Emily asked what reasons there could be to believe otherwise.
“The family likeness, that you bear her,” said the nun. “The Marchioness, it is known, was attached to a gentleman of Gascony, at the time when she accepted the hand of the Marquis, by the command of her father. Ill-fated, unhappy woman!”
Emily, remembering the extreme emotion which St. Aubert had betrayed on the mention of the Marchioness, would now have suffered something more than surprise, had her confidence in his integrity been less; as it was, she could not, for a moment, believe what the words of Laurentini insinuated; yet she still felt strongly interested, concerning them, and begged, that she would explain them further.
“Do not urge me on that subject,” said the nun, “it is to me a terrible one! Would that I could blot it from my memory!” She sighed deeply, and, after the pause of a moment, asked Emily, by what means she had discovered her name?
“By your portrait in the castle of Udolpho, to which this miniature bears a striking resemblance,” replied Emily.
“You have been at Udolpho then!” said the nun, with great emotion. “Alas! what scenes does the mention of it revive in my fancy—scenes of happiness—of suffering—and of horror!”
At this moment, the terrible spectacle, which Emily had witnessed in a chamber of that castle, occurred to her, and she shuddered, while she looked upon the nun—and recollected her late words—that “years of prayer and penitence could not wash out the foulness of murder.” She was now compelled to attribute these to another cause, than that of delirium. With a degree of horror, that almost deprived her of sense, she now believed she looked upon a murderer; all the recollected behaviour of Laurentini seemed to confirm the supposition, yet Emily was still lost in a labyrinth of perplexities, and, not knowing how to ask the questions, which might lead to truth, she could only hint them in broken sentences.
“Your sudden departure from Udolpho”—said she.
Laurentini groaned.
“The reports that followed it,” continued Emily—“The west chamber—the mournful veil—the object it conceals!—when murders are committed—”