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.