The Mysteries of Udolpho

Signs of an Unhappy Marriage

Dorothée soon observed the Marchioness crying in private shortly after the wedding, and later learned the marriage was forced by the Marchioness’s stern father to secure the Marquis’s fortune, as she was already attached to another man she preferred. Over time, the Marquis grew increasingly gloomy and unkind, isolating the Marchioness from most visitors. She continued to try to win his favor with gentle, compliant behavior, never voicing a complaint about her treatment.

The Mysterious Chevalier

A courteous, charismatic chevalier who frequented the château appeared to be the man the Marchioness had originally wanted to marry. His visits always deepened the Marquis’s gloom and the Marchioness’s pensiveness, leading Dorothée to suspect he was her former suitor. Dorothée also recalls a discredited rumor that the Marchioness had been privately married to this man before her union with the Marquis, but had been too afraid to tell her strict father.

The Spirit Music

As Dorothée speaks, the pair hear hauntingly beautiful, unfamiliar music drifting through the still night. Emily recognizes the melody as the same supernatural music she heard at the time of her father’s death, and is so overwhelmed by superstitious awe and revived grief that she nearly faints. Dorothée confirms she has heard the same music at this same hour on multiple occasions since the Marchioness’s death, and believes it to be the spirit of the late Marchioness.

The Marchioness Falls Ill

Dorothée resumes her story, explaining that after nearly a year of the Marquis’s cruel treatment, the Marchioness fell gravely ill. When Dorothée was summoned to her bedside, she was shocked by the Marchioness’s drastically altered appearance. The dying woman asked to speak to the Marquis alone, and when he finally arrived, he expressed grief but said very little before Dorothée left the room.

The Death of the Marchioness

When Dorothée returned, she reminded the Marquis to send for a doctor, but the Marchioness said it was already too late. The Marquis initially seemed dismissive of her condition until she was seized by violent, agonizing pain, at which point he immediately sent for a physician and paced the château in distress. Dorothée stayed by the Marchioness’s side throughout, and during a brief moment of relief, the Marchioness asked for the Marquis again and requested Dorothée stay in the room. The Marquis was overcome with guilt over his treatment of her, which so distressed the Marchioness that she fainted. After the Marquis was led from the room, the Marchioness told the servants she could not bear to see his grief and asked to die in peace. She passed away quietly in Dorothée’s arms, all her violent symptoms having subsided.

CHAPITRE III.

This chapter centers on Emily’s conversation with the servant Dorothée, who shares the full tragic history of the late Marchioness of the château, including details of her suspicious death, the Marquis’s overwhelming grief and abandonment of the estate, eerie post-death occurrences at the property, Emily’s growing curiosity about a sealed portrait and a mysterious chevalier linked to the Marchioness, her plan to visit the sealed chambers the following night, and her superstitious unease as she retires to rest.

The Marchioness’s Death and Its Aftermath

Dorothée recounts to Emily that the doctor arrived too late to save the late Marchioness, and was visibly shocked to find a frightful blackness had spread across her face shortly after her death. After sending attendants out of the room, the doctor questioned Dorothée intently about the circumstances of the Marchioness’s seizure, hinting he suspected something unnatural but refusing to elaborate, and ceased speaking to Dorothée about the Marchioness entirely after holding a long private meeting with the bereaved Marquis.

The Marquis’s Grief and Abandonment of the Château

After learning of his wife’s death, the Marquis shut himself away from all visitors except the doctor, and sank into such deep, unrelenting melancholy and occasional violent outbursts that those around him feared he had lost his sanity. He soon left the château to join his regiment and fight in the war, never returning to the estate despite its grandeur, leaving the unfinished luxurious rooms he had been building on the château’s west side permanently sealed, and the property largely deserted for years until the Count’s arrival.