 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Deborah Lynn in Northern Lower Michigan, February 2007. The Mysteries of Udolfo by Ann Radcliffe. Volume 2, Chapter 1. Where ere I roam, whatever realms I see, my heart untraveled 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 endeavored 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 forever, 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 travelers entered their carriages, and Emily would have left the chateau without one sigh of regret had it not been situated in the neighborhood of Valancourt's residence. From a little eminence she looked back upon Toulouse 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? O 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 then formed a line of perspective with the distant country, now threatened to exclude the view of them. But the bluish mountain 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 a 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 endeavored to smile through the despair that overspread his countenance as she passed on. The remembrance of that smile seemed impressed on Emily's mind forever. 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 churn of the road entirely separated him from her sight. Having stopped to take up Signore Covigny at a chateau on the road, the travelers of whom Emily was disrespectfully seated with Madame Montoni's woman in a second carriage pursued their way over the plains of Longuedoc. 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 stayed only to change horses without a lighting, 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 the 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 sunset, 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 promised 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 planes on which she saw it set without interruption, and sink toward 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 travelers journeyed over the plains of Languedoc and then entering Duffinney 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 colors 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 endeavored 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 sunset 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 sunset, 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-topped mountain whence the torrent fell that thundered along the valley. The snow was not yet melted on the summit of Mount Sinus, over which the travelers 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 mid-summer 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 coloring. 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 forming beneath it, some images came to her mind which she afterward combined in the following. STORIES SONNET The weary traveler who, all night long, has climbed among the alps tremendous steeps, skirting the pathless precipice where throng wild forms of danger as yonward creeps, if chance his anxious eye at distance sees the mountain shepherd solitary home peeping from forth the moon-alumin trees what sudden transports to his bosom come. But if between some hideous chasm yon 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 shutters on the verge fears to return nor dares to venture oar desperate at length the tottering plank he tries his weak steps slide he shrieks he sinks he dies Emily often as she traveled 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 midway down the mountains but who may describe her rapture when having passed through a sea of vapor she caught a first view of italy when from the ridge of one of those tremendous precipices that hang upon mount sanis and guard the entrance of that enchanting country she looked down through the lower clouds and as they floated away saw the grassy veils 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 chairman trotted lightly and swiftly almost as the shammy 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 travelers being seated on the point of a cliff montoni and covingey renewed a dispute concerning hannibal's passage over the alps montoni contending that he entered italy by way of mount senus and covingey 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 shuttered to behold herself on the dizzy height when she had pictured the descent of others madame montoni meantime as she looked upon italy was contemplating an imagination the splendor of palaces and the grandeur of castles such as she believed she was going to be mistress of at venice and in the aponyne and she became an idea a little less than a princess being no longer under the alarms which had deterred her from giving entertainments to the beauties of to luce whom montoni had mentioned with mora cla 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 conversaizioni though she had no talents for conversation and to outvi if possible in the geities of her parties and the magnificence of her liveries all the noblesse of venice this blissful reverie was somewhat obscured when she recollected the senor her husband who though he was not averse to the prophet which sometimes results from such parties had always shown 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 travelers 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 verdue 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 arbitus that ran mantling to the crags above while lower still spread the pastures of piedmont where early flocks were crapping the luxuriant herbage of spring the river doria which rising on the summit of mount senus had dashed for many leagues over the precipices that boarded the road now began to assume a less impetuous though scarcely less romantic character as it approached the green valleys of piedmont into which the travelers 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 verdue and with beautiful shrubs such as she had often seen waving luxuriantly over the alps above the verdue of the pasture edge now varied with the hues of early flowers among which were yellow ranunculuses and pansy violets of delicious fragrance she had never seen excelled emily almost wished to become a peasant of piedmont to inhabit one of the pleasant empowered cottages which she saw peeping beneath the cliffs and to pass her careless hours among these romantic landscapes to the hours the month 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 valent court whom she saw on the point of the cliffs gazing with awe and admiration on the imagery around him or wandering pensively along the veil 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 travelers passing novelliza reached after the evening and closed the small and ancient 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 moonlight with the town below surrounded by its walls and watch towers 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 travelers brought with them the hunger that gives delicious flavor to the corsus viens and the weariness that ensures repose in 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 moonlight on the broken surface of the mountains and remembering that on such a night as this she once had sat with her father in ballin court resting upon a cliff of the purines she heard from below the long drawn notes of a vial in of such tone and delicacy of expression as harmonized exactly with the tender emotions she was indulging and both charmed and surprised her covigni 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 here's 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 railery of covigni 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 turrent 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 to 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 covigni was nearly right in his conjecture concerning a musician who had awakened the violin with so much taste for that he was the son of a peasant inhabiting the neighboring 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 memoiselle 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 valent court 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 bad farewell to forever and then the idea of this young piedmontese thus ignorantly sporting with his happiness returned to her thoughts and glad to escape a while from the pressure of nearer interests she indulged her fancy in composing the following lines the piedmontese ah mary swain who laughed along the veils and with your gay pipe made the mountains ring why leave your cot your woods and timey gales and friends beloved for ought that wealth can bring he goes to wake or moonlight sees the string venetian gold his untaught fancy hails yet off to home his simple carols sing and his steps pause as the last alp scales once more he turns to view his native scene far far below as roll the clouds away he spies his cabin mid the pintop screen 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 here's the fate reed swelling in the wind and his sad sighs the distant notes prolong thus went the swain till mountain shadows fell and dimmed the landscape to his aching sight and must he leave the veils he loves so well can foreign wealth and shows his heart delight no happy veils your wild rocks still shall hear his pipe light sounding on the morning breeze still shall he lead the flocks to stream let clear and watch at eve beneath the western trees away venetian gold your charm is ore and now his swift step seeks the lowland bowers where through the leaves his college light once more guides him to happy friends and jock and ours amary swain that laugh along the veils and with your gay pipe make the mountains ring your cot your woods your timey scented gales and friends beloved more joy than wealth can bring end of volume two chapter one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org this reading by Debra Lynn in northern lower michigan february 2007 the mysteries of Udolfo by Ann Radcliffe volume two chapter two Titania if you will patiently dance in our round and see our moonlight revels go with us midsummer night stream early on the following morning the travelers set out for Turin the luxuriant plane 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 which the rapid pole after its descent from the mountains wanted to meet the humble Doria at Turin as they advanced toward this city the Alps seen at some distance began to appear in all their awful sublimity chain rising over chain and 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 Lombardi 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 Covigny 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 valor though the latter would well have harmonized with the high chivalric air of his figure in which Covigny 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 Covigny 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 overrun 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 Grissons that overlooked them to the north whose awful solitudes seemed to offer to persecuted man a secure asylum the travelers frequently distinguished groups of soldiers moving at a distance and they experienced at the little ins 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 stayed 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 rooted devastation and though everything seemed now quiet the repose was like that of death spread over features which retained the impression of the last convulsions it was not till they had passed the eastern limits of the Malinese that the travelers saw any troops since they had left Milan when as the evening was drawing to a close they described 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 past 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 symbols 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 victoria sutaldo 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 wagons 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 negotiating between the neighboring 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 in 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 marshal air mingled with the haughtiness of the noblesse of those days and heightened by the gallantry of their dress by the plumes towering on their caps the armory old coat pers and sash an 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 travelers proceeded without any interruption but it was some hours after sunset 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 embark 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 splendor emily gazed with admiration on the villas of the venetian noblesse with their cool porticoes and colonnades overhung with poplars and cypresses of majestic height and lively verdue 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 covigny 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 colors the sun sinking in the west tinted the waves and the lofty mountains of friuli which skirt the northern shores of the adriatic with the saffron glow while on the marble porticoes and colonnades of senmark were thrown the rich lights and shade 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 splendor 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 tranquility 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 and still rapture and no person of the party broke the charm by an inquiry 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 valent court those strains come from the heart she looked round with anxious inquiry 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 re ascending towards heaven then again it swelled with the breeze trembled a while and again died into silence it brought to emily's recollection some lines of her late father and she repeated in a low voice off die here 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 mark's place at length roused her attention the rising moon which threw a shadowy light upon the terraces an illumine of the porticoes 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 moonlight sea full of gay parties catching the cool breeze most of these had music made sweeter by the waves or 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 madam montoni was pleased montoni congratulated himself on his return to venus which he called the first city in the world and covene 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 sensovino 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 moonlight 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 staircase 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 colors 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 wence 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 valencourt could but see this mansion what peace would it give him he would then be convinced that the report was groundless madam 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 covene went out to mingle in the scenes of the evening madam then became serious and thoughtful emily who was charmed with everything she saw endeavored to enliven her but reflection had not with madam montoni subdued caprice and ill humor 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 gait of heart that would have subdued the goddess of spleen in her worst humor 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 heriosto 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 valencourt 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 tranquility which soft music leaves on the mind a state like that produced by the view of a beautiful landscape by moonlight or by the recollection of scenes marked with the tenderness of friends lost forever 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 has passed other sounds soon awakened her attention it was the solemn harmony of horns that swelled from a distance and observing the gondolas arranged 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 splendor 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 had 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 sunset 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 madam 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 whether 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 colors and design at length she reached her own chamber spacious desolate and lofty like the rest with high lattices that open toward 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 endeavored 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 around the foot of every steep whose cliffs above the ocean grow there within their secret caves I hear the mighty rivers roar and guide their streams through Neptune's waves to bless the green earths in most shore and bid the freshened waters glide for fern crowned nymphs of lake or brook through winding woods and pastures wide and many a wild romantic nook for this the nymphs at fall of eve off dance upon the flowery banks and sing my name and garland's weave to bear beneath the wave their thanks in coral bowers 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 off at midnight stillest hour when summer sees the vessel lave I love to prove my charming power while floating on the moonlight wave and when deep sleep the crew has bound and the sad lover musing leans or the ship's side I breathe around such strange as speak no mortal means or the dim waves his searching eye sees but the vessel's lengthened shade above the moon and azure sky and trance 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 coral voices round me rise the trembling youth charmed by my strain calls up the crew who silent bend or the high deck but list in vain my song is hushed my wonders end within the mountain's woody bay where the tall bark and 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 or the floods then swift we seek our crystal court deep in the wave midneptunes woods in cool arcades and glassy halls we pass the sultry hours of noon beyond wherever sunbeam falls weaving sea flowers in gay festoon the while we chant our ditties sweet to some soft shell that warbles near joined by the murmuring currents fleet that glide along our halls so clear there the pale pearl in sapphire blue and ruby red and emerald green dart from the domes a changing hue and spary columns deck the scene when the dark storm scowls or the deep and long long peels of thunder sound on some high cliff my watch I keep or all the restless seas around till on the ridgy wave afar comes the lone vessel laboring 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 quivering lightning shone to guide the bark to peaceful shore and hush the sailors fearful groan and if too late I reach its side to save it from the welcoming surge I call my dolphins or the tide to bear the crew where aisles emerge their mournful spirits soon I cheer while around 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 seabank wave where sweet fruits bloom and fresh spring rows and closing bows 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 shipwrecked sailors heart till from the waves the storms retreat and or the east the day beams dart Neptune for this oft binds me fast to rocks below with coral chain till all the tempest's overpassed and drowning seamen cry in vein who air ye are that love my lay come when red sunset tints the wave to the still sands where fairies play there in cool seas I love to lave end of volume two chapter two volume two chapter three part a of The Mysteries of Udolfo this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Anna Simon The Mysteries of Udolfo by Anne Radcliffe volume two chapter three 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 sword as if he mocked himself and scorned his spirit that could be moved to smile at anything such man 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 wrecked 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 cease to be unreal of this kind was the habit of gaming which had adopted first for the purpose of relieving him from the langer of inaction but had since pursued with the ardor of passion in this occupation he had passed the night with Kavinny 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 rouse the fierce hatred of strong ones he had of course many and bitter enemies but the ranker of their hatred proved the degree of his power and as power was his chief aim he gloried more and 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 seniors bertolini arsino and ferretti the first was a man of gay temper strong passions dissipated and of unbounded extravagance but generous brave and unsuspicious arsino was reserved and haughty loving power more than ostentation of accrual 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 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 death of his tragedy this man was the chief favorite of montoni ferretti was a man of some talent of theory imagination and the slave of alternate passions he was gay for luptures 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 in patches 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 who montoni introduced to his family and his table on the day after his arrival at venice there were also of the party of venetian nobleman count morano and a signora livona who 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 seniors 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 marano procured him that distinction which she refused to the rest of the company the haughtiest sullenness of her countenance and manner and the ostentatious extravagance of her dress for she had not yet adopted the venetian habit was 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 senora 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 on montoni's gondola and rode out upon the sea the red glow of sunset still touched the waves and lingered in the west where the melancholy gleam seemed slowly expiring while the dark blue of the upper ether began to twinkle with stars emily said given up to defensive and sweet emotions the smoothness of the water over which he glided it's reflected images and 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. albert and to valancourt and tears stole to her eyes the rays of the moon strengthening as the shadows deepened soon after through 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 madonna with the sensibility of a mectalin 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 the 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 loot and struck the court with a finger of harmony herself while his voice a fine tenor accompanied them in a rondo full of tender sadness to him indeed might have been applied a 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 rondo 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 surges 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 synthesis ray true as the vessel to the breeze true as the soul to music sway or music to venetian seas soft as yon silver beams that sleep upon the ocean's trembling breast so soft so true font love shall weep so soft so true with thee shall rest the cadence with which he returned from the last stanza to her petition of the first the fine modulation in which his voice stole upon the first line and the pathetic energy with which pronounce the last where such as only exquisite taste could give when he had concluded he gave the loot 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 the 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 seized and the strings of the loot 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 senora levona whose voice accompanied it with true italian taste afterwards the count emily cavigny and the senora sung canzanets accompanied by a couple of lutes and a few other instruments sometimes the instruments suddenly seized 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 wary 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 shul a proposal which orcino eagerly seconded but which the count and the other gentleman 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 sees this opportunity of going thither and committing the ladies to the care of his friends departed with orcino 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 marx and hurrying to a casino was soon lost amidst the 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 tremler's gleam of the moonlit wave which their auras disturbed presently she heard the sound of instruments and then a full symphony swelled on the air and the boat's 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 flowing 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 he 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 valka vigni 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 midnight before the gondolas approached symmark'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 moonlight discovered the city with its terraces and towers a stranger would almost have credited the fabled wonders of naptoons called and believed that the tumult arose from beneath the waves they landed at synthmark's where the gaiety of the colonnades and the beauty of the night made madame montoni willingly submit to the counts solicitations to join the promenade and afterwards to take a supper with the rest of the party at his casino if anything could have dissipated emily's uneasiness it would have been the grandeur gaiety and novelty of the surrounding scene adorned with palladio's pulses and busy with parties of masquerades 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 favor of madame montoni which from the condescension she had already shown 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 ascended 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 aegiotic whilst at 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 cavigny 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 silent 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'd 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 senora herminia took up a loot and began to play and sing with as much easy gaiety as if she'd 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 loot 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 a miniature scenery around her and drew a very interesting picture which though it would not perhaps have borne criticism had spirited 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 kavinny joined the ladies but montoni had other engagements and they embarked in the gondola for some marks 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 porticoes and arcades and the happy groups that salted beneath them these with every feature and circumstance of the scene united to charm emily no longer teased by the officious attentions of cant morano but as she looked upon the moonlit sea undulating along the walls of simp 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 sometime they sat down at the door of a casino and while kavinny 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 shown her on the preceding evening was compelled as before to shrink from his assiduities into a timid reserve except when she conversed with senora herminia and the other ladies of the 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 splendor of art is to the sublimity of nature her heart was not now affected tears of admiration did not start 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 as i 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 foreborn 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 monsieur carnel in which the letter 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 bequated to him this uncle was the brother of madame carnel'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 monsieur carnel'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 carnel 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 outwitted 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 through 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'd lost the hints which have been thrown out to valencour 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 has played 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 our 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 discovery of montoni's contempt it remained to be further reproved by a discovery of his circumstances his mention 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 the odolfo 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 would 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 led her to think of valencour and to indulge the melancholy which is image and a recollection of the scenes of la valet always blessed with the memory of her parents awakened the ideal scenes were dearer and more soothing to her heart than all the splendor of gay assemblies they were a kind of talisman that expelled the poison of temporary evils and supported their hopes of happy days they appeared like a beautiful landscape lighted up by a gleam of sunshine 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 discussed at his perseverance after she'd 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 senior orcino was there for between himself and kavinny a coolness seemed to subsist though the letter remained in his house with orcino 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 favorite passion for play and remained at home the whole night there was somewhat of privacy too in the manner of orcino'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 endeavored 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 a flash fire and all the energies of his soul appear 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 for bore 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 monsieur cadnell 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 valancour 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 toulouse 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 then scorned to his brother's chateau which was then a neighborhood of la valet 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 neighborhood of a place which is endeared by the remembrance of you the vicinity to la valet has alone detained me thus long at estuviere i frequently write there early in the morning that i may wonder at leisure through the day among scenes which were once your home where i've been accustomed to see you and to hear you converse i've renewed my acquaintance with the good old tereza 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 favorite subject you will guess the motive that first induced me to make myself known to tereza it was indeed no other than that of gating admittance into the chateau and gardens which my amily had so lately inhabited here then i wonder and meet your image under every shade but chiefly i love to sit beneath the spreading branches of your favorite plane where once amily we sat together where i first ventured to tell you that i loved oh amily the remembrance of those moments overcomes me i sit lost in reverie i endeavor to see you dimly through my tears in all the heaven of peace and innocence such as you then appear 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 watch the rapid current of the garand below while i described the wild scenery about its source but thought only of you oh amily are these moments passed forever will they never more return in another part of the letter he wrote this 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 appear to be present this employment has been from time to time my chief consolation and i have deferred sending off my packet mainly 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've come to pour forth its sorrows to you and i've 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've 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've been accustomed to meet you and thought lavalé is let i've reason to believe this is without your knowledge from what theriza told me this morning and therefore i mentioned the circumstance she shed tears while she related that she was going to leave the servers of her dear mistress and the chateau where she had lived so many happy years had all this added she without even a letter from mausoleum to soften the news but it is almost your canal's doings and i dare say she does not even know what is going forward theriza added that she had received a letter from him informing her the chateau was let and that as our services would no longer be required she must quit the place on that day week when the new tenant would arrive theriza have been surprised by a visit from a chateau canal sometime before the recede 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 felancourt adds i've 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 wrote to lavalé this morning and heard that the new tenant was arrived and that theriza 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've endeavoured to learn something of the character and fortune of your tenant but without success he's a gentleman they say and this is all i can hear the place as i wandered around the boundaries appeared more melancholy to my imagination than i'd ever seen it i wished earnestly to have got admittance that i might have taken another leave of your favorite plane tree and thought of you once more beneath the shade but i forbore to tempt the curiosity of strangers the fishing house in the woods however was still open to me the there i went and pass an hour which i cannot even look back upon without emotion oh emily surely we are not separated forever surely we shall live for each other and of volume 2 chapter 3 part a volume 2 chapter 3 of the mysteries of adolfo part b this is a libra fox recording all libra fox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librafox.org recording by ano simon the mysteries of adolfo by ann ratcliffe volume 2 chapter 3 part b this letter brought many tears to emily's eyes tears of tenderness and satisfaction on learning that valencour 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 valet and the sentiments of delicate affection that its scenes had awakened it was a considerable time before her mind was sufficiently obstructed from valencour to feel the force of his intelligence concerning la valet that monsieur cannelle should let it without even consulting her on the measure both surprised and shocked her particularly as approved 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 economical 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 opposed the measure her father too in his last hour had received from her a solemn promise never to dispose of la valet 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 monsieur cannell 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 valet and the dismission of her father's old and faithful servant poor therese said emily thou hadst not saved much in thy servitude for thou was always tender towards the poor and believes thou should die in the family where thy best years had been spent poor therese now thou had turned out in thy old age to seek thy bread emily went bitterly as these thoughts passed over her mind and she determined to consider what could be done for therese and to talk very explicitly to monsieur cannell on the subject but she much feared that his cold heart could feel only for itself she determined also to inquire whether he had made any mention of her affairs it is 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 monsieur cannell's letter concerning the transactions at la valet and she obeyed him immediately montoni was alone i've just been writing to monsieur cannell said he when emily appeared in reply to the letter i received from him a few days ago and i wish to talk to you upon a subject that occupied part of it i also wish to speak with you on this topic sir said emily it is the subject of some interest to you undoubtedly rejoined montoni and i think you must see it in a 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 sub 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 mirenti 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 senior 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 senior recalls 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 honor of seeing you in the meantime i entreat you will take care of therisa for the sake of sir your affectionate niece emily sent orbit 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 died again at montoni's he was in an uncommon flow of spirits and emily thought there was somewhat of exaltation in his manner of addressing her which he had never observed before she endeavored 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 zandaletto 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 it spoke unironically but on reaching the steps of the terrace and observing by the livery that it was the count's zandaletto 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 an entreat and montoni who then came out rendered solicitation unnecessary for without condescending to speak he took her hand and led her to the zandaletto 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 this like of canfrano 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 gonaliere 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 letter 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 senior montoni who has allowed me this opportunity of doing so emily regarded the count with a look of mingled astonishment and his pleasure 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 ardor of my passion is therefore unnecessary charming emily surely unnecessary any longer to attempt the disguise of your sentiments if i ever had disguised them sir said emily with a recollected spirit it would certainly be unnecessary any longer to do so i had hoped sir that you would have spared me any further 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 matmosel emily that i am no lover though count morano is and that i will not be made the amusement of your capricious moment here is the offer of an alliance which would do honor to any family yours you will recollect is not noble you long resisted my remonstrances but my honor is now engaged and it shall not be traveled with you shall adhere to the declaration which you've 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've condescended to be my agent it is an honor i did not solicit i myself have constantly assured count morano and you also sir that i never can accept the honor he offers me and i now repeat the declaration the count looked with an air of surprise and inquiry 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 letter 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've 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 astonishing will you deny what you wrote to mr cannell 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've had nothing to conceal how is this senor cried morano with trembling emotion suspend your judgment count replied montoni the wiles of a female heart are unsearchable now madam your explanation excuse me sir if i withhold my explanation till you appear willing to give me your confidence assertion at present can only subject me to insult your explanation i entreat you sepp morano well well rejoined montoni i gave you my confidence let us hear this explanation let me lead to it then by asking a question as many as you please sepp montoni contemptuously what then was the subject of your letter to mr cannell 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'll be more explicit sir what was that subject what could it be but the noble offer of count morano sepp 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 tomorrow 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're too precipitated said the count who had listened to this conversation in extreme agitation and impatience senora i entreat your own explanation of this affair senor 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 honor of your alliance charming emily exclaimed the count in an impassioned tone let not resentment make you unjust let me not suffer for the offense of montoni revoke offense interrupted montoni count this language is ridiculous this submission is childish speak as becomes a man not as a slave of a pretty tyrant you distract me senor 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 father 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 ardor 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 continents 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 account senor montoni you treat me ill it is from you that i shall look for explanation from me sir you shall have it madam 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 honor 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 had felt at the indifference of emily being lost in an 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 senora cindor bear from your threatened resentment you have misled me and would revenge your disappointed views upon the innocent mislet you retorted montoni with quickness is my conduct my word then pausing while he seemed endeavouring to restrain the resentment that fleshed 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'm not accustomed it is the conduct of a passionate boy as such i pass it over in contempt in contempt senior the respect i owe myself rejoined montoni requires that i should converse more largely with you upon some points of the subject and dispute return with me to venice and i will condescend to convince you of your error condescends sir but i will not condescend to be so conversed with montoni smiled contentiously 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 valet and concluding with entreating that he would write immediately to monsieur cannell 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 a softened voice and menna and eager to examine into the full extent of his difficulties complied emily comforted by this prospect of release employed the present moments in endeavoring 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 zen letter 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 zen letter 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 valencu confine by his profession to a distant kingdom as a 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 that 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 cannell then suddenly remembering that her beloved la valet 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 mr cannell could dispose of it without deigning to consult with her and could dismiss an aged and faithful servant desidute 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 mr cannell since his behavior 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 oppresses neither had she the slightest intention of consenting to the proposal of valencour for an immediate marriage though this would give her a lawful and a generous protector for the chief reasons which had formally 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 formally 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 tranquility till the term for which la valet might be let should expire or till the arrangement of mr motv's affairs enabled her so far to estimate the remains of a fortune as a judge whether it would be prudent for her to reside there concerning montoni's conduct with respect to his letters to monsieur cannell she had many doubts however he might be at first mistaken on the subject she much suspected that he willfully 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 monsieur cannell and looked forward with a mixture of impatience hope and fear to her approaching visit end of chapter three part b