The Mysteries of Udolpho

Blanche enquired how long this part of the edifice had been built. 'Soon

after my lord's marriage, ma'am,' replied Dorothee. 'The place was large

enough without this addition, for many rooms of the old building were

even then never made use of, and my lord had a princely household too;

but he thought the antient mansion gloomy, and gloomy enough it is!'

Lady Blanche now desired to be shewn to the inhabited part of the

chateau; and, as the passages were entirely dark, Dorothee conducted her

along the edge of the lawn to the opposite side of the edifice, where,

a door opening into the great hall, she was met by Mademoiselle Bearn.

'Where have you been so long?' said she, 'I had begun to think some

wonderful adventure had befallen you, and that the giant of this

enchanted castle, or the ghost, which, no doubt, haunts it, had conveyed

you through a trap-door into some subterranean vault, whence you was

never to return.' 'No,' replied Blanche, laughingly, 'you seem to love adventures so well,

that I leave them for you to achieve.'

'Well, I am willing to achieve them, provided I am allowed to describe

them.' 'My dear Mademoiselle Bearn,' said Henri, as he met her at the door of

the parlour, 'no ghost of these days would be so savage as to impose

silence on you. Our ghosts are more civilized than to condemn a lady to

a purgatory severer even, than their own, be it what it may.'

Mademoiselle Bearn replied only by a laugh; and, the Count now entering

the room, supper was served, during which he spoke little, frequently

appeared to be abstracted from the company, and more than once remarked,

that the place was greatly altered, since he had last seen it. 'Many

years have intervened since that period,' said he; 'and, though the

grand features of the scenery admit of no change, they impress me with

sensations very different from those I formerly experienced.'

'Did these scenes, sir,' said Blanche, 'ever appear more lovely, than

they do now? To me this seems hardly possible.' The Count, regarding her

with a melancholy smile, said, 'They once were as delightful to me, as

they are now to you; the landscape is not changed, but time has changed

me; from my mind the illusion, which gave spirit to the colouring of

nature, is fading fast! If you live, my dear Blanche, to re-visit this

spot, at the distance of many years, you will, perhaps, remember and

understand the feelings of your father.'