brought no intelligence of 
+Valancourt, 'For, ma'amselle,' said she, 'all the people pretend to 
+know nothing about any prisoners.  But here is a fine piece of 
+business!  The rest of the party are just arrived, ma'am; they came 
+scampering in, as if they would have broken their necks; one scarcely 
+knew whether the man, or his horse would get within the gates first.  
+And they have brought word--and such news! they have brought word, 
+that a party of the enemy, as they call them, are coming towards the 
+castle; so we shall have all the officers of justice, I suppose, 
+besieging it! all those terrible-looking fellows one used to see at 
+Venice.'
+
+'Thank God!' exclaimed Emily, fervently, 'there is yet a hope left 
+for me, then!'
+
+'What mean you, ma'amselle?  Do you wish to fall into the hands of 
+those sad-looking men!  Why I used to shudder as I passed them, and 
+should have guessed what they were, if Ludovico had not told me.'
+
+'We cannot be in worse hands than at present,' replied Emily, 
+unguardedly; 'but what reason have you to suppose these are officers 
+of justice?'
+
+'Why OUR people, ma'am, are all in such a fright, and a fuss; and I 
+don't know any thing but the fear of justice, that could make them 
+so.  I used to think nothing on earth could fluster them, unless, 
+indeed, it was a ghost, or so; but now, some of them are for hiding 
+down in the vaults under the castle; but you must not tell the Signor 
+this, ma'amselle, and I overheard two of them talking--Holy Mother! 
+what makes you look so sad, ma'amselle?  You don't hear what I say!'
+
+'Yes, I do, Annette; pray proceed.'
+
+'Well, ma'amselle, all the castle is in such hurly-burly.  Some of 
+the men are loading the cannon, and some are examining the great 
+gates, and the walls all round, and are hammering and patching up, 
+just as if all those repairs had never been made, that were so long 
+about.  But what is to become of me and you, ma'amselle, and 
+Ludovico?  O! when I hear the sound of the cannon, I shall die with 
+fright.  If I could but catch the great gate open for one minute, I 
+would be even with it for shutting me within these walls so long!--it 
+should never see me again.'
+
+Emily caught the latter words of Annette.  'O! if you could find it 
+open, but for one moment!' she exclaimed, 'my peace might yet be 
+saved!'  The heavy groan she uttered, and the wildness of her look, 
+terrified Annette, still more than her words; who entreated Emily to 
+explain the meaning of them, to whom it suddenly occurred, that 
+Ludovico might be of some service, if there should be a possibility 
+of escape, and who repeated the substance of what had passed between 
+Montoni and herself, but conjured her to mention this to no person 
+except to Ludovico.  'It may, perhaps, be in his power,' she added, 
+'to effect our escape.  Go to him, Annette, tell him what I have to 
+apprehend, and what I have already suffered; but entreat him to be 
+secret, and to lose no time in attempting to release us.  If he is 
+willing to undertake this he shall be amply rewarded.  I cannot speak 
+with him myself, for we might be observed, and then effectual care 
+would be taken to prevent our flight.  But be quick, Annette, and, 
+above all, be discreet--I will await your return in this apartment.'
+
+The girl, whose honest heart had been much affected by the recital, 
+was now as eager to obey, as Emily was to employ her, and she 
+immediately quitted the room.
+
+Emily's surprise increased, as she reflected upon Annette's 
+intelligence.  'Alas!' said she, 'what can the officers of justice do 
+against an armed castle? these cannot be such.'  Upon further 
+consideration, however, she concluded, that, Montoni's bands having 
+plundered the country round, the inhabitants had taken arms, and were 
+coming with the officers of police and a party of soldiers, to force 
+their way into the castle.  'But they know not,' thought she, 'its 
+strength, or the armed numbers within it.  Alas! except from flight, 
+I have nothing to hope!'
+
+Montoni, though not precisely what Emily apprehended him to be--a 
+captain of banditti--had employed his troops in enterprises not less 
+daring, or less atrocious, than such a character would have 
+undertaken.  They had not only pillaged, whenever opportunity 
+offered, the helpless traveller, but had attacked, and plundered the 
+villas of several persons, which, being situated among the solitary 
+recesses of the mountains, were totally unprepared for resistance.  
+In these expeditions the commanders of the party did not appear, and 
+the men, partly disguised, had sometimes been mistaken for common 
+robbers, and, at others, for bands of the foreign enemy, who, at that 
+period, invaded the country.  But, though they had already pillaged 
+several mansions, and brought home considerable treasures, they had 
+ventured to approach only one castle, in the attack of which they 
+were assisted by other troops of their own order; from this, however, 
+they were vigorously repulsed, and pursued by some of the foreign 
+enemy, who were in league with the besieged.  Montoni's troops fled 
+precipitately towards Udolpho, but were so closely tracked over the 
+mountains, that, when they reached one of the heights in the 
+neighbourhood of the castle, and looked back upon the road, they 
+perceived the enemy winding among the cliffs below, and at not more 
+than a league distant.  Upon this discovery, they hastened forward 
+with increased speed, to prepare Montoni for the enemy; and it was 
+their arrival, which had thrown the castle into such confusion and 
+tumult.
+
+As Emily awaited anxiously some information from below, she now saw 
+from her casements a body of troops pour over the neighbouring 
+heights; and, though Annette had been gone a very short time, and had 
+a difficult and dangerous business to accomplish, her impatience for 
+intelligence became painful:  she listened; opened her door; and 
+often went out upon the corridor to meet her.
+
+At length, she heard a footstep approach her chamber; and, on opening 
+the door, saw, not Annette, but old Carlo!  New fears rushed upon her 
+mind.  He said he came from the Signor, who had ordered him to inform 
+her, that she must be ready to depart from Udolpho immediately, for 
+that the castle was about to be besieged; and that mules were 
+preparing to convey her, with her guides, to a place of safety.
+
+'Of safety!' exclaimed Emily, thoughtlessly; 'has, then, the Signor 
+so much consideration for me?'
+
+Carlo looked upon the ground, and made no reply.  A thousand opposite 
+emotions agitated Emily, successively, as she listened to old Carlo; 
+those of joy, grief, distrust and apprehension, appeared, and 
+vanished from her mind, with the quickness of lightning.  One moment, 
+it seemed impossible, that Montoni could take this measure merely for 
+her preservation; and so very strange was his sending her from the 
+castle at all, that she could attribute it only to the design of 
+carrying into execution the new scheme of vengeance, with which he 
+had menaced her.  In the next instant, it appeared so desirable to 
+quit the castle, under any circumstances, that she could not but 
+rejoice in the prospect, believing that change must be for the 
+better, till she remembered the probability of Valancourt being 
+detained in it, when sorrow and regret usurped her mind, and she 
+wished, much more fervently than she had yet done, that it might not 
+be his voice which she had heard.
+
+Carlo having reminded her, that she had no time to lose, for that the 
+enemy were within sight of the castle, Emily entreated him to inform 
+her whither she was to go; and, after some hesitation, he said he had 
+received no orders to tell; but, on her repeating the question, 
+replied, that he believed she was to be carried into Tuscany.'
+
+'To Tuscany!' exclaimed Emily--'and why thither?'
+
+Carlo answered, that he knew nothing further, than that she was to be 
+lodged in a cottage on the borders of Tuscany, at the feet of the 
+Apennines--'Not a day's journey distant,' said he.
+
+Emily now dismissed him; and, with trembling hands, prepared the 
+small package, that she meant to take with her; while she was 
+employed about which Annette returned.
+
+'O ma'amselle!' said she, 'nothing can be done!  Ludovico says the 
+new porter is more watchful even than Barnardine was, and we might as 
+well throw ourselves in the way of a dragon, as in his.  Ludovico is 
+almost as broken-hearted as you are, ma'am, on my account, he says, 
+and I am sure I shall never live to hear the cannon fire twice!'
+
+She now began to weep, but revived upon hearing of what had just 
+occurred, and entreated Emily to take her with her.
+
+'That I will do most willingly,' replied Emily, 'if Signor Montoni 
+permits it;' to which Annette made no reply, but ran out of the room, 
+and immediately sought Montoni, who was on the terrace, surrounded by 
+his officers, where she began her petition.  He sharply bade her go 
+into the castle, and absolutely refused her request.  Annette, 
+however, not only pleaded for herself, but for Ludovico; and Montoni 
+had ordered some of his men to take her from his presence, before she 
+would retire.
+
+In an agony of disappointment, she returned to Emily, who foreboded 
+little good towards herself, from this refusal to Annette, and who, 
+soon after, received a summons to repair to the great court, where 
+the mules, with her guides, were in waiting.  Emily here tried in 
+vain to sooth the weeping Annette, who persisted in saying, that she 
+should never see her dear young lady again; a fear, which her 
+mistress secretly thought too well justified, but which she 
+endeavoured to restrain, while, with apparent composure, she bade 
+this affectionate servant farewell.  Annette, however, followed to 
+the courts, which were now thronged with people, busy in preparation 
+for the enemy; and, having seen her mount her mule and depart, with 
+her attendants, through the portal, turned into the castle and wept 
+again.
+
+Emily, meanwhile, as she looked back upon the gloomy courts of the 
+castle, no longer silent as when she had first entered them, but 
+resounding with the noise of preparation for their defence, as well 
+as crowded with soldiers and workmen, hurrying to and fro; and, when 
+she passed once more under the huge portcullis, which had formerly 
+struck her with terror and dismay, and, looking round, saw no walls 
+to confine her steps--felt, in spite of anticipation, the sudden joy 
+of a prisoner, who unexpectedly finds himself at liberty.  This 
+emotion would not suffer her now to look impartially on the dangers 
+that awaited her without; on mountains infested by hostile parties, 
+who seized every opportunity for plunder; and on a journey commended 
+under the guidance of men, whose countenances certainly did not speak 
+favourably of their dispositions.  In the present moments, she could 
+only rejoice, that she was liberated from those walls, which she had 
+entered with such dismal forebodings; and, remembering the 
+superstitious presentiment, which had then seized her, she could now 
+smile at the impression it had made upon her mind.
+
+As she gazed, with these emotions, upon the turrets of the castle, 
+rising high over the woods, among which she wound, the stranger, whom 
+she believed to be confined there, returned to her remembrance, and 
+anxiety and apprehension, lest he should be Valancourt, again passed 
+like a cloud upon her joy.  She recollected every circumstance, 
+concerning this unknown person, since the night, when she had first 
+heard him play the song of her native province;--circumstances, which 
+she had so often recollected, and compared before, without extracting 
+from them any thing like conviction, and which still only prompted 
+her to believe, that Valancourt was a prisoner at Udolpho.  It was 
+possible, however, that the men, who were her conductors, might 
+afford her information, on this subject; but, fearing to question 
+them immediately, lest they should be unwilling to discover any 
+circumstance to her in the presence of each other, she watched for an 
+opportunity of speaking with them separately.
+
+Soon after, a trumpet echoed faintly from a distance; the guides 
+stopped, and looked toward the quarter whence it came, but the thick 
+woods, which surrounded them, excluding all view of the country 
+beyond, one of the men rode on to the point of an eminence, that 
+afforded a more extensive prospect, to observe how near the enemy, 
+whose trumpet he guessed this to be, were advanced; the other, 
+meanwhile, remained with Emily, and to him she put some questions, 
+concerning the stranger at Udolpho.  Ugo, for this was his name, 
+said, that there were several prisoners in the castle, but he neither 
+recollected their persons, or the precise time of their arrival, and 
+could therefore give her no information.  There was a surliness in 
+his manner, as he spoke, that made it probable he would not have 
+satisfied her enquiries, even if he could have done so.
+
+Having asked him what prisoners had been taken, about the time, as 
+nearly as she could remember, when she had first heard the music, 
+'All that week,' said Ugo, 'I was out with a party, upon the 
+mountains, and knew nothing of what was doing at the castle.  We had 
+enough upon our hands, we had warm work of it.'
+
+Bertrand, the other man, being now returned, Emily enquired no 
+further, and, when he had related to his companion what he had seen, 
+they travelled on in deep silence; while Emily often caught, between 
+the opening woods, partial glimpses of the castle above--the west 
+towers, whose battlements were now crowded with archers, and the 
+ramparts below, where soldiers were seen hurrying along, or busy upon 
+the walls, preparing the cannon.
+
+Having emerged from the woods, they wound along the valley in an 
+opposite direction to that, from whence the enemy were approaching.  
+Emily now had a full view of Udolpho, with its gray walls, towers and 
+terraces, high over-topping the precipices and the dark woods, and 
+glittering partially with the arms of the condottieri, as the sun's 
+rays, streaming through an autumnal cloud, glanced upon a part of the 
+edifice, whose remaining features stood in darkened majesty.  She 
+continued to gaze, through her tears, upon walls that, perhaps, 
+confined Valancourt, and which now, as the cloud floated away, were 
+lighted up with sudden splendour, and then, as suddenly were shrouded 
+in gloom; while the passing gleam fell on the wood-tops below, and 
+heightened the first tints of autumn, that had begun to steal upon 
+the foliage.  The winding mountains, at length, shut Udolpho from her 
+view, and she turned, with mournful reluctance, to other objects.  
+The melancholy sighing of the wind among the pines, that waved high 
+over the steeps, and the distant thunder of a torrent assisted her 
+musings, and conspired with the wild scenery around, to diffuse over 
+her mind emotions solemn, yet not unpleasing, but which were soon 
+interrupted by the distant roar of cannon, echoing among the 
+mountains.  The sounds rolled along the wind, and were repeated in 
+faint and fainter reverberation, till they sunk in sullen murmurs.  
+This was a signal, that the enemy had reached the castle, and fear 
+for Valancourt again tormented Emily.  She turned her anxious eyes 
+towards that part of the country, where the edifice stood, but the 
+intervening heights concealed it from her view; still, however, she 
+saw the tall head of a mountain, which immediately fronted her late 
+chamber, and on this she fixed her gaze, as if it could have told her 
+of all that was passing in the scene it overlooked.  The guides twice 
+reminded her, that she was losing time and that they had far to go, 
+before she could turn from this interesting object, and, even when 
+she again moved onward, she often sent a look back, till only its 
+blue point, brightening in a gleam of sunshine, appeared peeping over 
+other mountains.
+
+The sound of the cannon affected Ugo, as the blast of the trumpet 
+does the war-horse; it called forth all the fire of his nature; he 
+was impatient to be in the midst of the fight, and uttered frequent 
+execrations against Montoni for having sent him to a distance.  The 
+feelings of his comrade seemed to be very opposite, and adapted 
+rather to the cruelties, than to the dangers of war.
+
+Emily asked frequent questions, concerning the place of her 
+destination, but could only learn, that she was going to a cottage in 
+Tuscany; and, whenever she mentioned the subject, she fancied she 
+perceived, in the countenances of these men, an expression of malice 
+and cunning, that alarmed her.
+
+It was afternoon, when they had left the castle.  During several 
+hours, they travelled through regions of profound solitude, where no 
+bleat of sheep, or bark of watch-dog, broke on silence, and they were 
+now too far off to hear even the faint thunder of the cannon.  
+Towards evening, they wound down precipices, black with forests of 
+cypress, pine and cedar, into a glen so savage and secluded, that, if 
+Solitude ever had local habitation, this might have been 'her place 
+of dearest residence.'  To Emily it appeared a spot exactly suited 
+for the retreat of banditti, and, in her imagination, she already saw 
+them lurking under the brow of some projecting rock, whence their 
+shadows, lengthened by the setting sun, stretched across the road, 
+and warned the traveller of his danger.  She shuddered at the idea, 
+and, looking at her conductors, to observe whether they were armed, 
+thought she saw in them the banditti she dreaded!
+
+It was in this glen, that they proposed to alight, 'For,' said Ugo, 
+'night will come on presently, and then the wolves will make it 
+dangerous to stop.'  This was a new subject of alarm to Emily, but 
+inferior to what she suffered from the thought of being left in these 
+wilds, at midnight, with two such men as her present conductors.  
+Dark and dreadful hints of what might be Montoni's purpose in sending 
+her hither, came to her mind.  She endeavoured to dissuade the men 
+from stopping, and enquired, with anxiety, how far they had yet to 
+go.
+
+'Many leagues yet,' replied Bertrand.  'As for you, Signora, you may 
+do as you please about eating, but for us, we will make a hearty 
+supper, while we can.  We shall have need of it, I warrant, before we 
+finish our journey.  The sun's going down apace; let us alight under 
+that rock, yonder.'
+
+His comrade assented, and, turning the mules out of the road, they 
+advanced towards a cliff, overhung with cedars, Emily following in 
+trembling silence.  They lifted her from her mule, and, having seated 
+themselves on the grass, at the foot of the rocks, drew some homely 
+fare from a wallet, of which Emily tried to eat a little, the better 
+to disguise her apprehensions.
+
+The sun was now sunk behind the high mountains in the west, upon 
+which a purple haze began to spread, and the gloom of twilight to 
+draw over the surrounding objects.  To the low and sullen murmur of 
+the breeze, passing among the woods, she no longer listened with any 
+degree of pleasure, for it conspired with the wildness of the scene 
+and the evening hour, to depress her spirits.
+
+Suspense had so much increased her anxiety, as to the prisoner at 
+Udolpho, that, finding it impracticable to speak alone with Bertrand, 
+on that subject, she renewed her questions in the presence of Ugo; 
+but he either was, or pretended to be entirely ignorant, concerning 
+the stranger.  When he had dismissed the question, he talked with Ugo 
+on some subject, which led to the mention of Signor Orsino and of the 
+affair that had banished him from Venice; respecting which Emily had 
+ventured to ask a few questions.  Ugo appeared to be well acquainted 
+with the circumstances of that tragical event, and related some 
+minute particulars, that both shocked and surprised her; for it 
+appeared very extraordinary how such particulars could be known to 
+any, but to persons, present when the assassination was committed.
+
+'He was of rank,' said Bertrand, 'or the State would not have 
+troubled itself to enquire after his assassins.  The Signor has been 
+lucky hitherto; this is not the first affair of the kind he has had 
+upon his hands; and to be sure, when a gentleman has no other way of 
+getting redress--why he must take this.'
+
+'Aye,' said Ugo, 'and why is not this as good as another?  This is 
+the way to have justice done at once, without more ado.  If you go to 
+law, you must stay till the judges please, and may lose your cause, 
+at last,  Why the best way, then, is to make sure of your right, 
+while you can, and execute justice yourself.'
+
+'Yes, yes,' rejoined Bertrand, 'if you wait till justice is done you-
+-you may stay long enough.  Why if I want a friend of mine properly 
+served, how am I to get my revenge?  Ten to one they will tell me he 
+is in the right, and I am in the wrong.  Or, if a fellow has got 
+possession of property, which I think ought to be mine, why I may 
+wait, till I starve, perhaps, before the law will give it me, and 
+then, after all, the judge may say--the estate is his.  What is to be 
+done then?--Why the case is plain enough, I must take it at last.'
+
+Emily's horror at this conversation was heightened by a suspicion, 
+that the latter part of it was pointed against herself, and that 
+these men had been commissioned by Montoni to execute a similar kind 
+of JUSTICE, in his cause.
+
+'But I was speaking of Signor Orsino,' resumed Bertrand, 'he is one 
+of those, who love to do justice at once.  I remember, about ten 
+years ago, the Signor had a quarrel with a cavaliero of Milan.  The 
+story was told me then, and it is still fresh in my head.  They 
+quarrelled about a lady, that the Signor liked, and she was perverse 
+enough to prefer the gentleman of Milan, and even carried her whim so 
+far as to marry him.  This provoked the Signor, as well it might, for 
+he had tried to talk reason to her a long while, and used to send 
+people to serenade her, under her windows, of a night; and used to 
+make verses about her, and would swear she was the handsomest lady in 
+Milan--But all would not do--nothing would bring her to reason; and, 
+as I said, she went so far at last, as to marry this other cavaliero.  
+This made the Signor wrath, with a vengeance; he resolved to be even 
+with her though, and he watched his opportunity, and did not wait 
+long, for, soon after the marriage, they set out for Padua, nothing 
+doubting, I warrant, of what was preparing for them.  The cavaliero 
+thought, to be sure, he was to be called to no account, but was to go 
+off triumphant; but he was soon made to know another sort of story.'
+
+'What then, the lady had promised to have Signor Orsino?' said Ugo.
+
+'Promised!  No,' replied Bertrand, 'she had not wit enough even to 
+tell him she liked him, as I heard, but the contrary, for she used to 
+say, from the first, she never meant to have him.  And this was what 
+provoked the Signor, so, and with good reason, for, who likes to be 
+told that he is disagreeable? and this was saying as good.  It was 
+enough to tell him this; she need not have gone, and married 
+another.'
+
+'What, she married, then, on purpose to plague the Signor?' said Ugo.
+
+'I don't know as for that,' replied Bertrand, 'they said, indeed, 
+that she had had a regard for the other gentleman a great while; but 
+that is nothing to the purpose, she should not have married him, and 
+then the Signor would not have been so much provoked.  She might have 
+expected what was to follow; it was not to be supposed he would bear 
+her ill usage tamely, and she might thank herself for what happened.  
+But, as I said, they set out for Padua, she and her husband, and the 
+road lay over some barren mountains like these.  This suited the 
+Signor's purpose well.  He watched the time of their departure, and 
+sent his men after them, with directions what to do.  They kept their 
+distance, till they saw their opportunity, and this did not happen, 
+till the second day's journey, when, the gentleman having sent his 
+servants forward to the next town, may be, to have horses in 
+readiness, the Signor's men quickened their pace, and overtook the 
+carriage, in a hollow, between two mountains, where the woods 
+prevented the servants from seeing what passed, though they were then 
+not far off.  When we came up, we fired our tromboni, but missed.'
+
+Emily turned pale, at these words, and then hoped she had mistaken 
+them; while Bertrand proceeded:
+
+'The gentleman fired again, but he was soon made to alight, and it 
+was as he turned to call his people, that he was struck.  It was the 
+most dexterous feat you ever saw--he was struck in the back with 
+three stillettos at once.  He fell, and was dispatched in a minute; 
+but the lady escaped, for the servants had heard the firing, and came 
+up before she could be taken care of.  "Bertrand," said the Signor, 
+when his men returned'--
+
+'Bertrand!' exclaimed Emily, pale with horror, on whom not a syllable 
+of this narrative had been lost.
+
+'Bertrand, did I say?' rejoined the man, with some confusion--'No, 
+Giovanni.  But I have forgot where I was;--"Bertrand," said the 
+Signor'--
+
+'Bertrand, again!' said Emily, in a faltering voice, 'Why do you 
+repeat that name?'
+
+Bertrand swore.  'What signifies it,' he proceeded, 'what the man was 
+called--Bertrand, or Giovanni--or Roberto? it's all one for that.  
+You have put me out twice with that--question.  "Bertrand," or 
+Giovanni--or what you will--"Bertrand," said the Signor, "if your 
+comrades had done their duty, as well as you, I should not have lost 
+the lady.  Go, my honest fellow, and be happy with this."  He game 
+him a purse of gold--and little enough too, considering the service 
+he had done him.'
+
+'Aye, aye,' said Ugo, 'little enough--little enough.'
+
+Emily now breathed with difficulty, and could scarcely support 
+herself.  When first she saw these men, their appearance and their 
+connection with Montoni had been sufficient to impress her with 
+distrust; but now, when one of them had betrayed himself to be a 
+murderer, and she saw herself, at the approach of night, under his 
+guidance, among wild and solitary mountains, and going she scarcely 
+knew whither, the most agonizing terror seized her, which was the 
+less supportable from the necessity she found herself under of 
+concealing all symptoms of it from her companions.  Reflecting on the 
+character and the menaces of Montoni, it appeared not improbable, 
+that he had delivered her to them, for the purpose of having her 
+murdered, and of thus securing to himself, without further 
+opposition, or delay, the estates, for which he had so long and so 
+desperately contended.  Yet, if this was his design, there appeared 
+no necessity for sending her to such a distance from the castle; for, 
+if any dread of discovery had made him unwilling to perpetrate the 
+deed there, a much nearer place might have sufficed for the purpose 
+of concealment.  These considerations, however, did not immediately 
+occur to Emily, with whom so many circumstances conspired to rouse 
+terror, that she had no power to oppose it, or to enquire coolly into 
+its grounds; and, if she had done so, still there were many 
+appearances which would too well have justified her most terrible 
+apprehensions.  She did not now dare to speak to her conductors, at 
+the sound of whose voices she trembled; and when, now and then, she 
+stole a glance at them, their countenances, seen imperfectly through 
+the gloom of evening, served to confirm her fears.
+
+The sun had now been set some time; heavy clouds, whose lower skirts 
+were tinged with sulphureous crimson, lingered in the west, and threw 
+a reddish tint upon the pine forests, which sent forth a solemn 
+sound, as the breeze rolled over them.  The hollow moan struck upon 
+Emily's heart, and served to render more gloomy and terrific every 
+object around her,--the mountains, shaded in twilight--the gleaming 
+torrent, hoarsely roaring--the black forests, and the deep glen, 
+broken into rocky recesses, high overshadowed by cypress and sycamore 
+and winding into long obscurity.  To this glen, Emily, as she sent 
+forth her anxious eye, thought there was no end; no hamlet, or even 
+cottage, was seen, and still no distant bark of watch dog, or even 
+faint, far-off halloo came on the wind.  In a tremulous voice, she 
+now ventured to remind the guides, that it was growing late, and to 
+ask again how far they had to go:  but they were too much occupied by 
+their own discourse to attend to her question, which she forbore to 
+repeat, lest it should provoke a surly answer.  Having, however, soon 
+after, finished their supper, the men collected the fragments into 
+their wallet, and proceeded along this winding glen, in gloomy 
+silence; while Emily again mused upon her own situation, and 
+concerning the motives of Montoni for involving her in it.  That it 
+was for some evil purpose towards herself, she could not doubt; and 
+it seemed, that, if he did not intend to destroy her, with a view of 
+immediately seizing her estates, he meant to reserve her a while in 
+concealment, for some more terrible design, for one that might 
+equally gratify his avarice and still more his deep revenge.  At this 
+moment, remembering Signor Brochio and his behaviour in the corridor, 
+a few preceding nights, the latter supposition, horrible as it was, 
+strengthened in her belief.  Yet, why remove her from the castle, 
+where deeds of darkness had, she feared, been often executed with 
+secrecy?--from chambers, perhaps
+
+  With many a foul, and midnight murder stain'd.
+
+The dread of what she might be going to encounter was now so 
+excessive, that it sometimes threatened her senses; and, often as she 
+went, she thought of her late father and of all he would have 
+suffered, could he have foreseen the strange and dreadful events of 
+her future life; and how anxiously he would have avoided that fatal 
+confidence, which committed his daughter to the care of a woman so 
+weak as was Madame Montoni.  So romantic and improbable, indeed, did 
+her present situation appear to Emily herself, particularly when she 
+compared it with the repose and beauty of her early days, that there 
+were moments, when she could almost have believed herself the victim 
+of frightful visions, glaring upon a disordered fancy.
+
+Restrained by the presence of her guides from expressing her terrors, 
+their acuteness was, at length, lost in gloomy despair.  The dreadful 
+view of what might await her hereafter rendered her almost 
+indifferent to the surrounding dangers.  She now looked, with little 
+emotion, on the wild dingles, and the gloomy road and mountains, 
+whose outlines were only distinguishable through the dusk;--objects, 
+which but lately had affected her spirits so much, as to awaken 
+horrid views of the future, and to tinge these with their own gloom.
+
+It was now so nearly dark, that the travellers, who proceeded only by 
+the slowest pace, could scarcely discern their way.  The clouds, 
+which seemed charged with thunder, passed slowly along the heavens, 
+shewing, at intervals, the trembling stars; while the groves of 
+cypress and sycamore, that overhung the rocks, waved high in the 
+breeze, as it swept over the glen, and then rushed among the distant 
+woods.  Emily shivered as it passed.
+
+'Where is the torch?' said Ugo, 'It grows dark.'
+
+'Not so dark yet,' replied Bertrand, 'but we may find our way, and 
+'tis best not light the torch, before we can help, for it may betray 
+us, if any straggling party of the enemy is abroad.'
+
+Ugo muttered something, which Emily did not understand, and they 
+proceeded in darkness, while she almost wished, that the enemy might 
+discover them; for from change there was something to hope, since she 
+could scarcely imagine any situation more dreadful than her present 
+one.
+
+As they moved slowly along, her attention was surprised by a thin 
+tapering flame, that appeared, by fits, at the point of the pike, 
+which Bertrand carried, resembling what she had observed on the lance 
+of the sentinel, the night Madame Montoni died, and which he had said 
+was an omen.  The event immediately following it appeared to justify 
+the assertion, and a superstitious impression had remained on Emily's 
+mind, which the present appearance confirmed.  She thought it was an 
+omen of her own fate, and watched it successively vanish and return, 
+in gloomy silence, which was at length interrupted by Bertrand.
+
+'Let us light the torch,' said he, 'and get under shelter of the 
+woods;--a storm is coming on--look at my lance.'
+
+He held it forth, with the flame tapering at its point.*
+
+(*See the Abbe Berthelon on Electricity.  [A. R.])
+
+
+'Aye,' said Ugo, 'you are not one of those, that believe in omens:  
+we have left cowards at the castle, who would turn pale at such a 
+sight.  I have often seen it before a thunder storm, it is an omen of 
+that, and one is coming now, sure enough.  The clouds flash fast 
+already.'
+
+Emily was relieved by this conversation from some of the terrors of 
+superstition, but those of reason increased, as, waiting while Ugo 
+searched for a flint, to strike fire, she watched the pale lightning 
+gleam over the woods they were about to enter, and illumine the harsh 
+countenances of her companions.  Ugo could not find a flint, and 
+Bertrand became impatient, for the thunder sounded hollowly at a 
+distance, and the lightning was more frequent.  Sometimes, it 
+revealed the nearer recesses of the woods, or, displaying some 
+opening in their summits, illumined the ground beneath with partial 
+splendour, the thick foliage of the trees preserving the surrounding 
+scene in deep shadow.
+
+At length, Ugo found a flint, and the torch was lighted.  The men 
+then dismounted, and, having assisted Emily, led the mules towards 
+the woods, that skirted the glen, on the left, over broken ground, 
+frequently interrupted with brush-wood and wild plants, which she was 
+often obliged to make a circuit to avoid.
+
+She could not approach these woods, without experiencing keener sense 
+of her danger.  Their deep silence, except when the wind swept among 
+their branches, and impenetrable glooms shewn partially by the sudden 
+flash, and then, by the red glare of the torch, which served only to 
+make 'darkness visible,' were circumstances, that contributed to 
+renew all her most terrible apprehensions; she thought, too, that, at 
+this moment, the countenances of her conductors displayed more than 
+their usual fierceness, mingled with a kind of lurking exultation, 
+which they seemed endeavouring to disguise.  To her affrighted fancy 
+it occurred, that they were leading her into these woods to complete 
+the will of Montoni by her murder.  The horrid suggestion called a 
+groan from her heart, which surprised her companions, who turned 
+round quickly towards her, and she demanded why they led her thither, 
+beseeching them to continue their way along the open glen, which she 
+represented to be less dangerous than the woods, in a thunder storm.
+
+'No, no,' said Bertrand, 'we know best where the danger lies.  See 
+how the clouds open over our heads.  Besides, we can glide under 
+cover of the woods with less hazard of being seen, should any of the 
+enemy be wandering this way.  By holy St. Peter and all the rest of 
+them, I've as stout a heart as the best, as many a poor devil could 
+tell, if he were alive again--but what can we do against numbers?'
+
+'What are you whining about?' said Ugo, contemptuously, 'who fears 
+numbers!  Let them come, though they were as many, as the Signor's 
+castle could hold; I would shew the knaves what fighting is.  For 
+you--I would lay you quietly in a dry ditch, where you might peep 
+out, and see me put the rogues to flight.--Who talks of fear!'
+
+Bertrand replied, with an horrible oath, that he did not like such 
+jesting, and a violent altercation ensued, which was, at length, 
+silenced by the thunder, whose deep volley was heard afar, rolling 
+onward till it burst over their heads in sounds, that seemed to shake 
+the earth to its centre.  The ruffians paused, and looked upon each 
+other.  Between the boles of the trees, the blue lightning flashed 
+and quivered along the ground, while, as Emily looked under the 
+boughs, the mountains beyond, frequently appeared to be clothed in 
+livid flame.  At this moment, perhaps, she felt less fear of the 
+storm, than did either of her companions, for other terrors occupied 
+her mind.
+
+The men now rested under an enormous chesnut-tree, and fixed their 
+pikes in the ground, at some distance, on the iron points of which 
+Emily repeatedly observed the lightning play, and then glide down 
+them into the earth.
+
+'I would we were well in the Signor's castle!' said Bertrand, 'I know 
+not why he should send us on this business.  Hark! how it rattles 
+above, there!  I could almost find in my heart to turn priest, and 
+pray.  Ugo, hast got a rosary?'
+
+'No,' replied Ugo, 'I leave it to cowards like thee, to carry 
+rosaries--I, carry a sword.'
+
+'And much good may it do thee in fighting against the storm!' said 
+Bertrand.
+
+Another peal, which was reverberated in tremendous echoes among the 
+mountains, silenced them for a moment.  As it rolled away, Ugo 
+proposed going on.  'We are only losing time here,' said he, 'for the 
+thick boughs of the woods will shelter us as well as this chesnut-
+tree.'
+
+They again led the mules forward, between the boles of the trees, and 
+over pathless grass, that concealed their high knotted roots.  The 
+rising wind was now heard contending with the thunder, as it rushed 
+furiously among the branches above, and brightened the red flame of 
+the torch, which threw a stronger light forward among the woods, and 
+shewed their gloomy recesses to be suitable resorts for the wolves, 
+of which Ugo had formerly spoken.
+
+At length, the strength of the wind seemed to drive the storm before 
+it, for the thunder rolled away into distance, and was only faintly 
+heard.  After travelling through the woods for nearly an hour, during 
+which the elements seemed to have returned to repose, the travellers, 
+gradually ascending from the glen, found themselves upon the open 
+brow of a mountain, with a wide valley, extending in misty moon-
+light, at their feet, and above, the blue sky, trembling through the 
+few thin clouds, that lingered after the storm, and were sinking 
+slowly to the verge of the horizon.
+
+Emily's spirits, now that she had quitted the woods, began to revive; 
+for she considered, that, if these men had received an order to 
+destroy her, they would probably have executed their barbarous 
+purpose in the solitary wild, from whence they had just emerged, 
+where the deed would have been shrouded from every human eye.  
+Reassured by this reflection, and by the quiet demeanour of her 
+guides, Emily, as they proceeded silently, in a kind of sheep track, 
+that wound along the skirts of the woods, which ascended on the 
+right, could not survey the sleeping beauty of the vale, to which 
+they were declining, without a momentary sensation of pleasure.  It 
+seemed varied with woods, pastures, and sloping grounds, and was 
+screened to the north and the east by an amphitheatre of the 
+Apennines, whose outline on the horizon was here broken into varied 
+and elegant forms; to the west and the south, the landscape extended 
+indistinctly into the lowlands of Tuscany.
+
+'There is the sea yonder,' said Bertrand, as if he had known that 
+Emily was examining the twilight view, 'yonder in the west, though we 
+cannot see it.'
+
+Emily already perceived a change in the climate, from that of the 
+wild and mountainous tract she had left; and, as she continued 
+descending, the air became perfumed by the breath of a thousand 
+nameless flowers among the grass, called forth by the late rain.  So 
+soothingly beautiful was the scene around her, and so strikingly 
+contrasted to the gloomy grandeur of those, to which she had long 
+been confined, and to the manners of the people, who moved among 
+them, that she could almost have fancied herself again at La Vallee, 
+and, wondering why Montoni had sent her hither, could scarcely 
+believe, that he had selected so enchanting a spot for any cruel 
+design.  It was, however, probably not the spot, but the persons, who 
+happened to inhabit it, and to whose care he could safely commit the 
+execution of his plans, whatever they might be, that had determined 
+his choice.
+
+She now ventured again to enquire, whether they were near the place 
+of their destination, and was answered by Ugo, that they had not far 
+to go.  'Only to the wood of chesnuts in the valley yonder,' said he, 
+'there, by the brook, that sparkles with the moon; I wish I was once 
+at rest there, with a flask of good wine, and a slice of Tuscany 
+bacon.'
+
+Emily's spirits revived, when she heard, that the journey was so 
+nearly concluded, and saw the wood of chesnuts in an open part of the 
+vale, on the margin of the stream.
+
+In a short time, they reached the entrance of the wood, and 
+perceived, between the twinkling leaves, a light, streaming from a 
+distant cottage window.  They proceeded along the edge of the brook 
+to where the trees, crowding over it, excluded the moon-beams, but a 
+long line of light, from the cottage above, was seen on its dark 
+tremulous surface.  Bertrand now stepped on first, and Emily heard 
+him knock, and call loudly at the door.  As she reached it, the small 
+upper casement, where the light appeared, was unclosed by a man, who, 
+having enquired what they wanted, immediately descended, let them 
+into a neat rustic cot, and called up his wife to set refreshments 
+before the travellers.  As this man conversed, rather apart, with 
+Bertrand, Emily anxiously surveyed him.  He was a tall, but not 
+robust, peasant, of a sallow complexion, and had a shrewd and cunning 
+eye; his countenance was not of a character to win the ready 
+confidence of youth, and there was nothing in his manner, that might 
+conciliate a stranger.
+
+Ugo called impatiently for supper, and in a tone as if he knew his 
+authority here to be unquestionable.  'I expected you an hour ago,' 
+said the peasant, 'for I have had Signor Montoni's letter these three 
+hours, and I and my wife had given you up, and gone to bed.  How did 
+you fare in the storm?'
+
+'Ill enough,' replied Ugo, 'ill enough and we are like to fare ill 
+enough here, too, unless you will make more haste.  Get us more wine, 
+and let us see what you have to eat.'
+
+The peasant placed before them all, that his cottage afforded--ham, 
+wine, figs, and grapes of such size and flavour, as Emily had seldom 
+tasted.
+
+After taking refreshment, she was shewn by the peasant's wife to her 
+little bed-chamber, where she asked some questions concerning 
+Montoni, to which the woman, whose name was Dorina, gave reserved 
+answers, pretending ignorance of his excellenza's intention in 
+sending Emily hither, but acknowledging that her husband had been 
+apprized of the circumstance.  Perceiving, that she could obtain no 
+intelligence concerning her destination, Emily dismissed Dorina, and 
+retired to repose; but all the busy scenes of her past and the 
+anticipated ones of the future came to her anxious mind, and 
+conspired with the sense of her new situation to banish sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+     Was nought around but images of rest,
+ Sleep-soothing groves, and quiet lawns between,
+ And flowery beds that slumbrous influence kept,
+ From poppies breath'd, and banks of pleasant green,
+ Where never yet was creeping creature seen.
+ Meantime unnumbered glittering streamlets play'd,
+ And hurled every where their water's sheen,
+ That, as they bicker'd through the sunny glade,
+ Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur made.
+     THOMSON
+
+When Emily, in the morning, opened her casement, she was surprised to 
+observe the beauties, that surrounded it.  The cottage was nearly 
+embowered in the woods, which were chiefly of chesnut intermixed with 
+some cypress, larch and sycamore.  Beneath the dark and spreading 
+branches, appeared, to the north, and to the east, the woody 
+Apennines, rising in majestic amphitheatre, not black with pines, as 
+she had been accustomed to see them, but their loftiest summits 
+crowned with antient forests of chesnut, oak, and oriental plane, now 
+animated with the rich tints of autumn, and which swept downward to 
+the valley uninterruptedly, except where some bold rocky promontory 
+looked out from among the foliage, and caught the passing gleam.  
+Vineyards stretched along the feet of the mountains, where the 
+elegant villas of the Tuscan nobility frequently adorned the scene, 
+and overlooked slopes clothed with groves of olive, mulberry, orange 
+and lemon.  The plain, to which these declined, was coloured with the 
+riches of cultivation, whose mingled hues were mellowed into harmony 
+by an Italian sun.  Vines, their purple clusters blushing between the 
+russet foliage, hung in luxuriant festoons from the branches of 
+standard fig and cherry trees, while pastures of verdure, such as 
+Emily had seldom seen in Italy, enriched the banks of a stream that, 
+after descending from the mountains, wound along the landscape, which 
+it reflected, to a bay of the sea.  There, far in the west, the 
+waters, fading into the sky, assumed a tint of the faintest purple, 
+and the line of separation between them was, now and then, 
+discernible only by the progress of a sail, brightened with the 
+sunbeam, along the horizon.
+
+The cottage, which was shaded by the woods from the intenser rays of 
+the sun, and was open only to his evening light, was covered entirely 
+with vines, fig-trees and jessamine, whose flowers surpassed in size 
+and fragrance any that Emily had seen.  These and ripening clusters 
+of grapes hung round her little casement.  The turf, that grew under 
+the woods, was inlaid with a variety of wild flowers and perfumed 
+herbs, and, on the opposite margin of the stream, whose current 
+diffused freshness beneath the shades, rose a grove of lemon and 
+orange trees.  This, though nearly opposite to Emily's window, did 
+not interrupt her prospect, but rather heightened, by its dark 
+verdure, the effect of the perspective; and to her this spot was a 
+bower of sweets, whose charms communicated imperceptibly to her mind 
+somewhat of their own serenity.
+
+She was soon summoned to breakfast, by the peasant's daughter, a girl 
+about seventeen, of a pleasant countenance, which, Emily was glad to 
+observe, seemed animated with the pure affections of nature, though 
+the others, that surrounded her, expressed, more or less, the worst 
+qualities--cruelty, ferocity, cunning and duplicity; of the latter 
+style of countenance, especially, were those of the peasant and his 
+wife.  Maddelina spoke little, but what she said was in a soft voice, 
+and with an air of modesty and complacency, that interested Emily, 
+who breakfasted at a separate table with Dorina, while Ugo and 
+Bertrand were taking a repast of Tuscany bacon and wine with their 
+host, near the cottage door; when they had finished which, Ugo, 
+rising hastily, enquired for his mule, and Emily learned that he was 
+to return to Udolpho, while Bertrand remained at the cottage; a 
+circumstance, which, though it did not surprise, distressed her.
+
+When Ugo was departed, Emily proposed to walk in the neighbouring 
+woods; but, on being told, that she must not quit the cottage, 
+without having Bertrand for her attendant, she withdrew to her own 
+room.  There, as her eyes settled on the towering Apennines, she 
+recollected the terrific scenery they had exhibited and the horrors 
+she had suffered, on the preceding night, particularly at the moment 
+when Bertrand had betrayed himself to be an assassin; and these 
+remembrances awakened a train of images, which, since they abstracted 
+her from a consideration of her own situation, she pursued for some 
+time, and then arranged in the following lines; pleased to have 
+discovered any innocent means, by which she could beguile an hour of 
+misfortune.
+
+  THE PILGRIM*
+
+ Slow o'er the Apennine, with bleeding feet,
+ A patient Pilgrim wound his lonely way,
+ To deck the Lady of Loretto's seat
+ With all the little wealth his zeal could pay.
+ From mountain-tops cold died the evening ray,
+ And, stretch'd in twilight, slept the vale below;
+ And now the last, last purple streaks of day
+ Along the melancholy West fade slow.
+ High o'er his head, the restless pines complain,
+ As on their summit rolls the breeze of night;
+ Beneath, the hoarse stream chides the rocks in vain:
+ The Pilgrim pauses on the dizzy height.
+ Then to the vale his cautious step he prest,
+ For there a hermit's cross was dimly seen,
+ Cresting the rock, and there his limbs might rest,
+ Cheer'd in the good man's cave, by faggot's sheen,
+ On leafy beds, nor guile his sleep molest.
+ Unhappy Luke! he trusts a treacherous clue!
+ Behind the cliff the lurking robber stood;
+ No friendly moon his giant shadow threw
+ Athwart the road, to save the Pilgrim's blood;
+ On as he went a vesper-hymn he sang,
+ The hymn, that nightly sooth'd him to repose.
+ Fierce on his harmless prey the ruffian sprang!
+ The Pilgrim bleeds to death, his eye-lids close.
+ Yet his meek spirit knew no vengeful care,
+ But, dying, for his murd'rer breath'd--a sainted pray'r!
+
+(* This poem and that entitled THE TRAVELLER in vol. ii, have already 
+appeared in a periodical publication.  [A. R.])
+
+
+Preferring the solitude of her room to the company of the persons 
+below stairs, Emily dined above, and Maddelina was suffered to attend 
+her, from whose simple conversation she learned, that the peasant and 
+his wife were old inhabitants of this cottage, which had been 
+purchased for them by Montoni, in reward of some service, rendered 
+him, many years before, by Marco, to whom Carlo, the steward at the 
+castle, was nearly related.  'So many years ago, Signora,' added 
+Maddelina, 'that I know nothing about it; but my father did the 
+Signor a great good, for my mother has often said to him, this 
+cottage was the least he ought to have had.'
+
+To the mention of this circumstance Emily listened with a painful 
+interest, since it appeared to give a frightful colour to the 
+character of Marco, whose service, thus rewarded by Montoni, she 
+could scarcely doubt have been criminal; and, if so, had too much 
+reason to believe, that she had been committed into his hands for 
+some desperate purpose.  'Did you ever hear how many years it is,' 
+said Emily, who was considering of Signora Laurentini's disappearance 
+from Udolpho, 'since your father performed the services you spoke 
+of?'
+
+'It was a little before he came to live at the cottage, Signora,' 
+replied Maddelina, 'and that is about eighteen years ago.'
+
+This was near the period, when Signora Laurentini had been said to 
+disappear, and it occurred to Emily, that Marco had assisted in that 
+mysterious affair, and, perhaps, had been employed in a murder!  This 
+horrible suggestion fixed her in such profound reverie, that 
+Maddelina quitted the room, unperceived by her, and she remained 
+unconscious of all around her, for a considerable time.  Tears, at 
+length, came to her relief, after indulging which, her spirits 
+becoming calmer, she ceased to tremble at a view of evils, that might 
+never arrive; and had sufficient resolution to endeavour to withdraw 
+her thoughts from the contemplation of her own interests.  
+Remembering the few books, which even in the hurry of her departure 
+from Udolpho she had put into her little package, she sat down with 
+one of them at her pleasant casement, whence her eyes often wandered 
+from the page to the landscape, whose beauty gradually soothed her 
+mind into gentle melancholy.
+
+Here, she remained alone, till evening, and saw the sun descend the 
+western sky, throw all his pomp of light and shadow upon the 
+mountains, and gleam upon the distant ocean and the stealing sails, 
+as he sunk amidst the waves.  Then, at the musing hour of twilight, 
+her softened thoughts returned to Valancourt; she again recollected 
+every circumstance, connected with the midnight music, and all that 
+might assist her conjecture, concerning his imprisonment at the 
+castle, and, becoming confirmed in the supposition, that it was his 
+voice she had heard there, she looked back to that gloomy abode with 
+emotions of grief and momentary regret.
+
+Refreshed by the cool and fragrant air, and her spirits soothed to a 
+state of gentle melancholy by the stilly murmur of the brook below 
+and of the woods around, she lingered at her casement long after the 
+sun had set, watching the valley sinking into obscurity, till only 
+the grand outline of the surrounding mountains, shadowed upon the 
+horizon, remained visible.  But a clear moon-light, that succeeded, 
+gave to the landscape, what time gives to the scenes of past life, 
+when it softens all their harsher features, and throws over the whole 
+the mellowing shade of distant contemplation.  The scenes of La 
+Vallee, in the early morn of her life, when she was protected and 
+beloved by parents equally loved, appeared in Emily's memory tenderly 
+beautiful, like the prospect before her, and awakened mournful 
+comparisons.  Unwilling to encounter the coarse behaviour of the 
+peasant's wife, she remained supperless in her room, while she wept 
+again over her forlorn and perilous situation, a review of which 
+entirely overcame the small remains of her fortitude, and, reducing 
+her to temporary despondence, she wished to be released from the 
+heavy load of life, that had so long oppressed her, and prayed to 
+Heaven to take her, in its mercy, to her parents.
+
+Wearied with weeping, she, at length, lay down on her mattress, and 
+sunk to sleep, but was soon awakened by a knocking at her chamber 
+door, and, starting up in terror, she heard a voice calling her.  The 
+image of Bertrand, with a stilletto in his hand, appeared to her 
+alarmed fancy, and she neither opened the door, or answered, but 
+listened in profound silence, till, the voice repeating her name in 
+the same low tone, she demanded who called.  'It is I, Signora,' 
+replied the voice, which she now distinguished to be Maddelina's, 
+'pray open the door.  Don't be frightened, it is I.'
+
+'And what brings you here so late, Maddelina?' said Emily, as she let 
+her in.
+
+'Hush!  signora, for heaven's sake hush!--if we are overheard I shall 
+never be forgiven.  My father and mother and Bertrand are all gone to 
+bed,' continued Maddelina, as she gently shut the door, and crept 
+forward, 'and I have brought you some supper, for you had none, you 
+know, Signora, below stairs.  Here are some grapes and figs and half 
+a cup of wine.'  Emily thanked her, but expressed apprehension lest 
+this kindness should draw upon her the resentment of Dorina, when she 
+perceived the fruit was gone.  'Take it back, therefore, Maddelina,' 
+added Emily, 'I shall suffer much less from the want of it, than I 
+should do, if this act of good-nature was to subject you to your 
+mother's displeasure.'
+
+'O Signora! there is no danger of that,' replied Maddelina, 'my 
+mother cannot miss the fruit, for I saved it from my own supper.  You 
+will make me very unhappy, if you refuse to take it, Signora.'  Emily 
+was so much affected by this instance of the good girl's generosity, 
+that she remained for some time unable to reply, and Maddelina 
+watched her in silence, till, mistaking the cause of her emotion, she 
+said, 'Do not weep so, Signora!  My mother, to be sure, is a little 
+cross, sometimes, but then it is soon over,--so don't take it so much 
+to heart.  She often scolds me, too, but then I have learned to bear 
+it, and, when she has done, if I can but steal out into the woods, 
+and play upon my sticcado, I forget it all directly.'
+
+Emily, smiling through her tears, told Maddelina, that she was a good 
+girl, and then accepted her offering.  She wished anxiously to know, 
+whether Bertrand and Dorina had spoken of Montoni, or of his designs, 
+concerning herself, in the presence of Maddelina, but disdained to 
+tempt the innocent girl to a conduct so mean, as that of betraying 
+the private conversations of her parents.  When she was departing, 
+Emily requested, that she would come to her room as often as she 
+dared, without offending her mother, and Maddelina, after promising 
+that she would do so, stole softly back again to her own chamber.
+
+Thus several days passed, during which Emily remained in her own 
+room, Maddelina attending her only at her repast, whose gentle 
+countenance and manners soothed her more than any circumstance she 
+had known for many months.  Of her pleasant embowered chamber she now 
+became fond, and began to experience in it those feelings of 
+security, which we naturally attach to home.  In this interval also, 
+her mind, having been undisturbed by any new circumstance of disgust, 
+or alarm, recovered its tone sufficiently to permit her the enjoyment 
+of her books, among which she found some unfinished sketches of 
+landscapes, several blank sheets of paper, with her drawing 
+instruments, and she was thus enabled to amuse herself with selecting 
+some of the lovely features of the prospect, that her window 
+commanded, and combining them in scenes, to which her tasteful fancy 
+gave a last grace.  In these little sketches she generally placed 
+interesting groups, characteristic of the scenery they animated, and 
+often contrived to tell, with perspicuity, some simple and affecting 
+story, when, as a tear fell over the pictured griefs, which her 
+imagination drew, she would forget, for a moment, her real 
+sufferings.  Thus innocently she beguiled the heavy hours of 
+misfortune, and, with meek patience, awaited the events of futurity.
+
+A beautiful evening, that had succeeded to a sultry day, at length 
+induced Emily to walk, though she knew that Bertrand must attend her, 
+and, with Maddelina for her companion, she left the cottage, followed 
+by Bertrand, who allowed her to choose her own way.  The hour was 
+cool and silent, and she could not look upon the country around her, 
+without delight.  How lovely, too, appeared the brilliant blue, that 
+coloured all the upper region of the air, and, thence fading 
+downward, was lost in the saffron glow of the horizon!  Nor less so 
+were the varied shades and warm colouring of the Apennines, as the 
+evening sun threw his slanting rays athwart their broken surface.  
+Emily followed the course of the stream, under the shades, that 
+overhung its grassy margin.  On the opposite banks, the pastures were 
+animated with herds of cattle of a beautiful cream-colour; and, 
+beyond, were groves of lemon and orange, with fruit glowing on the 
+branches, frequent almost as the leaves, which partly concealed it.  
+She pursued her way towards the sea, which reflected the warm glow of 
+sun-set, while the cliffs, that rose over its edge, were tinted with 
+the last rays.  The valley was terminated on the right by a lofty 
+promontory, whose summit, impending over the waves, was crowned with 
+a ruined tower, now serving for the purpose of a beacon, whose 
+shattered battlements and the extended wings of some sea-fowl, that 
+circled near it, were still illumined by the upward beams of the sun, 
+though his disk was now sunk beneath the horizon; while the lower 
+part of the ruin, the cliff on which it stood and the waves at its 
+foot, were shaded with the first tints of twilight.
+
+Having reached this headland, Emily gazed with solemn pleasure on the 
+cliffs, that extended on either hand along the sequestered shores, 
+some crowned with groves of pine, and others exhibiting only barren 
+precipices of grayish marble, except where the crags were tufted with 
+myrtle and other aromatic shrubs.  The sea slept in a perfect calm; 
+its waves, dying in murmurs on the shores, flowed with the gentlest 
+undulation, while its clear surface reflected in softened beauty the 
+vermeil tints of the west.  Emily, as she looked upon the ocean, 
+thought of France and of past times, and she wished, Oh! how 
+ardently, and vainly--wished! that its waves would bear her to her 
+distant, native home!
+
+'Ah! that vessel,' said she, 'that vessel, which glides along so 
+stately, with its tall sails reflected in the water is, perhaps, 
+bound for France!  Happy--happy bark!'  She continued to gaze upon 
+it, with warm emotion, till the gray of twilight obscured the 
+distance, and veiled it from her view.  The melancholy sound of the 
+waves at her feet assisted the tenderness, that occasioned her tears, 
+and this was the only sound, that broke upon the hour, till, having 
+followed the windings of the beach, for some time, a chorus of voices 
+passed her on the air.  She paused a moment, wishing to hear more, 
+yet fearing to be seen, and, for the first time, looked back to 
+Bertrand, as her protector, who was following, at a short distance, 
+in company with some other person.  Reassured by this circumstance, 
+she advanced towards the sounds, which seemed to arise from behind a 
+high promontory, that projected athwart the beach.  There was now a 
+sudden pause in the music, and then one female voice was heard to 
+sing in a kind of chant.  Emily quickened her steps, and, winding 
+round the rock, saw, within the sweeping bay, beyond, which was hung 
+with woods from the borders of the beach to the very summit of the 
+cliffs, two groups of peasants, one seated beneath the shades, and 
+the other standing on the edge of the sea, round the girl, who was 
+singing, and who held in her hand a chaplet of flowers, which she 
+seemed about to drop into the waves.
+
+Emily, listening with surprise and attention, distinguished the 
+following invocation delivered in the pure and elegant tongue of 
+Tuscany, and accompanied by a few pastoral instruments.
+
+  TO A SEA-NYMPH
+
+ O nymph! who loves to float on the green wave,
+ When Neptune sleeps beneath the moon-light hour,
+ Lull'd by the music's melancholy pow'r,
+ O nymph, arise from out thy pearly cave!
+
+ For Hesper beams amid the twilight shade,
+ And soon shall Cynthia tremble o'er the tide,
+ Gleam on these cliffs, that bound the ocean's pride,
+ And lonely silence all the air pervade.
+
+ Then, let thy tender voice at distance swell,
+ And steal along this solitary shore,
+ Sink on the breeze, till dying--heard no more--
+ Thou wak'st the sudden magic of thy shell.
+
+ While the long coast in echo sweet replies,
+ Thy soothing strains the pensive heart beguile,
+ And bid the visions of the future smile,
+ O nymph! from out thy pearly cave--arise!
+
+  (Chorus)--ARISE!
+  (Semi-chorus)--ARISE!
+
+The last words being repeated by the surrounding group, the garland 
+of flowers was thrown into the waves, and the chorus, sinking 
+gradually into a chant, died away in silence.
+
+'What can this mean, Maddelina?' said Emily, awakening from the 
+pleasing trance, into which the music had lulled her.  'This is the 
+eve of a festival, Signora,' replied Maddelina; 'and the peasants 
+then amuse themselves with all kinds of sports.'
+
+'But they talked of a sea-nymph,' said Emily:  'how came these good 
+people to think of a sea-nymph?'
+
+'O, Signora,' rejoined Maddelina, mistaking the reason of Emily's 
+surprise, 'nobody BELIEVES in such things, but our old songs tell of 
+them, and, when we are at our sports, we sometimes sing to them, and 
+throw garlands into the sea.'
+
+Emily had been early taught to venerate Florence as the seat of 
+literature and of the fine arts; but, that its taste for classic 
+story should descend to the peasants of the country, occasioned her 
+both surprise and admiration.  The Arcadian air of the girls next 
+attracted her attention.  Their dress was a very short full petticoat 
+of light green, with a boddice of white silk; the sleeves loose, and 
+tied up at the shoulders with ribbons and bunches of flowers.  Their 
+hair, falling in ringlets on their necks, was also ornamented with 
+flowers, and with a small straw hat, which, set rather backward and 
+on one side of the head, gave an expression of gaiety and smartness 
+to the whole figure.  When the song had concluded, several of these 
+girls approached Emily, and, inviting her to sit down among them, 
+offered her, and Maddelina, whom they knew, grapes and figs.
+
+Emily accepted their courtesy, much pleased with the gentleness and 
+grace of their manners, which appeared to be perfectly natural to 
+them; and when Bertrand, soon after, approached, and was hastily 
+drawing her away, a peasant, holding up a flask, invited him to 
+drink; a temptation, which Bertrand was seldom very valiant in 
+resisting.
+
+'Let the young lady join in the dance, my friend,' said the peasant, 
+'while we empty this flask.  They are going to begin directly.  
+Strike up! my lads, strike up your tambourines and merry flutes!'
+
+They sounded gaily; and the younger peasants formed themselves into a 
+circle, which Emily would readiy have joined, had her spirits been in 
+unison with their mirth.  Maddelina, however, tripped it lightly, and 
+Emily, as she looked on the happy group, lost the sense of her 
+misfortunes in that of a benevolent pleasure.  But the pensive 
+melancholy of her mind returned, as she sat rather apart from the 
+company, listening to the mellow music, which the breeze softened as 
+it bore it away, and watching the moon, stealing its tremulous light 
+over the waves and on the woody summits of the cliffs, that wound 
+along these Tuscan shores.
+
+Meanwhile, Bertrand was so well pleased with his first flask, that he 
+very willingly commenced the attack on a second, and it was late 
+before Emily, not without some apprehension, returned to the cottage.
+
+After this evening, she frequently walked with Maddelina, but was 
+never unattended by Bertrand; and her mind became by degrees as 
+tranquil as the circumstances of her situation would permit.  The 
+quiet, in which she was suffered to live, encouraged her to hope, 
+that she was not sent hither with an evil design; and, had it not 
+appeared probable, that Valancourt was at this time an inhabitant of 
+Udolpho, she would have wished to remain at the cottage, till an 
+opportunity should offer of returning to her native country.  But, 
+concerning Montoni's motive for sending her into Tuscany, she was 
+more than ever perplexed, nor could she believe that any 
+consideration for her safety had influenced him on this occasion.
+
+She had been some time at the cottage, before she recollected, that, 
+in the hurry of leaving Udolpho, she had forgotten the papers 
+committed to her by her late aunt, relative to the Languedoc estates; 
+but, though this remembrance occasioned her much uneasiness, she had 
+some hope, that, in the obscure place, where they were deposited, 
+they would escape the detection of Montoni.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
+ I play the torturer, by small and small,
+ To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken.
+     RICHARD II
+
+We now return, for a moment, to Venice, where Count Morano was 
+suffering under an accumulation of misfortunes.  Soon after his 
+arrival in that city, he had been arrested by order of the Senate, 
+and, without knowing of what he was suspected, was conveyed to a 
+place of confinement, whither the most strenuous enquiries of his 
+friends had been unable to trace him.  Who the enemy was, that had 
+occasioned him this calamity, he had not been able to guess, unless, 
+indeed, it was Montoni, on whom his suspicions rested, and not only 
+with much apparent probability, but with justice.
+
+In the affair of the poisoned cup, Montoni had suspected Morano; but, 
+being unable to obtain the degree of proof, which was necessary to 
+convict him of a guilty intention, he had recourse to means of other 
+revenge, than he could hope to obtain by prosecution.  He employed a 
+person, in whom he believed he might confide, to drop a letter of 
+accusation into the DENUNZIE SECRETE, or lions' mouths, which are 
+fixed in a gallery of the Doge's palace, as receptacles for anonymous 
+information, concerning persons, who may be disaffected towards the 
+state.  As, on these occasions, the accuser is not confronted with 
+the accused, a man may falsely impeach his enemy, and accomplish an 
+unjust revenge, without fear of punishment, or detection.  That 
+Montoni should have recourse to these diabolical means of ruining a 
+person, whom he suspected of having attempted his life, is not in the 
+least surprising.  In the letter, which he had employed as the 
+instrument of his revenge, he accused Morano of designs against the 
+state, which he attempted to prove, with all the plausible simplicity 
+of which he was master; and the Senate, with whom a suspicion was, at 
+that time, almost equal to a proof, arrested the Count, in 
+consequence of this accusation; and, without even hinting to him his 
+crime, threw him into one of those secret prisons, which were the 
+terror of the Venetians, and in which persons often languished, and 
+sometimes died, without being discovered by their friends.
+
+Morano had incurred the personal resentment of many members of the 
+state; his habits of life had rendered him obnoxious to some; and his 
+ambition, and the bold rivalship, which he discovered, on several 
+public occasions,--to others; and it was not to be expected, that 
+mercy would soften the rigour of a law, which was to be dispensed 
+from the hands of his enemies.
+
+Montoni, meantime, was beset by dangers of another kind.  His castle 
+was besieged by troops, who seemed willing to dare every thing, and 
+to suffer patiently any hardships in pursuit of victory.  The 
+strength of the fortress, however, withstood their attack, and this, 
+with the vigorous defence of the garrison and the scarcity of 
+provision on these wild mountains, soon compelled the assailants to 
+raise the siege.
+
+When Udolpho was once more left to the quiet possession of Montoni, 
+he dispatched Ugo into Tuscany for Emily, whom he had sent from 
+considerations of her personal safety, to a place of greater 
+security, than a castle, which was, at that time, liable to be 
+overrun by his enemies.  Tranquillity being once more restored to 
+Udolpho, he was impatient to secure her again under his roof, and had 
+commissioned Ugo to assist Bertrand in guarding her back to the 
+castle.  Thus compelled to return, Emily bade the kind Maddelina 
+farewell, with regret, and, after about a fortnight's stay in 
+Tuscany, where she had experienced an interval of quiet, which was 
+absolutely necessary to sustain her long-harassed spirits, began once 
+more to ascend the Apennines, from whose heights she gave a long and 
+sorrowful look to the beautiful country, that extended at their feet, 
+and to the distant Mediterranean, whose waves she had so often wished 
+would bear her back to France.  The distress she felt, on her return 
+towards the place of her former sufferings, was, however, softened by 
+a conjecture, that Valancourt was there, and she found some degree of 
+comfort in the thought of being near him, notwithstanding the 
+consideration, that he was probably a prisoner.
+
+It was noon, when she had left the cottage, and the evening was 
+closed, long before she came within the neighbourhood of Udolpho.  
+There was a moon, but it shone only at intervals, for the night was 
+cloudy, and, lighted by the torch, which Ugo carried, the travellers 
+paced silently along, Emily musing on her situation, and Bertrand and 
+Ugo anticipating the comforts of a flask of wine and a good fire, for 
+they had perceived for some time the difference between the warm 
+climate of the lowlands of Tuscany and the nipping air of these upper 
+regions.  Emily was, at length, roused from her reverie by the far-
+off sound of the castle clock, to which she listened not without some 
+degree of awe, as it rolled away on the breeze.  Another and another 
+note succeeded, and died in sullen murmur among the mountains:--to 
+her mournful imagination it seemed a knell measuring out some fateful 
+period for her.
+
+'Aye, there is the old clock,' said Bertrand, 'there he is still; the 
+cannon have not silenced him!'
+
+'No,' answered Ugo, 'he crowed as loud as the best of them in the 
+midst of it all.  There he was roaring out in the hottest fire I have 
+seen this many a day!  I said that some of them would have a hit at 
+the old fellow, but he escaped, and the tower too.'
+
+The road winding round the base of a mountain, they now came within 
+view of the castle, which was shewn in the perspective of the valley 
+by a gleam of moon-shine, and then vanished in shade; while even a 
+transient view of it had awakened the poignancy of Emily's feelings.  
+Its massy and gloomy walls gave her terrible ideas of imprisonment 
+and suffering:  yet, as she advanced, some degree of hope mingled 
+with her terror; for, though this was certainly the residence of 
+Montoni, it was possibly, also, that of Valancourt, and she could not 
+approach a place, where he might be, without experiencing somewhat of 
+the joy of hope.
+
+They continued to wind along the valley, and, soon after, she saw 
+again the old walls and moon-lit towers, rising over the woods:  the 
+strong rays enabled her, also, to perceive the ravages, which the 
+siege had made,--with the broken walls, and shattered battlements, 
+for they were now at the foot of the steep, on which Udolpho stood.  
+Massy fragments had rolled down among the woods, through which the 
+travellers now began to ascend, and there mingled with the loose 
+earth, and pieces of rock they had brought with them.  The woods, 
+too, had suffered much from the batteries above, for here the enemy 
+had endeavoured to screen themselves from the fire of the ramparts.  
+Many noble trees were levelled with the ground, and others, to a wide 
+extent, were entirely stripped of their upper branches.  'We had 
+better dismount,' said Ugo, 'and lead the mules up the hill, or we 
+shall get into some of the holes, which the balls have left.  Here 
+are plenty of them.  Give me the torch,' continued Ugo, after they 
+had dismounted, 'and take care you don't stumble over any thing, that 
+lies in your way, for the ground is not yet cleared of the enemy.'
+
+'How!' exclaimed Emily, 'are any of the enemy here, then?'
+
+'Nay, I don't know for that, now,' he replied, 'but when I came away 
+I saw one or two of them lying under the trees.'
+
+As they proceeded, the torch threw a gloomy light upon the ground, 
+and far among the recesses of the woods, and Emily feared to look 
+forward, lest some object of horror should meet her eye.  The path 
+was often strewn with broken heads of arrows, and with shattered 
+remains of armour, such as at that period was mingled with the 
+lighter dress of the soldiers.  'Bring the light hither,' said 
+Bertrand, 'I have stumbled over something, that rattles loud enough.'  
+Ugo holding up the torch, they perceived a steel breastplate on the 
+ground, which Bertrand raised, and they saw, that it was pierced 
+through, and that the lining was entirely covered with blood; but 
+upon Emily's earnest entreaties, that they would proceed, Bertrand, 
+uttering some joke upon the unfortunate person, to whom it had 
+belonged, threw it hard upon the ground, and they passed on.
+
+At every step she took, Emily feared to see some vestige of death.  
+Coming soon after to an opening in the woods, Bertrand stopped to 
+survey the ground, which was encumbered with massy trunks and 
+branches of the trees, that had so lately adorned it, and seemed to 
+have been a spot particularly fatal to the besiegers; for it was 
+evident from the destruction of the trees, that here the hottest fire 
+of the garrison had been directed.  As Ugo held again forth the 
+torch, steel glittered between the fallen trees; the ground beneath 
+was covered with broken arms, and with the torn vestments of 
+soldiers, whose mangled forms Emily almost expected to see; and she 
+again entreated her companions to proceed, who were, however, too 
+intent in their examination, to regard her, and she turned her eyes 
+from this desolated scene to the castle above, where she observed 
+lights gliding along the ramparts.  Presently, the castle clock 
+struck twelve, and then a trumpet sounded, of which Emily enquired 
+the occasion.
+
+'O! they are only changing watch,' replied Ugo.  'I do not remember 
+this trumpet,' said Emily, 'it is a new custom.'  'It is only an old 
+one revived, lady; we always use it in time of war.  We have sounded 
+it, at midnight, ever since the place was besieged.'
+
+'Hark!' said Emily, as the trumpet sounded again; and, in the next 
+moment, she heard a faint clash of arms, and then the watchword 
+passed along the terrace above, and was answered from a distant part 
+of the castle; after which all was again still.  She complained of 
+cold, and begged to go on.  'Presently, lady,' said Bertrand, turning 
+over some broken arms with the pike he usually carried.  'What have 
+we here?'
+
+'Hark!' cried Emily, 'what noise was that?'
+
+'What noise was it?' said Ugo, starting up and listening.
+
+'Hush!' repeated Emily.  'It surely came from the ramparts above:' 
+and, on looking up, they perceived a light moving along the walls, 
+while, in the next instant, the breeze swelling, the voice sounded 
+louder than before.
+
+'Who goes yonder?' cried a sentinel of the castle.  'Speak or it will 
+be worse for you.'  Bertrand uttered a shout of joy.  'Hah! my brave 
+comrade, is it you?' said he, and he blew a shrill whistle, which 
+signal was answered by another from the soldier on watch; and the 
+party, then passing forward, soon after emerged from the woods upon 
+the broken road, that led immediately to the castle gates, and Emily 
+saw, with renewed terror, the whole of that stupendous structure.  
+'Alas!' said she to herself, 'I am going again into my prison!'
+
+'Here has been warm work, by St. Marco!' cried Bertrand, waving a 
+torch over the ground; 'the balls have torn up the earth here with a 
+vengeance.'
+
+'Aye,' replied Ugo, 'they were fired from that redoubt, yonder, and 
+rare execution they did.  The enemy made a furious attack upon the 
+great gates; but they might have guessed they could never carry it 
+there; for, besides the cannon from the walls, our archers, on the 
+two round towers, showered down upon them at such a rate, that, by 
+holy Peter! there was no standing it.  I never saw a better sight in 
+my life; I laughed, till my sides aked, to see how the knaves 
+scampered.  Bertrand, my good fellow, thou shouldst have been among 
+them; I warrant thou wouldst have won the race!'
+
+'Hah! you are at your old tricks again,' said Bertrand in a surly 
+tone.  'It is well for thee thou art so near the castle; thou knowest 
+I have killed my man before now.'  Ugo replied only by a laugh, and 
+then gave some further account of the siege, to which as Emily 
+listened, she was struck by the strong contrast of the present scene 
+with that which had so lately been acted here.
+
+The mingled uproar of cannon, drums, and trumpets, the groans of the 
+conquered, and the shouts of the conquerors were now sunk into a 
+silence so profound, that it seemed as if death had triumphed alike 
+over the vanquished and the victor.  The shattered condition of one 
+of the towers of the great gates by no means confirmed the VALIANT 
+account just given by Ugo of the scampering party, who, it was 
+evident, had not only made a stand, but had done much mischief before 
+they took to flight; for this tower appeared, as far as Emily could 
+judge by the dim moon-light that fell upon it, to be laid open, and 
+the battlements were nearly demolished.  While she gazed, a light 
+glimmered through one of the lower loop-holes, and disappeared; but, 
+in the next moment, she perceived through the broken wall, a soldier, 
+with a lamp, ascending the narrow staircase, that wound within the 
+tower, and, remembering that it was the same she had passed up, on 
+the night, when Barnardine had deluded her with a promise of seeing 
+Madame Montoni, fancy gave her somewhat of the terror she had then 
+suffered.  She was now very near the gates, over which the soldier 
+having opened the door of the portal-chamber, the lamp he carried 
+gave her a dusky view of that terrible apartment, and she almost sunk 
+under the recollected horrors of the moment, when she had drawn aside 
+the curtain, and discovered the object it was meant to conceal.
+
+'Perhaps,' said she to herself, 'it is now used for a similar 
+purpose; perhaps, that soldier goes, at this dead hour, to watch over 
+the corpse of his friend!'  The little remains of her fortitude now 
+gave way to the united force of remembered and anticipated horrors, 
+for the melancholy fate of Madame Montoni appeared to foretell her 
+own.  She considered, that, though the Languedoc estates, if she 
+relinquished them, would satisfy Montoni's avarice, they might not 
+appease his vengeance, which was seldom pacified but by a terrible 
+sacrifice; and she even thought, that, were she to resign them, the 
+fear of justice might urge him either to detain her a prisoner, or to 
+take away her life.
+
+They were now arrived at the gates, where Bertrand, observing the 
+light glimmer through a small casement of the portal-chamber, called 
+aloud; and the soldier, looking out, demanded who was there.  'Here, 
+I have brought you a prisoner,' said Ugo, 'open the gate, and let us 
+in.'
+
+'Tell me first who it is, that demands entrance,' replied the 
+soldier.  'What! my old comrade,' cried Ugo, 'don't you know me? not 
+know Ugo?  I have brought home a prisoner here, bound hand and foot--
+a fellow, who has been drinking Tuscany wine, while we here have been 
+fighting.'
+
+'You will not rest till you meet with your match,' said Bertrand 
+sullenly.  'Hah! my comrade, is it you?' said the soldier--'I'll be 
+with you directly.'
+
+Emily presently heard his steps descending the stairs within, and 
+then the heavy chain fall, and the bolts undraw of a small postern 
+door, which he opened to admit the party.  He held the lamp low, to 
+shew the step of the gate, and she found herself once more beneath 
+the gloomy arch, and heard the door close, that seemed to shut her 
+from the world for ever.  In the next moment, she was in the first 
+court of the castle, where she surveyed the spacious and solitary 
+area, with a kind of calm despair; while the dead hour of the night, 
+the gothic gloom of the surrounding buildings, and the hollow and 
+imperfect echoes, which they returned, as Ugo and the soldier 
+conversed together, assisted to increase the melancholy forebodings 
+of her heart.  Passing on to the second court, a distant sound broke 
+feebly on the silence, and gradually swelling louder, as they 
+advanced, Emily distinguished voices of revelry and laughter, but 
+they were to her far other than sounds of joy.  'Why, you have got 
+some Tuscany wine among you, HERE,' said Bertrand, 'if one may judge 
+by the uproar that is going forward.  Ugo has taken a larger share of 
+that than of fighting, I'll be sworn.  Who is carousing at this late 
+hour?'
+
+'His excellenza and the Signors,' replied the soldier:  'it is a sign 
+you are a stranger at the castle, or you would not need to ask the 
+question.  They are brave spirits, that do without sleep--they 
+generally pass the night in good cheer; would that we, who keep the 
+watch, had a little of it!  It is cold work, pacing the ramparts so 
+many hours of the night, if one has no good liquor to warm one's 
+heart.'
+
+'Courage, my lad, courage ought to warm your heart,' said Ugo.  
+'Courage!' replied the soldier sharply, with a menacing air, which 
+Ugo perceiving, prevented his saying more, by returning to the 
+subject of the carousal.  'This is a new custom,' said he; 'when I 
+left the castle, the Signors used to sit up counselling.'
+
+'Aye, and for that matter, carousing too,' replied the soldier, 'but, 
+since the siege, they have done nothing but make merry:  and if I was 
+they, I would settle accounts with myself, for all my hard fighting, 
+the same way.'
+
+They had now crossed the second court, and reached the hall door, 
+when the soldier, bidding them good night, hastened back to his post; 
+and, while they waited for admittance, Emily considered how she might 
+avoid seeing Montoni, and retire unnoticed to her former apartment, 
+for she shrunk from the thought of encountering either him, or any of 
+his party, at this hour.  The uproar within the castle was now so 
+loud, that, though Ugo knocked repeatedly at the hall door, he was 
+not heard by any of the servants, a circumstance, which increased 
+Emily's alarm, while it allowed her time to deliberate on the means 
+of retiring unobserved; for, though she might, perhaps, pass up the 
+great stair-case unseen, it was impossible she could find the way to 
+her chamber, without a light, the difficulty of procuring which, and 
+the danger of wandering about the castle, without one, immediately 
+struck her.  Bertrand had only a torch, and she knew, that the 
+servants never brought a taper to the door, for the hall was 
+sufficiently lighted by the large tripod lamp, which hung in the 
+vaulted roof; and, while she should wait till Annette could bring a 
+taper, Montoni, or some of his companions, might discover her.
+
+The door was now opened by Carlo; and Emily, having requested him to 
+send Annette immediately with a light to the great gallery, where she 
+determined to await her, passed on with hasty steps towards the 
+stair-case; while Bertrand and Ugo, with the torch, followed old 
+Carlo to the servants' hall, impatient for supper and the warm blaze 
+of a wood fire.  Emily, lighted only by the feeble rays, which the 
+lamp above threw between the arches of this extensive hall, 
+endeavoured to find her way to the stair-case, now hid in obscurity; 
+while the shouts of merriment, that burst from a remote apartment, 
+served, by heightening her terror, to increase her perplexity, and 
+she expected, every instant, to see the door of that room open, and 
+Montoni and his companions issue forth.  Having, at length, reached 
+the stair-case, and found her way to the top, she seated herself on 
+the last stair, to await the arrival of Annette; for the profound 
+darkness of the gallery deterred her from proceeding farther, and, 
+while she listened for her footstep, she heard only distant sounds of 
+revelry, which rose in sullen echoes from among the arcades below.  
+Once she thought she heard a low sound from the dark gallery behind 
+her; and, turning her eyes, fancied she saw something luminous move 
+in it; and, since she could not, at this moment, subdue the weakness 
+that caused her fears, she quitted her seat, and crept softly down a 
+few stairs lower.
+
+Annette not yet appearing, Emily now concluded, that she was gone to 
+bed, and that nobody chose to call her up; and the prospect, that 
+presented itself, of passing the night in darkness, in this place, or 
+in some other equally forlorn (for she knew it would be impracticable 
+to find her way through the intricacies of the galleries to her 
+chamber), drew tears of mingled terror and despondency from her eyes.
+
+While thus she sat, she fancied she heard again an odd sound from the 
+gallery, and she listened, scarcely daring to breathe, but the 
+increasing voices below overcame every other sound.  Soon after, she 
+heard Montoni and his companions burst into the hall, who spoke, as 
+if they were much intoxicated, and seemed to be advancing towards the 
+stair-case.  She now remembered, that they must come this way to 
+their chambers, and, forgetting all the terrors of the gallery, 
+hurried towards it with an intention of secreting herself in some of 
+the passages, that opened beyond, and of endeavouring, when the 
+Signors were retired, to find her way to her own room, or to that of 
+Annette, which was in a remote part of the castle.
+
+With extended arms, she crept along the gallery, still hearing the 
+voices of persons below, who seemed to stop in conversation at the 
+foot of the stair-case, and then pausing for a moment to listen, half 
+fearful of going further into the darkness of the gallery, where she 
+still imagined, from the noise she had heard, that some person was 
+lurking, 'They are already informed of my arrival,' said she, 'and 
+Montoni is coming himself to seek me!  In the present state of his 
+mind, his purpose must be desperate.'  Then, recollecting the scene, 
+that had passed in the corridor, on the night preceding her departure 
+from the castle, 'O Valancourt!' said she, 'I must then resign you 
+for ever.  To brave any longer the injustice of Montoni, would not be 
+fortitude, but rashness.'  Still the voices below did not draw 
+nearer, but they became louder, and she distinguished those of 
+Verezzi and Bertolini above the rest, while the few words she caught 
+made her listen more anxiously for others.  The conversation seemed 
+to concern herself; and, having ventured to step a few paces nearer 
+to the stair-case, she discovered, that they were disputing about 
+her, each seeming to claim some former promise of Montoni, who 
+appeared, at first, inclined to appease and to persuade them to 
+return to their wine, but afterwards to be weary of the dispute, and, 
+saying that he left them to settle it as they could, was returning 
+with the rest of the party to the apartment he had just quitted.  
+Verezzi then stopped him.  'Where is she?  Signor,' said he, in a 
+voice of impatience:  'tell us where she is.'  'I have already told 
+you that I do not know,' replied Montoni, who seemed to be somewhat 
+overcome with wine; 'but she is most probably gone to her apartment.'  
+Verezzi and Bertolini now desisted from their enquiries, and sprang 
+to the stair-case together, while Emily, who, during this discourse, 
+had trembled so excessively, that she had with difficulty supported 
+herself, seemed inspired with new strength, the moment she heard the 
+sound of their steps, and ran along the gallery, dark as it was, with 
+the fleetness of a fawn.  But, long before she reached its extremity, 
+the light, which Verezzi carried, flashed upon the walls; both 
+appeared, and, instantly perceiving Emily, pursued her.  At this 
+moment, Bertolini, whose steps, though swift, were not steady, and 
+whose impatience overcame what little caution he had hitherto used, 
+stumbled, and fell at his length.  The lamp fell with him, and was 
+presently expiring on the floor; but Verezzi, regardless of saving 
+it, seized the advantage this accident gave him over his rival, and 
+followed Emily, to whom, however, the light had shown one of the 
+passages that branched from the gallery, and she instantly turned 
+into it.  Verezzi could just discern the way she had taken, and this 
+he pursued; but the sound of her steps soon sunk in distance, while 
+he, less acquainted with the passage, was obliged to proceed through 
+the dark, with caution, lest he should fall down a flight of steps, 
+such as in this extensive old castle frequently terminated an avenue.  
+This passage at length brought Emily to the corridor, into which her 
+own chamber opened, and, not hearing any footstep, she paused to take 
+breath, and consider what was the safest design to be adopted.  She 
+had followed this passage, merely because it was the first that 
+appeared, and now that she had reached the end of it, was as 
+perplexed as before.  Whither to go, or how further to find her way 
+in the dark, she knew not; she was aware only that she must not seek 
+her apartment, for there she would certainly be sought, and her 
+danger increased every instant, while she remained near it.  Her 
+spirits and her breath, however, were so much exhausted, that she was 
+compelled to rest, for a few minutes, at the end of the passage, and 
+still she heard no steps approaching.  As thus she stood, light 
+glimmered under an opposite door of the gallery, and, from its 
+situation, she knew, that it was the door of that mysterious chamber, 
+where she had made a discovery so shocking, that she never remembered 
+it but with the utmost horror.  That there should be light in this 
+chamber, and at this hour, excited her strong surprise, and she felt 
+a momentary terror concerning it, which did not permit her to look 
+again, for her spirits were now in such a state of weakness, that she 
+almost expected to see the door slowly open, and some horrible object 
+appear at it.  Still she listened for a step along the passage, and 
+looked up it, where, not a ray of light appearing, she concluded, 
+that Verezzi had gone back for the lamp; and, believing that he would 
+shortly be there, she again considered which way she should go, or 
+rather which way she could find in the dark.
+
+A faint ray still glimmered under the opposite door, but so great, 
+and, perhaps, so just was her horror of that chamber, that she would 
+not again have tempted its secrets, though she had been certain of 
+obtaining the light so important to her safety.  She was still 
+breathing with difficulty, and resting at the end of the passage, 
+when she heard a rustling sound, and then a low voice, so very near 
+her, that it seemed close to her ear; but she had presence of mind to 
+check her emotions, and to remain quite still; in the next moment, 
+she perceived it to be the voice of Verezzi, who did not appear to 
+know, that she was there, but to have spoken to himself.  'The air is 
+fresher here,' said he:  'this should be the corridor.'  Perhaps, he 
+was one of those heroes, whose courage can defy an enemy better than 
+darkness, and he tried to rally his spirits with the sound of his own 
+voice.  However this might be, he turned to the right, and proceeded, 
+with the same stealing steps, towards Emily's apartment, apparently 
+forgetting, that, in darkness, she could easily elude his search, 
+even in her chamber; and, like an intoxicated person, he followed 
+pertinaciously the one idea, that had possessed his imagination.
+
+The moment she heard his steps steal away, she left her station and 
+moved softly to the other end of the corridor, determined to trust 
+again to chance, and to quit it by the first avenue she could find; 
+but, before she could effect this, light broke upon the walls of the 
+gallery, and, looking back, she saw Verezzi crossing it towards her 
+chamber.  She now glided into a passage, that opened on the left, 
+without, as she thought, being perceived; but, in the next instant, 
+another light, glimmering at the further end of this passage, threw 
+her into new terror.  While she stopped and hesitated which way to 
+go, the pause allowed her to perceive, that it was Annette, who 
+advanced, and she hurried to meet her:  but her imprudence again 
+alarmed Emily, on perceiving whom, she burst into a scream of joy, 
+and it was some minutes, before she could be prevailed with to be 
+silent, or to release her mistress from the ardent clasp, in which 
+she held her.  When, at length, Emily made Annette comprehend her 
+danger, they hurried towards Annette's room, which was in a distant 
+part of the castle.  No apprehensions, however, could yet silence the 
+latter.  'Oh dear ma'amselle,' said she, as they passed along, 'what 
+a terrified time have I had of it!  Oh!  I thought I should have died 
+an hundred times!  I never thought I should live to see you again! 
+and I never was so glad to see any body in my whole life, as I am to 
+see you now.'  'Hark!' cried Emily, 'we are pursued; that was the 
+echo of steps!'  'No, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'it was only the 
+echo of a door shutting; sound runs along these vaulted passages so, 
+that one is continually deceived by it; if one does but speak, or 
+cough, it makes a noise as loud as a cannon.'  'Then there is the 
+greater necessity for us to be silent,' said Emily:  'pr'ythee say no 
+more, till we reach your chamber.'  Here, at length, they arrived, 
+without interruption, and, Annette having fastened the door, Emily 
+sat down on her little bed, to recover breath and composure.  To her 
+enquiry, whether Valancourt was among the prisoners in the castle, 
+Annette replied, that she had not been able to hear, but that she 
+knew there were several persons confined.  She then proceeded, in her 
+tedious way, to give an account of the siege, or rather a detail of 
+her terrors and various sufferings, during the attack.  'But,' added 
+she, 'when I heard the shouts of victory from the ramparts, I thought 
+we were all taken, and gave myself up for lost, instead of which, WE 
+had driven the enemy away.  I went then to the north gallery, and saw 
+a great many of them scampering away among the mountains; but the 
+rampart walls were all in ruins, as one may say, and there was a 
+dismal sight to see down among the woods below, where the poor 
+fellows were lying in heaps, but were carried off presently by their 
+comrades.  While the siege was going on, the Signor was here, and 
+there, and every where, at the same time, as Ludovico told me, for he 
+would not let me see any thing hardly, and locked me up, as he has 
+often done before, in a room in the middle of the castle, and used to 
+bring me food, and come and talk with me as often as he could; and I 
+must say, if it had not been for Ludovico, I should have died 
+outright.'
+
+'Well, Annette,' said Emily, 'and how have affairs gone on, since the 
+siege?'
+
+'O! sad hurly burly doings, ma'amselle,' replied Annette; 'the 
+Signors have done nothing but sit and drink and game, ever since.  
+They sit up, all night, and play among themselves, for all those 
+riches and fine things, they brought in, some time since, when they 
+used to go out a-robbing, or as good, for days together; and then 
+they have dreadful quarrels about who loses, and who wins.  That 
+fierce Signor Verezzi is always losing, as they tell me, and Signor 
+Orsino wins from him, and this makes him very wroth, and they have 
+had several hard set-to's about it.  Then, all those fine ladies are 
+at the castle still; and I declare I am frighted, whenever I meet any 
+of them in the passages.'--
+
+'Surely, Annette,' said Emily starting, 'I heard a noise:  listen.'  
+After a long pause, 'No, ma'amselle,' said Annette, 'it was only the 
+wind in the gallery; I often hear it, when it shakes the old doors, 
+at the other end.  But won't you go to bed, ma'amselle? you surely 
+will not sit up starving, all night.'  Emily now laid herself down on 
+the mattress, and desired Annette to leave the lamp burning on the 
+hearth; having done which, the latter placed herself beside Emily, 
+who, however, was not suffered to sleep, for she again thought she 
+heard a noise from the passage; and Annette was again trying to 
+convince her, that it was only the wind, when footsteps were 
+distinctly heard near the door.  Annette was now starting from the 
+bed, but Emily prevailed with her to remain there, and listened with 
+her in a state of terrible expectation.  The steps still loitered at 
+the door, when presently an attempt was made on the lock, and, in the 
+next instant, a voice called.  'For heaven's sake, Annette, do not 
+answer,' said Emily softly, 'remain quite still; but I fear we must 
+extinguish the lamp, or its glare will betray us.'  'Holy Virgin!' 
+exclaimed Annette, forgetting her discretion, 'I would not be in 
+darkness now for the whole world.'  While she spoke, the voice became 
+louder than before, and repeated Annette's name; 'Blessed Virgin!' 
+cried she suddenly, 'it is only Ludovico.'  She rose to open the 
+door, but Emily prevented her, till they should be more certain, that 
+it was he alone; with whom Annette, at length, talked for some time, 
+and learned, that he was come to enquire after herself, whom he had 
+let out of her room to go to Emily, and that he was now returned to 
+lock her in again.  Emily, fearful of being overheard, if they 
+conversed any longer through the door, consented that it should be 
+opened, and a young man appeared, whose open countenance confirmed 
+the favourable opinion of him, which his care of Annette had already 
+prompted her to form.  She entreated his protection, should Verezzi 
+make this requisite; and Ludovico offered to pass the night in an old 
+chamber, adjoining, that opened from the gallery, and, on the first 
+alarm, to come to their defence.
+
+Emily was much soothed by this proposal; and Ludovico, having lighted 
+his lamp, went to his station, while she, once more, endeavoured to 
+repose on her mattress.  But a variety of interests pressed upon her 
+attention, and prevented sleep.  She thought much on what Annette had 
+told her of the dissolute manners of Montoni and his associates, and 
+more of his present conduct towards herself, and of the danger, from 
+which she had just escaped.  From the view of her present situation 
+she shrunk, as from a new picture of terror.  She saw herself in a 
+castle, inhabited by vice and violence, seated beyond the reach of 
+law or justice, and in the power of a man, whose perseverance was 
+equal to every occasion, and in whom passions, of which revenge was 
+not the weakest, entirely supplied the place of principles.  She was 
+compelled, once more, to acknowledge, that it would be folly, and not 
+fortitude, any longer to dare his power; and, resigning all hopes of 
+future happiness with Valancourt, she determined, that, on the 
+following morning, she would compromise with Montoni, and give up her 
+estates, on condition, that he would permit her immediate return to 
+France.  Such considerations kept her waking for many hours; but, the 
+night passed, without further alarm from Verezzi.
+
+On the next morning, Emily had a long conversation with Ludovico, in 
+which she heard circumstances concerning the castle, and received 
+hints of the designs of Montoni, that considerably increased her 
+alarms.  On expressing her surprise, that Ludovico, who seemed to be 
+so sensible of the evils of his situation, should continue in it, he 
+informed her, that it was not his intention to do so, and she then 
+ventured to ask him, if he would assist her to escape from the 
+castle.  Ludovico assured her of his readiness to attempt this, but 
+strongly represented the difficulty of the enterprise, and the 
+certain destruction which must ensure, should Montoni overtake them, 
+before they had passed the mountains; he, however, promised to be 
+watchful of every circumstance, that might contribute to the success 
+of the attempt, and to think upon some plan of departure.
+
+Emily now confided to him the name of Valancourt, and begged he would 
+enquire for such a person among the prisoners in the castle; for the 
+faint hope, which this conversation awakened, made her now recede 
+from her resolution of an immediate compromise with Montoni.  She 
+determined, if possible, to delay this, till she heard further from 
+Ludovico, and, if his designs were found to be impracticable, to 
+resign the estates at once.  Her thoughts were on this subject, when 
+Montoni, who was now recovered from the intoxication of the preceding 
+night, sent for her, and she immediately obeyed the summons.  He was 
+alone.  'I find,' said he, 'that you were not in your chamber, last 
+night; where were you?'  Emily related to him some circumstances of 
+her alarm, and entreated his protection from a repetition of them.  
+'You know the terms of my protection,' said he; 'if you really value 
+this, you will secure it.'  His open declaration, that he would only 
+conditionally protect her, while she remained a prisoner in the 
+castle, shewed Emily the necessity of an immediate compliance with 
+his terms; but she first demanded, whether he would permit her 
+immediately to depart, if she gave up her claim to the contested 
+estates.  In a very solemn manner he then assured her, that he would, 
+and immediately laid before her a paper, which was to transfer the 
+right of those estates to himself.
+
+She was, for a considerable time, unable to sign it, and her heart 
+was torn with contending interests, for she was about to resign the 
+happiness of all her future years--the hope, which had sustained her 
+in so many hours of adversity.
+
+After hearing from Montoni a recapitulation of the conditions of her 
+compliance, and a remonstrance, that his time was valuable, she put 
+her hand to the paper; when she had done which, she fell back in her 
+chair, but soon recovered, and desired, that he would give orders for 
+her departure, and that he would allow Annette to accompany her.  
+Montoni smiled.  'It was necessary to deceive you,' said he,--'there 
+was no other way of making you act reasonably; you shall go, but it 
+must not be at present.  I must first secure these estates by 
+possession:  when that is done, you may return to France if you 
+will.'
+
+The deliberate villany, with which he violated the solemn engagement 
+he had just entered into, shocked Emily as much, as the certainty, 
+that she had made a fruitless sacrifice, and must still remain his 
+prisoner.  She had no words to express what she felt, and knew, that 
+it would have been useless, if she had.  As she looked piteously at 
+Montoni, he turned away, and at the same time desired she would 
+withdraw to her apartment; but, unable to leave the room, she sat 
+down in a chair near the door, and sighed heavily.  She had neither 
+words nor tears.
+
+'Why will you indulge this childish grief?' said he.  'Endeavour to 
+strengthen your mind, to bear patiently what cannot now be avoided; 
+you have no real evil to lament; be patient, and you will be sent 
+back to France.  At present retire to your apartment.'
+
+
+'I dare not go, sir,' said she, 'where I shall be liable to the 
+intrusion of Signor Verezzi.'  'Have I not promised to protect you?' 
+said Montoni.  'You have promised, sir,'--replied Emily, after some 
+hesitation.  'And is not my promise sufficient?' added he sternly.  
+'You will recollect your former promise, Signor,' said Emily, 
+trembling, 'and may determine for me, whether I ought to rely upon 
+this.'  'Will you provoke me to declare to you, that I will not 
+protect you then?' said Montoni, in a tone of haughty displeasure.  
+'If that will satisfy you, I will do it immediately.  Withdraw to 
+your chamber, before I retract my promise; you have nothing to fear 
+there.'  Emily left the room, and moved slowly into the hall, where 
+the fear of meeting Verezzi, or Bertolini, made her quicken her 
+steps, though she could scarcely support herself; and soon after she 
+reached once more her own apartment.  Having looked fearfully round 
+her, to examine if any person was there, and having searched every 
+part of it, she fastened the door, and sat down by one of the 
+casements.  Here, while she looked out for some hope to support her 
+fainting spirits, which had been so long harassed and oppressed, 
+that, if she had not now struggled much against misfortune, they 
+would have left her, perhaps, for ever, she endeavoured to believe, 
+that Montoni did really intend to permit her return to France as soon 
+as he had secured her property, and that he would, in the mean time, 
+protect her from insult; but her chief hope rested with Ludovico, 
+who, she doubted not, would be zealous in her cause, though he seemed 
+almost to despair of success in it.  One circumstance, however, she 
+had to rejoice in.  Her prudence, or rather her fears, had saved her 
+from mentioning the name of Valancourt to Montoni, which she was 
+several times on the point of doing, before she signed the paper, and 
+of stipulating for his release, if he should be really a prisoner in 
+the castle.  Had she done this, Montoni's jealous fears would now 
+probably have loaded Valancourt with new severities, and have 
+suggested the advantage of holding him a captive for life.
+
+Thus passed the melancholy day, as she had before passed many in this 
+same chamber.  When night drew on, she would have withdrawn herself 
+to Annette's bed, had not a particular interest inclined her to 
+remain in this chamber, in spite of her fears; for, when the castle 
+should be still, and the customary hour arrived, she determined to 
+watch for the music, which she had formerly heard.  Though its sounds 
+might not enable her positively to determine, whether Valancourt was 
+there, they would perhaps strengthen her opinion that he was, and 
+impart the comfort, so necessary to her present support.--But, on the 
+other hand, if all should be silent--!  She hardly dared to suffer 
+her thoughts to glance that way, but waited, with impatient 
+expectation, the approaching hour.
+
+The night was stormy; the battlements of the castle appeared to rock 
+in the wind, and, at intervals, long groans seemed to pass on the 
+air, such as those, which often deceive the melancholy mind, in 
+tempests, and amidst scenes of desolation.  Emily heard, as formerly, 
+the sentinels pass along the terrace to their posts, and, looking out 
+from her casement, observed, that the watch was doubled; a 
+precaution, which appeared necessary enough, when she threw her eyes 
+on the walls, and saw their shattered condition.  The well-known 
+sounds of the soldiers' march, and of their distant voices, which 
+passed her in the wind, and were lost again, recalled to her memory 
+the melancholy sensation she had suffered, when she formerly heard 
+the same sounds; and occasioned almost involuntary comparisons 
+between her present, and her late situation.  But this was no subject 
+for congratulations, and she wisely checked the course of her 
+thoughts, while, as the hour was not yet come, in which she had been 
+accustomed to hear the music, she closed the casement, and 
+endeavoured to await it in patience.  The door of the stair-case she 
+tried to secure, as usual, with some of the furniture of the room; 
+but this expedient her fears now represented to her to be very 
+inadequate to the power and perseverance of Verezzi; and she often 
+looked at a large and heavy chest, that stood in the chamber, with 
+wishes that she and Annette had strength enough to move it.  While 
+she blamed the long stay of this girl, who was still with Ludovico 
+and some other of the servants, she trimmed her wood fire, to make 
+the room appear less desolate, and sat down beside it with a book, 
+which her eyes perused, while her thoughts wandered to Valancourt, 
+and her own misfortunes.  As she sat thus, she thought, in a pause of 
+the wind, she distinguished music, and went to the casement to 
+listen, but the loud swell of the gust overcame every other sound.  
+When the wind sunk again, she heard distinctly, in the deep pause 
+that succeeded, the sweet strings of a lute; but again the rising 
+tempest bore away the notes, and again was succeeded by a solemn 
+pause.  Emily, trembling with hope and fear, opened her casement to 
+listen, and to try whether her own voice could be heard by the 
+musician; for to endure any longer this state of torturing suspense 
+concerning Valancourt, seemed to be utterly impossible.  There was a 
+kind of breathless stillness in the chambers, that permitted her to 
+distinguish from below the tender notes of the very lute she had 
+formerly heard, and with it, a plaintive voice, made sweeter by the 
+low rustling sound, that now began to creep along the wood-tops, till 
+it was lost in the rising wind.  Their tall heads then began to wave, 
+while, through a forest of pine, on the left, the wind, groaning 
+heavily, rolled onward over the woods below, bending them almost to 
+their roots; and, as the long-resounding gale swept away, other 
+woods, on the right, seemed to answer the 'loud lament;' then, 
+others, further still, softened it into a murmur, that died into 
+silence.  Emily listened, with mingled awe and expectation, hope and 
+fear; and again the melting sweetness of the lute was heard, and the 
+same solemn-breathing voice.  Convinced that these came from an 
+apartment underneath, she leaned far out of her window, that she 
+might discover whether any light was there; but the casements below, 
+as well as those above, were sunk so deep in the thick walls of the 
+castle, that she could not see them, or even the faint ray, that 
+probably glimmered through their bars.  She then ventured to call; 
+but the wind bore her voice to the other end of the terrace, and then 
+the music was heard as before, in the pause of the gust.  Suddenly, 
+she thought she heard a noise in her chamber, and she drew herself 
+within the casement; but, in a moment after, distinguishing Annette's 
+voice at the door, she concluded it was her she had heard before, and 
+she let her in.  'Move softly, Annette, to the casement,' said she, 
+'and listen with me; the music is returned.'  They were silent till, 
+the measure changing, Annette exclaimed, 'Holy Virgin!  I know that 
+song well; it is a French song, one of the favourite songs of my dear 
+country.'  This was the ballad Emily had heard on a former night, 
+though not the one she had first listened to from the fishing-house 
+in Gascony.  'O! it is a Frenchman, that sings,' said Annette:  'it 
+must be Monsieur Valancourt.'  'Hark! Annette, do not speak so loud,' 
+said Emily, 'we may be overheard.'  'What! by the Chevalier?' said 
+Annette.  'No,' replied Emily mournfully, 'but by somebody, who may 
+report us to the Signor.  What reason have you to think it is 
+Monsieur Valancourt, who sings?  But hark! now the voice swells 
+louder!  Do you recollect those tones?  I fear to trust my own 
+judgment.'  'I never happened to hear the Chevalier sing, 
+Mademoiselle,' replied Annette, who, as Emily was disappointed to 
+perceive, had no stronger reason for concluding this to be 
+Valancourt, than that the musician must be a Frenchman.  Soon after, 
+she heard the song of the fishing-house, and distinguished her own 
+name, which was repeated so distinctly, that Annette had heard it 
+also.  She trembled, sunk into a chair by the window, and Annette 
+called aloud, 'Monsieur Valancourt!  Monsieur Valancourt!' while 
+Emily endeavoured to check her, but she repeated the call more loudly 
+than before, and the lute and the voice suddenly stopped.  Emily 
+listened, for some time, in a state of intolerable suspense; but, no 
+answer being returned, 'It does not signify, Mademoiselle,' said 
+Annette; 'it is the Chevalier, and I will speak to him.'  'No, 
+Annette,' said Emily, 'I think I will speak myself; if it is he, he 
+will know my voice, and speak again.'  'Who is it,' said she, 'that 
+sings at this late hour?'
+
+A long silence ensued, and, having repeated the question, she 
+perceived some faint accents, mingling in the blast, that swept by; 
+but the sounds were so distant, and passed so suddenly, that she 
+could scarcely hear them, much less distinguish the words they 
+uttered, or recognise the voice.  After another pause, Emily called 
+again; and again they heard a voice, but as faintly as before; and 
+they perceived, that there were other circumstances, besides the 
+strength, and direction of the wind, to content with; for the great 
+depth, at which the casements were fixed in the castle walls, 
+contributed, still more than the distance, to prevent articulated 
+sounds from being understood, though general ones were easily heard.  
+Emily, however, ventured to believe, from the circumstance of her 
+voice alone having been answered, that the stranger was Valancourt, 
+as well as that he knew her, and she gave herself up to speechless 
+joy.  Annette, however, was not speechless.--She renewed her calls, 
+but received no answer; and Emily, fearing, that a further attempt, 
+which certainly was, as present, highly dangerous, might expose them 
+to the guards of the castle, while it could not perhaps terminate her 
+suspense, insisted on Annette's dropping the enquiry for this night; 
+though she determined herself to question Ludovico, on the subject, 
+in the morning, more urgently than she had yet done.  She was now 
+enabled to say, that the stranger, whom she had formerly heard, was 
+still in the castle, and to direct Ludovico to that part of it, in 
+which he was confined.
+
+Emily, attended by Annette, continued at the casement, for some time, 
+but all remained still; they heard neither lute or voice again, and 
+Emily was now as much oppressed by anxious joy, as she lately was by 
+a sense of her misfortunes.  With hasty steps she paced the room, now 
+half calling on Valancourt's name, then suddenly stopping, and now 
+going to the casement and listening, where, however, she heard 
+nothing but the solemn waving of the woods.  Sometimes her impatience 
+to speak to Ludovico prompted her to send Annette to call him; but a 
+sense of the impropriety of this at midnight restrained her.  
+Annette, meanwhile, as impatient as her mistress, went as often to 
+the casement to listen, and returned almost as much disappointed.  
+She, at length, mentioned Signor Verezzi, and her fear, lest he 
+should enter the chamber by the staircase, door.  'But the night is 
+now almost past, Mademoiselle,' said she, recollecting herself; 
+'there is the morning light, beginning to peep over those mountains 
+yonder in the east.'
+
+Emily had forgotten, till this moment, that such a person existed as 
+Verezzi, and all the danger that had appeared to threaten her; but 
+the mention of his name renewed her alarm, and she remembered the old 
+chest, that she had wished to place against the door, which she now, 
+with Annette, attempted to move, but it was so heavy, that they could 
+not lift it from the floor.  'What is in this great old chest, 
+Mademoiselle,' said Annette, 'that makes it so weighty?'  Emily 
+having replied, 'that she found it in the chamber, when she first 
+came to the castle, and had never examined it.'--'Then I will, 
+ma'amselle,' said Annette, and she tried to lift the lid; but this 
+was held by a lock, for which she had no key, and which, indeed, 
+appeared, from its peculiar construction, to open with a spring.  The 
+morning now glimmered through the casements, and the wind had sunk 
+into a calm.  Emily looked out upon the dusky woods, and on the 
+twilight mountains, just stealing in the eye, and saw the whole 
+scene, after the storm, lying in profound stillness, the woods 
+motionless, and the clouds above, through which the dawn trembled, 
+scarcely appearing to move along the heavens.  One soldier was pacing 
+the terrace beneath, with measured steps; and two, more distant, were 
+sunk asleep on the walls, wearied with the night's watch.  Having 
+inhaled, for a while, the pure spirit of the air, and of vegetation, 
+which the late rains had called forth; and having listened, once 
+more, for a note of music, she now closed the casement, and retired 
+to rest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+     Thus on the chill Lapponian's dreary land,
+ For many a long month lost in snow profound,
+ When Sol from Cancer sends the seasons bland,
+ And in their northern cave the storms hath bound;
+ From silent mountains, straight, with startling sound,
+ Torrents are hurl'd, green hills emerge, and lo,
+ The trees with foliage, cliffs with flow'rs are crown'd;
+ Pure rills through vales of verdure warbling go;
+ And wonder, love, and joy, the peasant's heart o'erflow.
+     BEATTIE
+
+Several of her succeeding days passed in suspense, for Ludovico could 
+only learn from the soldiers, that there was a prisoner in the 
+apartment, described to him by Emily, and that he was a Frenchman, 
+whom they had taken in one of their skirmishes, with a party of his 
+countrymen.  During this interval, Emily escaped the persecutions of 
+Bertolini, and Verezzi, by confining herself to her apartment; except 
+that sometimes, in an evening, she ventured to walk in the adjoining 
+corridor.  Montoni appeared to respect his last promise, though he 
+had prophaned his first; for to his protection only could she 
+attribute her present repose; and in this she was now so secure, that 
+she did not wish to leave the castle, till she could obtain some 
+certainty concerning Valancourt; for which she waited, indeed, 
+without any sacrifice of her own comfort, since no circumstance had 
+occurred to make her escape probable.
+
+On the fourth day, Ludovico informed her, that he had hopes of being 
+admitted to the presence of the prisoner; it being the turn of a 
+soldier, with whom he had been for some time familiar, to attend him 
+on the following night.  He was not deceived in his hope; for, under 
+pretence of carrying in a pitcher of water, he entered the prison, 
+though, his prudence having prevented him from telling the sentinel 
+the real motive of his visit, he was obliged to make his conference 
+with the prisoner a very short one.
+
+Emily awaited the result in her own apartment, Ludovico having 
+promised to accompany Annette to the corridor, in the evening; where, 
+after several hours impatiently counted, he arrived.  Emily, having 
+then uttered the name of Valancourt, could articulate no more, but 
+hesitated in trembling expectation.  'The Chevalier would not entrust 
+me with his name, Signora,' replied Ludovico; 'but, when I just 
+mentioned yours, he seemed overwhelmed with joy, though he was not so 
+much surprised as I expected.'  'Does he then remember me?' she 
+exclaimed.
+
+'O! it is Mons. Valancourt,' said Annette, and looked impatiently at 
+Ludovico, who understood her look, and replied to Emily:  'Yes, lady, 
+the Chevalier does, indeed, remember you, and, I am sure, has a very 
+great regard for you, and I made bold to say you had for him.  He 
+then enquired how you came to know he was in the castle, and whether 
+you ordered me to speak to him.  The first question I could not 
+answer, but the second I did; and then he went off into his ecstasies 
+again.  I was afraid his joy would have betrayed him to the sentinel 
+at the door.'
+
+'But how does he look, Ludovico?' interrupted Emily:  'is he not 
+melancholy and ill with this long confinement?'--'Why, as to 
+melancholy, I saw no symptom of that, lady, while I was with him, for 
+he seemed in the finest spirits I ever saw any body in, in all my 
+life.  His countenance was all joy, and, if one may judge from that, 
+he was very well; but I did not ask him.'  'Did he send me no 
+message?' said Emily.  'O yes, Signora, and something besides,' 
+replied Ludovico, who searched his pockets.  'Surely, I have not lost 
+it,' added he.  'The Chevalier said, he would have written, madam, if 
+he had had pen and ink, and was going to have sent a very long 
+message, when the sentinel entered the room, but not before he had 
+give me this.'  Ludovico then drew forth a miniature from his bosom, 
+which Emily received with a trembling hand, and perceived to be a 
+portrait of herself--the very picture, which her mother had lost so 
+strangely in the fishing-house at La Vallee.
+
+Tears of mingled joy and tenderness flowed to her eyes, while 
+Ludovico proceeded--'"Tell your lady," said the Chevalier, as he gave 
+me the picture, "that this has been my companion, and only solace in 
+all my misfortunes.  Tell her, that I have worn it next my heart, and 
+that I sent it her as the pledge of an affection, which can never 
+die; that I would not part with it, but to her, for the wealth of 
+worlds, and that I now part with it, only in the hope of soon 
+receiving it from her hands.  Tell her"--Just then, Signora, the 
+sentinel came in, and the Chevalier said no more; but he had before 
+asked me to contrive an interview for him with you; and when I told 
+him, how little hope I had of prevailing with the guard to assist me, 
+he said, that was not, perhaps, of so much consequence as I imagined, 
+and bade me contrive to bring back your answer, and he would inform 
+me of more than he chose to do then.  So this, I think, lady, is the 
+whole of what passed.'
+
+'How, Ludovico, shall I reward you for your zeal?' said Emily:  'but, 
+indeed, I do not now possess the means.  When can you see the 
+Chevalier again?'  'That is uncertain, Signora,' replied he.  'It 
+depends upon who stands guard next:  there are not more than one or 
+two among them, from whom I would dare to ask admittance to the 
+prison-chamber.'
+
+'I need not bid you remember, Ludovico,' resumed Emily, 'how very 
+much interested I am in your seeing the Chevalier soon; and, when you 
+do so, tell him, that I have received the picture, and, with the 
+sentiments he wished.  Tell him I have suffered much, and still 
+suffer--'  She paused.  'But shall I tell him you will see him, 
+lady?' said Ludovico.  'Most certainly I will,' replied Emily.  'But 
+when, Signora, and where?'  'That must depend upon circumstances,' 
+returned Emily.  'The place, and the hour, must be regulated by his 
+opportunities.'
+
+'As to the place, mademoiselle,' said Annette, 'there is no other 
+place in the castle, besides this corridor, where WE can see him in 
+safety, you know; and, as for the hour,--it must be when all the 
+Signors are asleep, if that ever happens!'  'You may mention these 
+circumstances to the Chevalier, Ludovico,' said she, checking the 
+flippancy of Annette, 'and leave them to his judgment and 
+opportunity.  Tell him, my heart is unchanged.  But, above all, let 
+him see you again as soon as possible; and, Ludovico, I think it is 
+needless to tell you I shall very anxiously look for you.'  Having 
+then wished her good night, Ludovico descended the staircase, and 
+Emily retired to rest, but not to sleep, for joy now rendered her as 
+wakeful, as she had ever been from grief.  Montoni and his castle had 
+all vanished from her mind, like the frightful vision of a 
+necromancer, and she wandered, once more, in fairy scenes of unfading 
+happiness:
+
+     As when, beneath the beam
+ Of summer moons, the distant woods among,
+ Or by some flood, all silver'd with the gleam,
+ The soft embodied Fays thro' airy portals stream.
+
+A week elapsed, before Ludovico again visited the prison; for the 
+sentinels, during that period, were men, in whom he could not 
+confide, and he feared to awaken curiosity, by asking to see their 
+prisoner.  In this interval, he communicated to Emily terrific 
+reports of what was passing in the castle; of riots, quarrels, and of 
+carousals more alarming than either; while from some circumstances, 
+which he mentioned, she not only doubted, whether Montoni meant ever 
+to release her, but greatly feared, that he had designs, concerning 
+her,--such as she had formerly dreaded.  Her name was frequently 
+mentioned in the conversations, which Bertolini and Verezzi held 
+together, and, at those times, they were frequently in contention.  
+Montoni had lost large sums to Verezzi, so that there was a dreadful 
+possibility of his designing her to be a substitute for the debt; 
+but, as she was ignorant, that he had formerly encouraged the hopes 
+of Bertolini also, concerning herself, after the latter had done him 
+some signal service, she knew not how to account for these 
+contentions between Bertolini and Verezzi.  The cause of them, 
+however, appeared to be of little consequence, for she thought she 
+saw destruction approaching in many forms, and her entreaties to 
+Ludovico to contrive an escape and to see the prisoner again, were 
+more urgent than ever.
+
+At length, he informed her, that he had again visited the Chevalier, 
+who had directed him to confide in the guard of the prison, from whom 
+he had already received some instances of kindness, and who had 
+promised to permit his going into the castle for half an hour, on the 
+ensuing night, when Montoni and his companions should be engaged at 
+their carousals.  'This was kind, to be sure,' added Ludovico:  'but 
+Sebastian knows he runs no risque in letting the Chevalier out, for, 
+if he can get beyond the bars and iron doors of the castle, he must 
+be cunning indeed.  But the Chevalier desired me, Signora, to go to 
+you immediately, and to beg you would allow him to visit you, this 
+night, if it was only for a moment, for that he could no longer live 
+under the same roof, without seeing you; the hour, he said, he could 
+not mention, for it must depend on circumstances (just as you said, 
+Signora); and the place he desired you would appoint, as knowing 
+which was best for your own safety.'
+
+Emily was now so much agitated by the near prospect of meeting 
+Valancourt, that it was some time, before she could give any answer 
+to Ludovico, or consider of the place of meeting; when she did, she 
+saw none, that promised so much security, as the corridor, near her 
+own apartment, which she was checked from leaving, by the 
+apprehension of meeting any of Montoni's guests, on their way to 
+their rooms; and she dismissed the scruples, which delicacy opposed, 
+now that a serious danger was to be avoided by encountering them.  It 
+was settled, therefore, that the Chevalier should meet her in the 
+corridor, at that hour of the night, which Ludovico, who was to be 
+upon the watch, should judge safest:  and Emily, as may be imagined, 
+passed this interval in a tumult of hope and joy, anxiety and 
+impatience.  Never, since her residence in the castle, had she 
+watched, with so much pleasure, the sun set behind the mountains, and 
+twilight shade, and darkness veil the scene, as on this evening.  She 
+counted the notes of the great clock, and listened to the steps of 
+the sentinels, as they changed the watch, only to rejoice, that 
+another hour was gone.  'O, Valancourt!' said she, 'after all I have 
+suffered; after our long, long separation, when I thought I should 
+never--never see you more--we are still to meet again!  O! I have 
+endured grief, and anxiety, and terror, and let me, then, not sink 
+beneath this joy!'  These were moments, when it was impossible for 
+her to feel emotions of regret, or melancholy, for any ordinary 
+interests;--even the reflection, that she had resigned the estates, 
+which would have been a provision for herself and Valancourt for 
+life, threw only a light and transient shade upon her spirits.  The 
+idea of Valancourt, and that she should see him so soon, alone 
+occupied her heart.
+
+At length the clock struck twelve; she opened the door to listen, if 
+any noise was in the castle, and heard only distant shouts of riot 
+and laughter, echoed feebly along the gallery.  She guessed, that the 
+Signor and his guests were at the banquet.  'They are now engaged for 
+the night,' said she; 'and Valancourt will soon be here.'  Having 
+softly closed the door, she paced the room with impatient steps, and 
+often went to the casement to listen for the lute; but all was 
+silent, and, her agitation every moment increasing, she was at length 
+unable to support herself, and sat down by the window.  Annette, whom 
+she detained, was, in the meantime, as loquacious as usual; but Emily 
+heard scarcely any thing she said, and having at length risen to the 
+casement, she distinguished the chords of the lute, struck with an 
+expressive hand, and then the voice, she had formerly listened to, 
+accompanied it.
+
+     Now rising love they fann'd, now pleasing dole
+ They breath'd in tender musings through the heart;
+ And now a graver, sacred strain they stole,
+ As when seraphic hands an hymn impart!
+
+Emily wept in doubtful joy and tenderness; and, when the strain 
+ceased, she considered it as a signal, that Valancourt was about to 
+leave the prison.  Soon after, she heard steps in the corridor;--they 
+were the light, quick steps of hope; she could scarcely support 
+herself, as they approached, but opening the door of the apartment, 
+she advanced to meet Valancourt, and, in the next moment, sunk in the 
+arms of a stranger.  His voice--his countenance instantly convinced 
+her, and she fainted away.
+
+On reviving, she found herself supported by the stranger, who was 
+watching over her recovery, with a countenance of ineffable 
+tenderness and anxiety.  She had no spirits for reply, or enquiry; 
+she asked no questions, but burst into tears, and disengaged herself 
+from his arms; when the expression of his countenance changed to 
+surprise and disappointment, and he turned to Ludovico, for an 
+explanation; Annette soon gave the information, which Ludovico could 
+not.  'O, sir!' said she, in a voice, interrupted with sobs; 'O, sir! 
+you are not the other Chevalier.  We expected Monsieur Valancourt, 
+but you are not he!  O Ludovico! how could you deceive us so? my poor 
+lady will never recover it--never!'  The stranger, who now appeared 
+much agitated, attempted to speak, but his words faltered; and then 
+striking his hand against his forehead, as if in sudden despair, he 
+walked abruptly to the other end of the corridor.
+
+Suddenly, Annette dried her tears, and spoke to Ludovico.  'But, 
+perhaps,' said she, 'after all, the other Chevalier is not this:  
+perhaps the Chevalier Valancourt is still below.'  Emily raised her 
+head.  'No,' replied Ludovico, 'Monsieur Valancourt never was below, 
+if this gentleman is not he.'  'If you, sir,' said Ludovico, 
+addressing the stranger, 'would but have had the goodness to trust me 
+with your name, this mistake had been avoided.'  'Most true,' replied 
+the stranger, speaking in broken Italian, 'but it was of the utmost 
+consequence to me, that my name should be concealed from Montoni.  
+Madam,' added he then, addressing Emily in French, 'will you permit 
+me to apologize for the pain I have occasioned you, and to explain to 
+you alone my name, and the circumstance, which has led me into this 
+error?  I am of France;--I am your countryman;--we are met in a 
+foreign land.'  Emily tried to compose her spirits; yet she hesitated 
+to grant his request.  At length, desiring, that Ludovico would wait 
+on the stair-case, and detaining Annette, she told the stranger, that 
+her woman understood very little Italian, and begged he would 
+communicate what he wished to say, in that language.--Having 
+withdrawn to a distant part of the corridor, he said, with a long-
+drawn sigh, 'You, madam, are no stranger to me, though I am so 
+unhappy as to be unknown to you.--My name is Du Pont; I am of France, 
+of Gascony, your native province, and have long admired,--and, why 
+should I affect to disguise it?--have long loved you.'  He paused, 
+but, in the next moment, proceeded.  'My family, madam, is probably 
+not unknown to you, for we lived within a few miles of La Vallee, and 
+I have, sometimes, had the happiness of meeting you, on visits in the 
+neighbourhood.  I will not offend you by repeating how much you 
+interested me; how much I loved to wander in the scenes you 
+frequented; how often I visited your favourite fishing-house, and 
+lamented the circumstance, which, at that time, forbade me to reveal 
+my passion.  I will not explain how I surrendered to temptation, and 
+became possessed of a treasure, which was to me inestimable; a 
+treasure, which I committed to your messenger, a few days ago, with 
+expectations very different from my present ones.  I will say nothing 
+of these circumstances, for I know they will avail me little; let me 
+only supplicate from you forgiveness, and the picture, which I so 
+unwarily returned.  Your generosity will pardon the theft, and 
+restore the prize.  My crime has been my punishment; for the portrait 
+I stole has contributed to nourish a passion, which must still be my 
+torment.'
+
+Emily now interrupted him.  'I think, sir, I may leave it to your 
+integrity to determine, whether, after what has just appeared, 
+concerning Mons. Valancourt, I ought to return the picture.  I think 
+you will acknowledge, that this would not be generosity; and you will 
+allow me to add, that it would be doing myself an injustice.  I must 
+consider myself honoured by your good opinion, but'--and she 
+hesitated,--'the mistake of this evening makes it unnecessary for me 
+to say more.'
+
+'It does, madam,--alas! it does!' said the stranger, who, after a 
+long pause, proceeded.--'But you will allow me to shew my 
+disinterestedness, though not my love, and will accept the services I 
+offer.  Yet, alas! what services can I offer?  I am myself a 
+prisoner, a sufferer, like you.  But, dear as liberty is to me, I 
+would not seek it through half the hazards I would encounter to 
+deliver you from this recess of vice.  Accept the offered services of 
+a friend; do not refuse me the reward of having, at least, attempted 
+to deserve your thanks.'
+
+'You deserve them already, sir,' said Emily; 'the wish deserves my 
+warmest thanks.  But you will excuse me for reminding you of the 
+danger you incur by prolonging this interview.  It will be a great 
+consolation to me to remember, whether your friendly attempts to 
+release me succeed or not, that I have a countryman, who would so 
+generously protect me.'--Monsieur Du Pont took her hand, which she 
+but feebly attempted to withdraw, and pressed it respectfully to his 
+lips.  'Allow me to breathe another fervent sigh for your happiness,' 
+said he, 'and to applaud myself for an affection, which I cannot 
+conquer.'  As he said this, Emily heard a noise from her apartment, 
+and, turning round, saw the door from the stair-case open, and a man 
+rush into her chamber.  'I will teach you to conquer it,' cried he, 
+as he advanced into the corridor, and drew a stiletto, which he aimed 
+at Du Pont, who was unarmed, but who, stepping back, avoided the 
+blow, and then sprung upon Verezzi, from whom he wrenched the 
+stiletto.  While they struggled in each other's grasp, Emily, 
+followed by Annette, ran further into the corridor, calling on 
+Ludovico, who was, however, gone from the stair-case, and, as she 
+advanced, terrified and uncertain what to do, a distant noise, that 
+seemed to arise from the hall, reminded her of the danger she was 
+incurring; and, sending Annette forward in search of Ludovico, she 
+returned to the spot where Du Pont and Verezzi were still struggling 
+for victory.  It was her own cause which was to be decided with that 
+of the former, whose conduct, independently of this circumstance, 
+would, however, have interested her in his success, even had she not 
+disliked and dreaded Verezzi.  She threw herself in a chair, and 
+supplicated them to desist from further violence, till, at length, Du 
+Pont forced Verezzi to the floor, where he lay stunned by the 
+violence of his fall; and she then entreated Du Pont to escape from 
+the room, before Montoni, or his party, should appear; but he still 
+refused to leave her unprotected; and, while Emily, now more 
+terrified for him, than for herself, enforced the entreaty, they 
+heard steps ascending the private stair-case.
+
+'O you are lost!' cried she, 'these are Montoni's people.'  Du Pont 
+made no reply, but supported Emily, while, with a steady, though 
+eager, countenance, he awaited their appearance, and, in the next 
+moment, Ludovico, alone, mounted the landing-place.  Throwing an 
+hasty glance round the chamber, 'Follow me,' said he, 'as you value 
+your lives; we have not an instant to lose!'
+
+Emily enquired what had occurred, and whither they were to go?
+
+'I cannot stay to tell you now, Signora,' replied Ludovico:  'fly! 
+fly!'
+
+She immediately followed him, accompanied by Mons. Du Pont, down the 
+stair-case, and along a vaulted passage, when suddenly she 
+recollected Annette, and enquired for her.  'She awaits us further 
+on, Signora,' said Ludovico, almost breathless with haste; 'the gates 
+were open, a moment since, to a party just come in from the 
+mountains:  they will be shut, I fear, before we can reach them!  
+Through this door, Signora,' added Ludovico, holding down the lamp, 
+'take care, here are two steps.'
+
+Emily followed, trembling still more, than before she had understood, 
+that her escape from the castle, depended upon the present moment; 
+while Du Pont supported her, and endeavoured, as they passed along, 
+to cheer her spirits.
+
+'Speak low, Signor,' said Ludovico, 'these passages send echoes all 
+round the castle.'
+
+'Take care of the light,' cried Emily, 'you go so fast, that the air 
+will extinguish it.'
+
+Ludovico now opened another door, where they found Annette, and the 
+party then descended a short flight of steps into a passage, which, 
+Ludovico said, led round the inner court of the castle, and opened 
+into the outer one.  As they advanced, confused and tumultuous 
+sounds, that seemed to come from the inner court, alarmed Emily.  
+'Nay, Signora,' said Ludovico, 'our only hope is in that tumult; 
+while the Signor's people are busied about the men, who are just 
+arrived, we may, perhaps, pass unnoticed through the gates.  But 
+hush!' he added, as they approached the small door, that opened into 
+the outer court, 'if you will remain here a moment, I will go to see 
+whether the gates are open, and any body is in the way.  Pray 
+extinguish the light, Signor, if you hear me talking,' continued 
+Ludovico, delivering the lamp to Du Pont, 'and remain quite still.'
+
+Saying this, he stepped out upon the court, and they closed the door, 
+listening anxiously to his departing steps.  No voice, however, was 
+heard in the court, which he was crossing, though a confusion of many 
+voices yet issued from the inner one.  'We shall soon be beyond the 
+walls,' said Du Pont softly to Emily, 'support yourself a little 
+longer, Madam, and all will be well.'
+
+But soon they heard Ludovico speaking loud, and the voice also of 
+some other person, and Du Pont immediately extinguished the lamp.  
+'Ah! it is too late!' exclaimed Emily, 'what is to become of us?'  
+They listened again, and then perceived, that Ludovico was talking 
+with a sentinel, whose voices were heard also by Emily's favourite 
+dog, that had followed her from the chamber, and now barked loudly.  
+'This dog will betray us!' said Du Pont, 'I will hold him.'  'I fear 
+he has already betrayed us!' replied Emily.  Du Pont, however, caught 
+him up, and, again listening to what was going on without, they heard 
+Ludovico say, 'I'll watch the gates the while.'
+
+'Stay a minute,' replied the sentinel, 'and you need not have the 
+trouble, for the horses will be sent round to the outer stables, then 
+the gates will be shut, and I can leave my post.'  'I don't mind the 
+trouble, comrade,' said Ludovico, 'you will do such another good turn 
+for me, some time.  Go--go, and fetch the wine; the rogues, that are 
+just come in, will drink it all else.'
+
+The soldier hesitated, and then called aloud to the people in the 
+second court, to know why they did not send out the horses, that the 
+gates might be shut; but they were too much engaged, to attend to 
+him, even if they had heard his voice.
+
+'Aye--aye,' said Ludovico, 'they know better than that; they are 
+sharing it all among them; if you wait till the horses come out, you 
+must wait till the wine is drunk.  I have had my share already, but, 
+since you do not care about yours, I see no reason why I should not 
+have that too.'
+
+'Hold, hold, not so fast,' cried the sentinel, 'do watch then, for a 
+moment:  I'll be with you presently.'
+
+'Don't hurry yourself,' said Ludovico, coolly, 'I have kept guard 
+before now.  But you may leave me your trombone,* that, if the castle 
+should be attacked, you know, I may be able to defend the pass, like 
+a hero.'
+
+(* A kind of blunderbuss. [A. R.])
+
+
+'There, my good fellow,' returned the soldier, 'there, take it--it 
+has seen service, though it could do little in defending the castle.  
+I'll tell you a good story, though, about this same trombone.'
+
+'You'll tell it better when you have had the wine,' said Ludovico.  
+'There! they are coming out from the court already.'
+
+'I'll have the wine, though,' said the sentinel, running off.  'I 
+won't keep you a minute.'
+
+'Take your time, I am in no haste,' replied Ludovico, who was already 
+hurrying across the court, when the soldier came back.  'Whither so 
+fast, friend--whither so fast?' said the latter.  'What! is this the 
+way you keep watch!  I must stand to my post myself, I see.'
+
+'Aye, well,' replied Ludovico, 'you have saved me the trouble of 
+following you further, for I wanted to tell you, if you have a mind 
+to drink the Tuscany wine, you must go to Sebastian, he is dealing it 
+out; the other that Federico has, is not worth having.  But you are 
+not likely to have any, I see, for they are all coming out.'
+
+'By St. Peter! so they are,' said the soldier, and again ran off, 
+while Ludovico, once more at liberty, hastened to the door of the 
+passage, where Emily was sinking under the anxiety this long 
+discourse had occasioned; but, on his telling them the court was 
+clear, they followed him to the gates, without waiting another 
+instant, yet not before he had seized two horses, that had strayed 
+from the second court, and were picking a scanty meal among the 
+grass, which grew between the pavement of the first.
+
+They passed, without interruption, the dreadful gates, and took the 
+road that led down among the woods, Emily, Monsieur Du Pont and 
+Annette on foot, and Ludovico, who was mounted on one horse, leading 
+the other.  Having reached them, they stopped, while Emily and 
+Annette were placed on horseback with their two protectors, when, 
+Ludovico leading the way, they set off as fast as the broken road, 
+and the feeble light, which a rising moon threw among the foliage, 
+would permit.
+
+Emily was so much astonished by this sudden departure, that she 
+scarcely dared to believe herself awake; and she yet much doubted 
+whether this adventure would terminate in escape,--a doubt, which had 
+too much probability to justify it; for, before they quitted the 
+woods, they heard shouts in the wind, and, on emerging from them, saw 
+lights moving quickly near the castle above.  Du Pont whipped his 
+horse, and with some difficulty compelled him to go faster.
+
+'Ah! poor beast,' said Ludovico, 'he is weary enough;--he has been 
+out all day; but, Signor, we must fly for it, now; for yonder are 
+lights coming this way.'
+
+Having given his own horse a lash, they now both set off on a full 
+gallop; and, when they again looked back, the lights were so distant 
+as scarcely to be discerned, and the voices were sunk into silence.  
+The travellers then abated their pace, and, consulting whither they 
+should direct their course, it was determined they should descend 
+into Tuscany, and endeavour to reach the Mediterranean, where they 
+could readily embark for France.  Thither Du Pont meant to attend 
+Emily, if he should learn, that the regiment he had accompanied into 
+Italy, was returned to his native country.
+
+They were now in the road, which Emily had travelled with Ugo and 
+Bertrand; but Ludovico, who was the only one of the party, acquainted 
+with the passes of these mountains, said, that, a little further on, 
+a bye-road, branching from this, would lead them down into Tuscany 
+with very little difficulty; and that, at a few leagues distance, was 
+a small town, where necessaries could be procured for their journey.
+
+'But, I hope,' added he, 'we shall meet with no straggling parties of 
+banditti; some of them are abroad, I know.  However, I have got a 
+good trombone, which will be of some service, if we should encounter 
+any of those brave spirits.  You have no arms, Signor?'  'Yes,' 
+replied Du Pont, 'I have the villain's stilletto, who would have 
+stabbed me--but let us rejoice in our escape from Udolpho, nor 
+torment ourselves with looking out for dangers, that may never 
+arrive.'
+
+The moon was now risen high over the woods, that hung upon the sides 
+of the narrow glen, through which they wandered, and afforded them 
+light sufficient to distinguish their way, and to avoid the loose and 
+broken stones, that frequently crossed it.  They now travelled 
+leisurely, and in profound silence; for they had scarcely yet 
+recovered from the astonishment, into which this sudden escape had 
+thrown them.--Emily's mind, especially, was sunk, after the various 
+emotions it had suffered, into a kind of musing stillness, which the 
+reposing beauty of the surrounding scene and the creeping murmur of 
+the night-breeze among the foliage above contributed to prolong.  She 
+thought of Valancourt and of France, with hope, and she would have 
+thought of them with joy, had not the first events of this evening 
+harassed her spirits too much, to permit her now to feel so lively a 
+sensation.  Meanwhile, Emily was alone the object of Du Pont's 
+melancholy consideration; yet, with the despondency he suffered, as 
+he mused on his recent disappointment, was mingled a sweet pleasure, 
+occasioned by her presence, though they did not now exchange a single 
+word.  Annette thought of this wonderful escape, of the bustle in 
+which Montoni and his people must be, now that their flight was 
+discovered; of her native country, whither she hoped she was 
+returning, and of her marriage with Ludovico, to which there no 
+longer appeared any impediment, for poverty she did not consider 
+such.  Ludovico, on his part, congratulated himself, on having 
+rescued his Annette and Signora Emily from the danger, that had 
+surrounded them; on his own liberation from people, whose manners he 
+had long detested; on the freedom he had given to Monsieur Du Pont; 
+on his prospect of happiness with the object of his affections, and 
+not a little on the address, with which he had deceived the sentinel, 
+and conducted the whole of this affair.
+
+Thus variously engaged in thought, the travellers passed on silently, 
+for above an hour, a question only being, now and then, asked by Du 
+Pont, concerning the road, or a remark uttered by Annette, respecting 
+objects, seen imperfectly in the twilight.  At length, lights were 
+perceived twinkling on the side of a mountain, and Ludovico had no 
+doubt, that they proceeded from the town he had mentioned, while his 
+companions, satisfied by this assurance, sunk again into silence.  
+Annette was the first who interrupted this.  'Holy Peter!' said she, 
+'What shall we do for money on our journey? for I know neither I, or 
+my lady, have a single sequin; the Signor took care of that!'
+
+This remark produced a serious enquiry, which ended in as serious an 
+embarrassment, for Du Pont had been rifled of nearly all his money, 
+when he was taken prisoner; the remainder he had given to the 
+sentinel, who had enabled him occasionally to leave his prison-
+chamber; and Ludovico, who had for some time found a difficulty, in 
+procuring any part of the wages due to him, had now scarcely cash 
+sufficient to procure necessary refreshment at the first town, in 
+which they should arrive.
+
+Their poverty was the more distressing, since it would detain them 
+among the mountains, where, even in a town, they could scarcely 
+consider themselves safe from Montoni.  The travellers, however, had 
+only to proceed and dare the future; and they continued their way 
+through lonely wilds and dusky vallies, where the overhanging foliage 
+now admitted, and then excluded the moon-light;--wilds so desolate, 
+that they appeared, on the first glance, as if no human being had 
+ever trode them before.  Even the road, in which the party were, did 
+but slightly contradict this error, for the high grass and other 
+luxuriant vegetation, with which it was overgrown, told how very 
+seldom the foot of a traveller had passed it.
+
+At length, from a distance, was heard the faint tinkling of a sheep-
+bell; and, soon after, the bleat of flocks, and the party then knew, 
+that they were near some human habitation, for the light, which 
+Ludovico had fancied to proceed from a town, had long been concealed 
+by intervening mountains.  Cheered by this hope, they quickened their 
+pace along the narrow pass they were winding, and it opened upon one 
+of those pastoral vallies of the Apennines, which might be painted 
+for a scene of Arcadia, and whose beauty and simplicity are finely 
+contrasted by the grandeur of the snow-topt mountains above.
+
+The morning light, now glimmering in the horizon, shewed faintly, at 
+a little distance, upon the brow of a hill, which seemed to peep from 
+'under the opening eye-lids of the morn,' the town they were in 
+search of, and which they soon after reached.  It was not without 
+some difficulty, that they there found a house, which could afford 
+shelter for themselves and their horses; and Emily desired they might 
+not rest longer than was necessary for refreshment.  Her appearance 
+excited some surprise, for she was without a hat, having had time 
+only to throw on her veil before she left the castle, a circumstance, 
+that compelled her to regret again the want of money, without which 
+it was impossible to procure this necessary article of dress.
+
+Ludovico, on examining his purse, found it even insufficient to 
+supply present refreshment, and Du Pont, at length, ventured to 
+inform the landlord, whose countenance was simple and honest, of 
+their exact situation, and requested, that he would assist them to 
+pursue their journey; a purpose, which he promised to comply with, as 
+far as he was able, when he learned that they were prisoners escaping 
+from Montoni, whom he had too much reason to hate.  But, though he 
+consented to lend them fresh horses to carry them to the next town, 
+he was too poor himself to trust them with money, and they were again 
+lamenting their poverty, when Ludovico, who had been with his tired 
+horses to the hovel, which served for a stable, entered the room, 
+half frantic with joy, in which his auditors soon participated.  On 
+removing the saddle from one of the horses, he had found beneath it a 
+small bag, containing, no doubt, the booty of one of the condottieri, 
+who had returned from a plundering excursion, just before Ludovico 
+left the castle, and whose horse having strayed from the inner court, 
+while his master was engaged in drinking, had brought away the 
+treasure, which the ruffian had considered the reward of his exploit.
+
+On counting over this, Du Pont found, that it would be more than 
+sufficient to carry them all to France, where he now determined to 
+accompany Emily, whether he should obtain intelligence of his 
+regiment, or not; for, though he had as much confidence in the 
+integrity of Ludovico, as his small knowledge of him allowed, he 
+could not endure the thought of committing her to his care for the 
+voyage; nor, perhaps, had he resolution enough to deny himself the 
+dangerous pleasure, which he might derive from her presence.
+
+He now consulted them, concerning the sea-port, to which they should 
+direct their way, and Ludovico, better informed of the geography of 
+the country, said, that Leghorn was the nearest port of consequence, 
+which Du Pont knew also to be the most likely of any in Italy to 
+assist their plan, since from thence vessels of all nations were 
+continually departing.  Thither, therefore, it was determined, that 
+they should proceed.
+
+Emily, having purchased a little straw hat, such as was worn by the 
+peasant girls of Tuscany, and some other little necessary equipments 
+for the journey, and the travellers, having exchanged their tired 
+horses for others better able to carry them, re-commenced their 
+joyous way, as the sun was rising over the mountains, and, after 
+travelling through this romantic country, for several hours, began to 
+descend into the vale of Arno.  And here Emily beheld all the charms 
+of sylvan and pastoral landscape united, adorned with the elegant 
+villas of the Florentine nobles, and diversified with the various 
+riches of cultivation.  How vivid the shrubs, that embowered the 
+slopes, with the woods, that stretched amphitheatrically along the 
+mountains! and, above all, how elegant the outline of these waving 
+Apennines, now softening from the wildness, which their interior 
+regions exhibited!  At a distance, in the east, Emily discovered 
+Florence, with its towers rising on the brilliant horizon, and its 
+luxuriant plain, spreading to the feet of the Apennines, speckled 
+with gardens and magnificent villas, or coloured with groves of 
+orange and lemon, with vines, corn, and plantations of olives and 
+mulberry; while, to the west, the vale opened to the waters of the 
+Mediterranean, so distant, that they were known only by a blueish 
+line, that appeared upon the horizon, and by the light marine vapour, 
+which just stained the aether above.
+
+With a full heart, Emily hailed the waves, that were to bear her back 
+to her native country, the remembrance of which, however, brought 
+with it a pang; for she had there no home to receive, no parents to 
+welcome her, but was going, like a forlorn pilgrim, to weep over the 
+sad spot, where he, who WAS her father, lay interred.  Nor were her 
+spirits cheered, when she considered how long it would probably be 
+before she should see Valancourt, who might be stationed with his 
+regiment in a distant part of France, and that, when they did meet, 
+it would be only to lament the successful villany of Montoni; yet, 
+still she would have felt inexpressible delight at the thought of 
+being once more in the same country with Valancourt, had it even been 
+certain, that she could not see him.
+
+The intense heat, for it was now noon, obliged the travellers to look 
+out for a shady recess, where they might rest, for a few hours, and 
+the neighbouring thickets, abounding with wild grapes, raspberries, 
+and figs, promised them grateful refreshment.  Soon after, they 
+turned from the road into a grove, whose thick foliage entirely 
+excluded the sun-beams, and where a spring, gushing from the rock, 
+gave coolness to the air; and, having alighted and turned the horses 
+to graze, Annette and Ludovico ran to gather fruit from the 
+surrounding thickets, of which they soon returned with an abundance.  
+The travellers, seated under the shade of a pine and cypress grove 
+and on turf, enriched with such a profusion of fragrant flowers, as 
+Emily had scarcely ever seen, even among the Pyrenees, took their 
+simple repast, and viewed, with new delight, beneath the dark umbrage 
+of gigantic pines, the glowing landscape stretching to the sea.
+
+Emily and Du Pont gradually became thoughtful and silent; but Annette 
+was all joy and loquacity, and Ludovico was gay, without forgetting 
+the respectful distance, which was due to his companions.  The repast 
+being over, Du Pont recommended Emily to endeavour to sleep, during 
+these sultry hours, and, desiring the servants would do the same, 
+said he would watch the while; but Ludovico wished to spare him this 
+trouble; and Emily and Annette, wearied with travelling, tried to 
+repose, while he stood guard with his trombone.
+
+When Emily, refreshed by slumber, awoke, she found the sentinel 
+asleep on his post and Du Pont awake, but lost in melancholy thought.  
+As the sun was yet too high to allow them to continue their journey, 
+and as it was necessary, that Ludovico, after the toils and trouble 
+he had suffered, should finish his sleep, Emily took this opportunity 
+of enquiring by what accident Du Pont became Montoni's prisoner, and 
+he, pleased with the interest this enquiry expressed and with the 
+excuse it gave him for talking to her of himself, immediately 
+answered her curiosity.
+
+'I came into Italy, madam,' said Du Pont, 'in the service of my 
+country.  In an adventure among the mountains our party, engaging 
+with the bands of Montoni, was routed, and I, with a few of my 
+comrades, was taken prisoner.  When they told me, whose captive I 
+was, the name of Montoni struck me, for I remembered, that Madame 
+Cheron, your aunt, had married an Italian of that name, and that you 
+had accompanied them into Italy.  It was not, however, till some time 
+after, that I became convinced this was the same Montoni, or learned 
+that you, madam, was under the same roof with myself.  I will not 
+pain you by describing what were my emotions upon this discovery, 
+which I owed to a sentinel, whom I had so far won to my interest, 
+that he granted me many indulgences, one of which was very important 
+to me, and somewhat dangerous to himself; but he persisted in 
+refusing to convey any letter, or notice of my situation to you, for 
+he justly dreaded a discovery and the consequent vengeance of 
+Montoni.  He however enabled me to see you more than once.  You are 
+surprised, madam, and I will explain myself.  My health and spirits 
+suffered extremely from want of air and exercise, and, at length, I 
+gained so far upon the pity, or the avarice of the man, that he gave 
+me the means of walking on the terrace.'
+
+Emily now listened, with very anxious attention, to the narrative of 
+Du Pont, who proceeded:
+
+'In granting this indulgence, he knew, that he had nothing to 
+apprehend from a chance of my escaping from a castle, which was 
+vigilantly guarded, and the nearest terrace of which rose over a 
+perpendicular rock; he shewed me also,' continued Du Pont, 'a door 
+concealed in the cedar wainscot of the apartment where I was 
+confined, which he instructed me how to open; and which, leading into 
+a passage, formed within the thickness of the wall, that extended far 
+along the castle, finally opened in an obscure corner of the eastern 
+rampart.  I have since been informed, that there are many passages of 
+the same kind concealed within the prodigious walls of that edifice, 
+and which were, undoubtedly, contrived for the purpose of 
+facilitating escapes in time of war.  Through this avenue, at the 
+dead of night, I often stole to the terrace, where I walked with the 
+utmost caution, lest my steps should betray me to the sentinels on 
+duty in distant parts; for this end of it, being guarded by high 
+buildings, was not watched by soldiers.  In one of these midnight 
+wanderings, I saw light in a casement that overlooked the rampart, 
+and which, I observed, was immediately over my prison-chamber.  It 
+occurred to me, that you might be in that apartment, and, with the 
+hope of seeing you, I placed myself opposite to the window.'
+
+Emily, remembering the figure that had formerly appeared on the 
+terrace, and which had occasioned her so much anxiety, exclaimed, 'It 
+was you then, Monsieur Du Pont, who occasioned me much foolish 
+terror; my spirits were, at that time, so much weakened by long 
+suffering, that they took alarm at every hint.'  Du Pont, after 
+lamenting, that he had occasioned her any apprehension, added, 'As I 
+rested on the wall, opposite to your casement, the consideration of 
+your melancholy situation and of my own called from me involuntary 
+sounds of lamentation, which drew you, I fancy, to the casement; I 
+saw there a person, whom I believed to be you.  O! I will say nothing 
+of my emotion at that moment; I wished to speak, but prudence 
+restrained me, till the distant foot-step of a sentinel compelled me 
+suddenly to quit my station.
+
+'It was some time, before I had another opportunity of walking, for I 
+could only leave my prison, when it happened to be the turn of one 
+man to guard me; meanwhile I became convinced from some circumstances 
+related by him, that your apartment was over mine, and, when again I 
+ventured forth, I returned to your casement, where again I saw you, 
+but without daring to speak.  I waved my hand, and you suddenly 
+disappeared; then it was, that I forgot my prudence, and yielded to 
+lamentation; again you appeared--you spoke--I heard the well-known 
+accent of your voice! and, at that moment, my discretion would have 
+forsaken me again, had I not heard also the approaching steps of a 
+soldier, when I instantly quitted the place, though not before the 
+man had seen me.  He followed down the terrace and gained so fast 
+upon me, that I was compelled to make use of a stratagem, ridiculous 
+enough, to save myself.  I had heard of the superstition of many of 
+these men, and I uttered a strange noise, with a hope, that my 
+pursuer would mistake it for something supernatural, and desist from 
+pursuit.  Luckily for myself I succeeded; the man, it seems, was 
+subject to fits, and the terror he suffered threw him into one, by 
+which accident I secured my retreat.  A sense of the danger I had 
+escaped, and the increased watchfulness, which my appearance had 
+occasioned among the sentinels, deterred me ever after from walking 
+on the terrace; but, in the stillness of night, I frequently beguiled 
+myself with an old lute, procured for me by a soldier, which I 
+sometimes accompanied with my voice, and sometimes, I will 
+acknowledge, with a hope of making myself heard by you; but it was 
+only a few evenings ago, that this hope was answered.  I then thought 
+I heard a voice in the wind, calling me; yet, even then I feared to 
+reply, lest the sentinel at the prison door should hear me.  Was I 
+right, madam, in this conjecture--was it you who spoke?'
+
+'Yes,' said Emily, with an involuntary sigh, 'you was right indeed.'
+
+Du Pont, observing the painful emotions, which this question revived, 
+now changed the subject.  'In one of my excursions through the 
+passage, which I have mentioned, I overheard a singular 
+conversation,' said he.
+
+'In the passage!' said Emily, with surprise.
+
+'I heard it in the passage,' said Du Pont, 'but it proceeded from an 
+apartment, adjoining the wall, within which the passage wound, and 
+the shell of the wall was there so thin, and was also somewhat 
+decayed, that I could distinctly hear every word, spoken on the other 
+side.  It happened that Montoni and his companions were assembled in 
+the room, and Montoni began to relate the extraordinary history of 
+the lady, his predecessor, in the castle.  He did, indeed, mention 
+some very surprising circumstances, and whether they were strictly 
+true, his conscience must decide; I fear it will determine against 
+him.  But you, madam, have doubtless heard the report, which he 
+designs should circulate, on the subject of that lady's mysterious 
+fate.'
+
+'I have, sir,' replied Emily, 'and I perceive, that you doubt it.'
+
+'I doubted it before the period I am speaking of,' rejoined Du Pont;-
+-'but some circumstances, mentioned by Montoni, greatly contributed 
+to my suspicions.  The account I then heard, almost convinced me, 
+that he was a murderer.  I trembled for you;--the more so that I had 
+heard the guests mention your name in a manner, that threatened your 
+repose; and, knowing, that the most impious men are often the most 
+superstitious, I determined to try whether I could not awaken their 
+consciences, and awe them from the commission of the crime I dreaded.  
+I listened closely to Montoni, and, in the most striking passages of 
+his story, I joined my voice, and repeated his last words, in a 
+disguised and hollow tone.'
+
+'But was you not afraid of being discovered?' said Emily.
+
+'I was not,' replied Du Pont; 'for I knew, that, if Montoni had been 
+acquainted with the secret of this passage, he would not have 
+confined me in the apartment, to which it led.  I knew also, from 
+better authority, that he was ignorant of it.  The party, for some 
+time, appeared inattentive to my voice; but, at length, were so much 
+alarmed, that they quitted the apartment; and, having heard Montoni 
+order his servants to search it, I returned to my prison, which was 
+very distant from this part of the passage.'  'I remember perfectly 
+to have heard of the conversation you mention,' said Emily; 'it 
+spread a general alarm among Montoni's people, and I will own I was 
+weak enough to partake of it.'
+
+Monsieur Du Pont and Emily thus continued to converse of Montoni, and 
+then of France, and of the plan of their voyage; when Emily told him, 
+that it was her intention to retire to a convent in Languedoc, where 
+she had been formerly treated with much kindness, and from thence to 
+write to her relation Monsieur Quesnel, and inform him of her 
+conduct.  There, she designed to wait, till La Vallee should again be 
+her own, whither she hoped her income would some time permit her to 
+return; for Du Pont now taught her to expect, that the estate, of 
+which Montoni had attempted to defraud her, was not irrecoverably 
+lost, and he again congratulated her on her escape from Montoni, who, 
+he had not a doubt, meant to have detained her for life.  The 
+possibility of recovering her aunt's estates for Valancourt and 
+herself lighted up a joy in Emily's heart, such as she had not known 
+for many months; but she endeavoured to conceal this from Monsieur Du 
+Pont, lest it should lead him to a painful remembrance of his rival.
+
+They continued to converse, till the sun was declining in the west, 
+when Du Pont awoke Ludovico, and they set forward on their journey.  
+Gradually descending the lower slopes of the valley, they reached the 
+Arno, and wound along its pastoral margin, for many miles, delighted 
+with the scenery around them, and with the remembrances, which its 
+classic waves revived.  At a distance, they heard the gay song of the 
+peasants among the vineyards, and observed the setting sun tint the 
+waves with yellow lustre, and twilight draw a dusky purple over the 
+mountains, which, at length, deepened into night.  Then the LUCCIOLA, 
+the fire-fly of Tuscany, was seen to flash its sudden sparks among 
+the foliage, while the cicala, with its shrill note, became more 
+clamorous than even during the noon-day heat, loving best the hour 
+when the English beetle, with less offensive sound,
+
+     winds
+ His small but sullen horn,
+ As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path,
+ Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum.*
+
+(* Collins.  [A. R.])
+
+
+The travellers crossed the Arno by moon-light, at a ferry, and, 
+learning that Pisa was distant only a few miles down the river, they 
+wished to have proceeded thither in a boat, but, as none could be 
+procured, they set out on their wearied horses for that city.  As 
+they approached it, the vale expanded into a plain, variegated with 
+vineyards, corn, olives and mulberry groves; but it was late, before 
+they reached its gates, where Emily was surprised to hear the busy 
+sound of footsteps and the tones of musical instruments, as well as 
+to see the lively groups, that filled the streets, and she almost 
+fancied herself again at Venice; but here was no moon-light sea--no 
+gay gondolas, dashing the waves,--no PALLADIAN palaces, to throw 
+enchantment over the fancy and lead it into the wilds of fairy story.  
+The Arno rolled through the town, but no music trembled from 
+balconies over its waters; it gave only the busy voices of sailors on 
+board vessels just arrived from the Mediterranean; the melancholy 
+heaving of the anchor, and the shrill boatswain's whistle;--sounds, 
+which, since that period, have there sunk almost into silence.  They 
+then served to remind Du Pont, that it was probable he might hear of 
+a vessel, sailing soon to France from this port, and thus be spared 
+the trouble of going to Leghorn.  As soon as Emily had reached the 
+inn, he went therefore to the quay, to make his enquiries; but, after 
+all the endeavours of himself and Ludovico, they could hear of no 
+bark, destined immediately for France, and the travellers returned to 
+their resting-place.  Here also, Du Pont endeavoured to learn where 
+his regiment then lay, but could acquire no information concerning 
+it.  The travellers retired early to rest, after the fatigues of this 
+day; and, on the following, rose early, and, without pausing to view 
+the celebrated antiquities of the place, or the wonders of its 
+hanging tower, pursued their journey in the cooler hours, through a 
+charming country, rich with wine, and corn and oil.  The Apennines, 
+no longer awful, or even grand, here softened into the beauty of 
+sylvan and pastoral landscape; and Emily, as she descended them, 
+looked down delighted on Leghorn, and its spacious bay, filled with 
+vessels, and crowned with these beautiful hills.
+
+She was no less surprised and amused, on entering this town, to find 
+it crowded with persons in the dresses of all nations; a scene, which 
+reminded her of a Venetian masquerade, such as she had witnessed at 
+the time of the Carnival; but here, was bustle, without gaiety, and 
+noise instead of music, while elegance was to be looked for only in 
+the waving outlines of the surrounding hills.
+
+Monsieur Du Pont, immediately on their arrival, went down to the 
+quay, where he heard of several French vessels, and of one, that was 
+to sail, in a few days, for Marseilles, from whence another vessel 
+could be procured, without difficulty, to take them across the gulf 
+of Lyons towards Narbonne, on the coast not many leagues from which 
+city he understood the convent was seated, to which Emily wished to 
+retire.  He, therefore, immediately engaged with the captain to take 
+them to Marseilles, and Emily was delighted to hear, that her passage 
+to France was secured.  Her mind was now relieved from the terror of 
+pursuit, and the pleasing hope of soon seeing her native country--
+that country which held Valancourt, restored to her spirits a degree 
+of cheerfulness, such as she had scarcely known, since the death of 
+her father.  At Leghorn also, Du Pont heard of his regiment, and that 
+it had embarked for France; a circumstance, which gave him great 
+satisfaction, for he could now accompany Emily thither, without 
+reproach to his conscience, or apprehension of displeasure from his 
+commander.  During these days, he scrupulously forbore to distress 
+her by a mention of his passion, and she was compelled to esteem and 
+pity, though she could not love him.  He endeavoured to amuse her by 
+shewing the environs of the town, and they often walked together on 
+the sea-shore, and on the busy quays, where Emily was frequently 
+interested by the arrival and departure of vessels, participating in 
+the joy of meeting friends, and, sometimes, shedding a sympathetic 
+tear to the sorrow of those, that were separating.  It was after 
+having witnessed a scene of the latter kind, that she arranged the 
+following stanzas:
+
+THE MARINER
+
+ Soft came the breath of spring; smooth flow'd the tide;
+ And blue the heaven in its mirror smil'd;
+ The white sail trembled, swell'd, expanded wide,
+ The busy sailors at the anchor toil'd.
+
+ With anxious friends, that shed the parting tear,
+ The deck was throng'd--how swift the moments fly!
+ The vessel heaves, the farewel signs appear;
+ Mute is each tongue, and eloquent each eye!
+
+ The last dread moment comes!--The sailor-youth
+ Hides the big drop, then smiles amid his pain,
+ Sooths his sad bride, and vows eternal truth,
+ 'Farewel, my love--we shall--shall meet again!'
+
+ Long on the stern, with waving hand, he stood;
+ The crowded shore sinks, lessening, from his view,
+ As gradual glides the bark along the flood;
+ His bride is seen no more--'Adieu!--adieu!'
+
+ The breeze of Eve moans low, her smile is o'er,
+ Dim steals her twilight down the crimson'd west,
+ He climbs the top-most mast, to seek once more
+ The far-seen coast, where all his wishes rest.
+
+ He views its dark line on the distant sky,
+ And Fancy leads him to his little home,
+ He sees his weeping love, he hears her sigh,
+ He sooths her griefs, and tells of joys to come.
+
+ Eve yields to night, the breeze to wintry gales,
+ In one vast shade the seas and shores repose;
+ He turns his aching eyes,--his spirit fails,
+ The chill tear falls;--sad to the deck he goes!
+
+ The storm of midnight swells, the sails are furl'd,
+ Deep sounds the lead, but finds no friendly shore,
+ Fast o'er the waves the wretched bark is hurl'd,
+ 'O Ellen, Ellen! we must meet no more!'
+
+ Lightnings, that shew the vast and foamy deep,
+ The rending thunders, as they onward roll,
+ The loud, loud winds, that o'er the billows sweep--
+ Shake the firm nerve, appall the bravest soul!
+
+ Ah! what avails the seamen's toiling care!
+ The straining cordage bursts, the mast is riv'n;
+ The sounds of terror groan along the air,
+ Then sink afar;--the bark on rocks is driv'n!
+
+ Fierce o'er the wreck the whelming waters pass'd,
+ The helpless crew sunk in the roaring main!
+ Henry's faint accents trembled in the blast--
+ 'Farewel, my love!--we ne'er shall meet again!'
+
+ Oft, at the calm and silent evening hour,
+ When summer-breezes linger on the wave,
+ A melancholy voice is heard to pour
+ Its lonely sweetness o'er poor Henry's grave!
+
+ And oft, at midnight, airy strains are heard
+ Around the grove, where Ellen's form is laid;
+ Nor is the dirge by village-maidens fear'd,
+ For lovers' spirits guard the holy shade!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+     Oh! the joy
+ Of young ideas, painted on the mind
+ In the warm glowing colours fancy spreads
+ On objects not yet known, when all is new,
+ And all is lovely!
+     SACRED DRAMAS
+
+We now return to Languedoc and to the mention of Count De Villefort, 
+the nobleman, who succeeded to an estate of the Marquis De Villeroi 
+situated near the monastery of St. Claire.  It may be recollected, 
+that this chateau was uninhabited, when St. Aubert and his daughter 
+were in the neighbourhood, and that the former was much affected on 
+discovering himself to be so near Chateau-le-Blanc, a place, 
+concerning which the good old La Voisin afterwards dropped some 
+hints, that had alarmed Emily's curiosity.
+
+It was in the year 1584, the beginning of that, in which St. Aubert 
+died, that Francis Beauveau, Count De Villefort, came into possession 
+of the mansion and extensive domain called Chateau-le-Blanc, situated 
+in the province of Languedoc, on the shore of the Mediterranean.  
+This estate, which, during some centuries, had belonged to his 
+family, now descended to him, on the decease of his relative, the 
+Marquis De Villeroi, who had been latterly a man of reserved manners 
+and austere character; circumstances, which, together with the duties 
+of his profession, that often called him into the field, had 
+prevented any degree of intimacy with his cousin, the Count De 
+Villefort.  For many years, they had known little of each other, and 
+the Count received the first intelligence of his death, which 
+happened in a distant part of France, together with the instruments, 
+that gave him possession of the domain Chateau-le-Blanc; but it was 
+not till the following year, that he determined to visit that estate, 
+when he designed to pass the autumn there.  The scenes of Chateau-le-
+Blanc often came to his remembrance, heightened by the touches, which 
+a warm imagination gives to the recollection of early pleasures; for, 
+many years before, in the life-time of the Marchioness, and at that 
+age when the mind is particularly sensible to impressions of gaiety 
+and delight, he had once visited this spot, and, though he had passed 
+a long intervening period amidst the vexations and tumults of public 
+affairs, which too frequently corrode the heart, and vitiate the 
+taste, the shades of Languedoc and the grandeur of its distant 
+scenery had never been remembered by him with indifference.
+
+During many years, the chateau had been abandoned by the late 
+Marquis, and, being inhabited only by an old steward and his wife, 
+had been suffered to fall much into decay.  To superintend the 
+repairs, that would be requisite to make it a comfortable residence, 
+had been a principal motive with the Count for passing the autumnal 
+months in Languedoc; and neither the remonstrances, or the tears of 
+the Countess, for, on urgent occasions, she could weep, were powerful 
+enough to overcome his determination.  She prepared, therefore, to 
+obey the command, which she could not conquer, and to resign the gay 
+assemblies of Paris,--where her beauty was generally unrivalled and 
+won the applause, to which her wit had but feeble claim--for the 
+twilight canopy of woods, the lonely grandeur of mountains and the 
+solemnity of gothic halls and of long, long galleries, which echoed 
+only the solitary step of a domestic, or the measured clink, that 
+ascended from the great clock--the ancient monitor of the hall below.  
+From these melancholy expectations she endeavoured to relieve her 
+spirits by recollecting all that she had ever heard, concerning the 
+joyous vintage of the plains of Languedoc; but there, alas! no airy 
+forms would bound to the gay melody of Parisian dances, and a view of 
+the rustic festivities of peasants could afford little pleasure to a 
+heart, in which even the feelings of ordinary benevolence had long 
+since decayed under the corruptions of luxury.
+
+The Count had a son and a daughter, the children of a former 
+marriage, who, he designed, should accompany him to the south of 
+France; Henri, who was in his twentieth year, was in the French 
+service; and Blanche, who was not yet eighteen, had been hitherto 
+confined to the convent, where she had been placed immediately on her 
+father's second marriage.  The present Countess, who had neither 
+sufficient ability, or inclination, to superintend the education of 
+her daughter-in-law, had advised this step, and the dread of superior 
+beauty had since urged her to employ every art, that might prevail on 
+the Count to prolong the period of Blanche's seclusion; it was, 
+therefore, with extreme mortification, that she now understood he 
+would no longer submit on this subject, yet it afforded her some 
+consolation to consider, that, though the Lady Blanche would emerge 
+from her convent, the shades of the country would, for some time, 
+veil her beauty from the public eye.
+
+On the morning, which commenced the journey, the postillions stopped 
+at the convent, by the Count's order, to take up Blanche, whose heart 
+beat with delight, at the prospect of novelty and freedom now before 
+her.  As the time of her departure drew nigh, her impatience had 
+increased, and the last night, during which she counted every note of 
+every hour, had appeared the most tedious of any she had ever known.  
+The morning light, at length, dawned; the matin-bell rang; she heard 
+the nuns descending from their chambers, and she started from a 
+sleepless pillow to welcome the day, which was to emancipate her from 
+the severities of a cloister, and introduce her to a world, where 
+pleasure was ever smiling, and goodness ever blessed--where, in 
+short, nothing but pleasure and goodness reigned!  When the bell of 
+the great gate rang, and the sound was followed by that of carriage 
+wheels, she ran, with a palpitating heart, to her lattice, and, 
+perceiving her father's carriage in the court below, danced, with 
+airy steps, along the gallery, where she was met by a nun with a 
+summons from the abbess.  In the next moment, she was in the parlour, 
+and in the presence of the Countess who now appeared to her as an 
+angel, that was to lead her into happiness.  But the emotions of the 
+Countess, on beholding her, were not in unison with those of Blanche, 
+who had never appeared so lovely as at this moment, when her 
+countenance, animated by the lightning smile of joy, glowed with the 
+beauty of happy innocence.
+
+After conversing for a few minutes with the abbess, the Countess rose 
+to go.  This was the moment, which Blanche had anticipated with such 
+eager expectation, the summit from which she looked down upon the 
+fairy-land of happiness, and surveyed all its enchantment; was it a 
+moment, then, for tears of regret?  Yet it was so.  She turned, with 
+an altered and dejected countenance, to her young companions, who 
+were come to bid her farewell, and wept!  Even my lady abbess, so 
+stately and so solemn, she saluted with a degree of sorrow, which, an 
+hour before, she would have believed it impossible to feel, and which 
+may be accounted for by considering how reluctantly we all part, even 
+with unpleasing objects, when the separation is consciously for ever.  
+Again, she kissed the poor nuns and then followed the Countess from 
+that spot with tears, which she expected to leave only with smiles.
+
+But the presence of her father and the variety of objects, on the 
+road, soon engaged her attention, and dissipated the shade, which 
+tender regret had thrown upon her spirits.  Inattentive to a 
+conversation, which was passing between the Countess and a 
+Mademoiselle Bearn, her friend, Blanche sat, lost in pleasing 
+reverie, as she watched the clouds floating silently along the blue 
+expanse, now veiling the sun and stretching their shadows along the 
+distant scene, and then disclosing all his brightness.  The journey 
+continued to give Blanche inexpressible delight, for new scenes of 
+nature were every instant opening to her view, and her fancy became 
+stored with gay and beautiful imagery.
+
+It was on the evening of the seventh day, that the travellers came 
+within view of Chateau-le-Blanc, the romantic beauty of whose 
+situation strongly impressed the imagination of Blanche, who 
+observed, with sublime astonishment, the Pyrenean mountains, which 
+had been seen only at a distance during the day, now rising within a 
+few leagues, with their wild cliffs and immense precipices, which the 
+evening clouds, floating round them, now disclosed, and again veiled.  
+The setting rays, that tinged their snowy summits with a roseate hue, 
+touched their lower points with various colouring, while the blueish 
+tint, that pervaded their shadowy recesses, gave the strength of 
+contrast to the splendour of light.  The plains of Languedoc, 
+blushing with the purple vine and diversified with groves of 
+mulberry, almond and olives, spread far to the north and the east; to 
+the south, appeared the Mediterranean, clear as crystal, and blue as 
+the heavens it reflected, bearing on its bosom vessels, whose white 
+sails caught the sun-beams, and gave animation to the scene.  On a 
+high promontory, washed by the waters of the Mediterranean, stood her 
+father's mansion, almost secluded from the eye by woods of 
+intermingled pine, oak and chesnut, which crowned the eminence, and 
+sloped towards the plains, on one side; while, on the other, they 
+extended to a considerable distance along the sea-shores.
+
+As Blanche drew nearer, the gothic features of this antient mansion 
+successively appeared--first an embattled turret, rising above the 
+trees--then the broken arch of an immense gate-way, retiring beyond 
+them; and she almost fancied herself approaching a castle, such as is 
+often celebrated in early story, where the knights look out from the 
+battlements on some champion below, who, clothed in black armour, 
+comes, with his companions, to rescue the fair lady of his love from 
+the oppression of his rival; a sort of legends, to which she had once 
+or twice obtained access in the library of her convent, that, like 
+many others, belonging to the monks, was stored with these reliques 
+of romantic fiction.
+
+The carriages stopped at a gate, which led into the domain of the 
+chateau, but which was now fastened; and the great bell, that had 
+formerly served to announce the arrival of strangers, having long 
+since fallen from its station, a servant climbed over a ruined part 
+of the adjoining wall, to give notice to those within of the arrival 
+of their lord.
+
+As Blanche leaned from the coach window, she resigned herself to the 
+sweet and gentle emotions, which the hour and the scenery awakened.  
+The sun had now left the earth, and twilight began to darken the 
+mountains; while the distant waters, reflecting the blush that still 
+glowed in the west, appeared like a line of light, skirting the 
+horizon.  The low murmur of waves, breaking on the shore, came in the 
+breeze, and, now and then, the melancholy dashing of oars was feebly 
+heard from a distance.  She was suffered to indulge her pensive mood, 
+for the thoughts of the rest of the party were silently engaged upon 
+the subjects of their several interests.  Meanwhile, the Countess, 
+reflecting, with regret, upon the gay parties she had left at Paris, 
+surveyed, with disgust, what she thought the gloomy woods and 
+solitary wildness of the scene; and, shrinking from the prospect of 
+being shut up in an old castle, was prepared to meet every object 
+with displeasure.  The feelings of Henri were somewhat similar to 
+those of the Countess; he gave a mournful sigh to the delights of the 
+capital, and to the remembrance of a lady, who, he believed, had 
+engaged his affections, and who had certainly fascinated his 
+imagination; but the surrounding country, and the mode of life, on 
+which he was entering, had, for him, at least, the charm of novelty, 
+and his regret was softened by the gay expectations of youth.  The 
+gates being at length unbarred, the carriage moved slowly on, under 
+spreading chesnuts, that almost excluded the remains of day, 
+following what had been formerly a road, but which now, overgrown 
+with luxuriant vegetation, could be traced only by the boundary, 
+formed by trees, on either side, and which wound for near half a mile 
+among the woods, before it reached the chateau.  This was the very 
+avenue that St. Aubert and Emily had formerly entered, on their first 
+arrival in the neighbourhood, with the hope of finding a house, that 
+would receive them, for the night, and had so abruptly quitted, on 
+perceiving the wildness of the place, and a figure, which the 
+postillion had fancied was a robber.
+
+'What a dismal place is this!' exclaimed the Countess, as the 
+carriage penetrated the deeper recesses of the woods.  'Surely, my 
+lord, you do not mean to pass all the autumn in this barbarous spot!  
+One ought to bring hither a cup of the waters of Lethe, that the 
+remembrance of pleasanter scenes may not heighten, at least, the 
+natural dreariness of these.'
+
+'I shall be governed by circumstances, madam,' said the Count, 'this 
+barbarous spot was inhabited by my ancestors.'
+
+The carriage now stopped at the chateau, where, at the door of the 
+great hall, appeared the old steward and the Parisian servants, who 
+had been sent to prepare the chateau, waiting to receive their lord.  
+Lady Blanche now perceived, that the edifice was not built entirely 
+in the gothic style, but that it had additions of a more modern date; 
+the large and gloomy hall, however, into which she now entered, was 
+entirely gothic, and sumptuous tapestry, which it was now too dark to 
+distinguish, hung upon the walls, and depictured scenes from some of 
+the antient Provencal romances.  a vast gothic window, embroidered 
+with CLEMATIS and eglantine, that ascended to the south, led the eye, 
+now that the casements were thrown open, through this verdant shade, 
+over a sloping lawn, to the tops of dark woods, that hung upon the 
+brow of the promontory.  Beyond, appeared the waters of the 
+Mediterranean, stretching far to the south, and to the east, where 
+they were lost in the horizon; while, to the north-east, they were 
+bounded by the luxuriant shores of Languedoc and Provence, enriched 
+with wood, and gay with vines and sloping pastures; and, to the 
+south-west, by the majestic Pyrenees, now fading from the eye, 
+beneath the gradual gloom.
+
+Blanche, as she crossed the hall, stopped a moment to observe this 
+lovely prospect, which the evening twilight obscured, yet did not 
+conceal.  But she was quickly awakened from the complacent delight, 
+which this scene had diffused upon her mind, by the Countess, who, 
+discontented with every object around, and impatient for refreshment 
+and repose, hastened forward to a large parlour, whose cedar 
+wainscot, narrow, pointed casements, and dark ceiling of carved 
+cypress wood, gave it an aspect of peculiar gloom, which the dingy 
+green velvet of the chairs and couches, fringed with tarnished gold, 
+had once been designed to enliven.
+
+While the Countess enquired for refreshment, the Count, attended by 
+his son, went to look over some part of the chateau, and Lady Blanche 
+reluctantly remained to witness the discontent and ill-humour of her 
+step-mother.
+
+'How long have you lived in this desolate place?' said her ladyship, 
+to the old house keeper, who came to pay her duty.
+
+'Above twenty years, your ladyship, on the next feast of St. Jerome.'
+
+'How happened it, that you have lived here so long, and almost alone, 
+too?  I understood, that the chateau had been shut up for some 
+years?'
+
+'Yes, madam, it was for many years after my late lord, the Count, 
+went to the wars; but it is above twenty years, since I and my 
+husband came into his service.  The place is so large, and has of 
+late been so lonely, that we were lost in it, and, after some time, 
+we went to live in a cottage at the end of the woods, near some of 
+the tenants, and came to look after the chateau, every now and then.  
+When my lord returned to France from the wars, he took a dislike to 
+the place, and never came to live here again, and so he was satisfied 
+with our remaining at the cottage.  Alas--alas! how the chateau is 
+changed from what it once was!  What delight my late lady used to 
+take in it!  I well remember when she came here a bride, and how fine 
+it was.  Now, it has been neglected so long, and is gone into such 
+decay!  I shall never see those days again!'
+
+The Countess appearing to be somewhat offended by the thoughtless 
+simplicity, with which the old woman regretted former times, Dorothee 
+added--'But the chateau will now be inhabited, and cheerful again; 
+not all the world could tempt me to live in it alone.'
+
+'Well, the experiment will not be made, I believe,' said the 
+Countess, displeased that her own silence had been unable to awe the 
+loquacity of this rustic old housekeeper, now spared from further 
+attendance by the entrance of the Count, who said he had been viewing 
+part of the chateau, and found, that it would require considerable 
+repairs and some alterations, before it would be perfectly 
+comfortable, as a place of residence.  'I am sorry to hear it, my 
+lord,' replied the Countess.  'And why sorry, madam?'  'Because the 
+place will ill repay your trouble; and were it even a paradise, it 
+would be insufferable at such a distance from Paris.'
+
+The Count made no reply, but walked abruptly to a window.  'There are 
+windows, my lord, but they neither admit entertainment, or light; 
+they shew only a scene of savage nature.'
+
+'I am at a loss, madam,' said the Count, 'to conjecture what you mean 
+by savage nature.  Do those plains, or those woods, or that fine 
+expanse of water, deserve the name?'
+
+'Those mountains certainly do, my lord,' rejoined the Countess, 
+pointing to the Pyrenees, 'and this chateau, though not a work of 
+rude nature, is, to my taste, at least, one of savage art.'  The 
+Count coloured highly.  'This place, madam, was the work of my 
+ancestors,' said he, 'and you must allow me to say, that your present 
+conversation discovers neither good taste, or good manners.'  
+Blanche, now shocked at an altercation, which appeared to be 
+increasing to a serious disagreement, rose to leave the room, when 
+her mother's woman entered it; and the Countess, immediately desiring 
+to be shewn to her own apartment, withdrew, attended by Mademoiselle 
+Bearn.
+
+Lady Blanche, it being not yet dark, took this opportunity of 
+exploring new scenes, and, leaving the parlour, she passed from the 
+hall into a wide gallery, whose walls were decorated by marble 
+pilasters, which supported an arched roof, composed of a rich mosaic 
+work.  Through a distant window, that seemed to terminate the 
+gallery, were seen the purple clouds of evening and a landscape, 
+whose features, thinly veiled in twilight, no longer appeared 
+distinctly, but, blended into one grand mass, stretched to the 
+horizon, coloured only with a tint of solemn grey.
+
+The gallery terminated in a saloon, to which the window she had seen 
+through an open door, belonged; but the increasing dusk permitted her 
+only an imperfect view of this apartment, which seemed to be 
+magnificent and of modern architecture; though it had been either 
+suffered to fall into decay, or had never been properly finished.  
+The windows, which were numerous and large, descended low, and 
+afforded a very extensive, and what Blanche's fancy represented to 
+be, a very lovely prospect; and she stood for some time, surveying 
+the grey obscurity and depicturing imaginary woods and mountains, 
+vallies and rivers, on this scene of night; her solemn sensations 
+rather assisted, than interrupted, by the distant bark of a watch-
+dog, and by the breeze, as it trembled upon the light foliage of the 
+shrubs.  Now and then, appeared for a moment, among the woods, a 
+cottage light; and, at length, was heard, afar off, the evening bell 
+of a convent, dying on the air.  When she withdrew her thoughts from 
+these subjects of fanciful delight, the gloom and silence of the 
+saloon somewhat awed her; and, having sought the door of the gallery, 
+and pursued, for a considerable time, a dark passage, she came to a 
+hall, but one totally different from that she had formerly seen.  By 
+the twilight, admitted through an open portico, she could just 
+distinguish this apartment to be of very light and airy architecture, 
+and that it was paved with white marble, pillars of which supported 
+the roof, that rose into arches built in the Moorish style.  While 
+Blanche stood on the steps of this portico, the moon rose over the 
+sea, and gradually disclosed, in partial light, the beauties of the 
+eminence, on which she stood, whence a lawn, now rude and overgrown 
+with high grass, sloped to the woods, that, almost surrounding the 
+chateau, extended in a grand sweep down the southern sides of the 
+promontory to the very margin of the ocean.  Beyond the woods, on the 
+north-side, appeared a long tract of the plains of Languedoc; and, to 
+the east, the landscape she had before dimly seen, with the towers of 
+a monastery, illumined by the moon, rising over dark groves.
+
+The soft and shadowy tint, that overspread the scene, the waves, 
+undulating in the moon-light, and their low and measured murmurs on 
+the beach, were circumstances, that united to elevate the 
+unaccustomed mind of Blanche to enthusiasm.
+
+'And have I lived in this glorious world so long,' said she, 'and 
+never till now beheld such a prospect--never experienced these 
+delights!  Every peasant girl, on my father's domain, has viewed from 
+her infancy the face of nature; has ranged, at liberty, her romantic 
+wilds, while I have been shut in a cloister from the view of these 
+beautiful appearances, which were designed to enchant all eyes, and 
+awaken all hearts.  How can the poor nuns and friars feel the full 
+fervour of devotion, if they never see the sun rise, or set?  Never, 
+till this evening, did I know what true devotion is; for, never 
+before did I see the sun sink below the vast earth!  To-morrow, for 
+the first time in my life, I will see it rise.  O, who would live in 
+Paris, to look upon black walls and dirty streets, when, in the 
+country, they might gaze on the blue heavens, and all the green 
+earth!'
+
+This enthusiastic soliloquy was interrupted by a rustling noise in 
+the hall; and, while the loneliness of the place made her sensible to 
+fear, she thought she perceived something moving between the pillars.  
+For a moment, she continued silently observing it, till, ashamed of 
+her ridiculous apprehensions, she recollected courage enough to 
+demand who was there.  'O my young lady, is it you?' said the old 
+housekeeper, who was come to shut the windows, 'I am glad it is you.'  
+The manner, in which she spoke this, with a faint breath, rather 
+surprised Blanche, who said, 'You seemed frightened, Dorothee, what 
+is the matter?'
+
+'No, not frightened, ma'amselle,' replied Dorothee, hesitating and 
+trying to appear composed, 'but I am old, and--a little matter 
+startles me.'  The Lady Blanche smiled at the distinction.  'I am 
+glad, that my lord the Count is come to live at the chateau, 
+ma'amselle,' continued Dorothee, 'for it has been many a year 
+deserted, and dreary enough; now, the place will look a little as it 
+used to do, when my poor lady was alive.'  Blanche enquired how long 
+it was, since the Marchioness died?  'Alas! my lady,' replied 
+Dorothee, 'so long--that I have ceased to count the years!  The 
+place, to my mind, has mourned ever since, and I am sure my lord's 
+vassals have!  But you have lost yourself, ma'amselle,--shall I shew 
+you to the other side of the chateau?'
+
+Blanche enquired how long this part of the edifice had been built.  
+'Soon after my lord's marriage, ma'am,' replied Dorothee.  'The place 
+was large enough without this addition, for many rooms of the old 
+building were even then never made use of, and my lord had a princely 
+household too; but he thought the antient mansion gloomy, and gloomy 
+enough it is!'  Lady Blanche now desired to be shewn to the inhabited 
+part of the chateau; and, as the passages were entirely dark, 
+Dorothee conducted her along the edge of the lawn to the opposite 
+side of the edifice, where, a door opening into the great hall, she 
+was met by Mademoiselle Bearn.  'Where have you been so long?' said 
+she, 'I had begun to think some wonderful adventure had befallen you, 
+and that the giant of this enchanted castle, or the ghost, which, no 
+doubt, haunts it, had conveyed you through a trap-door into some 
+subterranean vault, whence you was never to return.'
+
+'No,' replied Blanche, laughingly, 'you seem to love adventures so 
+well, that I leave them for you to achieve.'
+
+'Well, I am willing to achieve them, provided I am allowed to 
+describe them.'
+
+'My dear Mademoiselle Bearn,' said Henri, as he met her at the door 
+of the parlour, 'no ghost of these days would be so savage as to 
+impose silence on you.  Our ghosts are more civilized than to condemn 
+a lady to a purgatory severer even, than their own, be it what it 
+may.'
+
+Mademoiselle Bearn replied only by a laugh; and, the Count now 
+entering the room, supper was served, during which he spoke little, 
+frequently appeared to be abstracted from the company, and more than 
+once remarked, that the place was greatly altered, since he had last 
+seen it.  'Many years have intervened since that period,' said he; 
+'and, though the grand features of the scenery admit of no change, 
+they impress me with sensations very different from those I formerly 
+experienced.'
+
+'Did these scenes, sir,' said Blanche, 'ever appear more lovely, than 
+they do now?  To me this seems hardly possible.'  The Count, 
+regarding her with a melancholy smile, said, 'They once were as 
+delightful to me, as they are now to you; the landscape is not 
+changed, but time has changed me; from my mind the illusion, which 
+gave spirit to the colouring of nature, is fading fast!  If you live, 
+my dear Blanche, to re-visit this spot, at the distance of many 
+years, you will, perhaps, remember and understand the feelings of 
+your father.'
+
+Lady Blanche, affected by these words, remained silent; she looked 
+forward to the period, which the Count anticipated, and considering, 
+that he, who now spoke, would then probably be no more, her eyes, 
+bent to the ground, were filed with tears.  She gave her hand to her 
+father, who, smiling affectionately, rose from his chair, and went to 
+a window to conceal his emotion.
+
+The fatigues of the day made the party separate at an early hour, 
+when Blanche retired through a long oak gallery to her chamber, whose 
+spacious and lofty walls, high antiquated casements, and, what was 
+the effect of these, its gloomy air, did not reconcile her to its 
+remote situation, in this antient building.  The furniture, also, was 
+of antient date; the bed was of blue damask, trimmed with tarnished 
+gold lace, and its lofty tester rose in the form of a canopy, whence 
+the curtains descended, like those of such tents as are sometimes 
+represented in old pictures, and, indeed, much resembling those, 
+exhibited on the faded tapestry, with which the chamber was hung.  To 
+Blanche, every object here was matter of curiosity; and, taking the 
+light from her woman to examine the tapestry, she perceived, that it 
+represented scenes from the wars of Troy, though the almost 
+colourless worsted now mocked the glowing actions they once had 
+painted.  She laughed at the ludicrous absurdity she observed, till, 
+recollecting, that the hands, which had wove it, were, like the poet, 
+whose thoughts of fire they had attempted to express, long since 
+mouldered into dust, a train of melancholy ideas passed over her 
+mind, and she almost wept.
+
+Having given her woman a strict injunction to awaken her, before sun-
+rise, she dismissed her; and then, to dissipate the gloom, which 
+reflection had cast upon her spirits, opened one of the high 
+casements, and was again cheered by the face of living nature.  The 
+shadowy earth, the air, and ocean--all was still.  Along the deep 
+serene of the heavens, a few light clouds floated slowly, through 
+whose skirts the stars now seemed to tremble, and now to emerge with 
+purer splendour.  Blanche's thoughts arose involuntarily to the Great 
+Author of the sublime objects she contemplated, and she breathed a 
+prayer of finer devotion, than any she had ever uttered beneath the 
+vaulted roof of a cloister.  At this casement, she remained till the 
+glooms of midnight were stretched over the prospect.  She then 
+retired to her pillow, and, 'with gay visions of to-morrow,' to those 
+sweet slumbers, which health and happy innocence only know.
+
+  To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+     What transport to retrace our early plays,
+ Our easy bliss, when each thing joy supplied
+ The woods, the mountains and the warbling maze
+ Of the wild brooks!
+     THOMSON
+
+Blanche's slumbers continued, till long after the hour, which she had 
+so impatiently anticipated, for her woman, fatigued with travelling, 
+did not call her, till breakfast was nearly ready.  Her 
+disappointment, however, was instantly forgotten, when, on opening 
+the casement, she saw, on one hand, the wide sea sparkling in the 
+morning rays, with its stealing sails and glancing oars; and, on the 
+other, the fresh woods, the plains far-stretching and the blue 
+mountains, all glowing with the splendour of day.
+
+As she inspired the pure breeze, health spread a deeper blush upon 
+her countenance, and pleasure danced in her eyes.
+
+'Who could first invent convents!' said she, 'and who could first 
+persuade people to go into them? and to make religion a pretence, 
+too, where all that should inspire it, is so carefully shut out!  God 
+is best pleased with the homage of a grateful heart, and, when we 
+view his glories, we feel most grateful.  I never felt so much 
+devotion, during the many dull years I was in the convent, as I have 
+done in the few hours, that I have been here, where I need only look 
+on all around me--to adore God in my inmost heart!'
+
+Saying this, she left the window, bounded along the gallery, and, in 
+the next moment, was in the breakfast room, where the Count was 
+already seated.  The cheerfulness of a bright sunshine had dispersed 
+the melancholy glooms of his reflections, a pleasant smile was on his 
+countenance, and he spoke in an enlivening voice to Blanche, whose 
+heart echoed back the tones.  Henri and, soon after, the Countess 
+with Mademoiselle Bearn appeared, and the whole party seemed to 
+acknowledge the influence of the scene; even the Countess was so much 
+re-animated as to receive the civilities of her husband with 
+complacency, and but once forgot her good-humour, which was when she 
+asked whether they had any neighbours, who were likely to make THIS 
+BARBAROUS SPOT more tolerable, and whether the Count believed it 
+possible for her to exist here, without some amusement?
+
+Soon after breakfast the party dispersed; the Count, ordering his 
+steward to attend him in the library, went to survey the condition of 
+his premises, and to visit some of his tenants; Henri hastened with 
+alacrity to the shore to examine a boat, that was to bear them on a 
+little voyage in the evening and to superintend the adjustment of a 
+silk awning; while the Countess, attended by Mademoiselle Bearn, 
+retired to an apartment on the modern side of the chateau, which was 
+fitted up with airy elegance; and, as the windows opened upon 
+balconies, that fronted the sea, she was there saved from a view of 
+the HORRID Pyrenees.  Here, while she reclined on a sofa, and, 
+casting her languid eyes over the ocean, which appeared beyond the 
+wood-tops, indulged in the luxuries of ENNUI, her companion read 
+aloud a sentimental novel, on some fashionable system of philosophy, 
+for the Countess was herself somewhat of a PHILOSOPHER, especially as 
+to INFIDELITY, and among a certain circle her opinions were waited 
+for with impatience, and received as doctrines.
+
+The Lady Blanche, meanwhile, hastened to indulge, amidst the wild 
+wood-walks around the chateau, her new enthusiasm, where, as she 
+wandered under the shades, her gay spirits gradually yielded to 
+pensive complacency.  Now, she moved with solemn steps, beneath the 
+gloom of thickly interwoven branches, where the fresh dew still hung 
+upon every flower, that peeped from among the grass; and now tripped 
+sportively along the path, on which the sunbeams darted and the 
+checquered foliage trembled--where the tender greens of the beech, 
+the acacia and the mountain-ash, mingling with the solemn tints of 
+the cedar, the pine and cypress, exhibited as fine a contrast of 
+colouring, as the majestic oak and oriental plane did of form, to the 
+feathery lightness of the cork tree and the waving grace of the 
+poplar.
+
+Having reached a rustic seat, within a deep recess of the woods, she 
+rested awhile, and, as her eyes caught, through a distant opening, a 
+glimpse of the blue waters of the Mediterranean, with the white sail, 
+gliding on its bosom, or of the broad mountain, glowing beneath the 
+mid-day sun, her mind experienced somewhat of that exquisite delight, 
+which awakens the fancy, and leads to poetry.  The hum of bees alone 
+broke the stillness around her, as, with other insects of various 
+hues, they sported gaily in the shade, or sipped sweets from the 
+fresh flowers:  and, while Blanche watched a butter-fly, flitting 
+from bud to bud, she indulged herself in imagining the pleasures of 
+its short day, till she had composed the following stanzas.
+
+  THE BUTTER-FLY TO HIS LOVE
+
+ What bowery dell, with fragrant breath,
+ Courts thee to stay thy airy flight;
+ Nor seek again the purple heath,
+ So oft the scene of gay delight?
+
+ Long I've watch'd i' the lily's bell,
+ Whose whiteness stole the morning's beam;
+ No fluttering sounds thy coming tell,
+ No waving wings, at distance, gleam.
+
+ But fountain fresh, nor breathing grove,
+ Nor sunny mead, nor blossom'd tree,
+ So sweet as lily's cell shall prove,--
+ The bower of constant love and me.
+
+ When April buds begin to blow,
+ The prim-rose, and the hare-bell blue,
+ That on the verdant moss bank grow,
+ With violet cups, that weep in dew;
+
+ When wanton gales breathe through the shade,
+ And shake the blooms, and steal their sweets,
+ And swell the song of ev'ry glade,
+ I range the forest's green retreats:
+
+ There, through the tangled wood-walks play,
+ Where no rude urchin paces near,
+ Where sparely peeps the sultry day,
+ And light dews freshen all the air.
+
+ High on a sun-beam oft I sport
+ O'er bower and fountain, vale and hill;
+ Oft ev'ry blushing flow'ret court,
+ That hangs its head o'er winding rill.
+
+ But these I'll leave to be thy guide,
+ And shew thee, where the jasmine spreads
+ Her snowy leaf, where may-flow'rs hide,
+ And rose-buds rear their peeping heads.
+
+ With me the mountain's summit scale,
+ And taste the wild-thyme's honied bloom,
+ Whose fragrance, floating on the gale,
+ Oft leads me to the cedar's gloom.
+
+ Yet, yet, no sound comes in the breeze!
+ What shade thus dares to tempt thy stay?
+ Once, me alone thou wish'd to please,
+ And with me only thou wouldst stray.
+
+ But, while thy long delay I mourn,
+ And chide the sweet shades for their guile,
+ Thou may'st be true, and they forlorn,
+ And fairy favours court thy smile.
+
+ The tiny queen of fairy-land,
+ Who knows thy speed, hath sent thee far,
+ To bring, or ere the night-watch stand,
+ Rich essence for her shadowy car:
+
+ Perchance her acorn-cups to fill
+ With nectar from the Indian rose,
+ Or gather, near some haunted rill,
+ May-dews, that lull to sleep Love's woes:
+
+ Or, o'er the mountains, bade thee fly,
+ To tell her fairy love to speed,
+ When ev'ning steals upon the sky,
+ To dance along the twilight mead.
+
+ But now I see thee sailing low,
+ Gay as the brightest flow'rs of spring,
+ Thy coat of blue and jet I know,
+ And well thy gold and purple wing.
+
+ Borne on the gale, thou com'st to me;
+ O! welcome, welcome to my home!
+ In lily's cell we'll live in glee,
+ Together o'er the mountains roam!
+
+When Lady Blanche returned to the chateau, instead of going to the 
+apartment of the Countess, she amused herself with wandering over 
+that part of the edifice, which she had not yet examined, of which 
+the most antient first attracted her curiosity; for, though what she 
+had seen of the modern was gay and elegant, there was something in 
+the former more interesting to her imagination.  Having passed up the 
+great stair-case, and through the oak gallery, she entered upon a 
+long suite of chambers, whose walls were either hung with tapestry, 
+or wainscoted with cedar, the furniture of which looked almost as 
+antient as the rooms themselves; the spacious fire-places, where no 
+mark of social cheer remained, presented an image of cold desolation; 
+and the whole suite had so much the air of neglect and desertion, 
+that it seemed, as if the venerable persons, whose portraits hung 
+upon the walls, had been the last to inhabit them.
+
+On leaving these rooms, she found herself in another gallery, one end 
+of which was terminated by a back stair-case, and the other by a 
+door, that seemed to communicate with the north-side of the chateau, 
+but which being fastened, she descended the stair-case, and, opening 
+a door in the wall, a few steps down, found herself in a small square 
+room, that formed part of the west turret of the castle.  Three 
+windows presented each a separate and beautiful prospect; that to the 
+north, overlooking Languedoc; another to the west, the hills 
+ascending towards the Pyrenees, whose awful summits crowned the 
+landscape; and a third, fronting the south, gave the Mediterranean, 
+and a part of the wild shores of Rousillon, to the eye.
+
+Having left the turret, and descended the narrow stair-case, she 
+found herself in a dusky passage, where she wandered, unable to find 
+her way, till impatience yielded to apprehension, and she called for 
+assistance.  Presently steps approached, and light glimmered through 
+a door at the other extremity of the passage, which was opened with 
+caution by some person, who did not venture beyond it, and whom 
+Blanche observed in silence, till the door was closing, when she 
+called aloud, and, hastening towards it, perceived the old 
+housekeeper.  'Dear ma'amselle! is it you?' said Dorothee, 'How could 
+you find your way hither?'  Had Blanche been less occupied by her own 
+fears, she would probably have observed the strong expressions of 
+terror and surprise on Dorothee's countenance, who now led her 
+through a long succession of passages and rooms, that looked as if 
+they had been uninhabited for a century, till they reached that 
+appropriated to the housekeeper, where Dorothee entreated she would 
+sit down and take refreshment.  Blanche accepted the sweet meats, 
+offered to her, mentioned her discovery of the pleasant turret, and 
+her wish to appropriate it to her own use.  Whether Dorothee's taste 
+was not so sensible to the beauties of landscape as her young lady's, 
+or that the constant view of lovely scenery had deadened it, she 
+forbore to praise the subject of Blanche's enthusiasm, which, 
+however, her silence did not repress.  To Lady Blanche's enquiry of 
+whither the door she had found fastened at the end of the gallery 
+led, she replied, that it opened to a suite of rooms, which had not 
+been entered, during many years, 'For,' added she, 'my late lady died 
+in one of them, and I could never find in my heart to go into them 
+since.'
+
+Blanche, though she wished to see these chambers, forbore, on 
+observing that Dorothee's eyes were filled with tears, to ask her to 
+unlock them, and, soon after, went to dress for dinner, at which the 
+whole party met in good spirits and good humour, except the Countess, 
+whose vacant mind, overcome by the languor of idleness, would neither 
+suffer her to be happy herself, or to contribute to the happiness of 
+others.  Mademoiselle Bearn, attempting to be witty, directed her 
+badinage against Henri, who answered, because he could not well avoid 
+it, rather than from any inclination to notice her, whose liveliness 
+sometimes amused, but whose conceit and insensibility often disgusted 
+him.
+
+The cheerfulness, with which Blanche rejoined the party, vanished, on 
+her reaching the margin of the sea; she gazed with apprehension upon 
+the immense expanse of waters, which, at a distance, she had beheld 
+only with delight and astonishment, and it was by a strong effort, 
+that she so far overcame her fears as to follow her father into the 
+boat.
+
+As she silently surveyed the vast horizon, bending round the distant 
+verge of the ocean, an emotion of sublimest rapture struggled to 
+overcome a sense of personal danger.  A light breeze played on the 
+water, and on the silk awning of the boat, and waved the foliage of 
+the receding woods, that crowned the cliffs, for many miles, and 
+which the Count surveyed with the pride of conscious property, as 
+well as with the eye of taste.
+
+At some distance, among these woods, stood a pavilion, which had once 
+been the scene of social gaiety, and which its situation still made 
+one of romantic beauty.  Thither, the Count had ordered coffee and 
+other refreshment to be carried, and thither the sailors now steered 
+their course, following the windings of the shore round many a woody 
+promontory and circling bay; while the pensive tones of horns and 
+other wind instruments, played by the attendants in a distant boat, 
+echoed among the rocks, and died along the waves.  Blanche had now 
+subdued her fears; a delightful tranquillity stole over her mind, and 
+held her in silence; and she was too happy even to remember the 
+convent, or her former sorrows, as subjects of comparison with her 
+present felicity.
+
+The Countess felt less unhappy than she had done, since the moment of 
+her leaving Paris; for her mind was now under some degree of 
+restraint; she feared to indulge its wayward humours, and even wished 
+to recover the Count's good opinion.  On his family, and on the 
+surrounding scene, he looked with tempered pleasure and benevolent 
+satisfaction, while his son exhibited the gay spirits of youth, 
+anticipating new delights, and regretless of those, that were passed.
+
+After near an hour's rowing, the party landed, and ascended a little 
+path, overgrown with vegetation.  At a little distance from the point 
+of the eminence, within the shadowy recess of the woods, appeared the 
+pavilion, which Blanche perceived, as she caught a glimpse of its 
+portico between the trees, to be built of variegated marble.  As she 
+followed the Countess, she often turned her eyes with rapture towards 
+the ocean, seen beneath the dark foliage, far below, and from thence 
+upon the deep woods, whose silence and impenetrable gloom awakened 
+emotions more solemn, but scarcely less delightful.
+
+The pavilion had been prepared, as far as was possible, on a very 
+short notice, for the reception of its visitors; but the faded 
+colours of its painted walls and ceiling, and the decayed drapery of 
+its once magnificent furniture, declared how long it had been 
+neglected, and abandoned to the empire of the changing seasons.  
+While the party partook of a collation of fruit and coffee, the 
+horns, placed in a distant part of the woods, where an echo sweetened 
+and prolonged their melancholy tones, broke softly on the stillness 
+of the scene.  This spot seemed to attract even the admiration of the 
+Countess, or, perhaps, it was merely the pleasure of planning 
+furniture and decorations, that made her dwell so long on the 
+necessity of repairing and adorning it; while the Count, never 
+happier than when he saw her mind engaged by natural and simple 
+objects, acquiesced in all her designs, concerning the pavilion.  The 
+paintings on the walls and coved ceiling were to be renewed, the 
+canopies and sofas were to be of light green damask; marble statues 
+of wood-nymphs, bearing on their heads baskets of living flowers, 
+were to adorn the recesses between the windows, which, descending to 
+the ground, were to admit to every part of the room, and it was of 
+octagonal form, the various landscape.  One window opened upon a 
+romantic glade, where the eye roved among the woody recesses, and the 
+scene was bounded only by a lengthened pomp of groves; from another, 
+the woods receding disclosed the distant summits of the Pyrenees; a 
+third fronted an avenue, beyond which the grey towers of Chateau-le-
+Blanc, and a picturesque part of its ruin were seen partially among 
+the foliage; while a fourth gave, between the trees, a glimpse of the 
+green pastures and villages, that diversify the banks of the Aude.  
+The Mediterranean, with the bold cliffs, that overlooked its shores, 
+were the grand objects of a fifth window, and the others gave, in 
+different points of view, the wild scenery of the woods.
+
+After wandering, for some time, in these, the party returned to the 
+shore and embarked; and, the beauty of the evening tempting them to 
+extend their excursion, they proceeded further up the bay.  A dead 
+calm had succeeded the light breeze, that wafted them hither, and the 
+men took to their oars.  Around, the waters were spread into one vast 
+expanse of polished mirror, reflecting the grey cliffs and feathery 
+woods, that over-hung its surface, the glow of the western horizon 
+and the dark clouds, that came slowly from the east.  Blanche loved 
+to see the dipping oars imprint the water, and to watch the spreading 
+circles they left, which gave a tremulous motion to the reflected 
+landscape, without destroying the harmony of its features.
+
+Above the darkness of the woods, her eye now caught a cluster of high 
+towers, touched with the splendour of the setting rays; and, soon 
+after, the horns being then silent, she heard the faint swell of 
+choral voices from a distance.
+
+'What voices are those, upon the air?' said the Count, looking round, 
+and listening; but the strain had ceased.  'It seemed to be a vesper-
+hymn, which I have often heard in my convent,' said Blanche.
+
+'We are near the monastery, then,' observed the Count; and, the boat 
+soon after doubling a lofty head-land, the monastery of St. Claire 
+appeared, seated near the margin of the sea, where the cliffs, 
+suddenly sinking, formed a low shore within a small bay, almost 
+encircled with woods, among which partial features of the edifice 
+were seen;--the great gate and gothic window of the hall, the 
+cloisters and the side of a chapel more remote; while a venerable 
+arch, which had once led to a part of the fabric, now demolished, 
+stood a majestic ruin detached from the main building, beyond which 
+appeared a grand perspective of the woods.  On the grey walls, the 
+moss had fastened, and, round the pointed windows of the chapel, the 
+ivy and the briony hung in many a fantastic wreath.
+
+All without was silent and forsaken; but, while Blanche gazed with 
+admiration on this venerable pile, whose effect was heightened by the 
+strong lights and shadows thrown athwart it by a cloudy sun-set, a 
+sound of many voices, slowly chanting, arose from within.  The Count 
+bade his men rest on their oars.  The monks were singing the hymn of 
+vespers, and some female voices mingled with the strain, which rose 
+by soft degrees, till the high organ and the choral sounds swelled 
+into full and solemn harmony.  The strain, soon after, dropped into 
+sudden silence, and was renewed in a low and still more solemn key, 
+till, at length, the holy chorus died away, and was heard no more.--
+Blanche sighed, tears trembled in her eyes, and her thoughts seemed 
+wafted with the sounds to heaven.  While a rapt stillness prevailed 
+in the boat, a train of friars, and then of nuns, veiled in white, 
+issued from the cloisters, and passed, under the shade of the woods, 
+to the main body of the edifice.
+
+The Countess was the first of her party to awaken from this pause of 
+silence.
+
+'These dismal hymns and friars make one quite melancholy,' said she; 
+'twilight is coming on; pray let us return, or it will be dark before 
+we get home.'
+
+The count, looking up, now perceived, that the twilight of evening 
+was anticipated by an approaching storm.  In the east a tempest was 
+collecting; a heavy gloom came on, opposing and contrasting the 
+glowing splendour of the setting sun.  The clamorous sea-fowl skimmed 
+in fleet circles upon the surface of the sea, dipping their light 
+pinions in the wave, as they fled away in search of shelter.  The 
+boatmen pulled hard at their oars; but the thunder, that now muttered 
+at a distance, and the heavy drops, that began to dimple the water, 
+made the Count determine to put back to the monastery for shelter, 
+and the course of the boat was immediately changed.  As the clouds 
+approached the west, their lurid darkness changed to a deep ruddy 
+glow, which, by reflection, seemed to fire the tops of the woods and 
+the shattered towers of the monastery.
+
+The appearance of the heavens alarmed the Countess and Mademoiselle 
+Bearn, whose expressions of apprehension distressed the Count, and 
+perplexed his men; while Blanche continued silent, now agitated with 
+fear, and now with admiration, as she viewed the grandeur of the 
+clouds, and their effect on the scenery, and listened to the long, 
+long peals of thunder, that rolled through the air.
+
+The boat having reached the lawn before the monastery, the Count sent 
+a servant to announce his arrival, and to entreat shelter of the 
+Superior, who, soon after, appeared at the great gate, attended by 
+several monks, while the servant returned with a message, expressive 
+at once of hospitality and pride, but of pride disguised in 
+submission.  The party immediately disembarked, and, having hastily 
+crossed the lawn--for the shower was now heavy--were received at the 
+gate by the Superior, who, as they entered, stretched forth his hands 
+and gave his blessing; and they passed into the great hall, where the 
+lady abbess waited, attended by several nuns, clothed, like herself, 
+in black, and veiled in white.  The veil of the abbess was, however, 
+thrown half back, and discovered a countenance, whose chaste dignity 
+was sweetened by the smile of welcome, with which she addressed the 
+Countess, whom she led, with Blanche and Mademoiselle Bearn, into the 
+convent parlour, while the Count and Henri were conducted by the 
+Superior to the refectory.
+
+The Countess, fatigued and discontented, received the politeness of 
+the abbess with careless haughtiness, and had followed her, with 
+indolent steps, to the parlour, over which the painted casements and 
+wainscot of larch-wood threw, at all times, a melancholy shade, and 
+where the gloom of evening now loured almost to darkness.
+
+While the lady abbess ordered refreshment, and conversed with the 
+Countess, Blanche withdrew to a window, the lower panes of which, 
+being without painting, allowed her to observe the progress of the 
+storm over the Mediterranean, whose dark waves, that had so lately 
+slept, now came boldly swelling, in long succession, to the shore, 
+where they burst in white foam, and threw up a high spray over the 
+rocks.  A red sulphureous tint overspread the long line of clouds, 
+that hung above the western horizon, beneath whose dark skirts the 
+sun looking out, illumined the distant shores of Languedoc, as well 
+as the tufted summits of the nearer woods, and shed a partial gleam 
+on the western waves.  The rest of the scene was in deep gloom, 
+except where a sun-beam, darting between the clouds, glanced on the 
+white wings of the sea-fowl, that circled high among them, or touched 
+the swelling sail of a vessel, which was seen labouring in the storm.  
+Blanche, for some time, anxiously watched the progress of the bark, 
+as it threw the waves in foam around it, and, as the lightnings 
+flashed, looked to the opening heavens, with many a sigh for the fate 
+of the poor mariners.
+
+The sun, at length, set, and the heavy clouds, which had long 
+impended, dropped over the splendour of his course; the vessel, 
+however, was yet dimly seen, and Blanche continued to observe it, 
+till the quick succession of flashes, lighting up the gloom of the 
+whole horizon, warned her to retire from the window, and she joined 
+the Abbess, who, having exhausted all her topics of conversation with 
+the Countess, had now leisure to notice her.
+
+But their discourse was interrupted by tremendous peals of thunder; 
+and the bell of the monastery soon after ringing out, summoned the 
+inhabitants to prayer.  As Blanche passed the window, she gave 
+another look to the ocean, where, by the momentary flash, that 
+illumined the vast body of the waters, she distinguished the vessel 
+she had observed before, amidst a sea of foam, breaking the billows, 
+the mast now bowing to the waves, and then rising high in air.
+
+She sighed fervently as she gazed, and then followed the Lady Abbess 
+and the Countess to the chapel.  Meanwhile, some of the Count's 
+servants, having gone by land to the chateau for carriages, returned 
+soon after vespers had concluded, when, the storm being somewhat 
+abated, the Count and his family returned home.  Blanche was 
+surprised to discover how much the windings of the shore had deceived 
+her, concerning the distance of the chateau from the monastery, whose 
+vesper bell she had heard, on the preceding evening, from the windows 
+of the west saloon, and whose towers she would also have seen from 
+thence, had not twilight veiled them.
+
+On their arrival at the chateau, the Countess, affecting more 
+fatigue, than she really felt, withdrew to her apartment, and the 
+Count, with his daughter and Henri, went to the supper-room, where 
+they had not been long, when they heard, in a pause of the gust, a 
+firing of guns, which the Count understanding to be signals of 
+distress from some vessel in the storm, went to a window, that opened 
+towards the Mediterranean, to observe further; but the sea was now 
+involved in utter darkness, and the loud howlings of the tempest had 
+again overcome every other sound.  Blanche, remembering the bark, 
+which she had before seen, now joined her father, with trembling 
+anxiety.  In a few moments, the report of guns was again borne along 
+the wind, and as suddenly wafted away; a tremendous burst of thunder 
+followed, and, in the flash, that had preceded it, and which seemed 
+to quiver over the whole surface of the waters, a vessel was 
+discovered, tossing amidst the white foam of the waves at some 
+distance from the shore.  Impenetrable darkness again involved the 
+scene, but soon a second flash shewed the bark, with one sail 
+unfurled, driving towards the coast.  Blanche hung upon her father's 
+arm, with looks full of the agony of united terror and pity, which 
+were unnecessary to awaken the heart of the Count, who gazed upon the 
+sea with a piteous expression, and, perceiving, that no boat could 
+live in the storm, forbore to send one; but he gave orders to his 
+people to carry torches out upon the cliffs, hoping they might prove 
+a kind of beacon to the vessel, or, at least, warn the crew of the 
+rocks they were approaching.  While Henri went out to direct on what 
+part of the cliffs the lights should appear, Blanche remained with 
+her father, at the window, catching, every now and then, as the 
+lightnings flashed, a glimpse of the vessel; and she soon saw, with 
+reviving hope, the torches flaming on the blackness of night, and, as 
+they waved over the cliffs, casting a red gleam on the gasping 
+billows.  When the firing of guns was repeated, the torches were 
+tossed high in the air, as if answering the signal, and the firing 
+was then redoubled; but, though the wind bore the sound away, she 
+fancied, as the lightnings glanced, that the vessel was much nearer 
+the shore.
+
+The Count's servants were now seen, running to and fro, on the rocks; 
+some venturing almost to the point of the crags, and bending over, 
+held out their torches fastened to long poles; while others, whose 
+steps could be traced only by the course of the lights, descended the 
+steep and dangerous path, that wound to the margin of the sea, and, 
+with loud halloos, hailed the mariners, whose shrill whistle, and 
+then feeble voices, were heard, at intervals, mingling with the 
+storm.  Sudden shouts from the people on the rocks increased the 
+anxiety of Blanche to an almost intolerable degree:  but her 
+suspense, concerning the fate of the mariners, was soon over, when 
+Henri, running breathless into the room, told that the vessel was 
+anchored in the bay below, but in so shattered a condition, that it 
+was feared she would part before the crew could disembark.  The Count 
+immediately gave orders for his own boats to assist in bringing them 
+to shore, and that such of these unfortunate strangers as could not 
+be accommodated in the adjacent hamlet should be entertained at the 
+chateau.  Among the latter, were Emily St. Aubert, Monsieur Du Pont, 
+Ludovico and Annette, who, having embarked at Leghorn and reached 
+Marseilles, were from thence crossing the Gulf of Lyons, when this 
+storm overtook them.  They were received by the Count with his usual 
+benignity, who, though Emily wished to have proceeded immediately to 
+the monastery of St. Claire, would not allow her to leave the 
+chateau, that night; and, indeed, the terror and fatigue she had 
+suffered would scarcely have permitted her to go farther.
+
+In Monsieur Du Pont the Count discovered an old acquaintance, and 
+much joy and congratulation passed between them, after which Emily 
+was introduced by name to the Count's family, whose hospitable 
+benevolence dissipated the little embarrassment, which her situation 
+had occasioned her, and the party were soon seated at the supper-
+table.  The unaffected kindness of Blanche and the lively joy she 
+expressed on the escape of the strangers, for whom her pity had been 
+so much interested, gradually revived Emily's languid spirits; and Du 
+Pont, relieved from his terrors for her and for himself, felt the 
+full contrast, between his late situation on a dark and tremendous 
+ocean, and his present one, in a cheerful mansion, where he was 
+surrounded with plenty, elegance and smiles of welcome.
+
+Annette, meanwhile, in the servants' hall, was telling of all the 
+dangers she had encountered, and congratulating herself so heartily 
+upon her own and Ludovico's escape, and on her present comforts, that 
+she often made all that part of the chateau ring with merriment and 
+laughter.  Ludovico's spirits were as gay as her own, but he had 
+discretion enough to restrain them, and tried to check hers, though 
+in vain, till her laughter, at length, ascended to MY LADY'S chamber, 
+who sent to enquire what occasioned so much uproar in the chateau, 
+and to command silence.
+
+Emily withdrew early to seek the repose she so much required, but her 
+pillow was long a sleepless one.  On this her return to her native 
+country, many interesting remembrances were awakened; all the events 
+and sufferings she had experienced, since she quitted it, came in 
+long succession to her fancy, and were chased only by the image of 
+Valancourt, with whom to believe herself once more in the same land, 
+after they had been so long, and so distantly separated, gave her 
+emotions of indescribable joy, but which afterwards yielded to 
+anxiety and apprehension, when she considered the long period, that 
+had elapsed, since any letter had passed between them, and how much 
+might have happened in this interval to affect her future peace.  But 
+the thought, that Valancourt might be now no more, or, if living, 
+might have forgotten her, was so very terrible to her heart, that she 
+would scarcely suffer herself to pause upon the possibility.  She 
+determined to inform him, on the following day, of her arrival in 
+France, which it was scarcely possible he could know but by a letter 
+from herself, and, after soothing her spirits with the hope of soon 
+hearing, that he was well, and unchanged in his affections, she, at 
+length, sunk to repose.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+     Oft woo'd the gleam of Cynthia, silver-bright,
+ In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of folly,
+ With freedom by my side, and soft-ey'd melancholy.
+     GRAY
+
+The Lady Blanche was so much interested for Emily, that, upon hearing 
+she was going to reside in the neighbouring convent, she requested 
+the Count would invite her to lengthen her stay at the chateau.  'And 
+you know, my dear sir,' added Blanche, 'how delighted I shall be with 
+such a companion; for, at present, I have no friend to walk, or to 
+read with, since Mademoiselle Bearn is my mamma's friend only.'
+
+The Count smiled at the youthful simplicity, with which his daughter 
+yielded to first impressions; and, though he chose to warn her of 
+their danger, he silently applauded the benevolence, that could thus 
+readily expand in confidence to a stranger.  He had observed Emily, 
+with attention, on the preceding evening, and was as much pleased 
+with her, as it was possible he could be with any person, on so short 
+an acquaintance.  The mention, made of her by Mons. Du Pont, had also 
+given him a favourable impression of Emily; but, extremely cautious 
+as to those, whom he introduced to the intimacy of his daughter, he 
+determined, on hearing that the former was no stranger at the convent 
+of St. Claire, to visit the abbess, and, if her account corresponded 
+with his wish, to invite Emily to pass some time at the chateau.  On 
+this subject, he was influenced by a consideration of the Lady 
+Blanche's welfare, still more than by either a wish to oblige her, or 
+to befriend the orphan Emily, for whom, however, he felt considerably 
+interested.
+
+On the following morning, Emily was too much fatigued to appear; but 
+Mons. Du Pont was at the breakfast-table, when the Count entered the 
+room, who pressed him, as his former acquaintance, and the son of a 
+very old friend, to prolong his stay at the chateau; an invitation, 
+which Du Pont willingly accepted, since it would allow him to be near 
+Emily; and, though he was not conscious of encouraging a hope, that 
+she would ever return his affection, he had not fortitude enough to 
+attempt, at present, to overcome it.
+
+Emily, when she was somewhat recovered, wandered with her new friend 
+over the grounds belonging to the chateau, as much delighted with the 
+surrounding views, as Blanche, in the benevolence of her heart, had 
+wished; from thence she perceived, beyond the woods, the towers of 
+the monastery, and remarked, that it was to this convent she designed 
+to go.
+
+'Ah!' said Blanche with surprise, 'I am but just released from a 
+convent, and would you go into one?  If you could know what pleasure 
+I feel in wandering here, at liberty,--and in seeing the sky and the 
+fields, and the woods all round me, I think you would not.'  Emily, 
+smiling at the warmth, with which the Lady Blanche spoke, observed, 
+that she did not mean to confine herself to a convent for life.
+
+'No, you may not intend it now,' said Blanche; 'but you do not know 
+to what the nuns may persuade you to consent:  I know how kind they 
+will appear, and how happy, for I have seen too much of their art.'
+
+When they returned to the chateau, Lady Blanche conducted Emily to 
+her favourite turret, and from thence they rambled through the 
+ancient chambers, which Blanche had visited before.  Emily was amused 
+by observing the structure of these apartments, and the fashion of 
+their old but still magnificent furniture, and by comparing them with 
+those of the castle of Udolpho, which were yet more antique and 
+grotesque.  She was also interested by Dorothee the house-keeper, who 
+attended them, whose appearance was almost as antique as the objects 
+around her, and who seemed no less interested by Emily, on whom she 
+frequently gazed with so much deep attention, as scarcely to hear 
+what was said to her.
+
+While Emily looked from one of the casements, she perceived, with 
+surprise, some objects, that were familiar to her memory;--the fields 
+and woods, with the gleaming brook, which she had passed with La 
+Voisin, one evening, soon after the death of Monsieur St. Aubert, in 
+her way from the monastery to her cottage; and she now knew this to 
+be the chateau, which he had then avoided, and concerning which he 
+had dropped some remarkable hints.
+
+Shocked by this discovery, yet scarcely knowing why, she mused for 
+some time in silence, and remembered the emotion, which her father 
+had betrayed on finding himself so near this mansion, and some other 
+circumstances of his conduct, that now greatly interested her.  The 
+music, too, which she had formerly heard, and, respecting which La 
+Voisin had given such an odd account, occurred to her, and, desirous 
+of knowing more concerning it, she asked Dorothee whether it returned 
+at midnight, as usual, and whether the musician had yet been 
+discovered.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle,' replied Dorothee, 'that music is still heard, but 
+the musician has never been found out, nor ever will, I believe; 
+though there are some people, who can guess.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Emily, 'then why do they not pursue the enquiry?'
+
+'Ah, young lady! enquiry enough has been made--but who can pursue a 
+spirit?'
+
+Emily smiled, and, remembering how lately she had suffered herself to 
+be led away by superstition, determined now to resist its contagion; 
+yet, in spight of her efforts, she felt awe mingle with her 
+curiosity, on this subject; and Blanche, who had hitherto listened in 
+silence, now enquired what this music was, and how long it had been 
+heard.
+
+'Ever since the death of my lady, madam,' replied Dorothee.
+
+'Why, the place is not haunted, surely?' said Blanche, between 
+jesting and seriousness.
+
+'I have heard that music almost ever since my dear lady died,' 
+continued Dorothee, 'and never before then.  But that is nothing to 
+some things I could tell of.'
+
+'Do, pray, tell them, then,' said Lady Blanche, now more in earnest 
+than in jest.  'I am much interested, for I have heard sister 
+Henriette, and sister Sophie, in the convent, tell of such strange 
+appearances, which they themselves had witnessed!'
+
+'You never heard, my lady, I suppose, what made us leave the chateau, 
+and go and live in a cottage,' said Dorothee.  'Never!' replied 
+Blanche with impatience.
+
+'Nor the reason, that my lord, the Marquis'--Dorothee checked 
+herself, hesitated, and then endeavoured to change the topic; but the 
+curiosity of Blanche was too much awakened to suffer the subject thus 
+easily to escape her, and she pressed the old house-keeper to proceed 
+with her account, upon whom, however, no entreaties could prevail; 
+and it was evident, that she was alarmed for the imprudence, into 
+which she had already betrayed herself.
+
+'I perceive,' said Emily, smiling, 'that all old mansions are 
+haunted; I am lately come from a place of wonders; but unluckily, 
+since I left it, I have heard almost all of them explained.'
+
+Blanche was silent; Dorothee looked grave, and sighed; and Emily felt 
+herself still inclined to believe more of the wonderful, than she 
+chose to acknowledge.  Just then, she remembered the spectacle she 
+had witnessed in a chamber of Udolpho, and, by an odd kind of 
+coincidence, the alarming words, that had accidentally met her eye in 
+the MS. papers, which she had destroyed, in obedience to the command 
+of her father; and she shuddered at the meaning they seemed to 
+impart, almost as much as at the horrible appearance, disclosed by 
+the black veil.
+
+The Lady Blanche, meanwhile, unable to prevail with Dorothee to 
+explain the subject of her late hints, had desired, on reaching the 
+door, that terminated the gallery, and which she found fastened on 
+the preceding day, to see the suite of rooms beyond.  'Dear young 
+lady,' said the housekeeper, 'I have told you my reason for not 
+opening them; I have never seen them, since my dear lady died; and it 
+would go hard with me to see them now.  Pray, madam, do not ask me 
+again.'
+
+'Certainly I will not,' replied Blanche, 'if that is really your 
+objection.'
+
+'Alas! it is,' said the old woman:  'we all loved her well, and I 
+shall always grieve for her.  Time runs round! it is now many years, 
+since she died; but I remember every thing, that happened then, as if 
+it was but yesterday.  Many things, that have passed of late years, 
+are gone quite from my memory, while those so long ago, I can see as 
+if in a glass.'  She paused, but afterwards, as they walked up the 
+gallery, added to Emily, 'this young lady sometimes brings the late 
+Marchioness to my mind; I can remember, when she looked just as 
+blooming, and very like her, when she smiles.  Poor lady! how gay she 
+was, when she first came to the chateau!'
+
+'And was she not gay, afterwards?' said Blanche.
+
+Dorothee shook her head; and Emily observed her, with eyes strongly 
+expressive of the interest she now felt.  'Let us sit down in this 
+window,' said the Lady Blanche, on reaching the opposite end of the 
+gallery:  'and pray, Dorothee, if it is not painful to you, tell us 
+something more about the Marchioness.  I should like to look into the 
+glass you spoke of just now, and see a few of the circumstances, 
+which you say often pass over it.'
+
+'No, my lady,' replied Dorothee; 'if you knew as much as I do, you 
+would not, for you would find there a dismal train of them; I often 
+wish I could shut them out, but they will rise to my mind.  I see my 
+dear lady on her death-bed,--her very look,--and remember all she 
+said--it was a terrible scene!'
+
+'Why was it so terrible?' said Emily with emotion.
+
+'Ah, dear young lady! is not death always terrible?' replied 
+Dorothee.
+
+To some further enquiries of Blanche Dorothee was silent; and Emily, 
+observing the tears in her eyes, forbore to urge the subject, and 
+endeavoured to withdraw the attention of her young friend to some 
+object in the gardens, where the Count, with the Countess and 
+Monsieur Du Pont, appearing, they went down to join them.
+
+When he perceived Emily, he advanced to meet her, and presented her 
+to the Countess, in a manner so benign, that it recalled most 
+powerfully to her mind the idea of her late father, and she felt more 
+gratitude to him, than embarrassment towards the Countess, who, 
+however, received her with one of those fascinating smiles, which her 
+caprice sometimes allowed her to assume, and which was now the result 
+of a conversation the Count had held with her, concerning Emily.  
+Whatever this might be, or whatever had passed in his conversation 
+with the lady abbess, whom he had just visited, esteem and kindness 
+were strongly apparent in his manner, when he addressed Emily, who 
+experienced that sweet emotion, which arises from the consciousness 
+of possessing the approbation of the good; for to the Count's worth 
+she had been inclined to yield her confidence almost from the first 
+moment, in which she had seen him.
+
+Before she could finish her acknowledgments for the hospitality she 
+had received, and mention of her design of going immediately to the 
+convent, she was interrupted by an invitation to lengthen her stay at 
+the chateau, which was pressed by the Count and the Countess, with an 
+appearance of such friendly sincerity, that, though she much wished 
+to see her old friends at the monastery, and to sigh, once more, over 
+her father's grave, she consented to remain a few days at the 
+chateau.
+
+To the abbess, however, she immediately wrote, mentioning her arrival 
+in Languedoc and her wish to be received into the convent, as a 
+boarder; she also sent letters to Monsieur Quesnel and to Valancourt, 
+whom she merely informed of her arrival in France; and, as she knew 
+not where the latter might be stationed, she directed her letter to 
+his brother's seat in Gascony.
+
+In the evening, Lady Blanche and Mons. Du Pont walked with Emily to 
+the cottage of La Voisin, which she had now a melancholy pleasure in 
+approaching, for time had softened her grief for the loss of St. 
+Aubert, though it could not annihilate it, and she felt a soothing 
+sadness in indulging the recollections, which this scene recalled.  
+La Voisin was still living, and seemed to enjoy, as much as formerly, 
+the tranquil evening of a blameless life.  He was sitting at the door 
+of his cottage, watching some of his grandchildren, playing on the 
+grass before him, and, now and then, with a laugh, or a commendation, 
+encouraging their sports.  He immediately recollected Emily, whom he 
+was much pleased to see, and she was as rejoiced to hear, that he had 
+not lost one of his family, since her departure.
+
+'Yes, ma'amselle,' said the old man, 'we all live merrily together 
+still, thank God! and I believe there is not a happier family to be 
+found in Languedoc, than ours.'
+
+Emily did not trust herself in the chamber, where St. Aubert died; 
+and, after half an hour's conversation with La Voisin and his family, 
+she left the cottage.
+
+During these the first days of her stay at Chateau-le-Blanc, she was 
+often affected, by observing the deep, but silent melancholy, which, 
+at times, stole over Du Pont; and Emily, pitying the self-delusion, 
+which disarmed him of the will to depart, determined to withdraw 
+herself as soon as the respect she owed the Count and Countess De 
+Villefort would permit.  The dejection of his friend soon alarmed the 
+anxiety of the Count, to whom Du Pont, at length, confided the secret 
+of his hopeless affection, which, however, the former could only 
+commiserate, though he secretly determined to befriend his suit, if 
+an opportunity of doing so should ever occur.  Considering the 
+dangerous situation of Du Pont, he but feebly opposed his intention 
+of leaving Chateau-le-Blanc, on the following day, but drew from him 
+a promise of a longer visit, when he could return with safety to his 
+peace.  Emily herself, though she could not encourage his affection, 
+esteemed him both for the many virtues he possessed, and for the 
+services she had received from him; and it was not without tender 
+emotions of gratitude and pity, that she now saw him depart for his 
+family seat in Gascony; while he took leave of her with a countenance 
+so expressive of love and grief, as to interest the Count more warmly 
+in his cause than before.
+
+In a few days, Emily also left the chateau, but not before the Count 
+and Countess had received her promise to repeat her visit very soon; 
+and she was welcomed by the abbess, with the same maternal kindness 
+she had formerly experienced, and by the nuns, with much expression 
+of regard.  The well-known scenes of the convent occasioned her many 
+melancholy recollections, but with these were mingled others, that 
+inspired gratitude for having escaped the various dangers, that had 
+pursued her, since she quitted it, and for the good, which she yet 
+possessed; and, though she once more wept over her father's grave, 
+with tears of tender affection, her grief was softened from its 
+former acuteness.
+
+Some time after her return to the monastery, she received a letter 
+from her uncle, Mons. Quesnel, in answer to information that she had 
+arrived in France, and to her enquiries, concerning such of her 
+affairs as he had undertaken to conduct during her absence, 
+especially as to the period for which La Vallee had been let, whither 
+it was her wish to return, if it should appear, that her income would 
+permit her to do so.  The reply of Mons. Quesnel was cold and formal, 
+as she expected, expressing neither concern for the evils she 
+suffered, nor pleasure, that she was now removed from them; nor did 
+he allow the opportunity to pass, of reproving her for her rejection 
+of Count Morano, whom he affected still to believe a man of honour 
+and fortune; nor of vehemently declaiming against Montoni, to whom he 
+had always, till now, felt himself to be inferior.  On Emily's 
+pecuniary concerns, he was not very explicit; he informed her, 
+however, that the term, for which La Vallee had been engaged, was 
+nearly expired; but, without inviting her to his own house, added, 
+that her circumstances would by no means allow her to reside there, 
+and earnestly advised her to remain, for the present, in the convent 
+of St. Claire.
+
+To her enquiries respecting poor old Theresa, her late father's 
+servant, he gave no answer.  In the postscript to his letter, 
+Monsieur Quesnel mentioned M. Motteville, in whose hands the late St. 
+Aubert had placed the chief of his personal property, as being likely 
+to arrange his affairs nearly to the satisfaction of his creditors, 
+and that Emily would recover much more of her fortune, than she had 
+formerly reason to expect.  The letter also inclosed to Emily an 
+order upon a merchant at Narbonne, for a small sum of money.
+
+The tranquillity of the monastery, and the liberty she was suffered 
+to enjoy, in wandering among the woods and shores of this delightful 
+province, gradually restored her spirits to their natural tone, 
+except that anxiety would sometimes intrude, concerning Valancourt, 
+as the time approached, when it was possible that she might receive 
+an answer to her letter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+     As when a wave, that from a cloud impends,
+ And, swell'd with tempests, on the ship descends,
+ White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud,
+ Howl o'er the masts, and sing through ev'ry shroud:
+ Pale, trembling, tir'd, the sailors freeze with fears,
+ And instant death on ev'ry wave appears.
+     POPE'S HOMER
+
+The Lady Blanche, meanwhile, who was left much alone, became 
+impatient for the company of her new friend, whom she wished to 
+observe sharing in the delight she received from the beautiful 
+scenery around.  She had now no person, to whom she could express her 
+admiration and communicate her pleasures, no eye, that sparkled to 
+her smile, or countenance, that reflected her happiness; and she 
+became spiritless and pensive.  The Count, observing her 
+dissatisfaction, readily yielded to her entreaties, and reminded 
+Emily of her promised visit; but the silence of Valancourt, which was 
+now prolonged far beyond the period, when a letter might have arrived 
+from Estuviere, oppressed Emily with severe anxiety, and, rendering 
+her averse to society, she would willingly have deferred her 
+acceptance of this invitation, till her spirits should be relieved.  
+The Count and his family, however, pressed to see her; and, as the 
+circumstances, that prompted her wish for solitude, could not be 
+explained, there was an appearance of caprice in her refusal, which 
+she could not persevere in, without offending the friends, whose 
+esteem she valued.  At length, therefore, she returned upon a second 
+visit to Chateau-le-Blanc.  Here the friendly manner of Count De 
+Villefort encouraged Emily to mention to him her situation, 
+respecting the estates of her late aunt, and to consult him on the 
+means of recovering them.  He had little doubt, that the law would 
+decide in her favour, and, advising her to apply to it, offered first 
+to write to an advocate at Avignon, on whose opinion he thought he 
+could rely.  His kindness was gratefully accepted by Emily, who, 
+soothed by the courtesy she daily experienced, would have been once 
+more happy, could she have been assured of Valancourt's welfare and 
+unaltered affection.  She had now been above a week at the chateau, 
+without receiving intelligence of him, and, though she knew, that, if 
+he was absent from his brother's residence, it was scarcely probable 
+her letter had yet reached him, she could not forbear to admit doubts 
+and fears, that destroyed her peace.  Again she would consider of 
+all, that might have happened in the long period, since her first 
+seclusion at Udolpho, and her mind was sometimes so overwhelmed with 
+an apprehension, that Valancourt was no more, or that he lived no 
+longer for her, that the company even of Blanche became intolerably 
+oppressive, and she would sit alone in her apartment for hours 
+together, when the engagements of the family allowed her to do so, 
+without incivility.
+
+In one of these solitary hours, she unlocked a little box, which 
+contained some letters of Valancourt, with some drawings she had 
+sketched, during her stay in Tuscany, the latter of which were no 
+longer interesting to her; but, in the letters, she now, with 
+melancholy indulgence, meant to retrace the tenderness, that had so 
+often soothed her, and rendered her, for a moment, insensible of the 
+distance, which separated her from the writer.  But their effect was 
+now changed; the affection they expressed appealed so forcibly to her 
+heart, when she considered that it had, perhaps, yielded to the 
+powers of time and absence, and even the view of the hand-writing 
+recalled so many painful recollections, that she found herself unable 
+to go through the first she had opened, and sat musing, with her 
+cheek resting on her arm, and tears stealing from her eyes, when old 
+Dorothee entered the room to inform her, that dinner would be ready, 
+an hour before the usual time.  Emily started on perceiving her, and 
+hastily put up the papers, but not before Dorothee had observed both 
+her agitation and her tears.
+
+'Ah, ma'amselle!' said she, 'you, who are so young,--have you reason 
+for sorrow?'
+
+Emily tried to smile, but was unable to speak.
+
+'Alas! dear young lady, when you come to my age, you will not weep at 
+trifles; and surely you have nothing serious, to grieve you.'
+
+'No, Dorothee, nothing of any consequence,' replied Emily.  Dorothee, 
+now stooping to pick up something, that had dropped from among the 
+papers, suddenly exclaimed, 'Holy Mary! what is it I see?' and then, 
+trembling, sat down in a chair, that stood by the table.
+
+'What is it you do see?' said Emily, alarmed by her manner, and 
+looking round the room.
+
+'It is herself,' said Dorothee, 'her very self! just as she looked a 
+little before she died!'
+
+Emily, still more alarmed, began now to fear, that Dorothee was 
+seized with sudden phrensy, but entreated her to explain herself.
+
+'That picture!' said she, 'where did you find it, lady? it is my 
+blessed mistress herself!'
+
+She laid on the table the miniature, which Emily had long ago found 
+among the papers her father had enjoined her to destroy, and over 
+which she had once seen him shed such tender and affecting tears; 
+and, recollecting all the various circumstances of his conduct, that 
+had long perplexed her, her emotions increased to an excess, which 
+deprived her of all power to ask the questions she trembled to have 
+answered, and she could only enquire, whether Dorothee was certain 
+the picture resembled the late marchioness.
+
+'O, ma'amselle!' said she, 'how came it to strike me so, the instant 
+I saw it, if it was not my lady's likeness?  Ah!' added she, taking 
+up the miniature, 'these are her own blue eyes--looking so sweet and 
+so mild; and there is her very look, such as I have often seen it, 
+when she had sat thinking for a long while, and then, the tears would 
+often steal down her cheeks--but she never would complain!  It was 
+that look so meek, as it were, and resigned, that used to break my 
+heart and make me love her so!'
+
+'Dorothee!' said Emily solemnly, 'I am interested in the cause of 
+that grief, more so, perhaps, than you may imagine; and I entreat, 
+that you will no longer refuse to indulge my curiosity;--it is not a 
+common one.'
+
+As Emily said this, she remembered the papers, with which the picture 
+had been found, and had scarcely a doubt, that they had concerned the 
+Marchioness de Villeroi; but with this supposition came a scruple, 
+whether she ought to enquire further on a subject, which might prove 
+to be the same, that her father had so carefully endeavoured to 
+conceal.  Her curiosity, concerning the Marchioness, powerful as it 
+was, it is probable she would now have resisted, as she had formerly 
+done, on unwarily observing the few terrible words in the papers, 
+which had never since been erased from her memory, had she been 
+certain that the history of that lady was the subject of those 
+papers, or, that such simple particulars only as it was probable 
+Dorothee could relate were included in her father's command.  What 
+was known to her could be no secret to many other persons; and, since 
+it appeared very unlikely, that St. Aubert should attempt to conceal 
+what Emily might learn by ordinary means, she at length concluded, 
+that, if the papers had related to the story of the Marchioness, it 
+was not those circumstances of it, which Dorothee could disclose, 
+that he had thought sufficiently important to wish to have concealed.  
+She, therefore, no longer hesitated to make the enquiries, that might 
+lead to the gratification of her curiosity.
+
+'Ah, ma'amselle!' said Dorothee, 'it is a sad story, and cannot be 
+told now:  but what am I saying?  I never will tell it.  Many years 
+have passed, since it happened; and I never loved to talk of the 
+Marchioness to any body, but my husband.  He lived in the family, at 
+that time, as well as myself, and he knew many particulars from me, 
+which nobody else did; for I was about the person of my lady in her 
+last illness, and saw and heard as much, or more than my lord 
+himself.  Sweet saint! how patient she was!  When she died, I thought 
+I could have died with her!'
+
+'Dorothee,' said Emily, interrupting her, 'what you shall tell, you 
+may depend upon it, shall never be disclosed by me.  I have, I repeat 
+it, particular reasons for wishing to be informed on this subject, 
+and am willing to bind myself, in the most solemn manner, never to 
+mention what you shall wish me to conceal.'
+
+Dorothee seemed surprised at the earnestness of Emily's manner, and, 
+after regarding her for some moments, in silence, said, 'Young lady! 
+that look of yours pleads for you--it is so like my dear mistress's, 
+that I can almost fancy I see her before me; if you were her 
+daughter, you could not remind me of her more.  But dinner will be 
+ready--had you not better go down?'
+
+'You will first promise to grant my request,' said Emily.
+
+'And ought not you first to tell me, ma'amselle, how this picture 
+fell into your hands, and the reasons you say you have for curiosity 
+about my lady?'
+
+'Why, no, Dorothee,' replied Emily, recollecting herself, 'I have 
+also particular reasons for observing silence, on these subjects, at 
+least, till I know further; and, remember, I do not promise ever to 
+speak upon them; therefore, do not let me induce you to satisfy my 
+curiosity, from an expectation, that I shall gratify yours.  What I 
+may judge proper to conceal, does not concern myself alone, or I 
+should have less scruple in revealing it:  let a confidence in my 
+honour alone persuade you to disclose what I request.'
+
+'Well, lady!' replied Dorothee, after a long pause, during which her 
+eyes were fixed upon Emily, 'you seem so much interested,--and this 
+picture and that face of yours make me think you have some reason to 
+be so,--that I will trust you--and tell some things, that I never 
+told before to any body, but my husband, though there are people, who 
+have suspected as much.  I will tell you the particulars of my lady's 
+death, too, and some of my own suspicions; but you must first promise 
+me by all the saints'--
+
+Emily, interrupting her, solemnly promised never to reveal what 
+should be confided to her, without Dorothee's consent.
+
+'But there is the horn, ma'amselle, sounding for dinner,' said 
+Dorothee; 'I must be gone.'
+
+'When shall I see you again?' enquired Emily.
+
+Dorothee mused, and then replied, 'Why, madam, it may make people 
+curious, if it is known I am so much in your apartment, and that I 
+should be sorry for; so I will come when I am least likely to be 
+observed.  I have little leisure in the day, and I shall have a good 
+deal to say; so, if you please, ma'am, I will come, when the family 
+are all in bed.'
+
+'That will suit me very well,' replied Emily:  'Remember, then, to-
+night'--
+
+'Aye, that is well remembered,' said Dorothee, 'I fear I cannot come 
+to-night, madam, for there will be the dance of the vintage, and it 
+will be late, before the servants go to rest; for, when they once set 
+in to dance, they will keep it up, in the cool of the air, till 
+morning; at least, it used to be so in my time.'
+
+'Ah! is it the dance of the vintage?' said Emily, with a deep sigh, 
+remembering, that it was on the evening of this festival, in the 
+preceding year, that St. Aubert and herself had arrived in the 
+neighbourhood of Chateau-le-Blanc.  She paused a moment, overcome by 
+the sudden recollection, and then, recovering herself, added--'But 
+this dance is in the open woods; you, therefore, will not be wanted, 
+and can easily come to me.'
+
+Dorothee replied, that she had been accustomed to be present at the 
+dance of the vintage, and she did not wish to be absent now; 'but if 
+I can get away, madam, I will,' said she.
+
+Emily then hastened to the dining-room, where the Count conducted 
+himself with the courtesy, which is inseparable from true dignity, 
+and of which the Countess frequently practised little, though her 
+manner to Emily was an exception to her usual habit.  But, if she 
+retained few of the ornamental virtues, she cherished other 
+qualities, which she seemed to consider invaluable.  She had 
+dismissed the grace of modesty, but then she knew perfectly well how 
+to manage the stare of assurance; her manners had little of the 
+tempered sweetness, which is necessary to render the female character 
+interesting, but she could occasionally throw into them an 
+affectation of spirits, which seemed to triumph over every person, 
+who approached her.  In the country, however, she generally affected 
+an elegant languor, that persuaded her almost to faint, when her 
+favourite read to her a story of fictitious sorrow; but her 
+countenance suffered no change, when living objects of distress 
+solicited her charity, and her heart beat with no transport to the 
+thought of giving them instant relief;--she was a stranger to the 
+highest luxury, of which, perhaps, the human mind can be sensible, 
+for her benevolence had never yet called smiles upon the face of 
+misery.
+
+In the evening, the Count, with all his family, except the Countess 
+and Mademoiselle Bearn, went to the woods to witness the festivity of 
+the peasants.  The scene was in a glade, where the trees, opening, 
+formed a circle round the turf they highly overshadowed; between 
+their branches, vines, loaded with ripe clusters, were hung in gay 
+festoons; and, beneath, were tables, with fruit, wine, cheese and 
+other rural fare,--and seats for the Count and his family.  At a 
+little distance, were benches for the elder peasants, few of whom, 
+however, could forbear to join the jocund dance, which began soon 
+after sun-set, when several of sixty tripped it with almost as much 
+glee and airy lightness, as those of sixteen.
+
+The musicians, who sat carelessly on the grass, at the foot of a 
+tree, seemed inspired by the sound of their own instruments, which 
+were chiefly flutes and a kind of long guitar.  Behind, stood a boy, 
+flourishing a tamborine, and dancing a solo, except that, as he 
+sometimes gaily tossed the instrument, he tripped among the other 
+dancers, when his antic gestures called forth a broader laugh, and 
+heightened the rustic spirit of the scene.
+
+The Count was highly delighted with the happiness he witnessed, to 
+which his bounty had largely contributed, and the Lady Blanche joined 
+the dance with a young gentleman of her father's party.  Du Pont 
+requested Emily's hand, but her spirits were too much depressed, to 
+permit her to engage in the present festivity, which called to her 
+remembrance that of the preceding year, when St. Aubert was living, 
+and of the melancholy scenes, which had immediately followed it.
+
+Overcome by these recollections, she, at length, left the spot, and 
+walked slowly into the woods, where the softened music, floating at a 
+distance, soothed her melancholy mind.  The moon threw a mellow light 
+among the foliage; the air was balmy and cool, and Emily, lost in 
+thought, strolled on, without observing whither, till she perceived 
+the sounds sinking afar off, and an awful stillness round her, except 
+that, sometimes, the nightingale beguiled the silence with
+
+     Liquid notes, that close the eye of day.
+
+At length, she found herself near the avenue, which, on the night of 
+her father's arrival, Michael had attempted to pass in search of a 
+house, which was still nearly as wild and desolate as it had then 
+appeared; for the Count had been so much engaged in directing other 
+improvements, that he had neglected to give orders, concerning this 
+extensive approach, and the road was yet broken, and the trees 
+overloaded with their own luxuriance.
+
+As she stood surveying it, and remembering the emotions, which she 
+had formerly suffered there, she suddenly recollected the figure, 
+that had been seen stealing among the trees, and which had returned 
+no answer to Michael's repeated calls; and she experienced somewhat 
+of the fear, that had then assailed her, for it did not appear 
+improbable, that these deep woods were occasionally the haunt of 
+banditti.  She, therefore, turned back, and was hastily pursuing her 
+way to the dancers, when she heard steps approaching from the avenue; 
+and, being still beyond the call of the peasants on the green, for 
+she could neither hear their voices, or their music, she quickened 
+her pace; but the persons following gained fast upon her, and, at 
+length, distinguishing the voice of Henri, she walked leisurely, till 
+he came up.  He expressed some surprise at meeting her so far from 
+the company; and, on her saying, that the pleasant moon-light had 
+beguiled her to walk farther than she intended, an exclamation burst 
+from the lips of his companion, and she thought she heard Valancourt 
+speak!  It was, indeed, he! and the meeting was such as may be 
+imagined, between persons so affectionate, and so long separated as 
+they had been.
+
+In the joy of these moments, Emily forgot all her past sufferings, 
+and Valancourt seemed to have forgotten, that any person but Emily 
+existed; while Henri was a silent and astonished spectator of the 
+scene.
+
+Valancourt asked a thousand questions, concerning herself and 
+Montoni, which there was now no time to answer; but she learned, that 
+her letter had been forwarded to him, at Paris, which he had 
+previously quitted, and was returning to Gascony, whither the letter 
+also returned, which, at length, informed him of Emily's arrival, and 
+on the receipt of which he had immediately set out for Languedoc.  On 
+reaching the monastery, whence she had dated her letter, he found, to 
+his extreme disappointment, that the gates were already closed for 
+the night; and believing, that he should not see Emily, till the 
+morrow, he was returning to his little inn, with the intention of 
+writing to her, when he was overtaken by Henri, with whom he had been 
+intimate at Paris, and was led to her, whom he was secretly lamenting 
+that he should not see, till the following day.
+
+Emily, with Valancourt and Henri, now returned to the green, where 
+the latter presented Valancourt to the Count, who, she fancied, 
+received him with less than his usual benignity, though it appeared, 
+that they were not strangers to each other.  He was invited, however, 
+to partake of the diversions of the evening; and, when he had paid 
+his respects to the Count, and while the dancers continued their 
+festivity, he seated himself by Emily, and conversed, without 
+restraint.  The lights, which were hung among the trees, under which 
+they sat, allowed her a more perfect view of the countenance she had 
+so frequently in absence endeavoured to recollect, and she perceived, 
+with some regret, that it was not the same as when last she saw it.  
+There was all its wonted intelligence and fire; but it had lost much 
+of the simplicity, and somewhat of the open benevolence, that used to 
+characterise it.  Still, however, it was an interesting countenance; 
+but Emily thought she perceived, at intervals, anxiety contract, and 
+melancholy fix the features of Valancourt; sometimes, too, he fell 
+into a momentary musing, and then appeared anxious to dissipate 
+thought; while, at others, as he fixed his eyes on Emily, a kind of 
+sudden distraction seemed to cross his mind.  In her he perceived the 
+same goodness and beautiful simplicity, that had charmed him, on 
+their first acquaintance.  The bloom of her countenance was somewhat 
+faded, but all its sweetness remained, and it was rendered more 
+interesting, than ever, by the faint expression of melancholy, that 
+sometimes mingled with her smile.
+
+At his request, she related the most important circumstances, that 
+had occurred to her, since she left France, and emotions of pity and 
+indignation alternately prevailed in his mind, when he heard how much 
+she had suffered from the villany of Montoni.  More than once, when 
+she was speaking of his conduct, of which the guilt was rather 
+softened, than exaggerated, by her representation, he started from 
+his seat, and walked away, apparently overcome as much by self 
+accusation as by resentment.  Her sufferings alone were mentioned in 
+the few words, which he could address to her, and he listened not to 
+the account, which she was careful to give as distinctly as possible, 
+of the present loss of Madame Montoni's estates, and of the little 
+reason there was to expect their restoration.  At length, Valancourt 
+remained lost in thought, and then some secret cause seemed to 
+overcome him with anguish.  Again he abruptly left her.  When he 
+returned, she perceived, that he had been weeping, and tenderly 
+begged, that he would compose himself.  'My sufferings are all passed 
+now,' said she, 'for I have escaped from the tyranny of Montoni, and 
+I see you well--let me also see you happy.'
+
+Valancourt was more agitated, than before.  'I am unworthy of you, 
+Emily,' said he, 'I am unworthy of you;'--words, by his manner of 
+uttering which Emily was then more shocked than by their import.  She 
+fixed on him a mournful and enquiring eye.  'Do not look thus on me,' 
+said he, turning away and pressing her hand; 'I cannot bear those 
+looks.'
+
+'I would ask,' said Emily, in a gentle, but agitated voice, 'the 
+meaning of your words; but I perceive, that the question would 
+distress you now.  Let us talk on other subjects.  To-morrow, 
+perhaps, you may be more composed.  Observe those moon light woods, 
+and the towers, which appear obscurely in the perspective.  You used 
+to be a great admirer of landscape, and I have heard you say, that 
+the faculty of deriving consolation, under misfortune, from the 
+sublime prospects, which neither oppression, or poverty with-hold 
+from us, was the peculiar blessing of the innocent.'  Valancourt was 
+deeply affected.  'Yes,' replied he, 'I had once a taste for innocent 
+and elegant delights--I had once an uncorrupted heart.'  Then, 
+checking himself, he added, 'Do you remember our journey together in 
+the Pyrenees?'
+
+'Can I forget it?' said Emily.--'Would that I could!' he replied;--
+'that was the happiest period of my life.  I then loved, with 
+enthusiasm, whatever was truly great, or good.'  It was some time 
+before Emily could repress her tears, and try to command her 
+emotions.  'If you wish to forget that journey,' said she, 'it must 
+certainly be my wish to forget it also.'  She paused, and then added, 
+'You make me very uneasy; but this is not the time for further 
+enquiry;--yet, how can I bear to believe, even for a moment, that you 
+are less worthy of my esteem than formerly?  I have still sufficient 
+confidence in your candour, to believe, that, when I shall ask for an 
+explanation, you will give it me.'--'Yes,' said Valancourt, 'yes, 
+Emily:  I have not yet lost my candour:  if I had, I could better 
+have disguised my emotions, on learning what were your sufferings--
+your virtues, while I--I--but I will say no more.  I did not mean to 
+have said even so much--I have been surprised into the self-
+accusation.  Tell me, Emily, that you will not forget that journey--
+will not wish to forget it, and I will be calm.  I would not lose the 
+remembrance of it for the whole earth.'
+
+'How contradictory is this!' said Emily;--'but we may be overheard.  
+My recollection of it shall depend upon yours; I will endeavour to 
+forget, or to recollect it, as you may do.  Let us join the Count.'--
+'Tell me first,' said Valancourt, 'that you forgive the uneasiness I 
+have occasioned you, this evening, and that you will still love me.'-
+-'I sincerely forgive you,' replied Emily.  'You best know whether I 
+shall continue to love you, for you know whether you deserve my 
+esteem.  At present, I will believe that you do.  It is unnecessary 
+to say,' added she, observing his dejection, 'how much pain it would 
+give me to believe otherwise.--The young lady, who approaches, is the 
+Count's daughter.'
+
+Valancourt and Emily now joined the Lady Blanche; and the party, soon 
+after, sat down with the Count, his son, and the Chevalier Du Pont, 
+at a banquet, spread under a gay awning, beneath the trees.  At the 
+table also were seated several of the most venerable of the Count's 
+tenants, and it was a festive repast to all but Valancourt and Emily.  
+When the Count retired to the chateau, he did not invite Valancourt 
+to accompany him, who, therefore, took leave of Emily, and retired to 
+his solitary inn for the night:  meanwhile, she soon withdrew to her 
+own apartment, where she mused, with deep anxiety and concern, on his 
+behaviour, and on the Count's reception of him.  Her attention was 
+thus so wholly engaged, that she forgot Dorothee and her appointment, 
+till morning was far advanced, when, knowing that the good old woman 
+would not come, she retired, for a few hours, to repose.
+
+On the following day, when the Count had accidentally joined Emily in 
+one of the walks, they talked of the festival of the preceding 
+evening, and this led him to a mention of Valancourt.  'That is a 
+young man of talents,' said he; 'you were formerly acquainted with 
+him, I perceive.'  Emily said, that she was.  'He was introduced to 
+me, at Paris,' said the Count, 'and I was much pleased with him, on 
+our first acquaintance.'  He paused, and Emily trembled, between the 
+desire of hearing more and the fear of shewing the Count, that she 
+felt an interest on the subject.  'May I ask,' said he, at length, 
+'how long you have known Monsieur Valancourt?'--'Will you allow me to 
+ask your reason for the question, sir?' said she; 'and I will answer 
+it immediately.'--'Certainly,' said the Count, 'that is but just.  I 
+will tell you my reason.  I cannot but perceive, that Monsieur 
+Valancourt admires you; in that, however, there is nothing 
+extraordinary; every person, who sees you, must do the same.  I am 
+above using common-place compliments; I speak with sincerity.  What I 
+fear, is, that he is a favoured admirer.'--'Why do you fear it, sir?' 
+said Emily, endeavouring to conceal her emotion.--'Because,' replied 
+the Count, 'I think him not worthy of your favour.'  Emily, greatly 
+agitated, entreated further explanation.  'I will give it,' said he, 
+'if you will believe, that nothing but a strong interest in your 
+welfare could induce me to hazard that assertion.'--'I must believe 
+so, sir,' replied Emily.
+
+'But let us rest under these trees,' said the Count, observing the 
+paleness of her countenance; 'here is a seat--you are fatigued.'  
+They sat down, and the Count proceeded.  'Many young ladies, 
+circumstanced as you are, would think my conduct, on this occasion, 
+and on so short an acquaintance, impertinent, instead of friendly; 
+from what I have observed of your temper and understanding, I do not 
+fear such a return from you.  Our acquaintance has been short, but 
+long enough to make me esteem you, and feel a lively interest in your 
+happiness.  You deserve to be very happy, and I trust that you will 
+be so.'  Emily sighed softly, and bowed her thanks.  The Count paused 
+again.  'I am unpleasantly circumstanced,' said he; 'but an 
+opportunity of rendering you important service shall overcome 
+inferior considerations.  Will you inform me of the manner of your 
+first acquaintance with the Chevalier Valancourt, if the subject is 
+not too painful?'
+
+Emily briefly related the accident of their meeting in the presence 
+of her father, and then so earnestly entreated the Count not to 
+hesitate in declaring what he knew, that he perceived the violent 
+emotion, against which she was contending, and, regarding her with a 
+look of tender compassion, considered how he might communicate his 
+information with least pain to his anxious auditor.
+
+'The Chevalier and my son,' said he, 'were introduced to each other, 
+at the table of a brother officer, at whose house I also met him, and 
+invited him to my own, whenever he should be disengaged.  I did not 
+then know, that he had formed an acquaintance with a set of men, a 
+disgrace to their species, who live by plunder and pass their lives 
+in continual debauchery.  I knew several of the Chevalier's family, 
+resident at Paris, and considered them as sufficient pledges for his 
+introduction to my own.  But you are ill; I will leave the subject.'-
+-'No, sir,' said Emily, 'I beg you will proceed:  I am only 
+distressed.'--'ONLY!' said the Count, with emphasis; 'however, I will 
+proceed.  I soon learned, that these, his associates, had drawn him 
+into a course of dissipation, from which he appeared to have neither 
+the power, nor the inclination, to extricate himself.  He lost large 
+sums at the gaming-table; he became infatuated with play; and was 
+ruined.  I spoke tenderly of this to his friends, who assured me, 
+that they had remonstrated with him, till they were weary.  I 
+afterwards learned, that, in consideration of his talents for play, 
+which were generally successful, when unopposed by the tricks of 
+villany,--that in consideration of these, the party had initiated him 
+into the secrets of their trade, and allotted him a share of their 
+profits.'  'Impossible!' said Emily suddenly; 'but--pardon me, sir, I 
+scarcely know what I say; allow for the distress of my mind.  I must, 
+indeed, I must believe, that you have not been truly informed.  The 
+Chevalier had, doubtless, enemies, who misrepresented him.'--'I 
+should be most happy to believe so,' replied the Count, 'but I 
+cannot.  Nothing short of conviction, and a regard for your 
+happiness, could have urged me to repeat these unpleasant reports.'
+
+Emily was silent.  She recollected Valancourt's sayings, on the 
+preceding evening, which discovered the pangs of self-reproach, and 
+seemed to confirm all that the Count had related.  Yet she had not 
+fortitude enough to dare conviction.  Her heart was overwhelmed with 
+anguish at the mere suspicion of his guilt, and she could not endure 
+a belief of it.  After a silence, the Count said, 'I perceive, and 
+can allow for, your want of conviction.  It is necessary I should 
+give some proof of what I have asserted; but this I cannot do, 
+without subjecting one, who is very dear to me, to danger.'--'What is 
+the danger you apprehend, sir?' said Emily; 'if I can prevent it, you 
+may safely confide in my honour.'--'On your honour I am certain I can 
+rely,' said the Count; 'but can I trust your fortitude?  Do you think 
+you can resist the solicitation of a favoured admirer, when he 
+pleads, in affliction, for the name of one, who has robbed him of a 
+blessing?'--'I shall not be exposed to such a temptation, sir,' said 
+Emily, with modest pride, 'for I cannot favour one, whom I must no 
+longer esteem.  I, however, readily give my word.'  Tears, in the 
+mean time, contradicted her first assertion; and she felt, that time 
+and effort only could eradicate an affection, which had been formed 
+on virtuous esteem, and cherished by habit and difficulty.
+
+'I will trust you then,' said the Count, 'for conviction is necessary 
+to your peace, and cannot, I perceive, be obtained, without this 
+confidence.  My son has too often been an eye-witness of the 
+Chevalier's ill conduct; he was very near being drawn in by it; he 
+was, indeed, drawn in to the commission of many follies, but I 
+rescued him from guilt and destruction.  Judge then, Mademoiselle St. 
+Aubert, whether a father, who had nearly lost his only son by the 
+example of the Chevalier, has not, from conviction, reason to warn 
+those, whom he esteems, against trusting their happiness in such 
+hands.  I have myself seen the Chevalier engaged in deep play with 
+men, whom I almost shuddered to look upon.  If you still doubt, I 
+will refer you to my son.'
+
+'I must not doubt what you have yourself witnessed,' replied Emily, 
+sinking with grief, 'or what you assert.  But the Chevalier has, 
+perhaps, been drawn only into a transient folly, which he may never 
+repeat.  If you had known the justness of his former principles, you 
+would allow for my present incredulity.'
+
+'Alas!' observed the Count, 'it is difficult to believe that, which 
+will make us wretched.  But I will not sooth you by flattering and 
+false hopes.  We all know how fascinating the vice of gaming is, and 
+how difficult it is, also, to conquer habits; the Chevalier might, 
+perhaps, reform for a while, but he would soon relapse into 
+dissipation--for I fear, not only the bonds of habit would be 
+powerful, but that his morals are corrupted.  And--why should I 
+conceal from you, that play is not his only vice? he appears to have 
+a taste for every vicious pleasure.'
+
+The Count hesitated and paused; while Emily endeavoured to support 
+herself, as, with increasing perturbation, she expected what he might 
+further say.  A long pause of silence ensued, during which he was 
+visibly agitated; at length, he said, 'It would be a cruel delicacy, 
+that could prevail with me to be silent--and I will inform you, that 
+the Chevalier's extravagance has brought him twice into the prisons 
+of Paris, from whence he was last extricated, as I was told upon 
+authority, which I cannot doubt, by a well-known Parisian Countess, 
+with whom he continued to reside, when I left Paris.'
+
+He paused again; and, looking at Emily, perceived her countenance 
+change, and that she was falling from the seat; he caught her, but 
+she had fainted, and he called loudly for assistance.  They were, 
+however, beyond the hearing of his servants at the chateau, and he 
+feared to leave her while he went thither for assistance, yet knew 
+not how otherwise to obtain it; till a fountain at no great distance 
+caught his eye, and he endeavoured to support Emily against the tree, 
+under which she had been sitting, while he went thither for water.  
+But again he was perplexed, for he had nothing near him, in which 
+water could be brought; but while, with increased anxiety, he watched 
+her, he thought he perceived in her countenance symptoms of returning 
+life.
+
+It was long, however, before she revived, and then she found herself 
+supported--not by the Count, but by Valancourt, who was observing her 
+with looks of earnest apprehension, and who now spoke to her in a 
+tone, tremulous with his anxiety.  At the sound of his well-known 
+voice, she raised her eyes, but presently closed them, and a 
+faintness again came over her.
+
+The Count, with a look somewhat stern, waved him to withdraw; but he 
+only sighed heavily, and called on the name of Emily, as he again 
+held the water, that had been brought, to her lips.  On the Count's 
+repeating his action, and accompanying it with words, Valancourt 
+answered him with a look of deep resentment, and refused to leave the 
+place, till she should revive, or to resign her for a moment to the 
+care of any person.  In the next instant, his conscience seemed to 
+inform him of what had been the subject of the Count's conversation 
+with Emily, and indignation flashed in his eyes; but it was quickly 
+repressed, and succeeded by an expression of serious anguish, that 
+induced the Count to regard him with more pity than resentment, and 
+the view of which so much affected Emily, when she again revived, 
+that she yielded to the weakness of tears.  But she soon restrained 
+them, and, exerting her resolution to appear recovered, she rose, 
+thanked the Count and Henri, with whom Valancourt had entered the 
+garden, for their care, and moved towards the chateau, without 
+noticing Valancourt, who, heart-struck by her manner, exclaimed in a 
+low voice--'Good God! how have I deserved this?--what has been said, 
+to occasion this change?'
+
+Emily, without replying, but with increased emotion, quickened her 
+steps.  'What has thus disordered you, Emily?' said he, as he still 
+walked by her side:  'give me a few moments' conversation, I entreat 
+you;--I am very miserable!'
+
+Though this was spoken in a low voice, it was overheard by the Count, 
+who immediately replied, that Mademoiselle St. Aubert was then too 
+much indisposed, to attend to any conversation, but that he would 
+venture to promise she would see Monsieur Valancourt on the morrow, 
+if she was better.
+
+Valancourt's cheek was crimsoned:  he looked haughtily at the Count, 
+and then at Emily, with successive expressions of surprise, grief and 
+supplication, which she could neither misunderstand, or resist, and 
+she said languidly--'I shall be better tomorrow, and if you wish to 
+accept the Count's permission, I will see you then.'
+
+'See me!' exclaimed Valancourt, as he threw a glance of mingled pride 
+and resentment upon the Count; and then, seeming to recollect 
+himself, he added--'But I will come, madam; I will accept the Count's 
+PERMISSION.'
+
+When they reached the door of the chateau, he lingered a moment, for 
+his resentment was now fled; and then, with a look so expressive of 
+tenderness and grief, that Emily's heart was not proof against it, he 
+bade her good morning, and, bowing slightly to the Count, 
+disappeared.
+
+Emily withdrew to her own apartment, under such oppression of heart 
+as she had seldom known, when she endeavoured to recollect all that 
+the Count had told, to examine the probability of the circumstances 
+he himself believed, and to consider of her future conduct towards 
+Valancourt.  But, when she attempted to think, her mind refused 
+controul, and she could only feel that she was miserable.  One 
+moment, she sunk under the conviction, that Valancourt was no longer 
+the same, whom she had so tenderly loved, the idea of whom had 
+hitherto supported her under affliction, and cheered her with the 
+hope of happier days,--but a fallen, a worthless character, whom she 
+must teach herself to despise--if she could not forget.  Then, unable 
+to endure this terrible supposition, she rejected it, and disdained 
+to believe him capable of conduct, such as the Count had described, 
+to whom she believed he had been misrepresented by some artful enemy; 
+and there were moments, when she even ventured to doubt the integrity 
+of the Count himself, and to suspect, that he was influenced by some 
+selfish motive, to break her connection with Valancourt.  But this 
+was the error of an instant, only; the Count's character, which she 
+had heard spoken of by Du Pont and many other persons, and had 
+herself observed, enabled her to judge, and forbade the supposition; 
+had her confidence, indeed, been less, there appeared to be no 
+temptation to betray him into conduct so treacherous, and so cruel.  
+Nor did reflection suffer her to preserve the hope, that Valancourt 
+had been mis-represented to the Count, who had said, that he spoke 
+chiefly from his own observation, and from his son's experience.  She 
+must part from Valancourt, therefore, for ever--for what of either 
+happiness or tranquillity could she expect with a man, whose tastes 
+were degenerated into low inclinations, and to whom vice was become 
+habitual? whom she must no longer esteem, though the remembrance of 
+what he once was, and the long habit of loving him, would render it 
+very difficult for her to despise him.  'O Valancourt!' she would 
+exclaim, 'having been separated so long--do we meet, only to be 
+miserable--only to part for ever?'
+
+Amidst all the tumult of her mind, she remembered pertinaciously the 
+seeming candour and simplicity of his conduct, on the preceding 
+night; and, had she dared to trust her own heart, it would have led 
+her to hope much from this.  Still she could not resolve to dismiss 
+him for ever, without obtaining further proof of his ill conduct; yet 
+she saw no probability of procuring it, if, indeed, proof more 
+positive was possible.  Something, however, it was necessary to 
+decide upon, and she almost determined to be guided in her opinion 
+solely by the manner, with which Valancourt should receive her hints 
+concerning his late conduct.
+
+Thus passed the hours till dinner-time, when Emily, struggling 
+against the pressure of her grief, dried her tears, and joined the 
+family at table, where the Count preserved towards her the most 
+delicate attention; but the Countess and Mademoiselle Bearn, having 
+looked, for a moment, with surprise, on her dejected countenance, 
+began, as usual, to talk of trifles, while the eyes of Lady Blanche 
+asked much of her friend, who could only reply by a mournful smile.
+
+Emily withdrew as soon after dinner as possible, and was followed by 
+the Lady Blanche, whose anxious enquiries, however, she found herself 
+quite unequal to answer, and whom she entreated to spare her on the 
+subject of her distress.  To converse on any topic, was now, indeed, 
+so extremely painful to her, that she soon gave up the attempt, and 
+Blanche left her, with pity of the sorrow, which she perceived she 
+had no power to assuage.
+
+Emily secretly determined to go to her convent in a day or two; for 
+company, especially that of the Countess and Mademoiselle Bearn, was 
+intolerable to her, in the present state of her spirits; and, in the 
+retirement of the convent, as well as the kindness of the abbess, she 
+hoped to recover the command of her mind, and to teach it resignation 
+to the event, which, she too plainly perceived, was approaching.
+
+To have lost Valancourt by death, or to have seen him married to a 
+rival, would, she thought, have given her less anguish, than a 
+conviction of his unworthiness, which must terminate in misery to 
+himself, and which robbed her even of the solitary image her heart so 
+long had cherished.  These painful reflections were interrupted, for 
+a moment, by a note from Valancourt, written in evident distraction 
+of mind, entreating, that she would permit him to see her on the 
+approaching evening, instead of the following morning; a request, 
+which occasioned her so much agitation, that she was unable to answer 
+it.  She wished to see him, and to terminate her present state of 
+suspense, yet shrunk from the interview, and, incapable of deciding 
+for herself, she, at length, sent to beg a few moments' conversation 
+with the Count in his library, where she delivered to him the note, 
+and requested his advice.  After reading it, he said, that, if she 
+believed herself well enough to support the interview, his opinion 
+was, that, for the relief of both parties, it ought to take place, 
+that evening.
+
+'His affection for you is, undoubtedly, a very sincere one,' added 
+the Count; 'and he appears so much distressed, and you, my amiable 
+friend, are so ill at ease--that the sooner the affair is decided, 
+the better.'
+
+Emily replied, therefore, to Valancourt, that she would see him, and 
+then exerted herself in endeavours to attain fortitude and composure, 
+to bear her through the approaching scene--a scene so afflictingly 
+the reverse of any, to which she had looked forward!
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 4
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+  Is all the council that we two have shared,
+     the hours that we have spent,
+ When we have chid the hasty-footed time
+ For parting us--Oh! and is all forgot?
+
+ And will you rend our ancient love asunder?
+     MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
+
+In the evening, when Emily was at length informed, that Count De 
+Villefort requested to see her, she guessed that Valancourt was 
+below, and, endeavouring to assume composure and to recollect all her 
+spirits, she rose and left the apartment; but on reaching the door of 
+the library, where she imagined him to be, her emotion returned with 
+such energy, that, fearing to trust herself in the room, she returned 
+into the hall, where she continued for a considerable time, unable to 
+command her agitated spirits.
+
+When she could recall them, she found in the library Valancourt, 
+seated with the Count, who both rose on her entrance; but she did not 
+dare to look at Valancourt, and the Count, having led her to a chair, 
+immediately withdrew.
+
+Emily remained with her eyes fixed on the floor, under such 
+oppression of heart, that she could not speak, and with difficulty 
+breathed; while Valancourt threw himself into a chair beside her, 
+and, sighing heavily, continued silent, when, had she raised her 
+eyes, she would have perceived the violent emotions, with which he 
+was agitated.
+
+At length, in a tremulous voice, he said, 'I have solicited to see 
+you this evening, that I might, at least, be spared the further 
+torture of suspense, which your altered manner had occasioned me, and 
+which the hints I have just received from the Count have in part 
+explained.  I perceive I have enemies, Emily, who envied me my late 
+happiness, and who have been busy in searching out the means to 
+destroy it:  I perceive, too, that time and absence have weakened the 
+affection you once felt for me, and that you can now easily be taught 
+to forget me.'
+
+His last words faltered, and Emily, less able to speak than before, 
+continued silent.
+
+'O what a meeting is this!' exclaimed Valancourt, starting from his 
+seat, and pacing the room with hurried steps, 'what a meeting is 
+this, after our long--long separation!'  Again he sat down, and, 
+after the struggle of a moment, he added in a firm but despairing 
+tone, 'This is too much--I cannot bear it!  Emily, will you not speak 
+to me?'
+
+He covered his face with his hand, as if to conceal his emotion, and 
+took Emily's, which she did not withdraw.  Her tears could no longer 
+be restrained; and, when he raised his eyes and perceived that she 
+was weeping, all his tenderness returned, and a gleam of hope 
+appeared to cross his mind, for he exclaimed, 'O! you do pity me, 
+then, you do love me!  Yes, you are still my own Emily--let me 
+believe those tears, that tell me so!'
+
+Emily now made an effort to recover her firmness, and, hastily drying 
+them, 'Yes,' said she, 'I do pity you--I weep for you--but, ought I 
+to think of you with affection?  You may remember, that yester-
+evening I said, I had still sufficient confidence in your candour to 
+believe, that, when I should request an explanation of your words, 
+you would give it.  This explanation is now unnecessary, I understand 
+them too well; but prove, at least, that your candour is deserving of 
+the confidence I give it, when I ask you, whether you are conscious 
+of being the same estimable Valancourt--whom I once loved.'
+
+'Once loved!' cried he,--'the same--the same!'  He paused in extreme 
+emotion, and then added, in a voice at once solemn, and dejected,--
+'No--I am not the same!--I am lost--I am no longer worthy of you!'
+
+He again concealed his face.  Emily was too much affected by this 
+honest confession to reply immediately, and, while she struggled to 
+overcome the pleadings of her heart, and to act with the decisive 
+firmness, which was necessary for her future peace, she perceived all 
+the danger of trusting long to her resolution, in the presence of 
+Valancourt, and was anxious to conclude an interview, that tortured 
+them both; yet, when she considered, that this was probably their 
+last meeting, her fortitude sunk at once, and she experienced only 
+emotions of tenderness and of despondency.
+
+Valancourt, meanwhile, lost in emotions of remorse and grief, which 
+he had neither the power, or the will to express, sat insensible 
+almost of the presence of Emily, his features still concealed, and 
+his breast agitated by convulsive sighs.
+
+'Spare me the necessity,' said Emily, recollecting her fortitude, 
+'spare me the necessity of mentioning those circumstances of your 
+conduct, which oblige me to break our connection forever.--We must 
+part, I now see you for the last time.'
+
+'Impossible!' cried Valancourt, roused from his deep silence, 'You 
+cannot mean what you say!--you cannot mean to throw me from you 
+forever!'
+
+'We must part,' repeated Emily, with emphasis,--'and that forever!  
+Your own conduct has made this necessary.'
+
+'This is the Count's determination,' said he haughtily, 'not yours, 
+and I shall enquire by what authority he interferes between us.'  He 
+now rose, and walked about the room in great emotion.
+
+'Let me save you from this error,' said Emily, not less agitated--'it 
+is my determination, and, if you reflect a moment on your late 
+conduct, you will perceive, that my future peace requires it.'
+
+'Your future peace requires, that we should part--part forever!' said 
+Valancourt, 'How little did I ever expect to hear you say so!'
+
+'And how little did I expect, that it would be necessary for me to 
+say so!' rejoined Emily, while her voice softened into tenderness, 
+and her tears flowed again.--'That you--you, Valancourt, would ever 
+fall from my esteem!'
+
+He was silent a moment, as if overwhelmed by the consciousness of no 
+longer deserving this esteem, as well as the certainty of having lost 
+it, and then, with impassioned grief, lamented the criminality of his 
+late conduct and the misery to which it had reduced him, till, 
+overcome by a recollection of the past and a conviction of the 
+future, he burst into tears, and uttered only deep and broken sighs.
+
+The remorse he had expressed, and the distress he suffered could not 
+be witnessed by Emily with indifference, and, had she not called to 
+her recollection all the circumstances, of which Count De Villefort 
+had informed her, and all he had said of the danger of confiding in 
+repentance, formed under the influence of passion, she might perhaps 
+have trusted to the assurances of her heart, and have forgotten his 
+misconduct in the tenderness, which that repentance excited.
+
+Valancourt, returning to the chair beside her, at length, said, in a 
+calm voice, ''Tis true, I am fallen--fallen from my own esteem! but 
+could you, Emily, so soon, so suddenly resign, if you had not before 
+ceased to love me, or, if your conduct was not governed by the 
+designs, I will say, the selfish designs of another person!  Would 
+you not otherwise be willing to hope for my reformation--and could 
+you bear, by estranging me from you, to abandon me to misery--to 
+myself!'--Emily wept aloud.--'No, Emily--no--you would not do this, 
+if you still loved me.  You would find your own happiness in saving 
+mine.'
+
+'There are too many probabilities against that hope,' said Emily, 'to 
+justify me in trusting the comfort of my whole life to it.  May I not 
+also ask, whether you could wish me to do this, if you really loved 
+me?'
+
+'Really loved you!' exclaimed Valancourt--'is it possible you can 
+doubt my love!  Yet it is reasonable, that you should do so, since 
+you see, that I am less ready to suffer the horror of parting with 
+you, than that of involving you in my ruin.  Yes, Emily--I am ruined-
+-irreparably ruined--I am involved in debts, which I can never 
+discharge!'  Valancourt's look, which was wild, as he spoke this, 
+soon settled into an expression of gloomy despair; and Emily, while 
+she was compelled to admire his sincerity, saw, with unutterable 
+anguish, new reasons for fear in the suddenness of his feelings and 
+the extent of the misery, in which they might involve him.  After 
+some minutes, she seemed to contend against her grief and to struggle 
+for fortitude to conclude the interview.  'I will not prolong these 
+moments,' said she, 'by a conversation, which can answer no good 
+purpose.  Valancourt, farewell!'
+
+'You are not going?' said he, wildly interrupting her--'You will not 
+leave me thus--you will not abandon me even before my mind has 
+suggested any possibility of compromise between the last indulgence 
+of my despair and the endurance of my loss!'  Emily was terrified by 
+the sternness of his look, and said, in a soothing voice, 'You have 
+yourself acknowledged, that it is necessary we should part;--if you 
+wish, that I should believe you love me, you will repeat the 
+acknowledgment.'--'Never--never,' cried he--'I was distracted when I 
+made it.  O! Emily--this is too much;--though you are not deceived as 
+to my faults, you must be deluded into this exasperation against 
+them.  The Count is the barrier between us; but he shall not long 
+remain so.'
+
+'You are, indeed, distracted,' said Emily, 'the Count is not your 
+enemy; on the contrary, he is my friend, and that might, in some 
+degree, induce you to consider him as yours.'--'Your friend!' said 
+Valancourt, hastily, 'how long has he been your friend, that he can 
+so easily make you forget your lover?  Was it he, who recommended to 
+your favour the Monsieur Du Pont, who, you say, accompanied you from 
+Italy, and who, I say, has stolen your affections?  But I have no 
+right to question you;--you are your own mistress.  Du Pont, perhaps, 
+may not long triumph over my fallen fortunes!'  Emily, more 
+frightened than before by the frantic looks of Valancourt, said, in a 
+tone scarcely audible, 'For heaven's sake be reasonable--be composed.  
+Monsieur Du Pont is not your rival, nor is the Count his advocate.  
+You have no rival; nor, except yourself, an enemy.  My heart is wrung 
+with anguish, which must increase while your frantic behaviour shews 
+me, more than ever, that you are no longer the Valancourt I have been 
+accustomed to love.'
+
+He made no reply, but sat with his arms rested on the table and his 
+face concealed by his hands; while Emily stood, silent and trembling, 
+wretched for herself and dreading to leave him in this state of mind.
+
+'O excess of misery!' he suddenly exclaimed, 'that I can never lament 
+my sufferings, without accusing myself, nor remember you, without 
+recollecting the folly and the vice, by which I have lost you!  Why 
+was I forced to Paris, and why did I yield to allurements, which were 
+to make me despicable for ever!  O! why cannot I look back, without 
+interruption, to those days of innocence and peace, the days of our 
+early love!'--The recollection seemed to melt his heart, and the 
+frenzy of despair yielded to tears.  After a long pause, turning 
+towards her and taking her hand, he said, in a softened voice, 
+'Emily, can you bear that we should part--can you resolve to give up 
+an heart, that loves you like mine--an heart, which, though it has 
+erred--widely erred, is not irretrievable from error, as, you well 
+know, it never can be retrievable from love?'  Emily made no reply, 
+but with her tears.  'Can you,' continued he, 'can you forget all our 
+former days of happiness and confidence--when I had not a thought, 
+that I might wish to conceal from you--when I had no taste--no 
+pleasures, in which you did not participate?'
+
+'O do not lead me to the remembrance of those days,' said Emily, 
+'unless you can teach me to forget the present; I do not mean to 
+reproach you; if I did, I should be spared these tears; but why will 
+you render your present sufferings more conspicuous, by contrasting 
+them with your former virtues?'
+
+'Those virtues,' said Valancourt, 'might, perhaps, again be mine, if 
+your affection, which nurtured them, was unchanged;--but I fear, 
+indeed, I see, that you can no longer love me; else the happy hours, 
+which we have passed together, would plead for me, and you could not 
+look back upon them unmoved.  Yet, why should I torture myself with 
+the remembrance--why do I linger here?  Am I not ruined--would it not 
+be madness to involve you in my misfortunes, even if your heart was 
+still my own?  I will not distress you further.  Yet, before I go,' 
+added he, in a solemn voice, 'let me repeat, that, whatever may be my 
+destiny--whatever I may be doomed to suffer, I must always love you--
+most fondly love you!  I am going, Emily, I am going to leave you--to 
+leave you, forever!'  As he spoke the last words, his voice trembled, 
+and he threw himself again into the chair, from which he had risen.  
+Emily was utterly unable to leave the room, or to say farewell.  All 
+impression of his criminal conduct and almost of his follies was 
+obliterated from her mind, and she was sensible only of pity and 
+grief.
+
+'My fortitude is gone,' said Valancourt at length; 'I can no longer 
+even struggle to recall it.  I cannot now leave you--I cannot bid you 
+an eternal farewell; say, at least, that you will see me once again.'  
+Emily's heart was somewhat relieved by the request, and she 
+endeavoured to believe, that she ought not to refuse it.  Yet she was 
+embarrassed by recollecting, that she was a visitor in the house of 
+the Count, who could not be pleased by the return of Valancourt.  
+Other considerations, however, soon overcame this, and she granted 
+his request, on the condition, that he would neither think of the 
+Count, as his enemy, nor Du Pont as his rival.  He then left her, 
+with a heart, so much lightened by this short respite, that he almost 
+lost every former sense of misfortune.
+
+Emily withdrew to her own room, that she might compose her spirits 
+and remove the traces of her tears, which would encourage the 
+censorious remarks of the Countess and her favourite, as well as 
+excite the curiosity of the rest of the family.  She found it, 
+however, impossible to tranquillize her mind, from which she could 
+not expel the remembrance of the late scene with Valancourt, or the 
+consciousness, that she was to see him again, on the morrow.  This 
+meeting now appeared more terrible to her than the last, for the 
+ingenuous confession he had made of his ill conduct and his 
+embarrassed circumstances, with the strength and tenderness of 
+affection, which this confession discovered, had deeply impressed 
+her, and, in spite of all she had heard and believed to his 
+disadvantage, her esteem began to return.  It frequently appeared to 
+her impossible, that he could have been guilty of the depravities, 
+reported of him, which, if not inconsistent with his warmth and 
+impetuosity, were entirely so with his candour and sensibility.  
+Whatever was the criminality, which had given rise to the reports, 
+she could not now believe them to be wholly true, nor that his heart 
+was finally closed against the charms of virtue.  The deep 
+consciousness, which he felt as well as expressed of his errors, 
+seemed to justify the opinion; and, as she understood not the 
+instability of youthful dispositions, when opposed by habit, and that 
+professions frequently deceive those, who make, as well as those, who 
+hear them, she might have yielded to the flattering persuasions of 
+her own heart and the pleadings of Valancourt, had she not been 
+guided by the superior prudence of the Count.  He represented to her, 
+in a clear light, the danger of her present situation, that of 
+listening to promises of amendment, made under the influence of 
+strong passion, and the slight hope, which could attach to a 
+connection, whose chance of happiness rested upon the retrieval of 
+ruined circumstances and the reform of corrupted habits.  On these 
+accounts, he lamented, that Emily had consented to a second 
+interview, for he saw how much it would shake her resolution and 
+increase the difficulty of her conquest.
+
+Her mind was now so entirely occupied by nearer interests, that she 
+forgot the old housekeeper and the promised history, which so lately 
+had excited her curiosity, but which Dorothee was probably not very 
+anxious to disclose, for night came; the hours passed; and she did 
+not appear in Emily's chamber.  With the latter it was a sleepless 
+and dismal night; the more she suffered her memory to dwell on the 
+late scenes with Valancourt, the more her resolution declined, and 
+she was obliged to recollect all the arguments, which the Count had 
+made use of to strengthen it, and all the precepts, which she had 
+received from her deceased father, on the subject of self-command, to 
+enable her to act, with prudence and dignity, on this the most severe 
+occasion of her life.  There were moments, when all her fortitude 
+forsook her, and when, remembering the confidence of former times, 
+she thought it impossible, that she could renounce Valancourt.  His 
+reformation then appeared certain; the arguments of Count De 
+Villefort were forgotten; she readily believed all she wished, and 
+was willing to encounter any evil, rather than that of an immediate 
+separation.
+
+Thus passed the night in ineffectual struggles between affection and 
+reason, and she rose, in the morning, with a mind, weakened and 
+irresolute, and a frame, trembling with illness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+ Come, weep with me;--past hope, past cure, past help!
+     ROMEO AND JULIET
+
+Valancourt, meanwhile, suffered the tortures of remorse and despair.  
+The sight of Emily had renewed all the ardour, with which he first 
+loved her, and which had suffered a temporary abatement from absence 
+and the passing scenes of busy life.  When, on the receipt of her 
+letter, he set out for Languedoc, he then knew, that his own folly 
+had involved him in ruin, and it was no part of his design to conceal 
+this from her.  But he lamented only the delay which his ill-conduct 
+must give to their marriage, and did not foresee, that the 
+information could induce her to break their connection forever.  
+While the prospect of this separation overwhelmed his mind, before 
+stung with self-reproach, he awaited their second interview, in a 
+state little short of distraction, yet was still inclined to hope, 
+that his pleadings might prevail upon her not to exact it.  In the 
+morning, he sent to know at what hour she would see him; and his note 
+arrived, when she was with the Count, who had sought an opportunity 
+of again conversing with her of Valancourt; for he perceived the 
+extreme distress of her mind, and feared, more than ever, that her 
+fortitude would desert her.  Emily having dismissed the messenger, 
+the Count returned to the subject of their late conversation, urging 
+his fear of Valancourt's entreaties, and again pointing out to her 
+the lengthened misery, that must ensue, if she should refuse to 
+encounter some present uneasiness.  His repeated arguments could, 
+indeed, alone have protected her from the affection she still felt 
+for Valancourt, and she resolved to be governed by them.
+
+The hour of interview, at length, arrived.  Emily went to it, at 
+least, with composure of manner, but Valancourt was so much agitated, 
+that he could not speak, for several minutes, and his first words 
+were alternately those of lamentation, entreaty, and self-reproach.  
+Afterward, he said, 'Emily, I have loved you--I do love you, better 
+than my life; but I am ruined by my own conduct.  Yet I would seek to 
+entangle you in a connection, that must be miserable for you, rather 
+than subject myself to the punishment, which is my due, the loss of 
+you.  I am a wretch, but I will be a villain no longer.--I will not 
+endeavour to shake your resolution by the pleadings of a selfish 
+passion.  I resign you, Emily, and will endeavour to find consolation 
+in considering, that, though I am miserable, you, at least, may be 
+happy.  The merit of the sacrifice is, indeed, not my own, for I 
+should never have attained strength of mind to surrender you, if your 
+prudence had not demanded it.'
+
+He paused a moment, while Emily attempted to conceal the tears, which 
+came to her eyes.  She would have said, 'You speak now, as you were 
+wont to do,' but she checked herself.--'Forgive me, Emily,' said he, 
+'all the sufferings I have occasioned you, and, sometimes, when you 
+think of the wretched Valancourt, remember, that his only consolation 
+would be to believe, that you are no longer unhappy by his folly.'  
+The tears now fell fast upon her cheek, and he was relapsing into the 
+phrensy of despair, when Emily endeavoured to recall her fortitude 
+and to terminate an interview, which only seemed to increase the 
+distress of both.  Perceiving her tears and that she was rising to 
+go, Valancourt struggled, once more, to overcome his own feelings and 
+to sooth hers.  'The remembrance of this sorrow,' said he, 'shall in 
+future be my protection.  O! never again will example, or temptation 
+have power to seduce me to evil, exalted as I shall be by the 
+recollection of your grief for me.'
+
+Emily was somewhat comforted by this assurance.  'We are now parting 
+for ever,' said she; 'but, if my happiness is dear to you, you will 
+always remember, that nothing can contribute to it more, than to 
+believe, that you have recovered your own esteem.'  Valancourt took 
+her hand;--his eyes were covered with tears, and the farewell he 
+would have spoken was lost in sighs.  After a few moments, Emily 
+said, with difficulty and emotion, 'Farewell, Valancourt, may you be 
+happy!'  She repeated her 'farewell,' and attempted to withdraw her 
+hand, but he still held it and bathed it with his tears.  'Why 
+prolong these moments?' said Emily, in a voice scarcely audible, 
+'they are too painful to us both.'  'This is too--too much,' 
+exclaimed Valancourt, resigning her hand and throwing himself into a 
+chair, where he covered his face with his hands and was overcome, for 
+some moments, by convulsive sighs.  After a long pause, during which 
+Emily wept in silence, and Valancourt seemed struggling with his 
+grief, she again rose to take leave of him.  Then, endeavouring to 
+recover his composure, 'I am again afflicting you,' said he, 'but let 
+the anguish I suffer plead for me.'  He then added, in a solemn 
+voice, which frequently trembled with the agitation of his heart, 
+'Farewell, Emily, you will always be the only object of my 
+tenderness.  Sometimes you will think of the unhappy Valancourt, and 
+it will be with pity, though it may not be with esteem.  O! what is 
+the whole world to me, without you--without your esteem!'  He checked 
+himself--'I am falling again into the error I have just lamented.  I 
+must not intrude longer upon your patience, or I shall relapse into 
+despair.'
+
+He once more bade Emily adieu, pressed her hand to his lips, looked 
+at her, for the last time, and hurried out of the room.
+
+Emily remained in the chair, where he had left her, oppressed with a 
+pain at her heart, which scarcely permitted her to breathe, and 
+listening to his departing steps, sinking fainter and fainter, as he 
+crossed the hall.  She was, at length, roused by the voice of the 
+Countess in the garden, and, her attention being then awakened, the 
+first object, which struck her sight, was the vacant chair, where 
+Valancourt had sat.  The tears, which had been, for some time, 
+repressed by the kind of astonishment, that followed his departure, 
+now came to her relief, and she was, at length, sufficiently composed 
+to return to her own room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+  This is no mortal business, nor no sound
+ That the earth owes!
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+We now return to the mention of Montoni, whose rage and 
+disappointment were soon lost in nearer interests, than any, which 
+the unhappy Emily had awakened.  His depredations having exceeded 
+their usual limits, and reached an extent, at which neither the 
+timidity of the then commercial senate of Venice, nor their hope of 
+his occasional assistance would permit them to connive, the same 
+effort, it was resolved, should complete the suppression of his power 
+and the correction of his outrages.  While a corps of considerable 
+strength was upon the point of receiving orders to march for Udolpho, 
+a young officer, prompted partly by resentment, for some injury, 
+received from Montoni, and partly by the hope of distinction, 
+solicited an interview with the Minister, who directed the 
+enterprise.  To him he represented, that the situation of Udolpho 
+rendered it too strong to be taken by open force, except after some 
+tedious operations; that Montoni had lately shewn how capable he was 
+of adding to its strength all the advantages, which could be derived 
+from the skill of a commander; that so considerable a body of troops, 
+as that allotted to the expedition, could not approach Udolpho 
+without his knowledge, and that it was not for the honour of the 
+republic to have a large part of its regular force employed, for such 
+a time as the siege of Udolpho would require, upon the attack of a 
+handful of banditti.  The object of the expedition, he thought, might 
+be accomplished much more safely and speedily by mingling contrivance 
+with force.  It was possible to meet Montoni and his party, without 
+their walls, and to attack them then; or, by approaching the 
+fortress, with the secrecy, consistent with the march of smaller 
+bodies of troops, to take advantage either of the treachery, or 
+negligence of some of his party, and to rush unexpectedly upon the 
+whole even in the castle of Udolpho.
+
+This advice was seriously attended to, and the officer, who gave it, 
+received the command of the troops, demanded for his purpose.  His 
+first efforts were accordingly those of contrivance alone.  In the 
+neighbourhood of Udolpho, he waited, till he had secured the 
+assistance of several of the condottieri, of whom he found none, that 
+he addressed, unwilling to punish their imperious master and to 
+secure their own pardon from the senate.  He learned also the number 
+of Montoni's troops, and that it had been much increased, since his 
+late successes.  The conclusion of his plan was soon effected.  
+Having returned with his party, who received the watch-word and other 
+assistance from their friends within, Montoni and his officers were 
+surprised by one division, who had been directed to their apartment, 
+while the other maintained the slight combat, which preceded the 
+surrender of the whole garrison.  Among the persons, seized with 
+Montoni, was Orsino, the assassin, who had joined him on his first 
+arrival at Udolpho, and whose concealment had been made known to the 
+senate by Count Morano, after the unsuccessful attempt of the latter 
+to carry off Emily.  It was, indeed, partly for the purpose of 
+capturing this man, by whom one of the senate had been murdered, that 
+the expedition was undertaken, and its success was so acceptable to 
+them, that Morano was instantly released, notwithstanding the 
+political suspicions, which Montoni, by his secret accusation, had 
+excited against him.  The celerity and ease, with which this whole 
+transaction was completed, prevented it from attracting curiosity, or 
+even from obtaining a place in any of the published records of that 
+time; so that Emily, who remained in Languedoc, was ignorant of the 
+defeat and signal humiliation of her late persecutor.
+
+Her mind was now occupied with sufferings, which no effort of reason 
+had yet been able to controul.  Count De Villefort, who sincerely 
+attempted whatever benevolence could suggest for softening them, 
+sometimes allowed her the solitude she wished for, sometimes led her 
+into friendly parties, and constantly protected her, as much as 
+possible, from the shrewd enquiries and critical conversation of the 
+Countess.  He often invited her to make excursions, with him and his 
+daughter, during which he conversed entirely on questions, suitable 
+to her taste, without appearing to consult it, and thus endeavoured 
+gradually to withdraw her from the subject of her grief, and to awake 
+other interests in her mind.  Emily, to whom he appeared as the 
+enlightened friend and protector of her youth, soon felt for him the 
+tender affection of a daughter, and her heart expanded to her young 
+friend Blanche, as to a sister, whose kindness and simplicity 
+compensated for the want of more brilliant qualities.  It was long 
+before she could sufficiently abstract her mind from Valancourt to 
+listen to the story, promised by old Dorothee, concerning which her 
+curiosity had once been so deeply interested; but Dorothee, at 
+length, reminded her of it, and Emily desired, that she would come, 
+that night, to her chamber.
+
+Still her thoughts were employed by considerations, which weakened 
+her curiosity, and Dorothee's tap at the door, soon after twelve, 
+surprised her almost as much as if it had not been appointed.  'I am 
+come, at last, lady,' said she; 'I wonder what it is makes my old 
+limbs shake so, to-night.  I thought, once or twice, I should have 
+dropped, as I was a-coming.'  Emily seated her in a chair, and 
+desired, that she would compose her spirits, before she entered upon 
+the subject, that had brought her thither.  'Alas,' said Dorothee, 
+'it is thinking of that, I believe, which has disturbed me so.  In my 
+way hither too, I passed the chamber, where my dear lady died, and 
+every thing was so still and gloomy about me, that I almost fancied I 
+saw her, as she appeared upon her death-bed.'
+
+Emily now drew her chair near to Dorothee, who went on.  'It is about 
+twenty years since my lady Marchioness came a bride to the chateau.  
+O! I well remember how she looked, when she came into the great hall, 
+where we servants were all assembled to welcome her, and how happy my 
+lord the Marquis seemed.  Ah! who would have thought then!--But, as I 
+was saying, ma'amselle, I thought the Marchioness, with all her sweet 
+looks, did not look happy at heart, and so I told my husband, and he 
+said it was all fancy; so I said no more, but I made my remarks, for 
+all that.  My lady Marchioness was then about your age, and, as I 
+have often thought, very like you.  Well! my lord the Marquis kept 
+open house, for a long time, and gave such entertainments and there 
+were such gay doings as have never been in the chateau since.  I was 
+younger, ma'amselle, then, than I am now, and was as gay at the best 
+of them.  I remember I danced with Philip, the butler, in a pink 
+gown, with yellow ribbons, and a coif, not such as they wear now, but 
+plaited high, with ribbons all about it.  It was very becoming 
+truly;--my lord, the Marquis, noticed me.  Ah! he was a good-natured 
+gentleman then--who would have thought that he!'--
+
+'But the Marchioness, Dorothee,' said Emily, 'you was telling me of 
+her.'
+
+'O yes, my lady Marchioness, I thought she did not seem happy at 
+heart, and once, soon after the marriage, I caught her crying in her 
+chamber; but, when she saw me, she dried her eyes, and pretended to 
+smile.  I did not dare then to ask what was the matter; but, the next 
+time I saw her crying, I did, and she seemed displeased;--so I said 
+no more.  I found out, some time after, how it was.  Her father, it 
+seems, had commanded her to marry my lord, the Marquis, for his 
+money, and there was another nobleman, or else a chevalier, that she 
+liked better and that was very fond of her, and she fretted for the 
+loss of him, I fancy, but she never told me so.  My lady always tried 
+to conceal her tears from the Marquis, for I have often seen her, 
+after she has been so sorrowful, look so calm and sweet, when he came 
+into the room!  But my lord, all of a sudden, grew gloomy and 
+fretful, and very unkind sometimes to my lady.  This afflicted her 
+very much, as I saw, for she never complained, and she used to try so 
+sweetly to oblige him and to bring him into a good humour, that my 
+heart has often ached to see it.  But he used to be stubborn, and 
+give her harsh answers, and then, when she found it all in vain, she 
+would go to her own room, and cry so!  I used to hear her in the 
+anti-room, poor dear lady! but I seldom ventured to go to her.  I 
+used, sometimes, to think my lord was jealous.  To be sure my lady 
+was greatly admired, but she was too good to deserve suspicion.  
+Among the many chevaliers, that visited at the chateau, there was 
+one, that I always thought seemed just suited for my lady; he was so 
+courteous, yet so spirited, and there was such a grace, as it were, 
+in all he did, or said.  I always observed, that, whenever he had 
+been there, the Marquis was more gloomy and my lady more thoughtful, 
+and it came into my head, that this was the chevalier she ought to 
+have married, but I never could learn for certain.'
+
+'What was the chevalier's name, Dorothee?' said Emily.
+
+'Why that I will not tell even to you, ma'amselle, for evil may come 
+of it.  I once heard from a person, who is since dead, that the 
+Marchioness was not in law the wife of the Marquis, for that she had 
+before been privately married to the gentleman she was so much 
+attached to, and was afterwards afraid to own it to her father, who 
+was a very stern man; but this seems very unlikely, and I never gave 
+much faith to it.  As I was saying, the Marquis was most out of 
+humour, as I thought, when the chevalier I spoke of had been at the 
+chateau, and, at last, his ill treatment of my lady made her quite 
+miserable.  He would see hardly any visitors at the castle, and made 
+her live almost by herself.  I was her constant attendant, and saw 
+all she suffered, but still she never complained.
+
+'After matters had gone on thus, for near a year, my lady was taken 
+ill, and I thought her long fretting had made her so,--but, alas! I 
+fear it was worse than that.'
+
+'Worse! Dorothee,' said Emily, 'can that be possible?'
+
+'I fear it was so, madam, there were strange appearances.  But I will 
+only tell what happened.  My lord, the Marquis--'
+
+'Hush, Dorothee, what sounds were those?' said Emily.
+
+Dorothee changed countenance, and, while they both listened, they 
+heard, on the stillness of the night, music of uncommon sweetness.
+
+'I have surely heard that voice before!' said Emily, at length.
+
+'I have often heard it, and at this same hour,' said Dorothee, 
+solemnly, 'and, if spirits ever bring music--that is surely the music 
+of one!'
+
+Emily, as the sounds drew nearer, knew them to be the same she had 
+formerly heard at the time of her father's death, and, whether it was 
+the remembrance they now revived of that melancholy event, or that 
+she was struck with superstitious awe, it is certain she was so much 
+affected, that she had nearly fainted.
+
+'I think I once told you, madam,' said Dorothee, 'that I first heard 
+this music, soon after my lady's death!  I well remember the night!'-
+-
+
+'Hark! it comes again!' said Emily, 'let us open the window, and 
+listen.'
+
+They did so; but, soon, the sounds floated gradually away into 
+distance, and all was again still; they seemed to have sunk among the 
+woods, whose tufted tops were visible upon the clear horizon, while 
+every other feature of the scene was involved in the night-shade, 
+which, however, allowed the eye an indistinct view of some objects in 
+the garden below.
+
+As Emily leaned on the window, gazing with a kind of thrilling awe 
+upon the obscurity beneath, and then upon the cloudless arch above, 
+enlightened only by the stars, Dorothee, in a low voice, resumed her 
+narrative.
+
+'I was saying, ma'amselle, that I well remember when first I heard 
+that music.  It was one night, soon after my lady's death, that I had 
+sat up later than usual, and I don't know how it was, but I had been 
+thinking a great deal about my poor mistress, and of the sad scene I 
+had lately witnessed.  The chateau was quite still, and I was in the 
+chamber at a good distance from the rest of the servants, and this, 
+with the mournful things I had been thinking of, I suppose, made me 
+low spirited, for I felt very lonely and forlorn, as it were, and 
+listened often, wishing to hear a sound in the chateau, for you know, 
+ma'amselle, when one can hear people moving, one does not so much 
+mind, about one's fears.  But all the servants were gone to bed, and 
+I sat, thinking and thinking, till I was almost afraid to look round 
+the room, and my poor lady's countenance often came to my mind, such 
+as I had seen her when she was dying, and, once or twice, I almost 
+thought I saw her before me,--when suddenly I heard such sweet music!  
+It seemed just at my window, and I shall never forget what I felt.  I 
+had not power to move from my chair, but then, when I thought it was 
+my dear lady's voice, the tears came to my eyes.  I had often heard 
+her sing, in her life-time, and to be sure she had a very fine voice; 
+it had made me cry to hear her, many a time, when she has sat in her 
+oriel, of an evening, playing upon her lute such sad songs, and 
+singing so.  O! it went to one's heart!  I have listened in the anti-
+chamber, for the hour together, and she would sometimes sit playing, 
+with the window open, when it was summer time, till it was quite 
+dark, and when I have gone in, to shut it, she has hardly seemed to 
+know what hour it was.  But, as I said, madam,' continued Dorothee, 
+'when first I heard the music, that came just now, I thought it was 
+my late lady's, and I have often thought so again, when I have heard 
+it, as I have done at intervals, ever since.  Sometimes, many months 
+have gone by, but still it has returned.'
+
+'It is extraordinary,' observed Emily, 'that no person has yet 
+discovered the musician.'
+
+'Aye, ma'amselle, if it had been any thing earthly it would have been 
+discovered long ago, but who could have courage to follow a spirit, 
+and if they had, what good could it do?--for spirits, YOU KNOW, 
+ma'am, can take any shape, or no shape, and they will be here, one 
+minute, and, the next perhaps, in a quite different place!'
+
+'Pray resume your story of the Marchioness,' said Emily, 'and 
+acquaint me with the manner of her death.'
+
+'I will, ma'am,' said Dorothee, 'but shall we leave the window?'
+
+'This cool air refreshes me,' replied Emily, 'and I love to hear it 
+creep along the woods, and to look upon this dusky landscape.  You 
+was speaking of my lord, the Marquis, when the music interrupted us.'
+
+'Yes, madam, my lord, the Marquis, became more and more gloomy; and 
+my lady grew worse and worse, till, one night, she was taken very 
+ill, indeed.  I was called up, and, when I came to her bedside, I was 
+shocked to see her countenance--it was so changed!  She looked 
+piteously up at me, and desired I would call the Marquis again, for 
+he was not yet come, and tell him she had something particular to say 
+to him.  At last, he came, and he did, to be sure, seem very sorry to 
+see her, but he said very little.  My lady told him she felt herself 
+to be dying, and wished to speak with him alone, and then I left the 
+room, but I shall never forget his look as I went.'
+
+'When I returned, I ventured to remind my lord about sending for a 
+doctor, for I supposed he had forgot to do so, in his grief; but my 
+lady said it was then too late; but my lord, so far from thinking so, 
+seemed to think light of her disorder--till she was seized with such 
+terrible pains!  O, I never shall forget her shriek!  My lord then 
+sent off a man and horse for the doctor, and walked about the room 
+and all over the chateau in the greatest distress; and I staid by my 
+dear lady, and did what I could to ease her sufferings.  She had 
+intervals of ease, and in one of these she sent for my lord again; 
+when he came, I was going, but she desired I would not leave her.  O!  
+I shall never forget what a scene passed--I can hardly bear to think 
+of it now!  My lord was almost distracted, for my lady behaved with 
+so much goodness, and took such pains to comfort him, that, if he 
+ever had suffered a suspicion to enter his head, he must now have 
+been convinced he was wrong.  And to be sure he did seem to be 
+overwhelmed with the thought of his treatment of her, and this 
+affected her so much, that she fainted away.
+
+'We then got my lord out of the room; he went into his library, and 
+threw himself on the floor, and there he staid, and would hear no 
+reason, that was talked to him.  When my lady recovered, she enquired 
+for him, but, afterwards, said she could not bear to see his grief, 
+and desired we would let her die quietly.  She died in my arms, 
+ma'amselle, and she went off as peacefully as a child, for all the 
+violence of her disorder was passed.'
+
+Dorothee paused, and wept, and Emily wept with her; for she was much 
+affected by the goodness of the late Marchioness, and by the meek 
+patience, with which she had suffered.
+
+'When the doctor came,' resumed Dorothee, 'alas! he came too late; he 
+appeared greatly shocked to see her, for soon after her death a 
+frightful blackness spread all over her face.  When he had sent the 
+attendants out of the room, he asked me several odd questions about 
+the Marchioness, particularly concerning the manner, in which she had 
+been seized, and he often shook his head at my answers, and seemed to 
+mean more, than he chose to say.  But I understood him too well.  
+However, I kept my remarks to myself, and only told them to my 
+husband, who bade me hold my tongue.  Some of the other servants, 
+however, suspected what I did, and strange reports were whispered 
+about the neighbourhood, but nobody dared to make any stir about 
+them.  When my lord heard that my lady was dead, he shut himself up, 
+and would see nobody but the doctor, who used to be with him alone, 
+sometimes for an hour together; and, after that, the doctor never 
+talked with me again about my lady.  When she was buried in the 
+church of the convent, at a little distance yonder, if the moon was 
+up you might see the towers here, ma'amselle, all my lord's vassals 
+followed the funeral, and there was not a dry eye among them, for she 
+had done a deal of good among the poor.  My lord, the Marquis, I 
+never saw any body so melancholy as he was afterwards, and sometimes 
+he would be in such fits of violence, that we almost thought he had 
+lost his senses.  He did not stay long at the chateau, but joined his 
+regiment, and, soon after, all the servants, except my husband and I, 
+received notice to go, for my lord went to the wars.  I never saw him 
+after, for he would not return to the chateau, though it is such a 
+fine place, and never finished those fine rooms he was building on 
+the west side of it, and it has, in a manner, been shut up ever 
+since, till my lord the Count came here.'
+
+'The death of the Marchioness appears extraordinary,' said Emily, who 
+was anxious to know more than she dared to ask.
+
+'Yes, madam,' replied Dorothee, 'it was extraordinary; I have told 
+you all I saw, and you may easily guess what I think, I cannot say 
+more, because I would not spread reports, that might offend my lord 
+the Count.'
+
+'You are very right,' said Emily;--'where did the Marquis die?'--'In 
+the north of France, I believe, ma'amselle,' replied Dorothee.  'I 
+was very glad, when I heard my lord the Count was coming, for this 
+had been a sad desolate place, these many years, and we heard such 
+strange noises, sometimes, after my lady's death, that, as I told you 
+before, my husband and I left it for a neighbouring cottage.  And 
+now, lady, I have told you all this sad history, and all my thoughts, 
+and you have promised, you know, never to give the least hint about 
+it.'--'I have,' said Emily, 'and I will be faithful to my promise, 
+Dorothee;--what you have told has interested me more than you can 
+imagine.  I only wish I could prevail upon you to tell the name of 
+the chevalier, whom you thought so deserving of the Marchioness.'
+
+Dorothee, however, steadily refused to do this, and then returned to 
+the notice of Emily's likeness to the late Marchioness.  'There is 
+another picture of her,' added she, 'hanging in a room of the suite, 
+which was shut up.  It was drawn, as I have heard, before she was 
+married, and is much more like you than the miniature.'  When Emily 
+expressed a strong desire to see this, Dorothee replied, that she did 
+not like to open those rooms; but Emily reminded her, that the Count 
+had talked the other day of ordering them to be opened; of which 
+Dorothee seemed to consider much, and then she owned, that she should 
+feel less, if she went into them with Emily first, than otherwise, 
+and at length promised to shew the picture.
+
+The night was too far advanced and Emily was too much affected by the 
+narrative of the scenes, which had passed in those apartments, to 
+wish to visit them at this hour, but she requested that Dorothee 
+would return on the following night, when they were not likely to be 
+observed, and conduct her thither.  Besides her wish to examine the 
+portrait, she felt a thrilling curiosity to see the chamber, in which 
+the Marchioness had died, and which Dorothee had said remained, with 
+the bed and furniture, just as when the corpse was removed for 
+interment.  The solemn emotions, which the expectation of viewing 
+such a scene had awakened, were in unison with the present tone of 
+her mind, depressed by severe disappointment.  Cheerful objects 
+rather added to, than removed this depression; but, perhaps, she 
+yielded too much to her melancholy inclination, and imprudently 
+lamented the misfortune, which no virtue of her own could have taught 
+her to avoid, though no effort of reason could make her look unmoved 
+upon the self-degradation of him, whom she had once esteemed and 
+loved.
+
+Dorothee promised to return, on the following night, with the keys of 
+the chambers, and then wished Emily good repose, and departed.  
+Emily, however, continued at the window, musing upon the melancholy 
+fate of the Marchioness and listening, in awful expectation, for a 
+return of the music.  But the stillness of the night remained long 
+unbroken, except by the murmuring sounds of the woods, as they waved 
+in the breeze, and then by the distant bell of the convent, striking 
+one.  She now withdrew from the window, and, as she sat at her bed-
+side, indulging melancholy reveries, which the loneliness of the hour 
+assisted, the stillness was suddenly interrupted not by music, but by 
+very uncommon sounds, that seemed to come either from the room, 
+adjoining her own, or from one below.  The terrible catastrophe, that 
+had been related to her, together with the mysterious circumstances, 
+said to have since occurred in the chateau, had so much shocked her 
+spirits, that she now sunk, for a moment, under the weakness of 
+superstition.  The sounds, however, did not return, and she retired, 
+to forget in sleep the disastrous story she had heard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+ Now it is the time of night,
+ That, the graves all gaping wide,
+ Every one lets forth his spite,
+ In the church-way path to glide.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+On the next night, about the same hour as before, Dorothee came to 
+Emily's chamber, with the keys of that suite of rooms, which had been 
+particularly appropriated to the late Marchioness.  These extended 
+along the north side of the chateau, forming part of the old 
+building; and, as Emily's room was in the south, they had to pass 
+over a great extent of the castle, and by the chambers of several of 
+the family, whose observations Dorothee was anxious to avoid, since 
+it might excite enquiry, and raise reports, such as would displease 
+the Count.  She, therefore, requested, that Emily would wait half an 
+hour, before they ventured forth, that they might be certain all the 
+servants were gone to bed.  It was nearly one, before the chateau was 
+perfectly still, or Dorothee thought it prudent to leave the chamber.  
+In this interval, her spirits seemed to be greatly affected by the 
+remembrance of past events, and by the prospect of entering again 
+upon places, where these had occurred, and in which she had not been 
+for so many years.  Emily too was affected, but her feelings had more 
+of solemnity, and less of fear.  From the silence, into which 
+reflection and expectation had thrown them, they, at length, roused 
+themselves, and left the chamber.  Dorothee, at first, carried the 
+lamp, but her hand trembled so much with infirmity and alarm, that 
+Emily took it from her, and offered her arm, to support her feeble 
+steps.
+
+They had to descend the great stair-case, and, after passing over a 
+wide extent of the chateau, to ascend another, which led to the suite 
+of rooms they were in quest of.  They stepped cautiously along the 
+open corridor, that ran round the great hall, and into which the 
+chambers of the Count, Countess, and the Lady Blanche, opened, and, 
+from thence, descending the chief stair-case, they crossed the hall 
+itself.  Proceeding through the servants hall, where the dying embers 
+of a wood fire still glimmered on the hearth, and the supper table 
+was surrounded by chairs, that obstructed their passage, they came to 
+the foot of the back stair-case.  Old Dorothee here paused, and 
+looked around; 'Let us listen,' said she, 'if any thing is stirring; 
+Ma'amselle, do you hear any voice?'  'None,' said Emily, 'there 
+certainly is no person up in the chateau, besides ourselves.'--'No, 
+ma'amselle,' said Dorothee, 'but I have never been here at this hour 
+before, and, after what I know, my fears are not wonderful.'--'What 
+do you know?' said Emily.--'O, ma'amselle, we have no time for 
+talking now; let us go on.  That door on the left is the one we must 
+open.'
+
+They proceeded, and, having reached the top of the stair-case, 
+Dorothee applied the key to the lock.  'Ah,' said she, as she 
+endeavoured to turn it, 'so many years have passed since this was 
+opened, that I fear it will not move.'  Emily was more successful, 
+and they presently entered a spacious and ancient chamber.
+
+'Alas!' exclaimed Dorothee, as she entered, 'the last time I passed 
+through this door--I followed my poor lady's corpse!'
+
+Emily, struck with the circumstance, and affected by the dusky and 
+solemn air of the apartment, remained silent, and they passed on 
+through a long suite of rooms, till they came to one more spacious 
+than the rest, and rich in the remains of faded magnificence.
+
+'Let us rest here awhile, madam,' said Dorothee faintly, 'we are 
+going into the chamber, where my lady died! that door opens into it.  
+Ah, ma'amselle! why did you persuade me to come?'
+
+Emily drew one of the massy arm-chairs, with which the apartment was 
+furnished, and begged Dorothee would sit down, and try to compose her 
+spirits.
+
+'How the sight of this place brings all that passed formerly to my 
+mind!' said Dorothee; 'it seems as if it was but yesterday since all 
+that sad affair happened!'
+
+'Hark! what noise is that?' said Emily.
+
+Dorothee, half starting from her chair, looked round the apartment, 
+and they listened--but, every thing remaining still, the old woman 
+spoke again upon the subject of her sorrow.  'This saloon, 
+ma'amselle, was in my lady's time the finest apartment in the 
+chateau, and it was fitted up according to her own taste.  All this 
+grand furniture, but you can now hardly see what it is for the dust, 
+and our light is none of the best--ah! how I have seen this room 
+lighted up in my lady's time!--all this grand furniture came from 
+Paris, and was made after the fashion of some in the Louvre there, 
+except those large glasses, and they came from some outlandish place, 
+and that rich tapestry.  How the colours are faded already!--since I 
+saw it last!'
+
+'I understood, that was twenty years ago,' observed Emily.
+
+'Thereabout, madam,' said Dorothee, 'and well remembered, but all the 
+time between then and now seems as nothing.  That tapestry used to be 
+greatly admired at, it tells the stories out of some famous book, or 
+other, but I have forgot the name.'
+
+Emily now rose to examine the figures it exhibited, and discovered, 
+by verses in the Provencal tongue, wrought underneath each scene, 
+that it exhibited stories from some of the most celebrated ancient 
+romances.
+
+Dorothee's spirits being now more composed, she rose, and unlocked 
+the door that led into the late Marchioness's apartment, and Emily 
+passed into a lofty chamber, hung round with dark arras, and so 
+spacious, that the lamp she held up did not shew its extent; while 
+Dorothee, when she entered, had dropped into a chair, where, sighing 
+deeply, she scarcely trusted herself with the view of a scene so 
+affecting to her.  It was some time before Emily perceived, through 
+the dusk, the bed on which the Marchioness was said to have died; 
+when, advancing to the upper end of the room, she discovered the high 
+canopied tester of dark green damask, with the curtains descending to 
+the floor in the fashion of a tent, half drawn, and remaining 
+apparently, as they had been left twenty years before; and over the 
+whole bedding was thrown a counterpane, or pall, of black velvet, 
+that hung down to the floor.  Emily shuddered, as she held the lamp 
+over it, and looked within the dark curtains, where she almost 
+expected to have seen a human face, and, suddenly remembering the 
+horror she had suffered upon discovering the dying Madame Montoni in 
+the turret-chamber of Udolpho, her spirits fainted, and she was 
+turning from the bed, when Dorothee, who had now reached it, 
+exclaimed, 'Holy Virgin! methinks I see my lady stretched upon that 
+pall--as when last I saw her!'
+
+Emily, shocked by this exclamation, looked involuntarily again within 
+the curtains, but the blackness of the pall only appeared; while 
+Dorothee was compelled to support herself upon the side of the bed, 
+and presently tears brought her some relief.
+
+'Ah!' said she, after she had wept awhile, 'it was here I sat on that 
+terrible night, and held my lady's hand, and heard her last words, 
+and saw all her sufferings--HERE she died in my arms!'
+
+'Do not indulge these painful recollections,' said Emily, 'let us go.  
+Shew me the picture you mentioned, if it will not too much affect 
+you.'
+
+'It hangs in the oriel,' said Dorothee rising, and going towards a 
+small door near the bed's head, which she opened, and Emily followed 
+with the light, into the closet of the late Marchioness.
+
+'Alas! there she is, ma'amselle,' said Dorothee, pointing to a 
+portrait of a lady, 'there is her very self! just as she looked when 
+she came first to the chateau.  You see, madam, she was all blooming 
+like you, then--and so soon to be cut off!'
+
+While Dorothee spoke, Emily was attentively examining the picture, 
+which bore a strong resemblance to the miniature, though the 
+expression of the countenance in each was somewhat different; but 
+still she thought she perceived something of that pensive melancholy 
+in the portrait, which so strongly characterised the miniature.
+
+'Pray, ma'amselle, stand beside the picture, that I may look at you 
+together,' said Dorothee, who, when the request was complied with, 
+exclaimed again at the resemblance.  Emily also, as she gazed upon 
+it, thought that she had somewhere seen a person very like it, though 
+she could not now recollect who this was.
+
+In this closet were many memorials of the departed Marchioness; a 
+robe and several articles of her dress were scattered upon the 
+chairs, as if they had just been thrown off.  On the floor were a 
+pair of black satin slippers, and, on the dressing-table, a pair of 
+gloves and a long black veil, which, as Emily took it up to examine, 
+she perceived was dropping to pieces with age.
+
+'Ah!' said Dorothee, observing the veil, 'my lady's hand laid it 
+there; it has never been moved since!'
+
+Emily, shuddering, immediately laid it down again.  'I well remember 
+seeing her take it off,' continued Dorothee, 'it was on the night 
+before her death, when she had returned from a little walk I had 
+persuaded her to take in the gardens, and she seemed refreshed by it.  
+I told her how much better she looked, and I remember what a languid 
+smile she gave me; but, alas! she little thought, or I either, that 
+she was to die, that night.'
+
+Dorothee wept again, and then, taking up the veil, threw it suddenly 
+over Emily, who shuddered to find it wrapped round her, descending 
+even to her feet, and, as she endeavoured to throw it off, Dorothee 
+intreated that she would keep it on for one moment.  'I thought,' 
+added she, 'how like you would look to my dear mistress in that 
+veil;--may your life, ma'amselle, be a happier one than hers!'
+
+Emily, having disengaged herself from the veil, laid it again on the 
+dressing-table, and surveyed the closet, where every object, on which 
+her eye fixed, seemed to speak of the Marchioness.  In a large oriel 
+window of painted glass, stood a table, with a silver crucifix, and a 
+prayer-book open; and Emily remembered with emotion what Dorothee had 
+mentioned concerning her custom of playing on her lute in this 
+window, before she observed the lute itself, lying on a corner of the 
+table, as if it had been carelessly placed there by the hand, that 
+had so often awakened it.
+
+'This is a sad forlorn place!' said Dorothee, 'for, when my dear lady 
+died, I had no heart to put it to rights, or the chamber either; and 
+my lord never came into the rooms after, so they remain just as they 
+did when my lady was removed for interment.'
+
+While Dorothee spoke, Emily was still looking on the lute, which was 
+a Spanish one, and remarkably large; and then, with a hesitating 
+hand, she took it up, and passed her fingers over the chords.  They 
+were out of tune, but uttered a deep and full sound.  Dorothee 
+started at their well-known tones, and, seeing the lute in Emily's 
+hand, said, 'This is the lute my lady Marchioness loved so!  I 
+remember when last she played upon it--it was on the night that she 
+died.  I came as usual to undress her, and, as I entered the bed-
+chamber, I heard the sound of music from the oriel, and perceiving it 
+was my lady's, who was sitting there, I stepped softly to the door, 
+which stood a little open, to listen; for the music--though it was 
+mournful--was so sweet!  There I saw her, with the lute in her hand, 
+looking upwards, and the tears fell upon her cheeks, while she sung a 
+vesper hymn, so soft, and so solemn! and her voice trembled, as it 
+were, and then she would stop for a moment, and wipe away her tears, 
+and go on again, lower than before.  O! I had often listened to my 
+lady, but never heard any thing so sweet as this; it made me cry, 
+almost, to hear it.  She had been at prayers, I fancy, for there was 
+the book open on the table beside her--aye, and there it lies open 
+still!  Pray, let us leave the oriel, ma'amselle,' added Dorothee, 
+'this is a heart-breaking place!'
+
+Having returned into the chamber, she desired to look once more upon 
+the bed, when, as they came opposite to the open door, leading into 
+the saloon, Emily, in the partial gleam, which the lamp threw into 
+it, thought she saw something glide along into the obscurer part of 
+the room.  Her spirits had been much affected by the surrounding 
+scene, or it is probable this circumstance, whether real or 
+imaginary, would not have affected her in the degree it did; but she 
+endeavoured to conceal her emotion from Dorothee, who, however, 
+observing her countenance change, enquired if she was ill.
+
+'Let us go,' said Emily, faintly, 'the air of these rooms is 
+unwholesome;' but, when she attempted to do so, considering that she 
+must pass through the apartment where the phantom of her terror had 
+appeared, this terror increased, and, too faint to support herself, 
+she sad down on the side of the bed.
+
+Dorothee, believing that she was only affected by a consideration of 
+the melancholy catastrophe, which had happened on this spot, 
+endeavoured to cheer her; and then, as they sat together on the bed, 
+she began to relate other particulars concerning it, and this without 
+reflecting, that it might increase Emily's emotion, but because they 
+were particularly interesting to herself.  'A little before my lady's 
+death,' said she, 'when the pains were gone off, she called me to 
+her, and stretching out her hand to me, I sat down just there--where 
+the curtain falls upon the bed.  How well I remember her look at the 
+time--death was in it!--I can almost fancy I see her now.--There she 
+lay, ma'amselle--her face was upon the pillow there!  This black 
+counterpane was not upon the bed then; it was laid on, after her 
+death, and she was laid out upon it.'
+
+Emily turned to look within the dusky curtains, as if she could have 
+seen the countenance of which Dorothee spoke.  The edge of the white 
+pillow only appeared above the blackness of the pall, but, as her 
+eyes wandered over the pall itself, she fancied she saw it move.  
+Without speaking, she caught Dorothee's arm, who, surprised by the 
+action, and by the look of terror that accompanied it, turned her 
+eyes from Emily to the bed, where, in the next moment she, too, saw 
+the pall slowly lifted, and fall again.
+
+Emily attempted to go, but Dorothee stood fixed and gazing upon the 
+bed; and, at length, said--'It is only the wind, that waves it, 
+ma'amselle; we have left all the doors open:  see how the air waves 
+the lamp, too.--It is only the wind.'
+
+She had scarcely uttered these words, when the pall was more 
+violently agitated than before; but Emily, somewhat ashamed of her 
+terrors, stepped back to the bed, willing to be convinced that the 
+wind only had occasioned her alarm; when, as she gazed within the 
+curtains, the pall moved again, and, in the next moment, the 
+apparition of a human countenance rose above it.
+
+Screaming with terror, they both fled, and got out of the chamber as 
+fast as their trembling limbs would bear them, leaving open the doors 
+of all the rooms, through which they passed.  When they reached the 
+stair-case, Dorothee threw open a chamber door, where some of the 
+female servants slept, and sunk breathless on the bed; while Emily, 
+deprived of all presence of mind, made only a feeble attempt to 
+conceal the occasion of her terror from the astonished servants; and, 
+though Dorothee, when she could speak, endeavoured to laugh at her 
+own fright, and was joined by Emily, no remonstrances could prevail 
+with the servants, who had quickly taken the alarm, to pass even the 
+remainder of the night in a room so near to these terrific chambers.
+
+Dorothee having accompanied Emily to her own apartment, they then 
+began to talk over, with some degree of coolness, the strange 
+circumstance, that had just occurred; and Emily would almost have 
+doubted her own perceptions, had not those of Dorothee attested their 
+truth.  Having now mentioned what she had observed in the outer 
+chamber, she asked the housekeeper, whether she was certain no door 
+had been left unfastened, by which a person might secretly have 
+entered the apartments?  Dorothee replied, that she had constantly 
+kept the keys of the several doors in her own possession; that, when 
+she had gone her rounds through the castle, as she frequently did, to 
+examine if all was safe, she had tried these doors among the rest, 
+and had always found them fastened.  It was, therefore, impossible, 
+she added, that any person could have got admittance into the 
+apartments; and, if they could--it was very improbable they should 
+have chose to sleep in a place so cold and forlorn.
+
+Emily observed, that their visit to these chambers had, perhaps, been 
+watched, and that some person, for a frolic, had followed them into 
+the rooms, with a design to frighten them, and, while they were in 
+the oriel, had taken the opportunity of concealing himself in the 
+bed.
+
+Dorothee allowed, that this was possible, till she recollected, that, 
+on entering the apartments, she had turned the key of the outer door, 
+and this, which had been done to prevent their visit being noticed by 
+any of the family, who might happen to be up, must effectually have 
+excluded every person, except themselves, from the chambers; and she 
+now persisted in affirming, that the ghastly countenance she had seen 
+was nothing human, but some dreadful apparition.
+
+Emily was very solemnly affected.  Of whatever nature might be the 
+appearance she had witnessed, whether human or supernatural, the fate 
+of the deceased Marchioness was a truth not to be doubted; and this 
+unaccountable circumstance, occurring in the very scene of her 
+sufferings, affected Emily's imagination with a superstitious awe, to 
+which, after having detected the fallacies at Udolpho, she might not 
+have yielded, had she been ignorant of the unhappy story, related by 
+the housekeeper.  Her she now solemnly conjured to conceal the 
+occurrence of this night, and to make light of the terror she had 
+already betrayed, that the Count might not be distressed by reports, 
+which would certainly spread alarm and confusion among his family.  
+'Time,' she added, 'may explain this mysterious affair; meanwhile let 
+us watch the event in silence.'
+
+Dorothee readily acquiesced; but she now recollected that she had 
+left all the doors of the north suite of rooms open, and, not having 
+courage to return alone to lock even the outer one, Emily, after some 
+effort, so far conquered her own fears, that she offered to accompany 
+her to the foot of the back stair-case, and to wait there while 
+Dorothee ascended, whose resolution being re-assured by this 
+circumstance, she consented to go, and they left Emily's apartment 
+together.
+
+No sound disturbed the stillness, as they passed along the halls and 
+galleries; but, on reaching the foot of the back stair-case, 
+Dorothee's resolution failed again; having, however, paused a moment 
+to listen, and no sound being heard above, she ascended, leaving 
+Emily below, and, scarcely suffering her eye to glance within the 
+first chamber, she fastened the door, which shut up the whole suite 
+of apartments, and returned to Emily.
+
+As they stepped along the passage, leading into the great hall, a 
+sound of lamentation was heard, which seemed to come from the hall 
+itself, and they stopped in new alarm to listen, when Emily presently 
+distinguished the voice of Annette, whom she found crossing the hall, 
+with another female servant, and so terrified by the report, which 
+the other maids had spread, that, believing she could be safe only 
+where her lady was, she was going for refuge to her apartment.  
+Emily's endeavours to laugh, or to argue her out of these terrors, 
+were equally vain, and, in compassion to her distress, she consented 
+that she should remain in her room during the night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+  Hail, mildly-pleasing Solitude!
+ Companion of the wise and good--
+
+ This is the balmy breath of morn,
+ Just as the dew-bent rose is born.
+
+ But chief when evening scenes decay
+ And the faint landscape swims away,
+ Thine is the doubtful, soft decline,
+ And that best hour of musing thine.
+     THOMSON
+
+Emily's injunctions to Annette to be silent on the subject of her 
+terror were ineffectual, and the occurrence of the preceding night 
+spread such alarm among the servants, who now all affirmed, that they 
+had frequently heard unaccountable noises in the chateau, that a 
+report soon reached the Count of the north side of the castle being 
+haunted.  He treated this, at first, with ridicule, but, perceiving, 
+that it was productive of serious evil, in the confusion it 
+occasioned among his household, he forbade any person to repeat it, 
+on pain of punishment.
+
+The arrival of a party of his friends soon withdrew his thoughts 
+entirely from this subject, and his servants had now little leisure 
+to brood over it, except, indeed, in the evenings after supper, when 
+they all assembled in their hall, and related stories of ghosts, till 
+they feared to look round the room; started, if the echo of a closing 
+door murmured along the passage, and refused to go singly to any part 
+of the castle.
+
+On these occasions Annette made a distinguished figure.  When she 
+told not only of all the wonders she had witnessed, but of all that 
+she had imagined, in the castle of Udolpho, with the story of the 
+strange disappearance of Signora Laurentini, she made no trifling 
+impression on the mind of her attentive auditors.  Her suspicions, 
+concerning Montoni, she would also have freely disclosed, had not 
+Ludovico, who was now in the service of the Count, prudently checked 
+her loquacity, whenever it pointed to that subject.
+
+Among the visitors at the chateau was the Baron de Saint Foix, an old 
+friend of the Count, and his son, the Chevalier St. Foix, a sensible 
+and amiable young man, who, having in the preceding year seen the 
+Lady Blanche, at Paris, had become her declared admirer.  The 
+friendship, which the Count had long entertained for his father, and 
+the equality of their circumstances made him secretly approve of the 
+connection; but, thinking his daughter at this time too young to fix 
+her choice for life, and wishing to prove the sincerity and strength 
+of the Chevalier's attachment, he then rejected his suit, though 
+without forbidding his future hope.  This young man now came, with 
+the Baron, his father, to claim the reward of a steady affection, a 
+claim, which the Count admitted and which Blanche did not reject.
+
+While these visitors were at the chateau, it became a scene of gaiety 
+and splendour.  The pavilion in the woods was fitted up and 
+frequented, in the fine evenings, as a supper-room, when the hour 
+usually concluded with a concert, at which the Count and Countess, 
+who were scientific performers, and the Chevaliers Henri and St. 
+Foix, with the Lady Blanche and Emily, whose voices and fine taste 
+compensated for the want of more skilful execution, usually assisted.  
+Several of the Count's servants performed on horns and other 
+instruments, some of which, placed at a little distance among the 
+woods, spoke, in sweet response, to the harmony, that proceeded from 
+the pavilion.
+
+At any other period, these parties would have been delightful to 
+Emily; but her spirits were now oppressed with a melancholy, which 
+she perceived that no kind of what is called amusement had power to 
+dissipate, and which the tender and, frequently, pathetic, melody of 
+these concerts sometimes increased to a very painful degree.
+
+She was particularly fond of walking in the woods, that hung on a 
+promontory, overlooking the sea.  Their luxuriant shade was soothing 
+to her pensive mind, and, in the partial views, which they afforded 
+of the Mediterranean, with its winding shores and passing sails, 
+tranquil beauty was united with grandeur.  The paths were rude and 
+frequently overgrown with vegetation, but their tasteful owner would 
+suffer little to be done to them, and scarcely a single branch to be 
+lopped from the venerable trees.  On an eminence, in one of the most 
+sequestered parts of these woods, was a rustic seat, formed of the 
+trunk of a decayed oak, which had once been a noble tree, and of 
+which many lofty branches still flourishing united with beech and 
+pines to over-canopy the spot.  Beneath their deep umbrage, the eye 
+passed over the tops of other woods, to the Mediterranean, and, to 
+the left, through an opening, was seen a ruined watch-tower, standing 
+on a point of rock, near the sea, and rising from among the tufted 
+foliage.
+
+Hither Emily often came alone in the silence of evening, and, soothed 
+by the scenery and by the faint murmur, that rose from the waves, 
+would sit, till darkness obliged her to return to the chateau.  
+Frequently, also, she visited the watch-tower, which commanded the 
+entire prospect, and, when she leaned against its broken walls, and 
+thought of Valancourt, she not once imagined, what was so true, that 
+this tower had been almost as frequently his resort, as her own, 
+since his estrangement from the neighbouring chateau.
+
+One evening, she lingered here to a late hour.  She had sat on the 
+steps of the building, watching, in tranquil melancholy, the gradual 
+effect of evening over the extensive prospect, till the gray waters 
+of the Mediterranean and the massy woods were almost the only 
+features of the scene, that remained visible; when, as she gazed 
+alternately on these, and on the mild blue of the heavens, where the 
+first pale star of evening appeared, she personified the hour in the 
+following lines:--
+
+  SONG OF THE EVENING HOUR
+
+ Last of the Hours, that track the fading Day,
+ I move along the realms of twilight air,
+ And hear, remote, the choral song decay
+ Of sister-nymphs, who dance around his car.
+
+ Then, as I follow through the azure void,
+ His partial splendour from my straining eye
+ Sinks in the depth of space; my only guide
+ His faint ray dawning on the farthest sky;
+
+ Save that sweet, lingering strain of gayer Hours,
+ Whose close my voice prolongs in dying notes,
+ While mortals on the green earth own its pow'rs,
+ As downward on the evening gale it floats.
+
+ When fades along the West the Sun's last beam,
+ As, weary, to the nether world he goes,
+ And mountain-summits catch the purple gleam,
+ And slumbering ocean faint and fainter glows,
+
+ Silent upon the globe's broad shade I steal,
+ And o'er its dry turf shed the cooling dews,
+ And ev'ry fever'd herb and flow'ret heal,
+ And all their fragrance on the air diffuse.
+
+ Where'er I move, a tranquil pleasure reigns;
+ O'er all the scene the dusky tints I send,
+ That forests wild and mountains, stretching plains
+ And peopled towns, in soft confusion blend.
+
+ Wide o'er the world I waft the fresh'ning wind,
+ Low breathing through the woods and twilight vale,
+ In whispers soft, that woo the pensive mind
+ Of him, who loves my lonely steps to hail.
+
+ His tender oaten reed I watch to hear,
+ Stealing its sweetness o'er some plaining rill,
+ Or soothing ocean's wave, when storms are near,
+ Or swelling in the breeze from distant hill!
+
+ I wake the fairy elves, who shun the light;
+ When, from their blossom'd beds, they slily peep,
+ And spy my pale star, leading on the night,--
+ Forth to their games and revelry they leap;
+
+ Send all the prison'd sweets abroad in air,
+ That with them slumber'd in the flow'ret's cell;
+ Then to the shores and moon-light brooks repair,
+ Till the high larks their matin-carol swell.
+
+ The wood-nymphs hail my airs and temper'd shade,
+ With ditties soft and lightly sportive dance,
+ On river margin of some bow'ry glade,
+ And strew their fresh buds as my steps advance:
+
+ But, swift I pass, and distant regions trace,
+ For moon-beams silver all the eastern cloud,
+ And Day's last crimson vestige fades apace;
+ Down the steep west I fly from Midnight's shroud.
+
+The moon was now rising out of the sea.  She watched its gradual 
+progress, the extending line of radiance it threw upon the waters, 
+the sparkling oars, the sail faintly silvered, and the wood-tops and 
+the battlements of the watch-tower, at whose foot she was sitting, 
+just tinted with the rays.  Emily's spirits were in harmony with this 
+scene.  As she sat meditating, sounds stole by her on the air, which 
+she immediately knew to be the music and the voice she had formerly 
+heard at midnight, and the emotion of awe, which she felt, was not 
+unmixed with terror, when she considered her remote and lonely 
+situation.  The sounds drew nearer.  She would have risen to leave 
+the place, but they seemed to come from the way she must have taken 
+towards the chateau, and she awaited the event in trembling 
+expectation.  The sounds continued to approach, for some time, and 
+then ceased.  Emily sat listening, gazing and unable to move, when 
+she saw a figure emerge from the shade of the woods and pass along 
+the bank, at some little distance before her.  It went swiftly, and 
+her spirits were so overcome with awe, that, though she saw, she did 
+not much observe it.
+
+Having left the spot, with a resolution never again to visit it 
+alone, at so late an hour, she began to approach the chateau, when 
+she heard voices calling her from the part of the wood, which was 
+nearest to it.  They were the shouts of the Count's servants, who 
+were sent to search for her; and when she entered the supper-room, 
+where he sat with Henri and Blanche, he gently reproached her with a 
+look, which she blushed to have deserved.
+
+This little occurrence deeply impressed her mind, and, when she 
+withdrew to her own room, it recalled so forcibly the circumstances 
+she had witnessed, a few nights before, that she had scarcely courage 
+to remain alone.  She watched to a late hour, when, no sound having 
+renewed her fears, she, at length, sunk to repose.  But this was of 
+short continuance, for she was disturbed by a loud and unusual noise, 
+that seemed to come from the gallery, into which her chamber opened.  
+Groans were distinctly heard, and, immediately after, a dead weight 
+fell against the door, with a violence, that threatened to burst it 
+open.  She called loudly to know who was there, but received no 
+answer, though, at intervals, she still thought she heard something 
+like a low moaning.  Fear deprived her of the power to move.  Soon 
+after, she heard footsteps in a remote part of the gallery, and, as 
+they approached, she called more loudly than before, till the steps 
+paused at her door.  She then distinguished the voices of several of 
+the servants, who seemed too much engaged by some circumstance 
+without, to attend to her calls; but, Annette soon after entering the 
+room for water, Emily understood, that one of the maids had fainted, 
+whom she immediately desired them to bring into her room, where she 
+assisted to restore her.  When this girl had recovered her speech, 
+she affirmed, that, as she was passing up the back stair-case, in the 
+way to her chamber, she had seen an apparition on the second landing-
+place; she held the lamp low, she said, that she might pick her way, 
+several of the stairs being infirm and even decayed, and it was upon 
+raising her eyes, that she saw this appearance.  It stood for a 
+moment in the corner of the landing-place, which she was approaching, 
+and then, gliding up the stairs, vanished at the door of the 
+apartment, that had been lately opened.  She heard afterwards a 
+hollow sound.
+
+'Then the devil has got a key to that apartment,' said Dorothee, 'for 
+it could be nobody but he; I locked the door myself!'
+
+The girl, springing down the stairs and passing up the great stair-
+case, had run, with a faint scream, till she reached the gallery, 
+where she fell, groaning, at Emily's door.
+
+Gently chiding her for the alarm she had occasioned, Emily tried to 
+make her ashamed of her fears; but the girl persisted in saying, that 
+she had seen an apparition, till she went to her own room, whither 
+she was accompanied by all the servants present, except Dorothee, 
+who, at Emily's request, remained with her during the night.  Emily 
+was perplexed, and Dorothee was terrified, and mentioned many 
+occurrences of former times, which had long since confirmed her 
+superstitions; among these, according to her belief, she had once 
+witnessed an appearance, like that just described, and on the very 
+same spot, and it was the remembrance of it, that had made her pause, 
+when she was going to ascend the stairs with Emily, and which had 
+increased her reluctance to open the north apartments.  Whatever 
+might be Emily's opinions, she did not disclose them, but listened 
+attentively to all that Dorothee communicated, which occasioned her 
+much thought and perplexity.
+
+From this night the terror of the servants increased to such an 
+excess, that several of them determined to leave the chateau, and 
+requested their discharge of the Count, who, if he had any faith in 
+the subject of their alarm, thought proper to dissemble it, and, 
+anxious to avoid the inconvenience that threatened him, employed 
+ridicule and then argument to convince them they had nothing to 
+apprehend from supernatural agency.  But fear had rendered their 
+minds inaccessible to reason; and it was now, that Ludovico proved at 
+once his courage and his gratitude for the kindness he had received 
+from the Count, by offering to watch, during a night, in the suite of 
+rooms, reputed to be haunted.  He feared, he said, no spirits, and, 
+if any thing of human form appeared--he would prove that he dreaded 
+that as little.
+
+The Count paused upon the offer, while the servants, who heard it, 
+looked upon one another in doubt and amazement, and Annette, 
+terrified for the safety of Ludovico, employed tears and entreaties 
+to dissuade him from his purpose.
+
+'You are a bold fellow,' said the Count, smiling, 'Think well of what 
+you are going to encounter, before you finally determine upon it.  
+However, if you persevere in your resolution, I will accept your 
+offer, and your intrepidity shall not go unrewarded.'
+
+'I desire no reward, your excellenza,' replied Ludovico, 'but your 
+approbation.  Your excellenza has been sufficiently good to me 
+already; but I wish to have arms, that I may be equal to my enemy, if 
+he should appear.'
+
+'Your sword cannot defend you against a ghost,' replied the Count, 
+throwing a glance of irony upon the other servants, 'neither can 
+bars, or bolts; for a spirit, you know, can glide through a keyhole 
+as easily as through a door.'
+
+'Give me a sword, my lord Count,' said Ludovico, 'and I will lay all 
+the spirits, that shall attack me, in the red sea.'
+
+'Well,' said the Count, 'you shall have a sword, and good cheer, too; 
+and your brave comrades here will, perhaps, have courage enough to 
+remain another night in the chateau, since your boldness will 
+certainly, for this night, at least, confine all the malice of the 
+spectre to yourself.'
+
+Curiosity now struggled with fear in the minds of several of his 
+fellow servants, and, at length, they resolved to await the event of 
+Ludovico's rashness.
+
+Emily was surprised and concerned, when she heard of his intention, 
+and was frequently inclined to mention what she had witnessed in the 
+north apartments to the Count, for she could not entirely divest 
+herself of fears for Ludovico's safety, though her reason represented 
+these to be absurd.  The necessity, however, of concealing the 
+secret, with which Dorothee had entrusted her, and which must have 
+been mentioned, with the late occurrence, in excuse for her having so 
+privately visited the north apartments, kept her entirely silent on 
+the subject of her apprehension; and she tried only to sooth Annette, 
+who held, that Ludovico was certainly to be destroyed; and who was 
+much less affected by Emily's consolatory efforts, than by the manner 
+of old Dorothee, who often, as she exclaimed Ludovico, sighed, and 
+threw up her eyes to heaven.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+  Ye gods of quiet, and of sleep profound!
+ Whose soft dominion o'er this castle sways,
+ And all the widely-silent places round,
+ Forgive me, if my trembling pen displays
+ What never yet was sung in mortal lays.
+     THOMSON
+
+The Count gave orders for the north apartments to be opened and 
+prepared for the reception of Ludovico; but Dorothee, remembering 
+what she had lately witnessed there, feared to obey, and, not one of 
+the other servants daring to venture thither, the rooms remained shut 
+up till the time when Ludovico was to retire thither for the night, 
+an hour, for which the whole household waited with impatience.
+
+After supper, Ludovico, by the order of the Count, attended him in 
+his closet, where they remained alone for near half an hour, and, on 
+leaving which, his Lord delivered to him a sword.
+
+'It has seen service in mortal quarrels,' said the Count, jocosely, 
+'you will use it honourably, no doubt, in a spiritual one.  Tomorrow, 
+let me hear that there is not one ghost remaining in the chateau.'
+
+Ludovico received it with a respectful bow.  'You shall be obeyed, my 
+Lord,' said he; 'I will engage, that no spectre shall disturb the 
+peace of the chateau after this night.'
+
+They now returned to the supper-room, where the Count's guests 
+awaited to accompany him and Ludovico to the door of the north 
+apartments, and Dorothee, being summoned for the keys, delivered them 
+to Ludovico, who then led the way, followed by most of the 
+inhabitants of the chateau.  Having reached the back stair-case, 
+several of the servants shrunk back, and refused to go further, but 
+the rest followed him to the top of the stair-case, where a broad 
+landing-place allowed them to flock round him, while he applied the 
+key to the door, during which they watched him with as much eager 
+curiosity as if he had been performing some magical rite.
+
+Ludovico, unaccustomed to the lock, could not turn it, and Dorothee, 
+who had lingered far behind, was called forward, under whose hand the 
+door opened slowly, and, her eye glancing within the dusky chamber, 
+she uttered a sudden shriek, and retreated.  At this signal of alarm, 
+the greater part of the crowd hurried down the stairs, and the Count, 
+Henri and Ludovico were left alone to pursue the enquiry, who 
+instantly rushed into the apartment, Ludovico with a drawn sword, 
+which he had just time to draw from the scabbard, the Count with the 
+lamp in his hand, and Henri carrying a basket, containing provisions 
+for the courageous adventurer.
+
+Having looked hastily round the first room, where nothing appeared to 
+justify alarm, they passed on to the second; and, here too all being 
+quiet, they proceeded to a third with a more tempered step.  The 
+Count had now leisure to smile at the discomposure, into which he had 
+been surprised, and to ask Ludovico in which room he designed to pass 
+the night.
+
+'There are several chambers beyond these, your excellenza,' said 
+Ludovico, pointing to a door, 'and in one of them is a bed, they say.  
+I will pass the night there, and when I am weary of watching, I can 
+lie down.'
+
+'Good;' said the Count; 'let us go on.  You see these rooms shew 
+nothing, but damp walls and decaying furniture.  I have been so much 
+engaged since I came to the chateau, that I have not looked into them 
+till now.  Remember, Ludovico, to tell the housekeeper, to-morrow, to 
+throw open these windows.  The damask hangings are dropping to 
+pieces, I will have them taken down, and this antique furniture 
+removed.'
+
+'Dear sir!' said Henri, 'here is an arm-chair so massy with gilding, 
+that it resembles one of the state chairs at the Louvre, more then 
+any thing else.'
+
+'Yes,' said the Count, stopping a moment to survey it, 'there is a 
+history belonging to that chair, but I have not time to tell it.--Let 
+us pass on.  This suite runs to a greater extent than I had imagined; 
+it is many years since I was in them.  But where is the bed-room you 
+speak of, Ludovico?--these are only anti-chambers to the great 
+drawing-room.  I remember them in their splendour!'
+
+'The bed, my Lord,' replied Ludovico, 'they told me, was in a room 
+that opens beyond the saloon, and terminates the suite.'
+
+'O, here is the saloon,' said the Count, as they entered the spacious 
+apartment, in which Emily and Dorothee had rested.  He here stood for 
+a moment, surveying the reliques of faded grandeur, which it 
+exhibited--the sumptuous tapestry--the long and low sophas of velvet, 
+with frames heavily carved and gilded--the floor inlaid with small 
+squares of fine marble, and covered in the centre with a piece of 
+very rich tapestry-work--the casements of painted glass, and the 
+large Venetian mirrors, of a size and quality, such as at that period 
+France could not make, which reflected, on every side, the spacious 
+apartment.  These had formerly also reflected a gay and brilliant 
+scene, for this had been the state-room of the chateau, and here the 
+Marchioness had held the assemblies, that made part of the 
+festivities of her nuptials.  If the wand of a magician could have 
+recalled the vanished groups, many of them vanished even from the 
+earth! that once had passed over these polished mirrors, what a 
+varied and contrasted picture would they have exhibited with the 
+present!  Now, instead of a blaze of lights, and a splendid and busy 
+crowd, they reflected only the rays of the one glimmering lamp, which 
+the Count held up, and which scarcely served to shew the three 
+forlorn figures, that stood surveying the room, and the spacious and 
+dusky walls around them.
+
+'Ah!' said the Count to Henri, awaking from his deep reverie, 'how 
+the scene is changed since last I saw it!  I was a young man, then, 
+and the Marchioness was alive and in her bloom; many other persons 
+were here, too, who are now no more!  There stood the orchestra; here 
+we tripped in many a sprightly maze--the walls echoing to the dance!  
+Now, they resound only one feeble voice--and even that will, ere 
+long, be heard no more!  My son, remember, that I was once as young 
+as yourself, and that you must pass away like those, who have 
+preceded you--like those, who, as they sung and danced in this once 
+gay apartment, forgot, that years are made up of moments, and that 
+every step they took carried them nearer to their graves.  But such 
+reflections are useless, I had almost said criminal, unless they 
+teach us to prepare for eternity, since, otherwise, they cloud our 
+present happiness, without guiding us to a future one.  But enough of 
+this; let us go on.'
+
+Ludovico now opened the door of the bed-room, and the Count, as he 
+entered, was struck with the funereal appearance, which the dark 
+arras gave to it.  He approached the bed, with an emotion of 
+solemnity, and, perceiving it to be covered with the pall of black 
+velvet, paused; 'What can this mean?' said he, as he gazed upon it.
+
+'I have heard, my Lord,' said Ludovico, as he stood at the feet, 
+looking within the canopied curtains, 'that the Lady Marchioness de 
+Villeroi died in this chamber, and remained here till she was removed 
+to be buried; and this, perhaps, Signor, may account for the pall.'
+
+The Count made no reply, but stood for a few moments engaged in 
+thought, and evidently much affected.  Then, turning to Ludovico, he 
+asked him with a serious air, whether he thought his courage would 
+support him through the night?  'If you doubt this,' added the Count, 
+'do not be ashamed to own it; I will release you from your 
+engagement, without exposing you to the triumphs of your fellow-
+servants.'
+
+Ludovico paused; pride, and something very like fear, seemed 
+struggling in his breast; pride, however, was victorious;--he 
+blushed, and his hesitation ceased.
+
+'No, my Lord,' said he, 'I will go through with what I have begun; 
+and I am grateful for your consideration.  On that hearth I will make 
+a fire, and, with the good cheer in this basket, I doubt not I shall 
+do well.'
+
+'Be it so,' said the Count; 'but how will you beguile the tediousness 
+of the night, if you do not sleep?'
+
+'When I am weary, my Lord,' replied Ludovico, 'I shall not fear to 
+sleep; in the meanwhile, I have a book, that will entertain me.'
+
+'Well,' said the Count, 'I hope nothing will disturb you; but if you 
+should be seriously alarmed in the night, come to my apartment.  I 
+have too much confidence in your good sense and courage, to believe 
+you will be alarmed on slight grounds; or suffer the gloom of this 
+chamber, or its remote situation, to overcome you with ideal terrors.  
+To-morrow, I shall have to thank you for an important service; these 
+rooms shall then be thrown open, and my people will be convinced of 
+their error.  Good night, Ludovico; let me see you early in the 
+morning, and remember what I lately said to you.'
+
+'I will, my Lord; good night to your excellenza; let me attend you 
+with the light.'
+
+He lighted the Count and Henri through the chambers to the outer 
+door; on the landing-place stood a lamp, which one of the affrighted 
+servants had left, and Henri, as he took it up, again bade Ludovico 
+good night, who, having respectfully returned the wish, closed the 
+door upon them, and fastened it.  Then, as he retired to the bed-
+chamber, he examined the rooms, through which he passed, with more 
+minuteness than he had done before, for he apprehended, that some 
+person might have concealed himself in them, for the purpose of 
+frightening him.  No one, however, but himself, was in these 
+chambers, and, leaving open the doors, through which he passed, he 
+came again to the great drawing-room, whose spaciousness and silent 
+gloom somewhat awed him.  For a moment he stood, looking back through 
+the long suite of rooms he had quitted, and, as he turned, perceiving 
+a light and his own figure, reflected in one of the large mirrors, he 
+started.  Other objects too were seen obscurely on its dark surface, 
+but he paused not to examine them, and returned hastily into the bed-
+room, as he surveyed which, he observed the door of the oriel, and 
+opened it.  All within was still.  On looking round, his eye was 
+arrested by the portrait of the deceased Marchioness, upon which he 
+gazed, for a considerable time, with great attention and some 
+surprise; and then, having examined the closet, he returned into the 
+bed-room, where he kindled a wood fire, the bright blaze of which 
+revived his spirits, which had begun to yield to the gloom and 
+silence of the place, for gusts of wind alone broke at intervals this 
+silence.  He now drew a small table and a chair near the fire, took a 
+bottle of wine, and some cold provision out of his basket, and 
+regaled himself.  When he had finished his repast, he laid his sword 
+upon the table, and, not feeling disposed to sleep, drew from his 
+pocket the book he had spoken of.--It was a volume of old Provencal 
+tales.  Having stirred the fire upon the hearth, he began to read, 
+and his attention was soon wholly occupied by the scenes, which the 
+page disclosed.
+
+The Count, meanwhile, had returned to the supper-room, whither those 
+of the party, who had attended him to the north apartment, had 
+retreated, upon hearing Dorothee's scream, and who were now earnest 
+in their enquiries concerning those chambers.  The Count rallied his 
+guests on their precipitate retreat, and on the superstitious 
+inclination which had occasioned it, and this led to the question, 
+Whether the spirit, after it has quitted the body, is ever permitted 
+to revisit the earth; and if it is, whether it was possible for 
+spirits to become visible to the sense.  The Baron was of opinion, 
+that the first was probable, and the last was possible, and he 
+endeavoured to justify this opinion by respectable authorities, both 
+ancient and modern, which he quoted.  The Count, however, was 
+decidedly against him, and a long conversation ensued, in which the 
+usual arguments on these subjects were on both sides brought forward 
+with skill, and discussed with candour, but without converting either 
+party to the opinion of his opponent.  The effect of their 
+conversation on their auditors was various.  Though the Count had 
+much the superiority of the Baron in point of argument, he had 
+considerably fewer adherents; for that love, so natural to the human 
+mind, of whatever is able to distend its faculties with wonder and 
+astonishment, attached the majority of the company to the side of the 
+Baron; and, though many of the Count's propositions were 
+unanswerable, his opponents were inclined to believe this the 
+consequence of their own want of knowledge, on so abstracted a 
+subject, rather than that arguments did not exist, which were 
+forcible enough to conquer his.
+
+Blanche was pale with attention, till the ridicule in her father's 
+glance called a blush upon her countenance, and she then endeavoured 
+to forget the superstitious tales she had been told in her convent.  
+Meanwhile, Emily had been listening with deep attention to the 
+discussion of what was to her a very interesting question, and, 
+remembering the appearance she had witnessed in the apartment of the 
+late Marchioness, she was frequently chilled with awe.  Several times 
+she was on the point of mentioning what she had seen, but the fear of 
+giving pain to the Count, and the dread of his ridicule, restrained 
+her; and, awaiting in anxious expectation the event of Ludovico's 
+intrepidity, she determined that her future silence should depend 
+upon it.
+
+When the party had separated for the night, and the Count retired to 
+his dressing-room, the remembrance of the desolate scenes he had 
+lately witnessed in his own mansion deeply affected him, but at 
+length he was aroused from his reverie and his silence.  'What music 
+is that I hear?'--said he suddenly to his valet, 'Who plays at this 
+late hour?'
+
+The man made no reply, and the Count continued to listen, and then 
+added, 'That is no common musician; he touches the instrument with a 
+delicate hand; who is it, Pierre?'
+
+'My lord!' said the man, hesitatingly.
+
+'Who plays that instrument?' repeated the Count.
+
+'Does not your lordship know, then?' said the valet.
+
+'What mean you?' said the Count, somewhat sternly.
+
+'Nothing, my Lord, I meant nothing,' rejoined the man submissively--
+'Only--that music--goes about the house at midnight often, and I 
+thought your lordship might have heard it before.'
+
+'Music goes about the house at midnight!  Poor fellow!--does nobody 
+dance to the music, too?'
+
+'It is not in the chateau, I believe, my Lord; the sounds come from 
+the woods, they say, though they seem so near;--but then a spirit can 
+do any thing!'
+
+'Ah, poor fellow!' said the Count, 'I perceive you are as silly as 
+the rest of them; to-morrow, you will be convinced of your ridiculous 
+error.  But hark!--what voice is that?'
+
+'O my Lord! that is the voice we often hear with the music.'
+
+'Often!' said the Count, 'How often, pray?  It is a very fine one.'
+
+'Why, my Lord, I myself have not heard it more than two or three 
+times, but there are those who have lived here longer, that have 
+heard it often enough.'
+
+'What a swell was that!' exclaimed the Count, as he still listened, 
+'And now, what a dying cadence!  This is surely something more than 
+mortal!'
+
+'That is what they say, my Lord,' said the valet; 'they say it is 
+nothing mortal, that utters it; and if I might say my thoughts'--
+
+'Peace!' said the Count, and he listened till the strain died away.
+
+'This is strange!' said he, as he turned from the window, 'Close the 
+casements, Pierre.'
+
+Pierre obeyed, and the Count soon after dismissed him, but did not so 
+soon lose the remembrance of the music, which long vibrated in his 
+fancy in tones of melting sweetness, while surprise and perplexity 
+engaged his thoughts.
+
+Ludovico, meanwhile, in his remote chamber, heard, now and then, the 
+faint echo of a closing door, as the family retired to rest, and then 
+the hall clock, at a great distance, strike twelve.  'It is 
+midnight,' said he, and he looked suspiciously round the spacious 
+chamber.  The fire on the hearth was now nearly expiring, for his 
+attention having been engaged by the book before him, he had 
+forgotten every thing besides; but he soon added fresh wood, not 
+because he was cold, though the night was stormy, but because he was 
+cheerless; and, having again trimmed his lamp, he poured out a glass 
+of wine, drew his chair nearer to the crackling blaze, tried to be 
+deaf to the wind, that howled mournfully at the casements, 
+endeavoured to abstract his mind from the melancholy, that was 
+stealing upon him, and again took up his book.  It had been lent to 
+him by Dorothee, who had formerly picked it up in an obscure corner 
+of the Marquis's library, and who, having opened it and perceived 
+some of the marvels it related, had carefully preserved it for her 
+own entertainment, its condition giving her some excuse for detaining 
+it from its proper station.  The damp corner into which it had 
+fallen, had caused the cover to be disfigured and mouldy, and the 
+leaves to be so discoloured with spots, that it was not without 
+difficulty the letters could be traced.  The fictions of the 
+Provencal writers, whether drawn from the Arabian legends, brought by 
+the Saracens into Spain, or recounting the chivalric exploits 
+performed by the crusaders, whom the Troubadors accompanied to the 
+east, were generally splendid and always marvellous, both in scenery 
+and incident; and it is not wonderful, that Dorothee and Ludovico 
+should be fascinated by inventions, which had captivated the careless 
+imagination in every rank of society, in a former age.  Some of the 
+tales, however, in the book now before Ludovico, were of simple 
+structure, and exhibited nothing of the magnificent machinery and 
+heroic manners, which usually characterized the fables of the twelfth 
+century, and of this description was the one he now happened to open, 
+which, in its original style, was of great length, but which may be 
+thus shortly related.  The reader will perceive, that it is strongly 
+tinctured with the superstition of the times.
+
+
+THE PROVENCAL TALE
+
+'There lived, in the province of Bretagne, a noble Baron, famous for 
+his magnificence and courtly hospitalities.  His castle was graced 
+with ladies of exquisite beauty, and thronged with illustrious 
+knights; for the honour he paid to feats of chivalry invited the 
+brave of distant countries to enter his lists, and his court was more 
+splendid than those of many princes.  Eight minstrels were retained 
+in his service, who used to sing to their harps romantic fictions, 
+taken from the Arabians, or adventures of chivalry, that befel 
+knights during the crusades, or the martial deeds of the Baron, their 
+lord;--while he, surrounded by his knights and ladies, banqueted in 
+the great hall of his castle, where the costly tapestry, that adorned 
+the walls with pictured exploits of his ancestors, the casements of 
+painted glass, enriched with armorial bearings, the gorgeous banners, 
+that waved along the roof, the sumptuous canopies, the profusion of 
+gold and silver, that glittered on the sideboards, the numerous 
+dishes, that covered the tables, the number and gay liveries of the 
+attendants, with the chivalric and splendid attire of the guests, 
+united to form a scene of magnificence, such as we may not hope to 
+see in these DEGENERATE DAYS.
+
+'Of the Baron, the following adventure is related.  One night, having 
+retired late from the banquet to his chamber, and dismissed his 
+attendants, he was surprised by the appearance of a stranger of a 
+noble air, but of a sorrowful and dejected countenance.  Believing, 
+that this person had been secreted in the apartment, since it 
+appeared impossible he could have lately passed the anti-room, 
+unobserved by the pages in waiting, who would have prevented this 
+intrusion on their lord, the Baron, calling loudly for his people, 
+drew his sword, which he had not yet taken from his side, and stood 
+upon his defence.  The stranger slowly advancing, told him, that 
+there was nothing to fear; that he came with no hostile design, but 
+to communicate to him a terrible secret, which it was necessary for 
+him to know.
+
+'The Baron, appeased by the courteous manners of the stranger, after 
+surveying him, for some time, in silence, returned his sword into the 
+scabbard, and desired him to explain the means, by which he had 
+obtained access to the chamber, and the purpose of this extraordinary 
+visit.
+
+'Without answering either of these enquiries, the stranger said, that 
+he could not then explain himself, but that, if the Baron would 
+follow him to the edge of the forest, at a short distance from the 
+castle walls, he would there convince him, that he had something of 
+importance to disclose.
+
+'This proposal again alarmed the Baron, who could scarcely believe, 
+that the stranger meant to draw him to so solitary a spot, at this 
+hour of the night, without harbouring a design against his life, and 
+he refused to go, observing, at the same time, that, if the 
+stranger's purpose was an honourable one, he would not persist in 
+refusing to reveal the occasion of his visit, in the apartment where 
+they were.
+
+'While he spoke this, he viewed the stranger still more attentively 
+than before, but observed no change in his countenance, or any 
+symptom, that might intimate a consciousness of evil design.  He was 
+habited like a knight, was of a tall and majestic stature, and of 
+dignified and courteous manners.  Still, however, he refused to 
+communicate the subject of his errand in any place, but that he had 
+mentioned, and, at the same time, gave hints concerning the secret he 
+would disclose, that awakened a degree of solemn curiosity in the 
+Baron, which, at length, induced him to consent to follow the 
+stranger, on certain conditions.
+
+'"Sir knight," said he, "I will attend you to the forest, and will 
+take with me only four of my people, who shall witness our 
+conference."
+
+'To this, however, the Knight objected.
+
+'"What I would disclose," said he, with solemnity, "is to you alone.  
+There are only three living persons, to whom the circumstance is 
+known; it is of more consequence to you and your house, than I shall 
+now explain.  In future years, you will look back to this night with 
+satisfaction or repentance, accordingly as you now determine.  As you 
+would hereafter prosper--follow me; I pledge you the honour of a 
+knight, that no evil shall befall you;--if you are contented to dare 
+futurity--remain in your chamber, and I will depart as I came."
+
+'"Sir knight," replied the Baron, "how is it possible, that my future 
+peace can depend upon my present determination?"
+
+'"That is not now to be told," said the stranger, "I have explained 
+myself to the utmost.  It is late; if you follow me it must be 
+quickly;--you will do well to consider the alternative."
+
+'The Baron mused, and, as he looked upon the knight, he perceived his 
+countenance assume a singular solemnity.'
+
+[Here Ludovico thought he heard a noise, and he threw a glance round 
+the chamber, and then held up the lamp to assist his observation; 
+but, not perceiving any thing to confirm his alarm, he took up the 
+book again and pursued the story.]
+
+'The Baron paced his apartment, for some time, in silence, impressed 
+by the last words of the stranger, whose extraordinary request he 
+feared to grant, and feared, also, to refuse.  At length, he said, 
+"Sir knight, you are utterly unknown to me; tell me yourself,--is it 
+reasonable, that I should trust myself alone with a stranger, at this 
+hour, in a solitary forest?  Tell me, at least, who you are, and who 
+assisted to secrete you in this chamber."
+
+'The knight frowned at these latter words, and was a moment silent; 
+then, with a countenance somewhat stern, he said,
+
+'"I am an English knight; I am called Sir Bevys of Lancaster,--and my 
+deeds are not unknown at the Holy City, whence I was returning to my 
+native land, when I was benighted in the neighbouring forest."
+
+'"Your name is not unknown to fame," said the Baron, "I have heard of 
+it."  (The Knight looked haughtily.)  "But why, since my castle is 
+known to entertain all true knights, did not your herald announce 
+you?  Why did you not appear at the banquet, where your presence 
+would have been welcomed, instead of hiding yourself in my castle, 
+and stealing to my chamber, at midnight?"
+
+'The stranger frowned, and turned away in silence; but the Baron 
+repeated the questions.
+
+'"I come not," said the Knight, "to answer enquiries, but to reveal 
+facts.  If you would know more, follow me, and again I pledge the 
+honour of a Knight, that you shall return in safety.--Be quick in 
+your determination--I must be gone."
+
+'After some further hesitation, the Baron determined to follow the 
+stranger, and to see the result of his extraordinary request; he, 
+therefore, again drew forth his sword, and, taking up a lamp, bade 
+the Knight lead on.  The latter obeyed, and, opening the door of the 
+chamber, they passed into the anti-room, where the Baron, surprised 
+to find all his pages asleep, stopped, and, with hasty violence, was 
+going to reprimand them for their carelessness, when the Knight waved 
+his hand, and looked so expressively upon the Baron, that the latter 
+restrained his resentment, and passed on.
+
+'The Knight, having descended a stair-case, opened a secret door, 
+which the Baron had believed was known only to himself, and, 
+proceeding through several narrow and winding passages, came, at 
+length, to a small gate, that opened beyond the walls of the castle.  
+Meanwhile, the Baron followed in silence and amazement, on perceiving 
+that these secret passages were so well known to a stranger, and felt 
+inclined to return from an adventure, that appeared to partake of 
+treachery, as well as danger.  Then, considering that he was armed, 
+and observing the courteous and noble air of his conductor, his 
+courage returned, he blushed, that it had failed him for a moment, 
+and he resolved to trace the mystery to its source.
+
+'He now found himself on the heathy platform, before the great gates 
+of his castle, where, on looking up, he perceived lights glimmering 
+in the different casements of the guests, who were retiring to sleep; 
+and, while he shivered in the blast, and looked on the dark and 
+desolate scene around him, he thought of the comforts of his warm 
+chamber, rendered cheerful by the blaze of wood, and felt, for a 
+moment, the full contrast of his present situation.'
+
+[Here Ludovico paused a moment, and, looking at his own fire, gave it 
+a brightening stir.]
+
+'The wind was strong, and the Baron watched his lamp with anxiety, 
+expecting every moment to see it extinguished; but, though the flame 
+wavered, it did not expire, and he still followed the stranger, who 
+often sighed as he went, but did not speak.
+
+'When they reached the borders of the forest, the Knight turned, and 
+raised his head, as if he meant to address the Baron, but then, 
+closing his lips in silence, he walked on.
+
+'As they entered, beneath the dark and spreading boughs, the Baron, 
+affected by the solemnity of the scene, hesitated whether to proceed, 
+and demanded how much further they were to go.  The Knight replied 
+only by a gesture, and the Baron, with hesitating steps and a 
+suspicious eye, followed through an obscure and intricate path, till, 
+having proceeded a considerable way, he again demanded whither they 
+were going, and refused to proceed unless he was informed.
+
+'As he said this, he looked at his own sword, and at the Knight 
+alternately, who shook his head, and whose dejected countenance 
+disarmed the Baron, for a moment, of suspicion.
+
+'"A little further is the place, whither I would lead you," said the 
+stranger; "no evil shall befall you--I have sworn it on the honour of 
+a knight."
+
+'The Baron, re-assured, again followed in silence, and they soon 
+arrived at a deep recess of the forest, where the dark and lofty 
+chesnuts entirely excluded the sky, and which was so overgrown with 
+underwood, that they proceeded with difficulty.  The Knight sighed 
+deeply as he passed, and sometimes paused; and having, at length, 
+reached a spot, where the trees crowded into a knot, he turned, and, 
+with a terrific look, pointing to the ground, the Baron saw there the 
+body of a man, stretched at its length, and weltering in blood; a 
+ghastly wound was on the forehead, and death appeared already to have 
+contracted the features.
+
+'The Baron, on perceiving the spectacle, started in horror, looked at 
+the Knight for explanation, and was then going to raise the body and 
+examine if there were yet any remains of life; but the stranger, 
+waving his hand, fixed upon him a look so earnest and mournful, as 
+not only much surprised him, but made him desist.
+
+'But, what were the Baron's emotions, when, on holding the lamp near 
+the features of the corpse, he discovered the exact resemblance of 
+the stranger his conductor, to whom he now looked up in astonishment 
+and enquiry?  As he gazed, he perceived the countenance of the Knight 
+change, and begin to fade, till his whole form gradually vanished 
+from his astonished sense!  While the Baron stood, fixed to the spot, 
+a voice was heard to utter these words:--'
+
+[Ludovico started, and laid down the book, for he thought he heard a 
+voice in the chamber, and he looked toward the bed, where, however, 
+he saw only the dark curtains and the pall.  He listened, scarcely 
+daring to draw his breath, but heard only the distant roaring of the 
+sea in the storm, and the blast, that rushed by the casements; when, 
+concluding, that he had been deceived by its sighings, he took up his 
+book to finish the story.]
+
+'While the Baron stood, fixed to the spot, a voice was heard to utter 
+these words:--*
+
+(* This repetition seems to be intentional.  Ludovico is picking up 
+the thread.)
+
+
+'The body of Sir Bevys of Lancaster, a noble knight of England, lies 
+before you.  He was, this night, waylaid and murdered, as he 
+journeyed from the Holy City towards his native land.  Respect the 
+honour of knighthood and the law of humanity; inter the body in 
+christian ground, and cause his murderers to be punished.  As ye 
+observe, or neglect this, shall peace and happiness, or war and 
+misery, light upon you and your house for ever!'
+
+'The Baron, when he recovered from the awe and astonishment, into 
+which this adventure had thrown him, returned to his castle, whither 
+he caused the body of Sir Bevys to be removed; and, on the following 
+day, it was interred, with the honours of knighthood, in the chapel 
+of the castle, attended by all the noble knights and ladies, who 
+graced the court of Baron de Brunne.'
+
+Ludovico, having finished this story, laid aside the book, for he 
+felt drowsy, and, after putting more wood on the fire and taking 
+another glass of wine, he reposed himself in the arm-chair on the 
+hearth.  In his dream he still beheld the chamber where he really 
+was, and, once or twice, started from imperfect slumbers, imagining 
+he saw a man's face, looking over the high back of his armchair.  
+This idea had so strongly impressed him, that, when he raised his 
+eyes, he almost expected to meet other eyes, fixed upon his own, and 
+he quitted his seat and looked behind the chair, before he felt 
+perfectly convinced, that no person was there.
+
+Thus closed the hour.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+  Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber;
+ Thou hast no figures, nor no fantasies,
+ Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
+ Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+The Count, who had slept little during the night, rose early, and, 
+anxious to speak with Ludovico, went to the north apartment; but, the 
+outer door having been fastened, on the preceding night, he was 
+obliged to knock loudly for admittance.  Neither the knocking, or his 
+voice was heard; but, considering the distance of this door from the 
+bed-room, and that Ludovico, wearied with watching, had probably 
+fallen into a deep sleep, the Count was not surprised on receiving no 
+answer, and, leaving the door, he went down to walk in his grounds.
+
+It was a gray autumnal morning.  The sun, rising over Provence, gave 
+only a feeble light, as his rays struggled through the vapours that 
+ascended from the sea, and floated heavily over the wood-tops, which 
+were now varied with many a mellow tint of autumn.  The storm was 
+passed, but the waves were yet violently agitated, and their course 
+was traced by long lines of foam, while not a breeze fluttered in the 
+sails of the vessels, near the shore, that were weighing anchor to 
+depart.  The still gloom of the hour was pleasing to the Count, and 
+he pursued his way through the woods, sunk in deep thought.
+
+Emily also rose at an early hour, and took her customary walk along 
+the brow of the promontory, that overhung the Mediterranean.  Her 
+mind was now not occupied with the occurrences of the chateau, and 
+Valancourt was the subject of her mournful thoughts; whom she had not 
+yet taught herself to consider with indifference, though her judgment 
+constantly reproached her for the affection, that lingered in her 
+heart, after her esteem for him was departed.  Remembrance frequently 
+gave her his parting look and the tones of his voice, when he had 
+bade her a last farewel; and, some accidental associations now 
+recalling these circumstances to her fancy, with peculiar energy, she 
+shed bitter tears to the recollection.
+
+Having reached the watch-tower, she seated herself on the broken 
+steps, and, in melancholy dejection, watched the waves, half hid in 
+vapour, as they came rolling towards the shore, and threw up their 
+light spray round the rocks below.  Their hollow murmur and the 
+obscuring mists, that came in wreaths up the cliffs, gave a solemnity 
+to the scene, which was in harmony with the temper of her mind, and 
+she sat, given up to the remembrance of past times, till this became 
+too painful, and she abruptly quitted the place.  On passing the 
+little gate of the watch-tower, she observed letters, engraved on the 
+stone postern, which she paused to examine, and, though they appeared 
+to have been rudely cut with a pen-knife, the characters were 
+familiar to her; at length, recognizing the hand-writing of 
+Valancourt, she read, with trembling anxiety the following lines, 
+entitled
+
+SHIPWRECK
+
+ 'Til solemn midnight!  On this lonely steep,
+ Beneath this watch-tow'r's desolated wall,
+ Where mystic shapes the wonderer appall,
+ I rest; and view below the desert deep,
+ As through tempestuous clouds the moon's cold light
+ Gleams on the wave.  Viewless, the winds of night
+ With loud mysterious force the billows sweep,
+ And sullen roar the surges, far below.
+ In the still pauses of the gust I hear
+ The voice of spirits, rising sweet and slow,
+ And oft among the clouds their forms appear.
+ But hark! what shriek of death comes in the gale,
+ And in the distant ray what glimmering sail
+ Bends to the storm?--Now sinks the note of fear!
+ Ah! wretched mariners!--no more shall day
+ Unclose his cheering eye to light ye on your way!
+
+From these lines it appeared, that Valancourt had visited the tower; 
+that he had probably been here on the preceding night, for it was 
+such an one as they described, and that he had left the building very 
+lately, since it had not long been light, and without light it was 
+impossible these letters could have been cut.  It was thus even 
+probable, that he might be yet in the gardens.
+
+As these reflections passed rapidly over the mind of Emily, they 
+called up a variety of contending emotions, that almost overcame her 
+spirits; but her first impulse was to avoid him, and, immediately 
+leaving the tower, she returned, with hasty steps, towards the 
+chateau.  As she passed along, she remembered the music she had 
+lately heard near the tower, with the figure, which had appeared, 
+and, in this moment of agitation, she was inclined to believe, that 
+she had then heard and seen Valancourt; but other recollections soon 
+convinced her of her error.  On turning into a thicker part of the 
+woods, she perceived a person, walking slowly in the gloom at some 
+little distance, and, her mind engaged by the idea of him, she 
+started and paused, imagining this to be Valancourt.  The person 
+advanced with quicker steps, and, before she could recover 
+recollection enough to avoid him, he spoke, and she then knew the 
+voice of the Count, who expressed some surprise, on finding her 
+walking at so early an hour, and made a feeble effort to rally her on 
+her love of solitude.  But he soon perceived this to be more a 
+subject of concern than of light laughter, and, changing his manner, 
+affectionately expostulated with Emily, on thus indulging unavailing 
+regret; who, though she acknowledged the justness of all he said, 
+could not restrain her tears, while she did so, and he presently 
+quitted the topic.  Expressing surprise at not having yet heard from 
+his friend, the Advocate at Avignon, in answer to the questions 
+proposed to him, respecting the estates of the late Madame Montoni, 
+he, with friendly zeal, endeavoured to cheer Emily with hopes of 
+establishing her claim to them; while she felt, that the estates 
+could now contribute little to the happiness of a life, in which 
+Valancourt had no longer an interest.
+
+When they returned to the chateau, Emily retired to her apartment, 
+and Count De Villefort to the door of the north chambers.  This was 
+still fastened, but, being now determined to arouse Ludovico, he 
+renewed his calls more loudly than before, after which a total 
+silence ensued, and the Count, finding all his efforts to be heard 
+ineffectual, at length began to fear, that some accident had befallen 
+Ludovico, whom terror of an imaginary being might have deprived of 
+his senses.  He, therefore, left the door with an intention of 
+summoning his servants to force it open, some of whom he now heard 
+moving in the lower part of the chateau.
+
+To the Count's enquiries, whether they had seen or heard Ludovico, 
+they replied in affright, that not one of them had ventured on the 
+north side of the chateau, since the preceding night.
+
+'He sleeps soundly then,' said the Count, 'and is at such a distance 
+from the outer door, which is fastened, that to gain admittance to 
+the chambers it will be necessary to force it.  Bring an instrument, 
+and follow me.'
+
+The servants stood mute and dejected, and it was not till nearly all 
+the household were assembled, that the Count's orders were obeyed.  
+In the mean time, Dorothee was telling of a door, that opened from a 
+gallery, leading from the great stair-case into the last anti-room of 
+the saloon, and, this being much nearer to the bed-chamber, it 
+appeared probable, that Ludovico might be easily awakened by an 
+attempt to open it.  Thither, therefore, the Count went, but his 
+voice was as ineffectual at this door as it had proved at the remoter 
+one; and now, seriously interested for Ludovico, he was himself going 
+to strike upon the door with the instrument, when he observed its 
+singular beauty, and with-held the blow.  It appeared, on the first 
+glance, to be of ebony, so dark and close was its grain and so high 
+its polish; but it proved to be only of larch wood, of the growth of 
+Provence, then famous for its forests of larch.  The beauty of its 
+polished hue and of its delicate carvings determined the Count to 
+spare this door, and he returned to that leading from the back stair-
+case, which being, at length, forced, he entered the first anti-room, 
+followed by Henri and a few of the most courageous of his servants, 
+the rest awaiting the event of the enquiry on the stairs and landing-
+place.
+
+All was silent in the chambers, through which the Count passed, and, 
+having reached the saloon, he called loudly upon Ludovico; after 
+which, still receiving no answer, he threw open the door of the bed-
+room, and entered.
+
+The profound stillness within confirmed his apprehensions for 
+Ludovico, for not even the breathings of a person in sleep were 
+heard; and his uncertainty was not soon terminated, since the 
+shutters being all closed, the chamber was too dark for any object to 
+be distinguished in it.
+
+The Count bade a servant open them, who, as he crossed the room to do 
+so, stumbled over something, and fell to the floor, when his cry 
+occasioned such panic among the few of his fellows, who had ventured 
+thus far, that they instantly fled, and the Count and Henri were left 
+to finish the adventure.
+
+Henri then sprung across the room, and, opening a window-shutter, 
+they perceived, that the man had fallen over a chair near the hearth, 
+in which Ludovico had been sitting;--for he sat there no longer, nor 
+could any where be seen by the imperfect light, that was admitted 
+into the apartment.  The Count, seriously alarmed, now opened other 
+shutters, that he might be enabled to examine further, and, Ludovico 
+not yet appearing, he stood for a moment, suspended in astonishment 
+and scarcely trusting his senses, till, his eyes glancing on the bed, 
+he advanced to examine whether he was there asleep.  No person, 
+however, was in it, and he proceeded to the oriel, where every thing 
+remained as on the preceding night, but Ludovico was no where to be 
+found.
+
+The Count now checked his amazement, considering, that Ludovico might 
+have left the chambers, during the night, overcome by the terrors, 
+which their lonely desolation and the recollected reports, concerning 
+them, had inspired.  Yet, if this had been the fact, the man would 
+naturally have sought society, and his fellow servants had all 
+declared they had not seen him; the door of the outer room also had 
+been found fastened, with the key on the inside; it was impossible, 
+therefore, for him to have passed through that, and all the outer 
+doors of this suite were found, on examination, to be bolted and 
+locked, with the keys also within them.  The Count, being then 
+compelled to believe, that the lad had escaped through the casements, 
+next examined them, but such as opened wide enough to admit the body 
+of a man were found to be carefully secured either by iron bars, or 
+by shutters, and no vestige appeared of any person having attempted 
+to pass them; neither was it probable, that Ludovico would have 
+incurred the risque of breaking his neck, by leaping from a window, 
+when he might have walked safely through a door.
+
+The Count's amazement did not admit of words; but he returned once 
+more to examine the bed-room, where was no appearance of disorder, 
+except that occasioned by the late overthrow of the chair, near which 
+had stood a small table, and on this Ludovico's sword, his lamp, the 
+book he had been reading, and the remnant of his flask of wine still 
+remained.  At the foot of the table, too, was the basket with some 
+fragments of provision and wood.
+
+Henri and the servant now uttered their astonishment without reserve, 
+and, though the Count said little, there was a seriousness in his 
+manner, that expressed much.  It appeared, that Ludovico must have 
+quitted these rooms by some concealed passage, for the Count could 
+not believe, that any supernatural means had occasioned this event, 
+yet, if there was any such passage, it seemed inexplicable why he 
+should retreat through it, and it was equally surprising, that not 
+even the smallest vestige should appear, by which his progress could 
+be traced.  In the rooms every thing remained as much in order as if 
+he had just walked out by the common way.
+
+The Count himself assisted in lifting the arras, with which the bed-
+chamber, saloon and one of the anti-rooms were hung, that he might 
+discover if any door had been concealed behind it; but, after a 
+laborious search, none was found, and he, at length, quitted the 
+apartments, having secured the door of the last anti-chamber, the key 
+of which he took into his own possession.  He then gave orders, that 
+strict search should be made for Ludovico not only in the chateau, 
+but in the neighbourhood, and, retiring with Henri to his closet, 
+they remained there in conversation for a considerable time, and 
+whatever was the subject of it, Henri from this hour lost much of his 
+vivacity, and his manners were particularly grave and reserved, 
+whenever the topic, which now agitated the Count's family with wonder 
+and alarm, was introduced.
+
+On the disappearing of Ludovico, Baron St. Foix seemed strengthened 
+in all his former opinions concerning the probability of apparitions, 
+though it was difficult to discover what connection there could 
+possibly be between the two subjects, or to account for this effect 
+otherwise than by supposing, that the mystery attending Ludovico, by 
+exciting awe and curiosity, reduced the mind to a state of 
+sensibility, which rendered it more liable to the influence of 
+superstition in general.  It is, however, certain, that from this 
+period the Baron and his adherents became more bigoted to their own 
+systems than before, while the terrors of the Count's servants 
+increased to an excess, that occasioned many of them to quit the 
+mansion immediately, and the rest remained only till others could be 
+procured to supply their places.
+
+The most strenuous search after Ludovico proved unsuccessful, and, 
+after several days of indefatigable enquiry, poor Annette gave 
+herself up to despair, and the other inhabitants of the chateau to 
+amazement.
+
+Emily, whose mind had been deeply affected by the disastrous fate of 
+the late Marchioness and with the mysterious connection, which she 
+fancied had existed between her and St. Aubert, was particularly 
+impressed by the late extraordinary event, and much concerned for the 
+loss of Ludovico, whose integrity and faithful services claimed both 
+her esteem and gratitude.  She was now very desirous to return to the 
+quiet retirement of her convent, but every hint of this was received 
+with real sorrow by the Lady Blanche, and affectionately set aside by 
+the Count, for whom she felt much of the respectful love and 
+admiration of a daughter, and to whom, by Dorothee's consent, she, at 
+length, mentioned the appearance, which they had witnessed in the 
+chamber of the deceased Marchioness.  At any other period, he would 
+have smiled at such a relation, and have believed, that its object 
+had existed only in the distempered fancy of the relater; but he now 
+attended to Emily with seriousness, and, when she concluded, 
+requested of her a promise, that this occurrence should rest in 
+silence.  'Whatever may be the cause and the import of these 
+extraordinary occurrences,' added the Count, 'time only can explain 
+them.  I shall keep a wary eye upon all that passes in the chateau, 
+and shall pursue every possible means of discovering the fate of 
+Ludovico.  Meanwhile, we must be prudent and be silent.  I will 
+myself watch in the north chambers, but of this we will say nothing, 
+till the night arrives, when I purpose doing so.'
+
+The Count then sent for Dorothee, and required of her also a promise 
+of silence, concerning what she had already, or might in future 
+witness of an extraordinary nature; and this ancient servant now 
+related to him the particulars of the Marchioness de Villeroi's 
+death, with some of which he appeared to be already acquainted, while 
+by others he was evidently surprised and agitated.  After listening 
+to this narrative, the Count retired to his closet, where he remained 
+alone for several hours; and, when he again appeared, the solemnity 
+of his manner surprised and alarmed Emily, but she gave no utterance 
+to her thoughts.
+
+On the week following the disappearance of Ludovico, all the Count's 
+guests took leave of him, except the Baron, his son Mons. St. Foix, 
+and Emily; the latter of whom was soon after embarrassed and 
+distressed by the arrival of another visitor, Mons. Du Pont, which 
+made her determine upon withdrawing to her convent immediately.  The 
+delight, that appeared in his countenance, when he met her, told that 
+he brought back the same ardour of passion, which had formerly 
+banished him from Chateau-le-Blanc.  He was received with reserve by 
+Emily, and with pleasure by the Count, who presented him to her with 
+a smile, that seemed intended to plead his cause, and who did not 
+hope the less for his friend, from the embarrassment she betrayed.
+
+But M. Du Pont, with truer sympathy, seemed to understand her manner, 
+and his countenance quickly lost its vivacity, and sunk into the 
+languor of despondency.
+
+On the following day, however, he sought an opportunity of declaring 
+the purport of his visit, and renewed his suit; a declaration, which 
+was received with real concern by Emily, who endeavoured to lessen 
+the pain she might inflict by a second rejection, with assurances of 
+esteem and friendship; yet she left him in a state of mind, that 
+claimed and excited her tenderest compassion; and, being more 
+sensible than ever of the impropriety of remaining longer at the 
+chateau, she immediately sought the Count, and communicated to him 
+her intention of returning to the convent.
+
+'My dear Emily,' said he 'I observe, with extreme concern, the 
+illusion you are encouraging--an illusion common to young and 
+sensible minds.  Your heart has received a severe shock; you believe 
+you can never entirely recover it, and you will encourage this 
+belief, till the habit of indulging sorrow will subdue the strength 
+of your mind, and discolour your future views with melancholy and 
+regret.  Let me dissipate this illusion, and awaken you to a sense of 
+your danger.'
+
+Emily smiled mournfully, 'I know what you would say, my dear sir,' 
+said she, 'and am prepared to answer you.  I feel, that my heart can 
+never know a second affection; and that I must never hope even to 
+recover its tranquillity--if I suffer myself to enter into a second 
+engagement.'
+
+'I know, that you feel all this,' replied the Count; 'and I know, 
+also, that time will overcome these feelings, unless you cherish them 
+in solitude, and, pardon me, with romantic tenderness.  Then, indeed, 
+time will only confirm habit.  I am particularly empowered to speak 
+on this subject, and to sympathize in your sufferings,' added the 
+Count, with an air of solemnity, 'for I have known what it is to 
+love, and to lament the object of my love.  Yes,' continued he, while 
+his eyes filled with tears, 'I have suffered!--but those times have 
+passed away--long passed! and I can now look back upon them without 
+emotion.'
+
+'My dear sir,' said Emily, timidly, 'what mean those tears?--they 
+speak, I fear, another language--they plead for me.'
+
+'They are weak tears, for they are useless ones,' replied the Count, 
+drying them, 'I would have you superior to such weakness.  These, 
+however, are only faint traces of a grief, which, if it had not been 
+opposed by long continued effort, might have led me to the verge of 
+madness!  Judge, then, whether I have not cause to warn you of an 
+indulgence, which may produce so terrible an effect, and which must 
+certainly, if not opposed, overcloud the years, that otherwise might 
+be happy.  M. Du Pont is a sensible and amiable man, who has long 
+been tenderly attached to you; his family and fortune are 
+unexceptionable;--after what I have said, it is unnecessary to add, 
+that I should rejoice in your felicity, and that I think M. Du Pont 
+would promote it.  Do not weep, Emily,' continued the Count, taking 
+her hand, 'there IS happiness reserved for you.'
+
+He was silent a moment; and then added, in a firmer voice, 'I do not 
+wish, that you should make a violent effort to overcome your 
+feelings; all I, at present, ask, is, that you will check the 
+thoughts, that would lead you to a remembrance of the past; that you 
+will suffer your mind to be engaged by present objects; that you will 
+allow yourself to believe it possible you may yet be happy; and that 
+you will sometimes think with complacency of poor Du Pont, and not 
+condemn him to the state of despondency, from which, my dear Emily, I 
+am endeavouring to withdraw you.'
+
+'Ah! my dear sir,' said Emily, while her tears still fell, 'do not 
+suffer the benevolence of your wishes to mislead Mons. Du Pont with 
+an expectation that I can ever accept his hand.  If I understand my 
+own heart, this never can be; your instruction I can obey in almost 
+every other particular, than that of adopting a contrary belief.'
+
+'Leave me to understand your heart,' replied the Count, with a faint 
+smile.  'If you pay me the compliment to be guided by my advice in 
+other instances, I will pardon your incredulity, respecting your 
+future conduct towards Mons. Du Pont.  I will not even press you to 
+remain longer at the chateau than your own satisfaction will permit; 
+but though I forbear to oppose your present retirement, I shall urge 
+the claims of friendship for your future visits.'
+
+Tears of gratitude mingled with those of tender regret, while Emily 
+thanked the Count for the many instances of friendship she had 
+received from him; promised to be directed by his advice upon every 
+subject but one, and assured him of the pleasure, with which she 
+should, at some future period, accept the invitation of the Countess 
+and himself--If Mons. Du Pont was not at the chateau.
+
+The Count smiled at this condition.  'Be it so,' said he, 'meanwhile 
+the convent is so near the chateau, that my daughter and I shall 
+often visit you; and if, sometimes, we should dare to bring you 
+another visitor--will you forgive us?'
+
+Emily looked distressed, and remained silent.
+
+'Well,' rejoined the Count, 'I will pursue this subject no further, 
+and must now entreat your forgiveness for having pressed it thus far.  
+You will, however, do me the justice to believe, that I have been 
+urged only by a sincere regard for your happiness, and that of my 
+amiable friend Mons. Du Pont.'
+
+Emily, when she left the Count, went to mention her intended 
+departure to the Countess, who opposed it with polite expressions of 
+regret; after which, she sent a note to acquaint the lady abbess, 
+that she should return to the convent; and thither she withdrew on 
+the evening of the following day.  M. Du Pont, in extreme regret, saw 
+her depart, while the Count endeavoured to cheer him with a hope, 
+that Emily would sometimes regard him with a more favourable eye.
+
+She was pleased to find herself once more in the tranquil retirement 
+of the convent, where she experienced a renewal of all the maternal 
+kindness of the abbess, and of the sisterly attentions of the nuns.  
+A report of the late extraordinary occurrence at the chateau had 
+already reached them, and, after supper, on the evening of her 
+arrival, it was the subject of conversation in the convent parlour, 
+where she was requested to mention some particulars of that 
+unaccountable event.  Emily was guarded in her conversation on this 
+subject, and briefly related a few circumstances concerning Ludovico, 
+whose disappearance, her auditors almost unanimously agreed, had been 
+effected by supernatural means.
+
+'A belief had so long prevailed,' said a nun, who was called sister 
+Frances, 'that the chateau was haunted, that I was surprised, when I 
+heard the Count had the temerity to inhabit it.  Its former 
+possessor, I fear, had some deed of conscience to atone for; let us 
+hope, that the virtues of its present owner will preserve him from 
+the punishment due to the errors of the last, if, indeed, he was a 
+criminal.'
+
+'Of what crime, then, was he suspected?' said a Mademoiselle Feydeau, 
+a boarder at the convent.
+
+'Let us pray for his soul!' said a nun, who had till now sat in 
+silent attention.  'If he was criminal, his punishment in this world 
+was sufficient.'
+
+There was a mixture of wildness and solemnity in her manner of 
+delivering this, which struck Emily exceedingly; but Mademoiselle 
+repeated her question, without noticing the solemn eagerness of the 
+nun.
+
+'I dare not presume to say what was his crime,' replied sister 
+Frances; 'but I have heard many reports of an extraordinary nature, 
+respecting the late Marquis de Villeroi, and among others, that, soon 
+after the death of his lady, he quitted Chateau-le-Blanc, and never 
+afterwards returned to it.  I was not here at the time, so I can only 
+mention it from report, and so many years have passed since the 
+Marchioness died, that few of our sisterhood, I believe, can do 
+more.'
+
+'But I can,' said the nun, who had before spoke, and whom they called 
+sister Agnes.
+
+'You then,' said Mademoiselle Feydeau, 'are possibly acquainted with 
+circumstances, that enable you to judge, whether he was criminal or 
+not, and what was the crime imputed to him.'
+
+'I am,' replied the nun; 'but who shall dare to scrutinize my 
+thoughts--who shall dare to pluck out my opinion?  God only is his 
+judge, and to that judge he is gone!'
+
+Emily looked with surprise at sister Frances, who returned her a 
+significant glance.
+
+'I only requested your opinion,' said Mademoiselle Feydeau, mildly; 
+'if the subject is displeasing to you, I will drop it.'
+
+'Displeasing!'--said the nun, with emphasis.--'We are idle talkers; 
+we do not weigh the meaning of the words we use; DISPLEASING is a 
+poor word.  I will go pray.'  As she said this she rose from her 
+seat, and with a profound sigh quitted the room.
+
+'What can be the meaning of this?' said Emily, when she was gone.
+
+'It is nothing extraordinary,' replied sister Frances, 'she is often 
+thus; but she had no meaning in what she says.  Her intellects are at 
+times deranged.  Did you never see her thus before?'
+
+'Never,' said Emily.  'I have, indeed, sometimes, thought, that there 
+was the melancholy of madness in her look, but never before perceived 
+it in her speech.  Poor soul, I will pray for her!'
+
+'Your prayers then, my daughter, will unite with ours,' observed the 
+lady abbess, 'she has need of them.'
+
+'Dear lady,' said Mademoiselle Feydeau, addressing the abbess, 'what 
+is your opinion of the late Marquis?  The strange circumstances, that 
+have occurred at the chateau, have so much awakened my curiosity, 
+that I shall be pardoned the question.  What was his imputed crime, 
+and what the punishment, to which sister Agnes alluded?'
+
+'We must be cautious of advancing our opinion,' said the abbess, with 
+an air of reserve, mingled with solemnity, 'we must be cautious of 
+advancing our opinion on so delicate a subject.  I will not take upon 
+me to pronounce, that the late Marquis was criminal, or to say what 
+was the crime of which he was suspected; but, concerning the 
+punishment our daughter Agnes hinted, I know of none he suffered.  
+She probably alluded to the severe one, which an exasperated 
+conscience can inflict.  Beware, my children, of incurring so 
+terrible a punishment--it is the purgatory of this life!  The late 
+Marchioness I knew well; she was a pattern to such as live in the 
+world; nay, our sacred order need not have blushed to copy her 
+virtues!  Our holy convent received her mortal part; her heavenly 
+spirit, I doubt not, ascended to its sanctuary!'
+
+As the abbess spoke this, the last bell of vespers struck up, and she 
+rose.  'Let us go, my children,' said she, 'and intercede for the 
+wretched; let us go and confess our sins, and endeavour to purify our 
+souls for the heaven, to which SHE is gone!'
+
+Emily was affected by the solemnity of this exhortation, and, 
+remembering her father, 'The heaven, to which HE, too, is gone!' said 
+she, faintly, as she suppressed her sighs, and followed the abbess 
+and the nuns to the chapel.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+ Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd,
+ Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,
+ Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,
+
+ I will speak to thee.
+     HAMLET
+
+Count de Villefort, at length, received a letter from the advocate at 
+Avignon, encouraging Emily to assert her claim to the estates of the 
+late Madame Montoni; and, about the same time, a messenger arrived 
+from Monsieur Quesnel with intelligence, that made an appeal to the 
+law on this subject unnecessary, since it appeared, that the only 
+person, who could have opposed her claim, was now no more.  A friend 
+of Monsieur Quesnel, who resided at Venice, had sent him an account 
+of the death of Montoni who had been brought to trial with Orsino, as 
+his supposed accomplice in the murder of the Venetian nobleman.  
+Orsino was found guilty, condemned and executed upon the wheel, but, 
+nothing being discovered to criminate Montoni, and his colleagues, on 
+this charge, they were all released, except Montoni, who, being 
+considered by the senate as a very dangerous person, was, for other 
+reasons, ordered again into confinement, where, it was said, he had 
+died in a doubtful and mysterious manner, and not without suspicion 
+of having been poisoned.  The authority, from which M. Quesnel had 
+received this information, would not allow him to doubt its truth, 
+and he told Emily, that she had now only to lay claim to the estates 
+of her late aunt, to secure them, and added, that he would himself 
+assist in the necessary forms of this business.  The term, for which 
+La Vallee had been let being now also nearly expired, he acquainted 
+her with the circumstance, and advised her to take the road thither, 
+through Tholouse, where he promised to meet her, and where it would 
+be proper for her to take possession of the estates of the late 
+Madame Montoni; adding, that he would spare her any difficulties, 
+that might occur on that occasion from the want of knowledge on the 
+subject, and that he believed it would be necessary for her to be at 
+Tholouse, in about three weeks from the present time.
+
+An increase of fortune seemed to have awakened this sudden kindness 
+in M. Quesnel towards his niece, and it appeared, that he entertained 
+more respect for the rich heiress, than he had ever felt compassion 
+for the poor and unfriended orphan.
+
+The pleasure, with which she received this intelligence, was clouded 
+when she considered, that he, for whose sake she had once regretted 
+the want of fortune, was no longer worthy of sharing it with her; 
+but, remembering the friendly admonition of the Count, she checked 
+this melancholy reflection, and endeavoured to feel only gratitude 
+for the unexpected good, that now attended her; while it formed no 
+inconsiderable part of her satisfaction to know, that La Vallee, her 
+native home, which was endeared to her by it's having been the 
+residence of her parents, would soon be restored to her possession.  
+There she meant to fix her future residence, for, though it could not 
+be compared with the chateau at Tholouse, either for extent, or 
+magnificence, its pleasant scenes and the tender remembrances, that 
+haunted them, had claims upon her heart, which she was not inclined 
+to sacrifice to ostentation.  She wrote immediately to thank M. 
+Quesnel for the active interest he took in her concerns, and to say, 
+that she would meet him at Tholouse at the appointed time.
+
+When Count de Villefort, with Blanche, came to the convent to give 
+Emily the advice of the advocate, he was informed of the contents of 
+M. Quesnel's letter, and gave her his sincere congratulations, on the 
+occasion; but she observed, that, when the first expression of 
+satisfaction had faded from his countenance, an unusual gravity 
+succeeded, and she scarcely hesitated to enquire its cause.
+
+'It has no new occasion,' replied the Count; 'I am harassed and 
+perplexed by the confusion, into which my family is thrown by their 
+foolish superstition.  Idle reports are floating round me, which I 
+can neither admit to be true, or prove to be false; and I am, also, 
+very anxious about the poor fellow, Ludovico, concerning whom I have 
+not been able to obtain information.  Every part of the chateau and 
+every part of the neighbourhood, too, has, I believe, been searched, 
+and I know not what further can be done, since I have already offered 
+large rewards for the discovery of him.  The keys of the north 
+apartment I have not suffered to be out of my possession, since he 
+disappeared, and I mean to watch in those chambers, myself, this very 
+night.'
+
+Emily, seriously alarmed for the Count, united her entreaties with 
+those of the Lady Blanche, to dissuade him from his purpose.
+
+'What should I fear?' said he.  'I have no faith in supernatural 
+combats, and for human opposition I shall be prepared; nay, I will 
+even promise not to watch alone.'
+
+'But who, dear sir, will have courage enough to watch with you?' said 
+Emily.
+
+'My son,' replied the Count.  'If I am not carried off in the night,' 
+added he, smiling, 'you shall hear the result of my adventure, 
+tomorrow.'
+
+The Count and Lady Blanche, shortly afterwards, took leave of Emily, 
+and returned to the chateau, where he informed Henri of his 
+intention, who, not without some secret reluctance, consented to be 
+the partner of his watch; and, when the design was mentioned after 
+supper, the Countess was terrified, and the Baron, and M. Du Pont 
+joined with her in entreating, that he would not tempt his fate, as 
+Ludovico had done.  'We know not,' added the Baron, 'the nature, or 
+the power of an evil spirit; and that such a spirit haunts those 
+chambers can now, I think, scarcely be doubted.  Beware, my lord, how 
+you provoke its vengeance, since it has already given us one terrible 
+example of its malice.  I allow it may be probable, that the spirits 
+of the dead are permitted to return to the earth only on occasions of 
+high import; but the present import may be your destruction.'
+
+The Count could not forbear smiling; 'Do you think then, Baron,' said 
+he, 'that my destruction is of sufficient importance to draw back to 
+earth the soul of the departed?  Alas! my good friend, there is no 
+occasion for such means to accomplish the destruction of any 
+individual.  Wherever the mystery rests, I trust I shall, this night, 
+be able to detect it.  You know I am not superstitious.'
+
+'I know that you are incredulous,' interrupted the Baron.
+
+'Well, call it what you will, I mean to say, that, though you know I 
+am free from superstition--if any thing supernatural has appeared, I 
+doubt not it will appear to me, and if any strange event hangs over 
+my house, or if any extraordinary transaction has formerly been 
+connected with it, I shall probably be made acquainted with it.  At 
+all events I will invite discovery; and, that I may be equal to a 
+mortal attack, which in good truth, my friend, is what I most expect, 
+I shall take care to be well armed.'
+
+The Count took leave of his family, for the night, with an assumed 
+gaiety, which but ill concealed the anxiety, that depressed his 
+spirits, and retired to the north apartments, accompanied by his son 
+and followed by the Baron, M. Du Pont and some of the domestics, who 
+all bade him good night at the outer door.  In these chambers every 
+thing appeared as when he had last been here; even in the bed-room no 
+alteration was visible, where he lighted his own fire, for none of 
+the domestics could be prevailed upon to venture thither.  After 
+carefully examining the chamber and the oriel, the Count and Henri 
+drew their chairs upon the hearth, set a bottle of wine and a lamp 
+before them, laid their swords upon the table, and, stirring the wood 
+into a blaze, began to converse on indifferent topics.  But Henri was 
+often silent and abstracted, and sometimes threw a glance of mingled 
+awe and curiosity round the gloomy apartment; while the Count 
+gradually ceased to converse, and sat either lost in thought, or 
+reading a volume of Tacitus, which he had brought to beguile the 
+tediousness of the night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+ Give thy thoughts no tongue.
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+The Baron St. Foix, whom anxiety for his friend had kept awake, rose 
+early to enquire the event of the night, when, as he passed the 
+Count's closet, hearing steps within, he knocked at the door, and it 
+was opened by his friend himself.  Rejoicing to see him in safety, 
+and curious to learn the occurrences of the night, he had not 
+immediately leisure to observe the unusual gravity, that overspread 
+the features of the Count, whose reserved answers first occasioned 
+him to notice it.  The Count, then smiling, endeavoured to treat the 
+subject of his curiosity with levity, but the Baron was serious, and 
+pursued his enquiries so closely, that the Count, at length, resuming 
+his gravity, said, 'Well, my friend, press the subject no further, I 
+entreat you; and let me request also, that you will hereafter be 
+silent upon any thing you may think extraordinary in my future 
+conduct.  I do not scruple to tell you, that I am unhappy, and that 
+the watch of the last night has not assisted me to discover Ludovico; 
+upon every occurrence of the night you must excuse my reserve.'
+
+'But where is Henri?' said the Baron, with surprise and 
+disappointment at this denial.
+
+'He is well in his own apartment,' replied the Count.  'You will not 
+question him on this topic, my friend, since you know my wish.'
+
+'Certainly not,' said the Baron, somewhat chagrined, 'since it would 
+be displeasing to you; but methinks, my friend, you might rely on my 
+discretion, and drop this unusual reserve.  However, you must allow 
+me to suspect, that you have seen reason to become a convert to my 
+system, and are no longer the incredulous knight you lately appeared 
+to be.'
+
+'Let us talk no more upon this subject,' said the Count; 'you may be 
+assured, that no ordinary circumstance has imposed this silence upon 
+me towards a friend, whom I have called so for near thirty years; and 
+my present reserve cannot make you question either my esteem, or the 
+sincerity of my friendship.'
+
+'I will not doubt either,' said the Baron, 'though you must allow me 
+to express my surprise, at this silence.'
+
+'To me I will allow it,' replied the Count, 'but I earnestly entreat 
+that you will forbear to notice it to my family, as well as every 
+thing remarkable you may observe in my conduct towards them.'
+
+The Baron readily promised this, and, after conversing for some time 
+on general topics, they descended to the breakfast-room, where the 
+Count met his family with a cheerful countenance, and evaded their 
+enquiries by employing light ridicule, and assuming an air of 
+uncommon gaiety, while he assured them, that they need not apprehend 
+any evil from the north chambers, since Henri and himself had been 
+permitted to return from them in safety.
+
+Henri, however, was less successful in disguising his feelings.  From 
+his countenance an expression of terror was not entirely faded; he 
+was often silent and thoughtful, and when he attempted to laugh at 
+the eager enquiries of Mademoiselle Bearn, it was evidently only an 
+attempt.
+
+In the evening, the Count called, as he had promised, at the convent, 
+and Emily was surprised to perceive a mixture of playful ridicule and 
+of reserve in his mention of the north apartment.  Of what had 
+occurred there, however, he said nothing, and, when she ventured to 
+remind him of his promise to tell her the result of his enquiries, 
+and to ask if he had received any proof, that those chambers were 
+haunted, his look became solemn, for a moment, then, seeming to 
+recollect himself, he smiled, and said, 'My dear Emily, do not suffer 
+my lady abbess to infect your good understanding with these fancies; 
+she will teach you to expect a ghost in every dark room.  But believe 
+me,' added he, with a profound sigh, 'the apparition of the dead 
+comes not on light, or sportive errands, to terrify, or to surprise 
+the timid.'  He paused, and fell into a momentary thoughtfulness, and 
+then added, 'We will say no more on this subject.'
+
+Soon after, he took leave, and, when Emily joined some of the nuns, 
+she was surprised to find them acquainted with a circumstance, which 
+she had carefully avoided to mention, and expressing their admiration 
+of his intrepidity in having dared to pass a night in the apartment, 
+whence Ludovico had disappeared; for she had not considered with what 
+rapidity a tale of wonder circulates.  The nuns had acquired their 
+information from peasants, who brought fruit to the monastery, and 
+whose whole attention had been fixed, since the disappearance of 
+Ludovico, on what was passing in the castle.
+
+Emily listened in silence to the various opinions of the nuns, 
+concerning the conduct of the Count, most of whom condemned it as 
+rash and presumptuous, affirming, that it was provoking the vengeance 
+of an evil spirit, thus to intrude upon its haunts.
+
+Sister Frances contended, that the Count had acted with the bravery 
+of a virtuous mind.  He knew himself guiltless of aught, that should 
+provoke a good spirit, and did not fear the spells of an evil one, 
+since he could claim the protection of an higher Power, of Him, who 
+can command the wicked, and will protect the innocent.
+
+'The guilty cannot claim that protection!' said sister Agnes, 'let 
+the Count look to his conduct, that he do not forfeit his claim!  Yet 
+who is he, that shall dare to call himself innocent!--all earthly 
+innocence is but comparative.  Yet still how wide asunder are the 
+extremes of guilt, and to what an horrible depth may we fall!  Oh!'--
+
+The nun, as she concluded, uttered a shuddering sigh, that startled 
+Emily, who, looking up, perceived the eyes of Agnes fixed on hers, 
+after which the sister rose, took her hand, gazed earnestly upon her 
+countenance, for some moments, in silence, and then said,
+
+'You are young--you are innocent!  I mean you are yet innocent of any 
+great crime!--But you have passions in your heart,--scorpions; they 
+sleep now--beware how you awaken them!--they will sting you, even 
+unto death!'
+
+Emily, affected by these words and by the solemnity, with which they 
+were delivered, could not suppress her tears.
+
+'Ah! is it so?' exclaimed Agnes, her countenance softening from its 
+sternness--'so young, and so unfortunate!  We are sisters, then 
+indeed.  Yet, there is no bond of kindness among the guilty,' she 
+added, while her eyes resumed their wild expression, 'no gentleness,-
+-no peace, no hope!  I knew them all once--my eyes could weep--but 
+now they burn, for now, my soul is fixed, and fearless!--I lament no 
+more!'
+
+'Rather let us repent, and pray,' said another nun.  'We are taught 
+to hope, that prayer and penitence will work our salvation.  There is 
+hope for all who repent!'
+
+'Who repent and turn to the true faith,' observed sister Frances.
+
+'For all but me!' replied Agnes solemnly, who paused, and then 
+abruptly added, 'My head burns, I believe I am not well.  O! could I 
+strike from my memory all former scenes--the figures, that rise up, 
+like furies, to torment me!--I see them, when I sleep, and, when I am 
+awake, they are still before my eyes!  I see them now--now!'
+
+She stood in a fixed attitude of horror, her straining eyes moving 
+slowly round the room, as if they followed something.  One of the 
+nuns gently took her hand, to lead her from the parlour.  Agnes 
+became calm, drew her other hand across her eyes, looked again, and, 
+sighing deeply, said, 'They are gone--they are gone!  I am feverish, 
+I know not what I say.  I am thus, sometimes, but it will go off 
+again, I shall soon be better.  Was not that the vesper-bell?'
+
+'No,' replied Frances, 'the evening service is passed.  Let Margaret 
+lead you to your cell.'
+
+'You are right,' replied sister Agnes, 'I shall be better there.  
+Good night, my sisters, remember me in your orisons.'
+
+When they had withdrawn, Frances, observing Emily's emotion, said, 
+'Do not be alarmed, our sister is often thus deranged, though I have 
+not lately seen her so frantic; her usual mood is melancholy.  This 
+fit has been coming on, for several days; seclusion and the customary 
+treatment will restore her.'
+
+'But how rationally she conversed, at first!' observed Emily, 'her 
+ideas followed each other in perfect order.'
+
+'Yes,' replied the nun, 'this is nothing new; nay, I have sometimes 
+known her argue not only with method, but with acuteness, and then, 
+in a moment, start off into madness.'
+
+'Her conscience seems afflicted,' said Emily, 'did you ever hear what 
+circumstance reduced her to this deplorable condition?'
+
+'I have,' replied the nun, who said no more till Emily repeated the 
+question, when she added in a low voice, and looking significantly 
+towards the other boarders, 'I cannot tell you now, but, if you think 
+it worth your while, come to my cell, to-night, when our sisterhood 
+are at rest, and you shall hear more; but remember we rise to 
+midnight prayers, and come either before, or after midnight.'
+
+Emily promised to remember, and, the abbess soon after appearing, 
+they spoke no more of the unhappy nun.
+
+The Count meanwhile, on his return home, had found M. Du Pont in one 
+of those fits of despondency, which his attachment to Emily 
+frequently occasioned him, an attachment, that had subsisted too long 
+to be easily subdued, and which had already outlived the opposition 
+of his friends.  M. Du Pont had first seen Emily in Gascony, during 
+the lifetime of his parent, who, on discovering his son's partiality 
+for Mademoiselle St. Aubert, his inferior in point of fortune, 
+forbade him to declare it to her family, or to think of her more.  
+During the life of his father, he had observed the first command, but 
+had found it impracticable to obey the second, and had, sometimes, 
+soothed his passion by visiting her favourite haunts, among which was 
+the fishing-house, where, once or twice, he addressed her in verse, 
+concealing his name, in obedience to the promise he had given his 
+father.  There too he played the pathetic air, to which she had 
+listened with such surprise and admiration; and there he found the 
+miniature, that had since cherished a passion fatal to his repose.  
+During his expedition into Italy, his father died; but he received 
+his liberty at a moment, when he was the least enabled to profit by 
+it, since the object, that rendered it most valuable, was no longer 
+within the reach of his vows.  By what accident he discovered Emily, 
+and assisted to release her from a terrible imprisonment, has already 
+appeared, and also the unavailing hope, with which he then encouraged 
+his love, and the fruitless efforts, that he had since made to 
+overcome it.
+
+The Count still endeavoured, with friendly zeal, to sooth him with a 
+belief, that patience, perseverance and prudence would finally obtain 
+for him happiness and Emily:  'Time,' said he, 'will wear away the 
+melancholy impression, which disappointment has left on her mind, and 
+she will be sensible of your merit.  Your services have already 
+awakened her gratitude, and your sufferings her pity; and trust me, 
+my friend, in a heart so sensible as hers, gratitude and pity lead to 
+love.  When her imagination is rescued from its present delusion, she 
+will readily accept the homage of a mind like yours.'
+
+Du Pont sighed, while he listened to these words; and, endeavouring 
+to hope what his friend believed, he willingly yielded to an 
+invitation to prolong his visit at the chateau, which we now leave 
+for the monastery of St. Claire.
+
+When the nuns had retired to rest, Emily stole to her appointment 
+with sister Frances, whom she found in her cell, engaged in prayer, 
+before a little table, where appeared the image she was addressing, 
+and, above, the dim lamp that gave light to the place.  Turning her 
+eyes, as the door opened, she beckoned to Emily to come in, who, 
+having done so, seated herself in silence beside the nun's little 
+mattress of straw, till her orisons should conclude.  The latter soon 
+rose from her knees, and, taking down the lamp and placing it on the 
+table, Emily perceived there a human scull and bones, lying beside an 
+hour-glass; but the nun, without observing her emotion, sat down on 
+the mattress by her, saying, 'Your curiosity, sister, has made you 
+punctual, but you have nothing remarkable to hear in the history of 
+poor Agnes, of whom I avoided to speak in the presence of my lay-
+sisters, only because I would not publish her crime to them.'
+
+'I shall consider your confidence in me as a favour,' said Emily, 
+'and will not misuse it.'
+
+'Sister Agnes,' resumed the nun, 'is of a noble family, as the 
+dignity of her air must already have informed you, but I will not 
+dishonour their name so much as to reveal it.  Love was the occasion 
+of her crime and of her madness.  She was beloved by a gentleman of 
+inferior fortune, and her father, as I have heard, bestowing her on a 
+nobleman, whom she disliked, an ill-governed passion proved her 
+destruction.--Every obligation of virtue and of duty was forgotten, 
+and she prophaned her marriage vows; but her guilt was soon detected, 
+and she would have fallen a sacrifice to the vengeance of her 
+husband, had not her father contrived to convey her from his power.  
+By what means he did this, I never could learn; but he secreted her 
+in this convent, where he afterwards prevailed with her to take the 
+veil, while a report was circulated in the world, that she was dead, 
+and the father, to save his daughter, assisted the rumour, and 
+employed such means as induced her husband to believe she had become 
+a victim to his jealousy.  You look surprised,' added the nun, 
+observing Emily's countenance; 'I allow the story is uncommon, but 
+not, I believe, without a parallel.'
+
+'Pray proceed,' said Emily, 'I am interested.'
+
+'The story is already told,' resumed the nun, 'I have only to 
+mention, that the long struggle, which Agnes suffered, between love, 
+remorse and a sense of the duties she had taken upon herself in 
+becoming of our order, at length unsettled her reason.  At first, she 
+was frantic and melancholy by quick alternatives; then, she sunk into 
+a deep and settled melancholy, which still, however, has, at times, 
+been interrupted by fits of wildness, and, of late, these have again 
+been frequent.'
+
+Emily was affected by the history of the sister, some parts of whose 
+story brought to her remembrance that of the Marchioness de Villeroi, 
+who had also been compelled by her father to forsake the object of 
+her affections, for a nobleman of his choice; but, from what Dorothee 
+had related, there appeared no reason to suppose, that she had 
+escaped the vengeance of a jealous husband, or to doubt for a moment 
+the innocence of her conduct.  But Emily, while she sighed over the 
+misery of the nun, could not forbear shedding a few tears to the 
+misfortunes of the Marchioness; and, when she returned to the mention 
+of sister Agnes, she asked Frances if she remembered her in her 
+youth, and whether she was then beautiful.
+
+'I was not here at the time, when she took the vows,' replied 
+Frances, 'which is so long ago, that few of the present sisterhood, I 
+believe, were witnesses of the ceremony; nay, ever our lady mother 
+did not then preside over the convent:  but I can remember, when 
+sister Agnes was a very beautiful woman.  She retains that air of 
+high rank, which always distinguished her, but her beauty, you must 
+perceive, is fled; I can scarcely discover even a vestige of the 
+loveliness, that once animated her features.'
+
+'It is strange,' said Emily, 'but there are moments, when her 
+countenance has appeared familiar to my memory!  You will think me 
+fanciful, and I think myself so, for I certainly never saw sister 
+Agnes, before I came to this convent, and I must, therefore, have 
+seen some person, whom she strongly resembles, though of this I have 
+no recollection.'
+
+'You have been interested by the deep melancholy of her countenance,' 
+said Frances, 'and its impression has probably deluded your 
+imagination; for I might as reasonably think I perceive a likeness 
+between you and Agnes, as you, that you have seen her any where but 
+in this convent, since this has been her place of refuge, for nearly 
+as many years as make your age.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Emily.
+
+'Yes,' rejoined Frances, 'and why does that circumstance excite your 
+surprise?'
+
+Emily did not appear to notice this question, but remained 
+thoughtful, for a few moments, and then said, 'It was about that same 
+period that the Marchioness de Villeroi expired.'
+
+'That is an odd remark,' said Frances.
+
+Emily, recalled from her reverie, smiled, and gave the conversation 
+another turn, but it soon came back to the subject of the unhappy 
+nun, and Emily remained in the cell of sister Frances, till the mid-
+night bell aroused her; when, apologizing for having interrupted the 
+sister's repose, till this late hour, they quitted the cell together.  
+Emily returned to her chamber, and the nun, bearing a glimmering 
+taper, went to her devotion in the chapel.
+
+Several days followed, during which Emily saw neither the Count, or 
+any of his family; and, when, at length, he appeared, she remarked, 
+with concern, that his air was unusually disturbed.
+
+'My spirits are harassed,' said he, in answer to her anxious 
+enquiries, 'and I mean to change my residence, for a little while, an 
+experiment, which, I hope, will restore my mind to its usual 
+tranquillity.  My daughter and myself will accompany the Baron St. 
+Foix to his chateau.  It lies in a valley of the Pyrenees, that opens 
+towards Gascony, and I have been thinking, Emily, that, when you set 
+out for La Vallee, we may go part of the way together; it would be a 
+satisfaction to me to guard you towards your home.'
+
+She thanked the Count for his friendly consideration, and lamented, 
+that the necessity for her going first to Tholouse would render this 
+plan impracticable.  'But, when you are at the Baron's residence,' 
+she added, 'you will be only a short journey from La Vallee, and I 
+think, sir, you will not leave the country without visiting me; it is 
+unnecessary to say with what pleasure I should receive you and the 
+Lady Blanche.'
+
+'I do not doubt it,' replied the Count, 'and I will not deny myself 
+and Blanche the pleasure of visiting you, if your affairs should 
+allow you to be at La Vallee, about the time when we can meet you 
+there.'
+
+When Emily said that she should hope to see the Countess also, she 
+was not sorry to learn that this lady was going, accompanied by 
+Mademoiselle Bearn, to pay a visit, for a few weeks, to a family in 
+lower Languedoc.
+
+The Count, after some further conversation on his intended journey 
+and on the arrangement of Emily's, took leave; and many days did not 
+succeed this visit, before a second letter from M. Quesnel informed 
+her, that he was then at Tholouse, that La Vallee was at liberty, and 
+that he wished her to set off for the former place, where he awaited 
+her arrival, with all possible dispatch, since his own affairs 
+pressed him to return to Gascony.  Emily did not hesitate to obey 
+him, and, having taken an affecting leave of the Count's family, in 
+which M. Du Pont was still included, and of her friends at the 
+convent, she set out for Tholouse, attended by the unhappy Annette, 
+and guarded by a steady servant of the Count.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+ Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain,
+ Our thoughts are link'd by many a hidden chain:
+ Awake but one, and lo! what myriads rise!
+ Each stamps its image as the other flies!
+     PLEASURES OF MEMORY
+
+Emily pursued her journey, without any accident, along the plains of 
+Languedoc towards the north-west; and, on this her return to 
+Tholouse, which she had last left with Madame Montoni, she thought 
+much on the melancholy fate of her aunt, who, but for her own 
+imprudence, might now have been living in happiness there!  Montoni, 
+too, often rose to her fancy, such as she had seen him in his days of 
+triumph, bold, spirited and commanding; such also as she had since 
+beheld him in his days of vengeance; and now, only a few short months 
+had passed--and he had no longer the power, or the will to afflict;--
+he had become a clod of earth, and his life was vanished like a 
+shadow!  Emily could have wept at his fate, had she not remembered 
+his crimes; for that of her unfortunate aunt she did weep, and all 
+sense of her errors was overcome by the recollection of her 
+misfortunes.
+
+Other thoughts and other emotions succeeded, as Emily drew near the 
+well-known scenes of her early love, and considered, that Valancourt 
+was lost to her and to himself, for ever.  At length, she came to the 
+brow of the hill, whence, on her departure for Italy, she had given a 
+farewell look to this beloved landscape, amongst whose woods and 
+fields she had so often walked with Valancourt, and where he was then 
+to inhabit, when she would be far, far away!  She saw, once more, 
+that chain of the Pyrenees, which overlooked La Vallee, rising, like 
+faint clouds, on the horizon.  'There, too, is Gascony, extended at 
+their feet!' said she, 'O my father,--my mother!  And there, too, is 
+the Garonne!'  she added, drying the tears, that obscured her sight,-
+-'and Tholouse, and my aunt's mansion--and the groves in her garden!-
+-O my friends! are ye all lost to me--must I never, never see ye 
+more!'  Tears rushed again to her eyes, and she continued to weep, 
+till an abrupt turn in the road had nearly occasioned the carriage to 
+overset, when, looking up, she perceived another part of the well-
+known scene around Tholouse, and all the reflections and 
+anticipations, which she had suffered, at the moment, when she bade 
+it last adieu, came with recollected force to her heart.  She 
+remembered how anxiously she had looked forward to the futurity, 
+which was to decide her happiness concerning Valancourt, and what 
+depressing fears had assailed her; the very words she had uttered, as 
+she withdrew her last look from the prospect, came to her memory.  
+'Could I but be certain,' she had then said, 'that I should ever 
+return, and that Valancourt would still live for me--I should go in 
+peace!'
+
+Now, that futurity, so anxiously anticipated, was arrived, she was 
+returned--but what a dreary blank appeared!--Valancourt no longer 
+lived for her!  She had no longer even the melancholy satisfaction of 
+contemplating his image in her heart, for he was no longer the same 
+Valancourt she had cherished there--the solace of many a mournful 
+hour, the animating friend, that had enabled her to bear up against 
+the oppression of Montoni--the distant hope, that had beamed over her 
+gloomy prospect!  On perceiving this beloved idea to be an illusion 
+of her own creation, Valancourt seemed to be annihilated, and her 
+soul sickened at the blank, that remained.  His marriage with a 
+rival, even his death, she thought she could have endured with more 
+fortitude, than this discovery; for then, amidst all her grief, she 
+could have looked in secret upon the image of goodness, which her 
+fancy had drawn of him, and comfort would have mingled with her 
+suffering!
+
+Drying her tears, she looked, once more, upon the landscape, which 
+had excited them, and perceived, that she was passing the very bank, 
+where she had taken leave of Valancourt, on the morning of her 
+departure from Tholouse, and she now saw him, through her returning 
+tears, such as he had appeared, when she looked from the carriage to 
+give him a last adieu--saw him leaning mournfully against the high 
+trees, and remembered the fixed look of mingled tenderness and 
+anguish, with which he had then regarded her.  This recollection was 
+too much for her heart, and she sunk back in the carriage, nor once 
+looked up, till it stopped at the gates of what was now her own 
+mansion.
+
+These being opened, and by the servant, to whose care the chateau had 
+been entrusted, the carriage drove into the court, where, alighting, 
+she hastily passed through the great hall, now silent and solitary, 
+to a large oak parlour, the common sitting room of the late Madame 
+Montoni, where, instead of being received by M. Quesnel, she found a 
+letter from him, informing her that business of consequence had 
+obliged him to leave Tholouse two days before.  Emily was, upon the 
+whole, not sorry to be spared his presence, since his abrupt 
+departure appeared to indicate the same indifference, with which he 
+had formerly regarded her.  This letter informed her, also, of the 
+progress he had made in the settlement of her affairs, and concluded 
+with directions, concerning the forms of some business, which 
+remained for her to transact.  But M. Quesnel's unkindness did not 
+long occupy her thoughts, which returned the remembrance of the 
+persons she had been accustomed to see in this mansion, and chiefly 
+of the ill-guided and unfortunate Madame Montoni.  In the room, where 
+she now sat, she had breakfasted with her on the morning of their 
+departure for Italy; and the view of it brought most forcibly to her 
+recollection all she had herself suffered, at that time, and the many 
+gay expectations, which her aunt had formed, respecting the journey 
+before her.  While Emily's mind was thus engaged, her eyes wandered 
+unconsciously to a large window, that looked upon the garden, and 
+here new memorials of the past spoke to her heart, for she saw 
+extended before her the very avenue, in which she had parted with 
+Valancourt, on the eve of her journey; and all the anxiety, the 
+tender interest he had shewn, concerning her future happiness, his 
+earnest remonstrances against her committing herself to the power of 
+Montoni, and the truth of his affection, came afresh to her memory.  
+At this moment, it appeared almost impossible, that Valancourt could 
+have become unworthy of her regard, and she doubted all that she had 
+lately heard to his disadvantage, and even his own words, which had 
+confirmed Count De Villefort's report of him.  Overcome by the 
+recollections, which the view of this avenue occasioned, she turned 
+abruptly from the window, and sunk into a chair beside it, where she 
+sat, given up to grief, till the entrance of Annette, with coffee, 
+aroused her.
+
+'Dear madam, how melancholy this place looks now,' said Annette, 'to 
+what it used to do!  It is dismal coming home, when there is nobody 
+to welcome one!'
+
+This was not the moment, in which Emily could bear the remark; her 
+tears fell again, and, as soon as she had taken the coffee, she 
+retired to her apartment, where she endeavoured to repose her 
+fatigued spirits.  But busy memory would still supply her with the 
+visions of former times:  she saw Valancourt interesting and 
+benevolent, as he had been wont to appear in the days of their early 
+love, and, amidst the scenes, where she had believed that they should 
+sometimes pass their years together!--but, at length, sleep closed 
+these afflicting scenes from her view.
+
+On the following morning, serious occupation recovered her from such 
+melancholy reflections; for, being desirous of quitting Tholouse, and 
+of hastening on to La Vallee, she made some enquiries into the 
+condition of the estate, and immediately dispatched a part of the 
+necessary business concerning it, according to the directions of 
+Mons. Quesnel.  It required a strong effort to abstract her thoughts 
+from other interests sufficiently to attend to this, but she was 
+rewarded for her exertions by again experiencing, that employment is 
+the surest antidote to sorrow.
+
+This day was devoted entirely to business; and, among other concerns, 
+she employed means to learn the situation of all her poor tenants, 
+that she might relieve their wants, or confirm their comforts.
+
+In the evening, her spirits were so much strengthened, that she 
+thought she could bear to visit the gardens, where she had so often 
+walked with Valancourt; and, knowing, that, if she delayed to do so, 
+their scenes would only affect her the more, whenever they should be 
+viewed, she took advantage of the present state of her mind, and 
+entered them.
+
+Passing hastily the gate leading from the court into the gardens, she 
+hurried up the great avenue, scarcely permitting her memory to dwell 
+for a moment on the circumstance of her having here parted with 
+Valancourt, and soon quitted this for other walks less interesting to 
+her heart.  These brought her, at length, to the flight of steps, 
+that led from the lower garden to the terrace, on seeing which, she 
+became agitated, and hesitated whether to ascend, but, her resolution 
+returning, she proceeded.
+
+'Ah!' said Emily, as she ascended, 'these are the same high trees, 
+that used to wave over the terrace, and these the same flowery 
+thickets--the liburnum, the wild rose, and the cerinthe--which were 
+wont to grow beneath them!  Ah! and there, too, on that bank, are the 
+very plants, which Valancourt so carefully reared!--O, when last I 
+saw them!'--she checked the thought, but could not restrain her 
+tears, and, after walking slowly on for a few moments, her agitation, 
+upon the view of this well-known scene, increased so much, that she 
+was obliged to stop, and lean upon the wall of the terrace.  It was a 
+mild, and beautiful evening.  The sun was setting over the extensive 
+landscape, to which his beams, sloping from beneath a dark cloud, 
+that overhung the west, gave rich and partial colouring, and touched 
+the tufted summits of the groves, that rose from the garden below, 
+with a yellow gleam.  Emily and Valancourt had often admired together 
+this scene, at the same hour; and it was exactly on this spot, that, 
+on the night preceding her departure for Italy, she had listened to 
+his remonstrances against the journey, and to the pleadings of 
+passionate affection.  Some observations, which she made on the 
+landscape, brought this to her remembrance, and with it all the 
+minute particulars of that conversation;--the alarming doubts he had 
+expressed concerning Montoni, doubts, which had since been fatally 
+confirmed; the reasons and entreaties he had employed to prevail with 
+her to consent to an immediate marriage; the tenderness of his love, 
+the paroxysms of this grief, and the conviction that he had 
+repeatedly expressed, that they should never meet again in happiness!  
+All these circumstances rose afresh to her mind, and awakened the 
+various emotions she had then suffered.  Her tenderness for 
+Valancourt became as powerful as in the moments, when she thought, 
+that she was parting with him and happiness together, and when the 
+strength of her mind had enabled her to triumph over present 
+suffering, rather than to deserve the reproach of her conscience by 
+engaging in a clandestine marriage.--'Alas!' said Emily, as these 
+recollections came to her mind, 'and what have I gained by the 
+fortitude I then practised?--am I happy now?--He said, we should meet 
+no more in happiness; but, O! he little thought his own misconduct 
+would separate us, and lead to the very evil he then dreaded!'
+
+Her reflections increased her anguish, while she was compelled to 
+acknowledge, that the fortitude she had formerly exerted, if it had 
+not conducted her to happiness, had saved her from irretrievable 
+misfortune--from Valancourt himself!  But in these moments she could 
+not congratulate herself on the prudence, that had saved her; she 
+could only lament, with bitterest anguish, the circumstances, which 
+had conspired to betray Valancourt into a course of life so different 
+from that, which the virtues, the tastes, and the pursuits of his 
+early years had promised; but she still loved him too well to 
+believe, that his heart was even now depraved, though his conduct had 
+been criminal.  An observation, which had fallen from M. St. Aubert 
+more than once, now occurred to her.  'This young man,' said he, 
+speaking of Valancourt, 'has never been at Paris;' a remark, that had 
+surprised her at the time it was uttered, but which she now 
+understood, and she exclaimed sorrowfully, 'O Valancourt! if such a 
+friend as my father had been with you at Paris--your noble, ingenuous 
+nature would not have fallen!'
+
+The sun was now set, and, recalling her thoughts from their 
+melancholy subject, she continued her walk; for the pensive shade of 
+twilight was pleasing to her, and the nightingales from the 
+surrounding groves began to answer each other in the long-drawn, 
+plaintive note, which always touched her heart; while all the 
+fragrance of the flowery thickets, that bounded the terrace, was 
+awakened by the cool evening air, which floated so lightly among 
+their leaves, that they scarcely trembled as it passed.
+
+Emily came, at length, to the steps of the pavilion, that terminated 
+the terrace, and where her last interview with Valancourt, before her 
+departure from Tholouse, had so unexpectedly taken place.  The door 
+was now shut, and she trembled, while she hesitated whether to open 
+it; but her wish to see again a place, which had been the chief scene 
+of her former happiness, at length overcoming her reluctance to 
+encounter the painful regret it would renew, she entered.  The room 
+was obscured by a melancholy shade; but through the open lattices, 
+darkened by the hanging foliage of the vines, appeared the dusky 
+landscape, the Garonne reflecting the evening light, and the west 
+still glowing.  A chair was placed near one of the balconies, as if 
+some person had been sitting there, but the other furniture of the 
+pavilion remained exactly as usual, and Emily thought it looked as if 
+it had not once been moved since she set out for Italy.  The silent 
+and deserted air of the place added solemnity to her emotions, for 
+she heard only the low whisper of the breeze, as it shook the leaves 
+of the vines, and the very faint murmur of the Garonne.
+
+She seated herself in a chair, near the lattice, and yielded to the 
+sadness of her heart, while she recollected the circumstances of her 
+parting interview with Valancourt, on this spot.  It was here too, 
+that she had passed some of the happiest hours of her life with him, 
+when her aunt favoured the connection, for here she had often sat and 
+worked, while he conversed, or read; and she now well remembered with 
+what discriminating judgment, with what tempered energy, he used to 
+repeat some of the sublimest passages of their favourite authors; how 
+often he would pause to admire with her their excellence, and with 
+what tender delight he would listen to her remarks, and correct her 
+taste.
+
+'And is it possible,' said Emily, as these recollections returned--
+'is it possible, that a mind, so susceptible of whatever is grand and 
+beautiful, could stoop to low pursuits, and be subdued by frivolous 
+temptations?'
+
+She remembered how often she had seen the sudden tear start in his 
+eye, and had heard his voice tremble with emotion, while he related 
+any great or benevolent action, or repeated a sentiment of the same 
+character.  'And such a mind,' said she, 'such a heart, were to be 
+sacrificed to the habits of a great city!'
+
+These recollections becoming too painful to be endured, she abruptly 
+left the pavilion, and, anxious to escape from the memorials of her 
+departed happiness, returned towards the chateau.  As she passed 
+along the terrace, she perceived a person, walking, with a slow step, 
+and a dejected air, under the trees, at some distance.  The twilight, 
+which was now deep, would not allow her to distinguish who it was, 
+and she imagined it to be one of the servants, till, the sound of her 
+steps seeming to reach him, he turned half round, and she thought she 
+saw Valancourt!
+
+Whoever it was, he instantly struck among the thickets on the left, 
+and disappeared, while Emily, her eyes fixed on the place, whence he 
+had vanished, and her frame trembling so excessively, that she could 
+scarcely support herself, remained, for some moments, unable to quit 
+the spot, and scarcely conscious of existence.  With her 
+recollection, her strength returned, and she hurried toward the 
+house, where she did not venture to enquire who had been in the 
+gardens, lest she should betray her emotion; and she sat down alone, 
+endeavouring to recollect the figure, air and features of the person 
+she had just seen.  Her view of him, however, had been so transient, 
+and the gloom had rendered it so imperfect, that she could remember 
+nothing with exactness; yet the general appearance of his figure, and 
+his abrupt departure, made her still believe, that this person was 
+Valancourt.  Sometimes, indeed, she thought, that her fancy, which 
+had been occupied by the idea of him, had suggested his image to her 
+uncertain sight:  but this conjecture was fleeting.  If it was 
+himself whom she had seen, she wondered much, that he should be at 
+Tholouse, and more, how he had gained admittance into the garden; but 
+as often as her impatience prompted her to enquire whether any 
+stranger had been admitted, she was restrained by an unwillingness to 
+betray her doubts; and the evening was passed in anxious conjecture, 
+and in efforts to dismiss the subject from her thoughts.  But, these 
+endeavours were ineffectual, and a thousand inconsistent emotions 
+assailed her, whenever she fancied that Valancourt might be near her; 
+now, she dreaded it to be true, and now she feared it to be false; 
+and, while she constantly tried to persuade herself, that she wished 
+the person, whom she had seen, might not be Valancourt, her heart as 
+constantly contradicted her reason.
+
+The following day was occupied by the visits of several neighbouring 
+families, formerly intimate with Madame Montoni, who came to condole 
+with Emily on her death, to congratulate her upon the acquisition of 
+these estates, and to enquire about Montoni, and concerning the 
+strange reports they had heard of her own situation; all which was 
+done with the utmost decorum, and the visitors departed with as much 
+composure as they had arrived.
+
+Emily was wearied by these formalities, and disgusted by the 
+subservient manners of many persons, who had thought her scarcely 
+worthy of common attention, while she was believed to be a dependant 
+on Madame Montoni.
+
+'Surely,' said she, 'there is some magic in wealth, which can thus 
+make persons pay their court to it, when it does not even benefit 
+themselves.  How strange it is, that a fool or a knave, with riches, 
+should be treated with more respect by the world, than a good man, or 
+a wise man in poverty!'
+
+It was evening, before she was left alone, and she then wished to 
+have refreshed her spirits in the free air of her garden; but she 
+feared to go thither, lest she should meet again the person, whom she 
+had seen on the preceding night, and he should prove to be 
+Valancourt.  The suspense and anxiety she suffered, on this subject, 
+she found all her efforts unable to controul, and her secret wish to 
+see Valancourt once more, though unseen by him, powerfully prompted 
+her to go, but prudence and a delicate pride restrained her, and she 
+determined to avoid the possibility of throwing herself in his way, 
+by forbearing to visit the gardens, for several days.
+
+When, after near a week, she again ventured thither, she made Annette 
+her companion, and confined her walk to the lower grounds, but often 
+started as the leaves rustled in the breeze, imagining, that some 
+person was among the thickets; and, at the turn of every alley, she 
+looked forward with apprehensive expectation.  She pursued her walk 
+thoughtfully and silently, for her agitation would not suffer her to 
+converse with Annette, to whom, however, thought and silence were so 
+intolerable, that she did not scruple at length to talk to her 
+mistress.
+
+'Dear madam,' said she, 'why do you start so? one would think you 
+knew what has happened.'
+
+'What has happened?' said Emily, in a faltering voice, and trying to 
+command her emotion.
+
+'The night before last, you know, madam'--
+
+'I know nothing, Annette,' replied her lady in a more hurried voice.
+
+'The night before last, madam, there was a robber in the garden.'
+
+'A robber!' said Emily, in an eager, yet doubting tone.
+
+'I suppose he was a robber, madam.  What else could he be?'
+
+'Where did you see him, Annette?' rejoined Emily, looking round her, 
+and turning back towards the chateau.
+
+'It was not I that saw him, madam, it was Jean the gardener.  It was 
+twelve o'clock at night, and, as he was coming across the court to go 
+the back way into the house, what should he see--but somebody walking 
+in the avenue, that fronts the garden gate!  So, with that, Jean 
+guessed how it was, and he went into the house for his gun.'
+
+'His gun!' exclaimed Emily.
+
+'Yes, madam, his gun; and then he came out into the court to watch 
+him.  Presently, he sees him come slowly down the avenue, and lean 
+over the garden gate, and look up at the house for a long time; and I 
+warrant he examined it well, and settled what window he should break 
+in at.'
+
+'But the gun,' said Emily--'the gun!'
+
+'Yes, madam, all in good time.  Presently, Jean says, the robber 
+opened the gate, and was coming into the court, and then he thought 
+proper to ask him his business:  so he called out again, and bade him 
+say who he was, and what he wanted.  But the man would do neither; 
+but turned upon his heel, and passed into the garden again.  Jean 
+knew then well enough how it was, and so he fired after him.'
+
+'Fired!' exclaimed Emily.
+
+'Yes, madam, fired off his gun; but, Holy Virgin! what makes you look 
+so pale, madam?  The man was not killed,--I dare say; but if he was, 
+his comrades carried him off:  for, when Jean went in the morning, to 
+look for the body, it was gone, and nothing to be seen but a track of 
+blood on the ground.  Jean followed it, that he might find out where 
+the man got into the garden, but it was lost in the grass, and'--
+
+Annette was interrupted:  for Emily's spirits died away, and she 
+would have fallen to the ground, if the girl had not caught her, and 
+supported her to a bench, close to them.
+
+When, after a long absence, her senses returned, Emily desired to be 
+led to her apartment; and, though she trembled with anxiety to 
+enquire further on the subject of her alarm, she found herself too 
+ill at present, to dare the intelligence which it was possible she 
+might receive of Valancourt.  Having dismissed Annette, that she 
+might weep and think at liberty, she endeavoured to recollect the 
+exact air of the person, whom she had seen on the terrace, and still 
+her fancy gave her the figure of Valancourt.  She had, indeed, 
+scarcely a doubt, that it was he whom she had seen, and at whom the 
+gardener had fired:  for the manner of the latter person, as 
+described by Annette, was not that of a robber; nor did it appear 
+probable, that a robber would have come alone, to break into a house 
+so spacious as this.
+
+When Emily thought herself sufficiently recovered, to listen to what 
+Jean might have to relate, she sent for him; but he could inform her 
+of no circumstance, that might lead to a knowledge of the person, who 
+had been shot, or of the consequence of the wound; and, after 
+severely reprimanding him, for having fired with bullets, and 
+ordering diligent enquiry to be made in the neighbourhood for the 
+discovery of the wounded person, she dismissed him, and herself 
+remained in the same state of terrible suspense.  All the tenderness 
+she had ever felt for Valancourt, was recalled by the sense of his 
+danger; and the more she considered the subject, the more her 
+conviction strengthened, that it was he, who had visited the gardens, 
+for the purpose of soothing the misery of disappointed affection, 
+amidst the scenes of his former happiness.
+
+'Dear madam,' said Annette, when she returned, 'I never saw you so 
+affected before!  I dare say the man is not killed.'
+
+Emily shuddered, and lamented bitterly the rashness of the gardener 
+in having fired.
+
+'I knew you would be angry enough about that, madam, or I should have 
+told you before; and he knew so too; for, says he, "Annette, say 
+nothing about this to my lady.  She lies on the other side of the 
+house, so did not hear the gun, perhaps; but she would be angry with 
+me, if she knew, seeing there is blood.  But then," says he, "how is 
+one to keep the garden clear, if one is afraid to fire at a robber, 
+when one sees him?"'
+
+'No more of this,' said Emily, 'pray leave me.'
+
+Annette obeyed, and Emily returned to the agonizing considerations, 
+that had assailed her before, but which she, at length, endeavoured 
+to sooth by a new remark.  If the stranger was Valancourt, it was 
+certain he had come alone, and it appeared, therefore, that he had 
+been able to quit the gardens, without assistance; a circumstance 
+which did not seem probable, had his wound been dangerous.  With this 
+consideration, she endeavoured to support herself, during the 
+enquiries, that were making by her servants in the neighbourhood; but 
+day after day came, and still closed in uncertainty, concerning this 
+affair:  and Emily, suffering in silence, at length, drooped, and 
+sunk under the pressure of her anxiety.  She was attacked by a slow 
+fever, and when she yielded to the persuasion of Annette to send for 
+medical advice, the physicians prescribed little beside air, gentle 
+exercise and amusement:  but how was this last to be obtained?  She, 
+however, endeavoured to abstract her thoughts from the subject of her 
+anxiety, by employing them in promoting that happiness in others, 
+which she had lost herself; and, when the evening was fine, she 
+usually took an airing, including in her ride the cottages of some of 
+her tenants, on whose condition she made such observations, as often 
+enabled her, unasked, to fulfil their wishes.
+
+Her indisposition and the business she engaged in, relative to this 
+estate, had already protracted her stay at Tholouse, beyond the 
+period she had formerly fixed for her departure to La Vallee; and now 
+she was unwilling to leave the only place, where it seemed possible, 
+that certainty could be obtained on the subject of her distress.  But 
+the time was come, when her presence was necessary at La Vallee, a 
+letter from the Lady Blanche now informing her, that the Count and 
+herself, being then at the chateau of the Baron St. Foix, purposed to 
+visit her at La Vallee, on their way home, as soon as they should be 
+informed of her arrival there.  Blanche added, that they made this 
+visit, with the hope of inducing her to return with them to Chateau-
+le-Blanc.
+
+Emily, having replied to the letter of her friend, and said that she 
+should be at La Vallee in a few days, made hasty preparations for the 
+journey; and, in thus leaving Tholouse, endeavoured to support 
+herself with a belief, that, if any fatal accident had happened to 
+Valancourt, she must in this interval have heard of it.
+
+On the evening before her departure, she went to take leave of the 
+terrace and the pavilion.  The day had been sultry, but a light 
+shower, that fell just before sun-set, had cooled the air, and given 
+that soft verdure to the woods and pastures, which is so refreshing 
+to the eye; while the rain drops, still trembling on the shrubs, 
+glittered in the last yellow gleam, that lighted up the scene, and 
+the air was filled with fragrance, exhaled by the late shower, from 
+herbs and flowers and from the earth itself.  But the lovely 
+prospect, which Emily beheld from the terrace, was no longer viewed 
+by her with delight; she sighed deeply as her eye wandered over it, 
+and her spirits were in a state of such dejection, that she could not 
+think of her approaching return to La Vallee, without tears, and 
+seemed to mourn again the death of her father, as if it had been an 
+event of yesterday.  Having reached the pavilion, she seated herself 
+at the open lattice, and, while her eyes settled on the distant 
+mountains, that overlooked Gascony, still gleaming on the horizon, 
+though the sun had now left the plains below, 'Alas!' said she, 'I 
+return to your long-lost scenes, but shall meet no more the parents, 
+that were wont to render them delightful!--no more shall see the 
+smile of welcome, or hear the well-known voice of fondness:--all will 
+now be cold and silent in what was once my happy home.'
+
+Tears stole down her cheek, as the remembrance of what that home had 
+been, returned to her; but, after indulging her sorrow for some time, 
+she checked it, accusing herself of ingratitude in forgetting the 
+friends, that she possessed, while she lamented those that were 
+departed; and she, at length, left the pavilion and the terrace, 
+without having observed a shadow of Valancourt or of any other 
+person.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+  Ah happy hills! ah pleasing shade!
+ Ah fields belov'd in vain!
+ Where once my careless childhood stray'd,
+ A stranger yet to pain!
+ I feel the gales, that from ye blow,
+ A momentary bliss bestow,
+ As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
+ My weary soul they seem to sooth.
+     GRAY
+
+On the following morning, Emily left Tholouse at an early hour, and 
+reached La Vallee about sun-set.  With the melancholy she experienced 
+on the review of a place which had been the residence of her parents, 
+and the scene of her earliest delight, was mingled, after the first 
+shock had subsided, a tender and undescribable pleasure.  For time 
+had so far blunted the acuteness of her grief, that she now courted 
+every scene, that awakened the memory of her friends; in every room, 
+where she had been accustomed to see them, they almost seemed to live 
+again; and she felt that La Vallee was still her happiest home.  One 
+of the first apartments she visited, was that, which had been her 
+father's library, and here she seated herself in his arm-chair, and, 
+while she contemplated, with tempered resignation, the picture of 
+past times, which her memory gave, the tears she shed could scarcely 
+be called those of grief.
+
+Soon after her arrival, she was surprised by a visit from the 
+venerable M. Barreaux, who came impatiently to welcome the daughter 
+of his late respected neighbour, to her long-deserted home.  Emily 
+was comforted by the presence of an old friend, and they passed an 
+interesting hour in conversing of former times, and in relating some 
+of the circumstances, that had occurred to each, since they parted.
+
+The evening was so far advanced, when M. Barreaux left Emily, that 
+she could not visit the garden that night; but, on the following 
+morning, she traced its long-regretted scenes with fond impatience; 
+and, as she walked beneath the groves, which her father had planted, 
+and where she had so often sauntered in affectionate conversation 
+with him, his countenance, his smile, even the accents of his voice, 
+returned with exactness to her fancy, and her heart melted to the 
+tender recollections.
+
+This, too, was his favourite season of the year, at which they had 
+often together admired the rich and variegated tints of these woods 
+and the magical effect of autumnal lights upon the mountains; and 
+now, the view of these circumstances made memory eloquent.  As she 
+wandered pensively on, she fancied the following address
+
+ TO AUTUMN
+
+ Sweet Autumn! how thy melancholy grace
+ Steals on my heart, as through these shades I wind!
+ Sooth'd by thy breathing sigh, I fondly trace
+ Each lonely image of the pensive mind!
+ Lov'd scenes, lov'd friends--long lost! around me rise,
+ And wake the melting thought, the tender tear!
+ That tear, that thought, which more than mirth I prize--
+ Sweet as the gradual tint, that paints thy year!
+ Thy farewel smile, with fond regret, I view,
+ Thy beaming lights, soft gliding o'er the woods;
+ Thy distant landscape, touch'd with yellow hue
+ While falls the lengthen'd gleam; thy winding floods,
+ Now veil'd in shade, save where the skiff's white sails
+ Swell to the breeze, and catch thy streaming ray.
+ But now, e'en now!--the partial vision fails,
+ And the wave smiles, as sweeps the cloud away!
+ Emblem of life!--Thus checquer'd is its plan,
+ Thus joy succeeds to grief--thus smiles the varied man!
+
+One of Emily's earliest enquiries, after her arrival at La Vallee, 
+was concerning Theresa, her father's old servant, whom it may be 
+remembered that M. Quesnel had turned from the house when it was let, 
+without any provision.  Understanding that she lived in a cottage at 
+no great distance, Emily walked thither, and, on approaching, was 
+pleased to see, that her habitation was pleasantly situated on a 
+green slope, sheltered by a tuft of oaks, and had an appearance of 
+comfort and extreme neatness.  She found the old woman within, 
+picking vine-stalks, who, on perceiving her young mistress, was 
+nearly overcome with joy.
+
+'Ah! my dear young lady!' said she, 'I thought I should never see you 
+again in this world, when I heard you was gone to that outlandish 
+country.  I have been hardly used, since you went; I little thought 
+they would have turned me out of my old master's family in my old 
+age!'
+
+Emily lamented the circumstance, and then assured her, that she would 
+make her latter days comfortable, and expressed satisfaction, on 
+seeing her in so pleasant an habitation.
+
+Theresa thanked her with tears, adding, 'Yes, mademoiselle, it is a 
+very comfortable home, thanks to the kind friend, who took me out of 
+my distress, when you was too far off to help me, and placed me here!  
+I little thought!--but no more of that--'
+
+'And who was this kind friend?' said Emily:  'whoever it was, I shall 
+consider him as mine also.'
+
+'Ah, mademoiselle! that friend forbad me to blazon the good deed--I 
+must not say, who it was.  But how you are altered since I saw you 
+last!  You look so pale now, and so thin, too; but then, there is my 
+old master's smile!  Yes, that will never leave you, any more than 
+the goodness, that used to make him smile.  Alas-a-day! the poor lost 
+a friend indeed, when he died!'
+
+Emily was affected by this mention of her father, which Theresa 
+observing, changed the subject.  'I heard, mademoiselle,' said she, 
+'that Madame Cheron married a foreign gentleman, after all, and took 
+you abroad; how does she do?'
+
+Emily now mentioned her death.  'Alas!' said Theresa, 'if she had not 
+been my master's sister, I should never have loved her; she was 
+always so cross.  But how does that dear young gentleman do, M. 
+Valancourt? he was an handsome youth, and a good one; is he well, 
+mademoiselle?'
+
+Emily was much agitated.
+
+'A blessing on him!' continued Theresa.  'Ah, my dear young lady, you 
+need not look so shy; I know all about it.  Do you think I do not 
+know, that he loves you?  Why, when you was away, mademoiselle, he 
+used to come to the chateau and walk about it, so disconsolate!  He 
+would go into every room in the lower part of the house, and, 
+sometimes, he would sit himself down in a chair, with his arms 
+across, and his eyes on the floor, and there he would sit, and think, 
+and think, for the hour together.  He used to be very fond of the 
+south parlour, because I told him it used to be yours; and there he 
+would stay, looking at the pictures, which I said you drew, and 
+playing upon your lute, that hung up by the window, and reading in 
+your books, till sunset, and then he must go back to his brother's 
+chateau.  And then--'
+
+'It is enough, Theresa,' said Emily.--'How long have you lived in 
+this cottage--and how can I serve you?  Will you remain here, or 
+return and live with me?'
+
+'Nay, mademoiselle,' said Theresa, 'do not be so shy to your poor old 
+servant.  I am sure it is no disgrace to like such a good young 
+gentleman.'
+
+A deep sigh escaped from Emily.
+
+'Ah! how he did love to talk of you!  I loved him for that.  Nay, for 
+that matter, he liked to hear me talk, for he did not say much 
+himself.  But I soon found out what he came to the chateau about.  
+Then, he would go into the garden, and down to the terrace, and sit 
+under that great tree there, for the day together, with one of your 
+books in his hand; but he did not read much, I fancy; for one day I 
+happened to go that way, and I heard somebody talking.  Who can be 
+here? says I:  I am sure I let nobody into the garden, but the 
+Chevalier.  So I walked softly, to see who it could be; and behold! 
+it was the Chevalier himself, talking to himself about you.  And he 
+repeated your name, and sighed so! and said he had lost you for ever, 
+for that you would never return for him.  I thought he was out in his 
+reckoning there, but I said nothing, and stole away.'
+
+'No more of this trifling,' said Emily, awakening from her reverie:  
+'it displeases me.'
+
+'But, when M. Quesnel let the chateau, I thought it would have broke 
+the Chevalier's heart.'
+
+'Theresa,' said Emily seriously, 'you must name the Chevalier no 
+more!'
+
+'Not name him, mademoiselle!' cried Theresa:  'what times are come up 
+now?  Why, I love the Chevalier next to my old master and you, 
+mademoiselle.'
+
+'Perhaps your love was not well bestowed, then,' replied Emily, 
+trying to conceal her tears; 'but, however that might be, we shall 
+meet no more.'
+
+'Meet no more!--not well bestowed!' exclaimed Theresa.  'What do I 
+hear?  No, mademoiselle, my love was well bestowed, for it was the 
+Chevalier Valancourt, who gave me this cottage, and has supported me 
+in my old age, ever since M. Quesnel turned me from my master's 
+house.'
+
+'The Chevalier Valancourt!' said Emily, trembling extremely.
+
+'Yes, mademoiselle, he himself, though he made me promise not to 
+tell; but how could one help, when one heard him ill spoken of?  Ah! 
+dear young lady, you may well weep, if you have behaved unkindly to 
+him, for a more tender heart than his never young gentleman had.  He 
+found me out in my distress, when you was too far off to help me; and 
+M. Quesnel refused to do so, and bade me go to service again--Alas! I 
+was too old for that!--The Chevalier found me, and bought me this 
+cottage, and gave me money to furnish it, and bade me seek out 
+another poor woman to live with me; and he ordered his brother's 
+steward to pay me, every quarter, that which has supported me in 
+comfort.  Think then, mademoiselle, whether I have not reason to 
+speak well of the Chevalier.  And there are others, who could have 
+afforded it better than he:  and I am afraid he has hurt himself by 
+his generosity, for quarter day is gone by long since, and no money 
+for me!  But do not weep so, mademoiselle:  you are not sorry surely 
+to hear of the poor Chevalier's goodness?'
+
+'Sorry!' said Emily, and wept the more.  'But how long is it since 
+you have seen him?'
+
+'Not this many a day, mademoiselle.'
+
+'When did you hear of him?' enquired Emily, with increased emotion.
+
+'Alas! never since he went away so suddenly into Languedoc; and he 
+was but just come from Paris then, or I should have seen him, I am 
+sure.  Quarter day is gone by long since, and, as I said, no money 
+for me; and I begin to fear some harm has happened to him:  and if I 
+was not so far from Estuviere and so lame, I should have gone to 
+enquire before this time; and I have nobody to send so far.'
+
+Emily's anxiety, as to the fate of Valancourt, was now scarcely 
+endurable, and, since propriety would not suffer her to send to the 
+chateau of his brother, she requested that Theresa would immediately 
+hire some person to go to his steward from herself, and, when he 
+asked for the quarterage due to her, to make enquiries concerning 
+Valancourt.  But she first made Theresa promise never to mention her 
+name in this affair, or ever with that of the Chevalier Valancourt; 
+and her former faithfulness to M. St. Aubert induced Emily to confide 
+in her assurances.  Theresa now joyfully undertook to procure a 
+person for this errand, and then Emily, after giving her a sum of 
+money to supply her with present comforts, returned, with spirits 
+heavily oppressed, to her home, lamenting, more than ever, that an 
+heart, possessed of so much benevolence as Valancourt's, should have 
+been contaminated by the vices of the world, but affected by the 
+delicate affection, which his kindness to her old servant expressed 
+for herself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+  Light thickens, and the crow
+ Makes wing to the rooky wood:
+ Good things of day begin to droop, and drowze;
+ While night's black agents to their preys do rouze.
+     MACBETH
+
+Meanwhile Count De Villefort and Lady Blanche had passed a pleasant 
+fortnight at the chateau de St. Foix, with the Baron and Baroness, 
+during which they made frequent excursions among the mountains, and 
+were delighted with the romantic wildness of Pyrenean scenery.  It 
+was with regret, that the Count bade adieu to his old friends, 
+although with the hope of being soon united with them in one family; 
+for it was settled that M. St. Foix, who now attended them into 
+Gascony, should receive the hand of the Lady Blanche, upon their 
+arrival at Chateau-le-Blanc.  As the road, from the Baron's residence 
+to La Vallee, was over some of the wildest tract of the Pyrenees, and 
+where a carriage-wheel had never passed, the Count hired mules for 
+himself and his family, as well as a couple of stout guides, who were 
+well armed, informed of all the passes of the mountains, and who 
+boasted, too, that they were acquainted with every brake and dingle 
+in the way, could tell the names of all the highest points of this 
+chain of Alps, knew every forest, that spread along their narrow 
+vallies, the shallowest part of every torrent they must cross, and 
+the exact distance of every goat-herd's and hunter's cabin they 
+should have occasion to pass,--which last article of learning 
+required no very capacious memory, for even such simple inhabitants 
+were but thinly scattered over these wilds.
+
+The Count left the chateau de St. Foix, early in the morning, with an 
+intention of passing the night at a little inn upon the mountains, 
+about half way to La Vallee, of which his guides had informed him; 
+and, though this was frequented chiefly by Spanish muleteers, on 
+their route into France, and, of course, would afford only sorry 
+accommodation, the Count had no alternative, for it was the only 
+place like an inn, on the road.
+
+After a day of admiration and fatigue, the travellers found 
+themselves, about sun-set, in a woody valley, overlooked, on every 
+side, by abrupt heights.  They had proceeded for many leagues, 
+without seeing a human habitation, and had only heard, now and then, 
+at a distance, the melancholy tinkling of a sheep-bell; but now they 
+caught the notes of merry music, and presently saw, within a little 
+green recess among the rocks, a group of mountaineers, tripping 
+through a dance.  The Count, who could not look upon the happiness, 
+any more than on the misery of others, with indifference, halted to 
+enjoy this scene of simple pleasure.  The group before him consisted 
+of French and Spanish peasants, the inhabitants of a neighbouring 
+hamlet, some of whom were performing a sprightly dance, the women 
+with castanets in their hands, to the sounds of a lute and a 
+tamborine, till, from the brisk melody of France, the music softened 
+into a slow movement, to which two female peasants danced a Spanish 
+Pavan.
+
+The Count, comparing this with the scenes of such gaiety as he had 
+witnessed at Paris, where false taste painted the features, and, 
+while it vainly tried to supply the glow of nature, concealed the 
+charms of animation--where affectation so often distorted the air, 
+and vice perverted the manners--sighed to think, that natural graces 
+and innocent pleasures flourished in the wilds of solitude, while 
+they drooped amidst the concourse of polished society.  But the 
+lengthening shadows reminded the travellers, that they had no time to 
+lose; and, leaving this joyous group, they pursued their way towards 
+the little inn, which was to shelter them from the night.
+
+The rays of the setting sun now threw a yellow gleam upon the forests 
+of pine and chesnut, that swept down the lower region of the 
+mountains, and gave resplendent tints to the snowy points above.  But 
+soon, even this light faded fast, and the scenery assumed a more 
+tremendous appearance, invested with the obscurity of twilight.  
+Where the torrent had been seen, it was now only heard; where the 
+wild cliffs had displayed every variety of form and attitude, a dark 
+mass of mountains now alone appeared; and the vale, which far, far 
+below had opened its dreadful chasm, the eye could no longer fathom.  
+A melancholy gleam still lingered on the summits of the highest Alps, 
+overlooking the deep repose of evening, and seeming to make the 
+stillness of the hour more awful.
+
+Blanche viewed the scene in silence, and listened with enthusiasm to 
+the murmur of the pines, that extended in dark lines along the 
+mountains, and to the faint voice of the izard, among the rocks, that 
+came at intervals on the air.  But her enthusiasm sunk into 
+apprehension, when, as the shadows deepened, she looked upon the 
+doubtful precipice, that bordered the road, as well as on the various 
+fantastic forms of danger, that glimmered through the obscurity 
+beyond it; and she asked her father, how far they were from the inn, 
+and whether he did not consider the road to be dangerous at this late 
+hour.  The Count repeated the first question to the guides, who 
+returned a doubtful answer, adding, that, when it was darker, it 
+would be safest to rest, till the moon rose.  'It is scarcely safe to 
+proceed now,' said the Count; but the guides, assuring him that there 
+was no danger, went on.  Blanche, revived by this assurance, again 
+indulged a pensive pleasure, as she watched the progress of twilight 
+gradually spreading its tints over the woods and mountains, and 
+stealing from the eye every minuter feature of the scene, till the 
+grand outlines of nature alone remained.  Then fell the silent dews, 
+and every wild flower, and aromatic plant, that bloomed among the 
+cliffs, breathed forth its sweetness; then, too, when the mountain-
+bee had crept into its blossomed bed, and the hum of every little 
+insect, that had floated gaily in the sun-beam, was hushed, the sound 
+of many streams, not heard till now, murmured at a distance.--The 
+bats alone, of all the animals inhabiting this region, seemed awake; 
+and, while they flitted across the silent path, which Blanche was 
+pursuing, she remembered the following lines, which Emily had given 
+her:
+
+ TO THE BAT
+
+ From haunt of man, from day's obtrusive glare,
+ Thou shroud'st thee in the ruin's ivy'd tow'r.
+ Or in some shadowy glen's romantic bow'r,
+ Where wizard forms their mystic charms prepare,
+ Where Horror lurks, and ever-boding Care!
+ But, at the sweet and silent ev'ning hour,
+ When clos'd in sleep is ev'ry languid flow'r,
+ Thou lov'st to sport upon the twilight air,
+ Mocking the eye, that would thy course pursue,
+ In many a wanton-round, elastic, gay,
+ Thou flit'st athwart the pensive wand'rer's way,
+ As his lone footsteps print the mountain-dew.
+ From Indian isles thou com'st, with Summer's car,
+ Twilight thy love--thy guide her beaming star!
+
+To a warm imagination, the dubious forms, that float, half veiled in 
+darkness, afford a higher delight, than the most distinct scenery, 
+that the sun can shew.  While the fancy thus wanders over landscapes 
+partly of its own creation, a sweet complacency steals upon the mind, 
+and
+
+ Refines it all to subtlest feeling,
+ Bids the tear of rapture roll.
+
+The distant note of a torrent, the weak trembling of the breeze among 
+the woods, or the far-off sound of a human voice, now lost and heard 
+again, are circumstances, which wonderfully heighten the enthusiastic 
+tone of the mind.  The young St. Foix, who saw the presentations of a 
+fervid fancy, and felt whatever enthusiasm could suggest, sometimes 
+interrupted the silence, which the rest of the party seemed by mutual 
+consent to preserve, remarking and pointing out to Blanche the most 
+striking effect of the hour upon the scenery; while Blanche, whose 
+apprehensions were beguiled by the conversation of her lover, yielded 
+to the taste so congenial to his, and they conversed in a low 
+restrained voice, the effect of the pensive tranquillity, which 
+twilight and the scene inspired, rather than of any fear, that they 
+should be heard.  But, while the heart was thus soothed to 
+tenderness, St. Foix gradually mingled, with his admiration of the 
+country, a mention of his affection; and he continued to speak, and 
+Blanche to listen, till the mountains, the woods, and the magical 
+illusions of twilight, were remembered no more.
+
+The shadows of evening soon shifted to the gloom of night, which was 
+somewhat anticipated by the vapours, that, gathering fast round the 
+mountains, rolled in dark wreaths along their sides; and the guides 
+proposed to rest, till the moon should rise, adding, that they 
+thought a storm was coming on.  As they looked round for a spot, that 
+might afford some kind of shelter, an object was perceived obscurely 
+through the dusk, on a point of rock, a little way down the mountain, 
+which they imagined to be a hunter's or a shepherd's cabin, and the 
+party, with cautious steps, proceeded towards it.  Their labour, 
+however, was not rewarded, or their apprehensions soothed; for, on 
+reaching the object of their search, they discovered a monumental 
+cross, which marked the spot to have been polluted by murder.
+
+The darkness would not permit them to read the inscription; but the 
+guides knew this to be a cross, raised to the memory of a Count de 
+Beliard, who had been murdered here by a horde of banditti, that had 
+infested this part of the Pyrenees, a few years before; and the 
+uncommon size of the monument seemed to justify the supposition, that 
+it was erected for a person of some distinction.  Blanche shuddered, 
+as she listened to some horrid particulars of the Count's fate, which 
+one of the guides related in a low, restrained tone, as if the sound 
+of his own voice frightened him; but, while they lingered at the 
+cross, attending to his narrative, a flash of lightning glanced upon 
+the rocks, thunder muttered at a distance, and the travellers, now 
+alarmed, quitted this scene of solitary horror, in search of shelter.
+
+Having regained their former track, the guides, as they passed on, 
+endeavoured to interest the Count by various stories of robbery, and 
+even of murder, which had been perpetrated in the very places they 
+must unavoidably pass, with accounts of their own dauntless courage 
+and wonderful escapes.  The chief guide, or rather he, who was the 
+most completely armed, drawing forth one of the four pistols, that 
+were tucked into his belt, swore, that it had shot three robbers 
+within the year.  He then brandished a clasp-knife of enormous 
+length, and was going to recount the wonderful execution it had done, 
+when St. Foix, perceiving, that Blanche was terrified, interrupted 
+him.  The Count, meanwhile, secretly laughing at the terrible 
+histories and extravagant boastings of the man, resolved to humour 
+him, and, telling Blanche in a whisper, his design, began to recount 
+some exploits of his own, which infinitely exceeded any related by 
+the guide.
+
+To these surprising circumstances he so artfully gave the colouring 
+of truth, that the courage of the guides was visibly affected by 
+them, who continued silent, long after the Count had ceased to speak.  
+The loquacity of the chief hero thus laid asleep, the vigilance of 
+his eyes and ears seemed more thoroughly awakened, for he listened, 
+with much appearance of anxiety, to the deep thunder, which murmured 
+at intervals, and often paused, as the breeze, that was now rising, 
+rushed among the pines.  But, when he made a sudden halt before a 
+tuft of cork trees, that projected over the road, and drew forth a 
+pistol, before he would venture to brave the banditti which might 
+lurk behind it, the Count could no longer refrain from laughter.
+
+Having now, however, arrived at a level spot, somewhat sheltered from 
+the air, by overhanging cliffs and by a wood of larch, that rose over 
+the precipice on the left, and the guides being yet ignorant how far 
+they were from the inn, the travellers determined to rest, till the 
+moon should rise, or the storm disperse.  Blanche, recalled to a 
+sense of the present moment, looked on the surrounding gloom, with 
+terror; but giving her hand to St. Foix, she alighted, and the whole 
+party entered a kind of cave, if such it could be called, which was 
+only a shallow cavity, formed by the curve of impending rocks.  A 
+light being struck, a fire was kindled, whose blaze afforded some 
+degree of cheerfulness, and no small comfort, for, though the day had 
+been hot, the night air of this mountainous region was chilling; a 
+fire was partly necessary also to keep off the wolves, with which 
+those wilds were infested.
+
+Provisions being spread upon a projection of the rock, the Count and 
+his family partook of a supper, which, in a scene less rude, would 
+certainly have been thought less excellent.  When the repast was 
+finished, St. Foix, impatient for the moon, sauntered along the 
+precipice, to a point, that fronted the east; but all was yet wrapt 
+in gloom, and the silence of night was broken only by the murmuring 
+of woods, that waved far below, or by distant thunder, and, now and 
+then, by the faint voices of the party he had quitted.  He viewed, 
+with emotions of awful sublimity, the long volumes of sulphureous 
+clouds, that floated along the upper and middle regions of the air, 
+and the lightnings that flashed from them, sometimes silently, and, 
+at others, followed by sullen peals of thunder, which the mountains 
+feebly prolonged, while the whole horizon, and the abyss, on which he 
+stood, were discovered in the momentary light.  Upon the succeeding 
+darkness, the fire, which had been kindled in the cave, threw a 
+partial gleam, illumining some points of the opposite rocks, and the 
+summits of pine-woods, that hung beetling on the cliffs below, while 
+their recesses seemed to frown in deeper shade.
+
+St. Foix stopped to observe the picture, which the party in the cave 
+presented, where the elegant form of Blanche was finely contrasted by 
+the majestic figure of the Count, who was seated by her on a rude 
+stone, and each was rendered more impressive by the grotesque habits 
+and strong features of the guides and other attendants, who were in 
+the back ground of the piece.  The effect of the light, too, was 
+interesting; on the surrounding figures it threw a strong, though 
+pale gleam, and glittered on their bright arms; while upon the 
+foliage of a gigantic larch, that impended its shade over the cliff 
+above, appeared a red, dusky tint, deepening almost imperceptibly 
+into the blackness of night.
+
+While St. Foix contemplated the scene, the moon, broad and yellow, 
+rose over the eastern summits, from among embattled clouds, and 
+shewed dimly the grandeur of the heavens, the mass of vapours, that 
+rolled half way down the precipice beneath, and the doubtful 
+mountains.
+
+ What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime,
+ Like shipwreck'd mariner on desert coast,
+ And view th'enormous waste of vapour, tost
+ In billows length'ning to th'horizon round!
+     THE MINSTREL
+
+From this romantic reverie he was awakened by the voices of the 
+guides, repeating his name, which was reverbed from cliff to cliff, 
+till an hundred tongues seemed to call him; when he soon quieted the 
+fears of the Count and the Lady Blanche, by returning to the cave.  
+As the storm, however, seemed approaching, they did not quit their 
+place of shelter; and the Count, seated between his daughter and St. 
+Foix, endeavoured to divert the fears of the former, and conversed on 
+subjects, relating to the natural history of the scene, among which 
+they wandered.  He spoke of the mineral and fossile substances, found 
+in the depths of these mountains,--the veins of marble and granite, 
+with which they abounded, the strata of shells, discovered near their 
+summits, many thousand fathom above the level of the sea, and at a 
+vast distance from its present shore;--of the tremendous chasms and 
+caverns of the rocks, the grotesque form of the mountains, and the 
+various phaenomena, that seem to stamp upon the world the history of 
+the deluge.  From the natural history he descended to the mention of 
+events and circumstances, connected with the civil story of the 
+Pyrenees; named some of the most remarkable fortresses, which France 
+and Spain had erected in the passes of these mountains; and gave a 
+brief account of some celebrated sieges and encounters in early 
+times, when Ambition first frightened Solitude from these her deep 
+recesses, made her mountains, which before had echoed only to the 
+torrent's roar, tremble with the clang of arms, and, when man's first 
+footsteps in her sacred haunts had left the print of blood!
+
+As Blanche sat, attentive to the narrative, that rendered the scenes 
+doubly interesting, and resigned to solemn emotion, while she 
+considered, that she was on the very ground, once polluted by these 
+events, her reverie was suddenly interrupted by a sound, that came in 
+the wind.--It was the distant bark of a watch-dog.  The travellers 
+listened with eager hope, and, as the wind blew stronger, fancied, 
+that the sound came from no great distance; and, the guides having 
+little doubt, that it proceeded from the inn they were in search of, 
+the Count determined to pursue his way.  The moon now afforded a 
+stronger, though still an uncertain light, as she moved among broken 
+clouds; and the travellers, led by the sound, recommenced their 
+journey along the brow of the precipice, preceded by a single torch, 
+that now contended with the moon-light; for the guides, believing 
+they should reach the inn soon after sun-set, had neglected to 
+provide more.  In silent caution they followed the sound, which was 
+heard but at intervals, and which, after some time entirely ceased.  
+The guides endeavoured, however, to point their course to the 
+quarter, whence it had issued, but the deep roaring of a torrent soon 
+seized their attention, and presently they came to a tremendous chasm 
+of the mountain, which seemed to forbid all further progress.  
+Blanche alighted from her mule, as did the Count and St. Foix, while 
+the guides traversed the edge in search of a bridge, which, however 
+rude, might convey them to the opposite side, and they, at length, 
+confessed, what the Count had begun to suspect, that they had been, 
+for some time, doubtful of their way, and were now certain only, that 
+they had lost it.
+
+At a little distance, was discovered a rude and dangerous passage, 
+formed by an enormous pine, which, thrown across the chasm, united 
+the opposite precipices, and which had been felled probably by the 
+hunter, to facilitate his chace of the izard, or the wolf.  The whole 
+party, the guides excepted, shuddered at the prospect of crossing 
+this alpine bridge, whose sides afforded no kind of defence, and from 
+which to fall was to die.  The guides, however, prepared to lead over 
+the mules, while Blanche stood trembling on the brink, and listening 
+to the roar of the waters, which were seen descending from rocks 
+above, overhung with lofty pines, and thence precipitating themselves 
+into the deep abyss, where their white surges gleamed faintly in the 
+moon-light.  The poor animals proceeded over this perilous bridge 
+with instinctive caution, neither frightened by the noise of the 
+cataract, or deceived by the gloom, which the impending foliage threw 
+athwart their way.  It was now, that the solitary torch, which had 
+been hitherto of little service, was found to be an inestimable 
+treasure; and Blanche, terrified, shrinking, but endeavouring to re-
+collect all her firmness and presence of mind, preceded by her lover 
+and supported by her father, followed the red gleam of the torch, in 
+safety, to the opposite cliff.
+
+As they went on, the heights contracted, and formed a narrow pass, at 
+the bottom of which, the torrent they had just crossed, was heard to 
+thunder.  But they were again cheered by the bark of a dog, keeping 
+watch, perhaps, over the flocks of the mountains, to protect them 
+from the nightly descent of the wolves.  The sound was much nearer 
+than before, and, while they rejoiced in the hope of soon reaching a 
+place of repose, a light was seen to glimmer at a distance.  It 
+appeared at a height considerably above the level of their path, and 
+was lost and seen again, as if the waving branches of trees sometimes 
+excluded and then admitted its rays.  The guides hallooed with all 
+their strength, but the sound of no human voice was heard in return, 
+and, at length, as a more effectual means of making themselves known, 
+they fired a pistol.  But, while they listened in anxious 
+expectation, the noise of the explosion was alone heard, echoing 
+among the rocks, and it gradually sunk into silence, which no 
+friendly hint of man disturbed.  The light, however, that had been 
+seen before, now became plainer, and, soon after, voices were heard 
+indistinctly on the wind; but, upon the guides repeating the call, 
+the voices suddenly ceased, and the light disappeared.
+
+The Lady Blanche was now almost sinking beneath the pressure of 
+anxiety, fatigue and apprehension, and the united efforts of the 
+Count and St. Foix could scarcely support her spirits.  As they 
+continued to advance, an object was perceived on a point of rock 
+above, which, the strong rays of the moon then falling on it, 
+appeared to be a watch-tower.  The Count, from its situation and some 
+other circumstances, had little doubt, that it was such, and 
+believing, that the light had proceeded from thence, he endeavoured 
+to re-animate his daughter's spirits by the near prospect of shelter 
+and repose, which, however rude the accommodation, a ruined watch-
+tower might afford.
+
+'Numerous watch-towers have been erected among the Pyrenees,' said 
+the Count, anxious only to call Blanche's attention from the subject 
+of her fears; 'and the method, by which they give intelligence of the 
+approach of the enemy, is, you know, by fires, kindled on the summits 
+of these edifices.  Signals have thus, sometimes, been communicated 
+from post to post, along a frontier line of several hundred miles in 
+length.  Then, as occasion may require, the lurking armies emerge 
+from their fortresses and the forests, and march forth, to defend, 
+perhaps, the entrance of some grand pass, where, planting themselves 
+on the heights, they assail their astonished enemies, who wind along 
+the glen below, with fragments of the shattered cliff, and pour death 
+and defeat upon them.  The ancient forts, and watch-towers, 
+overlooking the grand passes of the Pyrenees, are carefully 
+preserved; but some of those in inferior stations have been suffered 
+to fall into decay, and are now frequently converted into the more 
+peaceful habitation of the hunter, or the shepherd, who, after a day 
+of toil, retires hither, and, with his faithful dogs, forgets, near a 
+cheerful blaze, the labour of the chace, or the anxiety of collecting 
+his wandering flocks, while he is sheltered from the nightly storm.'
+
+'But are they always thus peacefully inhabited?' said the Lady 
+Blanche.
+
+'No,' replied the Count, 'they are sometimes the asylum of French and 
+Spanish smugglers, who cross the mountains with contraband goods from 
+their respective countries, and the latter are particularly numerous, 
+against whom strong parties of the king's troops are sometimes sent.  
+But the desperate resolution of these adventurers, who, knowing, 
+that, if they are taken, they must expiate the breach of the law by 
+the most cruel death, travel in large parties, well armed, often 
+daunts the courage of the soldiers.  The smugglers, who seek only 
+safety, never engage, when they can possibly avoid it; the military, 
+also, who know, that in these encounters, danger is certain, and 
+glory almost unattainable, are equally reluctant to fight; an 
+engagement, therefore, very seldom happens, but, when it does, it 
+never concludes till after the most desperate and bloody conflict.  
+You are inattentive, Blanche,' added the Count:  'I have wearied you 
+with a dull subject; but see, yonder, in the moon-light, is the 
+edifice we have been in search of, and we are fortunate to be so near 
+it, before the storm bursts.'
+
+Blanche, looking up, perceived, that they were at the foot of the 
+cliff, on whose summit the building stood, but no light now issued 
+from it; the barking of the dog too had, for some time, ceased, and 
+the guides began to doubt, whether this was really the object of 
+their search.  From the distance, at which they surveyed it, shewn 
+imperfectly by a cloudy moon, it appeared to be of more extent than a 
+single watch-tower; but the difficulty was how to ascend the height, 
+whose abrupt declivities seemed to afford no kind of pathway.
+
+While the guides carried forward the torch to examine the cliff, the 
+Count, remaining with Blanche and St. Foix at its foot, under the 
+shadow of the woods, endeavoured again to beguile the time by 
+conversation, but again anxiety abstracted the mind of Blanche; and 
+he then consulted, apart with St. Foix, whether it would be 
+advisable, should a path be found, to venture to an edifice, which 
+might possibly harbour banditti.  They considered, that their own 
+party was not small, and that several of them were well armed; and, 
+after enumerating the dangers, to be incurred by passing the night in 
+the open wild, exposed, perhaps, to the effects of a thunder-storm, 
+there remained not a doubt, that they ought to endeavour to obtain 
+admittance to the edifice above, at any hazard respecting the 
+inhabitants it might harbour; but the darkness, and the dead silence, 
+that surrounded it, appeared to contradict the probability of its 
+being inhabited at all.
+
+A shout from the guides aroused their attention, after which, in a 
+few minutes, one of the Count's servants returned with intelligence, 
+that a path was found, and they immediately hastened to join the 
+guides, when they all ascended a little winding way cut in the rock 
+among thickets of dwarf wood, and, after much toil and some danger, 
+reached the summit, where several ruined towers, surrounded by a 
+massy wall, rose to their view, partially illumined by the moon-
+light.  The space around the building was silent, and apparently 
+forsaken, but the Count was cautious; 'Step softly,' said he, in a 
+low voice, 'while we reconnoitre the edifice.'
+
+Having proceeded silently along for some paces, they stopped at a 
+gate, whose portals were terrible even in ruins, and, after a 
+moment's hesitation, passed on to the court of entrance, but paused 
+again at the head of a terrace, which, branching from it, ran along 
+the brow of a precipice.  Over this, rose the main body of the 
+edifice, which was now seen to be, not a watch-tower, but one of 
+those ancient fortresses, that, from age and neglect, had fallen to 
+decay.  Many parts of it, however, appeared to be still entire; it 
+was built of grey stone, in the heavy Saxon-gothic style, with 
+enormous round towers, buttresses of proportionable strength, and the 
+arch of the large gate, which seemed to open into the hall of the 
+fabric, was round, as was that of a window above.  The air of 
+solemnity, which must so strongly have characterized the pile even in 
+the days of its early strength, was now considerably heightened by 
+its shattered battlements and half-demolished walls, and by the huge 
+masses of ruin, scattered in its wide area, now silent and grass 
+grown.  In this court of entrance stood the gigantic remains of an 
+oak, that seemed to have flourished and decayed with the building, 
+which it still appeared frowningly to protect by the few remaining 
+branches, leafless and moss-grown, that crowned its trunk, and whose 
+wide extent told how enormous the tree had been in a former age.  
+This fortress was evidently once of great strength, and, from its 
+situation on a point of rock, impending over a deep glen, had been of 
+great power to annoy, as well as to resist; the Count, therefore, as 
+he stood surveying it, was somewhat surprised, that it had been 
+suffered, ancient as it was, to sink into ruins, and its present 
+lonely and deserted air excited in his breast emotions of melancholy 
+awe.  While he indulged, for a moment, these emotions, he thought he 
+heard a sound of remote voices steal upon the stillness, from within 
+the building, the front of which he again surveyed with scrutinizing 
+eyes, but yet no light was visible.  He now determined to walk round 
+the fort, to that remote part of it, whence he thought the voices had 
+arisen, that he might examine whether any light could be discerned 
+there, before he ventured to knock at the gate; for this purpose, he 
+entered upon the terrace, where the remains of cannon were yet 
+apparent in the thick walls, but he had not proceeded many paces, 
+when his steps were suddenly arrested by the loud barking of a dog 
+within, and which he fancied to be the same, whose voice had been the 
+means of bringing the travellers thither.  It now appeared certain, 
+that the place was inhabited, and the Count returned to consult again 
+with St. Foix, whether he should try to obtain admittance, for its 
+wild aspect had somewhat shaken his former resolution; but, after a 
+second consultation, he submitted to the considerations, which before 
+determined him, and which were strengthened by the discovery of the 
+dog, that guarded the fort, as well as by the stillness that pervaded 
+it.  He, therefore, ordered one of his servants to knock at the gate, 
+who was advancing to obey him, when a light appeared through the 
+loop-hole of one of the towers, and the Count called loudly, but, 
+receiving no answer, he went up to the gate himself, and struck upon 
+it with an iron-pointed pole, which had assisted him to climb the 
+steep.  When the echoes had ceased, that this blow had awakened, the 
+renewed barking,--and there were now more than one dog,--was the only 
+sound, that was heard.  The Count stepped back, a few paces, to 
+observe whether the light was in the tower, and, perceiving, that it 
+was gone, he returned to the portal, and had lifted the pole to 
+strike again, when again he fancied he heard the murmur of voices 
+within, and paused to listen.  He was confirmed in the supposition, 
+but they were too remote, to be heard otherwise than in a murmur, and 
+the Count now let the pole fall heavily upon the gate; when almost 
+immediately a profound silence followed.  It was apparent, that the 
+people within had heard the sound, and their caution in admitting 
+strangers gave him a favourable opinion of them.  'They are either 
+hunters or shepherds,' said he, 'who, like ourselves, have probably 
+sought shelter from the night within these walls, and are fearful of 
+admitting strangers, lest they should prove robbers.  I will 
+endeavour to remove their fears.'  So saying, he called aloud, 'We 
+are friends, who ask shelter from the night.'  In a few moments, 
+steps were heard within, which approached, and a voice then enquired-
+-'Who calls?'  'Friends,' repeated the Count; 'open the gates, and 
+you shall know more.'--Strong bolts were now heard to be undrawn, and 
+a man, armed with a hunting spear, appeared.  'What is it you want at 
+this hour?' said he.  The Count beckoned his attendants, and then 
+answered, that he wished to enquire the way to the nearest cabin.  
+'Are you so little acquainted with these mountains,' said the man, 
+'as not to know, that there is none, within several leagues?  I 
+cannot shew you the way; you must seek it--there's a moon.'  Saying 
+this, he was closing the gate, and the Count was turning away, half 
+disappointed and half afraid, when another voice was heard from 
+above, and, on looking up, he saw a light, and a man's face, at the 
+grate of the portal.  'Stay, friend, you have lost your way?' said 
+the voice.  'You are hunters, I suppose, like ourselves:  I will be 
+with you presently.'  The voice ceased, and the light disappeared.  
+Blanche had been alarmed by the appearance of the man, who had opened 
+the gate, and she now entreated her father to quit the place; but the 
+Count had observed the hunter's spear, which he carried; and the 
+words from the tower encouraged him to await the event.  The gate was 
+soon opened, and several men in hunters' habits, who had heard above 
+what had passed below, appeared, and, having listened some time to 
+the Count, told him he was welcome to rest there for the night.  They 
+then pressed him, with much courtesy, to enter, and to partake of 
+such fare as they were about to sit down to.  The Count, who had 
+observed them attentively while they spoke, was cautious, and 
+somewhat suspicious; but he was also weary, fearful of the 
+approaching storm, and of encountering alpine heights in the 
+obscurity of night; being likewise somewhat confident in the strength 
+and number of his attendants, he, after some further consideration, 
+determined to accept the invitation.  With this resolution he called 
+his servants, who, advancing round the tower, behind which some of 
+them had silently listened to this conference, followed their Lord, 
+the Lady Blanche, and St. Foix into the fortress.  The strangers led 
+them on to a large and rude hall, partially seen by a fire that 
+blazed at its extremity, round which four men, in the hunter's dress, 
+were seated, and on the hearth were several dogs stretched in sleep.  
+In the middle of the hall stood a large table, and over the fire some 
+part of an animal was boiling.  As the Count approached, the men 
+arose, and the dogs, half raising themselves, looked fiercely at the 
+strangers, but, on hearing their masters' voices, kept their postures 
+on the hearth.
+
+Blanche looked round this gloomy and spacious hall; then at the men, 
+and to her father, who, smiling cheerfully at her, addressed himself 
+to the hunters.  'This is an hospitable hearth,' said he, 'the blaze 
+of a fire is reviving after having wandered so long in these dreary 
+wilds.  Your dogs are tired; what success have you had?'  'Such as we 
+usually have,' replied one of the men, who had been seated in the 
+hall, 'we kill our game with tolerable certainty.'  'These are fellow 
+hunters,' said one of the men who had brought the Count hither, 'that 
+have lost their way, and I have told them there is room enough in the 
+fort for us all.'  'Very true, very true,' replied his companion, 
+'What luck have you had in the chace, brothers?  We have killed two 
+izards, and that, you will say, is pretty well.'  'You mistake, 
+friend,' said the Count, 'we are not hunters, but travellers; but, if 
+you will admit us to hunters' fare, we shall be well contented, and 
+will repay your kindness.'  'Sit down then, brother,' said one of the 
+men:  'Jacques, lay more fuel on the fire, the kid will soon be 
+ready; bring a seat for the lady too.  Ma'amselle, will you taste our 
+brandy? it is true Barcelona, and as bright as ever flowed from a 
+keg.'  Blanche timidly smiled, and was going to refuse, when her 
+father prevented her, by taking, with a good humoured air, the glass 
+offered to his daughter; and Mons. St. Foix, who was seated next her, 
+pressed her hand, and gave her an encouraging look, but her attention 
+was engaged by a man, who sat silently by the fire, observing St. 
+Foix, with a steady and earnest eye.
+
+'You lead a jolly life here,' said the Count.  'The life of a hunter 
+is a pleasant and a healthy one; and the repose is sweet, which 
+succeeds to your labour.'
+
+'Yes,' replied one of his hosts, 'our life is pleasant enough.  We 
+live here only during the summer, and autumnal months; in winter, the 
+place is dreary, and the swoln torrents, that descend from the 
+heights, put a stop to the chace.'
+
+''Tis a life of liberty and enjoyment,' said the Count:  'I should 
+like to pass a month in your way very well.'
+
+'We find employment for our guns too,' said a man who stood behind 
+the Count:  'here are plenty of birds, of delicious flavour, that 
+feed upon the wild thyme and herbs, that grow in the vallies.  Now I 
+think of it, there is a brace of birds hung up in the stone gallery; 
+go fetch them, Jacques, we will have them dressed.'
+
+The Count now made enquiry, concerning the method of pursuing the 
+chace among the rocks and precipices of these romantic regions, and 
+was listening to a curious detail, when a horn was sounded at the 
+gate.  Blanche looked timidly at her father, who continued to 
+converse on the subject of the chace, but whose countenance was 
+somewhat expressive of anxiety, and who often turned his eyes towards 
+that part of the hall nearest the gate.  The horn sounded again, and 
+a loud halloo succeeded.  'These are some of our companions, returned 
+from their day's labour,' said a man, going lazily from his seat 
+towards the gate; and in a few minutes, two men appeared, each with a 
+gun over his shoulder, and pistols in his belt.  'What cheer, my 
+lads? what cheer?' said they, as they approached.  'What luck?' 
+returned their companions:  'have you brought home your supper?  You 
+shall have none else.'
+
+'Hah! who the devil have you brought home?' said they in bad Spanish, 
+on perceiving the Count's party, 'are they from France, or Spain?--
+where did you meet with them?'
+
+'They met with us, and a merry meeting too,' replied his companion 
+aloud in good French.  'This chevalier, and his party, had lost their 
+way, and asked a night's lodging in the fort.'  The others made no 
+reply, but threw down a kind of knapsack, and drew forth several 
+brace of birds.  The bag sounded heavily as it fell to the ground, 
+and the glitter of some bright metal within glanced on the eye of the 
+Count, who now surveyed, with a more enquiring look, the man, that 
+held the knapsack.  He was a tall robust figure, of a hard 
+countenance, and had short black hair, curling in his neck.  Instead 
+of the hunter's dress, he wore a faded military uniform; sandals were 
+laced on his broad legs, and a kind of short trowsers hung from his 
+waist.  On his head he wore a leathern cap, somewhat resembling in 
+shape an ancient Roman helmet; but the brows that scowled beneath it, 
+would have characterized those of the barbarians, who conquered Rome, 
+rather than those of a Roman soldier.  The Count, at length, turned 
+away his eyes, and remained silent and thoughtful, till, again 
+raising them, he perceived a figure standing in an obscure part of 
+the hall, fixed in attentive gaze on St. Foix, who was conversing 
+with Blanche, and did not observe this; but the Count, soon after, 
+saw the same man looking over the shoulder of the soldier as 
+attentively at himself.  He withdrew his eye, when that of the Count 
+met it, who felt mistrust gathering fast upon his mind, but feared to 
+betray it in his countenance, and, forcing his features to assume a 
+smile, addressed Blanche on some indifferent subject.  When he again 
+looked round, he perceived, that the soldier and his companion were 
+gone.
+
+The man, who was called Jacques, now returned from the stone gallery.  
+'A fire is lighted there,' said he, 'and the birds are dressing; the 
+table too is spread there, for that place is warmer than this.'
+
+His companions approved of the removal, and invited their guests to 
+follow to the gallery, of whom Blanche appeared distressed, and 
+remained seated, and St. Foix looked at the Count, who said, he 
+preferred the comfortable blaze of the fire he was then near.  The 
+hunters, however, commended the warmth of the other apartment, and 
+pressed his removal with such seeming courtesy, that the Count, half 
+doubting, and half fearful of betraying his doubts, consented to go.  
+The long and ruinous passages, through which they went, somewhat 
+daunted him, but the thunder, which now burst in loud peals above, 
+made it dangerous to quit this place of shelter, and he forbore to 
+provoke his conductors by shewing that he distrusted them.  The 
+hunters led the way, with a lamp; the Count and St. Foix, who wished 
+to please their hosts by some instances of familiarity, carried each 
+a seat, and Blanche followed, with faltering steps.  As she passed 
+on, part of her dress caught on a nail in the wall, and, while she 
+stopped, somewhat too scrupulously, to disengage it, the Count, who 
+was talking to St. Foix, and neither of whom observed the 
+circumstance, followed their conductor round an abrupt angle of the 
+passage, and Blanche was left behind in darkness.  The thunder 
+prevented them from hearing her call but, having disengaged her 
+dress, she quickly followed, as she thought, the way they had taken.  
+A light, that glimmered at a distance, confirmed this belief, and she 
+proceeded towards an open door, whence it issued, conjecturing the 
+room beyond to be the stone gallery the men had spoken of.  Hearing 
+voices as she advanced, she paused within a few paces of the chamber, 
+that she might be certain whether she was right, and from thence, by 
+the light of a lamp, that hung from the ceiling, observed four men, 
+seated round a table, over which they leaned in apparent 
+consultation.  In one of them she distinguished the features of him, 
+whom she had observed, gazing at St. Foix, with such deep attention; 
+and who was now speaking in an earnest, though restrained voice, 
+till, one of his companions seeming to oppose him, they spoke 
+together in a loud and harsher tone.  Blanche, alarmed by perceiving 
+that neither her father, or St. Foix were there, and terrified at the 
+fierce countenances and manners of these men, was turning hastily 
+from the chamber, to pursue her search of the gallery, when she heard 
+one of the men say:
+
+'Let all dispute end here.  Who talks of danger?  Follow my advice, 
+and there will be none--secure THEM, and the rest are an easy prey.'  
+Blanche, struck with these words, paused a moment, to hear more.  
+'There is nothing to be got by the rest,' said one of his companions, 
+'I am never for blood when I can help it--dispatch the two others, 
+and our business is done; the rest may go.'
+
+'May they so?' exclaimed the first ruffian, with a tremendous oath--
+'What! to tell how we have disposed of their masters, and to send the 
+king's troops to drag us to the wheel!  You was always a choice 
+adviser--I warrant we have not yet forgot St. Thomas's eve last 
+year.'
+
+Blanche's heart now sunk with horror.  Her first impulse was to 
+retreat from the door, but, when she would have gone, her trembling 
+frame refused to support her, and, having tottered a few paces, to a 
+more obscure part of the passage, she was compelled to listen to the 
+dreadful councils of those, who, she was no longer suffered to doubt, 
+were banditti.  In the next moment, she heard the following words, 
+'Why you would not murder the whole GANG?'
+
+'I warrant our lives are as good as theirs,' replied his comrade.  
+'If we don't kill them, they will hang us:  better they should die 
+than we be hanged.'
+
+'Better, better,' cried his comrades.
+
+'To commit murder, is a hopeful way of escaping the gallows!' said 
+the first ruffian--'many an honest fellow has run his head into the 
+noose that way, though.'  There was a pause of some moments, during 
+which they appeared to be considering.
+
+'Confound those fellows,' exclaimed one of the robbers impatiently, 
+'they ought to have been here by this time; they will come back 
+presently with the old story, and no booty:  if they were here, our 
+business would be plain and easy.  I see we shall not be able to do 
+the business to-night, for our numbers are not equal to the enemy, 
+and in the morning they will be for marching off, and how can we 
+detain them without force?'
+
+'I have been thinking of a scheme, that will do,' said one of his 
+comrades:  'if we can dispatch the two chevaliers silently, it will 
+be easy to master the rest.'
+
+'That's a plausible scheme, in good faith,' said another with a smile 
+of scorn--'If I can eat my way through the prison wall, I shall be at 
+liberty!--How can we dispatch them SILENTLY?'
+
+'By poison,' replied his companions.
+
+'Well said! that will do,' said the second ruffian, 'that will give a 
+lingering death too, and satisfy my revenge.  These barons shall take 
+care how they again tempt our vengeance.'
+
+'I knew the son, the moment I saw him,' said the man, whom Blanche 
+had observed gazing on St. Foix, 'though he does not know me; the 
+father I had almost forgotten.'
+
+'Well, you may say what you will,' said the third ruffian, 'but I 
+don't believe he is the Baron, and I am as likely to know as any of 
+you, for I was one of them, that attacked him, with our brave lads, 
+that suffered.'
+
+'And was not I another?' said the first ruffian, 'I tell you he is 
+the Baron; but what does it signify whether he is or not?--shall we 
+let all this booty go out of our hands?  It is not often we have such 
+luck at this.  While we run the chance of the wheel for smuggling a 
+few pounds of tobacco, to cheat the king's manufactory, and of 
+breaking our necks down the precipices in the chace of our food; and, 
+now and then, rob a brother smuggler, or a straggling pilgrim, of 
+what scarcely repays us the powder we fire at them, shall we let such 
+a prize as this go?  Why they have enough about them to keep us for--
+'
+
+'I am not for that, I am not for that,' replied the third robber, 
+'let us make the most of them:  only, if this is the Baron, I should 
+like to have a flash the more at him, for the sake of our brave 
+comrades, that he brought to the gallows.'
+
+'Aye, aye, flash as much as you will,' rejoined the first man, 'but I 
+tell you the Baron is a taller man.'
+
+'Confound your quibbling,' said the second ruffian, 'shall we let 
+them go or not?  If we stay here much longer, they will take the 
+hint, and march off without our leave.  Let them be who they will, 
+they are rich, or why all those servants?  Did you see the ring, he, 
+you call the Baron, had on his finger?--it was a diamond; but he has 
+not got it on now:  he saw me looking at it, I warrant, and took it 
+off.'
+
+'Aye, and then there is the picture; did you see that?  She has not 
+taken that off,' observed the first ruffian, 'it hangs at her neck; 
+if it had not sparkled so, I should not have found it out, for it was 
+almost hid by her dress; those are diamonds too, and a rare many of 
+them there must be, to go round such a large picture.'
+
+'But how are we to manage this business?' said the second ruffian:  
+'let us talk of that, there is no fear of there being booty enough, 
+but how are we to secure it?'
+
+'Aye, aye,' said his comrades, 'let us talk of that, and remember no 
+time is to be lost.'
+
+
+'I am still for poison,' observed the third, 'but consider their 
+number; why there are nine or ten of them, and armed too; when I saw 
+so many at the gate, I was not for letting them in, you know, nor you 
+either.'
+
+'I thought they might be some of our enemies,' replied the second, 'I 
+did not so much mind numbers.'
+
+'But you must mind them now,' rejoined his comrade, 'or it will be 
+worse for you.  We are not more than six, and how can we master ten 
+by open force?  I tell you we must give some of them a dose, and the 
+rest may then be managed.'
+
+'I'll tell you a better way,' rejoined the other impatiently, 'draw 
+closer.'
+
+Blanche, who had listened to this conversation, in an agony, which it 
+would be impossible to describe, could no longer distinguish what was 
+said, for the ruffians now spoke in lowered voices; but the hope, 
+that she might save her friends from the plot, if she could find her 
+way quickly to them, suddenly re-animated her spirits, and lent her 
+strength enough to turn her steps in search of the gallery.  Terror, 
+however, and darkness conspired against her, and, having moved a few 
+yards, the feeble light, that issued from the chamber, no longer even 
+contended with the gloom, and, her foot stumbling over a step that 
+crossed the passage, she fell to the ground.
+
+The noise startled the banditti, who became suddenly silent, and then 
+all rushed to the passage, to examine whether any person was there, 
+who might have overheard their councils.  Blanche saw them 
+approaching, and perceived their fierce and eager looks:  but, before 
+she could raise herself, they discovered and seized her, and, as they 
+dragged her towards the chamber they had quitted, her screams drew 
+from them horrible threatenings.
+
+Having reached the room, they began to consult what they should do 
+with her.  'Let us first know what she had heard,' said the chief 
+robber.  'How long have you been in the passage, lady, and what 
+brought you there?'
+
+'Let us first secure that picture,' said one of his comrades, 
+approaching the trembling Blanche.  'Fair lady, by your leave that 
+picture is mine; come, surrender it, or I shall seize it.'
+
+Blanche, entreating their mercy, immediately gave up the miniature, 
+while another of the ruffians fiercely interrogated her, concerning 
+what she had overheard of their conversation, when, her confusion and 
+terror too plainly telling what her tongue feared to confess, the 
+ruffians looked expressively upon one another, and two of them 
+withdrew to a remote part of the room, as if to consult further.
+
+'These are diamonds, by St. Peter!' exclaimed the fellow, who had 
+been examining the miniature, 'and here is a very pretty picture too, 
+'faith; as handsome a young chevalier, as you would wish to see by a 
+summer's sun.  Lady, this is your spouse, I warrant, for it is the 
+spark, that was in your company just now.'
+
+Blanche, sinking with terror, conjured him to have pity on her, and, 
+delivering him her purse, promised to say nothing of what had passed, 
+if he would suffer her to return to her friends.
+
+He smiled ironically, and was going to reply, when his attention was 
+called off by a distant noise; and, while he listened, he grasped the 
+arm of Blanche more firmly, as if he feared she would escape from 
+him, and she again shrieked for help.
+
+The approaching sounds called the ruffians from the other part of the 
+chamber.  'We are betrayed,' said they; 'but let us listen a moment, 
+perhaps it is only our comrades come in from the mountains, and if 
+so, our work is sure; listen!'
+
+A distant discharge of shot confirmed this supposition for a moment, 
+but, in the next, the former sounds drawing nearer, the clashing of 
+swords, mingled with the voices of loud contention and with heavy 
+groans, were distinguished in the avenue leading to the chamber.  
+While the ruffians prepared their arms, they heard themselves called 
+by some of their comrades afar off, and then a shrill horn was 
+sounded without the fortress, a signal, it appeared, they too well 
+understood; for three of them, leaving the Lady Blanche to the care 
+of the fourth, instantly rushed from the chamber.
+
+While Blanche, trembling, and nearly fainting, was supplicating for 
+release, she heard amid the tumult, that approached, the voice of St. 
+Foix, and she had scarcely renewed her shriek, when the door of the 
+room was thrown open, and he appeared, much disfigured with blood, 
+and pursued by several ruffians.  Blanche neither saw, or heard any 
+more; her head swam, her sight failed, and she became senseless in 
+the arms of the robber, who had detained her.
+
+When she recovered, she perceived, by the gloomy light, that trembled 
+round her, that she was in the same chamber, but neither the Count, 
+St. Foix, or any other person appeared, and she continued, for some 
+time, entirely still, and nearly in a state of stupefaction.  But, 
+the dreadful images of the past returning, she endeavoured to raise 
+herself, that she might seek her friends, when a sullen groan, at a 
+little distance, reminded her of St. Foix, and of the condition, in 
+which she had seen him enter this room; then, starting from the 
+floor, by a sudden effort of horror, she advanced to the place whence 
+the sound had proceeded, where a body was lying stretched upon the 
+pavement, and where, by the glimmering light of a lamp, she 
+discovered the pale and disfigured countenance of St. Foix.  Her 
+horrors, at that moment, may be easily imagined.  He was speechless; 
+his eyes were half closed, and, on the hand, which she grasped in the 
+agony of despair, cold damps had settled.  While she vainly repeated 
+his name, and called for assistance, steps approached, and a person 
+entered the chamber, who, she soon perceived, was not the Count, her 
+father; but, what was her astonishment, when, supplicating him to 
+give his assistance to St. Foix, she discovered Ludovico!  He 
+scarcely paused to recognise her, but immediately bound up the wounds 
+of the Chevalier, and, perceiving, that he had fainted probably from 
+loss of blood, ran for water; but he had been absent only a few 
+moments, when Blanche heard other steps approaching, and, while she 
+was almost frantic with apprehension of the ruffians, the light of a 
+torch flashed upon the walls, and then Count De Villefort appeared, 
+with an affrighted countenance, and breathless with impatience, 
+calling upon his daughter.  At the sound of his voice, she rose, and 
+ran to his arms, while he, letting fall the bloody sword he held, 
+pressed her to his bosom in a transport of gratitude and joy, and 
+then hastily enquired for St. Foix, who now gave some signs of life.  
+Ludovico soon after returning with water and brandy, the former was 
+applied to his lips, and the latter to his temples and hands, and 
+Blanche, at length, saw him unclose his eyes, and then heard him 
+enquire for her; but the joy she felt, on this occasion, was 
+interrupted by new alarms, when Ludovico said it would be necessary 
+to remove Mons. St. Foix immediately, and added, 'The banditti, that 
+are out, my Lord, were expected home, an hour ago, and they will 
+certainly find us, if we delay.  That shrill horn, they know, is 
+never sounded by their comrades but on most desperate occasions, and 
+it echoes among the mountains for many leagues round.  I have known 
+them brought home by its sound even from the Pied de Melicant.  Is 
+any body standing watch at the great gate, my Lord?'
+
+'Nobody,' replied the Count; 'the rest of my people are now scattered 
+about, I scarcely know where.  Go, Ludovico, collect them together, 
+and look out yourself, and listen if you hear the feet of mules.'
+
+Ludovico then hurried away, and the Count consulted as to the means 
+of removing St. Foix, who could not have borne the motion of a mule, 
+even if his strength would have supported him in the saddle.
+
+While the Count was telling, that the banditti, whom they had found 
+in the fort, were secured in the dungeon, Blanche observed that he 
+was himself wounded, and that his left arm was entirely useless; but 
+he smiled at her anxiety, assuring her the wound was trifling.
+
+The Count's servants, except two who kept watch at the gate, now 
+appeared, and, soon after, Ludovico.  'I think I hear mules coming 
+along the glen, my Lord,' said he, 'but the roaring of the torrent 
+below will not let me be certain; however, I have brought what will 
+serve the Chevalier,' he added, shewing a bear's skin, fastened to a 
+couple of long poles, which had been adapted for the purpose of 
+bringing home such of the banditti as happened to be wounded in their 
+encounters.  Ludovico spread it on the ground, and, placing the skins 
+of several goats upon it, made a kind of bed, into which the 
+Chevalier, who was however now much revived, was gently lifted; and, 
+the poles being raised upon the shoulders of the guides, whose 
+footing among these steeps could best be depended upon, he was borne 
+along with an easy motion.  Some of the Count's servants were also 
+wounded--but not materially, and, their wounds being bound up, they 
+now followed to the great gate.  As they passed along the hall, a 
+loud tumult was heard at some distance, and Blanche was terrified.  
+'It is only those villains in the dungeon, my Lady,' said Ludovico.  
+'They seem to be bursting it open,' said the Count.  'No, my Lord,' 
+replied Ludovico, 'it has an iron door; we have nothing to fear from 
+them; but let me go first, and look out from the rampart.'
+
+They quickly followed him, and found their mules browsing before the 
+gates, where the party listened anxiously, but heard no sound, except 
+that of the torrent below and of the early breeze, sighing among the 
+branches of the old oak, that grew in the court; and they were now 
+glad to perceive the first tints of dawn over the mountain-tops.  
+When they had mounted their mules, Ludovico, undertaking to be their 
+guide, led them by an easier path, than that by which they had 
+formerly ascended, into the glen.  'We must avoid that valley to the 
+east, my Lord,' said he, 'or we may meet the banditti; they went out 
+that way in the morning.'
+
+The travellers, soon after, quitted this glen, and found themselves 
+in a narrow valley that stretched towards the north-west.  The 
+morning light upon the mountains now strengthened fast, and gradually 
+discovered the green hillocks, that skirted the winding feet of the 
+cliffs, tufted with cork tree, and ever-green oak.  The thunder-
+clouds being dispersed, had left the sky perfectly serene, and 
+Blanche was revived by the fresh breeze, and by the view of verdure, 
+which the late rain had brightened.  Soon after, the sun arose, when 
+the dripping rocks, with the shrubs that fringed their summits, and 
+many a turfy slope below, sparkled in his rays.  A wreath of mist was 
+seen, floating along the extremity of the valley, but the gale bore 
+it before the travellers, and the sun-beams gradually drew it up 
+towards the summit of the mountains.  They had proceeded about a 
+league, when, St. Foix having complained of extreme faintness, they 
+stopped to give him refreshment, and, that the men, who bore him, 
+might rest.  Ludovico had brought from the fort some flasks of rich 
+Spanish wine, which now proved a reviving cordial not only to St. 
+Foix but to the whole party, though to him it gave only temporary 
+relief, for it fed the fever, that burned in his veins, and he could 
+neither disguise in his countenance the anguish he suffered, or 
+suppress the wish, that he was arrived at the inn, where they had 
+designed to pass the preceding night.
+
+While they thus reposed themselves under the shade of the dark green 
+pines, the Count desired Ludovico to explain shortly, by what means 
+he had disappeared from the north apartment, how he came into the 
+hands of the banditti, and how he had contributed so essentially to 
+serve him and his family, for to him he justly attributed their 
+present deliverance.  Ludovico was going to obey him, when suddenly 
+they heard the echo of a pistol-shot, from the way they had passed, 
+and they rose in alarm, hastily to pursue their route.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+  Ah why did Fate his steps decoy
+ In stormy paths to roam,
+ Remote from all congenial joy!
+     BEATTIE
+
+Emily, mean while, was still suffering anxiety as to the fate of 
+Valancourt; but Theresa, having, at length, found a person, whom she 
+could entrust on her errand to the steward, informed her, that the 
+messenger would return on the following day; and Emily promised to be 
+at the cottage, Theresa being too lame to attend her.
+
+In the evening, therefore, Emily set out alone for the cottage, with 
+a melancholy foreboding, concerning Valancourt, while, perhaps, the 
+gloom of the hour might contribute to depress her spirits.  It was a 
+grey autumnal evening towards the close of the season; heavy mists 
+partially obscured the mountains, and a chilling breeze, that sighed 
+among the beech woods, strewed her path with some of their last 
+yellow leaves.  These, circling in the blast and foretelling the 
+death of the year, gave an image of desolation to her mind, and, in 
+her fancy, seemed to announce the death of Valancourt.  Of this she 
+had, indeed, more than once so strong a presentiment, that she was on 
+the point of returning home, feeling herself unequal to an encounter 
+with the certainty she anticipated, but, contending with her 
+emotions, she so far commanded them, as to be able to proceed.
+
+While she walked mournfully on, gazing on the long volumes of vapour, 
+that poured upon the sky, and watching the swallows, tossed along the 
+wind, now disappearing among tempestuous clouds, and then emerging, 
+for a moment, in circles upon the calmer air, the afflictions and 
+vicissitudes of her late life seemed pourtrayed in these fleeting 
+images;--thus had she been tossed upon the stormy sea of misfortune 
+for the last year, with but short intervals of peace, if peace that 
+could be called, which was only the delay of evils.  And now, when 
+she had escaped from so many dangers, was become independent of the 
+will of those, who had oppressed her, and found herself mistress of a 
+large fortune, now, when she might reasonably have expected 
+happiness, she perceived that she was as distant from it as ever.  
+She would have accused herself of weakness and ingratitude in thus 
+suffering a sense of the various blessings she possessed to be 
+overcome by that of a single misfortune, had this misfortune affected 
+herself alone; but, when she had wept for Valancourt even as living, 
+tears of compassion had mingled with those of regret, and while she 
+lamented a human being degraded to vice, and consequently to misery, 
+reason and humanity claimed these tears, and fortitude had not yet 
+taught her to separate them from those of love; in the present 
+moments, however, it was not the certainty of his guilt, but the 
+apprehension of his death (of a death also, to which she herself, 
+however innocently, appeared to have been in some degree 
+instrumental) that oppressed her.  This fear increased, as the means 
+of certainty concerning it approached; and, when she came within view 
+of Theresa's cottage, she was so much disordered, and her resolution 
+failed her so entirely, that, unable to proceed, she rested on a 
+bank, beside her path; where, as she sat, the wind that groaned 
+sullenly among the lofty branches above, seemed to her melancholy 
+imagination to bear the sounds of distant lamentation, and, in the 
+pauses of the gust, she still fancied she heard the feeble and far-
+off notes of distress.  Attention convinced her, that this was no 
+more than fancy; but the increasing gloom, which seemed the sudden 
+close of day, soon warned her to depart, and, with faltering steps, 
+she again moved toward the cottage.  Through the casement appeared 
+the cheerful blaze of a wood fire, and Theresa, who had observed 
+Emily approaching, was already at the door to receive her.
+
+'It is a cold evening, madam,' said she, 'storms are coming on, and I 
+thought you would like a fire.  Do take this chair by the hearth.'
+
+Emily, thanking her for this consideration, sat down, and then, 
+looking in her face, on which the wood fire threw a gleam, she was 
+struck with its expression, and, unable to speak, sunk back in her 
+chair with a countenance so full of woe, that Theresa instantly 
+comprehended the occasion of it, but she remained silent.  'Ah!' said 
+Emily, at length, 'it is unnecessary for me to ask the result of your 
+enquiry, your silence, and that look, sufficiently explain it;--he is 
+dead!'
+
+'Alas! my dear young lady,' replied Theresa, while tears filled her 
+eyes, 'this world is made up of trouble! the rich have their share as 
+well as the poor!  But we must all endeavour to bear what Heaven 
+pleases.'
+
+'He is dead, then!'--interrupted Emily--'Valancourt is dead!'
+
+'A-well-a-day! I fear he is,' replied Theresa.
+
+'You fear!' said Emily, 'do you only fear?'
+
+'Alas! yes, madam, I fear he is! neither the steward, or any of the 
+Epourville family, have heard of him since he left Languedoc, and the 
+Count is in great affliction about him, for he says he was always 
+punctual in writing, but that now he has not received a line from 
+him, since he left Languedoc; he appointed to be at home, three weeks 
+ago, but he has neither come, or written, and they fear some accident 
+has befallen him.  Alas! that ever I should live to cry for his 
+death!  I am old, and might have died without being missed, but he'--
+Emily was faint, and asked for some water, and Theresa, alarmed by 
+the voice, in which she spoke, hastened to her assistance, and, while 
+she held the water to Emily's lips, continued, 'My dear young 
+mistress, do not take it so to heart; the Chevalier may be alive and 
+well, for all this; let us hope the best!'
+
+'O no! I cannot hope,' said Emily, 'I am acquainted with 
+circumstances, that will not suffer me to hope.  I am somewhat better 
+now, and can hear what you have to say.  Tell me, I entreat, the 
+particulars of what you know.'
+
+'Stay, till you are a little better, mademoiselle, you look sadly!'
+
+'O no, Theresa, tell me all, while I have the power to hear it,' said 
+Emily, 'tell me all, I conjure you!'
+
+'Well, madam, I will then; but the steward did not say much, for 
+Richard says he seemed shy of talking about Mons. Valancourt, and 
+what he gathered was from Gabriel, one of the servants, who said he 
+had heard it from my lord's gentleman.'
+
+'What did he hear?' said Emily.
+
+'Why, madam, Richard has but a bad memory, and could not remember 
+half of it, and, if I had not asked him a great many questions, I 
+should have heard little indeed.  But he says that Gabriel said, that 
+he and all the other servants were in great trouble about M. 
+Valancourt, for that he was such a kind young gentleman, they all 
+loved him, as well as if he had been their own brother--and now, to 
+think what was become of him!  For he used to be so courteous to them 
+all, and, if any of them had been in fault, M. Valancourt was the 
+first to persuade my lord to forgive them.  And then, if any poor 
+family was in distress, M. Valancourt was the first, too, to relieve 
+them, though some folks, not a great way off, could have afforded 
+that much better than he.  And then, said Gabriel, he was so gentle 
+to every body, and, for all he had such a noble look with him, he 
+never would command, and call about him, as some of your quality 
+people do, and we never minded him the less for that.  Nay, says 
+Gabriel, for that matter, we minded him the more, and would all have 
+run to obey him at a word, sooner than if some folks had told us what 
+to do at full length; aye, and were more afraid of displeasing him, 
+too, than of them, that used rough words to us.'
+
+Emily, who no longer considered it to be dangerous to listen to 
+praise, bestowed on Valancourt, did not attempt to interrupt Theresa, 
+but sat, attentive to her words, though almost overwhelmed with 
+grief.  'My Lord,' continued Theresa, 'frets about M. Valancourt 
+sadly, and the more, because, they say, he had been rather harsh 
+against him lately.  Gabriel says he had it from my Lord's valet, 
+that M. Valancourt had COMPORTED himself wildly at Paris, and had 
+spent a great deal of money, more a great deal than my Lord liked, 
+for he loves money better than M. Valancourt, who had been led astray 
+sadly.  Nay, for that matter, M. Valancourt had been put into prison 
+at Paris, and my Lord, says Gabriel, refused to take him out, and 
+said he deserved to suffer; and, when old Gregoire, the butler, heard 
+of this, he actually bought a walking-stick to take with him to 
+Paris, to visit his young master; but the next thing we hear is, that 
+M. Valancourt is coming home.  O, it was a joyful day when he came; 
+but he was sadly altered, and my Lord looked very cool upon him, and 
+he was very sad, indeed.  And, soon after, he went away again into 
+Languedoc, and, since that time, we have never seen him.'
+
+Theresa paused, and Emily, sighing deeply, remained with her eyes 
+fixed upon the floor, without speaking.  After a long pause, she 
+enquired what further Theresa had heard.  'Yet why should I ask?' she 
+added; 'what you have already told is too much.  O Valancourt! thou 
+art gone--forever gone! and I--I have murdered thee!'  These words, 
+and the countenance of despair which accompanied them, alarmed 
+Theresa, who began to fear, that the shock of the intelligence Emily 
+had just received, had affected her senses.  'My dear young lady, be 
+composed,' said she, 'and do not say such frightful words.  You 
+murder M. Valancourt,--dear heart!'  Emily replied only by a heavy 
+sigh.
+
+'Dear lady, it breaks my heart to see you look so,' said Theresa, 'do 
+not sit with your eyes upon the ground, and all so pale and 
+melancholy; it frightens me to see you.'  Emily was still silent, and 
+did not appear to hear any thing that was said to her.  'Besides, 
+mademoiselle,' continued Theresa, 'M. Valancourt may be alive and 
+merry yet, for what we know.'
+
+At the mention of his name, Emily raised her eyes, and fixed them, in 
+a wild gaze, upon Theresa, as if she was endeavouring to understand 
+what had been said.  'Aye, my dear lady,' said Theresa, mistaking the 
+meaning of this considerate air, 'M. Valancourt may be alive and 
+merry yet.'
+
+On the repetition of these words, Emily comprehended their import, 
+but, instead of producing the effect intended, they seemed only to 
+heighten her distress.  She rose hastily from her chair, paced the 
+little room, with quick steps, and, often sighing deeply, clasped her 
+hands, and shuddered.
+
+Meanwhile, Theresa, with simple, but honest affection, endeavoured to 
+comfort her; put more wood on the fire, stirred it up into a brighter 
+blaze, swept the hearth, set the chair, which Emily had left, in a 
+warmer situation, and then drew forth from a cupboard a flask of 
+wine.  'It is a stormy night, madam,' said she, 'and blows cold--do 
+come nearer the fire, and take a glass of this wine; it will comfort 
+you, as it has done me, often and often, for it is not such wine as 
+one gets every day; it is rich Languedoc, and the last of six flasks 
+that M. Valancourt sent me, the night before he left Gascony for 
+Paris.  They have served me, ever since, as cordials, and I never 
+drink it, but I think of him, and what kind words he said to me when 
+he gave them.  Theresa, says he, you are not young now, and should 
+have a glass of good wine, now and then.  I will send you a few 
+flasks, and, when you taste them, you will sometimes remember me your 
+friend.  Yes--those were his very words--me your friend!'  Emily 
+still paced the room, without seeming to hear what Theresa said, who 
+continued speaking.  'And I have remembered him, often enough, poor 
+young gentleman!--for he gave me this roof for a shelter, and that, 
+which has supported me.  Ah! he is in heaven, with my blessed master, 
+if ever saint was!'
+
+Theresa's voice faltered; she wept, and set down the flask, unable to 
+pour out the wine.  Her grief seemed to recall Emily from her own, 
+who went towards her, but then stopped, and, having gazed on her, for 
+a moment, turned suddenly away, as if overwhelmed by the reflection, 
+that it was Valancourt, whom Theresa lamented.
+
+While she yet paced the room, the still, soft note of an oboe, or 
+flute, was heard mingling with the blast, the sweetness of which 
+affected Emily's spirits; she paused a moment in attention; the 
+tender tones, as they swelled along the wind, till they were lost 
+again in the ruder gust, came with a plaintiveness, that touched her 
+heart, and she melted into tears.
+
+'Aye,' said Theresa, drying her eyes, 'there is Richard, our 
+neighbour's son, playing on the oboe; it is sad enough, to hear such 
+sweet music now.'  Emily continued to weep, without replying.  'He 
+often plays of an evening,' added Theresa, 'and, sometimes, the young 
+folks dance to the sound of his oboe.  But, dear young lady! do not 
+cry so; and pray take a glass of this wine,' continued she, pouring 
+some into a glass, and handing it to Emily, who reluctantly took it.
+
+'Taste it for M. Valancourt's sake,' said Theresa, as Emily lifted 
+the glass to her lips, 'for he gave it me, you know, madam.'  Emily's 
+hand trembled, and she spilt the wine as she withdrew it from her 
+lips.  'For whose sake!--who gave the wine?' said she in a faltering 
+voice.  'M. Valancourt, dear lady.  I knew you would be pleased with 
+it.  It is the last flask I have left.'
+
+Emily set the wine upon the table, and burst into tears, while 
+Theresa, disappointed and alarmed, tried to comfort her; but she only 
+waved her hand, entreated she might be left alone, and wept the more.
+
+A knock at the cottage door prevented Theresa from immediately 
+obeying her mistress, and she was going to open it, when Emily, 
+checking her, requested she would not admit any person; but, 
+afterwards, recollecting, that she had ordered her servant to attend 
+her home, she said it was only Philippe, and endeavoured to restrain 
+her tears, while Theresa opened the door.
+
+A voice, that spoke without, drew Emily's attention.  She listened, 
+turned her eyes to the door, when a person now appeared, and 
+immediately a bright gleam, that flashed from the fire, discovered--
+Valancourt!
+
+Emily, on perceiving him, started from her chair, trembled, and, 
+sinking into it again, became insensible to all around her.
+
+A scream from Theresa now told, that she knew Valancourt, whom her 
+imperfect sight, and the duskiness of the place had prevented her 
+from immediately recollecting; but his attention was immediately 
+called from her to the person, whom he saw, falling from a chair near 
+the fire; and, hastening to her assistance,--he perceived, that he 
+was supporting Emily!  The various emotions, that seized him upon 
+thus unexpectedly meeting with her, from whom he had believed he had 
+parted for ever, and on beholding her pale and lifeless in his arms--
+may, perhaps, be imagined, though they could neither be then 
+expressed, or now described, any more than Emily's sensations, when, 
+at length, she unclosed her eyes, and, looking up, again saw 
+Valancourt.  The intense anxiety, with which he regarded her, was 
+instantly changed to an expression of mingled joy and tenderness, as 
+his eye met hers, and he perceived, that she was reviving.  But he 
+could only exclaim, 'Emily!' as he silently watched her recovery, 
+while she averted her eye, and feebly attempted to withdraw her hand; 
+but, in these the first moments, which succeeded to the pangs his 
+supposed death had occasioned her, she forgot every fault, which had 
+formerly claimed indignation, and beholding Valancourt such as he had 
+appeared, when he won her early affection, she experienced emotions 
+of only tenderness and joy.  This, alas! was but the sunshine of a 
+few short moments; recollections rose, like clouds, upon her mind, 
+and, darkening the illusive image, that possessed it, she again 
+beheld Valancourt, degraded--Valancourt unworthy of the esteem and 
+tenderness she had once bestowed upon him; her spirits faltered, and, 
+withdrawing her hand, she turned from him to conceal her grief, while 
+he, yet more embarrassed and agitated, remained silent.
+
+A sense of what she owed to herself restrained her tears, and taught 
+her soon to overcome, in some degree, the emotions of mingled joy and 
+sorrow, that contended at her heart, as she rose, and, having thanked 
+him for the assistance he had given her, bade Theresa good evening.  
+As she was leaving the cottage, Valancourt, who seemed suddenly 
+awakened as from a dream, entreated, in a voice, that pleaded 
+powerfully for compassion, a few moments attention.  Emily's heart, 
+perhaps, pleaded as powerfully, but she had resolution enough to 
+resist both, together with the clamorous entreaties of Theresa, that 
+she would not venture home alone in the dark, and had already opened 
+the cottage door, when the pelting storm compelled her to obey their 
+requests.
+
+Silent and embarrassed, she returned to the fire, while Valancourt, 
+with increasing agitation, paced the room, as if he wished, yet 
+feared, to speak, and Theresa expressed without restraint her joy and 
+wonder upon seeing him.
+
+'Dear heart! sir,' said she, 'I never was so surprised and overjoyed 
+in my life.  We were in great tribulation before you came, for we 
+thought you was dead, and were talking, and lamenting about you, just 
+when you knocked at the door.  My young mistress there was crying, 
+fit to break her heart--'
+
+Emily looked with much displeasure at Theresa, but, before she could 
+speak, Valancourt, unable to repress the emotion, which Theresa's 
+imprudent discovery occasioned, exclaimed, 'O my Emily! am I then 
+still dear to you!  Did you, indeed, honour me with a thought--a 
+tear?  O heavens! you weep--you weep now!'
+
+'Theresa, sir,' said Emily, with a reserved air, and trying to 
+conquer her tears, 'has reason to remember you with gratitude, and 
+she was concerned, because she had not lately heard of you.  Allow me 
+to thank you for the kindness you have shewn her, and to say, that, 
+since I am now upon the spot, she must not be further indebted to 
+you.''
+
+'Emily,' said Valancourt, no longer master of his emotions, 'is it 
+thus you meet him, whom once you meant to honour with your hand--thus 
+you meet him, who has loved you--suffered for you?--Yet what do I 
+say?  Pardon me, pardon me, mademoiselle St. Aubert, I know not what 
+I utter.  I have no longer any claim upon your remembrance--I have 
+forfeited every pretension to your esteem, your love.  Yes! let me 
+not forget, that I once possessed your affections, though to know 
+that I have lost them, is my severest affliction.  Affliction--do I 
+call it!--that is a term of mildness.'
+
+'Dear heart!' said Theresa, preventing Emily from replying, 'talk of 
+once having her affections!  Why, my dear young lady loves you now, 
+better than she does any body in the whole world, though she pretends 
+to deny it.'
+
+'This is insupportable!' said Emily; 'Theresa, you know not what you 
+say.  Sir, if you respect my tranquillity, you will spare me from the 
+continuance of this distress.'
+
+'I do respect your tranquillity too much, voluntarily to interrupt 
+it,' replied Valancourt, in whose bosom pride now contended with 
+tenderness; 'and will not be a voluntary intruder.  I would have 
+entreated a few moments attention--yet I know not for what purpose.  
+You have ceased to esteem me, and to recount to you my sufferings 
+will degrade me more, without exciting even your pity.  Yet I have 
+been, O Emily!  I am indeed very wretched!' added Valancourt, in a 
+voice, that softened from solemnity into grief.
+
+'What! is my dear young master going out in all this rain!' said 
+Theresa.  'No, he shall not stir a step.  Dear! dear! to see how 
+gentlefolks can afford to throw away their happiness!  Now, if you 
+were poor people, there would be none of this.  To talk of 
+unworthiness, and not caring about one another, when I know there are 
+not such a kind-hearted lady and gentleman in the whole province, nor 
+any that love one another half so well, if the truth was spoken!'
+
+Emily, in extreme vexation, now rose from her chair, 'I must be 
+gone,' said she, 'the storm is over.'
+
+'Stay, Emily, stay, mademoiselle St. Aubert!' said Valancourt, 
+summoning all his resolution, 'I will no longer distress you by my 
+presence.  Forgive me, that I did not sooner obey you, and, if you 
+can, sometimes, pity one, who, in losing you--has lost all hope of 
+peace!  May you be happy, Emily, however wretched I remain, happy as 
+my fondest wish would have you!'
+
+His voice faltered with the last words, and his countenance changed, 
+while, with a look of ineffable tenderness and grief, he gazed upon 
+her for an instant, and then quitted the cottage.
+
+'Dear heart! dear heart!' cried Theresa, following him to the door, 
+'why, Monsieur Valancourt! how it rains! what a night is this to turn 
+him out in!  Why it will give him his death; and it was but now you 
+was crying, mademoiselle, because he was dead.  Well! young ladies do 
+change their mind in a minute, as one may say!'
+
+Emily made no reply, for she heard not what was said, while, lost in 
+sorrow and thought, she remained in her chair by the fire, with her 
+eyes fixed, and the image of Valancourt still before them.
+
+'M. Valancourt is sadly altered! madam,' said Theresa; 'he looks so 
+thin to what he used to do, and so melancholy, and then he wears his 
+arm in a sling.'
+
+Emily raised her eyes at these words, for she had not observed this 
+last circumstance, and she now did not doubt, that Valancourt had 
+received the shot of her gardener at Tholouse; with this conviction 
+her pity for him returning, she blamed herself for having occasioned 
+him to leave the cottage, during the storm.
+
+Soon after her servants arrived with the carriage, and Emily, having 
+censured Theresa for her thoughtless conversation to Valancourt, and 
+strictly charging her never to repeat any hints of the same kind to 
+him, withdrew to her home, thoughtful and disconsolate.
+
+Meanwhile, Valancourt had returned to a little inn of the village, 
+whither he had arrived only a few moments before his visit to 
+Theresa's cottage, on the way from Tholouse to the chateau of the 
+Count de Duvarney, where he had not been since he bade adieu to Emily 
+at Chateau-le-Blanc, in the neighbourhood of which he had lingered 
+for a considerable time, unable to summon resolution enough to quit a 
+place, that contained the object most dear to his heart.  There were 
+times, indeed, when grief and despair urged him to appear again 
+before Emily, and, regardless of his ruined circumstances, to renew 
+his suit.  Pride, however, and the tenderness of his affection, which 
+could not long endure the thought of involving her in his 
+misfortunes, at length, so far triumphed over passion, that he 
+relinquished this desperate design, and quitted Chateau-le-Blanc.  
+But still his fancy wandered among the scenes, which had witnessed 
+his early love, and, on his way to Gascony, he stopped at Tholouse, 
+where he remained when Emily arrived, concealing, yet indulging his 
+melancholy in the gardens, where he had formerly passed with her so 
+many happy hours; often recurring, with vain regret, to the evening 
+before her departure for Italy, when she had so unexpectedly met him 
+on the terrace, and endeavouring to recall to his memory every word 
+and look, which had then charmed him, the arguments he had employed 
+to dissuade her from the journey, and the tenderness of their last 
+farewel.  In such melancholy recollections he had been indulging, 
+when Emily unexpectedly arrived to him on this very terrace, the 
+evening after her arrival at Tholouse.  His emotions, on thus seeing 
+her, can scarcely be imagined; but he so far overcame the first 
+promptings of love, that he forbore to discover himself, and abruptly 
+quitted the gardens.  Still, however, the vision he had seen haunted 
+his mind; he became more wretched than before, and the only solace of 
+his sorrow was to return in the silence of the night; to follow the 
+paths which he believed her steps had pressed, during the day; and, 
+to watch round the habitation where she reposed.  It was in one of 
+these mournful wanderings, that he had received by the fire of the 
+gardener, who mistook him for a robber, a wound in his arm, which had 
+detained him at Tholouse till very lately, under the hands of a 
+surgeon.  There, regardless of himself and careless of his friends, 
+whose late unkindness had urged him to believe, that they were 
+indifferent as to his fate, he remained, without informing them of 
+his situation; and now, being sufficiently recovered to bear 
+travelling, he had taken La Vallee in his way to Estuviere, the 
+Count's residence, partly for the purpose of hearing of Emily, and of 
+being again near her, and partly for that of enquiring into the 
+situation of poor old Theresa, who, he had reason to suppose, had 
+been deprived of her stipend, small as it was, and which enquiry had 
+brought him to her cottage, when Emily happened to be there.
+
+This unexpected interview, which had at once shewn him the tenderness 
+of her love and the strength of her resolution, renewed all the 
+acuteness of the despair, that had attended their former separation, 
+and which no effort of reason could teach him, in these moments, to 
+subdue.  Her image, her look, the tones of her voice, all dwelt on 
+his fancy, as powerfully as they had late appeared to his senses, and 
+banished from his heart every emotion, except those of love and 
+despair.
+
+Before the evening concluded, he returned to Theresa's cottage, that 
+he might hear her talk of Emily, and be in the place, where she had 
+so lately been.  The joy, felt and expressed by that faithful 
+servant, was quickly changed to sorrow, when she observed, at one 
+moment, his wild and phrensied look, and, at another, the dark 
+melancholy, that overhung him.
+
+After he had listened, and for a considerable time, to all she had to 
+relate, concerning Emily, he gave Theresa nearly all the money he had 
+about him, though she repeatedly refused it, declaring, that her 
+mistress had amply supplied her wants; and then, drawing a ring of 
+value from his finger, he delivered it her with a solemn charge to 
+present it to Emily, of whom he entreated, as a last favour, that she 
+would preserve it for his sake, and sometimes, when she looked upon 
+it, remember the unhappy giver.
+
+Theresa wept, as she received the ring, but it was more from 
+sympathy, than from any presentiment of evil; and before she could 
+reply, Valancourt abruptly left the cottage.  She followed him to the 
+door, calling upon his name and entreating him to return; but she 
+received no answer, and saw him no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+  Call up him, that left half told
+ The story of Cambuscan bold.
+     MILTON
+
+On the following morning, as Emily sat in the parlour adjoining the 
+library, reflecting on the scene of the preceding night, Annette 
+rushed wildly into the room, and, without speaking, sunk breathless 
+into a chair.  It was some time before she could answer the anxious 
+enquiries of Emily, as to the occasion of her emotion, but, at 
+length, she exclaimed, 'I have seen his ghost, madam, I have seen his 
+ghost!'
+
+'Who do you mean?' said Emily, with extreme impatience.
+
+'It came in from the hall, madam,' continued Annette, 'as I was 
+crossing to the parlour.'
+
+'Who are you speaking of?' repeated Emily, 'Who came in from the 
+hall?
+
+'It was dressed just as I have seen him, often and often,' added 
+Annette.  'Ah! who could have thought--'
+
+Emily's patience was now exhausted, and she was reprimanding her for 
+such idle fancies, when a servant entered the room, and informed her, 
+that a stranger without begged leave to speak with her.
+
+It immediately occurred to Emily, that this stranger was Valancourt, 
+and she told the servant to inform him, that she was engaged, and 
+could not see any person.
+
+The servant, having delivered his message, returned with one from the 
+stranger, urging the first request, and saying, that he had something 
+of consequence to communicate; while Annette, who had hitherto sat 
+silent and amazed, now started up, and crying, 'It is Ludovico!--it 
+is Ludovico!' ran out of the room.  Emily bade the servant follow 
+her, and, if it really was Ludovico, to shew him into the parlour.
+
+In a few minutes, Ludovico appeared, accompanied by Annette, who, as 
+joy rendered her forgetful of all rules of decorum towards her 
+mistress, would not suffer any person to be heard, for some time, but 
+herself.  Emily expressed surprise and satisfaction, on seeing 
+Ludovico in safety, and the first emotions increased, when he 
+delivered letters from Count De Villefort and the Lady Blanche, 
+informing her of their late adventure, and of their present situation 
+at an inn among the Pyrenees, where they had been detained by the 
+illness of Mons. St. Foix, and the indisposition of Blanche, who 
+added, that the Baron St. Foix was just arrived to attend his son to 
+his chateau, where he would remain till the perfect recovery of his 
+wounds, and then return to Languedoc, but that her father and herself 
+purposed to be at La Vallee, on the following day.  She added, that 
+Emily's presence would be expected at the approaching nuptials, and 
+begged she would be prepared to proceed, in a few days to Chateau-le-
+Blanc.  For an account of Ludovico's adventure, she referred her to 
+himself; and Emily, though much interested, concerning the means, by 
+which he had disappeared from the north apartments, had the 
+forbearance to suspend the gratification of her curiosity, till he 
+had taken some refreshment, and had conversed with Annette, whose 
+joy, on seeing him in safety, could not have been more extravagant, 
+had he arisen from the grave.
+
+Meanwhile, Emily perused again the letters of her friends, whose 
+expressions of esteem and kindness were very necessary consolations 
+to her heart, awakened as it was by the late interview to emotions of 
+keener sorrow and regret.
+
+The invitation to Chateau-le-Blanc was pressed with so much kindness 
+by the Count and his daughter, who strengthened it by a message from 
+the Countess, and the occasion of it was so important to her friend, 
+that Emily could not refuse to accept it, nor, though she wished to 
+remain in the quiet shades of her native home, could she avoid 
+perceiving the impropriety of remaining there alone, since Valancourt 
+was again in the neighbourhood.  Sometimes, too, she thought, that 
+change of scenery and the society of her friends might contribute, 
+more than retirement, to restore her to tranquillity.
+
+When Ludovico again appeared, she desired him to give a detail of his 
+adventure in the north apartments, and to tell by what means he 
+became a companion of the banditti, with whom the Count had found 
+him.
+
+He immediately obeyed, while Annette, who had not yet had leisure to 
+ask him many questions, on the subject, prepared to listen, with a 
+countenance of extreme curiosity, venturing to remind her lady of her 
+incredulity, concerning spirits, in the castle of Udolpho, and of her 
+own sagacity in believing in them; while Emily, blushing at the 
+consciousness of her late credulity, observed, that, if Ludovico's 
+adventure could justify Annette's superstition, he had probably not 
+been here to relate it.
+
+Ludovico smiled at Annette, and bowed to Emily, and then began as 
+follows:
+
+'You may remember, madam, that, on the night, when I sat up in the 
+north chamber, my lord, the Count, and Mons. Henri accompanied me 
+thither, and that, while they remained there, nothing happened to 
+excite any alarm.  When they were gone I made a fire in the bed-room, 
+and, not being inclined to sleep, I sat down on the hearth with a 
+book I had brought with me to divert my mind.  I confess I did 
+sometimes look round the chamber, with something like apprehension--'
+
+'O very like it, I dare say,' interrupted Annette, 'and I dare say 
+too, if the truth was known, you shook from head to foot.'
+
+'Not quite so bad as that,' replied Ludovico, smiling, 'but several 
+times, as the wind whistled round the castle, and shook the old 
+casements, I did fancy I heard odd noises, and, once or twice, I got 
+up and looked about me; but nothing was to be seen, except the grim 
+figures in the tapestry, which seemed to frown upon me, as I looked 
+at them.  I had sat thus for above an hour,' continued Ludovico, 
+'when again I thought I heard a noise, and glanced my eyes round the 
+room, to discover what it came from, but, not perceiving any thing, I 
+began to read again, and, when I had finished the story I was upon, I 
+felt drowsy, and dropped asleep.  But presently I was awakened by the 
+noise I had heard before, and it seemed to come from that part of the 
+chamber, where the bed stood; and then, whether it was the story I 
+had been reading that affected my spirits, or the strange reports, 
+that had been spread of these apartments, I don't know, but, when I 
+looked towards the bed again, I fancied I saw a man's face within the 
+dusky curtains.'
+
+At the mention of this, Emily trembled, and looked anxiously, 
+remembering the spectacle she had herself witnessed there with 
+Dorothee.
+
+'I confess, madam, my heart did fail me, at that instant,' continued 
+Ludovico, 'but a return of the noise drew my attention from the bed, 
+and I then distinctly heard a sound, like that of a key, turning in a 
+lock, but what surprised me more was, that I saw no door where the 
+sound seemed to come from.  In the next moment, however, the arras 
+near the bed was slowly lifted, and a person appeared behind it, 
+entering from a small door in the wall.  He stood for a moment as if 
+half retreating, with his head bending under the arras which 
+concealed the upper part of his face except his eyes scowling beneath 
+the tapestry as he held it; and then, while he raised it higher, I 
+saw the face of another man behind, looking over his shoulder.  I 
+know not how it was, but, though my sword was upon the table before 
+me, I had not the power just then to seize it, but sat quite still, 
+watching them, with my eyes half shut as if I was asleep.  I suppose 
+they thought me so, and were debating what they should do, for I 
+heard them whisper, and they stood in the same posture for the value 
+of a minute, and then, I thought I perceived other faces in the 
+duskiness beyond the door, and heard louder whispers.'
+
+'This door surprises me,' said Emily, 'because I understood, that the 
+Count had caused the arras to be lifted, and the walls examined, 
+suspecting, that they might have concealed a passage through which 
+you had departed.'
+
+'It does not appear so extraordinary to me, madam,' replied Ludovico, 
+'that this door should escape notice, because it was formed in a 
+narrow compartment, which appeared to be part of the outward wall, 
+and, if the Count had not passed over it, he might have thought it 
+was useless to search for a door where it seemed as if no passage 
+could communicate with one; but the truth was, that the passage was 
+formed within the wall itself.--But, to return to the men, whom I saw 
+obscurely beyond the door, and who did not suffer me to remain long 
+in suspense, concerning their design.  They all rushed into the room, 
+and surrounded me, though not before I had snatched up my sword to 
+defend myself.  But what could one man do against four?  They soon 
+disarmed me, and, having fastened my arms, and gagged my mouth, 
+forced me through the private door, leaving my sword upon the table, 
+to assist, as they said, those who should come in the morning to look 
+for me, in fighting against the ghosts.  They then led me through 
+many narrow passages, cut, as I fancied, in the walls, for I had 
+never seen them before, and down several flights of steps, till we 
+came to the vaults underneath the castle; and then opening a stone 
+door, which I should have taken for the wall itself, we went through 
+a long passage, and down other steps cut in the solid rock, when 
+another door delivered us into a cave.  After turning and twining 
+about, for some time, we reached the mouth of it, and I found myself 
+on the sea-beach at the foot of the cliffs, with the chateau above.  
+A boat was in waiting, into which the ruffians got, forcing me along 
+with them, and we soon reached a small vessel, that was at anchor, 
+where other men appeared, when setting me aboard, two of the fellows 
+who had seized me, followed, and the other two rowed back to the 
+shore, while we set sail.  I soon found out what all this meant, and 
+what was the business of these men at the chateau.  We landed in 
+Rousillon, and, after lingering several days about the shore, some of 
+their comrades came down from the mountains, and carried me with them 
+to the fort, where I remained till my Lord so unexpectedly arrived, 
+for they had taken good care to prevent my running away, having 
+blindfolded me, during the journey, and, if they had not done this, I 
+think I never could have found my road to any town, through the wild 
+country we traversed.  After I reached the fort I was watched like a 
+prisoner, and never suffered to go out, without two or three 
+companions, and I became so weary of life, that I often wished to get 
+rid of it.'
+
+'Well, but they let you talk,' said Annette, 'they did not gagg you 
+after they got you away from the chateau, so I don't see what reason 
+there was to be so very weary of living; to say nothing about the 
+chance you had of seeing me again.'
+
+Ludovico smiled, and Emily also, who enquired what was the motive of 
+these men for carrying him off.
+
+'I soon found out, madam,' resumed Ludovico, 'that they were pirates, 
+who had, during many years, secreted their spoil in the vaults of the 
+castle, which, being so near the sea, suited their purpose well.  To 
+prevent detection they had tried to have it believed, that the 
+chateau was haunted, and, having discovered the private way to the 
+north apartments, which had been shut up ever since the death of the 
+lady marchioness, they easily succeeded.  The housekeeper and her 
+husband, who were the only persons, that had inhabited the castle, 
+for some years, were so terrified by the strange noises they heard in 
+the nights, that they would live there no longer; a report soon went 
+abroad, that it was haunted, and the whole country believed this the 
+more readily, I suppose, because it had been said, that the lady 
+marchioness had died in a strange way, and because my lord never 
+would return to the place afterwards.'
+
+'But why,' said Emily, 'were not these pirates contented with the 
+cave--why did they think it necessary to deposit their spoil in the 
+castle?'
+
+'The cave, madam,' replied Ludovico, 'was open to any body, and their 
+treasures would not long have remained undiscovered there, but in the 
+vaults they were secure so long as the report prevailed of their 
+being haunted.  Thus then, it appears, that they brought at midnight, 
+the spoil they took on the seas, and kept it till they had 
+opportunities of disposing of it to advantage.  The pirates were 
+connected with Spanish smugglers and banditti, who live among the 
+wilds of the Pyrenees, and carry on various kinds of traffic, such as 
+nobody would think of; and with this desperate horde of banditti I 
+remained, till my lord arrived.  I shall never forget what I felt, 
+when I first discovered him--I almost gave him up for lost! but I 
+knew, that, if I shewed myself, the banditti would discover who he 
+was, and probably murder us all, to prevent their secret in the 
+chateau being detected.  I, therefore, kept out of my lord's sight, 
+but had a strict watch upon the ruffians, and determined, if they 
+offered him or his family violence, to discover myself, and fight for 
+our lives.  Soon after, I overheard some of them laying a most 
+diabolical plan for the murder and plunder of the whole party, when I 
+contrived to speak to some of my lord's attendants, telling them what 
+was going forward, and we consulted what was best to be done; 
+meanwhile my lord, alarmed at the absence of the Lady Blanche, 
+demanded her, and the ruffians having given some unsatisfactory 
+answer, my lord and Mons. St. Foix became furious, so then we thought 
+it a good time to discover the plot, and rushing into the chamber, I 
+called out, "Treachery! my lord count, defend yourself!"  His 
+lordship and the chevalier drew their swords directly, and a hard 
+battle we had, but we conquered at last, as, madam, you are already 
+informed of by my Lord Count.'
+
+'This is an extraordinary adventure,' said Emily, 'and much praise is 
+due, Ludovico, to your prudence and intrepidity.  There are some 
+circumstances, however, concerning the north apartments, which still 
+perplex me; but, perhaps, you may be able to explain them.  Did you 
+ever hear the banditti relate any thing extraordinary of these 
+rooms?'
+
+'No, madam,' replied Ludovico, 'I never heard them speak about the 
+rooms, except to laugh at the credulity of the old housekeeper, who 
+once was very near catching one of the pirates; it was since the 
+Count arrived at the chateau, he said, and he laughed heartily as he 
+related the trick he had played off.'
+
+A blush overspread Emily's cheek, and she impatiently desired 
+Ludovico to explain himself.
+
+'Why, my lady,' said he, 'as this fellow was, one night in the bed-
+room, he heard somebody approaching through the next apartment, and 
+not having time to lift up the arras, and unfasten the door, he hid 
+himself in the bed just by.  There he lay for some time in as great a 
+fright, I suppose--'
+
+'As you was in,' interrupted Annette, 'when you sat up so boldly to 
+watch by yourself.'
+
+'Aye,' said Ludovico, 'in as great a fright as he ever made any body 
+else suffer; and presently the housekeeper and some other person came 
+up to the bed, when he, thinking they were going to examine it, 
+bethought him, that his only chance of escaping detection, was by 
+terrifying them; so he lifted up the counterpane, but that did not 
+do, till he raised his face above it, and then they both set off, he 
+said, as if they had seen the devil, and he got out of the rooms 
+undiscovered.'
+
+Emily could not forbear smiling at this explanation of the deception, 
+which had given her so much superstitious terror, and was surprised, 
+that she could have suffered herself to be thus alarmed, till she 
+considered, that, when the mind has once begun to yield to the 
+weakness of superstition, trifles impress it with the force of 
+conviction.  Still, however, she remembered with awe the mysterious 
+music, which had been heard, at midnight, near Chateau-le-Blanc, and 
+she asked Ludovico if he could give any explanation of it; but he 
+could not.
+
+'I only know, madam,' he added, 'that it did not belong to the 
+pirates, for I have heard them laugh about it, and say, they believed 
+the devil was in league with them there.'
+
+'Yes, I will answer for it he was,' said Annette, her countenance 
+brightening, 'I was sure all along, that he or his spirits had 
+something to do with the north apartments, and now you see, madam, I 
+am right at last.'
+
+'It cannot be denied, that his spirits were very busy in that part of 
+the chateau,' replied Emily, smiling.  'But I am surprised, Ludovico, 
+that these pirates should persevere in their schemes, after the 
+arrival of the Count; what could they expect but certain detection?'
+
+'I have reason to believe, madam,' replied Ludovico, 'that it was 
+their intention to persevere no longer than was necessary for the 
+removal of the stores, which were deposited in the vaults; and it 
+appeared, that they had been employed in doing so from within a short 
+period after the Count's arrival; but, as they had only a few hours 
+in the night for this business, and were carrying on other schemes at 
+the same time, the vaults were not above half emptied, when they took 
+me away.  They gloried exceedingly in this opportunity of confirming 
+the superstitious reports, that had been spread of the north 
+chambers, were careful to leave every thing there as they had found 
+it, the better to promote the deception, and frequently, in their 
+jocose moods, would laugh at the consternation, which they believed 
+the inhabitants of the castle had suffered upon my disappearing, and 
+it was to prevent the possibility of my betraying their secret, that 
+they had removed me to such a distance.  From that period they 
+considered the chateau as nearly their own; but I found from the 
+discourse of their comrades, that, though they were cautious, at 
+first, in shewing their power there, they had once very nearly 
+betrayed themselves.  Going, one night, as was their custom, to the 
+north chambers to repeat the noises, that had occasioned such alarm 
+among the servants, they heard, as they were about to unfasten the 
+secret door, voices in the bed-room.  My lord has since told me, that 
+himself and M. Henri were then in the apartment, and they heard very 
+extraordinary sounds of lamentation, which it seems were made by 
+these fellows, with their usual design of spreading terror; and my 
+lord has owned, he then felt somewhat more, than surprise; but, as it 
+was necessary to the peace of his family, that no notice should be 
+taken, he was silent on the subject, and enjoined silence to his 
+son.'
+
+Emily, recollecting the change, that had appeared in the spirits of 
+the Count, after the night, when he had watched in the north room, 
+now perceived the cause of it; and, having made some further 
+enquiries upon this strange affair, she dismissed Ludovico, and went 
+to give orders for the accommodation of her friends, on the following 
+day.
+
+In the evening, Theresa, lame as she was, came to deliver the ring, 
+with which Valancourt had entrusted her, and, when she presented it, 
+Emily was much affected, for she remembered to have seen him wear it 
+often in happier days.  She was, however, much displeased, that 
+Theresa had received it, and positively refused to accept it herself, 
+though to have done so would have afforded her a melancholy pleasure.  
+Theresa entreated, expostulated, and then described the distress of 
+Valancourt, when he had given the ring, and repeated the message, 
+with which he had commissioned her to deliver it; and Emily could not 
+conceal the extreme sorrow this recital occasioned her, but wept, and 
+remained lost in thought.
+
+'Alas! my dear young lady!' said Theresa, 'why should all this be?  I 
+have known you from your infancy, and it may well be supposed I love 
+you, as if you was my own, and wish as much to see you happy.  M. 
+Valancourt, to be sure, I have not known so long, but then I have 
+reason to love him, as though he was my own son.  I know how well you 
+love one another, or why all this weeping and wailing?'  Emily waved 
+her hand for Theresa to be silent, who, disregarding the signal, 
+continued, 'And how much you are alike in your tempers and ways, and, 
+that, if you were married, you would be the happiest couple in the 
+whole province--then what is there to prevent your marrying?  Dear 
+dear! to see how some people fling away their happiness, and then cry 
+and lament about it, just as if it was not their own doing, and as if 
+there was more pleasure in wailing and weeping, than in being at 
+peace.  Learning, to be sure, is a fine thing, but, if it teaches 
+folks no better than that, why I had rather be without it; if it 
+would teach them to be happier, I would say something to it, then it 
+would be learning and wisdom too.'
+
+Age and long services had given Theresa a privilege to talk, but 
+Emily now endeavoured to check her loquacity, and, though she felt 
+the justness of some of her remarks, did not choose to explain the 
+circumstances, that had determined her conduct towards Valancourt.  
+She, therefore, only told Theresa, that it would much displease her 
+to hear the subject renewed; that she had reasons for her conduct, 
+which she did not think it proper to mention, and that the ring must 
+be returned, with an assurance, that she could not accept it with 
+propriety; and, at the same time, she forbade Theresa to repeat any 
+future message from Valancourt, as she valued her esteem and 
+kindness.  Theresa was afflicted, and made another attempt, though 
+feeble, to interest her for Valancourt, but the unusual displeasure, 
+expressed in Emily's countenance, soon obliged her to desist, and she 
+departed in wonder and lamentation.
+
+To relieve her mind, in some degree, from the painful recollections, 
+that intruded upon it, Emily busied herself in preparations for the 
+journey into Languedoc, and, while Annette, who assisted her, spoke 
+with joy and affection of the safe return of Ludovico, she was 
+considering how she might best promote their happiness, and 
+determined, if it appeared, that his affection was as unchanged as 
+that of the simple and honest Annette, to give her a marriage 
+portion, and settle them on some part of her estate.  These 
+considerations led her to the remembrance of her father's paternal 
+domain, which his affairs had formerly compelled him to dispose of to 
+M. Quesnel, and which she frequently wished to regain, because St. 
+Aubert had lamented, that the chief lands of his ancestors had passed 
+into another family, and because they had been his birth-place and 
+the haunt of his early years.  To the estate at Tholouse she had no 
+peculiar attachment, and it was her wish to dispose of this, that she 
+might purchase her paternal domains, if M. Quesnel could be prevailed 
+on to part with them, which, as he talked much of living in Italy, 
+did not appear very improbable.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+  Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,
+ The bees' collected treasures sweet,
+ Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet
+ The still, small voice of gratitude.
+     GRAY
+
+On the following day, the arrival of her friend revived the drooping 
+Emily, and La Vallee became once more the scene of social kindness 
+and of elegant hospitality.  Illness and the terror she had suffered 
+had stolen from Blanche much of her sprightliness, but all her 
+affectionate simplicity remained, and, though she appeared less 
+blooming, she was not less engaging than before.  The unfortunate 
+adventure on the Pyrenees had made the Count very anxious to reach 
+home, and, after little more than a week's stay at La Vallee, Emily 
+prepared to set out with her friends for Languedoc, assigning the 
+care of her house, during her absence, to Theresa.  On the evening, 
+preceding her departure, this old servant brought again the ring of 
+Valancourt, and, with tears, entreated her mistress to receive it, 
+for that she had neither seen, or heard of M. Valancourt, since the 
+night when he delivered it to her.  As she said this, her countenance 
+expressed more alarm, than she dared to utter; but Emily, checking 
+her own propensity to fear, considered, that he had probably returned 
+to the residence of his brother, and, again refusing to accept the 
+ring, bade Theresa preserve it, till she saw him, which, with extreme 
+reluctance, she promised to do.
+
+On the following day, Count De Villefort, with Emily and the Lady 
+Blanche, left La Vallee, and, on the ensuing evening, arrived at the 
+Chateau-le-Blanc, where the Countess, Henri, and M. Du Pont, whom 
+Emily was surprised to find there, received them with much joy and 
+congratulation.  She was concerned to observe, that the Count still 
+encouraged the hopes of his friend, whose countenance declared, that 
+his affection had suffered no abatement from absence; and was much 
+distressed, when, on the second evening after her arrival, the Count, 
+having withdrawn her from the Lady Blanche, with whom she was 
+walking, renewed the subject of M. Du Pont's hopes.  The mildness, 
+with which she listened to his intercessions at first, deceiving him, 
+as to her sentiments, he began to believe, that, her affection for 
+Valancourt being overcome, she was, at length, disposed to think 
+favourably of M. Du Pont; and, when she afterwards convinced him of 
+his mistake, he ventured, in the earnestness of his wish to promote 
+what he considered to be the happiness of two persons, whom he so 
+much esteemed, gently to remonstrate with her, on thus suffering an 
+ill-placed affection to poison the happiness of her most valuable 
+years.
+
+Observing her silence and the deep dejection of her countenance, he 
+concluded with saying, 'I will not say more now, but I will still 
+believe, my dear Mademoiselle St. Aubert, that you will not always 
+reject a person, so truly estimable as my friend Du Pont.'
+
+He spared her the pain of replying, by leaving her; and she strolled 
+on, somewhat displeased with the Count for having persevered to plead 
+for a suit, which she had repeatedly rejected, and lost amidst the 
+melancholy recollections, which this topic had revived, till she had 
+insensibly reached the borders of the woods, that screened the 
+monastery of St. Clair, when, perceiving how far she had wandered, 
+she determined to extend her walk a little farther, and to enquire 
+about the abbess and some of her friends among the nuns.
+
+Though the evening was now drawing to a close, she accepted the 
+invitation of the friar, who opened the gate, and, anxious to meet 
+some of her old acquaintances, proceeded towards the convent parlour.  
+As she crossed the lawn, that sloped from the front of the monastery 
+towards the sea, she was struck with the picture of repose, exhibited 
+by some monks, sitting in the cloisters, which extended under the 
+brow of the woods, that crowned this eminence; where, as they 
+meditated, at this twilight hour, holy subjects, they sometimes 
+suffered their attention to be relieved by the scene before them, nor 
+thought it profane to look at nature, now that it had exchanged the 
+brilliant colours of day for the sober hue of evening.  Before the 
+cloisters, however, spread an ancient chesnut, whose ample branches 
+were designed to screen the full magnificence of a scene, that might 
+tempt the wish to worldly pleasures; but still, beneath the dark and 
+spreading foliage, gleamed a wide extent of ocean, and many a passing 
+sail; while, to the right and left, thick woods were seen stretching 
+along the winding shores.  So much as this had been admitted, 
+perhaps, to give to the secluded votary an image of the dangers and 
+vicissitudes of life, and to console him, now that he had renounced 
+its pleasures, by the certainty of having escaped its evils.  As 
+Emily walked pensively along, considering how much suffering she 
+might have escaped, had she become a votaress of the order, and 
+remained in this retirement from the time of her father's death, the 
+vesper-bell struck up, and the monks retired slowly toward the 
+chapel, while she, pursuing her way, entered the great hall, where an 
+unusual silence seemed to reign.  The parlour too, which opened from 
+it, she found vacant, but, as the evening bell was sounding, she 
+believed the nuns had withdrawn into the chapel, and sat down to 
+rest, for a moment, before she returned to the chateau, where, 
+however, the increasing gloom made her now anxious to be.
+
+Not many minutes had elapsed, before a nun, entering in haste, 
+enquired for the abbess, and was retiring, without recollecting 
+Emily, when she made herself known, and then learned, that a mass was 
+going to be performed for the soul of sister Agnes, who had been 
+declining, for some time, and who was now believed to be dying.
+
+Of her sufferings the sister gave a melancholy account, and of the 
+horrors, into which she had frequently started, but which had now 
+yielded to a dejection so gloomy, that neither the prayers, in which 
+she was joined by the sisterhood, or the assurances of her confessor, 
+had power to recall her from it, or to cheer her mind even with a 
+momentary gleam of comfort.
+
+To this relation Emily listened with extreme concern, and, 
+recollecting the frenzied manners and the expressions of horror, 
+which she had herself witnessed of Agnes, together with the history, 
+that sister Frances had communicated, her compassion was heightened 
+to a very painful degree.  As the evening was already far advanced, 
+Emily did not now desire to see her, or to join in the mass, and, 
+after leaving many kind remembrances with the nun, for her old 
+friends, she quitted the monastery, and returned over the cliffs 
+towards the chateau, meditating upon what she had just heard, till, 
+at length she forced her mind upon less interesting subjects.
+
+The wind was high, and as she drew near the chateau, she often paused 
+to listen to its awful sound, as it swept over the billows, that beat 
+below, or groaned along the surrounding woods; and, while she rested 
+on a cliff at a short distance from the chateau, and looked upon the 
+wide waters, seen dimly beneath the last shade of twilight, she 
+thought of the following address:
+
+ TO THE WINDS
+
+ Viewless, through heaven's vast vault your course ye steer,
+ Unknown from whence ye come, or whither go!
+ Mysterious pow'rs! I hear ye murmur low,
+ Till swells your loud gust on my startled ear,
+ And, awful! seems to say--some God is near!
+ I love to list your midnight voices float
+ In the dread storm, that o'er the ocean rolls,
+ And, while their charm the angry wave controuls,
+ Mix with its sullen roar, and sink remote.
+ Then, rising in the pause, a sweeter note,
+ The dirge of spirits, who your deeds bewail,
+ A sweeter note oft swells while sleeps the gale!
+ But soon, ye sightless pow'rs! your rest is o'er,
+ Solemn and slow, ye rise upon the air,
+ Speak in the shrouds, and bid the sea-boy fear,
+ And the faint-warbled dirge--is heard no more!
+  Oh! then I deprecate your awful reign!
+ The loud lament yet bear not on your breath!
+ Bear not the crash of bark far on the main,
+ Bear not the cry of men, who cry in vain,
+ The crew's dread chorus sinking into death!
+ Oh! give not these, ye pow'rs!  I ask alone,
+ As rapt I climb these dark romantic steeps,
+ The elemental war, the billow's moan;
+ I ask the still, sweet tear, that listening Fancy weeps!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+  Unnatural deeds
+ Do breed unnatural troubles:  infected minds
+ To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
+ More needs she the divine, than the physician.
+     MACBETH
+
+On the following evening, the view of the convent towers, rising 
+among the shadowy woods, reminded Emily of the nun, whose condition 
+had so much affected her; and, anxious to know how she was, as well 
+as to see some of her former friends, she and the Lady Blanche 
+extended their walk to the monastery.  At the gate stood a carriage, 
+which, from the heat of the horses, appeared to have just arrived; 
+but a more than common stillness pervaded the court and the 
+cloisters, through which Emily and Blanche passed in their way to the 
+great hall, where a nun, who was crossing to the stair-case, replied 
+to the enquiries of the former, that sister Agnes was still living, 
+and sensible, but that it was thought she could not survive the 
+night.  In the parlour, they found several of the boarders, who 
+rejoiced to see Emily, and told her many little circumstances that 
+had happened in the convent since her departure, and which were 
+interesting to her only because they related to persons, whom she had 
+regarded with affection.  While they thus conversed the abbess 
+entered the room, and expressed much satisfaction at seeing Emily, 
+but her manner was unusually solemn, and her countenance dejected.  
+'Our house,' said she, after the first salutations were over, 'is 
+truly a house of mourning--a daughter is now paying the debt of 
+nature.--You have heard, perhaps, that our daughter Agnes is dying?'
+
+Emily expressed her sincere concern.
+
+'Her death presents to us a great and awful lesson,' continued the 
+abbess; 'let us read it, and profit by it; let it teach us to prepare 
+ourselves for the change, that awaits us all!  You are young, and 
+have it yet in your power to secure "the peace that passeth all 
+understanding"--the peace of conscience.  Preserve it in your youth, 
+that it may comfort you in age; for vain, alas! and imperfect are the 
+good deeds of our latter years, if those of our early life have been 
+evil!'
+
+Emily would have said, that good deeds, she hoped, were never vain; 
+but she considered that it was the abbess who spoke, and she remained 
+silent.
+
+'The latter days of Agnes,' resumed the abbess, 'have been exemplary; 
+would they might atone for the errors of her former ones!  Her 
+sufferings now, alas! are great; let us believe, that they will make 
+her peace hereafter!  I have left her with her confessor, and a 
+gentleman, whom she has long been anxious to see, and who is just 
+arrived from Paris.  They, I hope, will be able to administer the 
+repose, which her mind has hitherto wanted.'
+
+Emily fervently joined in the wish.
+
+'During her illness, she has sometimes named you,' resumed the 
+abbess; 'perhaps, it would comfort her to see you; when her present 
+visitors have left her, we will go to her chamber, if the scene will 
+not be too melancholy for your spirits.  But, indeed, to such scenes, 
+however painful, we ought to accustom ourselves, for they are 
+salutary to the soul, and prepare us for what we are ourselves to 
+suffer.'
+
+Emily became grave and thoughtful; for this conversation brought to 
+her recollection the dying moments of her beloved father, and she 
+wished once more to weep over the spot, where his remains were 
+buried.  During the silence, which followed the abbess' speech, many 
+minute circumstances attending his last hours occurred to her--his 
+emotion on perceiving himself to be in the neighbourhood of Chateau-
+le-Blanc--his request to be interred in a particular spot in the 
+church of this monastery--and the solemn charge he had delivered to 
+her to destroy certain papers, without examining them.--She 
+recollected also the mysterious and horrible words in those 
+manuscripts, upon which her eye had involuntarily glanced; and, 
+though they now, and, indeed, whenever she remembered them, revived 
+an excess of painful curiosity, concerning their full import, and the 
+motives for her father's command, it was ever her chief consolation, 
+that she had strictly obeyed him in this particular.
+
+Little more was said by the abbess, who appeared too much affected by 
+the subject she had lately left, to be willing to converse, and her 
+companions had been for some time silent from the same cause, when 
+this general reverie was interrupted by the entrance of a stranger, 
+Monsieur Bonnac, who had just quitted the chamber of sister Agnes.  
+He appeared much disturbed, but Emily fancied, that his countenance 
+had more the expression of horror, than of grief.  Having drawn the 
+abbess to a distant part of the room, he conversed with her for some 
+time, during which she seemed to listen with earnest attention, and 
+he to speak with caution, and a more than common degree of interest.  
+When he had concluded, he bowed silently to the rest of the company, 
+and quitted the room.  The abbess, soon after, proposed going to the 
+chamber of sister Agnes, to which Emily consented, though not without 
+some reluctance, and Lady Blanche remained with the boarders below.
+
+At the door of the chamber they met the confessor, whom, as he lifted 
+up his head on their approach, Emily observed to be the same that had 
+attended her dying father; but he passed on, without noticing her, 
+and they entered the apartment, where, on a mattress, was laid sister 
+Agnes, with one nun watching in the chair beside her.  Her 
+countenance was so much changed, that Emily would scarcely have 
+recollected her, had she not been prepared to do so:  it was ghastly, 
+and overspread with gloomy horror; her dim and hollow eyes were fixed 
+on a crucifix, which she held upon her bosom; and she was so much 
+engaged in thought, as not to perceive the abbess and Emily, till 
+they stood at the bed-side.  Then, turning her heavy eyes, she fixed 
+them, in wild horror, upon Emily, and, screaming, exclaimed, 'Ah! 
+that vision comes upon me in my dying hours!'
+
+Emily started back in terror, and looked for explanation to the 
+abbess, who made her a signal not to be alarmed, and calmly said to 
+Agnes, 'Daughter, I have brought Mademoiselle St. Aubert to visit 
+you:  I thought you would be glad to see her.'
+
+Agnes made no reply; but, still gazing wildly upon Emily, exclaimed, 
+'It is her very self!  Oh! there is all that fascination in her look, 
+which proved my destruction!  What would you have--what is it you 
+came to demand--Retribution?--It will soon be yours--it is yours 
+already.  How many years have passed, since last I saw you!  My crime 
+is but as yesterday.--Yet I am grown old beneath it; while you are 
+still young and blooming--blooming as when you forced me to commit 
+that most abhorred deed!  O! could I once forget it!--yet what would 
+that avail?--the deed is done!'
+
+Emily, extremely shocked, would now have left the room; but the 
+abbess, taking her hand, tried to support her spirits, and begged she 
+would stay a few moments, when Agnes would probably be calm, whom now 
+she tried to sooth.  But the latter seemed to disregard her, while 
+she still fixed her eyes on Emily, and added, 'What are years of 
+prayers and repentance? they cannot wash out the foulness of murder!-
+-Yes, murder!  Where is he--where is he?--Look there--look there!--
+see where he stalks along the room!  Why do you come to torment me 
+now?' continued Agnes, while her straining eyes were bent on air, 
+'why was not I punished before?--O! do not frown so sternly!  Hah! 
+there again! 'til she herself!  Why do you look so piteously upon me-
+-and smile, too? smile on me!  What groan was that?'
+
+Agnes sunk down, apparently lifeless, and Emily, unable to support 
+herself, leaned against the bed, while the abbess and the attendant 
+nun were applying the usual remedies to Agnes.  'Peace,' said the 
+abbess, when Emily was going to speak, 'the delirium is going off, 
+she will soon revive.  When was she thus before, daughter?'
+
+'Not of many weeks, madam,' replied the nun, 'but her spirits have 
+been much agitated by the arrival of the gentleman she wished so much 
+to see.'
+
+'Yes,' observed the abbess, 'that has undoubtedly occasioned this 
+paroxysm of frenzy.  When she is better, we will leave her to 
+repose.'
+
+Emily very readily consented, but, though she could now give little 
+assistance, she was unwilling to quit the chamber, while any might be 
+necessary.
+
+When Agnes recovered her senses, she again fixed her eyes on Emily, 
+but their wild expression was gone, and a gloomy melancholy had 
+succeeded.  It was some moments before she recovered sufficient 
+spirits to speak; she then said feebly--'The likeness is wonderful!--
+surely it must be something more than fancy.  Tell me, I conjure 
+you,' she added, addressing Emily, 'though your name is St. Aubert, 
+are you not the daughter of the Marchioness?'
+
+'What Marchioness?' said Emily, in extreme surprise; for she had 
+imagined, from the calmness of Agnes's manner, that her intellects 
+were restored.  The abbess gave her a significant glance, but she 
+repeated the question.
+
+'What Marchioness?' exclaimed Agnes, 'I know but of one--the 
+Marchioness de Villeroi.'
+
+Emily, remembering the emotion of her late father, upon the 
+unexpected mention of this lady, and his request to be laid near to 
+the tomb of the Villerois, now felt greatly interested, and she 
+entreated Agnes to explain the reason of her question.  The abbess 
+would now have withdrawn Emily from the room, who being, however, 
+detained by a strong interest, repeated her entreaties.
+
+'Bring me that casket, sister,' said Agnes; 'I will shew her to you; 
+yet you need only look in that mirror, and you will behold her; you 
+surely are her daughter:  such striking resemblance is never found 
+but among near relations.'
+
+The nun brought the casket, and Agnes, having directed her how to 
+unlock it, she took thence a miniature, in which Emily perceived the 
+exact resemblance of the picture, which she had found among her late 
+father's papers.  Agnes held out her hand to receive it; gazed upon 
+it earnestly for some moments in silence; and then, with a 
+countenance of deep despair, threw up her eyes to Heaven, and prayed 
+inwardly.  When she had finished, she returned the miniature to 
+Emily.  'Keep it,' said she, 'I bequeath it to you, for I must 
+believe it is your right.  I have frequently observed the resemblance 
+between you; but never, till this day, did it strike upon my 
+conscience so powerfully!  Stay, sister, do not remove the casket--
+there is another picture I would shew.'
+
+Emily trembled with expectation, and the abbess again would have 
+withdrawn her.  'Agnes is still disordered,' said she, 'you observe 
+how she wanders.  In these moods she says any thing, and does not 
+scruple, as you have witnessed, to accuse herself of the most 
+horrible crimes.'
+
+Emily, however, thought she perceived something more than madness in 
+the inconsistencies of Agnes, whose mention of the Marchioness, and 
+production of her picture, had interested her so much, that she 
+determined to obtain further information, if possible, respecting the 
+subject of it.
+
+The nun returned with the casket, and, Agnes pointing out to her a 
+secret drawer, she took from it another miniature.  'Here,' said 
+Agnes, as she offered it to Emily, 'learn a lesson for your vanity, 
+at least; look well at this picture, and see if you can discover any 
+resemblance between what I was, and what I am.'
+
+Emily impatiently received the miniature, which her eyes had scarcely 
+glanced upon, before her trembling hands had nearly suffered it to 
+fall--it was the resemblance of the portrait of Signora Laurentini, 
+which she had formerly seen in the castle of Udolpho--the lady, who 
+had disappeared in so mysterious a manner, and whom Montoni had been 
+suspected of having caused to be murdered.
+
+In silent astonishment, Emily continued to gaze alternately upon the 
+picture and the dying nun, endeavouring to trace a resemblance 
+between them, which no longer existed.
+
+'Why do you look so sternly on me?' said Agnes, mistaking the nature 
+of Emily's emotion.
+
+'I have seen this face before,' said Emily, at length; 'was it really 
+your resemblance?'
+
+'You may well ask that question,' replied the nun,--'but it was once 
+esteemed a striking likeness of me.  Look at me well, and see what 
+guilt has made me.  I then was innocent; the evil passions of my 
+nature slept.  Sister!' added she solemnly, and stretching forth her 
+cold, damp hand to Emily, who shuddered at its touch--'Sister! beware 
+of the first indulgence of the passions; beware of the first!  Their 
+course, if not checked then, is rapid--their force is uncontroulable-
+-they lead us we know not whither--they lead us perhaps to the 
+commission of crimes, for which whole years of prayer and penitence 
+cannot atone!--Such may be the force of even a single passion, that 
+it overcomes every other, and sears up every other approach to the 
+heart.  Possessing us like a fiend, it leads us on to the acts of a 
+fiend, making us insensible to pity and to conscience.  And, when its 
+purpose is accomplished, like a fiend, it leaves us to the torture of 
+those feelings, which its power had suspended--not annihilated,--to 
+the tortures of compassion, remorse, and conscience.  Then, we awaken 
+as from a dream, and perceive a new world around us--we gaze in 
+astonishment, and horror--but the deed is committed; not all the 
+powers of heaven and earth united can undo it--and the spectres of 
+conscience will not fly!  What are riches--grandeur--health itself, 
+to the luxury of a pure conscience, the health of the soul;--and what 
+the sufferings of poverty, disappointment, despair--to the anguish of 
+an afflicted one!  O! how long is it since I knew that luxury!  I 
+believed, that I had suffered the most agonizing pangs of human 
+nature, in love, jealousy, and despair--but these pangs were ease, 
+compared with the stings of conscience, which I have since endured.  
+I tasted too what was called the sweet of revenge--but it was 
+transient, it expired even with the object, that provoked it.  
+Remember, sister, that the passions are the seeds of vices as well as 
+of virtues, from which either may spring, accordingly as they are 
+nurtured.  Unhappy they who have never been taught the art to govern 
+them!'
+
+'Alas! unhappy!' said the abbess, 'and ill-informed of our holy 
+religion!'  Emily listened to Agnes, in silent awe, while she still 
+examined the miniature, and became confirmed in her opinion of its 
+strong resemblance to the portrait at Udolpho.  'This face is 
+familiar to me,' said she, wishing to lead the nun to an explanation, 
+yet fearing to discover too abruptly her knowledge of Udolpho.
+
+'You are mistaken,' replied Agnes, 'you certainly never saw that 
+picture before.'
+
+'No,' replied Emily, 'but I have seen one extremely like it.'  
+'Impossible,' said Agnes, who may now be called the Lady Laurentini.
+
+'It was in the castle of Udolpho,' continued Emily, looking 
+stedfastly at her.
+
+'Of Udolpho!' exclaimed Laurentini, 'of Udolpho in Italy!'  'The 
+same,' replied Emily.
+
+'You know me then,' said Laurentini, 'and you are the daughter of the 
+Marchioness.'  Emily was somewhat surprised at this abrupt assertion.  
+'I am the daughter of the late Mons. St. Aubert,' said she; 'and the 
+lady you name is an utter stranger to me.'
+
+'At least you believe so,' rejoined Laurentini.
+
+Emily asked what reasons there could be to believe otherwise.
+
+'The family likeness, that you bear her,' said the nun.  'The 
+Marchioness, it is known, was attached to a gentleman of Gascony, at 
+the time when she accepted the hand of the Marquis, by the command of 
+her father.  Ill-fated, unhappy woman!'
+
+Emily, remembering the extreme emotion which St. Aubert had betrayed 
+on the mention of the Marchioness, would now have suffered something 
+more than surprise, had her confidence in his integrity been less; as 
+it was, she could not, for a moment, believe what the words of 
+Laurentini insinuated; yet she still felt strongly interested, 
+concerning them, and begged, that she would explain them further.
+
+'Do not urge me on that subject,' said the nun, 'it is to me a 
+terrible one!  Would that I could blot it from my memory!'  She 
+sighed deeply, and, after the pause of a moment, asked Emily, by what 
+means she had discovered her name?
+
+'By your portrait in the castle of Udolpho, to which this miniature 
+bears a striking resemblance,' replied Emily.
+
+'You have been at Udolpho then!' said the nun, with great emotion.  
+'Alas! what scenes does the mention of it revive in my fancy--scenes 
+of happiness--of suffering--and of horror!'
+
+At this moment, the terrible spectacle, which Emily had witnessed in 
+a chamber of that castle, occurred to her, and she shuddered, while 
+she looked upon the nun--and recollected her late words--that 'years 
+of prayer and penitence could not wash out the foulness of murder.'  
+She was now compelled to attribute these to another cause, than that 
+of delirium.  With a degree of horror, that almost deprived her of 
+sense, she now believed she looked upon a murderer; all the 
+recollected behaviour of Laurentini seemed to confirm the 
+supposition, yet Emily was still lost in a labyrinth of perplexities, 
+and, not knowing how to ask the questions, which might lead to truth, 
+she could only hint them in broken sentences.
+
+'Your sudden departure from Udolpho'--said she.
+
+Laurentini groaned.
+
+'The reports that followed it,' continued Emily--'The west chamber--
+the mournful veil--the object it conceals!--when murders are 
+committed--'
+
+The nun shrieked.  'What! there again!' said she, endeavouring to 
+raise herself, while her starting eyes seemed to follow some object 
+round the room--'Come from the grave!  What!  Blood--blood too!--
+There was no blood--thou canst not say it!--Nay, do not smile,--do 
+not smile so piteously!'
+
+Laurentini fell into convulsions, as she uttered the last words; and 
+Emily, unable any longer to endure the horror of the scene, hurried 
+from the room, and sent some nuns to the assistance of the abbess.
+
+The Lady Blanche, and the boarders, who were in the parlour, now 
+assembled round Emily, and, alarmed by her manner and affrighted 
+countenance, asked a hundred questions, which she avoided answering 
+further, than by saying, that she believed sister Agnes was dying.  
+They received this as a sufficient explanation of her terror, and had 
+then leisure to offer restoratives, which, at length, somewhat 
+revived Emily, whose mind was, however, so much shocked with the 
+terrible surmises, and perplexed with doubts by some words from the 
+nun, that she was unable to converse, and would have left the convent 
+immediately, had she not wished to know whether Laurentini would 
+survive the late attack.  After waiting some time, she was informed, 
+that, the convulsions having ceased, Laurentini seemed to be 
+reviving, and Emily and Blanche were departing, when the abbess 
+appeared, who, drawing the former aside, said she had something of 
+consequence to say to her, but, as it was late, she would not detain 
+her then, and requested to see her on the following day.
+
+Emily promised to visit her, and, having taken leave, returned with 
+the Lady Blanche towards the chateau, on the way to which the deep 
+gloom of the woods made Blanche lament, that the evening was so far 
+advanced; for the surrounding stillness and obscurity rendered her 
+sensible of fear, though there was a servant to protect her; while 
+Emily was too much engaged by the horrors of the scene she had just 
+witnessed, to be affected by the solemnity of the shades, otherwise 
+than as they served to promote her gloomy reverie, from which, 
+however, she was at length recalled by the Lady Blanche, who pointed 
+out, at some distance, in the dusky path they were winding, two 
+persons slowly advancing.  It was impossible to avoid them without 
+striking into a still more secluded part of the wood, whither the 
+strangers might easily follow; but all apprehension vanished, when 
+Emily distinguished the voice of Mons. Du Pont, and perceived, that 
+his companion was the gentleman, whom she had seen at the monastery, 
+and who was now conversing with so much earnestness as not 
+immediately to perceive their approach.  When Du Pont joined the 
+ladies, the stranger took leave, and they proceeded to the chateau, 
+where the Count, when he heard of Mons. Bonnac, claimed him for an 
+acquaintance, and, on learning the melancholy occasion of his visit 
+to Languedoc, and that he was lodged at a small inn in the village, 
+begged the favour of Mons. Du Pont to invite him to the chateau.
+
+The latter was happy to do so, and the scruples of reserve, which 
+made M. Bonnac hesitate to accept the invitation, being at length 
+overcome, they went to the chateau, where the kindness of the Count 
+and the sprightliness of his son were exerted to dissipate the gloom, 
+that overhung the spirits of the stranger.  M. Bonnac was an officer 
+in the French service, and appeared to be about fifty; his figure was 
+tall and commanding, his manners had received the last polish, and 
+there was something in his countenance uncommonly interesting; for 
+over features, which, in youth, must have been remarkably handsome, 
+was spread a melancholy, that seemed the effect of long misfortune, 
+rather than of constitution, or temper.
+
+The conversation he held, during supper, was evidently an effort of 
+politeness, and there were intervals in which, unable to struggle 
+against the feelings, that depressed him, he relapsed into silence 
+and abstraction, from which, however, the Count, sometimes, withdrew 
+him in a manner so delicate and benevolent, that Emily, while she 
+observed him, almost fancied she beheld her late father.
+
+The party separated, at an early hour, and then, in the solitude of 
+her apartment, the scenes, which Emily had lately witnessed, returned 
+to her fancy, with dreadful energy.  That in the dying nun she should 
+have discovered Signora Laurentini, who, instead of having been 
+murdered by Montoni, was, as it now seemed, herself guilty of some 
+dreadful crime, excited both horror and surprise in a high degree; 
+nor did the hints, which she had dropped, respecting the marriage of 
+the Marchioness de Villeroi, and the enquiries she had made 
+concerning Emily's birth, occasion her a less degree of interest, 
+though it was of a different nature.
+
+The history, which sister Frances had formerly related, and had said 
+to be that of Agnes, it now appeared, was erroneous; but for what 
+purpose it had been fabricated, unless the more effectually to 
+conceal the true story, Emily could not even guess.  Above all, her 
+interest was excited as to the relation, which the story of the late 
+Marchioness de Villeroi bore to that of her father; for, that some 
+kind of relation existed between them, the grief of St. Aubert, upon 
+hearing her named, his request to be buried near her, and her 
+picture, which had been found among his papers, certainly proved.  
+Sometimes it occurred to Emily, that he might have been the lover, to 
+whom it was said the Marchioness was attached, when she was compelled 
+to marry the Marquis de Villeroi; but that he had afterwards 
+cherished a passion for her, she could not suffer herself to believe, 
+for a moment.  The papers, which he had so solemnly enjoined her to 
+destroy, she now fancied had related to this connection, and she 
+wished more earnestly than before to know the reasons, that made him 
+consider the injunction necessary, which, had her faith in his 
+principles been less, would have led to believe, that there was a 
+mystery in her birth dishonourable to her parents, which those 
+manuscripts might have revealed.
+
+Reflections, similar to these, engaged her mind, during the greater 
+part of the night, and when, at length, she fell into a slumber, it 
+was only to behold a vision of the dying nun, and to awaken in 
+horrors, like those she had witnessed.
+
+On the following morning, she was too much indisposed to attend her 
+appointment with the abbess, and, before the day concluded, she 
+heard, that sister Agnes was no more.  Mons. Bonnac received this 
+intelligence, with concern; but Emily observed, that he did not 
+appear so much affected now, as on the preceding evening, immediately 
+after quitting the apartment of the nun, whose death was probably 
+less terrible to him, than the confession he had been then called 
+upon to witness.  However this might be, he was perhaps consoled, in 
+some degree, by a knowledge of the legacy bequeathed him, since his 
+family was large, and the extravagance of some part of it had lately 
+been the means of involving him in great distress, and even in the 
+horrors of a prison; and it was the grief he had suffered from the 
+wild career of a favourite son, with the pecuniary anxieties and 
+misfortunes consequent upon it, that had given to his countenance the 
+air of dejection, which had so much interested Emily.
+
+To his friend Mons. Du Pont he recited some particulars of his late 
+sufferings, when it appeared, that he had been confined for several 
+months in one of the prisons of Paris, with little hope of release, 
+and without the comfort of seeing his wife, who had been absent in 
+the country, endeavouring, though in vain, to procure assistance from 
+his friends.  When, at length, she had obtained an order for 
+admittance, she was so much shocked at the change, which long 
+confinement and sorrow had made in his appearance, that she was 
+seized with fits, which, by their long continuance, threatened her 
+life.
+
+'Our situation affected those, who happened to witness it,' continued 
+Mons. Bonnac, 'and one generous friend, who was in confinement at the 
+same time, afterwards employed the first moments of his liberty in 
+efforts to obtain mine.  He succeeded; the heavy debt, that oppressed 
+me, was discharged; and, when I would have expressed my sense of the 
+obligation I had received, my benefactor was fled from my search.  I 
+have reason to believe he was the victim of his own generosity, and 
+that he returned to the state of confinement, from which he had 
+released me; but every enquiry after him was unsuccessful.  Amiable 
+and unfortunate Valancourt!'
+
+'Valancourt!' exclaimed Mons. Du Pont.  'Of what family?'
+
+'The Valancourts, Counts Duvarney,' replied Mons. Bonnac.
+
+The emotion of Mons. Du Pont, when he discovered the generous 
+benefactor of his friend to be the rival of his love, can only be 
+imagined; but, having overcome his first surprise, he dissipated the 
+apprehensions of Mons. Bonnac by acquainting him, that Valancourt was 
+at liberty, and had lately been in Languedoc; after which his 
+affection for Emily prompted him to make some enquiries, respecting 
+the conduct of his rival, during his stay at Paris, of which M. 
+Bonnac appeared to be well informed.  The answers he received were 
+such as convinced him, that Valancourt had been much misrepresented, 
+and, painful as was the sacrifice, he formed the just design of 
+relinquishing his pursuit of Emily to a lover, who, it now appeared, 
+was not unworthy of the regard, with which she honoured him.
+
+The conversation of Mons. Bonnac discovered, that Valancourt, some 
+time after his arrival at Paris, had been drawn into the snares, 
+which determined vice had spread for him, and that his hours had been 
+chiefly divided between the parties of the captivating Marchioness 
+and those gaming assemblies, to which the envy, or the avarice, of 
+his brother officers had spared no art to seduce him.  In these 
+parties he had lost large sums, in efforts to recover small ones, and 
+to such losses the Count De Villefort and Mons. Henri had been 
+frequent witnesses.  His resources were, at length, exhausted; and 
+the Count, his brother, exasperated by his conduct, refused to 
+continue the supplies necessary to his present mode of life, when 
+Valancourt, in consequence of accumulated debts, was thrown into 
+confinement, where his brother suffered him to remain, in the hope, 
+that punishment might effect a reform of conduct, which had not yet 
+been confirmed by long habit.
+
+In the solitude of his prison, Valancourt had leisure for reflection, 
+and cause for repentance; here, too, the image of Emily, which, 
+amidst the dissipation of the city had been obscured, but never 
+obliterated from his heart, revived with all the charms of innocence 
+and beauty, to reproach him for having sacrificed his happiness and 
+debased his talents by pursuits, which his nobler faculties would 
+formerly have taught him to consider were as tasteless as they were 
+degrading.  But, though his passions had been seduced, his heart was 
+not depraved, nor had habit riveted the chains, that hung heavily on 
+his conscience; and, as he retained that energy of will, which was 
+necessary to burst them, he, at length, emancipated himself from the 
+bondage of vice, but not till after much effort and severe suffering.
+
+Being released by his brother from the prison, where he had witnessed 
+the affecting meeting between Mons. Bonnac and his wife, with whom he 
+had been for some time acquainted, the first use of his liberty 
+formed a striking instance of his humanity and his rashness; for with 
+nearly all the money, just received from his brother, he went to a 
+gaming-house, and gave it as a last stake for the chance of restoring 
+his friend to freedom, and to his afflicted family.  The event was 
+fortunate, and, while he had awaited the issue of this momentous 
+stake, he made a solemn vow never again to yield to the destructive 
+and fascinating vice of gaming.
+
+Having restored the venerable Mons. Bonnac to his rejoicing family, 
+he hurried from Paris to Estuviere; and, in the delight of having 
+made the wretched happy, forgot, for a while, his own misfortunes.  
+Soon, however, he remembered, that he had thrown away the fortune, 
+without which he could never hope to marry Emily; and life, unless 
+passed with her, now scarcely appeared supportable; for her goodness, 
+refinement, and simplicity of heart, rendered her beauty more 
+enchanting, if possible, to his fancy, than it had ever yet appeared.  
+Experience had taught him to understand the full value of the 
+qualities, which he had before admired, but which the contrasted 
+characters he had seen in the world made him now adore; and these 
+reflections, increasing the pangs of remorse and regret, occasioned 
+the deep dejection, that had accompanied him even into the presence 
+of Emily, of whom he considered himself no longer worthy.  To the 
+ignominy of having received pecuniary obligations from the 
+Marchioness Chamfort, or any other lady of intrigue, as the Count De 
+Villefort had been informed, or of having been engaged in the 
+depredating schemes of gamesters, Valancourt had never submitted; and 
+these were some of such scandals as often mingle with truth, against 
+the unfortunate.  Count De Villefort had received them from authority 
+which he had no reason to doubt, and which the imprudent conduct he 
+had himself witnessed in Valancourt, had certainly induced him the 
+more readily to believe.  Being such as Emily could not name to the 
+Chevalier, he had no opportunity of refuting them; and, when he 
+confessed himself to be unworthy of her esteem, he little suspected, 
+that he was confirming to her the most dreadful calumnies.  Thus the 
+mistake had been mutual, and had remained so, when Mons. Bonnac 
+explained the conduct of his generous, but imprudent young friend to 
+Du Pont, who, with severe justice, determined not only to undeceive 
+the Count on this subject, but to resign all hope of Emily.  Such a 
+sacrifice as his love rendered this, was deserving of a noble reward, 
+and Mons. Bonnac, if it had been possible for him to forget the 
+benevolent Valancourt, would have wished that Emily might accept the 
+just Du Pont.
+
+When the Count was informed of the error he had committed, he was 
+extremely shocked at the consequence of his credulity, and the 
+account which Mons. Bonnac gave of his friend's situation, while at 
+Paris, convinced him, that Valancourt had been entrapped by the 
+schemes of a set of dissipated young men, with whom his profession 
+had partly obliged him to associate, rather than by an inclination to 
+vice; and, charmed by the humanity, and noble, though rash 
+generosity, which his conduct towards Mons. Bonnac exhibited, he 
+forgave him the transient errors, that had stained his youth, and 
+restored him to the high degree of esteem, with which he had regarded 
+him, during their early acquaintance.  But, as the least reparation 
+he could now make Valancourt was to afford him an opportunity of 
+explaining to Emily his former conduct, he immediately wrote, to 
+request his forgiveness of the unintentional injury he had done him, 
+and to invite him to Chateau-le-Blanc.  Motives of delicacy with-held 
+the Count from informing Emily of this letter, and of kindness from 
+acquainting her with the discovery respecting Valancourt, till his 
+arrival should save her from the possibility of anxiety, as to its 
+event; and this precaution spared her even severer inquietude, than 
+the Count had foreseen, since he was ignorant of the symptoms of 
+despair, which Valancourt's late conduct had betrayed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+  But in these cases,
+ We still have judgment here; that we but teach
+ Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
+ To plague the inventor:  thus even-handed justice
+ Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
+ To our own lips.
+     MACBETH
+
+Some circumstances of an extraordinary nature now withdrew Emily from 
+her own sorrows, and excited emotions, which partook of both surprise 
+and horror.
+
+A few days followed that, on which Signora Laurentini died, her will 
+was opened at the monastery, in the presence of the superiors and 
+Mons. Bonnac, when it was found, that one third of her personal 
+property was bequeathed to the nearest surviving relative of the late 
+Marchioness de Villeroi, and that Emily was the person.
+
+With the secret of Emily's family the abbess had long been 
+acquainted, and it was in observance of the earnest request of St. 
+Aubert, who was known to the friar, that attended him on his death-
+bed, that his daughter had remained in ignorance of her relationship 
+to the Marchioness.  But some hints, which had fallen from Signora 
+Laurentini, during her last interview with Emily, and a confession of 
+a very extraordinary nature, given in her dying hours, had made the 
+abbess think it necessary to converse with her young friend, on the 
+topic she had not before ventured to introduce; and it was for this 
+purpose, that she had requested to see her on the morning that 
+followed her interview with the nun.  Emily's indisposition had then 
+prevented the intended conversation; but now, after the will had been 
+examined, she received a summons, which she immediately obeyed, and 
+became informed of circumstances, that powerfully affected her.  As 
+the narrative of the abbess was, however, deficient in many 
+particulars, of which the reader may wish to be informed, and the 
+history of the nun is materially connected with the fate of the 
+Marchioness de Villeroi, we shall omit the conversation, that passed 
+in the parlour of the convent, and mingle with our relation a brief 
+history of
+
+ LAURENTINI DI UDOLPHO,
+
+Who was the only child of her parents, and heiress of the ancient 
+house of Udolpho, in the territory of Venice.  It was the first 
+misfortune of her life, and that which led to all her succeeding 
+misery, that the friends, who ought to have restrained her strong 
+passions, and mildly instructed her in the art of governing them, 
+nurtured them by early indulgence.  But they cherished their own 
+failings in her; for their conduct was not the result of rational 
+kindness, and, when they either indulged, or opposed the passions of 
+their child, they gratified their own.  Thus they indulged her with 
+weakness, and reprehended her with violence; her spirit was 
+exasperated by their vehemence, instead of being corrected by their 
+wisdom; and their oppositions became contest for victory, in which 
+the due tenderness of the parents, and the affectionate duties of the 
+child, were equally forgotten; but, as returning fondness disarmed 
+the parents' resentment soonest, Laurentini was suffered to believe 
+that she had conquered, and her passions became stronger by every 
+effort, that had been employed to subdue them.
+
+The death of her father and mother in the same year left her to her 
+own discretion, under the dangerous circumstances attendant on youth 
+and beauty.  She was fond of company, delighted with admiration, yet 
+disdainful of the opinion of the world, when it happened to 
+contradict her inclinations; had a gay and brilliant wit, and was 
+mistress of all the arts of fascination.  Her conduct was such as 
+might have been expected, from the weakness of her principles and the 
+strength of her passions.
+
+Among her numerous admirers was the late Marquis de Villeroi, who, on 
+his tour through Italy, saw Laurentini at Venice, where she usually 
+resided, and became her passionate adorer.  Equally captivated by the 
+figure and accomplishments of the Marquis, who was at that period one 
+of the most distinguished noblemen of the French court, she had the 
+art so effectually to conceal from him the dangerous traits of her 
+character and the blemishes of her late conduct, that he solicited 
+her hand in marriage.
+
+Before the nuptials were concluded, she retired to the castle of 
+Udolpho, whither the Marquis followed, and, where her conduct, 
+relaxing from the propriety, which she had lately assumed, discovered 
+to him the precipice, on which he stood.  A minuter enquiry than he 
+had before thought it necessary to make, convinced him, that he had 
+been deceived in her character, and she, whom he had designed for his 
+wife, afterwards became his mistress.
+
+Having passed some weeks at Udolpho, he was called abruptly to 
+France, whither he returned with extreme reluctance, for his heart 
+was still fascinated by the arts of Laurentini, with whom, however, 
+he had on various pretences delayed his marriage; but, to reconcile 
+her to this separation, he now gave repeated promises of returning to 
+conclude the nuptials, as soon as the affair, which thus suddenly 
+called him to France, should permit.
+
+Soothed, in some degree, by these assurances, she suffered him to 
+depart; and, soon after, her relative, Montoni, arriving at Udolpho, 
+renewed the addresses, which she had before refused, and which she 
+now again rejected.  Meanwhile, her thoughts were constantly with the 
+Marquis de Villeroi, for whom she suffered all the delirium of 
+Italian love, cherished by the solitude, to which she confined 
+herself; for she had now lost all taste for the pleasures of society 
+and the gaiety of amusement.  Her only indulgences were to sigh and 
+weep over a miniature of the Marquis; to visit the scenes, that had 
+witnessed their happiness, to pour forth her heart to him in writing, 
+and to count the weeks, the days, which must intervene before the 
+period that he had mentioned as probable for his return.  But this 
+period passed without bringing him; and week after week followed in 
+heavy and almost intolerable expectation.  During this interval, 
+Laurentini's fancy, occupied incessantly by one idea, became 
+disordered; and, her whole heart being devoted to one object, life 
+became hateful to her, when she believed that object lost.
+
+Several months passed, during which she heard nothing from the 
+Marquis de Villeroi, and her days were marked, at intervals, with the 
+phrensy of passion and the sullenness of despair.  She secluded 
+herself from all visitors, and, sometimes, remained in her apartment, 
+for weeks together, refusing to speak to every person, except her 
+favourite female attendant, writing scraps of letters, reading, again 
+and again, those she had received from the Marquis, weeping over his 
+picture, and speaking to it, for many hours, upbraiding, reproaching 
+and caressing it alternately.
+
+At length, a report reached her, that the Marquis had married in 
+France, and, after suffering all the extremes of love, jealousy and 
+indignation, she formed the desperate resolution of going secretly to 
+that country, and, if the report proved true, of attempting a deep 
+revenge.  To her favourite woman only she confided the plan of her 
+journey, and she engaged her to partake of it.  Having collected her 
+jewels, which, descending to her from many branches of her family, 
+were of immense value, and all her cash, to a very large amount, they 
+were packed in a trunk, which was privately conveyed to a 
+neighbouring town, whither Laurentini, with this only servant, 
+followed, and thence proceeded secretly to Leghorn, where they 
+embarked for France.
+
+When, on her arrival in Languedoc, she found, that the Marquis de 
+Villeroi had been married, for some months, her despair almost 
+deprived her of reason, and she alternately projected and abandoned 
+the horrible design of murdering the Marquis, his wife and herself.  
+At length she contrived to throw herself in his way, with an 
+intention of reproaching him, for his conduct, and of stabbing 
+herself in his presence; but, when she again saw him, who so long had 
+been the constant object of her thoughts and affections, resentment 
+yielded to love; her resolution failed; she trembled with the 
+conflict of emotions, that assailed her heart, and fainted away.
+
+The Marquis was not proof against her beauty and sensibility; all the 
+energy, with which he had first loved, returned, for his passion had 
+been resisted by prudence, rather than overcome by indifference; and, 
+since the honour of his family would not permit him to marry her, he 
+had endeavoured to subdue his love, and had so far succeeded, as to 
+select the then Marchioness for his wife, whom he loved at first with 
+a tempered and rational affection.  But the mild virtues of that 
+amiable lady did not recompense him for her indifference, which 
+appeared, notwithstanding her efforts to conceal it; and he had, for 
+some time, suspected that her affections were engaged by another 
+person, when Laurentini arrived in Languedoc.  This artful Italian 
+soon perceived, that she had regained her influence over him, and, 
+soothed by the discovery, she determined to live, and to employ all 
+her enchantments to win his consent to the diabolical deed, which she 
+believed was necessary to the security of her happiness.  She 
+conducted her scheme with deep dissimulation and patient 
+perseverance, and, having completely estranged the affections of the 
+Marquis from his wife, whose gentle goodness and unimpassioned 
+manners had ceased to please, when contrasted with the captivations 
+of the Italian, she proceeded to awaken in his mind the jealousy of 
+pride, for it was no longer that of love, and even pointed out to him 
+the person, to whom she affirmed the Marchioness had sacrificed her 
+honour; but Laurentini had first extorted from him a solemn promise 
+to forbear avenging himself upon his rival.  This was an important 
+part of her plan, for she knew, that, if his desire of vengeance was 
+restrained towards one party, it would burn more fiercely towards the 
+other, and he might then, perhaps, be prevailed on to assist in the 
+horrible act, which would release him from the only barrier, that 
+with-held him from making her his wife.
+
+The innocent Marchioness, meanwhile, observed, with extreme grief, 
+the alteration in her husband's manners.  He became reserved and 
+thoughtful in her presence; his conduct was austere, and sometimes 
+even rude; and he left her, for many hours together, to weep for his 
+unkindness, and to form plans for the recovery of his affection.  His 
+conduct afflicted her the more, because, in obedience to the command 
+of her father, she had accepted his hand, though her affections were 
+engaged to another, whose amiable disposition, she had reason to 
+believe, would have ensured her happiness.  This circumstance 
+Laurentini had discovered, soon after her arrival in France, and had 
+made ample use of it in assisting her designs upon the Marquis, to 
+whom she adduced such seeming proof of his wife's infidelity, that, 
+in the frantic rage of wounded honour, he consented to destroy his 
+wife.  A slow poison was administered, and she fell a victim to the 
+jealousy and subtlety of Laurentini and to the guilty weakness of her 
+husband.
+
+But the moment of Laurentini's triumph, the moment, to which she had 
+looked forward for the completion of all her wishes, proved only the 
+commencement of a suffering, that never left her to her dying hour.
+
+The passion of revenge, which had in part stimulated her to the 
+commission of this atrocious deed, died, even at the moment when it 
+was gratified, and left her to the horrors of unavailing pity and 
+remorse, which would probably have empoisoned all the years she had 
+promised herself with the Marquis de Villeroi, had her expectations 
+of an alliance with him been realized.  But he, too, had found the 
+moment of his revenge to be that of remorse, as to himself, and 
+detestation, as to the partner of his crime; the feeling, which he 
+had mistaken for conviction, was no more; and he stood astonished, 
+and aghast, that no proof remained of his wife's infidelity, now that 
+she had suffered the punishment of guilt.  Even when he was informed, 
+that she was dying, he had felt suddenly and unaccountably reassured 
+of her innocence, nor was the solemn assurance she made him in her 
+last hour, capable of affording him a stronger conviction of her 
+blameless conduct.
+
+In the first horrors of remorse and despair, he felt inclined to 
+deliver up himself and the woman, who had plunged him into this abyss 
+of guilt, into the hands of justice; but, when the paroxysm of his 
+suffering was over, his intention changed.  Laurentini, however, he 
+saw only once afterwards, and that was, to curse her as the 
+instigator of his crime, and to say, that he spared her life only on 
+condition, that she passed the rest of her days in prayer and 
+penance.  Overwhelmed with disappointment, on receiving contempt and 
+abhorrence from the man, for whose sake she had not scrupled to stain 
+her conscience with human blood, and, touched with horror of the 
+unavailing crime she had committed, she renounced the world, and 
+retired to the monastery of St. Claire, a dreadful victim to 
+unresisted passion.
+
+The Marquis, immediately after the death of his wife, quitted 
+Chateau-le-Blanc, to which he never returned, and endeavoured to lose 
+the sense of his crime amidst the tumult of war, or the dissipations 
+of a capital; but his efforts were vain; a deep dejection hung over 
+him ever after, for which his most intimate friend could not account, 
+and he, at length, died, with a degree of horror nearly equal to 
+that, which Laurentini had suffered.  The physician, who had observed 
+the singular appearance of the unfortunate Marchioness, after death, 
+had been bribed to silence; and, as the surmises of a few of the 
+servants had proceeded no further than a whisper, the affair had 
+never been investigated.  Whether this whisper ever reached the 
+father of the Marchioness, and, if it did, whether the difficulty of 
+obtaining proof deterred him from prosecuting the Marquis de 
+Villeroi, is uncertain; but her death was deeply lamented by some 
+part of her family, and particularly by her brother, M. St. Aubert; 
+for that was the degree of relationship, which had existed between 
+Emily's father and the Marchioness; and there is no doubt, that he 
+suspected the manner of her death.  Many letters passed between the 
+Marquis and him, soon after the decease of his beloved sister, the 
+subject of which was not known, but there is reason to believe, that 
+they related to the cause of her death; and these were the papers, 
+together with some letters of the Marchioness, who had confided to 
+her brother the occasion of her unhappiness, which St. Aubert had so 
+solemnly enjoined his daughter to destroy:  and anxiety for her peace 
+had probably made him forbid her to enquire into the melancholy 
+story, to which they alluded.  Such, indeed, had been his affliction, 
+on the premature death of this his favourite sister, whose unhappy 
+marriage had from the first excited his tenderest pity, that he never 
+could hear her named, or mention her himself after her death, except 
+to Madame St. Aubert.  From Emily, whose sensibility he feared to 
+awaken, he had so carefully concealed her history and name, that she 
+was ignorant, till now, that she ever had such a relative as the 
+Marchioness de Villeroi; and from this motive he had enjoined silence 
+to his only surviving sister, Madame Cheron, who had scrupulously 
+observed his request.
+
+It was over some of the last pathetic letters of the Marchioness, 
+that St. Aubert was weeping, when he was observed by Emily, on the 
+eve of her departure from La Vallee, and it was her picture, which he 
+had so tenderly caressed.  Her disastrous death may account for the 
+emotion he had betrayed, on hearing her named by La Voisin, and for 
+his request to be interred near the monument of the Villerois, where 
+her remains were deposited, but not those of her husband, who was 
+buried, where he died, in the north of France.
+
+The confessor, who attended St. Aubert in his last moments, 
+recollected him to be the brother of the late Marchioness, when St. 
+Aubert, from tenderness to Emily, had conjured him to conceal the 
+circumstance, and to request that the abbess, to whose care he 
+particularly recommended her, would do the same; a request, which had 
+been exactly observed.
+
+Laurentini, on her arrival in France, had carefully concealed her 
+name and family, and, the better to disguise her real history, had, 
+on entering the convent, caused the story to be circulated, which had 
+imposed on sister Frances, and it is probable, that the abbess, who 
+did not preside in the convent, at the time of her noviciation, was 
+also entirely ignorant of the truth.  The deep remorse, that seized 
+on the mind of Laurentini, together with the sufferings of 
+disappointed passion, for she still loved the Marquis, again 
+unsettled her intellects, and, after the first paroxysms of despair 
+were passed, a heavy and silent melancholy had settled upon her 
+spirits, which suffered few interruptions from fits of phrensy, till 
+the time of her death.  During many years, it had been her only 
+amusement to walk in the woods near the monastery, in the solitary 
+hours of night, and to play upon a favourite instrument, to which she 
+sometimes joined the delightful melody of her voice, in the most 
+solemn and melancholy airs of her native country, modulated by all 
+the energetic feeling, that dwelt in her heart.  The physician, who 
+had attended her, recommended it to the superior to indulge her in 
+this whim, as the only means of soothing her distempered fancy; and 
+she was suffered to walk in the lonely hours of night, attended by 
+the servant, who had accompanied her from Italy; but, as the 
+indulgence transgressed against the rules of the convent, it was kept 
+as secret as possible; and thus the mysterious music of Laurentini 
+had combined with other circumstances, to produce a report, that not 
+only the chateau, but its neighbourhood, was haunted.
+
+Soon after her entrance into this holy community, and before she had 
+shewn any symptoms of insanity there, she made a will, in which, 
+after bequeathing a considerable legacy to the convent, she divided 
+the remainder of her personal property, which her jewels made very 
+valuable, between the wife of Mons. Bonnac, who was an Italian lady 
+and her relation, and the nearest surviving relative of the late 
+Marchioness de Villeroi.  As Emily St. Aubert was not only the 
+nearest, but the sole relative, this legacy descended to her, and 
+thus explained to her the whole mystery of her father's conduct.
+
+The resemblance between Emily and her unfortunate aunt had frequently 
+been observed by Laurentini, and had occasioned the singular 
+behaviour, which had formerly alarmed her; but it was in the nun's 
+dying hour, when her conscience gave her perpetually the idea of the 
+Marchioness, that she became more sensible, than ever, of this 
+likeness, and, in her phrensy, deemed it no resemblance of the person 
+she had injured, but the original herself.  The bold assertion, that 
+had followed, on the recovery of her senses, that Emily was the 
+daughter of the Marchioness de Villeroi, arose from a suspicion that 
+she was so; for, knowing that her rival, when she married the 
+Marquis, was attached to another lover, she had scarcely scrupled to 
+believe, that her honour had been sacrificed, like her own, to an 
+unresisted passion.
+
+Of a crime, however, to which Emily had suspected, from her phrensied 
+confession of murder, that she had been instrumental in the castle of 
+Udolpho, Laurentini was innocent; and she had herself been deceived, 
+concerning the spectacle, that formerly occasioned her so much 
+terror, and had since compelled her, for a while, to attribute the 
+horrors of the nun to a consciousness of a murder, committed in that 
+castle.
+
+It may be remembered, that, in a chamber of Udolpho, hung a black 
+veil, whose singular situation had excited Emily's curiosity, and 
+which afterwards disclosed an object, that had overwhelmed her with 
+horror; for, on lifting it, there appeared, instead of the picture 
+she had expected, within a recess of the wall, a human figure of 
+ghastly paleness, stretched at its length, and dressed in the 
+habiliments of the grave.  What added to the horror of the spectacle, 
+was, that the face appeared partly decayed and disfigured by worms, 
+which were visible on the features and hands.  On such an object, it 
+will be readily believed, that no person could endure to look twice.  
+Emily, it may be recollected, had, after the first glance, let the 
+veil drop, and her terror had prevented her from ever after provoking 
+a renewal of such suffering, as she had then experienced.  Had she 
+dared to look again, her delusion and her fears would have vanished 
+together, and she would have perceived, that the figure before her 
+was not human, but formed of wax.  The history of it is somewhat 
+extraordinary, though not without example in the records of that 
+fierce severity, which monkish superstition has sometimes inflicted 
+on mankind.  A member of the house of Udolpho, having committed some 
+offence against the prerogative of the church, had been condemned to 
+the penance of contemplating, during certain hours of the day, a 
+waxen image, made to resemble a human body in the state, to which it 
+is reduced after death.  This penance, serving as a memento of the 
+condition at which he must himself arrive, had been designed to 
+reprove the pride of the Marquis of Udolpho, which had formerly so 
+much exasperated that of the Romish church; and he had not only 
+superstitiously observed this penance himself, which, he had 
+believed, was to obtain a pardon for all his sins, but had made it a 
+condition in his will, that his descendants should preserve the 
+image, on pain of forfeiting to the church a certain part of his 
+domain, that they also might profit by the humiliating moral it 
+conveyed.  The figure, therefore, had been suffered to retain its 
+station in the wall of the chamber, but his descendants excused 
+themselves from observing the penance, to which he had been enjoined.
+
+This image was so horribly natural, that it is not surprising Emily 
+should have mistaken it for the object it resembled, nor, since she 
+had heard such an extraordinary account, concerning the disappearing 
+of the late lady of the castle, and had such experience of the 
+character of Montoni, that she should have believed this to be the 
+murdered body of the lady Laurentini, and that he had been the 
+contriver of her death.
+
+The situation, in which she had discovered it, occasioned her, at 
+first, much surprise and perplexity; but the vigilance, with which 
+the doors of the chamber, where it was deposited, were afterwards 
+secured, had compelled her to believe, that Montoni, not daring to 
+confide the secret of her death to any person, had suffered her 
+remains to decay in this obscure chamber.  The ceremony of the veil, 
+however, and the circumstance of the doors having been left open, 
+even for a moment, had occasioned her much wonder and some doubts; 
+but these were not sufficient to overcome her suspicion of Montoni; 
+and it was the dread of his terrible vengeance, that had sealed her 
+lips in silence, concerning what she had seen in the west chamber.
+
+Emily, in discovering the Marchioness de Villeroi to have been the 
+sister of Mons. St. Aubert, was variously affected; but, amidst the 
+sorrow, which she suffered for her untimely death, she was released 
+from an anxious and painful conjecture, occasioned by the rash 
+assertion of Signora Laurentini, concerning her birth and the honour 
+of her parents.  Her faith in St. Aubert's principles would scarcely 
+allow her to suspect that he had acted dishonourably; and she felt 
+such reluctance to believe herself the daughter of any other, than 
+her, whom she had always considered and loved as a mother, that she 
+would hardly admit such a circumstance to be possible; yet the 
+likeness, which it had frequently been affirmed she bore to the late 
+Marchioness, the former behaviour of Dorothee the old housekeeper, 
+the assertion of Laurentini, and the mysterious attachment, which St. 
+Aubert had discovered, awakened doubts, as to his connection with the 
+Marchioness, which her reason could neither vanquish, or confirm.  
+From these, however, she was now relieved, and all the circumstances 
+of her father's conduct were fully explained:  but her heart was 
+oppressed by the melancholy catastrophe of her amiable relative, and 
+by the awful lesson, which the history of the nun exhibited, the 
+indulgence of whose passions had been the means of leading her 
+gradually to the commission of a crime, from the prophecy of which in 
+her early years she would have recoiled in horror, and exclaimed--
+that it could not be!--a crime, which whole years of repentance and 
+of the severest penance had not been able to obliterate from her 
+conscience.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+  Then, fresh tears
+ Stood on her cheek, as doth the honey-dew
+ Upon a gather'd lily almost wither'd
+     SHAKESPEARE
+
+After the late discoveries, Emily was distinguished at the chateau by 
+the Count and his family, as a relative of the house of Villeroi, and 
+received, if possible, more friendly attention, than had yet been 
+shewn her.
+
+Count De Villefort's surprise at the delay of an answer to his 
+letter, which had been directed to Valancourt, at Estuviere, was 
+mingled with satisfaction for the prudence, which had saved Emily 
+from a share of the anxiety he now suffered, though, when he saw her 
+still drooping under the effect of his former error, all his 
+resolution was necessary to restrain him from relating the truth, 
+that would afford her a momentary relief.  The approaching nuptials 
+of the Lady Blanche now divided his attention with this subject of 
+his anxiety, for the inhabitants of the chateau were already busied 
+in preparations for that event, and the arrival of Mons. St. Foix was 
+daily expected.  In the gaiety, which surrounded her, Emily vainly 
+tried to participate, her spirits being depressed by the late 
+discoveries, and by the anxiety concerning the fate of Valancourt, 
+that had been occasioned by the description of his manner, when he 
+had delivered the ring.  She seemed to perceive in it the gloomy 
+wildness of despair; and, when she considered to what that despair 
+might have urged him, her heart sunk with terror and grief.  The 
+state of suspense, as to his safety, to which she believed herself 
+condemned, till she should return to La Vallee, appeared 
+insupportable, and, in such moments, she could not even struggle to 
+assume the composure, that had left her mind, but would often 
+abruptly quit the company she was with, and endeavour to sooth her 
+spirits in the deep solitudes of the woods, that overbrowed the 
+shore.  Here, the faint roar of foaming waves, that beat below, and 
+the sullen murmur of the wind among the branches around, were 
+circumstances in unison with the temper of her mind; and she would 
+sit on a cliff, or on the broken steps of her favourite watch-tower, 
+observing the changing colours of the evening clouds, and the gloom 
+of twilight draw over the sea, till the white tops of billows, riding 
+towards the shore, could scarcely be discerned amidst the darkened 
+waters.  The lines, engraved by Valancourt on this tower, she 
+frequently repeated with melancholy enthusiasm, and then would 
+endeavour to check the recollections and the grief they occasioned, 
+and to turn her thoughts to indifferent subjects.
+
+One evening, having wandered with her lute to this her favourite 
+spot, she entered the ruined tower, and ascended a winding staircase, 
+that led to a small chamber, which was less decayed than the rest of 
+the building, and whence she had often gazed, with admiration, on the 
+wide prospect of sea and land, that extended below.  The sun was now 
+setting on that tract of the Pyrenees, which divided Languedoc from 
+Rousillon, and, placing herself opposite to a small grated window, 
+which, like the wood-tops beneath, and the waves lower still, gleamed 
+with the red glow of the west, she touched the chords of her lute in 
+solemn symphony, and then accompanied it with her voice, in one of 
+the simple and affecting airs, to which, in happier days, Valancourt 
+had often listened in rapture, and which she now adapted to the 
+following lines.
+
+ TO MELANCHOLY
+
+ Spirit of love and sorrow--hail!
+ Thy solemn voice from far I hear,
+ Mingling with ev'ning's dying gale:
+ Hail, with this sadly-pleasing tear!
+
+ O! at this still, this lonely hour,
+ Thine own sweet hour of closing day,
+ Awake thy lute, whose charmful pow'r
+ Shall call up Fancy to obey:
+
+ To paint the wild romantic dream,
+ That meets the poet's musing eye,
+ As, on the bank of shadowy stream,
+ He breathes to her the fervid sigh.
+
+ O lonely spirit! let thy song
+ Lead me through all thy sacred haunt;
+ The minister's moon-light aisles along,
+ Where spectres raise the midnight chaunt.
+
+ I hear their dirges faintly swell!
+ Then, sink at once in silence drear,
+ While, from the pillar'd cloister's cell,
+ Dimly their gliding forms appear!
+
+ Lead where the pine-woods wave on high,
+ Whose pathless sod is darkly seen,
+ As the cold moon, with trembling eye,
+ Darts her long beams the leaves between.
+
+ Lead to the mountain's dusky head,
+ Where, far below, in shade profound,
+ Wide forests, plains and hamlets spread,
+ And sad the chimes of vesper sound,
+
+ Or guide me, where the dashing oar
+ Just breaks the stillness of the vale,
+ As slow it tracks the winding shore,
+ To meet the ocean's distant sail:
+
+ To pebbly banks, that Neptune laves,
+ With measur'd surges, loud and deep,
+ Where the dark cliff bends o'er the waves,
+ And wild the winds of autumn sweep.
+
+ There pause at midnight's spectred hour,
+ And list the long-resounding gale;
+ And catch the fleeting moon-light's pow'r,
+ O'er foaming seas and distant sail.
+
+The soft tranquillity of the scene below, where the evening breeze 
+scarcely curled the water, or swelled the passing sail, that caught 
+the last gleam of the sun, and where, now and then, a dipping oar was 
+all that disturbed the trembling radiance, conspired with the tender 
+melody of her lute to lull her mind into a state of gentle sadness, 
+and she sung the mournful songs of past times, till the remembrances 
+they awakened were too powerful for her heart, her tears fell upon 
+the lute, over which she drooped, and her voice trembled, and was 
+unable to proceed.
+
+Though the sun had now sunk behind the mountains, and even his 
+reflected light was fading from their highest points, Emily did not 
+leave the watch-tower, but continued to indulge her melancholy 
+reverie, till a footstep, at a little distance, startled her, and, on 
+looking through the grate, she observed a person walking below, whom, 
+however, soon perceiving to be Mons. Bonnac, she returned to the 
+quiet thoughtfulness his step had interrupted.  After some time, she 
+again struck her lute, and sung her favourite air; but again a step 
+disturbed her, and, as she paused to listen, she heard it ascending 
+the stair-case of the tower.  The gloom of the hour, perhaps, made 
+her sensible to some degree of fear, which she might not otherwise 
+have felt; for, only a few minutes before, she had seen Mons. Bonnac 
+pass.  The steps were quick and bounding, and, in the next moment, 
+the door of the chamber opened, and a person entered, whose features 
+were veiled in the obscurity of twilight; but his voice could not be 
+concealed, for it was the voice of Valancourt!  At the sound, never 
+heard by Emily, without emotion, she started, in terror, astonishment 
+and doubtful pleasure, and had scarcely beheld him at her feet, when 
+she sunk into a seat, overcome by the various emotions, that 
+contended at her heart, and almost insensible to that voice, whose 
+earnest and trembling calls seemed as if endeavouring to save her.  
+Valancourt, as he hung over Emily, deplored his own rash impatience, 
+in having thus surprised her:  for when he had arrived at the 
+chateau, too anxious to await the return of the Count, who, he 
+understood, was in the grounds, he went himself to seek him, when, as 
+he passed the tower, he was struck by the sound of Emily's voice, and 
+immediately ascended.
+
+It was a considerable time before she revived, but, when her 
+recollection returned, she repulsed his attentions, with an air of 
+reserve, and enquired, with as much displeasure as it was possible 
+she could feel in these first moments of his appearance, the occasion 
+of his visit.
+
+'Ah Emily!' said Valancourt, 'that air, those words--alas!  I have, 
+then, little to hope--when you ceased to esteem me, you ceased also 
+to love me!'
+
+'Most true, sir,' replied Emily, endeavouring to command her 
+trembling voice; 'and if you had valued my esteem, you would not have 
+given me this new occasion for uneasiness.'
+
+Valancourt's countenance changed suddenly from the anxieties of doubt 
+to an expression of surprise and dismay:  he was silent a moment, and 
+then said, 'I had been taught to hope for a very different reception!  
+Is it, then, true, Emily, that I have lost your regard forever? am I 
+to believe, that, though your esteem for me may return--your 
+affection never can?  Can the Count have meditated the cruelty, which 
+now tortures me with a second death?'
+
+The voice, in which he spoke this, alarmed Emily as much as his words 
+surprised her, and, with trembling impatience, she begged that he 
+would explain them.
+
+'Can any explanation be necessary?' said Valancourt, 'do you not know 
+how cruelly my conduct has been misrepresented? that the actions of 
+which you once believed me guilty (and, O Emily! how could you so 
+degrade me in your opinion, even for a moment!) those actions--I hold 
+in as much contempt and abhorrence as yourself?  Are you, indeed, 
+ignorant, that Count de Villefort has detected the slanders, that 
+have robbed me of all I hold dear on earth, and has invited me hither 
+to justify to you my former conduct?  It is surely impossible you can 
+be uninformed of these circumstances, and I am again torturing myself 
+with a false hope!'
+
+The silence of Emily confirmed this supposition; for the deep 
+twilight would not allow Valancourt to distinguish the astonishment 
+and doubting joy, that fixed her features.  For a moment, she 
+continued unable to speak; then a profound sigh seemed to give some 
+relief to her spirits, and she said,
+
+'Valancourt! I was, till this moment, ignorant of all the 
+circumstances you have mentioned; the emotion I now suffer may assure 
+you of the truth of this, and, that, though I had ceased to esteem, I 
+had not taught myself entirely to forget you.'
+
+'This moment,' said Valancourt, in a low voice, and leaning for 
+support against the window--'this moment brings with it a conviction 
+that overpowers me!--I am dear to you then--still dear to you, my 
+Emily!'
+
+'Is it necessary that I should tell you so?' she replied, 'is it 
+necessary, that I should say--these are the first moments of joy I 
+have known, since your departure, and that they repay me for all 
+those of pain I have suffered in the interval?'
+
+Valancourt sighed deeply, and was unable to reply; but, as he pressed 
+her hand to his lips, the tears, that fell over it, spoke a language, 
+which could not be mistaken, and to which words were inadequate.
+
+Emily, somewhat tranquillized, proposed returning to the chateau, and 
+then, for the first time, recollected that the Count had invited 
+Valancourt thither to explain his conduct, and that no explanation 
+had yet been given.  But, while she acknowledged this, her heart 
+would not allow her to dwell, for a moment, on the possibility of his 
+unworthiness; his look, his voice, his manner, all spoke the noble 
+sincerity, which had formerly distinguished him; and she again 
+permitted herself to indulge the emotions of a joy, more surprising 
+and powerful, than she had ever before experienced.
+
+Neither Emily, or Valancourt, were conscious how they reached the 
+chateau, whither they might have been transferred by the spell of a 
+fairy, for any thing they could remember; and it was not, till they 
+had reached the great hall, that either of them recollected there 
+were other persons in the world besides themselves.  The Count then 
+came forth with surprise, and with the joyfulness of pure 
+benevolence, to welcome Valancourt, and to entreat his forgiveness of 
+the injustice he had done him; soon after which, Mons. Bonnac joined 
+this happy group, in which he and Valancourt were mutually rejoiced 
+to meet.
+
+When the first congratulations were over, and the general joy became 
+somewhat more tranquil, the Count withdrew with Valancourt to the 
+library, where a long conversation passed between them, in which the 
+latter so clearly justified himself of the criminal parts of the 
+conduct, imputed to him, and so candidly confessed and so feelingly 
+lamented the follies, which he had committed, that the Count was 
+confirmed in his belief of all he had hoped; and, while he perceived 
+so many noble virtues in Valancourt, and that experience had taught 
+him to detest the follies, which before he had only not admired, he 
+did not scruple to believe, that he would pass through life with the 
+dignity of a wise and good man, or to entrust to his care the future 
+happiness of Emily St. Aubert, for whom he felt the solicitude of a 
+parent.  Of this he soon informed her, in a short conversation, when 
+Valancourt had left him.  While Emily listened to a relation of the 
+services, that Valancourt had rendered Mons. Bonnac, her eyes 
+overflowed with tears of pleasure, and the further conversation of 
+Count De Villefort perfectly dissipated every doubt, as to the past 
+and future conduct of him, to whom she now restored, without fear, 
+the esteem and affection, with which she had formerly received him.
+
+When they returned to the supper-room, the Countess and Lady Blanche 
+met Valancourt with sincere congratulations; and Blanche, indeed, was 
+so much rejoiced to see Emily returned to happiness, as to forget, 
+for a while, that Mons. St. Foix was not yet arrived at the chateau, 
+though he had been expected for some hours; but her generous sympathy 
+was, soon after, rewarded by his appearance.  He was now perfectly 
+recovered from the wounds, received, during his perilous adventure 
+among the Pyrenees, the mention of which served to heighten to the 
+parties, who had been involved in it, the sense of their present 
+happiness.  New congratulations passed between them, and round the 
+supper-table appeared a group of faces, smiling with felicity, but 
+with a felicity, which had in each a different character.  The smile 
+of Blanche was frank and gay, that of Emily tender and pensive; 
+Valancourt's was rapturous, tender and gay alternately; Mons. St. 
+Foix's was joyous, and that of the Count, as he looked on the 
+surrounding party, expressed the tempered complacency of benevolence; 
+while the features of the Countess, Henri, and Mons. Bonnac, 
+discovered fainter traces of animation.  Poor Mons. Du Pont did not, 
+by his presence, throw a shade of regret over the company; for, when 
+he had discovered, that Valancourt was not unworthy of the esteem of 
+Emily, he determined seriously to endeavour at the conquest of his 
+own hopeless affection, and had immediately withdrawn from Chateau-
+le-Blanc--a conduct, which Emily now understood, and rewarded with 
+her admiration and pity.
+
+The Count and his guests continued together till a late hour, 
+yielding to the delights of social gaiety, and to the sweets of 
+friendship.  When Annette heard of the arrival of Valancourt, 
+Ludovico had some difficulty to prevent her going into the supper-
+room, to express her joy, for she declared, that she had never been 
+so rejoiced at any ACCIDENT as this, since she had found Ludovico 
+himself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+  Now my task is smoothly done,
+ I can fly, or I can run
+ Quickly to the green earth's end,
+ Where the bow'd welkin low doth bend,
+ And, from thence, can soar as soon
+ To the corners of the moon.
+     MILTON
+
+The marriages of the Lady Blanche and Emily St. Aubert were 
+celebrated, on the same day, and with the ancient baronial 
+magnificence, at Chateau-le-Blanc.  The feasts were held in the great 
+hall of the castle, which, on this occasion, was hung with superb new 
+tapestry, representing the exploits of Charlemagne and his twelve 
+peers; here, were seen the Saracens, with their horrible visors, 
+advancing to battle; and there, were displayed the wild solemnities 
+of incantation, and the necromantic feats, exhibited by the magician 
+JARL before the Emperor.  The sumptuous banners of the family of 
+Villeroi, which had long slept in dust, were once more unfurled, to 
+wave over the gothic points of painted casements; and music echoed, 
+in many a lingering close, through every winding gallery and 
+colonnade of that vast edifice.
+
+As Annette looked down from the corridor upon the hall, whose arches 
+and windows were illuminated with brilliant festoons of lamps, and 
+gazed on the splendid dresses of the dancers, the costly liveries of 
+the attendants, the canopies of purple velvet and gold, and listened 
+to the gay strains that floated along the vaulted roof, she almost 
+fancied herself in an enchanted palace, and declared, that she had 
+not met with any place, which charmed her so much, since she read the 
+fairy tales; nay, that the fairies themselves, at their nightly 
+revels in this old hall, could display nothing finer; while old 
+Dorothee, as she surveyed the scene, sighed, and said, the castle 
+looked as it was wont to do in the time of her youth.
+
+After gracing the festivities of Chateau-le-Blanc, for some days, 
+Valancourt and Emily took leave of their kind friends, and returned 
+to La Vallee, where the faithful Theresa received them with unfeigned 
+joy, and the pleasant shades welcomed them with a thousand tender and 
+affecting remembrances; and, while they wandered together over the 
+scenes, so long inhabited by the late Mons. and Madame St. Aubert, 
+and Emily pointed out, with pensive affection, their favourite 
+haunts, her present happiness was heightened, by considering, that it 
+would have been worthy of their approbation, could they have 
+witnessed it.
+
+Valancourt led her to the plane-tree on the terrace, where he had 
+first ventured to declare his love, and where now the remembrance of 
+the anxiety he had then suffered, and the retrospect of all the 
+dangers and misfortunes they had each encountered, since last they 
+sat together beneath its broad branches, exalted the sense of their 
+present felicity, which, on this spot, sacred to the memory of St. 
+Aubert, they solemnly vowed to deserve, as far as possible, by 
+endeavouring to imitate his benevolence,--by remembering, that 
+superior attainments of every sort bring with them duties of superior 
+exertion,--and by affording to their fellow-beings, together with 
+that portion of ordinary comforts, which prosperity always owes to 
+misfortune, the example of lives passed in happy thankfulness to GOD, 
+and, therefore, in careful tenderness to his creatures.
+
+Soon after their return to La Vallee, the brother of Valancourt came 
+to congratulate him on his marriage, and to pay his respects to 
+Emily, with whom he was so much pleased, as well as with the prospect 
+of rational happiness, which these nuptials offered to Valancourt, 
+that he immediately resigned to him a part of the rich domain, the 
+whole of which, as he had no family, would of course descend to his 
+brother, on his decease.
+
+The estates, at Tholouse, were disposed of, and Emily purchased of 
+Mons. Quesnel the ancient domain of her late father, where, having 
+given Annette a marriage portion, she settled her as the housekeeper, 
+and Ludovico as the steward; but, since both Valancourt and herself 
+preferred the pleasant and long-loved shades of La Vallee to the 
+magnificence of Epourville, they continued to reside there, passing, 
+however, a few months in the year at the birth-place of St. Aubert, 
+in tender respect to his memory.
+
+The legacy, which had been bequeathed to Emily by Signora Laurentini, 
+she begged Valancourt would allow her to resign to Mons. Bonnac; and 
+Valancourt, when she made the request, felt all the value of the 
+compliment it conveyed.  The castle of Udolpho, also, descended to 
+the wife of Mons. Bonnac, who was the nearest surviving relation of 
+the house of that name, and thus affluence restored his long-
+oppressed spirits to peace, and his family to comfort.
+
+O! how joyful it is to tell of happiness, such as that of Valancourt 
+and Emily; to relate, that, after suffering under the oppression of 
+the vicious and the disdain of the weak, they were, at length, 
+restored to each other--to the beloved landscapes of their native 
+country,--to the securest felicity of this life, that of aspiring to 
+moral and labouring for intellectual improvement--to the pleasures of 
+enlightened society, and to the exercise of the benevolence, which 
+had always animated their hearts; while the bowers of La Vallee 
+became, once more, the retreat of goodness, wisdom and domestic 
+blessedness!
+
+O! useful may it be to have shewn, that, though the vicious can 
+sometimes pour affliction upon the good, their power is transient and 
+their punishment certain; and that innocence, though oppressed by 
+injustice, shall, supported by patience, finally triumph over 
+misfortune!
+
+And, if the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its 
+scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, 
+taught him to sustain it--the effort, however humble, has not been 
+vain, nor is the writer unrewarded.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
+
diff --git a/old/udolf10.zip b/old/udolf10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833ec5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/udolf10.zip