The Mysteries of Udolpho | Page 4

and supported, polish'd friends And dear relations mingle
into bliss.* *Thomson
On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony,
stood, in the year 1584, the chateau of Monsieur St. Aubert. From its
windows were seen the pastoral landscapes of Guienne and Gascony
stretching along the river, gay with luxuriant woods and vine, and
plantations of olives. To the south, the view was bounded by the
majestic Pyrenees, whose summits, veiled in clouds, or exhibiting
awful forms, seen, and lost again, as the partial vapours rolled along,
were sometimes barren, and gleamed through the blue tinge of air, and
sometimes frowned with forests of gloomy pine, that swept downward
to their base. These tremendous precipices were contrasted by the soft
green of the pastures and woods that hung upon their skirts; among
whose flocks, and herds, and simple cottages, the eye, after having
scaled the cliffs above, delighted to repose. To the north, and to the east,
the plains of Guienne and Languedoc were lost in the mist of distance;
on the west, Gascony was bounded by the waters of Biscay.
M. St. Aubert loved to wander, with his wife and daughter, on the
margin of the Garonne, and to listen to the music that floated on its
waves. He had known life in other forms than those of pastoral
simplicity, having mingled in the gay and in the busy scenes of the
world; but the flattering portrait of mankind, which his heart had
delineated in early youth, his experience had too sorrowfully corrected.
Yet, amidst the changing visions of life, his principles remained
unshaken, his benevolence unchilled; and he retired from the multitude
'more in PITY than in anger,' to scenes of simple nature, to the pure
delights of literature, and to the exercise of domestic virtues.

He was a descendant from the younger branch of an illustrious family,
and it was designed, that the deficiency of his patrimonial wealth
should be supplied either by a splendid alliance in marriage, or by
success in the intrigues of public affairs. But St. Aubert had too nice a
sense of honour to fulfil the latter hope, and too small a portion of
ambition to sacrifice what he called happiness, to the attainment of
wealth. After the death of his father he married a very amiable woman,
his equal in birth, and not his superior in fortune. The late Monsieur St.
Aubert's liberality, or extravagance, had so much involved his affairs,
that his son found it necessary to dispose of a part of the family domain,
and, some years after his marriage, he sold it to Monsieur Quesnel, the
brother of his wife, and retired to a small estate in Gascony, where
conjugal felicity, and parental duties, divided his attention with the
treasures of knowledge and the illuminations of genius.
To this spot he had been attached from his infancy. He had often made
excursions to it when a boy, and the impressions of delight given to his
mind by the homely kindness of the grey-headed peasant, to whom it
was intrusted, and whose fruit and cream never failed, had not been
obliterated by succeeding circumstances. The green pastures along
which he had so often bounded in the exultation of health, and youthful
freedom--the woods, under whose refreshing shade he had first
indulged that pensive melancholy, which afterwards made a strong
feature of his character--the wild walks of the mountains, the river, on
whose waves he had floated, and the distant plains, which seemed
boundless as his early hopes--were never after remembered by St.
Aubert but with enthusiasm and regret. At length he disengaged
himself from the world, and retired hither, to realize the wishes of
many years.
The building, as it then stood, was merely a summer cottage, rendered
interesting to a stranger by its neat simplicity, or the beauty of the
surrounding scene; and considerable additions were necessary to make
it a comfortable family residence. St. Aubert felt a kind of affection for
every part of the fabric, which he remembered in his youth, and would
not suffer a stone of it to be removed, so that the new building, adapted
to the style of the old one, formed with it only a simple and elegant

residence. The taste of Madame St. Aubert was conspicuous in its
internal finishing, where the same chaste simplicity was observable in
the furniture, and in the few ornaments of the apartments, that
characterized the manners of its inhabitants.
The library occupied the west side of the chateau, and was enriched by
a collection of the best books in the ancient and modern languages.
This room opened upon a grove, which stood on the brow of a gentle
declivity, that fell towards the river, and the tall trees gave it a
melancholy and pleasing