The Mysteries of Udolpho

But in these cases,

We still have judgment here; that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor: thus even-handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice

To our own lips.

MACBETH

Some circumstances of an extraordinary nature now withdrew Emily from

her own sorrows, and excited emotions, which partook of both surprise

and horror. A few days followed that, on which Signora Laurentini died, her will

was opened at the monastery, in the presence of the superiors and Mons.

Bonnac, when it was found, that one third of her personal property was

bequeathed to the nearest surviving relative of the late Marchioness de

Villeroi, and that Emily was the person.

With the secret of Emily's family the abbess had long been acquainted,

and it was in observance of the earnest request of St. Aubert, who

was known to the friar, that attended him on his death-bed, that

his daughter had remained in ignorance of her relationship to the

Marchioness. But some hints, which had fallen from Signora Laurentini,

during her last interview with Emily, and a confession of a very

extraordinary nature, given in her dying hours, had made the abbess

think it necessary to converse with her young friend, on the topic she

had not before ventured to introduce; and it was for this purpose, that

she had requested to see her on the morning that followed her interview

with the nun.

Emily's indisposition had then prevented the intended

conversation; but now, after the will had been examined, she received

a summons, which she immediately obeyed, and became informed of

circumstances, that powerfully affected her. As the narrative of the

abbess was, however, deficient in many particulars, of which the reader

may wish to be informed, and the history of the nun is materially

connected with the fate of the Marchioness de Villeroi, we shall omit

the conversation, that passed in the parlour of the convent, and mingle

with our relation a brief history of LAURENTINI DI UDOLPHO,

Who was the only child of her parents, and heiress of the ancient house

of Udolpho, in the territory of Venice. It was the first misfortune

of her life, and that which led to all her succeeding misery, that the

friends, who ought to have restrained her strong passions, and mildly

instructed her in the art of governing them, nurtured them by early

indulgence. But they cherished their own failings in her; for their

conduct was not the result of rational kindness, and, when they either

indulged, or opposed the passions of their child, they gratified their

own. Thus they indulged her with weakness, and reprehended her with

violence; her spirit was exasperated by their vehemence, instead of

being corrected by their wisdom; and their oppositions became contest

for victory, in which the due tenderness of the parents, and the

affectionate duties of the child, were equally forgotten; but, as

returning fondness disarmed the parents' resentment soonest, Laurentini

was suffered to believe that she had conquered, and her passions became

stronger by every effort, that had been employed to subdue them.