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mountains, rolled in dark wreaths along their sides; and the guides
proposed to rest, till the moon should rise, adding, that they thought a
storm was coming on. As they looked round for a spot, that might afford
some kind of shelter, an object was perceived obscurely through the
dusk, on a point of rock, a little way down the mountain, which they
imagined to be a hunter's or a shepherd's cabin, and the party, with
cautious steps, proceeded towards it. Their labour, however, was not
rewarded, or their apprehensions soothed; for, on reaching the object of
their search, they discovered a monumental cross, which marked the
spot to have been polluted by murder.
The darkness would not permit them to read the inscription; but the
guides knew this to be a cross, raised to the memory of a Count de
Beliard, who had been murdered here by a horde of banditti, that had
infested this part of the Pyrenees, a few years before; and the uncommon
size of the monument seemed to justify the supposition, that it was
erected for a person of some distinction. Blanche shuddered, as she
listened to some horrid particulars of the Count's fate, which one of the
guides related in a low, restrained tone, as if the sound of his own voice
frightened him; but, while they lingered at the cross, attending to his
narrative, a flash of lightning glanced upon the rocks, thunder muttered
at a distance, and the travellers, now alarmed, quitted this scene of
solitary horror, in search of shelter.
Having regained their former track, the guides, as they passed on,
endeavoured to interest the Count by various stories of robbery, and
even of murder, which had been perpetrated in the very places they must
unavoidably pass, with accounts of their own dauntless courage and
wonderful escapes. The chief guide, or rather he, who was the most
completely armed, drawing forth one of the four pistols, that were
tucked into his belt, swore, that it had shot three robbers within the year.
He then brandished a clasp-knife of enormous length, and was going to
recount the wonderful execution it had done, when St. Foix, perceiving,
that Blanche was terrified, interrupted him.
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THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO Vol IV
The Count, meanwhile, secretly laughing at the terrible histories
and extravagant boastings of the man, resolved to humour him, and,
telling Blanche in a whisper, his design, began to recount some exploits
of his own, which infinitely exceeded any related by the guide.
To these surprising circumstances he so artfully gave the colouring
of truth, that the courage of the guides was visibly affected by them, who
continued silent, long after the Count had ceased to speak. The loquacity
of the chief hero thus laid asleep, the vigilance of his eyes and ears
seemed more thoroughly awakened, for he listened, with much
appearance of anxiety, to the deep thunder, which murmured at intervals,
and often paused, as the breeze, that was now rising, rushed among the
pines. But, when he made a sudden halt before a tuft of cork trees, that
projected over the road, and drew forth a pistol, before he would venture
to brave the banditti which might lurk behind it, the Count could no
longer refrain from laughter.
Having now, however, arrived at a level spot, somewhat sheltered
from the air, by overhanging cliffs and by a wood of larch, that rose over
the precipice on the left, and the guides being yet ignorant how far they
were from the inn, the travellers determined to rest, till the moon should
rise, or the storm disperse.
Blanche, recalled to a sense of the present moment, looked on the
surrounding gloom, with terror; but giving her hand to St. Foix, she
alighted, and the whole party entered a kind of cave, if such it could be
called, which was only a shallow cavity, formed by the curve of
impending rocks. A light being struck, a fire was kindled, whose blaze
afforded some degree of cheerfulness, and no small comfort, for, though
the day had been hot, the night air of this mountainous region was
chilling; a fire was partly necessary also to keep off the wolves, with
which those wilds were infested.
Provisions being spread upon a projection of the rock, the Count
and his family partook of a supper, which, in a scene less rude, would
certainly have been thought less excellent. When the repast was finished,
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THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO Vol IV
St. Foix, impatient for the moon, sauntered along the precipice, to a
point, that fronted the east; but all was yet wrapt in gloom, and the
silence of night was broken only by the murmuring of woods, that
waved far below, or by distant thunder, and, now and then, by the faint
voices of the party he had quitted. He viewed, with emotions of awful
sublimity, the long volumes of sulphureous clouds, that floated along the
upper and middle regions of the air, and the lightnings that flashed from
them, sometimes silently, and, at others, followed by sullen peals of
thunder, which the mountains feebly prolonged, while the whole
horizon, and the abyss, on which he stood, were discovered in the
momentary light.
Upon the succeeding darkness, the fire, which had been kindled in
the cave, threw a partial gleam, illumining some points of the opposite
rocks, and the summits of pine-woods, that hung beetling on the cliffs
below, while their recesses seemed to frown in deeper shade.
St. Foix stopped to observe the picture, which the party in the cave
presented, where the elegant form of Blanche was finely contrasted by
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