or my honoured lady and
my young mistress. Will your ladyship taste them, madam?' said Carlo,
presenting the basket, 'they are very fine ones, though I gathered them
myself, and from an old tree, that catches all the south sun; they are
as big as plums, your ladyship.'

'Very well, old Carlo,' said Madame Montoni; 'I am obliged to you.'

'And the young Signora, too, she may like some of them,' rejoined Carlo,
turning with the basket to Emily, 'it will do me good to see her eat
some.'

'Thank you, Carlo,' said Emily, taking some cherries, and smiling
kindly.

'Come, come,' said Montoni, impatiently, 'enough of this. Leave the
room, but be in waiting. I shall want you presently.'

Carlo obeyed, and Montoni, soon after, went out to examine further into
the state of the castle; while Emily remained with her aunt, patiently
enduring her ill humour, and endeavouring, with much sweetness, to
soothe her affliction, instead of resenting its effect.

When Madame Montoni retired to her dressing-room, Emily endeavoured to
amuse herself by a view of the castle. Through a folding door she passed
from the great hall to the ramparts, which extended along the brow of
the precipice, round three sides of the edifice; the fourth was guarded
by the high walls of the courts, and by the gateway, through which
she had passed, on the preceding evening. The grandeur of the broad
ramparts, and the changing scenery they overlooked, excited her high
admiration; for the extent of the terraces allowed the features of the
country to be seen in such various points of view, that they appeared to
form new landscapes. She often paused to examine the gothic magnificence
of Udolpho, its proud irregularity, its lofty towers and battlements,
its high-arched casements, and its slender watch-towers, perched upon
the corners of turrets. Then she would lean on the wall of the terrace,
and, shuddering, measure with her eye the precipice below, till the
dark summits of the woods arrested it. Wherever she turned, appeared
mountain-tops, forests of pine and narrow glens, opening among the
Apennines and retiring from the sight into inaccessible regions.

While she thus leaned, Montoni, followed by two men, appeared, ascending
a winding path, cut in the rock below. He stopped upon a cliff, and,
pointing to the ramparts, turned to his followers, and talked with much
eagerness of gesticulation.--Emily perceived, that one of these men was
Carlo; the other was in t