The Mysteries of Udolpho

TITANIA. If you will patiently dance in our round,

And see our moon-light revels, go with us.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Early on the following morning, the travellers set out for Turin.

The luxuriant plain, that extends from the feet of the Alps to that

magnificent city, was not then, as now, shaded by an avenue of trees

nine miles in length; but plantations of olives, mulberry and palms,

festooned with vines, mingled with the pastoral scenery, through with

the rapid Po, after its descent from the mountains, wandered to meet

the humble Doria at Turin.

As they advanced towards this city, the Alps,

seen at some distance, began to appear in all their awful sublimity;

chain rising over chain in long succession, their higher points darkened

by the hovering clouds, sometimes hid, and at others seen shooting up

far above them; while their lower steeps, broken into fantastic forms,

were touched with blue and purplish tints, which, as they changed in

light and shade, seemed to open new scenes to the eye. To the east

stretched the plains of Lombardy, with the towers of Turin rising at a

distance; and beyond, the Apennines, bounding the horizon.

The general magnificence of that city, with its vistas of churches and

palaces, branching from the grand square, each opening to a landscape of

the distant Alps or Apennines, was not only such as Emily had never seen

in France, but such as she had never imagined.

Montoni, who had been often at Turin, and cared little about views of

any kind, did not comply with his wife's request, that they might survey

some of the palaces; but staying only till the necessary refreshments

could be obtained, they set forward for Venice with all possible

rapidity. Montoni's manner, during this journey, was grave, and even

haughty; and towards Madame Montoni he was more especially reserved; but

it was not the reserve of respect so much as of pride and discontent.

Of Emily he took little notice. With Cavigni his conversations were

commonly on political or military topics, such as the convulsed state

of their country rendered at this time particularly interesting, Emily

observed, that, at the mention of any daring exploit, Montoni's eyes

lost their sullenness, and seemed instantaneously to gleam with fire;

yet they still retained somewhat of a lurking cunning, and she sometimes

thought that their fire partook more of the glare of malice than the

brightness of valour, though the latter would well have harmonized with

the high chivalric air of his figure, in which Cavigni, with all his gay

and gallant manners, was his inferior.

On entering the Milanese, the gentlemen exchanged their French hats for

the Italian cap of scarlet cloth, embroidered; and Emily was somewhat

surprised to observe, that Montoni added to his the military plume,

while Cavigni retained only the feather: which was usually worn with

such caps: but she at length concluded, that Montoni assumed this ensign

of a soldier for convenience, as a means of passing with more safety

through a country over-run with parties of the military.