The Mysteries of Udolpho

'But are they always thus peacefully inhabited?' said the Lady Blanche.

'No,' replied the Count, 'they are sometimes the asylum of French and

Spanish smugglers, who cross the mountains with contraband goods from

their respective countries, and the latter are particularly numerous,

against whom strong parties of the king's troops are sometimes sent. But

the desperate resolution of these adventurers, who, knowing, that, if

they are taken, they must expiate the breach of the law by the most

cruel death, travel in large parties, well armed, often daunts the

courage of the soldiers. The smugglers, who seek only safety, never

engage, when they can possibly avoid it; the military, also, who

know, that in these encounters, danger is certain, and glory almost

unattainable, are equally reluctant to fight; an engagement, therefore,

very seldom happens, but, when it does, it never concludes till after

the most desperate and bloody conflict. You are inattentive, Blanche,'

added the Count: 'I have wearied you with a dull subject; but see,

yonder, in the moon-light, is the edifice we have been in search of, and

we are fortunate to be so near it, before the storm bursts.'

Blanche, looking up, perceived, that they were at the foot of the cliff,

on whose summit the building stood, but no light now issued from it; the

barking of the dog too had, for some time, ceased, and the guides began

to doubt, whether this was really the object of their search. From the

distance, at which they surveyed it, shewn imperfectly by a cloudy moon,

it appeared to be of more extent than a single watch-tower; but the

difficulty was how to ascend the height, whose abrupt declivities seemed

to afford no kind of pathway.

While the guides carried forward the torch to examine the cliff, the

Count, remaining with Blanche and St. Foix at its foot, under the shadow

of the woods, endeavoured again to beguile the time by conversation,

but again anxiety abstracted the mind of Blanche; and he then consulted,

apart with St. Foix, whether it would be advisable, should a path be

found, to venture to an edifice, which might possibly harbour banditti.

They considered, that their own party was not small, and that several of

them were well armed; and, after enumerating the dangers, to be incurred

by passing the night in the open wild, exposed, perhaps, to the effects

of a thunder-storm, there remained not a doubt, that they ought to

endeavour to obtain admittance to the edifice above, at any hazard

respecting the inhabitants it might harbour; but the darkness, and the

dead silence, that surrounded it, appeared to contradict the probability

of its being inhabited at all.