The Mysteries of Udolpho

She was attacked by a slow fever, and when she yielded to the persuasion

of Annette to send for medical advice, the physicians prescribed little

beside air, gentle exercise and amusement: but how was this last to be

obtained? She, however, endeavoured to abstract her thoughts from the

subject of her anxiety, by employing them in promoting that happiness in

others, which she had lost herself; and, when the evening was fine, she

usually took an airing, including in her ride the cottages of some of

her tenants, on whose condition she made such observations, as often

enabled her, unasked, to fulfil their wishes.

Her indisposition and the business she engaged in, relative to this

estate, had already protracted her stay at Tholouse, beyond the period

she had formerly fixed for her departure to La Vallee; and now she

was unwilling to leave the only place, where it seemed possible, that

certainty could be obtained on the subject of her distress. But the time

was come, when her presence was necessary at La Vallee, a letter from

the Lady Blanche now informing her, that the Count and herself, being

then at the chateau of the Baron St. Foix, purposed to visit her at La

Vallee, on their way home, as soon as they should be informed of her

arrival there. Blanche added, that they made this visit, with the hope

of inducing her to return with them to Chateau-le-Blanc.

Emily, having replied to the letter of her friend, and said that she

should be at La Vallee in a few days, made hasty preparations for the

journey; and, in thus leaving Tholouse, endeavoured to support herself

with a belief, that, if any fatal accident had happened to Valancourt,

she must in this interval have heard of it.

On the evening before her departure, she went to take leave of the

terrace and the pavilion. The day had been sultry, but a light shower,

that fell just before sun-set, had cooled the air, and given that soft

verdure to the woods and pastures, which is so refreshing to the eye;

while the rain drops, still trembling on the shrubs, glittered in the

last yellow gleam, that lighted up the scene, and the air was filled

with fragrance, exhaled by the late shower, from herbs and flowers and

from the earth itself. But the lovely prospect, which Emily beheld from

the terrace, was no longer viewed by her with delight; she sighed deeply

as her eye wandered over it, and her spirits were in a state of such

dejection, that she could not think of her approaching return to La

Vallee, without tears, and seemed to mourn again the death of her

father, as if it had been an event of yesterday. Having reached the

pavilion, she seated herself at the open lattice, and, while her

eyes settled on the distant mountains, that overlooked Gascony, still

gleaming on the horizon, though the sun had now left the plains below,