author - "Ann Ward Radcliffe"
e was roused from her forgetfulness, by the sound of the castleclock, which struck one. Surprised at the lateness of the hour, sherose in haste, and was moving to her chamber, when the beauty of thenight attracted her to the window. She opened it; and observing a fineeffect of moonlight upon the dark woods, leaned forwards. In thatsituation she had not long remained, when she perceived a lightfaintly flash through a casement in the uninhabited part of thecastle. A sudden tremor seized her, and she with difficulty supportedherself. In a few moments it disappeared, and soon after a figure,bearing a lamp, proceeded from an obscure door belonging to the southtower; and stealing along the outside of the castle walls, turnedround the southern angle, by which it was afterwards hid from theview. Astonished and terrified at what she had seen, she hurried tothe apartment of Madame de Menon, and related the circumstance. Theservants were immediately roused, and the alarm became general. Madamearose and de
nimated grace-- The portrait well the lover's voice supplies; Speaks all his heart must feel, his tongue would say: Yet ah! not all his heart must sadly feel! How oft the flow'ret's silken leaves conceal The drug that steals the vital spark away! And who that gazes on that angel-smile, Would fear its charm, or think it could beguile!
These lines were not inscribed to any person; Emily therefore could not apply them to herself, though she was undoubtedly the nymph of these shades. Having glanced round the little circle of her acquaintance without being detained by a suspicion as to whom they could be addressed, she was compelled to rest in uncertainty; an uncertainty which would have been more painful to an idle mind than it was to hers. She had no leisure to suffer this circumstance, trifling at first, to swell into importance by frequent remembrance. The little vanity it had excited (for the incertitude which forbade her to presume upon having inspired the sonnet, forbade her also to disbelieve it) pa
e was roused from her forgetfulness, by the sound of the castleclock, which struck one. Surprised at the lateness of the hour, sherose in haste, and was moving to her chamber, when the beauty of thenight attracted her to the window. She opened it; and observing a fineeffect of moonlight upon the dark woods, leaned forwards. In thatsituation she had not long remained, when she perceived a lightfaintly flash through a casement in the uninhabited part of thecastle. A sudden tremor seized her, and she with difficulty supportedherself. In a few moments it disappeared, and soon after a figure,bearing a lamp, proceeded from an obscure door belonging to the southtower; and stealing along the outside of the castle walls, turnedround the southern angle, by which it was afterwards hid from theview. Astonished and terrified at what she had seen, she hurried tothe apartment of Madame de Menon, and related the circumstance. Theservants were immediately roused, and the alarm became general. Madamearose and de
nimated grace-- The portrait well the lover's voice supplies; Speaks all his heart must feel, his tongue would say: Yet ah! not all his heart must sadly feel! How oft the flow'ret's silken leaves conceal The drug that steals the vital spark away! And who that gazes on that angel-smile, Would fear its charm, or think it could beguile!
These lines were not inscribed to any person; Emily therefore could not apply them to herself, though she was undoubtedly the nymph of these shades. Having glanced round the little circle of her acquaintance without being detained by a suspicion as to whom they could be addressed, she was compelled to rest in uncertainty; an uncertainty which would have been more painful to an idle mind than it was to hers. She had no leisure to suffer this circumstance, trifling at first, to swell into importance by frequent remembrance. The little vanity it had excited (for the incertitude which forbade her to presume upon having inspired the sonnet, forbade her also to disbelieve it) pa