The Mysteries of Udolpho

A short contest ensued between the parties, in which that of Montoni,

however, were presently victors, and the horsemen, perceiving that

numbers were against them, and being, perhaps, not very warmly

interested in the affair they had undertaken, galloped off, while

Barnardine had run far enough to be lost in the darkness, and Emily was

led back into the castle. As she re-passed the courts, the remembrance

of what she had seen in the portal-chamber came, with all its horror, to

her mind; and when, soon after, she heard the gate close, that shut

her once more within the castle walls, she shuddered for herself, and,

almost forgetting the danger she had escaped, could scarcely think, that

any thing less precious than liberty and peace was to be found beyond

them. Montoni ordered Emily to await him in the cedar parlour, whither he soon

followed, and then sternly questioned her on this mysterious affair.

Though she now viewed him with horror, as the murderer of her aunt, and

scarcely knew what she said in reply to his impatient enquiries, her

answers and her manner convinced him, that she had not taken a voluntary

part in the late scheme, and he dismissed her upon the appearance of his

servants, whom he had ordered to attend, that he might enquire further

into the affair, and discover those, who had been accomplices in it.

Emily had been some time in her apartment, before the tumult of her mind

allowed her to remember several of the past circumstances. Then, again,

the dead form, which the curtain in the portal-chamber had disclosed,

came to her fancy, and she uttered a groan, which terrified Annette the

more, as Emily forbore to satisfy her curiosity, on the subject of

it, for she feared to trust her with so fatal a secret, lest her

indiscretion should call down the immediate vengeance of Montoni on

herself. Thus compelled to bear within her own mind the whole horror of the

secret, that oppressed it, her reason seemed to totter under the

intolerable weight. She often fixed a wild and vacant look on Annette,

and, when she spoke, either did not hear her, or answered from the

purpose. Long fits of abstraction succeeded; Annette spoke repeatedly,

but her voice seemed not to make any impression on the sense of the long

agitated Emily, who sat fixed and silent, except that, now and then, she

heaved a heavy sigh, but without tears.

Terrified at her condition, Annette, at length, left the room, to inform

Montoni of it, who had just dismissed his servants, without having made

any discoveries on the subject of his enquiry. The wild description,

which this girl now gave of Emily, induced him to follow her immediately

to the chamber. At the sound of his voice, Emily turned her eyes, and a gleam of

recollection seemed to shoot athwart her mind, for she immediately rose

from her seat, and moved slowly to a remote part of the room. He spoke

to her in accents somewhat softened from their usual harshness, but

she regarded him with a kind of half curious, half terrified look,

and answered only 'yes,' to whatever he said. Her mind still seemed to

retain no other impression, than that of fear.