The Mysteries of Udolpho

At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound

Rose, like a stream of rich distilled perfumes,

And stole upon the air, that even Silence

Was took ere she was 'ware, and wished she might

Deny her nature, and be never more

Still, to be so displaced.*

*Milton.

In a few moments the voice died into air, and the instrument, which had

been heard before, sounded in low symphony. St. Aubert now observed,

that it produced a tone much more full and melodious than that of a

guitar, and still more melancholy and soft than the lute. They continued

to listen, but the sounds returned no more. 'This is strange!' said St.

Aubert, at length interrupting the silence. 'Very strange!' said Emily.

'It is so,' rejoined La Voisin, and they were again silent.

After a long pause, 'It is now about eighteen years since I first heard

that music,' said La Voisin; 'I remember it was on a fine summer's

night, much like this, but later, that I was walking in the woods, and

alone. I remember, too, that my spirits were very low, for one of my

boys was ill, and we feared we should lose him. I had been watching at

his bed-side all the evening while his mother slept; for she had sat

up with him the night before. I had been watching, and went out for a

little fresh air, the day had been very sultry. As I walked under the

shades and mused, I heard music at a distance, and thought it was

Claude playing upon his flute, as he often did of a fine evening, at

the cottage door. But, when I came to a place where the trees opened, (I

shall never forget it!) and stood looking up at the north-lights, which

shot up the heaven to a great height, I heard all of a sudden such

sounds!--they came so as I cannot describe. It was like the music of

angels, and I looked up again almost expecting to see them in the sky.

When I came home, I told what I had heard, but they laughed at me, and

said it must be some of the shepherds playing on their pipes, and I

could not persuade them to the contrary. A few nights after, however, my

wife herself heard the same sounds, and was as much surprised as I was,

and Father Denis frightened her sadly by saying, that it was music come

to warn her of her child's death, and that music often came to houses

where there was a dying person.'

Emily, on hearing this, shrunk with a superstitious dread entirely new

to her, and could scarcely conceal her agitation from St. Aubert.