The Mysteries of Udolpho

While Emily gazed with awe upon the scene, footsteps were heard within

the gates, and the undrawing of bolts; after which an ancient servant of

the castle appeared, forcing back the huge folds of the portal, to admit

his lord. As the carriage-wheels rolled heavily under the portcullis,

Emily's heart sunk, and she seemed, as if she was going into her prison;

the gloomy court, into which she passed, served to confirm the idea,

and her imagination, ever awake to circumstance, suggested even more

terrors, than her reason could justify.

Another gate delivered them into the second court, grass-grown, and more

wild than the first, where, as she surveyed through the twilight its

desolation--its lofty walls, overtopt with briony, moss and nightshade,

and the embattled towers that rose above,--long-suffering and murder

came to her thoughts. One of those instantaneous and unaccountable

convictions, which sometimes conquer even strong minds, impressed her

with its horror. The sentiment was not diminished, when she entered an

extensive gothic hall, obscured by the gloom of evening, which a light,

glimmering at a distance through a long perspective of arches, only

rendered more striking. As a servant brought the lamp nearer partial

gleams fell upon the pillars and the pointed arches, forming a strong

contrast with their shadows, that stretched along the pavement and the

walls. The sudden journey of Montoni had prevented his people from making any

other preparations for his reception, than could be had in the short

interval, since the arrival of the servant, who had been sent forward

from Venice; and this, in some measure, may account for the air of

extreme desolation, that everywhere appeared.

The servant, who came to light Montoni, bowed in silence, and the

muscles of his countenance relaxed with no symptom of joy.--Montoni

noticed the salutation by a slight motion of his hand, and passed on,

while his lady, following, and looking round with a degree of surprise

and discontent, which she seemed fearful of expressing, and Emily,

surveying the extent and grandeur of the hall in timid wonder,

approached a marble stair-case. The arches here opened to a lofty vault,

from the centre of which hung a tripod lamp, which a servant was hastily

lighting; and the rich fret-work of the roof, a corridor, leading into

several upper apartments, and a painted window, stretching nearly from

the pavement to the ceiling of the hall, became gradually visible.

Having crossed the foot of the stair-case, and passed through an

ante-room, they entered a spacious apartment, whose walls, wainscoted

with black larch-wood, the growth of the neighbouring mountains, were

scarcely distinguishable from darkness itself. 'Bring more light,'

said Montoni, as he entered. The servant, setting down his lamp, was

withdrawing to obey him, when Madame Montoni observing, that the evening

air of this mountainous region was cold, and that she should like a

fire, Montoni ordered that wood might be brought.