The Mysteries of Udolpho

Emily wished to trip along the turf, so green and bright with dew, and

to taste the full delight of that liberty, which the izard seemed to

enjoy as he bounded along the brow of the cliffs; while Valancourt often

stopped to speak with the travellers, and with social feeling to point

out to them the peculiar objects of his admiration. St. Aubert was

pleased with him: 'Here is the real ingenuousness and ardour of youth,'

said he to himself; 'this young man has never been at Paris.'

He was sorry when they came to the spot where the roads parted, and his

heart took a more affectionate leave of him than is usual after so short

an acquaintance. Valancourt talked long by the side of the carriage;

seemed more than once to be going, but still lingered, and appeared to

search anxiously for topics of conversation to account for his delay. At

length he took leave. As he went, St. Aubert observed him look with an

earnest and pensive eye at Emily, who bowed to him with a countenance

full of timid sweetness, while the carriage drove on. St. Aubert, for

whatever reason, soon after looked from the window, and saw Valancourt

standing upon the bank of the road, resting on his pike with folded

arms, and following the carriage with his eyes. He waved his hand, and

Valancourt, seeming to awake from his reverie, returned the salute, and

started away.

The aspect of the country now began to change, and the travellers soon

found themselves among mountains covered from their base nearly to their

summits with forests of gloomy pine, except where a rock of granite shot

up from the vale, and lost its snowy top in the clouds. The rivulet,

which had hitherto accompanied them, now expanded into a river; and,

flowing deeply and silently along, reflected, as in a mirror, the

blackness of the impending shades. Sometimes a cliff was seen lifting

its bold head above the woods and the vapours, that floated mid-way down

the mountains; and sometimes a face of perpendicular marble rose from

the water's edge, over which the larch threw his gigantic arms, here

scathed with lightning, and there floating in luxuriant foliage.

They continued to travel over a rough and unfrequented road, seeing now

and then at a distance the solitary shepherd, with his dog, stalking

along the valley, and hearing only the dashing of torrents, which the

woods concealed from the eye, the long sullen murmur of the breeze,

as it swept over the pines, or the notes of the eagle and the vulture,

which were seen towering round the beetling cliff.