The Mysteries of Udolpho

Lady Blanche, affected by these words, remained silent; she looked

forward to the period, which the Count anticipated, and considering,

that he, who now spoke, would then probably be no more, her eyes, bent

to the ground, were filed with tears. She gave her hand to her father,

who, smiling affectionately, rose from his chair, and went to a window

to conceal his emotion.

The fatigues of the day made the party separate at an early hour,

when Blanche retired through a long oak gallery to her chamber, whose

spacious and lofty walls, high antiquated casements, and, what was the

effect of these, its gloomy air, did not reconcile her to its remote

situation, in this antient building. The furniture, also, was of antient

date; the bed was of blue damask, trimmed with tarnished gold lace,

and its lofty tester rose in the form of a canopy, whence the curtains

descended, like those of such tents as are sometimes represented in old

pictures, and, indeed, much resembling those, exhibited on the faded

tapestry, with which the chamber was hung. To Blanche, every object here

was matter of curiosity; and, taking the light from her woman to examine

the tapestry, she perceived, that it represented scenes from the wars

of Troy, though the almost colourless worsted now mocked the glowing

actions they once had painted. She laughed at the ludicrous absurdity

she observed, till, recollecting, that the hands, which had wove it,

were, like the poet, whose thoughts of fire they had attempted to

express, long since mouldered into dust, a train of melancholy ideas

passed over her mind, and she almost wept.

Having given her woman a strict injunction to awaken her, before

sun-rise, she dismissed her; and then, to dissipate the gloom, which

reflection had cast upon her spirits, opened one of the high casements,

and was again cheered by the face of living nature. The shadowy earth,

the air, and ocean--all was still. Along the deep serene of the heavens,

a few light clouds floated slowly, through whose skirts the stars now

seemed to tremble, and now to emerge with purer splendour. Blanche's

thoughts arose involuntarily to the Great Author of the sublime objects

she contemplated, and she breathed a prayer of finer devotion, than any

she had ever uttered beneath the vaulted roof of a cloister. At this

casement, she remained till the glooms of midnight were stretched over

the prospect. She then retired to her pillow, and, 'with gay visions of

to-morrow,' to those sweet slumbers, which health and happy innocence

only know. To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.