aving taken what provision the marquis had brought, they quitted the
cell, and entered upon the dark passage, along which they passed with
cautious steps. Julia came first to the door of the cavern, but who
can paint her distress when she found it was fastened! All her efforts
to open it were ineffectual.--The door which had closed after her, was
held by a spring lock, and could be opened on this side only with a
key.
When she understood this circumstance, the marchioness, with a
placid resignation which seemed to exalt her above humanity, addressed
herself again to heaven, and turned back to her cell. Here Julia
indulged without reserve, and without scruple, the excess of her
grief. The marchioness wept over her. 'Not for myself,' said she, 'do
I grieve. I have too long been inured to misfortune to sink under its
pressure. This disappointment is intrinsically, perhaps, little--for I
had no certain refuge from calamity--and had it even been otherwise, a
few years only of suffering would have been spared me. It is for you,
Julia, who so much lament my fate; and who in being thus delivered to
the power of your father, are sacrificed to the Duke de Luovo--that my
heart swells.' Julia could make no reply, but by pressing to her lips the hand which
was held forth to her, she saw all the wretchedness of her situation;
and her fearful uncertainty concerning Hippolitus and Ferdinand,
formed no inferior part of her affliction.
'If,' resumed the marchioness, 'you prefer imprisonment with your
mother, to a marriage with the duke, you may still secret yourself in
the passage we have just quitted, and partake of the provision which
is brought me.' 'O! talk not, madam, of a marriage with the duke,' said Julia; 'surely
any fate is preferable to that. But when I consider that in remaining
here, I am condemned only to the sufferings which my mother has so
long endured, and that this confinement will enable me to soften, by
tender sympathy, the asperity of her misfortunes, I ought to submit to
my present situation with complacency, even did a marriage with the
duke appear less hateful to me.'
'Excellent girl!' exclaimed the marchioness, clasping Julia to her
bosom; 'the sufferings you lament are almost repaid by this proof of
your goodness and affection! Alas! that I should have been so long
deprived of such a daughter!'
Julia now endeavoured to imitate the fortitude of her mother, and
tenderly concealed her anxiety for Ferdinand and Hippolitus, the idea
of whom incessantly haunted her imagination. When the marquis brought
food to the cell, she retired to the avenue leading to the cavern, and
escaped discovery.