The Mysteries of Udolpho

An Evening Walk in the Gardens

An Evening Walk in the Gardens

Strengthened by the day’s occupation, Emily determines to visit the gardens where she had so often walked with Valancourt, knowing that delay would only render their scenes more affecting. Passing hastily through the great avenue where she had parted with Valancourt, she presses on to walks less interesting to her heart, which eventually bring her to the flight of steps leading up to the terrace.

Memories on the Terrace

Memories on the Terrace

Agitated at the sight of the steps, Emily hesitates but proceeds upward. The high trees, the flowery thickets, and the very plants Valancourt had carefully reared rise before her; her tears flow freely. The mild, beautiful evening—with the sun setting over the landscape, its beams touching the tufted groves—recalls how she and Valancourt had admired the scene together at this same hour, and exactly here she had listened to his remonstrances against the journey to Italy and the pleadings of his passionate affection. All the circumstances of that conversation return: his doubts concerning Montoni, his pleas for an immediate marriage, and his conviction that they should never meet again in happiness. Her tenderness for him revives, and she laments bitterly the circumstances that betrayed him into a course of life so unlike the virtues his early years had promised. Recalling her father’s observation that Valancourt had never been at Paris, she exclaims sorrowfully that such a friend at Paris might have saved his noble, ingenuous nature. As twilight deepens and the nightingales begin their plaintive song, she continues her walk along the terrace.

The Pavilion Revisited

The Pavilion Revisited

Emily reaches the steps of the pavilion where her last interview with Valancourt before Italy had so unexpectedly taken place. The door is shut, and she trembles as she hesitates; her wish to see again the chief scene of her former happiness overcomes her reluctance, and she enters. The room is dim with evening shade, but through the open lattices darkened by hanging vines she sees the dusky landscape, the Garonne reflecting the evening light, and the glowing west. A chair is placed near one of the balconies, as if someone had been sitting there, but the rest of the furniture remains exactly as it had been when she departed for Italy. The silent, deserted air fills her with solemn emotion.

Recollections of Valancourt

Recollections of Valancourt

Seated near the lattice, Emily yields to the sadness of her heart and recollects the circumstances of her parting with Valancourt in the pavilion. Here too she had passed some of the happiest hours of her life, when her aunt favoured the connection—sitting and working while he conversed or read, repeating sublime passages of their favourite authors with discriminating judgment, pausing to admire with her, listening tenderly to her remarks. Overcome, she questions how a mind so susceptible of the grand and beautiful could stoop to low pursuits. The tears she had seen start in his eye at the recital of any great or benevolent action return to her memory, and she laments that such a mind and heart should be sacrificed to the habits of a great city. The recollections becoming too painful to bear, she abruptly leaves the pavilion and hurries toward the château.

A Mysterious Figure in the Twilight

A Mysterious Figure in the Twilight

As Emily passes along the terrace on her return, she perceives a person walking with a slow step and a dejected air under the trees at some distance. The deep twilight prevents her from distinguishing who it is, and she at first imagines him to be a servant; but when the sound of her steps seems to reach him, he turns half round, and she believes she sees Valancourt. Whoever the person is, he instantly strikes among the thickets on the left and disappears, leaving Emily transfixed, trembling so excessively she can scarcely support herself, and scarcely conscious of existence.