The Mysteries of Udolpho

'We then got my lord out of the room; he went into his library, and

threw himself on the floor, and there he staid, and would hear no

reason, that was talked to him. When my lady recovered, she enquired

for him, but, afterwards, said she could not bear to see his grief, and

desired we would let her die quietly. She died in my arms, ma'amselle,

and she went off as peacefully as a child, for all the violence of her

disorder was passed.' Dorothee paused, and wept, and Emily wept with her; for she was much

affected by the goodness of the late Marchioness, and by the meek

patience, with which she had suffered.

'When the doctor came,' resumed Dorothee, 'alas! he came too late;

he appeared greatly shocked to see her, for soon after her death a

frightful blackness spread all over her face. When he had sent the

attendants out of the room, he asked me several odd questions about the

Marchioness, particularly concerning the manner, in which she had been

seized, and he often shook his head at my answers, and seemed to mean

more, than he chose to say. But I understood him too well. However, I

kept my remarks to myself, and only told them to my husband, who bade

me hold my tongue.

Some of the other servants, however, suspected what

I did, and strange reports were whispered about the neighbourhood, but

nobody dared to make any stir about them. When my lord heard that my

lady was dead, he shut himself up, and would see nobody but the doctor,

who used to be with him alone, sometimes for an hour together; and,

after that, the doctor never talked with me again about my lady. When

she was buried in the church of the convent, at a little distance

yonder, if the moon was up you might see the towers here, ma'amselle,

all my lord's vassals followed the funeral, and there was not a dry eye

among them, for she had done a deal of good among the poor. My lord, the

Marquis, I never saw any body so melancholy as he was afterwards, and

sometimes he would be in such fits of violence, that we almost thought

he had lost his senses.

He did not stay long at the chateau, but joined

his regiment, and, soon after, all the servants, except my husband and

I, received notice to go, for my lord went to the wars. I never saw him

after, for he would not return to the chateau, though it is such a fine

place, and never finished those fine rooms he was building on the west

side of it, and it has, in a manner, been shut up ever since, till my

lord the Count came here.'