CHAP. VIII.

"My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.
I play the torturer, by small and small,

To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken.”

RICHARD II,

WE now return, for a moment, to

Venice, where Count Morano was fuffering under an accumulation of misfortunes. Soon after his arrival in that city, he had been arrested by order of the Senate; and, without knowing of what he was fufpected, was conveyed to a place of confinement, whither the most strenuous enquiries of his friends had been unable to trace him. Who the enemy was, that had occafioned him this calamity, he had not been able to guess, unless, indeed, it was Montoni, on whom his fufpicions refted, and not only with much apparent probability, but with justice.

In the affair of the poisoned cup, Montoni had fufpected Morano; but, being unable to obtain the degree of proof, which was neceffary to convict him of a guilty intention, he had recourfe to means of other revenge, than he could hope to obtain by profecution. He employed a perfon, in whom he believed he might confide, to drop a letter of accufation into the Denunzie fecrete, or lions' mouths, which are fixed in a gallery of the Doge's palace, as receptacles for anonymous information, concerning perfons, who may be difaffected towards the ftate. As, on these occafions, the accufer is not confronted with the accused, a man may falfely impeach his enemy, and accomplish an unjust revenge, without fear of punishment, or detection. That Montoni fhould have recourse to thefe diabolical means of ruining a perfon, whom he fufpected of having attempted his life, is not in the leaft furprising. In the letter, which he had employed as the inftrument of his revenge, he accused

Morano of designs against the ftate, which he attempted to prove, with all the plaufible fimplicity of which he was master; and the fenate, with whom a fufpicion was, at that time, almost equal to a proof, arrefted the Count, in confequence of this accufation; and, without even hinting to him his crime, threw him into one of thofe fecret prifons, which were the terror of the Venetians, and in which perfons often languished, and fometimes died, without being difcovered by their friends.

Morano had incurred the perfonal refentment of many members of the state; his habits of life had rendered him obnoxious to fome; and his ambition, and the bold rivalship, which he difcovered, on feveral public occafions, to others; and it was not to be expected, that mercy would foften the rigour of a law, which was to be difpenfed from the hands of his enemies.

Montoni, meantime, was befet by dangers of another kind. His caftle was be

fieged by troops, who feemed willing to dare every thing, and to fuffer patiently any hardships in purfuit of victory. The ftrength of the fortrefs, however, withstood their attack, and this, with the vigorous defence of the garrifon and the fcarcity of provifion on thefe wild mountains, foon compelled the affailants to raise the fiege.

When Udolpho was once more left to the quiet poffeffion of Montoni, he dif patched Ugo into Tufcany for Emily, whom he had fent from confiderations of her perfonal fafety, to a place of greater fecurity, than a caftle, which was, at that time, liable to be overrun by his enemies. Tranquillity being once more reftored to Udolpho, he was impatient to fecure her again under his roof, and had commiffioned Ugo to affift Bertrand in guarding her back to the caftle. Thus compelled to return, Emily bade the kind Maddelina farewell, with regret, and, after about a fortnight's ftay in Tuscany, where he had experienced an interval of L 5 quiet,

quiet, which was abfolutely neceffary to sustain her long-haraffed fpirits, began once more to ascend the Apennines, from whose heights she gave a long and forrowful look to the beautiful country, that extended at their feet, and to the distant Mediterranean, whofe waves fhe had fo often wished would bear her back to France. The distress she felt, on her return towards the place of her former fufferings, was, however, foftened by a conjecture, that Valancourt was there, and fhe found fome degree of comfort in. the thought of being near him, notwithstanding the confideration, that he was probably a prisoner.

It was noon, when she had left the cottage, and the evening was clofed, long before she came within the neighbourhood of Udolpho. There was a moon, but it fhone only at intervals, for the night was. cloudy, and, lighted by the torch, which Ugo carried, the travellers paced filently along, Emily mufing on her fituation, and Bertrand and Ugo anticipating the comforts..

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