The Mysteries of Udolpho

The next morning, St. Aubert, Emily, and Valancourt have breakfast in an anxious silence. When it’s finally time for them to part ways, Valancourt lingers for a long time by the carriage door talking to them until at last, St. Aubert has to be the one to say “farewell.” St. Aubert notice Emily looking back the way Valancourt went and says that Valancourt is one of the most pleasant young men he’s met in a long time.

Emily and St. Aubert continue their carriage ride, eventually reaching a place where they can see the sea. As St. Aubert falls asleep, Emily reaches for one of her books but can’t find it. Valancourt apparently grabbed her book and replaced it with a volume of romantic Petrarch poems, which Emily takes as an accident, not considering that he might have done it on purpose out of love. She opens the book and sees some of Valancourt’s pencil writing annotating it.

Emily and St. Aubert arrive in the town of Perpignan, where St. Aubert finds some letters from Monsieur Quesnel that he was expecting. The letters seem to disturb him, which also worries Emily. At last, St. Aubert reveals that he has been concealing something from Emily, hoping to spare her unhappiness, but he now sees that the secret has just caused her even more anxiety. It turns out St. Aubert has invested most of his personal property in a man from Paris named Monsieur Motteville, but that man has been financially ruined, and so St. Aubert has been ruined, too. Emily reassures St. Aubert that she can find pleasure even in poverty, with nature and intellectual pursuits.

St. Aubert and Emily continue on their journey, finally reaching the province of Languedoc. Without much money, they struggle to pay for lodging in one town, forcing them to keep going even as St. Aubert gets weary. Eventually, they come to a chateau in the woods. St. Aubert asks a passing peasant about it, but the peasant thinks the chateau never takes visitors. When St. Aubert confirms that the chateau isn’t uninhabited—the peasant thinks some servants stay there—he has Michael proceed in that direction anyway.

St. Aubert begins to feel too ill to take the movement of the carriage, so Emily goes on ahead to investigate a nearby village on foot. When Emily makes it back to the carriage with some local peasants, St. Aubert seems to be feeling better. He gladly accepts the hospitality of the peasants, and the carriage begins to follow them. When the carriage reaches the village, the peasants there all stop dancing, curious to see their new visitor. An old man named La Voisin takes St. Aubert and Emily into his home, offering them hospitality. La Voisin and St. Aubert bond over the fact that they’re both widowers and wonder about what happens after death. This conversation causes Emily to cry.

St. Aubert and Emily ask La Voisin about the nearby chateau. He explains that it belonged to the Marquis de Villeroi, who didn’t spend much time there because he didn’t like the house; he supposedly died about five weeks ago. Now, only the housekeeper and her husband remain there, although they stay in a separate cottage, not the chateau itself. La Voisin says nothing in the world could convince him to spend the night in that house.

La Voisin fondly recalls the Marchioness de Villeroi, who also supposedly died at a young age. Just then, they all hear some mysterious music in the distance. La Voisin first heard the music 18 years ago. He doesn’t know where it comes from, but superstition has it that the music comes right before someone is about to die. Hearing this clearly upsets Emily. She urges St. Aubert to get some rest for the night, and he tells her that if he feels better in the morning, he’d like to get an early start.