The Mysteries of Udolpho

Emily retired with Madame Montoni, soon after the cloth was withdrawn,

and left the cavaliers to their secret councils, but not before the

significant frowns of Montoni had warned his wife to depart, who passed

from the hall to the ramparts, and walked, for some time, in silence,

which Emily did not interrupt, for her mind was also occupied by

interests of its own. It required all her resolution, to forbear

communicating to Madame Montoni the terrible subject, which still

thrilled her every nerve with horror; and sometimes she was on the point

of doing so, merely to obtain the relief of a moment; but she knew

how wholly she was in the power of Montoni, and, considering, that the

indiscretion of her aunt might prove fatal to them both, she compelled

herself to endure a present and an inferior evil, rather than to tempt a

future and a heavier one. A strange kind of presentiment frequently, on

this day, occurred to her;--it seemed as if her fate rested here, and

was by some invisible means connected with this castle.

'Let me not accelerate it,' said she to herself: 'for whatever I may be

reserved, let me, at least, avoid self-reproach.'

As she looked on the massy walls of the edifice, her melancholy spirits

represented it to be her prison; and she started as at a new suggestion,

when she considered how far distant she was from her native country,

from her little peaceful home, and from her only friend--how remote was

her hope of happiness, how feeble the expectation of again seeing him!

Yet the idea of Valancourt, and her confidence in his faithful love, had

hitherto been her only solace, and she struggled hard to retain them.

A few tears of agony started to her eyes, which she turned aside to

conceal.

While she afterwards leaned on the wall of the rampart, some peasants,

at a little distance, were seen examining a breach, before which lay

a heap of stones, as if to repair it, and a rusty old cannon, that

appeared to have fallen from its station above. Madame Montoni stopped

to speak to the men, and enquired what they were going to do. 'To repair

the fortifications, your ladyship,' said one of them; a labour which

she was somewhat surprised, that Montoni should think necessary,

particularly since he had never spoken of the castle, as of a place, at

which he meant to reside for any considerable time; but she passed on

towards a lofty arch, that led from the south to the east rampart,

and which adjoined the castle, on one side, while, on the other, it

supported a small watch-tower, that entirely commanded the deep valley

below. As she approached this arch, she saw, beyond it, winding along

the woody descent of a distant mountain, a long troop of horse and foot,

whom she knew to be soldiers, only by the glitter of their pikes and

other arms, for the distance did not allow her to discover the colour

of their liveries. As she gazed, the vanguard issued from the woods into

the valley, but the train still continued to pour over the remote

summit of the mountain, in endless succession; while, in the front,

the military uniform became distinguishable, and the commanders, riding

first, and seeming, by their gestures, to direct the march of those that

followed, at length, approached very near to the castle.