The Mysteries of Udolpho

'Aye, and for that matter, carousing too,' replied the soldier, 'but,

since the siege, they have done nothing but make merry: and if I was

they, I would settle accounts with myself, for all my hard fighting, the

same way.'

They had now crossed the second court, and reached the hall door, when

the soldier, bidding them good night, hastened back to his post; and,

while they waited for admittance, Emily considered how she might avoid

seeing Montoni, and retire unnoticed to her former apartment, for she

shrunk from the thought of encountering either him, or any of his party,

at this hour.

The uproar within the castle was now so loud, that, though

Ugo knocked repeatedly at the hall door, he was not heard by any of

the servants, a circumstance, which increased Emily's alarm, while it

allowed her time to deliberate on the means of retiring unobserved; for,

though she might, perhaps, pass up the great stair-case unseen, it was

impossible she could find the way to her chamber, without a light, the

difficulty of procuring which, and the danger of wandering about the

castle, without one, immediately struck her. Bertrand had only a torch,

and she knew, that the servants never brought a taper to the door, for

the hall was sufficiently lighted by the large tripod lamp, which hung

in the vaulted roof; and, while she should wait till Annette could bring

a taper, Montoni, or some of his companions, might discover her.

The door was now opened by Carlo; and Emily, having requested him to

send Annette immediately with a light to the great gallery, where

she determined to await her, passed on with hasty steps towards the

stair-case; while Bertrand and Ugo, with the torch, followed old Carlo

to the servants' hall, impatient for supper and the warm blaze of a wood

fire. Emily, lighted only by the feeble rays, which the lamp above threw

between the arches of this extensive hall, endeavoured to find her way

to the stair-case, now hid in obscurity; while the shouts of merriment,

that burst from a remote apartment, served, by heightening her terror,

to increase her perplexity, and she expected, every instant, to see

the door of that room open, and Montoni and his companions issue forth.

Having, at length, reached the stair-case, and found her way to the top,

she seated herself on the last stair, to await the arrival of Annette;

for the profound darkness of the gallery deterred her from proceeding

farther, and, while she listened for her footstep, she heard only

distant sounds of revelry, which rose in sullen echoes from among the

arcades below. Once she thought she heard a low sound from the dark

gallery behind her; and, turning her eyes, fancied she saw something

luminous move in it; and, since she could not, at this moment, subdue

the weakness that caused her fears, she quitted her seat, and crept

softly down a few stairs lower.