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withdrawn her beam from the prospect, and the objects no longer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