The Mysteries of Udolpho

Strike up, my master,

But touch the strings with a religious softness!

Teach sounds to languish through the night's dull ear

Till Melancholy starts from off her couch,

And Carelessness grows concert to attention!

With such powers of expression the Count sung the following

RONDEAU

Soft as yon silver ray, that sleeps

Upon the ocean's trembling tide;

Soft as the air, that lightly sweeps

Yon sad, that swells in stately pride: Soft as the surge's stealing note,

That dies along the distant shores,

Or warbled strain, that sinks remote--

So soft the sigh my bosom pours! True as the wave to Cynthia's ray,

True as the vessel to the breeze,

True as the soul to music's sway,

Or music to Venetian seas: Soft as yon silver beams, that sleep

Upon the ocean's trembling breast;

So soft, so true, fond Love shall weep,

So soft, so true, with THEE shall rest.

The cadence with which he returned from the last stanza to a repetition

of the first; the fine modulation in which his voice stole upon the

first line, and the pathetic energy with which it pronounced the last,

were such as only exquisite taste could give. When he had concluded,

he gave the lute with a sigh to Emily, who, to avoid any appearance of

affectation, immediately began to play. She sung a melancholy little

air, one of the popular songs of her native province, with a simplicity

and pathos that made it enchanting. But its well-known melody brought

so forcibly to her fancy the scenes and the persons, among which she had

often heard it, that her spirits were overcome, her voice trembled and

ceased--and the strings of the lute were struck with a disordered hand;

till, ashamed of the emotion she had betrayed, she suddenly passed on

to a song so gay and airy, that the steps of the dance seemed almost

to echo to the notes.

BRAVISSIMO! burst instantly from the lips of her

delighted auditors, and she was compelled to repeat the air. Among

the compliments that followed, those of the Count were not the least

audible, and they had not concluded, when Emily gave the instrument to

Signora Livona, whose voice accompanied it with true Italian taste.

Afterwards, the Count, Emily, Cavigni, and the Signora, sung

canzonettes, accompanied by a couple of lutes and a few other

instruments. Sometimes the instruments suddenly ceased, and the voices

dropped from the full swell of harmony into a low chant; then, after a

deep pause, they rose by degrees, the instruments one by one striking

up, till the loud and full chorus soared again to heaven!

Meanwhile, Montoni, who was weary of this harmony, was considering how

he might disengage himself from his party, or withdraw with such of it

as would be willing to play, to a Casino. In a pause of the music, he

proposed returning to shore, a proposal which Orsino eagerly seconded,

but which the Count and the other gentlemen as warmly opposed.