Chapter: CHAPTER XI



     What transport to retrace our early plays,
 Our easy bliss, when each thing joy supplied
 The woods, the mountains and the warbling maze
 Of the wild brooks!
     THOMSON

Blanche's slumbers continued, till long after the hour, which she had
so impatiently anticipated, for her woman, fatigued with travelling,
did not call her, till breakfast was nearly ready. Her disappointment,
however, was instantly forgotten, when, on opening the casement, she
saw, on one hand, the wide sea sparkling in the morning rays, with its
stealing sails and glancing oars; and, on the other, the fresh woods,
the plains far-stretching and the blue mountains, all glowing with the
splendour of day.

As she inspired the pure breeze, health spread a deeper blush upon her
countenance, and pleasure danced in her eyes.

'Who could first invent convents!' said she, 'and who could first
persuade people to go into them? and to make religion a pretence, too,
where all that should inspire it, is so carefully shut out! God is
best pleased with the homage of a grateful heart, and, when we view his
glories, we feel most grateful. I never felt so much devotion, during
the many dull years I was in the convent, as I have done in the few
hours, that I have been here, where I need only look on all around
me--to adore God in my inmost heart!'

Saying this, she left the window, bounded along the gallery, and, in
the next moment, was in the breakfast room, where the Count was
already seated. The cheerfulness of a bright sunshine had dispersed
the melancholy glooms of his reflections, a pleasant smile was on his
countenance, and he spoke in an enlivening voice to Blanche, whose
heart echoed back the tones. Henri and, soon after, the Countess with
Mademoiselle Bearn appeared, and the whole party seemed to acknowledge
the influence of the scene; even the Countess was so much re-animated as
to receive the civilities of her husband with complacency, and but once
forgot her good-humour, which was when she asked whether they had any
neighbours, who were likely to make THIS BARBAROUS SPOT more tolerable,
and whether the Count believed it possible for her to exist here,
without some amusement?

Soon after breakfast the party dispersed; the Count, ordering his
steward to attend him in the library, went to survey the condition of
his premises, and to visit some of his tenants; Henri hastened with
alacrity to the shore to examine a boat, that was to bear them on a
little voyage in the evening and to superintend the adjustment of a silk
awning; while the Countess, attended by Mademoiselle Bearn, retired to
an apartment on the modern side of the chateau, which was fitted up with
airy elegance; and, as the windows opened upon balconies, that fronted
the sea, she was there saved from a view of the HORRID Pyrenees. Here,
while she reclined on a sofa, and, casting her languid eyes over the
ocean, which appeared beyond the wood-tops, indulged in the luxuries of
ENNUI, her companion read aloud a sentimental novel, on some fashionable
system of philosophy, for the Countess was herself somewhat of a
PHILOSOPHER, especially as to INFIDELITY, and among a certain circle her
opinions were waited for with impatience, and received as doctrines.

The Lady Blanche, meanwhile, hastened to indulge, amidst the wild
wood-walks around the chateau, her new enthusiasm, where, as she
wandered under the shades, her gay spirits gradually yielded to pensive
complacency. Now, she moved with solemn steps, beneath the gloom of
thickly interwoven branches, where the fresh dew still hung upon every
flower, that peeped from among the grass; and now tripped sportively
along the path, on which the sunbeams darted and the checquered foliage
trembled--where the tender greens of the beech, the acacia and the
mountain-ash, mingling with the solemn tints of the cedar, the pine and
cypress, exhibited as fine a contrast of colouring, as the majestic oak
and oriental plane did of form, to the feathery lightness of the cork
tree and the waving grace of the poplar.

Having reached a rustic seat, within a deep recess of the woods, she
rested awhile, and, as her eyes caught, through a distant opening, a
glimpse of the blue waters of the Mediterranean, with the white sail,
gliding on its bosom, or of the broad mountain, glowing beneath the
mid-day sun, her mind experienced somewhat of that exquisite delight,
which awakens the fancy, and leads to poetry. The hum of bees alone
broke the stillness around her, as, with other insects of various
hues, they sported gaily in the shade, or sipped sweets from the fresh
flowers: and, while Blanche watched a butter-fly, flitting from bud to
bud, she indulged herself in imagining the pleasures of its short day,
till she had composed the following stanzas.

  THE BUTTER-FLY TO HIS LOVE

 What bowery dell, with fragrant breath,
 Courts thee to stay thy airy flight;
 Nor seek again the purple heath,
 So oft the scene of gay delight?

 Long I've watch'd i' the lily's bell,
 Whose whiteness stole the morning's beam;
 No fluttering sounds thy coming tell,
 No waving wings, at distance, gleam.

 But fountain fresh, nor breathing grove,
 Nor sunny mead, nor blossom'd tree,
 So sweet as lily's cell shall prove,--
 The bower of constant love and me.

 When April buds begin to blow,
 The prim-rose, and the hare-bell blue,
 That on the verdant moss bank grow,
 With violet cups, that weep in dew;

 When wanton gales breathe through the shade,
 And shake the blooms, and steal their sweets,
 And swell the song of ev'ry glade,
 I range the forest's green retreats:

 There, through the tangled wood-walks play,
 Where no rude urchin paces near,
 Where sparely peeps the sultry day,
 And light dews freshen all the air.

 High on a sun-beam oft I sport
 O'er bower and fountain, vale and hill;
 Oft ev'ry blushing flow'ret court,
 That hangs its head o'er winding rill.

 But these I'll leave to be thy guide,
 And shew thee, where the jasmine spreads
 Her snowy leaf, where may-flow'rs hide,
 And rose-buds rear their peeping heads.

 With me the mountain's summit scale,
 And taste the wild-thyme's honied bloom,
 Whose fragrance, floating on the gale,
 Oft leads me to the cedar's gloom.

 Yet, yet, no sound comes in the breeze!
 What shade thus dares to tempt thy stay?
 Once, me alone thou wish'd to please,
 And with me only thou wouldst stray.

 But, while thy long delay I mourn,
 And chide the sweet shades for their guile,
 Thou may'st be true, and they forlorn,
 And fairy favours court thy smile.

 The tiny queen of fairy-land,
 Who knows thy speed, hath sent thee far,
 To bring, or ere the night-watch stand,
 Rich essence for her shadowy car:

 Perchance her acorn-cups to fill
 With nectar from the Indian rose,
 Or gather, near some haunted rill,
 May-dews, that lull to sleep Love's woes:

 Or, o'er the mountains, bade thee fly,
 To tell her fairy love to speed,
 When ev'ning steals upon the sky,
 To dance along the twilight mead.

 But now I see thee sailing low,
 Gay as the brightest flow'rs of spring,
 Thy coat of blue and jet I know,
 And well thy gold and purple wing.

 Borne on the gale, thou com'st to me;
 O! welcome, welcome to my home!
 In lily's cell we'll live in glee,
 Together o'er the mountains roam!

When Lady Blanche returned to the chateau, instead of going to the
apartment of the Countess, she amused herself with wandering over that
part of the edifice, which she had not yet examined, of which the most
antient first attracted her curiosity; for, though what she had seen of
the modern was gay and elegant, there was something in the former more
interesting to her imagination. Having passed up the great stair-case,
and through the oak gallery, she entered upon a long suite of chambers,
whose walls were either hung with tapestry, or wainscoted with cedar,
the furniture of which looked almost as antient as the rooms themselves;
the spacious fire-places, where no mark of social cheer remained,
presented an image of cold desolation; and the whole suite had so much
the air of neglect and desertion, that it seemed, as if the venerable
persons, whose portraits hung upon the walls, had been the last to
inhabit them.

On leaving these rooms, she found herself in another gallery, one end of
which was terminated by a back stair-case, and the other by a door,
that seemed to communicate with the north-side of the chateau, but which
being fastened, she descended the stair-case, and, opening a door in
the wall, a few steps down, found herself in a small square room, that
formed part of the west turret of the castle. Three windows presented
each a separate and beautiful prospect; that to the north, overlooking
Languedoc; another to the west, the hills ascending towards the
Pyrenees, whose awful summits crowned the landscape; and a third,
fronting the south, gave the Mediterranean, and a part of the wild
shores of Rousillon, to the eye.

Having left the turret, and descended the narrow stair-case, she found
herself in a dusky passage, where she wandered, unable to find her way,
till impatience yielded to apprehension, and she called for assistance.
Presently steps approached, and light glimmered through a door at the
other extremity of the passage, which was opened with caution by some
person, who did not venture beyond it, and whom Blanche observed
in silence, till the door was closing, when she called aloud, and,
hastening towards it, perceived the old housekeeper. 'Dear ma'amselle!
is it you?' said Dorothee, 'How could you find your way hither?' Had
Blanche been less occupied by her own fears, she would probably have
observed the strong expressions of terror and surprise on Dorothee's
countenance, who now led her through a long succession of passages and
rooms, that looked as if they had been uninhabited for a century,
till they reached that appropriated to the housekeeper, where Dorothee
entreated she would sit down and take refreshment. Blanche accepted the
sweet meats, offered to her, mentioned her discovery of the pleasant
turret, and her wish to appropriate it to her own use. Whether
Dorothee's taste was not so sensible to the beauties of landscape as her
young lady's, or that the constant view of lovely scenery had deadened
it, she forbore to praise the subject of Blanche's enthusiasm, which,
however, her silence did not repress. To Lady Blanche's enquiry of
whither the door she had found fastened at the end of the gallery led,
she replied, that it opened to a suite of rooms, which had not been
entered, during many years, 'For,' added she, 'my late lady died in one
of them, and I could never find in my heart to go into them since.'

Blanche, though she wished to see these chambers, forbore, on observing
that Dorothee's eyes were filled with tears, to ask her to unlock them,
and, soon after, went to dress for dinner, at which the whole party met
in good spirits and good humour, except the Countess, whose vacant mind,
overcome by the languor of idleness, would neither suffer her to be
happy herself, or to contribute to the happiness of others. Mademoiselle
Bearn, attempting to be witty, directed her badinage against Henri,
who answered, because he could not well avoid it, rather than from any
inclination to notice her, whose liveliness sometimes amused, but whose
conceit and insensibility often disgusted him.

The cheerfulness, with which Blanche rejoined the party, vanished, on
her reaching the margin of the sea; she gazed with apprehension upon
the immense expanse of waters, which, at a distance, she had beheld only
with delight and astonishment, and it was by a strong effort, that she
so far overcame her fears as to follow her father into the boat.

As she silently surveyed the vast horizon, bending round the distant
verge of the ocean, an emotion of sublimest rapture struggled to
overcome a sense of personal danger. A light breeze played on the
water, and on the silk awning of the boat, and waved the foliage of the
receding woods, that crowned the cliffs, for many miles, and which the
Count surveyed with the pride of conscious property, as well as with the
eye of taste.

At some distance, among these woods, stood a pavilion, which had once
been the scene of social gaiety, and which its situation still made
one of romantic beauty. Thither, the Count had ordered coffee and other
refreshment to be carried, and thither the sailors now steered
their course, following the windings of the shore round many a woody
promontory and circling bay; while the pensive tones of horns and other
wind instruments, played by the attendants in a distant boat, echoed
among the rocks, and died along the waves. Blanche had now subdued her
fears; a delightful tranquillity stole over her mind, and held her in
silence; and she was too happy even to remember the convent, or her
former sorrows, as subjects of comparison with her present felicity.

The Countess felt less unhappy than she had done, since the moment of
her leaving Paris; for her mind was now under some degree of restraint;
she feared to indulge its wayward humours, and even wished to recover
the Count's good opinion. On his family, and on the surrounding scene,
he looked with tempered pleasure and benevolent satisfaction, while his
son exhibited the gay spirits of youth, anticipating new delights, and
regretless of those, that were passed.

After near an hour's rowing, the party landed, and ascended a little
path, overgrown with vegetation. At a little distance from the point
of the eminence, within the shadowy recess of the woods, appeared
the pavilion, which Blanche perceived, as she caught a glimpse of its
portico between the trees, to be built of variegated marble. As she
followed the Countess, she often turned her eyes with rapture towards
the ocean, seen beneath the dark foliage, far below, and from thence
upon the deep woods, whose silence and impenetrable gloom awakened
emotions more solemn, but scarcely less delightful.

The pavilion had been prepared, as far as was possible, on a very short
notice, for the reception of its visitors; but the faded colours of
its painted walls and ceiling, and the decayed drapery of its once
magnificent furniture, declared how long it had been neglected, and
abandoned to the empire of the changing seasons. While the party partook
of a collation of fruit and coffee, the horns, placed in a distant part
of the woods, where an echo sweetened and prolonged their melancholy
tones, broke softly on the stillness of the scene. This spot seemed to
attract even the admiration of the Countess, or, perhaps, it was merely
the pleasure of planning furniture and decorations, that made her dwell
so long on the necessity of repairing and adorning it; while the Count,
never happier than when he saw her mind engaged by natural and simple
objects, acquiesced in all her designs, concerning the pavilion.
The paintings on the walls and coved ceiling were to be renewed, the
canopies and sofas were to be of light green damask; marble statues of
wood-nymphs, bearing on their heads baskets of living flowers, were to
adorn the recesses between the windows, which, descending to the ground,
were to admit to every part of the room, and it was of octagonal form,
the various landscape. One window opened upon a romantic glade, where
the eye roved among the woody recesses, and the scene was bounded
only by a lengthened pomp of groves; from another, the woods receding
disclosed the distant summits of the Pyrenees; a third fronted an
avenue, beyond which the grey towers of Chateau-le-Blanc, and a
picturesque part of its ruin were seen partially among the foliage;
while a fourth gave, between the trees, a glimpse of the green pastures
and villages, that diversify the banks of the Aude. The Mediterranean,
with the bold cliffs, that overlooked its shores, were the grand objects
of a fifth window, and the others gave, in different points of view, the
wild scenery of the woods.

After wandering, for some time, in these, the party returned to the
shore and embarked; and, the beauty of the evening tempting them to
extend their excursion, they proceeded further up the bay. A dead calm
had succeeded the light breeze, that wafted them hither, and the men
took to their oars. Around, the waters were spread into one vast expanse
of polished mirror, reflecting the grey cliffs and feathery woods, that
over-hung its surface, the glow of the western horizon and the dark
clouds, that came slowly from the east. Blanche loved to see the dipping
oars imprint the water, and to watch the spreading circles they left,
which gave a tremulous motion to the reflected landscape, without
destroying the harmony of its features.

Above the darkness of the woods, her eye now caught a cluster of high
towers, touched with the splendour of the setting rays; and, soon after,
the horns being then silent, she heard the faint swell of choral voices
from a distance.

'What voices are those, upon the air?' said the Count, looking
round, and listening; but the strain had ceased. 'It seemed to be a
vesper-hymn, which I have often heard in my convent,' said Blanche.

'We are near the monastery, then,' observed the Count; and, the boat
soon after doubling a lofty head-land, the monastery of St. Claire
appeared, seated near the margin of the sea, where the cliffs, suddenly
sinking, formed a low shore within a small bay, almost encircled with
woods, among which partial features of the edifice were seen;--the great
gate and gothic window of the hall, the cloisters and the side of a
chapel more remote; while a venerable arch, which had once led to a part
of the fabric, now demolished, stood a majestic ruin detached from the
main building, beyond which appeared a grand perspective of the woods.
On the grey walls, the moss had fastened, and, round the pointed windows
of the chapel, the ivy and the briony hung in many a fantastic wreath.

All without was silent and forsaken; but, while Blanche gazed with
admiration on this venerable pile, whose effect was heightened by the
strong lights and shadows thrown athwart it by a cloudy sun-set, a sound
of many voices, slowly chanting, arose from within. The Count bade his
men rest on their oars. The monks were singing the hymn of vespers, and
some female voices mingled with the strain, which rose by soft degrees,
till the high organ and the choral sounds swelled into full and solemn
harmony. The strain, soon after, dropped into sudden silence, and was
renewed in a low and still more solemn key, till, at length, the holy
chorus died away, and was heard no more.--Blanche sighed, tears trembled
in her eyes, and her thoughts seemed wafted with the sounds to heaven.
While a rapt stillness prevailed in the boat, a train of friars, and
then of nuns, veiled in white, issued from the cloisters, and passed,
under the shade of the woods, to the main body of the edifice.

The Countess was the first of her party to awaken from this pause of
silence.

'These dismal hymns and friars make one quite melancholy,' said she;
'twilight is coming on; pray let us return, or it will be dark before we
get home.'

The count, looking up, now perceived, that the twilight of evening
was anticipated by an approaching storm. In the east a tempest was
collecting; a heavy gloom came on, opposing and contrasting the glowing
splendour of the setting sun. The clamorous sea-fowl skimmed in fleet
circles upon the surface of the sea, dipping their light pinions in the
wave, as they fled away in search of shelter. The boatmen pulled hard
at their oars; but the thunder, that now muttered at a distance, and the
heavy drops, that began to dimple the water, made the Count determine
to put back to the monastery for shelter, and the course of the boat
was immediately changed. As the clouds approached the west, their lurid
darkness changed to a deep ruddy glow, which, by reflection, seemed to
fire the tops of the woods and the shattered towers of the monastery.

The appearance of the heavens alarmed the Countess and Mademoiselle
Bearn, whose expressions of apprehension distressed the Count, and
perplexed his men; while Blanche continued silent, now agitated with
fear, and now with admiration, as she viewed the grandeur of the clouds,
and their effect on the scenery, and listened to the long, long peals of
thunder, that rolled through the air.

The boat having reached the lawn before the monastery, the Count sent a
servant to announce his arrival, and to entreat shelter of the Superior,
who, soon after, appeared at the great gate, attended by several
monks, while the servant returned with a message, expressive at once of
hospitality and pride, but of pride disguised in submission. The party
immediately disembarked, and, having hastily crossed the lawn--for the
shower was now heavy--were received at the gate by the Superior, who, as
they entered, stretched forth his hands and gave his blessing; and they
passed into the great hall, where the lady abbess waited, attended by
several nuns, clothed, like herself, in black, and veiled in white.
The veil of the abbess was, however, thrown half back, and discovered a
countenance, whose chaste dignity was sweetened by the smile of welcome,
with which she addressed the Countess, whom she led, with Blanche and
Mademoiselle Bearn, into the convent parlour, while the Count and Henri
were conducted by the Superior to the refectory.

The Countess, fatigued and discontented, received the politeness of the
abbess with careless haughtiness, and had followed her, with indolent
steps, to the parlour, over which the painted casements and wainscot of
larch-wood threw, at all times, a melancholy shade, and where the gloom
of evening now loured almost to darkness.

While the lady abbess ordered refreshment, and conversed with the
Countess, Blanche withdrew to a window, the lower panes of which, being
without painting, allowed her to observe the progress of the storm over
the Mediterranean, whose dark waves, that had so lately slept, now came
boldly swelling, in long succession, to the shore, where they burst in
white foam, and threw up a high spray over the rocks. A red sulphureous
tint overspread the long line of clouds, that hung above the western
horizon, beneath whose dark skirts the sun looking out, illumined the
distant shores of Languedoc, as well as the tufted summits of the nearer
woods, and shed a partial gleam on the western waves. The rest of the
scene was in deep gloom, except where a sun-beam, darting between the
clouds, glanced on the white wings of the sea-fowl, that circled high
among them, or touched the swelling sail of a vessel, which was seen
labouring in the storm. Blanche, for some time, anxiously watched the
progress of the bark, as it threw the waves in foam around it, and, as
the lightnings flashed, looked to the opening heavens, with many a sigh
for the fate of the poor mariners.

The sun, at length, set, and the heavy clouds, which had long impended,
dropped over the splendour of his course; the vessel, however, was
yet dimly seen, and Blanche continued to observe it, till the quick
succession of flashes, lighting up the gloom of the whole horizon,
warned her to retire from the window, and she joined the Abbess, who,
having exhausted all her topics of conversation with the Countess, had
now leisure to notice her.

But their discourse was interrupted by tremendous peals of thunder;
and the bell of the monastery soon after ringing out, summoned the
inhabitants to prayer. As Blanche passed the window, she gave another
look to the ocean, where, by the momentary flash, that illumined the
vast body of the waters, she distinguished the vessel she had observed
before, amidst a sea of foam, breaking the billows, the mast now bowing
to the waves, and then rising high in air.

She sighed fervently as she gazed, and then followed the Lady Abbess
and the Countess to the chapel. Meanwhile, some of the Count's servants,
having gone by land to the chateau for carriages, returned soon after
vespers had concluded, when, the storm being somewhat abated, the Count
and his family returned home. Blanche was surprised to discover how much
the windings of the shore had deceived her, concerning the distance of
the chateau from the monastery, whose vesper bell she had heard, on the
preceding evening, from the windows of the west saloon, and whose towers
she would also have seen from thence, had not twilight veiled them.

On their arrival at the chateau, the Countess, affecting more fatigue,
than she really felt, withdrew to her apartment, and the Count, with
his daughter and Henri, went to the supper-room, where they had not been
long, when they heard, in a pause of the gust, a firing of guns, which
the Count understanding to be signals of distress from some vessel in
the storm, went to a window, that opened towards the Mediterranean, to
observe further; but the sea was now involved in utter darkness, and
the loud howlings of the tempest had again overcome every other sound.
Blanche, remembering the bark, which she had before seen, now joined her
father, with trembling anxiety. In a few moments, the report of guns was
again borne along the wind, and as suddenly wafted away; a tremendous
burst of thunder followed, and, in the flash, that had preceded it, and
which seemed to quiver over the whole surface of the waters, a vessel
was discovered, tossing amidst the white foam of the waves at some
distance from the shore. Impenetrable darkness again involved the scene,
but soon a second flash shewed the bark, with one sail unfurled, driving
towards the coast. Blanche hung upon her father's arm, with looks full
of the agony of united terror and pity, which were unnecessary to
awaken the heart of the Count, who gazed upon the sea with a piteous
expression, and, perceiving, that no boat could live in the storm,
forbore to send one; but he gave orders to his people to carry torches
out upon the cliffs, hoping they might prove a kind of beacon to the
vessel, or, at least, warn the crew of the rocks they were approaching.
While Henri went out to direct on what part of the cliffs the lights
should appear, Blanche remained with her father, at the window,
catching, every now and then, as the lightnings flashed, a glimpse of
the vessel; and she soon saw, with reviving hope, the torches flaming
on the blackness of night, and, as they waved over the cliffs, casting a
red gleam on the gasping billows. When the firing of guns was repeated,
the torches were tossed high in the air, as if answering the signal, and
the firing was then redoubled; but, though the wind bore the sound away,
she fancied, as the lightnings glanced, that the vessel was much nearer
the shore.

The Count's servants were now seen, running to and fro, on the rocks;
some venturing almost to the point of the crags, and bending over, held
out their torches fastened to long poles; while others, whose steps
could be traced only by the course of the lights, descended the steep
and dangerous path, that wound to the margin of the sea, and, with loud
halloos, hailed the mariners, whose shrill whistle, and then feeble
voices, were heard, at intervals, mingling with the storm. Sudden shouts
from the people on the rocks increased the anxiety of Blanche to an
almost intolerable degree: but her suspense, concerning the fate of the
mariners, was soon over, when Henri, running breathless into the room,
told that the vessel was anchored in the bay below, but in so shattered
a condition, that it was feared she would part before the crew could
disembark. The Count immediately gave orders for his own boats to assist
in bringing them to shore, and that such of these unfortunate
strangers as could not be accommodated in the adjacent hamlet should
be entertained at the chateau. Among the latter, were Emily St. Aubert,
Monsieur Du Pont, Ludovico and Annette, who, having embarked at Leghorn
and reached Marseilles, were from thence crossing the Gulf of Lyons,
when this storm overtook them. They were received by the Count with his
usual benignity, who, though Emily wished to have proceeded immediately
to the monastery of St. Claire, would not allow her to leave the
chateau, that night; and, indeed, the terror and fatigue she had
suffered would scarcely have permitted her to go farther.

In Monsieur Du Pont the Count discovered an old acquaintance, and
much joy and congratulation passed between them, after which Emily was
introduced by name to the Count's family, whose hospitable benevolence
dissipated the little embarrassment, which her situation had occasioned
her, and the party were soon seated at the supper-table. The unaffected
kindness of Blanche and the lively joy she expressed on the escape of
the strangers, for whom her pity had been so much interested, gradually
revived Emily's languid spirits; and Du Pont, relieved from his terrors
for her and for himself, felt the full contrast, between his late
situation on a dark and tremendous ocean, and his present one, in a
cheerful mansion, where he was surrounded with plenty, elegance and
smiles of welcome.

Annette, meanwhile, in the servants' hall, was telling of all the
dangers she had encountered, and congratulating herself so heartily upon
her own and Ludovico's escape, and on her present comforts, that
she often made all that part of the chateau ring with merriment
and laughter. Ludovico's spirits were as gay as her own, but he had
discretion enough to restrain them, and tried to check hers, though in
vain, till her laughter, at length, ascended to MY LADY'S chamber, who
sent to enquire what occasioned so much uproar in the chateau, and to
command silence.

Emily withdrew early to seek the repose she so much required, but
her pillow was long a sleepless one. On this her return to her native
country, many interesting remembrances were awakened; all the events
and sufferings she had experienced, since she quitted it, came in
long succession to her fancy, and were chased only by the image of
Valancourt, with whom to believe herself once more in the same land,
after they had been so long, and so distantly separated, gave her
emotions of indescribable joy, but which afterwards yielded to anxiety
and apprehension, when she considered the long period, that had elapsed,
since any letter had passed between them, and how much might have
happened in this interval to affect her future peace. But the thought,
that Valancourt might be now no more, or, if living, might have
forgotten her, was so very terrible to her heart, that she would
scarcely suffer herself to pause upon the possibility. She determined to
inform him, on the following day, of her arrival in France, which it was
scarcely possible he could know but by a letter from herself, and, after
soothing her spirits with the hope of soon hearing, that he was well,
and unchanged in his affections, she, at length, sunk to repose.

 Blanche wanders around the chateau a bit more and writes an eloquent poem in honor of its beauty. She feels all the feelings. A storm's a-comin', so the de Villefortes head inside to enjoy a comfortable evening. They hear a firing of guns at a distance, and head to the windows to check out what the ruckus is all about. It looks like a ship is about to be tossed upon the rocks out on the Mediterranean. This is distressing for Blanche, who is freaking out. The Count sends some servants to help guide the ship to shore--and yep, our buddies from Udolpho have arrived. In a major coincidence, it turns out the Count knows Du Pont from way back when. The Count invites the whole party to hang out for as long as they want. Score one for Em.

