The Mysteries of Udolpho

'I know that you are incredulous,' interrupted the Baron. '

Well, call it what you will, I mean to say, that, though you know I am

free from superstition--if any thing supernatural has appeared, I doubt

not it will appear to me, and if any strange event hangs over my house,

or if any extraordinary transaction has formerly been connected with it,

I shall probably be made acquainted with it. At all events I will invite

discovery; and, that I may be equal to a mortal attack, which in good

truth, my friend, is what I most expect, I shall take care to be well

armed.'

The Count took leave of his family, for the night, with an assumed

gaiety, which but ill concealed the anxiety, that depressed his spirits,

and retired to the north apartments, accompanied by his son and followed

by the Baron, M. Du Pont and some of the domestics, who all bade him

good night at the outer door. In these chambers every thing appeared

as when he had last been here; even in the bed-room no alteration was

visible, where he lighted his own fire, for none of the domestics could

be prevailed upon to venture thither. After carefully examining the

chamber and the oriel, the Count and Henri drew their chairs upon the

hearth, set a bottle of wine and a lamp before them, laid their swords

upon the table, and, stirring the wood into a blaze, began to converse

on indifferent topics. But Henri was often silent and abstracted, and

sometimes threw a glance of mingled awe and curiosity round the gloomy

apartment; while the Count gradually ceased to converse, and sat either

lost in thought, or reading a volume of Tacitus, which he had brought to

beguile the tediousness of the night.