The Mysteries of Udolpho

Who rears the bloody hand?

SAYERS

Emily remained in her chamber, on the following morning, without

receiving any notice from Montoni, or seeing a human being, except the

armed men, who sometimes passed on the terrace below. Having tasted no

food since the dinner of the preceding day, extreme faintness made her

feel the necessity of quitting the asylum of her apartment to obtain

refreshment, and she was also very anxious to procure liberty for

Annette. Willing, however, to defer venturing forth, as long as

possible, and considering, whether she should apply to Montoni, or to

the compassion of some other person, her excessive anxiety concerning

her aunt, at length, overcame her abhorrence of his presence, and she

determined to go to him, and to entreat, that he would suffer her to see

Madame Montoni.

Meanwhile, it was too certain, from the absence of Annette, that some

accident had befallen Ludovico, and that she was still in confinement;

Emily, therefore, resolved also to visit the chamber, where she had

spoken to her, on the preceding night, and, if the poor girl was yet

there, to inform Montoni of her situation.

It was near noon, before she ventured from her apartment, and went

first to the south gallery, whither she passed without meeting a single

person, or hearing a sound, except, now and then, the echo of a distant

footstep. It was unnecessary to call Annette, whose lamentations were audible

upon the first approach to the gallery, and who, bewailing her own and

Ludovico's fate, told Emily, that she should certainly be starved to

death, if she was not let out immediately. Emily replied, that she

was going to beg her release of Montoni; but the terrors of hunger now

yielded to those of the Signor, and, when Emily left her, she was loudly

entreating, that her place of refuge might be concealed from him.

As Emily drew near the great hall, the sounds she heard and the people

she met in the passages renewed her alarm. The latter, however, were

peaceable, and did not interrupt her, though they looked earnestly at

her, as she passed, and sometimes spoke. On crossing the hall towards

the cedar room, where Montoni usually sat, she perceived, on the

pavement, fragments of swords, some tattered garments stained with

blood, and almost expected to have seen among them a dead body; but

from such a spectacle she was, at present, spared. As she approached

the room, the sound of several voices issued from within, and a dread

of appearing before many strangers, as well as of irritating Montoni

by such an intrusion, made her pause and falter from her purpose. She

looked up through the long arcades of the hall, in search of a servant,

who might bear a message, but no one appeared, and the urgency of what

she had to request made her still linger near the door. The voices

within were not in contention, though she distinguished those of several

of the guests of the preceding day; but still her resolution failed,

whenever she would have tapped at the door, and she had determined to

walk in the hall, till some person should appear, who might call Montoni

from the room, when, as she turned from the door, it was suddenly opened

by himself. Emily trembled, and was confused, while he almost started

with surprise, and all the terrors of his countenance unfolded

themselves. She forgot all she would have said, and neither enquired for

her aunt, or entreated for Annette, but stood silent and embarrassed.