Emily’s mind felt calmer and stronger after a long sleep. When she opened her eyes the next morning, she was surprised to see Annette asleep in a chair beside her bed.
For a moment, Emily tried to remember what had happened the night before. But her memory seemed empty. The terrible events had disappeared like a nightmare after waking, leaving no clear trace behind.
She was still staring at Annette in confusion when the girl suddenly opened her eyes.
“O dear ma’amselle! Do you know me?” Annette cried.
“Know you? Of course I do,” Emily replied. “You are Annette. But why are you sitting beside me like this?”
“Oh, ma’amselle, you have been very ill—very ill indeed! I thought—”
“This is strange,” Emily murmured, trying harder to remember. “But I believe I do remember something. My mind was filled with terrible dreams.”
Then suddenly, she sat upright with fear.
“Good heavens!” she cried. “Surely it was nothing more than a dream!”
She looked at Annette with terror.
Annette, wanting to calm her, quickly said:
“Yes, ma’amselle, it was more than a dream. But everything is over now.”
Emily’s heart froze.
“She is dead, then!” she whispered to herself.
A shudder passed through her.
Annette screamed, not understanding what Emily meant. She thought her young mistress was still confused from illness.
But after Annette explained that she was only speaking about Emily’s frightening experience of the previous night, Emily remembered the attempt that had been made to take her away.
“Has the person behind this plan been discovered?” Emily asked.
“No, ma’amselle,” Annette replied. “But it would not be difficult to guess who it was.”
Then Annette told Emily that she should thank her for saving her.
Emily tried to hide the emotions that rose within her when she thought of her aunt. She appeared calm and listened carefully, but in reality she barely heard Annette’s words.
“And so, ma’amselle,” Annette continued, “I decided I would find out Barnardine’s secret myself after he refused to tell me anything.”
“I watched you when you were on the terrace. The moment he opened the door at the end of the passage, I quietly followed you out of the castle.”
“I thought to myself, ‘No good plan would need so much secrecy.’”
“Luckily, Barnardine forgot to lock the door behind him. When I opened it, I could see the light from his torch far down the passage, and I knew which way you had gone.”
“I followed the light from a distance until you reached the chapel vaults.”
“But I was afraid to go any farther. I had heard such strange stories about those vaults.”
“Still, I was even more afraid to walk back alone through the darkness. So when Barnardine adjusted his torch, I gathered my courage and followed again.”
“When you reached the great courtyard, I was afraid he would notice me. So I stayed hidden near the doorway and watched you cross toward the gates.”
“When you went up the stairs, I hurried after you.”
“As I stood beneath the gateway, I heard horses outside and several men talking. They were angry with Barnardine because he had failed to bring you out.”
“Just then, he almost caught me. He came back down the stairs, and I barely had time to hide.”
“But by then I had learned enough of his secret. I decided I would not only defeat him but also save you, ma’amselle.”
“I guessed it was another plan of Count Morano’s, even though he had already left.”
“I rushed back into the castle. It was difficult finding my way through the passage beneath the chapel, and what is strange is that I completely forgot to be afraid of the ghosts people had told me about.”
“I would never enter that place alone again for anything in the world!”
“Fortunately, Signor Montoni and Signor Cavigni were awake. Soon we had enough men following us to frighten Barnardine and his villains away.”
Annette stopped speaking.
But Emily still seemed lost in thought, as if she were listening to something far away.
At last, she suddenly said:
“I think I will go to him myself. Where is he?”
“Who do you mean?” Annette asked.
“Signor Montoni,” Emily replied. “I want to speak with him.”
Annette then remembered the order Montoni had given the previous night concerning Emily. She stood up.
“I will find him for you,” she said.
Annette’s suspicion about Count Morano was completely correct.
Emily had also believed that Morano was behind the scheme. Montoni had no doubt about it either. He had even begun to suspect that Morano had once been responsible for the poison that had been placed in his wine.
The regret Morano had shown Emily while suffering from his wound had been sincere at that moment. However, he had misunderstood the reason for his own sorrow.
He believed he was regretting the cruelty of his plan, but in truth he was only mourning the pain and failure that the plan had caused him.
As his wounds healed, his old desires returned. Once his health was restored, he became ready once again to attempt another dangerous plan.
The castle porter, who had helped him before, willingly accepted another payment.
Together they arranged a way to lure Emily out of the castle gates.
Morano then openly left the village where he had been taken after the fight and moved with his followers to another village several miles away.
From there, on the night arranged by Barnardine, Morano sent his servants back to the castle.
Barnardine had learned from Annette’s careless conversation the easiest way to trick Emily.
Morano waited in the village, planning to carry Emily directly to Venice as soon as she arrived.
But this second attempt had already failed.
The anger, disappointment, and violent emotions that filled Morano after returning to Venice can only be imagined.
When Annette reported Emily’s condition and her request to see Montoni, he answered:
“Tell her she may come to the cedar room in about an hour.”
Emily wanted to speak with him about the matter that weighed most heavily on her heart.
Yet she was uncertain whether speaking to him would achieve anything.
At times, she even felt terrified at the thought of facing him.
She also wished to ask him for permission to return to her homeland now that her aunt was gone.
However, she hardly believed that he would grant such a request.
As the time of the meeting approached, Emily became so nervous that she almost decided to pretend she was too ill to attend.
When she thought about what she could say, either about herself or about her aunt’s fate, she felt equally hopeless about the success of her request and frightened of Montoni’s reaction.
Yet pretending she knew nothing of her aunt’s death seemed almost like sharing in the crime.
And this terrible event was the only reason she could use to ask permission to leave Udolpho.
While her thoughts struggled between fear and hope, a message arrived.
Montoni said he could not see her until the following day.
Emily felt immediate relief, as if a heavy burden had briefly been lifted from her heart.
Annette then began talking again.
“I think the gentlemen are preparing to go to war once more,” she said. “The courtyard is full of horses, and I heard that the rest of the soldiers who left earlier are expected back.”
“And I heard one soldier tell another that they would surely return with a great amount of treasure.”
“So I thought, if Signor can send his men out to steal without feeling guilty, that is his own business.”
“I only wish I could once be safely away from this castle.”
“And if it had not been for poor Ludovico, I might even have allowed Count Morano’s men to take us away, because escaping would have helped both you and me, ma’amselle.”
Annette could have continued speaking for hours without receiving any reply from Emily.
Emily remained silent and distant.
Her mind was completely absorbed by her suffering.
She spent the entire day in a strange, peaceful state, the kind of calm that sometimes comes when a person’s emotions have been pushed beyond their limit.
When night returned, Emily remembered the mysterious music she had heard before.
She still felt deeply curious about it and hoped she might hear those beautiful sounds again.
Her exhausted mind became more influenced by superstition.
She began to imagine that perhaps her father’s guardian spirit was trying to reach her.
After sending Annette away for the night, Emily decided to watch alone and wait.
It was not yet the time when she had heard the music before.
Trying to distract herself from painful thoughts, she picked up one of the few books she had brought from France.
But her troubled mind refused to focus.
She became restless and repeatedly went to the window, listening for any sound.
Once, she thought she heard a voice.
But when everything outside remained silent, she decided it had only been her imagination.
Time passed slowly until midnight.
Soon afterward, the distant noises throughout the castle faded away, and silence seemed to cover everything.
Emily sat beside the window.
She had fallen into deep thought when suddenly she heard something unusual.
It was not music.
It sounded like the quiet crying of someone in great sorrow.
Her heart trembled with fear.
She became certain that the sounds she had heard before were not imaginary.
At intervals, she could still hear a weak and mournful voice.
She tried to discover where it came from.
Several rooms beneath her chamber, beside the outer wall, had been closed for a long time.
The sound seemed likely to rise from one of those rooms.
Emily leaned out of the window and looked carefully to see whether any light appeared there.
But the rooms were completely dark.
Then, farther away on the rampart below, she thought she saw something moving.
The faint light from the stars was not enough for her to identify it.
She first thought it was a guard walking along the wall.
So she moved her candle away from the window, hoping not to be noticed.
The figure remained.
Slowly, it moved along the rampart toward her.
Now she could see that it had the shape of a human being.
But the complete silence of its movements convinced her that it was not a guard.
As it came closer, Emily hesitated.
Her curiosity urged her to stay.
Her fear warned her to leave.
While she stood uncertain, the figure reached the place directly opposite her window.
It stopped.
Everything remained silent.
She heard not even a single footstep.
The strange figure and the deep silence filled her with such fear that she began moving away from the window.
But suddenly, the figure moved quickly.
It seemed to glide away along the rampart and disappeared into the darkness of the night.
Emily continued watching the place where it had vanished for a long time.
Then she returned inside her room, thinking about the strange event.
She could hardly doubt that she had witnessed something supernatural.
When her fear finally weakened, she searched for another explanation.
Remembering the violent actions of Montoni and his followers, she wondered whether she had seen some unfortunate person who had been robbed by his bandits and brought to the castle as a prisoner.
Perhaps that person had been the source of the music she had heard.
Yet this idea seemed unlikely.
If Montoni’s men had robbed someone, it seemed more natural that they would kill the victim rather than keep him imprisoned.
And the strongest reason against this explanation was that the figure had walked freely along the terrace without any guard.
So Emily quickly abandoned that thought.
Then another possibility came to her.
Perhaps Count Morano had somehow entered the castle.
But she soon remembered how difficult and dangerous such an attempt would have been.
And if Morano had succeeded, he would not have come alone and silently to her window at midnight.
He knew about the private staircase leading to her room.
Nor would he have made the sorrowful sounds she had heard.
Another thought was that the figure might be someone planning an attack on the castle.
But the mournful cries made that impossible as well.
Every attempt to solve the mystery only created more confusion.
Who—or what—could be wandering through the lonely night, making such sorrowful sounds and such beautiful music?
Emily had no answer.
Her imagination once again took control, filling her mind with mystery and superstition.
Yet she decided that she would watch again the following night.
Perhaps then she would discover the truth.
And if the strange figure appeared once more, she almost resolved that she would speak to it.