The Romance of the Forest E-Book

Ann Radcliffe

• Herausgeber: Nonsuch Publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 700

Beschreibung

Ann Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest, first published in 1791, is the epitome of the Gothic novel: a beautiful, orphaned heiress, a dashing hero, a dissolute, aristocratic villain and a ruined abbey deep in a great forest are combined by the author in a tale of suspense where danger lurks behind every secret trap-door. Reprinted four times between 1791 and 1795 and satirised as represented of the Gothic genre by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey, Radcliffe's tense masterpiece, in which the heroine is afraid even to look in the mirror for fear of what she might see behind her, established her reputation as a writer and her brilliant descriptions of both characters and scenes serve to create the perfect atmosphere for a novel packed with emotional intensity.

Leseprobe

THE ROMANCE OF THE FOREST

THE ROMANCE OF THE FOREST

Ann Radcliffe

“Ere the bat hath flown

His cloistered flight; ere to black Hecate’s summons

The shard beetle, with his drowsy hums,

Hath rung night’s yawning peal, there shall be done

A deed of dreadful note.”

MACBETH

NONSUCH

First published 1791

This edition 2005

Nonsuch Publishing Limited is an imprint of The History Press

The History Press,

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved

Copyright © in this edition 2005 Nonsuch Publishing Limited, 2011

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 7166 2

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 7165 5

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Introduction to the Modern Edition

Introduction

Dramatis Personae

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Chapter XVI

Chapter XVII

Chapter XVIII

Chapter XIX

Chapter XX

Chapter XXI

Chapter XXII

Chapter XXIII

Chapter XXIV

Chapter XXV

Chapter XXVI

INTRODUCTION TO THE MODERN EDITION

Ann Radcliffe was born in London in 1764, the only daughter of William and Ann Ward. She published her first novel, The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne in 1789 and her second, A Sicilian Romance, the following year. These early efforts attracted little attention, although Sir Walter Scott considered A Sicilian Romance to be the first modern English example of the poetical novel; however, her third novel, The Romance of the Forest, published in 1791, found immediate popularity. It ran to four editions in as many years and was translated into French and Italian. Her next novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, appeared in 1794 to even greater acclaim. She wrote only two further works: The Italian, published in 1797, and Gaston de Blondeville, which did not appear until three years after her death, although it was apparently written in 1802. Aside from her novels she wrote some poetry and, in 1795, A Journey made in the Summer of 1794 through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany. Disinclined to attract attention to herself, she remained withdrawn from society, prompting rumours of insanity, which were almost certainly entirely without foundation. She died in London in 1823.

Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey, published posthumously in 1818, is a spoof of the Gothic novels which were, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, all the rage in fashionable English society.

“I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe’s works, and most of them with great pleasure.”

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapter XIV

She mocks the genre without mercy, and it is Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho which bears the brunt of her wit. However, scholars have come to the conclusion that the novel which Jane Austen used as the model for hers was in fact The Romance of the Forest.

That Jane Austen chose this particular Gothic novel as representative of the genre is especially telling: although neither the first of its kind (Horace Walpole is generally considered to have lead the way with The Castle of Otranto, published in 1764) nor the most horrifying (that honour probably goes to Matthew Lewis’ The Monk with its scenes of incestous rape), it is nonetheless the quintessential Gothic novel. All of the essential elements are present: the beautiful, orphaned heiress, the dashing hero, the aristocratic and dissolute villain and the ruined abbey deep in a great forest. Add to this the fact that it was extremely popular with contemporary readers, many of whom regarded it as the best work of one of the most brilliant writers of the period, and there is indeed a very strong case for The Romance of the Forest being regarded as the definitive Gothic novel.

Set in France during the seventeenth century, The Romance of the Forest is the story of Adeline St Pierre, a classically pure and innocent heroine who is forced to undergo trials of a spine-chilling nature. Pierre de la Motte, a ‘gentleman ruined by dissipation,’ and his wife flee from Paris and the former’s creditors, intending to live in obscurity in southern France, where it is unlikely that they will be pursued. Losing their way on a dark and rainy night, they seek shelter in a desolate house, only to have the care of a distressed Adeline forced upon them at gunpoint. Taking up residence in the ruined abbey of St Clair in the forest of Fontanville, the scene is set for a tale of drama and suspense, where dangers lurks behind every hidden trap-door and Adeline is afraid even to look in the mirror for fear of what she might see behind her.

The Romance of the Forest was the work which established Ann Radcliffe’s reputation as a writer, and much of that reputation rested upon her descriptive skills. Sir Walter Scott, among others, was an admirer of the poetic nature of her prose, and it is in scenic description especially that she excels. Her evocation of the ruined abbey, ‘lofty battlements thickly enwreathed with ivy ... once the pride of monkish devotion’, creates the perfect setting for a novel packed with emotional intensity. Radcliffe established a pattern for Gothic novels: despite the troubles that they face, heroines are always genteel and decorous, virtuous and unsullied. Matthew Lewis created an alternative, more sensational style of Gothic novel with The Monk, but it was Radcliffe’s version which was to prove the more enduring.

INTRODUCTION

The works of Mrs. Ann Radcliffe were once extremely popular: they passed through many editions, both in this country and on the Continent; but, being allowed to drop out of print, they are now almost forgotten. Yet they exercised a very appreciable influence upon English literature, and it is felt that the re-issue of her best-known books will gratify a large class of readers who have never had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with romances which at one time excited so much admiration, and may once more regain their hold.

Mrs. Radcliffe was the only child of William Ward by his wife Ann Oates. Ward, though he carried on a business at Holborn, London, was of gentle birth, and counted his descent from the Wards of Leicestershire, in which county he held some of his ancestral property. He was also connected with such famous professional families as the Cheseldens, Jebbs, and De Witts. His daughter Ann was born at Holborn, in the parish of St. Andrew’s, on July 9, 1764, and was christened on the following August 5, as is proved by the existing register. She may have attended the local school, but of this there is no evidence. She received a good, though not a classical, education, and passed the early years of her youth in cultured artistic society, where she acquired that delicacy and refinement which shine through the pages of her romances, with their keen appreciation of the beauties of nature. She had few companions of her own age, and in this respect her life was somewhat isolated; but through the kindness of her maternal aunt, Mrs. Bentley, with whom she was a favourite, she had the advantage of becoming acquainted with such celebrities as Mrs. Piozzi, Mrs. Montagu, and Mrs. Ord. There is, however, nothing to show if any of these noted persons influenced her in the direction of a literary career. They probably little anticipated that their pretty friend—the shy Miss Ward—was destined to take the public by storm with a species of romance peculiarly her own: nor could they foresee the extraordinary or widespread popularity of her work, and of the school of fiction which it helped to create.

Prior to her marriage she gave little or no indication of her great gifts; she read extensively, as was then the fashion of young ladies of the period who moved in good society. A real love of poetry was a distinguishing trait at this time, and at a later period she gave expression to her fancies in the indifferent verse with which her works abound. After her marriage with William Radcliffe, at Bath in 1788, her powers, which hitherto lay dormant, were brought to light in somewhat curious circumstances. She was not one of those who began to write because “she felt she had a message in her pen.” Her husband had become editor, and afterwards proprietor, of the English Chronicle, and was thus often absent during the evenings upon editorial duties. The newly-married wife evidently felt the hours drag wearily along, and started to write for his amusement, and he, recognising the merit of her “scribbling,” encouraged her to more serious effort. She was then in her twenty-fourth year—a period of life when “Fancy all her loveliest dreams imparts”—the bright illusions of youth were still undissolved, and to the sweetly romantic temperament of girlhood was added an enthusiastic admiration for all that was beautiful, weird, or mysterious.

Mrs. Radcliffe’s first book, “The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne,” gave a slight indication of the style of novel which was to make her famous, and it was followed next year, 1790, by “A Sicilian Romance,” wherein she gave full rein to her imagination. This book, which deals with the life story of a Marquis of Mazzini, at once attracted attention by reason of its brilliant imagery and thrilling incidents. There can be little doubt that Mrs. Radcliffe’s work was the natural outcome of her acquaintance with “The Castle of Otranto,” wherein Walpole endeavoured to “unite the merits and graces of the ancient romance and modern novel.” But she realised that such incidents as were connected with the enchanted sword and gigantic helmet of Alfonso, the picture that walked out of its frame, and the skeleton ghost in a hermit’s cowl were too great a strain upon human credulity. She therefore sought, like Clara Reeve in the “Champion of Virtue,” better known as “The Old English Baron,” to compose a work in which the seemingly supernatural incidents could be reasonably explained, and the extravagances of Walpole and Reeve avoided. In this she was eminently successful, for the mysterious lights and noises which disturbed the Mazzini household she traced to natural causes, the secret of which is marvellously well kept until almost the end of the tale. While “A Sicilian Romance” forms another link in the line uniting the ancient and modern class of romance, it presented to the public a new and fresh style which was to become the parent of numerous offshoots. It contains graphic descriptions of winding vales, gloomy caverns, wild banditti; and its stirring adventures electrified a public satiated with childish fables. Mrs. Radcliffe was a rapid writer, as this book abundantly proves, for the reader is hurried from scene to scene in a state of bewildering excitement and curiosity. Sir Walter Scott claimed that she was the “first to introduce into her prose fictions a tone of fanciful description and impressive narrative which had hitherto been exclusively applied to poetry.”

“The Romance of the Forest,” which appeared in 1791, established the reputation of Mrs. Radcliffe as one of the most brilliant writers of her day. It is regarded by some as her most faultless production; it reached a fourth edition by 1705, and has been frequently reprinted. Boaden’s dramatised version of it, entitled “Fontainville Forest,” was published in 1794, to be performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden; and it went through two editions during the same year. Although “The Romance of the Forest” was not perhaps intentionally written as “a novel with a purpose,” as we understand the saying nowadays, the scheme of the book shows how character is affected by circumstances, and there is a masterly grip kept upon the threads of the story. Of the figures in the tale Madame La Motte is commonplace enough, and the honest, stupid serving man, Peter, is at best a poor sort of comedian. Adeline St. Pierre, the heroine, is an interesting study, and it is impossible to resist the conclusion that in some measure she reflects Mrs. Radcliffe’s own tastes. The theme—a favourite one with the author—details the trials and adventures of an innocent, friendless maiden, whose troubled mind received its only solace in contemplating the grandeur of nature. Adeline has some pleasing traits: her tender, loving nature remains unaffected by cruel treatment, and her cares are borne with pious fortitude. The whole sketch affords an excellent example of Mrs. Radcliffe’s skill, and albeit her heroines possess more of the angelic than human temperament, yet she presents a beautiful lesson inculcating the value of patient endurance.

Pierre de la Motte is a very clever and spirited representation of an aristocrat of ancient race inveigled into, and ruined by, the dissipations of ultra “Smart” Society. He strives in vain to extricate himself from the vortex of ruin, and only sinks deeper into the mire; force of circumstance transforming him into an unstable, vicious weakling. As a natural consequence of his folly he has at length to seek refuge in midnight flight; but he is still pursued by misfortune, and has a singular adventure with a highwayman, who, thrusting Adeline upon his hands, compels him to take her with him. The beautiful girl is received into the family as an adopted daughter, and resides with them in the ruined Abbey of St. Clair, where they found refuge, amid the vast solitudes of Fontanville.

It is in her treatment of the Abbey that the skill of Mrs. Radcliffe becomes apparent. She takes advantage of the popular taste for scenic description, which Gray and Rousseau did so much to encourage, and gives a vivid impression of a sylvan scene which, delineated in poetic language, rises before one’s fancy in all the beauty of luxuriant woods, romantic glades, tangled mazes, far-stretching vistas. Nothing is wanting to complete the picture: there is the rippling stream gliding gently past the lawn between banks adorned with delightful flowers, and the sweet melody of feathered songsters mingles with the music of the waters in one harmonious cadence. Of the Abbey, thus pleasantly situated, she presents a view, by contrast, so striking as at once to touch the imagination. It is a vast pile in a state of woeful decay, bearing traces of ancient grandeur, but of so eerie an aspect that it is now evidently the weird abode of “powers unseen, and mightier far than we.” The sin-laden La Motte, with all the terrors of guilt upon his conscience, shrinks from entering it, his decadence being so great that a mere suggestion of mystery makes him a coward. It is an uncanny place, and the beautiful tapestry, hanging in shreds from the walls, gives rise to a vague feeling which rapidly develops into dread. There is a distinctly human touch in Adeline being afraid to look into the glass for fear she should see a face peering over her shoulder! Here we have the secret of Mrs. Radcliffe’s art: She rivets the attention by arousing curiosity, if not terror; she then plays upon the latent fear of “hidden things,” hat lurks in every being: mysterious sounds, indistinct whispering in gloomy dungeons, fill one with horrible imaginings. Only half revealing her picture she leaves the mind to its own workings; hence suspicions of terrible crimes, accentuated by visions of ghostly shadows which excite fear of the supernatural. When the reader gets into a highly strung state, with an idea that something terrible is to happen, she contrives to keep him in impatient curiosity by all manner of ingenious devices. Indeed, so artful is her method, that although he is keenly desirous to know “why no one ever emerged alive” from certain vaults, or what a mysterious chest contains, she leads him spellbound along another path. Adeline’s dream is sufficiently thrilling, while the account of her escape, abduction, and futile rescue by her gallant lover Theodore, is extremely graphic.

There are also dramatic passages in the scenes between the wicked Marquis de Montalt and La Motte. The Marquis is the bold, bad man who brought about Adeline’s misfortunes, and now, adding insult to injury, worries her with his hateful advances. As she rejects his addresses, he takes advantage of La Motte’s mysterious crime, and by sheer force of will-power overcomes the latter’s scruples to act against her honour. But La Motte is not yet so hardened in iniquity as to be incapable of feeling the dishonourable nature of the proposals so artfully made by his tempter, and is aghast when he is suddenly ordered to murder Adeline. Instead of doing so, he determined to save her, and sent her to Savoy, together with his servant Peter, where, fate guiding her footsteps, she unwittingly finds a safe asylum in the bosom of her lover’s family. The portion of the book dealing with the main action of the story is written with power and skill. An incidental allusion to a skeleton, rusty dagger, and faded parchment, prepare one for the sad life-story of the Marquis, inasmuch as these grim relics in the end establish the real identity of Adeline, whose parentage is cleverly shrouded in mystery up to the very last.

Such is the cunning skill exhibited by Mrs. Radcliffe that when she takes the reader into her confidence, and winds up the tale by ascribing all its startling incidents to natural causes, he still feels the effects of the illusions of her creative mind. Her vivid glimpses of scenery leave perhaps as lasting, and certainly more pleasing impressions than her terrible agencies of dread. She captivates the senses by her poetic treatment of landscapes, in descriptions rich and picturesque—for instance, that of the château of the La Lucs, the environs of Nice, and the pastoral valleys of Piedmont. It is but too true that her “local colour” is largely imaginary, and would puzzle the tourist; yet it was in the wonderful pictures she conjured up that Mrs. Radcliffe excelled. The beauty of her work is also that while fascinating the reader, she does not “shake the soul with wildly-thrilling woe,” or does she bring crimson to the cheek of the innocent by questionable allusions.

Her success, of course, led to a host of imitators, some of whom, such as “Monk” Lewis and Maturin, pandered to jaded tastes, and departed from her high standard. Yet the influence of her writing in one way or another affected eminent literary men, as well as many famous in different walks in life. Fox and Sheridan were as great admirers of her work as Sir Walter Scott, who edited the Ballantyne edition of her books, and called her “a genius.” rockden Brown and Poe were of her school, while Harrison Ainsworth in “Rookwood” imitated her descriptive work in Turpin’s famous ride to York, and Jane Austen, it is said, wrote “Northanger Abbey” as a satire upon “The Romance of the Forest.”

Mrs. Radcliffe may not be regarded as a great novelist: one or more of her school may surpass her in points of detail: the time was not yet ripe for that full and minute description of scenery which produces pictures faithful to nature, but it cannot be denied that Mrs. Radcliffe’s work acted as a stimulus in this direction. She is queen in her own particular line, and the estimate of Sir Walter Scott in 1824 still holds good:

She has taken the lead in a line of composition appealing to those powerful and general sources of interest, a latent sense of supernatural awe and curiosity concerning whatever is hidden and mysterious, and if she has ever been nearly approached in this walk, which we should hesitate to affirm, it is at least certain she has never been excelled or even equalled.

Much curiosity exists as to the personality of Mrs. Radcliffe, but there is little to be told because the bulk of her correspondence still remains unpublished, and there are no references to her in the letters or diaries of the famous people of her time. She flits before our vision like one of the shadowy forms she loved to portray—an elegant little lady with beautiful complexion, pretty features, dainty and charming to a degree, highly cultivated, extremely sensitive, painfully shy. In the zenith of her fame she remained wholly unaffected by the plaudits of the multitude, refusing to be drawn from domestic duties or pleasures into the society or gaieties of the litterati of her time. She was exceedingly fond of music, as may be gleaned from her writings: her voice was as rich and sweet as that of some of her heroines who were marvellously endowed in this respect. But while a delightful companion in the society of a few cherished friends, she maintained a “formal politeness” in the presence of strangers. This was due to a natural diffidence which she could never overcome. Her chief enjoyment was to indulge in long romantic excursions with her husband through the most picturesque scenery in England and on the Continent. She loved to roam through vales “o’erhung with waving woods,” r to climb some rugged height whence she could command a sweeping view. On these occasions she resigned herself, like Adeline, to the luxury of sweet and tender emotions, afterwards conveying her impressions in “forms that please and scenes ‘that touch the heart.” She combined to a wonderful degree the different characteristics of the great painters of nature, and her “musing eye” loved to rest upon scenes of gloomy grandeur, varying tints or fleeting shadows, which play so important a part in the fairy prospects she spreads before one’s vision.

Although her literary career may be termed meteoric, the fruit of her seven years’ labour is enormous, and proves that she wrote in a glow of inspiration, and very rapidly. Her books brought her considerable sums, but after the death of her father, on July 24, 1798, and that of her mother on March 14, 1800, she became the “last leaf on the tree,” and practically ceased to write for publication. Being an only child she inherited “messuages, tenements, and other property” in the county of Leicester, which perhaps decided her to remain content with the laurels she had won. She frequently visited Bath, where she resided at 22, Milson Street, and sometimes went as far afield as Leicester or Chesterfield. During the later years of her life she suffered greatly from asthma. Early in 1823 she had inflammation of the lungs, and latterly the membranes of the brain were affected, and to this last malady she succumbed on February 7, 1823. Her father was buried in the cemetery in Gray’s Inn Road, but she was laid to rest in a vault in the Chapel of Ease in Bayswater Road, in the same God’s acre where lie the ashes of Laurence Sterne—a sentimentalist like herself.

D. Murray Rose

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

PIERRE DE LA MOTTE, a gentleman ruined by dissipation, and a fugitive from justice.

Madame de la Motte, his wife.

Louis de la Motte, their son, an officer in the army.

M. Nemours, an advocate.

ADELINE ST. PIERRE, reputed daughter of Louis de St. Pierre.

Louis de St. Pierre, alias Jean D’Aunoy, the reputed father of Adeline, an accomplice of the Marquis de Montalt.

PHILLIPE, MARQUIS DE MONTALT, a dissolute nobleman, the enemy of Adeline.

M. Arnaud la Luc, a clergyman at Leloncourt, in Savoy.

Madame la Luc, his sister and housekeeper.

Clara la Luc, his daughter.

THEODORE DE PEYROÛ, his son, an officer in the Marquis’s regiment, the lover of Adeline.

M. Verneuil, a relative of Adeline’s mother.

Count and Countess D—M. Amand

relatives of Adeline

Doctor Lafance, of Chancy, who attended to Theodore’s wounds.

PETER, a servant of the la Mottes, who brought Adeline to Savoy.

Jaques MartignyDu Bosse

accomplices of the Marquis de Montalt

Principal Scenes: the Abbey of St. Clair in the forest of Fontanville; the Montalt Villa in the forest; A village hostel near Chancy; Leloncourt in Savoy; Nice; Vaceau; Paris.

Time: The 17th Century; the historical and geographical conditions largely imaginary.

CHAPTER I

“I am a man,

So weary with disasters, tugg’d with fortune,That I could set my life on any chance,To mend it or be rid on’t.”

“WHEN once sordid interest seizes on the heart, it freezes up the source of every warm and liberal feeling; it is an enemy alike to virtue and to taste—this it perverts, and that it annihilates. The time may come, my friend, when death shall dissolve the sinews of avarice, and justice be permitted to resume her rights.”

Such were the words of the Advocate Nemours to Pierre de la Motte, as the latter stept at midnight into the carriage which was to bear him far from Paris, from his creditors and the persecution of the laws. De la Motte thanked him for this last instance of his kindness; the assistance he had given him in escape; and, when the carriage drove away, uttered a sad adieu! The gloom of the hour, and the peculiar emergency of his circumstances, sank him in silent reverie.

Whoever has read Guyot de Pitavel, the most faithful of those writers who record the proceedings in the Parliamentary Courts of Paris, during the seventeenth century, must surely remember the striking story of Pierre de la Motte and the Marquis Phillipe de Montalt: let all such therefore be informed, that the person here introduced to their notice was that individual, Pierre de la Motte.

As Madame de la Motte leaned from the coach window, and gave a last look to the walls of Paris—Paris, the scene of her former happiness, and the residence of many dear friends—the fortitude which had till now supported her, yielded to the force of grief. “Farewell all!” sighed she, “this last look, and we are separated forever!” Tears followed her words, and, sinking back, she resigned herself to the stillness of sorrow. The recollection of former times pressed heavily upon her heart: a few months before and she was surrounded by friends, fortune and consequence; now she was deprived of all, a miserable exile from her native place, without home, without comfort—almost without hope. It was not the least of her afflictions, that she had been obliged to quit Paris, without bidding adieu her only son, who was now on duty with his regiment in Germany: and such had been the precipitancy of this removal, that had she even known where he was stationed, she had no time to inform him of it, or of the alteration in his father’s circumstances.

Pierre de la Motte was a gentleman descended from an ancient house of France. He was a man whose passions often overcame his reason, and for a time silenced his conscience; but, though the image of virtue, which nature had impressed upon his heart, was sometimes obscured by the passing influence of vice, it was never wholly obliterated. With strength of mind sufficient to have withstood temptation, he would have been a good man; as it was, he was always a weak, and sometimes a vicious member of society; yet his mind was active, and his imagination vivid, which, co-operating with the force of passion, often dazzled his judgment and subdued principle. Thus he was a man, infirm in purpose and visionary in virtue; in a word, his conduct was suggested by feeling, rather than principle; and his virtue, such as it was, could not stand the pressure of occasion.

Early in life he had married Constance Valentia, a beautiful and elegant woman, attached to her family, and beloved by them. Her birth was equal, her fortune superior to his; and their nuptials had been celebrated under the auspices of an approving and flattering world. Her heart was devoted to La Motte, and, for some time, she found in him an affectionate husband; but allured by the gayeties of Paris, he was soon devoted to its luxuries, and in a few years his fortune and affection were equally lost in dissipation. A false pride had still operated against his interest, and withheld him from honorable retreat while it was yet in his power: the habits, which he had acquired, enchained him to the scene of his former pleasure; and thus he had continued an expensive style of life till the means of prolonging it were exhausted. He at length awoke from his lethargy of security; but it was only to plunge into new error, and to attempt schemes for the reparation of his fortune, which served to sink him deeper in destruction. The consequence of a transaction, in which he was thus engaged, now drove him with the small wreck of his property, into dangerous and ignominious exile.

It was his design to pass into one of the Southern Provinces, and there seek, near the borders of the kingdom, an asylum in some obscure village. His family consisted of his wife, and two faithful domestics, a man and woman, who followed the fortunes of their master.

The night was dark and tempestuous, and, at about the distance of three leagues from Paris, Peter, who now acted as postillion, having drove for some time over a wild heath where many ways crossed, stopped, and acquainted De la Motte with his perplexity. The sudden stopping of the carriage roused the latter from his reverie, and filled the whole party with the terror of pursuit; he was unable to supply the necessary direction, and the extreme darkness made it dangerous to proceed without one. During this period of distress, a light was perceived at some distance, and after much doubt and hesitation, La Motte, in the hope of obtaining assistance, alighted and advanced towards it; he proceeded slowly, from the fear of unknown pits. The light issued from the window of a small and ancient house, which stood alone on the heath, at the distance of half a mile.

Having reached the door, he stopped for some moments, listening in apprehensive anxiety—no sound was heard but that of the wind, which swept in hollow gusts over the waste. At length he ventured to knock, and having waited some time, during which he indistinctly heard several voices in conversation, some one within inquired what he wanted? La Motte answered, that he was a traveller who had lost his way, and desired to be directed to the nearest town. “That,” said the person, “is seven miles off and the road bad enough, even if you could see it; if you only want a bed, you may have it here, and had better stay.” The “pitiless pelting,” of the storm, which at this time beat with increasing fury upon La Motte, inclined him to give up the attempt of proceeding farther till daylight; but desirous of seeing the person with whom he conversed, before he ventured to expose his family by calling up the carriage, he asked to be admitted. The door was now opened by a tall figure with a light, who invited La Motte to enter. He followed the man through a passage into a room almost unfurnished, in one corner of which a bed was spread upon the floor. The forlorn and desolate aspect of this apartment made La Motte shrink involuntarily, and he was turning to go out, when the man suddenly pushed him back, and he heard the door locked upon him: his heart failed, yet he made a desperate, though vain, effort to force the door, and called loudly for release. No answer was returned; but he distinguished the voices of men in the room above, and not doubting but that their intention was to rob and murder him, his agitation, at first, overcame his reason. By the light of some almost expiring embers, he perceived a window, but the hope, which this discovery revived, was quickly lost, when he found the aperture guarded by strong iron bars. Such preparations for security surprised him, and confirmed his worst apprehensions. Alone, unarmed— beyond the chance of assistance, he saw himself in the power of people, whose trade was apparently rapine! murder their means! After revolving every possibility of escape, he endeavored to await the event with fortitude; but La Motte could boast of no such virtue.

The voices had ceased, and all remained still for a quarter of an hour, when between the pauses of the wind he thought he distinguished the sobs and moaning of a female; he listened attentively, and became confirmed in his conjecture; it was too evidently the accent of distress. At this conviction, the remains of his courage forsook him, and a terrible surmise darted, with the rapidity of lightning, across his brain. It was probable that his carriage had been discovered by the people of the house, who, with a design of plunder, had secured his servant, and brought hither Madame de la Motte. He was the more inclined to believe this, by the stillness which had, for some time reigned in the house, previous to the sound he now heard. Or it was possible that the inhabitants were not robbers, persons to whom he had been betrayed by his friend or servant, and who were appointed to deliver him into the hands of justice. Yet he hardly dared to doubt the integrity of his friend, who had been intrusted with the secret of his flight and the plan of his route, and had procured him the carriage in which he had escaped. “Such depravity,” exclaimed La Motte, “cannot surely exist in human nature; much less in the heart of Nemours!”

This ejaculation was interrupted by a noise in the passage leading to the room: it approached—the door was unlocked— and the man who had admitted La Motte into the house, entered leading, or rather forcibly dragging along, a beautiful girl, who appeared to be about eighteen. Her features were bathed in tears, and she seemed to suffer the utmost distress. The man fastened the lock and put the key in his pocket. He then advanced to La Motte, who had before observed other persons in the passage and pointed a pistol to his breast, “You are wholly in our power,” said he, “no assistance can reach you: if you wish to save your life, swear that you will convey this girl where I may never see her more; or rather consent to take her with you, for your oath I would not believe, and I can take care you shall not find me again.—Answer quickly, you have no time to lose.”

He now seized the trembling hand of the girl, who shrunk aghast with terror, and hurried her towards La Motte, whom surprise still kept silent. She sunk at his feet, and with supplicating eyes, that streamed with tears, implored him to have pity on her. Notwithstanding his present agitation, he found it impossible to contemplate the beauty and distress of the object before him with indifference. Her youth, her apparent innocence—the artless energy of her manner forcibly assailed his heart, and he was going to speak, when the ruffian, who mistook the silence of astonishment for that of hesitation, prevented him. “I have a horse ready to take you from hence,” said he, “and I will direct you over the heath. If you return within an hour you die, after then you are at liberty to come here when you please.”

La Motte, without answering, raised the lovely girl from the floor, and was so much relieved from his own apprehensions, that he had leisure to attempt dissipating hers. “Let us be gone,” said the ruffian, “and have no more of this nonsense; you may think yourself well off it’s no worse. I’ll go and get the horse ready.”

The last words roused La Motte, and perplexed him with new fears; he dreaded to discover his carriage, lest its appearance might tempt the banditti to plunder; and to depart on horseback with this man might produce a consequence yet more to be dreaded. Madame La Motte, wearied with apprehension, would, probably, send for her husband to the house, when all the former danger would be incurred, with the additional evil of being separated from his family and the chance of being detected by the emissaries of justice in endeavoring to recover them. As these reflections passed over his mind in tumultuous rapidity, a noise was again heard in the passage, an uproar and scuffle ensued, and in the same moment he could distinguish the voice of his servant, who had been sent by Madame La Motte in search of him. Being now determined to disclose what could not long be concealed, he exclaimed aloud that a horse was unnecessary, that he had a carriage in some distance, which would convey them from the heath, the man, who was seized being his servant.

The ruffian, speaking through the door, bid him be patient awhile, and he should hear more from him. La Motte now turned his eyes upon his unfortunate companion, who, pale and exhausted, leaned for support against the wall. Her features, which were delicately beautiful, had gained from distress an expression of captivating sweetness; she had

An eyeAs when the blue sky trembles through a cloudOf purest white.

A habit of gray camlet, with short slashed sleeves, showed, but did not adorn, her figure; it was thrown open at the bosom, upon which part of her hair had fallen in disorder, while the light veil hastily thrown on, had in her confusion been suffered to fall back. Every moment of further observation heightened the surprise of La Motte, and interested him more warmly in her favor. Such elegance and apparent refinement, contrasted with the desolation of the house, and the savage manners of its inhabitants, seemed to him like a romance of imagination, rather than an occurrence of real life. He endeavored to comfort her, and his sense of compassion was too sincere to be misunderstood. Her terror gradually subsided into gratitude and grief. “Ah, sir,” said she, “Heaven has sent you to my relief; and will surely reward you for your protection; I have no friend in the world, if I do not find one in you.”

La Motte assured her of his kindness, when he was interrupted by the entrance of the ruffian. He desired to be conducted to his family. “All in good time,” replied the latter, “I have taken care of one of them, and will of you, please St. Peter; so be comforted.” These comfortable words renewed the terror of La Motte, who now earnestly begged to know if his family were safe. “Oh! as for that matter, they are safe enough, and you will be with them presently; but don’t stand parlying here all night. Do you choose to go or stay? You know the conditions.” They now bound the eyes of La Motte and of the young lady, whom terror had hitherto kept silent, and then placing them on two horses, a man mounted behind each, and they immediately galloped off. They had proceeded in this way near half an hour, when La Motte entreated to know whither he was going? “You will know that by and by,” said the ruffian, “so be at peace.” Finding interrogatories useless, La Motte resumed silence till the horses stopped. His conductor then hallooed, and being answered by voices at some distance, in a few moments the sound of carriage wheels was heard, and presently after, the words of a man directing Peter which way to drive. As the carriage approached, La Motte called, and to his inexpressible joy, was answered by his wife.

“You are now beyond the borders of the heath, and may go which way you please,” said the ruffian; “if you return within an hour, you will be welcomed by a brace of bullets.” This was a very unnecessary caution to La Motte, whom they now released. The young stranger sighed deeply, as she entered the carriage; and the ruffian, having bestowed upon Peter some directions, and more threats, waited to see him drive off. They did not wait long.

La Motte immediately gave a short relation of what had passed at the house, including an account of the manner in which the young stranger had been introduced to him. During this narrative, her deep convulsive sighs frequently drew the attention of Madame La Motte, whose compassion became gradually interested in her behalf; and who now endeavored to tranquilize her spirits. The unhappy girl answered her kindness in artless and simple expressions, and then relapsed into tears and silence. Madame forbore for the present to ask any questions that might lead to a discovery of her connections, or seem to require an explanation of the late adventure, which now furnishing her with a new subject of reflection, the sense of her own misfortunes pressed less heavily upon her mind. The distress of La Motte was even for a while suspended; he ruminated on the late scene, and it appeared like a vision, or one of those improbable fictions that sometimes are exhibited in a romance; he could reduce it to no principles of probability, or render it comprehensible by any endeavor to analyze it. The present charge, and the chance of future trouble brought upon him by his adventure, occasioned some dissatisfaction; but the beauty and seeming innocence of Adeline, united with the pleadings of humanity in her favor, and he determined to protect her.

The tumult of emotions which had passed in the bosom of Adeline, began now to subside; terror was softened into anxiety, and despair in to grief. The sympathy so evident in the manners of her companions, particularly in those of Madame La Motte, soothed her heart and encouraged her to hope for better days.

Dismally and silently the night passed on, for the minds of the travellers were too much occupied by their several sufferings to admit of conversation. The dawn so anxiously watched for, at length appeared, and introduced the strangers more fully to each other. Adeline derived comfort from the looks of Madame La Motte, who gazed frequently and attentively at her, and thought she had seldom seen a countenance so interesting, or a form so striking. The languor of sorrow threw a melancholy grace upon her features, that appealed immediately to the heart; and there was a penetrating sweetness in her blue eyes, which indicated an intelligent and amiable mind.

La Motte now looked anxiously from the coach window, that he might judge of their situation, and observe whether he was followed. The obscurity of the dawn confined his views, but no person appeared. The sun at length tinted the eastern clouds and the tops of the highest hills, and soon after burst in full splendor on the scene. The terror of La Motte began to subside, and the griefs of Adeline to soften. They entered upon a lane confined by high banks and overarched by trees, on whose branches appeared the first green buds of spring glittering with dews. The fresh breeze of the morning animated the spirits of Adeline whose mind was sensible to the beauties of nature. As she viewed the flowery luxuriance of the turf; and the tender green of the trees, or caught, between the opening banks, a glimpse of the varied landscape, rich with wood, and fading into the blue and distant mountains, her heart expanded in momentary joy. With Adeline, the charms of external nature were heightened by those of novelty; she had seldom seen the grandeur of an extensive prospect, of the magnificence of a wide horizon—and not often the picturesque beauties of more confined scenery. Her mind had not lost by long oppression that elastic energy which resists calamity; else, however susceptible might have been her original taste, the beauties of nature would no longer have charmed her thus easily even to temporary repose.

The road at length wound down the side of a hill, and La Motte, again looking anxiously from the window, saw before him an open, campaign country, through which the road, wholly unsheltered from observation, extended almost in a direct line. The danger of these circumstances alarmed him, for his flight might without difficulty be traced for many leagues from the hills he was now descending. Of the first peasant that passed, he inquired for a road among hills, but heard of none. La Motte now sunk into his former terrors. Madame, notwithstanding her own apprehensions, endeavored to reassure him, but finding her efforts ineffectual, she also retired to the contemplation of her misfortunes. Often, as they went on, did La Motte look back upon the country they had passed, and often did imagination suggest to him the sound of distant pursuit.

The travellers stopped to breakfast in a village, where the road was at length obscured by woods, and La Motte’s spirits again revived. Adeline appeared more tranquil than she had yet been, and La Motte now asked for an explanation of the scene he had witnessed on the preceding night. The inquiry renewed all her distress, and with tears she entreated for the present to be spared on the subject. La Motte pressed it no farther, but he observed that for the greater part of the day she seemed to remember it in melancholy and dejection. They now travelled among the hills, and were therefore, in less danger of observation; but La Motte avoided the great towns, and stopped in obscure ones no longer than to refresh the horses. About two hours after noon, the road wound to a deep valley, watered by a rivulet, and overhung with woods. La Motte called to Peter, and ordered him to drive to a thickly embowered spot, that appeared on the left. Here he alighted with his family, and Peter, having spread the provisions on the turf, they seated themselves and partook of the repast, which, in other circumstances, would have been thought delicious. Adeline endeavored to smile, but the languor of grief was now heightened by indisposition. The violent agitation of mind, and the fatigue of body, which she had suffered for the last twenty-four hours, had overpowered her strength, and when La Motte led her back to the carriage, her whole frame trembled with illness. But she uttered no complaint, and, having long observed the dejection of her companions, she made a feeble effort to enliven them.

They continued to travel throughout the day without any accident or interruption, and, about three hours after sunset, arrived at Monville, a small town where La Motte determined to pass the night. Repose was indeed necessary to the whole party, whose pale and haggard looks, as they alighted from the carriage, were but too obvious to pass unobserved by the people of the inn. As soon as the beds could be prepared Adeline withdrew to her chamber, accompanied by Madame La Motte, whose concern for the fair stranger made her exert every effort to soothe and console her. Adeline wept in silence, and taking the hand of Madame pressed it to her bosom. These were not merely tears of grief—they were mingled with those which flow from the grateful heart, when unexpectedly it meets with sympathy. Madame La Motte understood them. After some momentary silence she renewed her assurances of kindness, and entreated Adeline to confide in her friendship; but she carefully avoided any mention of the subject, which had before so much affected her. Adeline at length found words to express her sense of this goodness, which she did in a manner so natural and sincere, that Madame, finding herself much affected, took leave of her for the night.

In the morning La Motte rose at an early hour, impatient to be gone. Every thing was prepared for his departure, and the breakfast had been waiting some time, but Adeline did not appear. Madame La Motte went to her chamber and found her sunk in a disturbed slumber.—Her breathing was short and irregular—she frequently started, or sighed, and sometimes she muttered an incoherent sentence. While Madame gazed with concern upon her languid countenance, she awoke, and looking up, gave her hand to Madame La Motte, who found it burning with fever. She had passed a restless night, and as she now attempted to raise her head, which beat with intense pain, grew giddy, her strength failed, and she sunk back.

Madame was much alarmed, being at once convinced that it was impossible she could travel, and that a delay might prove fatal to her husband. She went to inform him of the truth and his distress may be more easily imagined than described. He saw all the inconvenience and danger of delay, yet he could not so far divest himself of humanity, as to abandon Adeline to the care, or rather to the neglect of strangers. He sent immediately for a physician, who pronounced her to be in a high fever, and said, a removal in her present state must be fatal. La Motte now determined to wait the event, and endeavored to calm the transports of terror which at times assailed him. In the meantime he took such precaution as his situation admitted of, passing the greater part of the day out of the village, in a spot from whence he had a view of the road for some distance; yet to be exposed to destruction by the illness of a girl, whom he did not know, and who had actually been forced upon him, was a misfortune, to which La Motte had not philosophy enough to submit with composure.

Adeline’s fever continued to increase during the whole day, and at night, when the physician took his leave he told La Motte, the event would very soon be decided. La Motte received this intelligence with real concern. The beauty and innocence of Adeline had overcome the disadvantageous circumstances under which she had been introduced to him, and he now gave less consideration to the inconvenience she might hereafter occasion him, than to the hope of her recovery.

Madame La Motte watched over her with tender anxiety, and observed with admiration her patient sweetness and mild resignation. Adeline amply repaid her, though she thought she could not. “Young as I am,” she would say, “and deserted by those upon whom I have a claim for protection, I can remember no connection to make me regret life so much as that I hoped to form with you. If I live, my conduct will best express my sense of your goodness;—words are but feeble testimonies.”

The sweetness of her manners so much attracted Madame La Motte, that she watched the crisis of her disorder, with a solicitude which precluded every other interest. Adeline passed a very disturbed night, and when the physician appeared in the morning, he gave orders that she should be indulged with whatever she liked, and answered the inquiries of La Motte with a frankness that left him nothing to fear.

In the meanwhile his patient, after drinking profusely of some mild liquids, fell asleep, in which she continued for several hours, and so profound was her repose, that her breath alone gave sign of existence. She awoke free from fever, and with no other disorder than weakness, which in a few days she overcame so well as to be able to set out with La Motte for B—–, a village out of the great road, which he thought prudent to quit. There they passed the following night, and early the next morning commenced their journey upon a wild and woody tract of country. They stopped about noon at a solitary village, where they took refreshments, and obtained directions for passing the vast forest of Fontanville, upon the borders of which they now were. La Motte wished at first to take a guide, but he apprehended more evil from the discovery he might make of his route, than he hoped for benefit from assistance in the wilds of this uncultivated tract.

La Motte now designed to pass on to Lyons, where he could either seek concealment in its neighborhood, or embark on the Rhone for Geneva, should the emergency of his circumstances hereafter require him to leave France. It was about twelve o’clock at noon, and he was desirous to hasten forward, that he might pass the forest of Fontanville, and reach the town on its opposite borders, before nightfall. Having deposited a fresh stock of provisions in the carriage, and received such directions as were necessary concerning the roads, they again set forward, and in a short time entered upon the forest. It was now the latter end of April and the weather was remarkably temperate and fine. The balmy freshness of the air, which breathed the first pure essence of vegetation; and the gentle warmth of the sun, whose beams vivified every hue of nature, and opened every floweret of spring, revived Adeline, and inspired her with life and health. As she inhaled the breeze, her strength seemed to return, and as her eyes wandered through the romantic glades that opened into the forest, her heart was gladdened with complacent delight: but when from these objects she turned her regard upon Monsieur and Madame La Motte, to whose tender attentions she owed her life, and in whose looks she now read esteem and kindness, her bosom glowed with sweet affections, and she experienced a force of gratitude which might be called sublime.

For the remainder of the day they continued to travel without seeing a hut, or meeting a human being. It was now near sunset, and the prospect being closed on all sides by the forest, La Motte began to have apprehensions that his servant had mistaken the way. The road, if a road it could be called, which afforded only a slight track upon the grass, was sometimes overrun with luxuriant vegetation, and sometimes obscured by the deep shades, and Peter at length stopped uncertain of the way. La Motte, who dreaded being benighted in a scene so wild and solitary as this forest, and whose apprehensions of banditti were very sanguine, ordered him to proceed at any rate, and, if he found no track, to endeavor to gain a more open part of the forest. With these orders, Peter again set forward, but having proceeded some way, and his views being still confined by woody glades and forest walks, he began to despair of extricating himself; and stopped for further orders. The sun was now set, but as La Motte looked anxiously from the window, he observed upon the vivid glow of the western horizon, some dark towers rising from among the trees at a little distance, and ordered Peter to drive towards them. “If they belong to a monastery,” said he, “we may probably gain admittance for the night.”

The carriage drove along under the shade of “melancholy boughs,” through which the evening twilight, which yet colored the air, diffused a solemnity that vibrated in thrilling sensation upon the hearts of the travellers. Expectation kept them silent. The present scene recalled to Adeline a remembrance of the late terrific circumstances, and her mind responded but too easily to the apprehension of new misfortunes. La Motte alighted at the foot of a green knoll, where the trees again opening to light, permitted a nearer, though imperfect view of the edifice.

CHAPTER II

“How these antique towers and vacant courtsChill the suspended soul! Till expectationWears the face of fear: and fear, half readyTo become devotion, mutters a kindOf mental orison, it knows not wherefore.What a kind of being is circumstance!”—HORACE WALPOLE

He approached, and perceived the Gothic remains of an abbey: it stood on a kind of rude lawn, overshadowed by high and spreading trees, which seemed coeval with the building, and diffused a romantic gloom around. The greater part of the pile appeared to be sinking into ruins, and that which had withstood the ravages of time, showed the remaining features of the fabric more awful in decay. The lofty battlements thickly enwreathed with ivy, were half demolished, and become the residence of birds of prey. Huge fragments of the eastern tower, which was almost demolished, lay scattered amid the high grass that waved slowly in the breeze. “The thistle shook its lonely head; the moss whistled to the wind.” A Gothic gate richly ornamented with fret-work, which opened into the main body of the edifice, but which was now obstructed with brush-wood, remained entire. Above the vast and magnificent portal of this gate arose a window of the same order, whose pointed arches still exhibited fragments of stained glass, once the pride of monkish devotion. La Motte, thinking it possible it might yet shelter some human being, advanced to the gate, and lifted a massy knocker. The hollow sound rung through the emptiness of the place. After waiting a few moments he forced back the gate, which was heavy with iron work and creaked harshly on its hinges.

He entered what appeared to have been the chapel of the abbey, where the hymn of devotion had once been raised, and the tear of penitence had once been shed,—sounds which could now only be recalled by imagination—tears of penitence, which had been long since fixed in fate. La Motte paused a moment, for he felt a sensation of sublimity rising into terror—a suspension of mingled astonishment and awe! He surveyed the vastness of the place, and as he contemplated its ruins, fancy bore him back to past ages. “And these walls,” said he, “where once superstition lurked, and austerity anticipated an earthly purgatory, now tremble over the mortal remains of the beings who reared them!”

The deepening gloom now reminded La Motte that he had no time to lose, but curiosity prompted him to explore farther, and he obeyed the impulse. As he walked over the broken pavement the sound of his steps ran in echoes through the place, and seemed like the mysterious accents of the dead, reproving the sacrilegious mortal who thus dared to disturb their precincts.

From this chapel he passed into the nave of the great church, of which one window more perfect than the rest, opened upon a long vista of the forest through which was seen the rich coloring of evening, melting by imperceptible gradations into the solemn gray of upper air. Dark hills, whose outline appeared distinct upon the vivid glow of the horizon, closed the perspective. Several of the pillars, which had once supported the roof, remained the proud effigies of sinking greatness, and seemed to nod at every murmur of the blast over the fragments of those that have fallen little before them. La Motte sighed. The comparison between himself and the gradation of decay, which these columns exhibited, was but too obvious and affecting. “A few years,” said he, “and I shall become like the mortals on whose relics I now gaze, and like them too, I may be the subject of meditation to a succeeding generation, which shall totter but a little while over the object they contemplate, ere they also sink into the dust.”