The Mysteries of Udolpho

Now my task is smoothly done,

I can fly, or I can run

Quickly to the green earth's end,

Where the bow'd welkin low doth bend,

And, from thence, can soar as soon

To the corners of the moon.

MILTON

The marriages of the Lady Blanche and Emily St. Aubert were celebrated,

on the same day, and with the ancient baronial magnificence, at

Chateau-le-Blanc. The feasts were held in the great hall of the castle,

which, on this occasion, was hung with superb new tapestry, representing

the exploits of Charlemagne and his twelve peers; here, were seen the

Saracens, with their horrible visors, advancing to battle; and there,

were displayed the wild solemnities of incantation, and the necromantic

feats, exhibited by the magician JARL before the Emperor. The sumptuous

banners of the family of Villeroi, which had long slept in dust, were

once more unfurled, to wave over the gothic points of painted casements;

and music echoed, in many a lingering close, through every winding

gallery and colonnade of that vast edifice.

As Annette looked down from the corridor upon the hall, whose arches and

windows were illuminated with brilliant festoons of lamps, and gazed

on the splendid dresses of the dancers, the costly liveries of the

attendants, the canopies of purple velvet and gold, and listened to

the gay strains that floated along the vaulted roof, she almost fancied

herself in an enchanted palace, and declared, that she had not met with

any place, which charmed her so much, since she read the fairy tales;

nay, that the fairies themselves, at their nightly revels in this old

hall, could display nothing finer; while old Dorothee, as she surveyed

the scene, sighed, and said, the castle looked as it was wont to do in

the time of her youth.

After gracing the festivities of Chateau-le-Blanc, for some days,

Valancourt and Emily took leave of their kind friends, and returned to

La Vallee, where the faithful Theresa received them with unfeigned

joy, and the pleasant shades welcomed them with a thousand tender and

affecting remembrances; and, while they wandered together over the

scenes, so long inhabited by the late Mons. and Madame St. Aubert, and

Emily pointed out, with pensive affection, their favourite haunts, her

present happiness was heightened, by considering, that it would have

been worthy of their approbation, could they have witnessed it.

Valancourt led her to the plane-tree on the terrace, where he had first

ventured to declare his love, and where now the remembrance of the

anxiety he had then suffered, and the retrospect of all the dangers

and misfortunes they had each encountered, since last they sat together

beneath its broad branches, exalted the sense of their present felicity,

which, on this spot, sacred to the memory of St. Aubert, they solemnly

vowed to deserve, as far as possible, by endeavouring to imitate his

benevolence,--by remembering, that superior attainments of every sort

bring with them duties of superior exertion,--and by affording to their

fellow-beings, together with that portion of ordinary comforts, which

prosperity always owes to misfortune, the example of lives passed in

happy thankfulness to GOD, and, therefore, in careful tenderness to his

creatures.