The Castle of Wolfenbach
Eliza Parsons
 Matilda Weimar and her servant Albert arrive at a cottage inhabited by two peasants, Pierre and his wife Jaqueline. Matilda is ill for unknown reasons and there is no bed for her to rest in, so they go to the neighboring haunted Castle of Wolfenbach. Bertha and Joseph, the castles’ caretakers, take in Matilda and Albert. That night, Matilda hears chains and groans and Matilda asks Joseph about the noises the next morning. He says him and his wife never hear them. Bertha then explains that Count Wolfenbach is the owner and he is a cruel man who locked up his wife and children and they died. They are the ghosts that one hears. Matilda ventures up into the tower where the noises came from and encounters a lady and her servant. Matilda tells them the story of her life: her parents died while she was an infant and she was brought up by her uncle. She had a good upbringing with her servants Agatha and Albert, but her uncle started to “caress” her and she overheard his plan to rape her, so Matilda and Albert fled. The lady then says that she has a sister, the Marquis de Melfort in France and that Joseph knows she resides up there. The lady offers Matilda to live with her sister in France. The next day, Matilda goes to converse with the lady of the castle again, but she is gone and the room is in disorder. Joseph and her find the lady’s servant murdered on the bed. Matilda leaves to go to France and tell the lady’s sister about her kidnapping. Count Wolfenbach arrives after Matilda leaves and tells Joseph that he has sold the property and Bertha and him are moving to another property of his. That night, Joseph wakes up to a fire in his room and escapes, but Bertha does not. The castle is burnt to the ground and Bertha is dead. In France, Matilda is staying with the Marquis de Melfort and we learn that the Lady of the Castle is the Countess of Wolfenbach. Matilda tells Charlotte, The Marquis, of her sisters kidnapping. Matilda receives a letter from Joseph telling her about the castle and Bertha’s ill fate. She shows the Marquis, and the Marquis decides to tell her about the Countess of Wolfenbach’s past. Victoria was in loved with a man, Chevalier, but their father made her marry Count Wolfenbach because he was rich and had power. The Count later sent the Marquis a letter saying that Victoria had died in childbirth along with their newly born child. A few weeks after that, the Marquis received a letter from Victoria saying she was alive. Matilda sees the Count de Bouville and falls in love with him right away and the love is reciprocated. Matilda’s uncle shows up at the Hotel de Melfort to get Matilda to marry him, but the Marquis sends him away and Matilda falls desperately ill after hearing this news. Matilda agrees to see him under the circumstance that the Marquis is in the other room listening to their conversation. Matilda and her uncle, Mr. Weimar, meet and he explains that she misunderstood his intentions of raping her. He then says that he is not her uncle, but rather Agatha found her at the gate and they decided to keep her and he now wants to marry her. The Marquis receives a letter from Victoria saying she is safe with a lady named Mrs. Courtney in England. Mr. Weimar tells Matilda she has to marry him, but she refuses, saying she is joining a convent. The Marquis and Matilda go to London where they meet up with the Countess of Wolfenbach and she tells them the story of her kidnapping. The Count and a servant burst into her apartment at the Castle of Wolfenbach accusing her of breaking her oath by talking to Matilda and Joseph when she is supposed to have no communication with anyone. They killed Margarite, her servant, so she wouldn’t tell anymore secrets and they took Victoria to the woods to kill her. The Count’s horse threw him off and the servant went to aid him while Victoria escaped. Mrs. Courtney found her and went with her to London. Next, the Countess tells the reader of her fatal marriage to the Count; she was exchanging letters with her true love, Chevalier, but the Count intercepted one of them and killed Chevalier right in front of the Countess and locked her in a closet with his bloody corpse. The Countess went into labor and delivered a son whom the Count took away from her and faked both of their deaths. Her punishment for communicating with the Chevalier was having her son taken away and she was to be locked up in the Castle and he made Joseph take an oath to never tell anyone, even Bertha of her occupancy there. The second volume of The Castle of Wolfenbach begins immediately after The Countess of Wolfenbach reveals the story of her past. Then the reader finds out that Mr. Weimar is in England and has spoken to the French Ambassador in an attempt to regain control of her. The reader also finds out that the Count de Bouville has travelled to England to join his friends after the wedding of his sister and the death of his mother. The Marquis consults first the French Ambassador and then the German Ambassador concerning Matilda’s situation. It is agreed that Matilda will remain under the protection for one year, during which time her parentage will be investigated. If no information about her ancestry is discovered, Mr. Weimar will regain custody of Matilda. The Count de Bouville, realizing he loves Matilda, proposes to her. “Your story, which the Marquis related, convinced me you had every virtue which should adorn your sex, joined with a courage and perseverance, through difficulties which might do honor even to our’s. Since I have been admitted a visitor in this house, I have been confirmed in the exalted opinion I entertained of your superiority to most women, and under this conviction I may justly fear you will condemn my presumption, in offering myself and fortune to your disposal.” Matilda rejects the Count de Bouville’s proposal, not because she doesn’t love him, but because she comes from an obscure background. “Ah! Sir, (said she, involuntarily) hate you! Heaven is my witness, that did my birth and rank equal yours, it would be my glory to accept your hand; but as there exists not a possibility of that, I beseech you to spare me and yourself unnecessary pain; from this instant determine to avoid me, and I will esteem you as the most exalted of men.” Attending the ball at night in the Lord Chamberlain’s box, Matilda meets Mademoiselle De Fontelle once again. Unbeknownst to Matilda, Mademoiselle has spent her time in England spreading vicious rumors about Matilda’s past and causing harm to Matilda’s reputation in the eyes of society. Once Matilda learns of the rumors Mademoiselle de Fontelle has spread about her, she decides to retire into an Ursuline convent in Boulogne, France. At the convent, Matilda strikes up an intimate friendship with Mother Magdalene, a nun who has lived at the Ursuline convent for ten years. Meanwhile, Mrs. Courtney has misconstrued the niceties and pleasantries of the Count de Bouville as overtures towards a more intimate relationship. In short, she becomes convinced that the Count wishes to marry her. For this reason, Mrs. Courtney writes a letter to Matilda informing her of the so-called romance between herself and the Count and intimates that they will soon be married. Matilda, now under the false impression that the Count’s affections were only cursory, congratulates Mrs. Courtney on the match. She incorrectly assumes that the marriage has already taken place and resigns herself to an austere life at the convent. One day the Marquis receives a letter from London from the German Ambassador. The letter states that the Count of Wolfenbach is dying and wishes to make amends to his wife. The Countess of Wolfenbach travels to see her dying husband and hears his confession before his death. After Matilda’s friends leave the area on matters of either business or pleasure, Mr. Weimar travels to the convent where she is staying and demands that she accompany him. The Mother Superior tells Matilda that she cannot legally protect Matilda. Mother Magdalene advises Matilda to write a few lines explaining her situation to both the Marquis and the Countess of Wolfenbach before leaving with Mr. Weimar, who, after a long journey, embarks with Matilda on a boat to Germany. A few days into their voyage, the boat is attacked by Barbary Corsairs. Mr. Weimar, thinking he is undone, stabs Matilda before turning the knife on himself. “I am undone, unfortunate girl; you have been my ruin and your own, but I will prevent both.” The pirates spare Matilda’s life and, upon her request, nurse Mr. Weimar back to health. While on his sickbed, Mr. Weimar reveals that Matilda is actually the daughter of his older brother, the Count Berniti (who Mr. Weimar murdered) and the Countess Berniti, who is still living with her family in Italy. The pirate captain, unhappy with his profession, promises to deliver Matilda to her newly-discovered mother. Meanwhile the Count de Bouville has learned of Matilda’s abduction and follows her path through Europe before finally finding her in the company of her mother, the Marquis and Marchioness, Lord Delby, and the Countess of Wolfenbach. The novel ends with Lord Delby’s marriage to the Countess of Wolfenbach and Matilda’s marriage to the Count de Bouville. Mr. Weimar enters a Carthusian monastery and plans to spend the rest of his life in penitence for his criminal and immoral actions.