The Mysteries of Udolpho

Emily’s Departure for Thoulouse

Emily’s Departure for Thoulouse

Emily takes an affecting leave of the Count’s family—including M. Du Pont—and of her friends at the convent. She sets out for Thoulouse accompanied by the unhappy Annette and guarded by a steady servant of the Count.

CHAPITRE X.

Chapter X follows Emily St. Aubert’s return journey to Thoulouse across the plains of Languedoc. As she travels toward the home she once left with Madame Montoni, she reflects on the tragic fates of her aunt and Montoni, and weeps over the landscape that holds memories of her early love, Valancourt. Upon arrival at the château, she finds a letter from M. Quesnel explaining his departure, then devotes herself to estate business. In the evening, she walks through the gardens, terrace, and pavilion, each scene reawakening memories of Valancourt and their former happiness. As twilight deepens, she glimpses a mysterious figure on the terrace whom she believes may be Valancourt, plunging her into a night of anxious conjecture about his presence and her own conflicted feelings.

Emily’s Journey to Thoulouse

Emily’s Journey to Thoulouse

Emily travels uneventfully along the plains of Languedoc toward the north-west, returning to Thoulouse—the city she had last departed from with Madame Montoni. The journey passes without incident, but it is marked by a continuous stream of melancholy reflection.

Reflections on Montoni’s Fate

Reflections on Montoni’s Fate

As Emily travels, she thinks deeply on the fate of her aunt, who, but for her own imprudence, might have lived in happiness at Thoulouse. Montoni too rises to her imagination—first as she knew him in his days of triumph, bold and commanding, then as a figure of vengeance—and now, only months later, he has become a clod of earth, his life vanished like a shadow. Emily could weep at his fate if not for his crimes; for her aunt she does weep, all sense of her errors overwhelmed by the memory of her misfortunes.

The Beloved Landscape Revisited

The Beloved Landscape Revisited

Other thoughts succeed as Emily draws near the scenes of her early love. At the brow of the hill from which she had once given a farewell look to the landscape before departing for Italy, she sees the Pyrenees, Gascony, the Garonne, and the groves of her aunt’s garden. Overcome, she weeps and recalls the very words she had uttered at that earlier parting—that she could go in peace if only certain of returning to find Valancourt waiting. Now the awaited futurity has arrived, and the dreary blank is complete: Valancourt no longer lives for her, and the ideal image she had cherished is revealed as an illusion of her own creation. She passes the bank where she had taken leave of Valancourt, sees him in memory leaning mournfully against the high trees, and sinks back in the carriage, not looking up again until it stops at her own gates.

Arrival at the Château

Arrival at the Château

The gates are opened by the servant left in charge of the château, and the carriage drives into the court. Emily hastily passes through the great, silent, solitary hall to the large oak parlour that had been Madame Montoni’s common sitting-room—but instead of being received by M. Quesnel, she finds only a letter from him.

M. Quesnel’s Letter

M. Quesnel’s Letter

The letter informs Emily that business of consequence obliged M. Quesnel to leave Thoulouse two days before. She is on the whole not sorry to be spared his presence, sensing the same indifference he had formerly shown her. The letter also details the progress he has made in settling her affairs and concludes with directions concerning the forms of business still to be transacted. His unkindness, however, does not long occupy her, as her thoughts return to the persons she had been accustomed to see in the mansion—chiefly the ill-guided and unfortunate Madame Montoni.

Morning Business and Estate Affairs

Morning Business and Estate Affairs

On the following morning, serious occupation draws Emily away from melancholy reflection. Desirous of quitting Thoulouse and hastening on to La Vallée, she enquires into the condition of the estate and immediately dispatches part of the necessary business according to M. Quesnel’s directions. The day is devoted entirely to business; among other concerns, she employs means to learn the situation of all her poor tenants so that she may relieve their wants or confirm their comforts, finding that employment is the surest antidote to sorrow.