The midnight clock has toll'd; and hark, the bell
Of Death beats slow! heard ye the note profound?
It pauses now; and now, with rising knell,
Flings to the hollow gale its sullen sound.
MASON
When Montoni was informed of the death of his wife, and considered
that she had died without giving him the signature so necessary to
the accomplishment of his wishes, no sense of decency restrained the
expression of his resentment. Emily anxiously avoided his presence, and
watched, during two days and two nights, with little intermission, by
the corpse of her late aunt.
Her mind deeply impressed with the unhappy
fate of this object, she forgot all her faults, her unjust and imperious
conduct to herself; and, remembering only her sufferings, thought of
her only with tender compassion. Sometimes, however, she could not avoid
musing upon the strange infatuation that had proved so fatal to her
aunt, and had involved herself in a labyrinth of misfortune, from which
she saw no means of escaping,--the marriage with Montoni. But, when
she considered this circumstance, it was 'more in sorrow than in
anger,'--more for the purpose of indulging lamentation, than reproach.
In her pious cares she was not disturbed by Montoni, who not only
avoided the chamber, where the remains of his wife were laid, but that
part of the castle adjoining to it, as if he had apprehended a contagion
in death. He seemed to have given no orders respecting the funeral,
and Emily began to fear he meant to offer a new insult to the memory of
Madame Montoni; but from this apprehension she was relieved, when, on
the evening of the second day, Annette informed her, that the interment
was to take place that night.
She knew, that Montoni would not attend;
and it was so very grievous to her to think that the remains of her
unfortunate aunt would pass to the grave without one relative, or friend
to pay them the last decent rites, that she determined to be deterred
by no considerations for herself, from observing this duty. She would
otherwise have shrunk from the circumstance of following them to the
cold vault, to which they were to be carried by men, whose air and
countenances seemed to stamp them for murderers, at the midnight hour
of silence and privacy, which Montoni had chosen for committing, if
possible, to oblivion the reliques of a woman, whom his harsh conduct
had, at least, contributed to destroy.
Emily, shuddering with emotions of horror and grief, assisted by
Annette, prepared the corpse for interment; and, having wrapt it in
cerements, and covered it with a winding-sheet, they watched beside it,
till past midnight, when they heard the approaching footsteps of the
men, who were to lay it in its earthy bed. It was with difficulty, that
Emily overcame her emotion, when, the door of the chamber being thrown
open, their gloomy countenances were seen by the glare of the torch they
carried, and two of them, without speaking, lifted the body on their
shoulders, while the third preceding them with the light, descended
through the castle towards the grave, which was in the lower vault of
the chapel within the castle walls.