The Mysteries of Udolpho

After near an hour's rowing, the party landed, and ascended a little

path, overgrown with vegetation. At a little distance from the point

of the eminence, within the shadowy recess of the woods, appeared

the pavilion, which Blanche perceived, as she caught a glimpse of its

portico between the trees, to be built of variegated marble. As she

followed the Countess, she often turned her eyes with rapture towards

the ocean, seen beneath the dark foliage, far below, and from thence

upon the deep woods, whose silence and impenetrable gloom awakened

emotions more solemn, but scarcely less delightful.

The pavilion had been prepared, as far as was possible, on a very short

notice, for the reception of its visitors; but the faded colours of

its painted walls and ceiling, and the decayed drapery of its once

magnificent furniture, declared how long it had been neglected, and

abandoned to the empire of the changing seasons. While the party partook

of a collation of fruit and coffee, the horns, placed in a distant part

of the woods, where an echo sweetened and prolonged their melancholy

tones, broke softly on the stillness of the scene. This spot seemed to

attract even the admiration of the Countess, or, perhaps, it was merely

the pleasure of planning furniture and decorations, that made her dwell

so long on the necessity of repairing and adorning it; while the Count,

never happier than when he saw her mind engaged by natural and simple

objects, acquiesced in all her designs, concerning the pavilion.

The paintings on the walls and coved ceiling were to be renewed, the

canopies and sofas were to be of light green damask; marble statues of

wood-nymphs, bearing on their heads baskets of living flowers, were to

adorn the recesses between the windows, which, descending to the ground,

were to admit to every part of the room, and it was of octagonal form,

the various landscape. One window opened upon a romantic glade, where

the eye roved among the woody recesses, and the scene was bounded

only by a lengthened pomp of groves; from another, the woods receding

disclosed the distant summits of the Pyrenees; a third fronted an

avenue, beyond which the grey towers of Chateau-le-Blanc, and a

picturesque part of its ruin were seen partially among the foliage;

while a fourth gave, between the trees, a glimpse of the green pastures

and villages, that diversify the banks of the Aude. The Mediterranean,

with the bold cliffs, that overlooked its shores, were the grand objects

of a fifth window, and the others gave, in different points of view, the

wild scenery of the woods.