The Mysteries of Udolpho

The papers, which he had so solemnly

enjoined her to destroy, she now fancied had related to this connection,

and she wished more earnestly than before to know the reasons, that

made him consider the injunction necessary, which, had her faith in

his principles been less, would have led to believe, that there was

a mystery in her birth dishonourable to her parents, which those

manuscripts might have revealed.

Reflections, similar to these, engaged her mind, during the greater part

of the night, and when, at length, she fell into a slumber, it was only

to behold a vision of the dying nun, and to awaken in horrors, like

those she had witnessed.

On the following morning, she was too much indisposed to attend her

appointment with the abbess, and, before the day concluded, she heard,

that sister Agnes was no more. Mons. Bonnac received this intelligence,

with concern; but Emily observed, that he did not appear so much

affected now, as on the preceding evening, immediately after quitting

the apartment of the nun, whose death was probably less terrible to him,

than the confession he had been then called upon to witness. However

this might be, he was perhaps consoled, in some degree, by a knowledge

of the legacy bequeathed him, since his family was large, and the

extravagance of some part of it had lately been the means of involving

him in great distress, and even in the horrors of a prison; and it was

the grief he had suffered from the wild career of a favourite son, with

the pecuniary anxieties and misfortunes consequent upon it, that

had given to his countenance the air of dejection, which had so much

interested Emily.

To his friend Mons. Du Pont he recited some particulars of his late

sufferings, when it appeared, that he had been confined for several

months in one of the prisons of Paris, with little hope of release,

and without the comfort of seeing his wife, who had been absent in the

country, endeavouring, though in vain, to procure assistance from his

friends. When, at length, she had obtained an order for admittance, she

was so much shocked at the change, which long confinement and sorrow had

made in his appearance, that she was seized with fits, which, by their

long continuance, threatened her life.

'Our situation affected those, who happened to witness it,' continued

Mons. Bonnac, 'and one generous friend, who was in confinement at the

same time, afterwards employed the first moments of his liberty in

efforts to obtain mine. He succeeded; the heavy debt, that oppressed

me, was discharged; and, when I would have expressed my sense of the

obligation I had received, my benefactor was fled from my search. I have

reason to believe he was the victim of his own generosity, and that he

returned to the state of confinement, from which he had released me;

but every enquiry after him was unsuccessful. Amiable and unfortunate

Valancourt!' 'Valancourt!' exclaimed Mons. Du Pont. 'Of what family?'