Julia, whose beauty she imagined had captivated the

count, and confirmed him in indifference towards herself, she

incessantly tormented by the exercise of those various and splenetic

little arts which elude the eye of the common observer, and are only

to be known by those who have felt them. Arts, which individually are

inconsiderable, but in the aggregate amount to a cruel and decisive

effect. From Julia's mind the idea of happiness was now faded. Pleasure had

withdrawn her beam from the prospect, and the objects no longer

illumined by her ray, became dark and colourless. As often as her

situation would permit, she withdrew from society, and sought the

freedom of solitude, where she could indulge in melancholy thoughts,

and give a loose to that despair which is so apt to follow the

disappointment of our first hopes.

Week after week elapsed, yet no mention was made of returning to

Naples. The marquis at length declared it his intention to spend the

remainder of the summer in the castle. To this determination the

marchioness submitted with decent resignation, for she was here

surrounded by a croud of flatterers, and her invention supplied her

with continual diversions: that gaiety which rendered Naples so dear

to her, glittered in the woods of Mazzini, and resounded through the

castle. T

he apartments of Madame de Menon were spacious and noble. The windows

opened upon the sea, and commanded a view of the straits of Messina,

bounded on one side by the beautiful shores of the isle of Sicily, and

on the other by the high mountains of Calabria. The straits, filled

with vessels whose gay streamers glittered to the sun-beam, presented

to the eye an ever-moving scene. The principal room opened upon a

gallery that overhung the grand terrace of the castle, and it

commanded a prospect which for beauty and extent has seldom been

equalled. These were formerly considered the chief apartments of the

castle; and when the Marquis quitted them for Naples, were allotted

for the residence of Madame de Menon, and her young charge. The

marchioness, struck with the prospect which the windows afforded, and

with the pleasantness of the gallery, determined to restore the rooms

to their former splendour. She signified this intention to madame, for

whom other apartments were provided. The chambers of Emilia and Julia

forming part of the suite, they were also claimed by the marchioness,

who left Julia only her favorite closet. The rooms to which they

removed were spacious, but gloomy; they had been for some years

uninhabited; and though preparations had been made for the reception

of their new inhabitants, an air of desolation reigned within them

that inspired melancholy sensations. Julia observed that her chamber,

which opened beyond madame's, formed a part of the southern building,

with which, however, there appeared no means of communication. The

late mysterious circumstances relating to this part of the fabric, now

arose to her imagination, and conjured up a terror which reason could

not subdue.




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