broke on silence, and they were now too far off to hear even the faint thunder of the cannon. Towards evening, they wound down precipices, black with forests of cypress, pine, and cedar, into a glen so savage and secluded that, if Solitude ever had local habitation, this might have been "her place of dearest residence." To Emily it appeared a spot exactly suited for the retreat of banditti, and, in her imagination, she already saw them lurking under the brow of 'some projecting rock, whence their shadows, lengthened by the setting sun, stretched across the road, and warned the traveller of his danger. She shuddered at the idea, and looking at her conductors, to observe whether they were armed, thought she saw in them the banditti she dreaded!

It was in this glen that they proposed to alight, for, said Ugo, night will come on presently, and then the wolves will make it dangerous to stop. This was a new subject of alarm to Emily, but inferior to what she suffered from the thought of being left in these wilds, at midnight, with two such men as her present conductors. Dark and dreadful hints of what might be Montoni's purpose in sending her hither, came to her mind. She endeavoured to dissuade the men from stopping, and inquired, with anxiety, how far they had yet to go.

Many leagues yet, replied Bertrand. As for you, signo ra, you may do as you please about eating, but for us, we will make a hearty supper, while we can. We shall have need of it, I warrant, before we finish our journey. The sun's going down apace; let us alight under that rock yonder.

His comrade assented, and turned the mules out of the road, they advanced towards a cliff, overhung with cedars, Emily following in a trembling silence. They lifted her from the mule, and, having seated themselves on the grass, at the foot of the rocks, drew some homely fare from a wallet, of which Emily tried to eat a little, the better to disguise her apprehensions.

The sun was now sunk behind the high mountains in the west, upon which a purple haze began to spread, and the gloom of twilight to draw over the surrounding objects. To the low and sullen murmur of the breeze, passing among the woods, she no longer listened with any degree of pleasure, for it conspired with the wildness of the scene and the evening hour, to depress her spirits.

Suspense had so much increased her anxiety, as to the prisoner at Udolpho, that finding it impracticable to speak alone with Bertrand on that subject, she renewed her questions in the presence of Ugo; but he either was, or pretended to be entirely ignorant concerning the stranger. When he had dismissed the question, he talked with Ugo on some subject, which led to the mention of Signor Orsino and of the affair that had banished him from Venice; respecting which Emily had ventured to ask a few questions.

Ugo appeared to be well acquainted with the circumstances of that tragical event, and related some minute particulars, that both shocked and surprised her: for it appeared very extraordinary how such particulars could be known to any but to persons present when the assassination was committed.

He was of rank, said Bertrand, or the state would not have troubled itself to inquire after his assassins. The signor has been lucky hitherto ; this is not the first affair of the kind he has had upon his hands; and to be sure, when a gentleman has no other way of getting redress-why he must take this.

Ay, said Ugo, and why is this not as good as another? This is the way to have justice done at once, without more ado. If you go to law, you must stay till the judges please, and may lose your cause at last. Why the best way, then, is to make sure of your right while you can, and execute justice yourself.

Yes, yes, rejoined Bertrand, if you wait till justice is. done you-you may stay long enough. Why if I want a friend of mine properly served, how am I to get my revenge? Ten to one they will tell me he is in the right, and I am in the wrong. Or, if a fellow has got possession of property which I think ought to be mine, why I may wait till I starve, perhaps, before the law will give it me, and then, after all, the judge may say-the estate is his. What is to be done then? Why the case is plain enough, I must take it at last.

Emily's horror at this conversation was heightened by a suspicion, that the latter part of it was pointed against herself, and that these men had been commissioned by Montoni to execute a similar kind of justice in his cause.

But I was speaking of Signor Örsino, resumed Bertrand, he is one of those who love to do justice at once. I remember, about ten years ago the signor had a quarrel with a cavaliero of Milan. The story was told me then, and it is still fresh in my head. They quarrelled about a lady that the signor liked, and she was perverse enough to prefer the gentleman of Milan, and even carried her whim so far as to marry him. This provoked the signor, as well it might, for he had tried to talk reason to her a long while, and used to send people to serenade her, under her windows, of a night; and used to make verses about her, and would swear she was the handsomest lady in Milan.-But all would not do-nothing would bring her to reason; and, as I said, she went so far, at last, as to marry this other cavaliero. This made the signor wroth, with a vengeance; he resolved to be even with her though, and he watched his opportunity, and did not wait long, for soon after the marriage, they set out for Padua, nothing doubting, I warrant, of what was preparing for them. The cavaliero thought, to be sure, he was to be called to no account, but was to go

off triumphant; but he was soon made to know another sort of story.

What, then the lady had promised to have Signor Orsino? said Ugo.

Promised! No, replied Bertrand; she had not wit enough even to tell him she liked him, as I heard, but the contrary, for she used to say from the first, she never meant to have him. And this was what provoked the signor so, and with good reason, for who likes to be told that he is disagreeable? and this was saying as good. It was enough to tell him this; she need not have gone and married another.

What, she married, then, on purpose to plague the signor? said Ugo.

He

I don't know as for that, replied Bertrand; they said indeed, that she had a regard for the other gentleman a great while; but that is nothing to the purpose, she should not have married him, and then they would not have been so much provoked. She might have expected what was to follow; it was not to be supposed he would bear her ill usage tamely, and she might thank herself for what happened. But, as I said, they set out for Padua, she and her husband, and the road lay over some barren mountains like these. This suited the signor's purpose well. watched the time of their departure, and sent his men after them, with directions what to do. They kept their distance, till they saw their opportunity, and this did not happen, till the second day's journey, when, the gentleman having sent his servants forward to the next town, may be, to have horses in readiness, the signor's men quickened their pace, and overtook the carriage, in a hollow, between two mountains, where the woods prevented the servants from seeing what passed, though they were then not far off. When we came up, we fired our tromboni, but missed.

Emily turned pale at these words, and then hoped she had mistaken them; while Bertrand proceeded:

He

The gentleman fired again, but he was soon made to alight, and it was as he turned to call his people that he was struck. It was the most dexterous feat you ever saw-he was struck in the back with three stilettos at once. fell and was dispatched in a minute; but the lady escaped, for the servants had heard the firing, and came up before she could be taken care of. Bertrand, said the signor, when his men returned

Bertrand exclaimed Emily, pale with horror, on whom not a syllable of this narrative had been lost.

Bertrand, did I say? rejoined the man, with some confusion-No, Giovanni. But I have forgot where I was;Bertrand, said the signor

Bertrand again! said Emily, in a faultering voice, why do you repeat that name?

Bertrand swore.

What signifies it, he proceeded, what the man was called-Bertrand, or Giovanni-or Roberto;

it's all one for that. You have put me out twice with that -question. Bertrand or Giovanni-or what you willBertrand, said the signor, if your comrades had done their duty, as well as you, I should not have lost the lady. Go, my honest fellow and be happy with this. He gave him a purse of gold-and little enough too, considering the service he had done him.

Ay, ay, said Ugo, little enough-little enough.

Emily now breathed with difficulty, and could scarcely support herself. When first she saw these men, their ap pearance and their connexion with Montoni had been sufficient to impress her with distrust; but now; when one of them had betrayed himself to be a murderer, and she saw herself at the approach of night, under his guidance among wild and solitary mountains, and going she scarcely knew whither,the most agonizing terror seized her, which was the less supportable from the necessity she found herself under of concealing all symptoms of it from her companions. Reflecting on the character and the menaces of Montoni, it appeared not improbable that he had delivered her to them, for the purpose of having her murdered, and of thus securing to himself, without farther opposition or delay, the estates for which he had so long and so desperately contended. Yet, if this was his design, there appeared no necessity for sending her to such a distance from the castle; for, if any dread of discovery had made him unwilling to per petrate the deed there, a much nearer place might have sufficed for the purpose of concealment. These considerations, however, did not immediately occur to Emily, with whom so many circumstances conspired to rouse terror, that she had no power to oppose it, or to inquire coolly into its grounds; and, if she had done so, still there were many appearances which would too well have justified her most terrible apprehensions. She did not dare to speak to her conductors, at the sound of whose voices she trembled; and when, now and then, she stole a glance at them, their countenances, seen imperfectly through the gloom of evening, served to confirm her fears.

The sun had now been set some time; heavy clouds, whose lower skirts were tinged with sulphureous crimson, lingered in the west, and threw a reddish tint upon the pine forests, which sent forth a solemn sound, as the breeze rolled over them. The hollow moan struck upon Emily's heart, and served to render more gloomy and terrific every object around her,-the mountains, shaded in twilight-the gleaming torrent hoarsely roaring-the black forests, and the deep glen, broken into rocky recesses, overshadowed by cypress and sycamore, and winding into long obscurity. To this glen, Emily, as she sent forth her anxious eye, thought there was no end; no hamlet, or even cottage, was seen, and still no distant bark of watch-dog, or even faint far off halloo, came on the wind. In a tremulous voice,

she now ventured to remind the guides that it was growing late, and to ask again how far they had to go: but they were too much occupied by their own discourse to attend to her question, which she forbore to repeat, lest it should provoke a surly answer. Having, however, soon after finished their supper, the men collected the fragments into their wallet, and proceeded along this winding glen in gloomy silence; while Emily again mused upon her own situation, and concerning the motives of Montoni for involving her in it. That it was for some evil purpose towards herself, she could not doubt; and it seemed, that if he did not intend to destroy her, with a view of immediately seiz. ing her estates, he meant to reserve her awhile in concealment, for some more terrible design, for one that might equally gratify his avarice, and still more his deep revenge. At this moment, remembering Signor Brochio and his be haviour in the corridor, a few preceding nights, the latter supposition, horrible as it was, strengthened in her belief. Yet, why remove her from the castle, where deeds of darkness had, she feared, been often executed with secrecy?— from chambers, perhaps,

"With many a foul and midnight murder stain'd,"

The dread of what she might be going to encounter was now so excessive that it sometimes threatened her senses; and often as she went, she thought of her late father and of all he would have suffered, could he have foreseen the strange and dreadful events of her future life; and how anxiously he would have avoided that fatal confidence, which committed his daughter to the care of a woman so weak as Madame Montoni. So romantic and improbable, indeed, did her present situation appear to Emily herself, particularly when she compared it with the repose and beauty of her early days, that there were moments when she could almost have believed herself the victim of frightful visions glaring upon a disordered fancy.

Restrained by the presence of her guides from expressing her terrors, their acuteness was, at length, lost in gloomy despair. Their dreadful view of what might await her hereafter rendered her almost indifferent to the surround. ing dangers. She now looked, with little emotion, on the wild dinges, and the gloomy road and mountains, whose outlines only were distinguishable through the dusk-;-objects, which but lately had affected her spirits so much as to awaken horrid views of the future, and to tinge these with their own gloom.

It was now so nearly dark that the travellers, who proceeded only by the slowest pace, could scarcely discern their way. The clouds, which seemed charged with thunder, passed slowly along the heavens, showing at intervals, the trembling stars; while the groves of cypress and syca