The Mysteries of Udolpho

Montoni and Cavigni spend the night out gambling with friends, including Bertolini, Orsino, and Verezzi. The next day, Montoni invites these friends to eat with him in his home, all while ignoring Madame Montoni. Madame Montoni doesn’t like any of Montoni’s friends. Another guest at the table is Count Morano, who sits next to Emily and observes her throughout the meal. At one point, he pulls out his lute and dedicates a song to Emily.

After Count Morano has finished his song, Emily takes the lute and plays a popular song from France, which pleases everyone. More songs follow. After a while, Montoni starts to get bored. Eventually, everyone leaves by boat to go to St. Mark’s (the main public square in Venice). The whole time, Count Morano continues to pay compliments to Emily. At St. Mark’s, Count Morano invites Madame Montoni to have dinner at his casino (a hall for music and dancing, not necessarily gambling).

At the impressive banquet in Count Morano’s casino, Emily senses that Count Morano believes he has already won her over, so now he is trying to win over Madame Montoni. He seems to succeed and invites them all to come to his box at the opera the following evening. When Emily leaves the casino, she is surprised to see the sun beginning to rise.

Montoni comes home late in the morning, having lost a lot of money the previous evening. Madame Montoni remains distant toward her new husband. That evening, they all go out again to St. Mark’s, although Montoni once again has his own plans. Emily and the others go to Count Morano’s opera box, and Emily begins to think that all the wonders of Venice are nevertheless inferior to the natural world. She starts wishing she could get away from Count Morano.

Weeks pass. Montoni receives a letter from Quesnel where Quesnel mentions a villa he recently inherited. Although Montoni never had any serious claim to the villa, he gets jealous. Emily notices with concern that Montoni has been acting coldly toward Madame Montoni ever since they arrived in Italy, seemingly disappointed that she wasn’t as wealthy as she seemed. It turns out Montoni has recently lost a lot of money after all, and that the rumors Valancourt heard are true.

Due to his money problems, Montoni begins planning to go to the castle di Udolpho, a place he owns but hasn’t visited in two years. Meanwhile, Count Morano becomes more and more vocal about his interest in Emily. Emily attempts to reject him in words so blunt that he won’t misinterpret them. Nevertheless, he continues to hang around, and both Montoni and Madame Montoni seem to want him to marry Emily.

Quesnel announces in a letter that he and his wife will be in Italy to see the new villa they inherited, and while he’s in the country, he’d like to see Montoni. Around the same time, Emily receives a letter from Valancourt, who says that he has been lingering in the places he last saw her but most soon leave to join his regiment again. He tells Emily that La Vallée is being rented out to tenants and that Quesnel made a surprise visit to fire Theresa. Reading these things make Emily cry, even as she’s glad to learn Valancourt is well.

Emily goes to confront Montoni about what Quesnel is doing to La Vallée. Montoni was actually just in the process of writing him a letter. Emily manages to convince Montoni to let her write something in the letter about taking care of Theresa, but in exchange, she writes that she agrees to the other things Quesnel has done to La Vallée.

The next day, Count Morano seems very happy and continues to pursue Emily, taking her in his boat and kissing her hand. Emily draws back her hand, with her annoyance at Count Morano turning into hatred. She learns that Montoni has promised her to him in marriage. Emily assures Count Morano that she has no intention of marrying him, but Count Morano says he has proof of Emily’s acceptance.

Emily realizes that she has been tricked, and the letter she signed that she thought was about consenting to Quesnel’s use of La Vallée was actually about agreeing to marry Count Morano. Count Morano himself gets angry at Montoni for misrepresenting Emily’s intentions. Emily explains what she thought she was really writing, and Montoni is incredulous—or at least pretends to be.

Emily goes back to her apartment, wondering whether Montoni was trying to deliberately trick her into a marriage. She brings her concerns to Madame Montoni, who disagrees and says that Montoni now has a right to force Emily to follow through with a marriage to Count Morano by any means necessary.

Emily spends several days nervously contemplating what to do next. She writes a poem about the ruins of Troy. Montoni doesn’t mention the letter for several days. Finally, he casually mentions one day that he hopes Emily will stop pretending that she didn’t know she was consenting to marriage with Count Morano when she signed the letter. Emily remains steadfast.

Later, Quesnel arrives at Montoni’s mansion in a barge. They begin to talk, with Quesnel boasting of his recent good fortune and commenting on Montoni’s recent losses. Emily doesn’t like Quesnel but listens attentively to anything he might say of France or perhaps even Valancourt, but she hears nothing about him. Montoni takes his guests to the garden, where Emily thinks about how the beauty of the natural landscape in the distance is more impressive than any manmade structure.