While Emily gazed with awe upon the scene, footsteps were heard within
the gates, and the undrawing of bolts; after which an ancient servant of
the castle appeared, forcing back the huge folds of the portal, to admit
his lord. As the carriage-wheels rolled heavily under the portcullis,
Emily's heart sunk, and she seemed, as if she was going into her prison;
the gloomy court, into which she passed, served to confirm the idea,
and her imagination, ever awake to circumstance, suggested even more
terrors, than her reason could justify.
Another gate delivered them into the second court, grass-grown, and more
wild than the first, where, as she surveyed through the twilight its
desolation--its lofty walls, overtopt with briony, moss and nightshade,
and the embattled towers that rose above,--long-suffering and murder
came to her thoughts. One of those instantaneous and unaccountable
convictions, which sometimes conquer even strong minds, impressed her
with its horror. The sentiment was not diminished, when she entered an
extensive gothic hall, obscured by the gloom of evening, which a light,
glimmering at a distance through a long perspective of arches, only
rendered more striking. As a servant brought the lamp nearer partial
gleams fell upon the pillars and the pointed arches, forming a strong
contrast with their shadows, that stretched along the pavement and the
walls. The sudden journey of Montoni had prevented his people from making any
other preparations for his reception, than could be had in the short
interval, since the arrival of the servant, who had been sent forward
from Venice; and this, in some measure, may account for the air of
extreme desolation, that everywhere appeared.
The servant, who came to light Montoni, bowed in silence, and the
muscles of his countenance relaxed with no symptom of joy.--Montoni
noticed the salutation by a slight motion of his hand, and passed on,
while his lady, following, and looking round with a degree of surprise
and discontent, which she seemed fearful of expressing, and Emily,
surveying the extent and grandeur of the hall in timid wonder,
approached a marble stair-case. The arches here opened to a lofty vault,
from the centre of which hung a tripod lamp, which a servant was hastily
lighting; and the rich fret-work of the roof, a corridor, leading into
several upper apartments, and a painted window, stretching nearly from
the pavement to the ceiling of the hall, became gradually visible.
Having crossed the foot of the stair-case, and passed through an
ante-room, they entered a spacious apartment, whose walls, wainscoted
with black larch-wood, the growth of the neighbouring mountains, were
scarcely distinguishable from darkness itself. 'Bring more light,'
said Montoni, as he entered. The servant, setting down his lamp, was
withdrawing to obey him, when Madame Montoni observing, that the evening
air of this mountainous region was cold, and that she should like a
fire, Montoni ordered that wood might be brought.