A short contest ensued between the parties, in which that of Montoni,
however, were presently victors, and the horsemen, perceiving that
numbers were against them, and being, perhaps, not very warmly
interested in the affair they had undertaken, galloped off, while
Barnardine had run far enough to be lost in the darkness, and Emily was
led back into the castle. As she re-passed the courts, the remembrance
of what she had seen in the portal-chamber came, with all its horror, to
her mind; and when, soon after, she heard the gate close, that shut
her once more within the castle walls, she shuddered for herself, and,
almost forgetting the danger she had escaped, could scarcely think, that
any thing less precious than liberty and peace was to be found beyond
them. Montoni ordered Emily to await him in the cedar parlour, whither he soon
followed, and then sternly questioned her on this mysterious affair.
Though she now viewed him with horror, as the murderer of her aunt, and
scarcely knew what she said in reply to his impatient enquiries, her
answers and her manner convinced him, that she had not taken a voluntary
part in the late scheme, and he dismissed her upon the appearance of his
servants, whom he had ordered to attend, that he might enquire further
into the affair, and discover those, who had been accomplices in it.
Emily had been some time in her apartment, before the tumult of her mind
allowed her to remember several of the past circumstances. Then, again,
the dead form, which the curtain in the portal-chamber had disclosed,
came to her fancy, and she uttered a groan, which terrified Annette the
more, as Emily forbore to satisfy her curiosity, on the subject of
it, for she feared to trust her with so fatal a secret, lest her
indiscretion should call down the immediate vengeance of Montoni on
herself. Thus compelled to bear within her own mind the whole horror of the
secret, that oppressed it, her reason seemed to totter under the
intolerable weight. She often fixed a wild and vacant look on Annette,
and, when she spoke, either did not hear her, or answered from the
purpose. Long fits of abstraction succeeded; Annette spoke repeatedly,
but her voice seemed not to make any impression on the sense of the long
agitated Emily, who sat fixed and silent, except that, now and then, she
heaved a heavy sigh, but without tears.
Terrified at her condition, Annette, at length, left the room, to inform
Montoni of it, who had just dismissed his servants, without having made
any discoveries on the subject of his enquiry. The wild description,
which this girl now gave of Emily, induced him to follow her immediately
to the chamber. At the sound of his voice, Emily turned her eyes, and a gleam of
recollection seemed to shoot athwart her mind, for she immediately rose
from her seat, and moved slowly to a remote part of the room. He spoke
to her in accents somewhat softened from their usual harshness, but
she regarded him with a kind of half curious, half terrified look,
and answered only 'yes,' to whatever he said. Her mind still seemed to
retain no other impression, than that of fear.