Date: 1797

"He bade her, as she valued her existence, watchfully to preserve the secret of her birth; and to waste not a single day at Villa-Altieri, but to retire to La Pietà ; and these injunctions were delivered in a manner so solemn and energetic, as not only deeply to impress upon her mind the necessit...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"Her heart was possessed by evil passions, and all her perceptions were distorted and discoloured by them, which, like a dark magician, had power to change the fairest scenes into those of gloom and desolation."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"The Marchesa reclined on a sofa before an open lattice; her eyes were fixed upon the prospect without, but her attention was wholly occupied by the visions that evil passions painted to her imagination."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"His numerous avocations and interests, however, seemed to prevent such anxiety from preying upon his mind; and, having dismissed persons in search of Vivaldi, he passed his time in the usual routine of company and the court."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"Whatever might be her failings, they were effectually concealed by the general benevolence of her heart, and the harmony of her mind; a harmony, not the effect of torpid feelings, but the accomplishment of correct and vigilant judgment."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"Yet the simplicity and energy of truth failed to impress conviction on minds, which, no longer possessing the virtue themselves, were not competent to understand the symptoms of it in others."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"The officials had brought him, in obedience to the customary orders they had received, within hearing of those doleful sounds for the purpose of impressing upon his mind the horrors of the punishment, with which he was threatened, and of inducing him to confess without incurring them."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"In reply to this, Vivaldi only bowed, but he remarked that the stranger's countenance altered, and that some dark brooding appeared to cloud his mind, as he quitted the chamber."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"Nor did those particular circumstances accord, as he was inclined to believe, with the manner of a being of this world; and, when Vivaldi considered the suddenness and mystery with which the stranger had always appeared and retired, he felt disposed to adopt again one of his earliest conjectures...

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1797

"The subject of his waking thoughts still haunted his imagination, and the stranger, whose voice he had this night recognized as that of the prophet of Paluzzi, appeared before him."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)