not having courage to return alone to lock even the outer one, Emily, after fome effort, fo far conquered her own fears, that The offered to accompany her to the foot of the back ftair-cafe, and to wait there while Dorothée afcended, whose refolution being" re-affured by this circumftance, fhe confented to go, and they left Emily's apartment together.

No found disturbed the ftillness, as they paffed along the halls and galleries; but, on reaching the foot of the back ftair-cafe, Dorothée's refolution failed again: having, however, paused a moment to liften, and no found being heard above, the afcended, leaving Emily below, and, fcarcely fuffering her eye to glance within the first chamber, fhe faftened the door, which shut up the whole fuite of apartments, and returned to Emily.

As they stepped along the paffage, leading into the great hall, a found of lamenta tion was heard, which feemed to come from the hall itself, and they flopped in new

alarm

alarm to liften, when Emily presently dif tinguished the voice of Annette, whom the found crofing the hall, with another female fervant, and fo terrified by the report, which the other maids had fpread, that, believing fhe could be safe only where her lady was, fhe was going for refuge to her apartment. Emily's endeavours to laugh, or to argue her out of these terrors, were equally vain, and, in compaffion to her diftrefs, the confented that the fhould remain in her room during the night.

"Hail, mildly-pleafing Solitude!}
Companion of the wife and good-

Thine is the balmy breath of morn,
Juft as the dew-bent rofe is born.

But chief when evening fcenes decay
And the faint, landfcape fwims away,
Thine is the doubtful, foft decline,

And that beft hour of musing thine.”

EMILY'S

THOMPSON.

Y's injunctions to Annette to be filent on the fubject of her terror were ineffectual, and the occurrence of the preceding night spread fuch alarm among the fervants, who now all affirmed, that they had frequently heard unaccountable noifes in the chateau, that a report foon reached the Count of the north fide of the caftle being haunted. He treated this, at first, with ridicule, but, perceiving, that it was productive of serious evil, in the confufion it occafioned among his household, he forbade any perfon to repeat it, on pain of punishment. The

The arrival of a party of his friends foon withdrew his thoughts entirely from this fubject, and his fervants had now little leifure to brood over it, except, indeed, in the evenings after fupper, when they all affembled in their hall, and related stories of ghofts, till they feared to look round the room; started, if the echo of a clofing door murmured along the paffage, and refused to go fingly to any part of the castle.

On these occafions Annette made a diftinguifhed figure. When fhe told not only of all the wonders fhe had witneffed, but of all that she had imagined, in the caftle of Udolpho, with the ftory of the ftrange disappearance of Signora Laurentini, fhe made no trifling impreffion on the mind of her attentive auditors. Her fufpicions, concerning Montoni, fhe would alfo have freely disclosed, had not Ludovico, who was now in the service of the Count, prudently checked her loquacity, whenever it pointed to that fubject.

Among the vifitors at the chateau was

VOL. IV.

E

the

the Baron de Saint Foix, an old friend of the Count, and his fon, the Chevalier St. Foix, a fenfible and amiable young man, who, having in the preceding year feen the Lady Blanche, at Paris, had become her declared admirer. The friendship, which the Count had long entertained for his father, and the equality of their circumstances made him fecretly approve of the connection; but, thinking his daughter at this time too young to fix her choice for life, and wishing to prove the fincerity and strength of the Chevalier's attachment, he then rejected his fuit, though without forbidding his future hope. This young man now came, with the Baron, his father, to claim the reward of a steady affection, a claim, which the Count admitted and which Blanche did not reject.

While thefe vifitors were at the chateau, it became a scene of gaiety and fplendour. The pavilion in the woods was fitted up and frequented, in the fine evenings, as a fupper-room, when the hour ufually concluded