noon
Tranquillity being once more restored to Udolpho , he was impatient to secure her again under his roof , and had commissioned Ugo to assist Bertrand in guarding her back to the castle . Thus compelled to return , Emily bade the kind Maddelina farewell , with regret , and , after about a fortnight 's stay in Tuscany , where she had experienced an interval of quiet , which was absolutely necessary to sustain her long-harassed spirits , began once more to ascend the Apennines , from whose heights she gave a long and sorrowful look to the beautiful country , that extended at their feet , and to the distant Mediterranean , whose waves she had so often wished would bear her back to France . The distress she felt , on her return towards the place of her former sufferings , was , however , softened by a conjecture , that Valancourt was there , and she found some degree of comfort in the thought of being near him , notwithstanding the consideration , that he was probably a prisoner . It was noon when she had left the cottage , and the evening was closed , long before she came within the neighbourhood of Udolpho . There was a moon , but it shone only at intervals , for the night was cloudy , and , lighted by the torch , which Ugo carried , the travellers paced silently along , Emily musing on her situation , and Bertrand and Ugo anticipating the comforts of a flask of wine and a good fire , for they had perceived for some time the difference between the warm climate of the lowlands of Tuscany and the nipping air of these upper regions . Emily was , at length , roused from her reverie by the far-off sound of the castle clock , to which she listened not without some degree of awe , as it rolled away on the breeze . Another and another note succeeded , and died in sullen murmur among the mountains : -- to her mournful imagination it seemed a knell measuring out some fateful period for her .