The Mysteries of Udolpho

'Nobody,' replied the Count; 'the rest of my people are now scattered

about, I scarcely know where. Go, Ludovico, collect them together, and

look out yourself, and listen if you hear the feet of mules.'

Ludovico then hurried away, and the Count consulted as to the means of

removing St. Foix, who could not have borne the motion of a mule, even

if his strength would have supported him in the saddle.

While the Count was telling, that the banditti, whom they had found

in the fort, were secured in the dungeon, Blanche observed that he was

himself wounded, and that his left arm was entirely useless; but he

smiled at her anxiety, assuring her the wound was trifling.

The Count's servants, except two who kept watch at the gate, now

appeared, and, soon after, Ludovico.

'I think I hear mules coming along

the glen, my Lord,' said he, 'but the roaring of the torrent below

will not let me be certain; however, I have brought what will serve the

Chevalier,' he added, shewing a bear's skin, fastened to a couple of

long poles, which had been adapted for the purpose of bringing home such

of the banditti as happened to be wounded in their encounters. Ludovico

spread it on the ground, and, placing the skins of several goats upon

it, made a kind of bed, into which the Chevalier, who was however now

much revived, was gently lifted; and, the poles being raised upon the

shoulders of the guides, whose footing among these steeps could best

be depended upon, he was borne along with an easy motion. Some of the

Count's servants were also wounded--but not materially, and, their

wounds being bound up, they now followed to the great gate. As they

passed along the hall, a loud tumult was heard at some distance, and

Blanche was terrified.

'It is only those villains in the dungeon, my

Lady,' said Ludovico. 'They seem to be bursting it open,' said the

Count. 'No, my Lord,' replied Ludovico, 'it has an iron door; we have

nothing to fear from them; but let me go first, and look out from the

rampart.' They quickly followed him, and found their mules browsing before the

gates, where the party listened anxiously, but heard no sound, except

that of the torrent below and of the early breeze, sighing among the

branches of the old oak, that grew in the court; and they were now glad

to perceive the first tints of dawn over the mountain-tops. When they

had mounted their mules, Ludovico, undertaking to be their guide, led

them by an easier path, than that by which they had formerly ascended,

into the glen. 'We must avoid that valley to the east, my Lord,'

said he, 'or we may meet the banditti; they went out that way in the

morning.'