From this sublime scene the travellers continued to ascend among the
pines, till they entered a narrow pass of the mountains, which shut out
every feature of the distant country, and, in its stead, exhibited only
tremendous crags, impending over the road, where no vestige of humanity,
or even of vegetation, appeared, except here and there the trunk and
scathed branches of an oak, that hung nearly headlong from the rock,
into which its strong roots had fastened. This pass, which led into the
heart of the Apennine, at length opened to day, and a scene of mountains
stretched in long perspective, as wild as any the travellers had yet
passed. Still vast pine-forests hung upon their base, and crowned the
ridgy precipice, that rose perpendicularly from the vale, while, above,
the rolling mists caught the sun-beams, and touched their cliffs
with all the magical colouring of light and shade. The scene seemed
perpetually changing, and its features to assume new forms, as the
winding road brought them to the eye in different attitudes; while the
shifting vapours, now partially concealing their minuter beauties and
now illuminating them with splendid tints, assisted the illusions of the
sight. Though the deep vallies between these mountains were, for the most part,
clothed with pines, sometimes an abrupt opening presented a perspective
of only barren rocks, with a cataract flashing from their summit among
broken cliffs, till its waters, reaching the bottom, foamed along with
unceasing fury; and sometimes pastoral scenes exhibited their 'green
delights' in the narrow vales, smiling amid surrounding horror. There
herds and flocks of goats and sheep, browsing under the shade of hanging
woods, and the shepherd's little cabin, reared on the margin of a clear
stream, presented a sweet picture of repose.
Wild and romantic as were these scenes, their character had far less
of the sublime, that had those of the Alps, which guard the entrance
of Italy. Emily was often elevated, but seldom felt those emotions
of indescribable awe which she had so continually experienced, in her
passage over the Alps.
Towards the close of day, the road wound into a deep valley. Mountains,
whose shaggy steeps appeared to be inaccessible, almost surrounded
it. To the east, a vista opened, that exhibited the Apennines in their
darkest horrors; and the long perspective of retiring summits, rising
over each other, their ridges clothed with pines, exhibited a stronger
image of grandeur, than any that Emily had yet seen. The sun had just
sunk below the top of the mountains she was descending, whose long
shadow stretched athwart the valley, but his sloping rays, shooting
through an opening of the cliffs, touched with a yellow gleam the
summits of the forest, that hung upon the opposite steeps, and streamed
in full splendour upon the towers and battlements of a castle, that
spread its extensive ramparts along the brow of a precipice above. The
splendour of these illumined objects was heightened by the contrasted
shade, which involved the valley below.