'Very well, old Carlo,' said Madame Montoni; 'I am obliged to you.' 'And the young Signora, too, she may like some of them,' rejoined Carlo,
turning with the basket to Emily, 'it will do me good to see her eat
some.' 'Thank you, Carlo,' said Emily, taking some cherries, and smiling
kindly. 'Come, come,' said Montoni, impatiently, 'enough of this. Leave the
room, but be in waiting. I shall want you presently.'
Carlo obeyed, and Montoni, soon after, went out to examine further into
the state of the castle; while Emily remained with her aunt, patiently
enduring her ill humour, and endeavouring, with much sweetness, to
soothe her affliction, instead of resenting its effect.
When Madame Montoni retired to her dressing-room, Emily endeavoured to
amuse herself by a view of the castle. Through a folding door she passed
from the great hall to the ramparts, which extended along the brow of
the precipice, round three sides of the edifice; the fourth was guarded
by the high walls of the courts, and by the gateway, through which
she had passed, on the preceding evening. The grandeur of the broad
ramparts, and the changing scenery they overlooked, excited her high
admiration; for the extent of the terraces allowed the features of the
country to be seen in such various points of view, that they appeared to
form new landscapes. She often paused to examine the gothic magnificence
of Udolpho, its proud irregularity, its lofty towers and battlements,
its high-arched casements, and its slender watch-towers, perched upon
the corners of turrets. Then she would lean on the wall of the terrace,
and, shuddering, measure with her eye the precipice below, till the
dark summits of the woods arrested it. Wherever she turned, appeared
mountain-tops, forests of pine and narrow glens, opening among the
Apennines and retiring from the sight into inaccessible regions
While she thus leaned, Montoni, followed by two men, appeared, ascending
a winding path, cut in the rock below. He stopped upon a cliff, and,
pointing to the ramparts, turned to his followers, and talked with much
eagerness of gesticulation.--Emily perceived, that one of these men was
Carlo; the other was in the dress of a peasant, and he alone seemed to
be receiving the directions of Montoni.
She withdrew from the walls, and pursued her walk, till she heard at
a distance the sound of carriage wheels, and then the loud bell of
the portal, when it instantly occurred to her, that Count Morano was
arrived. As she hastily passed the folding doors from the terrace,
towards her own apartment, several persons entered the hall by an
opposite door. She saw them at the extremities of the arcades, and
immediately retreated; but the agitation of her spirits, and the extent
and duskiness of the hall, had prevented her from distinguishing the
persons of the strangers. Her fears, however, had but one object, and
they had called up that object to her fancy:--she believed that she had
seen Count Morano.