The Mysteries of Udolpho

Of aery tongues, that syllable men's names

On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.

MILTON

It is now necessary to mention some circumstances, which could not be

related amidst the events of Emily's hasty departure from Venice, or

together with those, which so rapidly succeeded to her arrival in the

castle. On the morning of her journey, Count Morano had gone at the appointed

hour to the mansion of Montoni, to demand his bride. When he reached

it, he was somewhat surprised by the silence and solitary air of the

portico, where Montoni's lacqueys usually loitered; but surprise

was soon changed to astonishment, and astonishment to the rage of

disappointment, when the door was opened by an old woman, who told his

servants, that her master and his family had left Venice, early in the

morning, for terra-firma.

Scarcely believing what his servants told, he

left his gondola, and rushed into the hall to enquire further. The old

woman, who was the only person left in care of the mansion, persisted in

her story, which the silent and deserted apartments soon convinced him

was no fiction. He then seized her with a menacing air, as if he meant

to wreak all his vengeance upon her, at the same time asking her twenty

questions in a breath, and all these with a gesticulation so furious,

that she was deprived of the power of answering them; then suddenly

letting her go, he stamped about the hall, like a madman, cursing

Montoni and his own folly.

When the good woman was at liberty, and had somewhat recovered from her

fright, she told him all she knew of the affair, which was, indeed, very

little, but enough to enable Morano to discover, that Montoni was gone

to his castle on the Apennine. Thither he followed, as soon as his

servants could complete the necessary preparation for the journey,

accompanied by a friend, and attended by a number of his people,

determined to obtain Emily, or a full revenge on Montoni. When his mind

had recovered from the first effervescence of rage, and his

thoughts became less obscured, his conscience hinted to him certain

circumstances, which, in some measure, explained the conduct of Montoni:

but how the latter could have been led to suspect an intention, which,

he had believed, was known only to himself, he could not even guess. On

this occasion, however, he had been partly betrayed by that sympathetic

intelligence, which may be said to exist between bad minds, and which

teaches one man to judge what another will do in the same circumstances.

Thus it was with Montoni, who had now received indisputable proof of a

truth, which he had some time suspected--that Morano's circumstances,

instead of being affluent, as he had been bidden to believe, were

greatly involved. Montoni had been interested in his suit, by motives

entirely selfish, those of avarice and pride; the last of which would

have been gratified by an alliance with a Venetian nobleman, the former

by Emily's estate in Gascony, which he had stipulated, as the price of

his favour, should be delivered up to him from the day of her marriage.

In the meantime, he had been led to suspect the consequence of the

Count's boundless extravagance; but it was not till the evening,

preceding the intended nuptials, that he obtained certain information

of his distressed circumstances.