The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe — Read

The midnight clock has toll'd; and hark, the bell / Of death beats slow! heard ye the note profound? / It pauses now; and now with rising knell / Flings to the hollow gale its sullen sound. / - Mason

When Montoni was informed of the death of his wife, and considered that she had died without giving him the signature so necessary to the accomplishment of his wishes, no sense of decency restrained the expression of his resentment. Emily anxiously avoided his presence, and watched, during two days and two nights, with little intermission, by the corpse of her late aunt. Her mind deeply impressed with the unhappy fate of this object, she forgot all her faults, her unjust and imperious conduct to herself; and, remembering only her sufferings, thought of her only with tender compassion. Sometimes, however, she could not avoid musing upon the strange infatuation that had proved so fatal to her aunt, and had involved herself in a labyrinth of misfortune, from which she saw no means of escaping -- the marriage with Montoni. But, when she considered this circumstance, it was "more in sorrow than in anger," -- more for the purpose of indulging lamentation, than reproach.