The Mysteries of Udolpho

From this sublime scene the travellers continued to ascend among the

pines, till they entered a narrow pass of the mountains, which shut out

every feature of the distant country, and, in its stead, exhibited only

tremendous crags, impending over the road, where no vestige of humanity,

or even of vegetation, appeared, except here and there the trunk and

scathed branches of an oak, that hung nearly headlong from the rock,

into which its strong roots had fastened. This pass, which led into the

heart of the Apennine, at length opened to day, and a scene of mountains

stretched in long perspective, as wild as any the travellers had yet

passed. Still vast pine-forests hung upon their base, and crowned the

ridgy precipice, that rose perpendicularly from the vale, while, above,

the rolling mists caught the sun-beams, and touched their cliffs

with all the magical colouring of light and shade. The scene seemed

perpetually changing, and its features to assume new forms, as the

winding road brought them to the eye in different attitudes; while the

shifting vapours, now partially concealing their minuter beauties and

now illuminating them with splendid tints, assisted the illusions of the

sight. Though the deep vallies between these mountains were, for the most part,

clothed with pines, sometimes an abrupt opening presented a perspective

of only barren rocks, with a cataract flashing from their summit among

broken cliffs, till its waters, reaching the bottom, foamed along with

unceasing fury; and sometimes pastoral scenes exhibited their 'green

delights' in the narrow vales, smiling amid surrounding horror. There

herds and flocks of goats and sheep, browsing under the shade of hanging

woods, and the shepherd's little cabin, reared on the margin of a clear

stream, presented a sweet picture of repose.

Wild and romantic as were these scenes, their character had far less

of the sublime, that had those of the Alps, which guard the entrance

of Italy. Emily was often elevated, but seldom felt those emotions

of indescribable awe which she had so continually experienced, in her

passage over the Alps.

Towards the close of day, the road wound into a deep valley. Mountains,

whose shaggy steeps appeared to be inaccessible, almost surrounded

it. To the east, a vista opened, that exhibited the Apennines in their

darkest horrors; and the long perspective of retiring summits, rising

over each other, their ridges clothed with pines, exhibited a stronger

image of grandeur, than any that Emily had yet seen. The sun had just

sunk below the top of the mountains she was descending, whose long

shadow stretched athwart the valley, but his sloping rays, shooting

through an opening of the cliffs, touched with a yellow gleam the

summits of the forest, that hung upon the opposite steeps, and streamed

in full splendour upon the towers and battlements of a castle, that

spread its extensive ramparts along the brow of a precipice above. The

splendour of these illumined objects was heightened by the contrasted

shade, which involved the valley below.