The Mysteries of Udolpho

'Here has been warm work, by St. Marco!' cried Bertrand, waving a

torch over the ground; 'the balls have torn up the earth here with a

vengeance.' 'Aye,' replied Ugo, 'they were fired from that redoubt, yonder, and

rare execution they did. The enemy made a furious attack upon the great

gates; but they might have guessed they could never carry it there; for,

besides the cannon from the walls, our archers, on the two round towers,

showered down upon them at such a rate, that, by holy Peter! there was

no standing it. I never saw a better sight in my life; I laughed,

till my sides aked, to see how the knaves scampered. Bertrand, my good

fellow, thou shouldst have been among them; I warrant thou wouldst have

won the race!' 'Hah! you are at your old tricks again,' said Bertrand in a surly tone.

'It is well for thee thou art so near the castle; thou knowest I have

killed my man before now.' Ugo replied only by a laugh, and then gave

some further account of the siege, to which as Emily listened, she was

struck by the strong contrast of the present scene with that which had

so lately been acted here.

The mingled uproar of cannon, drums, and trumpets, the groans of the

conquered, and the shouts of the conquerors were now sunk into a silence

so profound, that it seemed as if death had triumphed alike over the

vanquished and the victor. The shattered condition of one of the towers

of the great gates by no means confirmed the VALIANT account just given

by Ugo of the scampering party, who, it was evident, had not only made

a stand, but had done much mischief before they took to flight; for this

tower appeared, as far as Emily could judge by the dim moon-light

that fell upon it, to be laid open, and the battlements were nearly

demolished.

While she gazed, a light glimmered through one of the lower

loop-holes, and disappeared; but, in the next moment, she perceived

through the broken wall, a soldier, with a lamp, ascending the narrow

staircase, that wound within the tower, and, remembering that it was the

same she had passed up, on the night, when Barnardine had deluded her

with a promise of seeing Madame Montoni, fancy gave her somewhat of

the terror she had then suffered. She was now very near the gates, over

which the soldier having opened the door of the portal-chamber, the lamp

he carried gave her a dusky view of that terrible apartment, and she

almost sunk under the recollected horrors of the moment, when she had

drawn aside the curtain, and discovered the object it was meant to

conceal. 'Perhaps,' said she to herself, 'it is now used for a similar purpose;

perhaps, that soldier goes, at this dead hour, to watch over the corpse

of his friend!' The little remains of her fortitude now gave way to the

united force of remembered and anticipated horrors, for the melancholy

fate of Madame Montoni appeared to foretell her own. She considered,

that, though the Languedoc estates, if she relinquished them, would

satisfy Montoni's avarice, they might not appease his vengeance, which

was seldom pacified but by a terrible sacrifice; and she even thought,

that, were she to resign them, the fear of justice might urge him either

to detain her a prisoner, or to take away her life.