The White Pilgrim; or, Castle of Olival: An Interesting and Affecting Tale, Founded on Singular Facts. Translated From That Highly-Popular French Novel, Le Pelerin Blanc

While Count Horatio Castelli is away from home, he receives a letter informing him that his wife, Amabel, has gone missing. Castelli and his friend, Count Vassali, return to Castelli’s hamlet, Olival, only to find out from Aambel’s servant, Theresa, that Amabel had been in a secret correspondence and that she seems to have left voluntarily. Castelli and his three children go to live on Vassali’s villa for two years before returning to Olival. Shortly after returning to Olival, Castelli receives a letter to meet Vassali in London and goes. Vassali brings Castelli to see Theresa, the old servant of Amabel who reveals that Roland, Castelli’s bastard brother and Captain of the Guard during the time of Amabel’s disappearance, was in love with Amabel and when she did not return that love, Roland, with the help of Otho, used a poison to put her to sleep and kidnap her. Shortly after, Castelli dies in a ship wreck and Roland produces a fake will that names him guardian of the Castelli children but plans to kill them, fight his bastard status and inherit Olival. Vassali finds the Countess being held captive and surrounds the castle with soldiers led by the same White Pilgrim who pretended to be deaf when he asked Roland to take him in but actually heard Roland confess to everything. Horatio returns, having not died in a shipwreck, and retakes Olival. Amabel recovers quickly and she and Horatio have a baby girl.https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_gothic/1002/thumbnail.jp

Ethelred & Lidania; OR, The Sacrifice to Woden [Transcript]

The story is set in the medieval period and begins with Sir Ethelred, a superstitious but tolerant pagan knight, caught in a storm at sea with his Christian tutor and friend, Aribert. He was returning from a visit to a Count’s daughter, who his wealthy but overbearing pagan father wanted him to marry. Desperate to survive the storm, he invokes the Saxon god Woden to save him, promising to sacrifice the first person to greet him at his home. The weather calms, and Ethelred returns home. Happy to have survived, he immediately greets his wife. He quickly remembers his vow and starts off to his father’s house the next morning, determined to bring the matter to the priests of Woden. Upon arrival, he finds his father dead on a funeral pyre. Ethelred inherits his father’s estate and becomes the Baron. He then goes to consult the priests of Woden, who declare that Lidania can live if she renounces her Christian faith. She refuses, and prepares to be sacrificed for Ethelred’s vow. Upon seeing this, Ethelred converts to Christianity and declares that he would sacrifice himself with his beloved wife. Right before they are killed, Lidania’s brother Lucius arrives with a declaration from the sovereign, a convert to Christianity, prohibiting human sacrifices to Woden. After Ethelred’s conversion, most Saxons in Britain convert, and he and Lidiana live to see their granddaughter married to the King of England.https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_gothic/1013/thumbnail.jp

Horatio and Camilla; OR, THE NUNS OF ST. MARY. A TALE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY [Transcript]

Horatio, a young nobleman, is engaged to Lavinia, a young noblewoman. For the three years before the marriage, Lavinia lives in the convent of St. Mary; Horatio falls in love with Camilla, one of Lavinia\u27s companions. Soon afterwards Camilla disappears, apparently having run away with a nun from the convent. Camilla is recaptured, and it is said that she dies; Lavinia eventually leaves the convent and marries Camilla\u27s brother Henry. Shortly after the marriage Lavinia is called to the convent of St. Bennet, where she is reunited with Camilla, who had eloped with a disguised Horatio, been recaptured and ill-treated in the convent, and had at last escaped. Henry\u27s joy at his sister\u27s return inspires him to give a ball in celebration; one of the attendees of the ball seems enamored with Camilla and returns the next day to propose. She turns him down, and Henry, Lavinia, and Camilla go to Montpellier for Camilla\u27s health. Living near Henry\u27s Montpellier estate is a recluse, with whom Henry and Lavinia try to match Camilla; she is uninterested. As she wanders the grounds of the estate, she is kidnapped by minions of Baron de Crass, the man who was interested in her at the ball. De Crass tries to forcibly marry Camilla, but she is rescued by Henry and the recluse, who is revealed to be Horatio. Horatio and Henry kill de Crass and rescue a young man who de Crass had imprisoned. Horatio and Camilla are finally able to marry at the end.https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_gothic/1014/thumbnail.jp

OAKCLIFFE HALL OR THE FATAL EFFECTS OF FEUDAL QUARRELS. A Tale of the Fifteenth Century [Transcript]

Oakcliffe Hall is the home of the Lord and Lady Bellonmore and their children, Walter and Ellinor. The family is happy and generous to all until the Lord and Lady spend six weeks at court to present their son Walter, now twenty years old, and acknowledge the new queen. Upon returning home, they find that Ellinor has not fared well in their absence. Her caregivers, chaplain Lemuel Percy and governess Allicia are unable to explain the cause of her paleness and sadness, but report it began two weeks after her parents had left for court. Eventually, Lady Bellonmore notices that Ellinor sneaks out of the house each morning to meet a young gentleman. A servingwoman spies on Ellinor and finds that her rendezvous is with Lord Arthur, son of the Duke of Belgrave. Unfortunately, the houses of Belgrave and Bellonmore have been feuding, and Lady Bellonmore is terrified that if her husband were to learn of Arthur’s courtship, the feud could escalate into violence. She confronts Ellinor with her knowledge of Arthur’s courtship, and forces Ellinor to swear a holy oath never again to see him. A short time later, on her deathbed, Lady Bellonmore reminds Ellinor to uphold her vow, threatening to return from death to haunt her daughter if the vow is broken. Distraught, Arthur swears he can never love another woman, and begins to work on a plot to see Ellinor again. He infiltrates Oakcliffe Hall’s chapel and spies on her as she is praying, then makes a sound that startles her to shrieking in terror. As she tries to flee, she doesn’t recognize Arthur in the dark, and faints. Arthur takes this opportunity to abduct her, hiding the unconscious Ellinor in the grotto, returning with horses and his henchman Arnold to flee the area and wed Ellinor. Upon awakening, Ellinor cries out for help and tries to escape. Her brother Walter arrives just in time and draws his sword in her defense. At the end of the sword fight, Arthur and Walter are both mortally wounded, and Walter’s death causes Lord Bellonmore to die of grief. Ellinor, the sole survivor, joins a nunnery and eventually becomes an Abbess. Before departing for the nunnery, Ellinor reads her parents’ papers and discovers the origins of her family’s feud with the Belgraves. Arthur’s father had disguised himself to seduce Lord Bellonmore’s sister Angeline. Angeline died in childbirth as a result of that ill-fated union, and her baby Ellinor was raised by Lady Bellonmore as her own. Ellinor then realizes that by feuding, the families were attempting to prevent her from unwittingly committing an act of incest with Arthur, who turns out to be her own half-brother.https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_gothic/1015/thumbnail.jp

Inkle and Yarico; or, Love in a Cave. An Interesting Tale.

Narcissa Curry and Thomas Inkle are informed in the beginning of the story that they are engaged to be married. In England, Thomas is happy to hear of his impending marriage, while Narcissa mourns in Barbadoes because of her love of Captain Campley. Enroute to Barbadoes, Thomas’ ship crashes in the Americas and all the passengers are killed by Indians except him and his servant, Trudge. They are rescued by the beautiful Indians Yarico and Woski. Thomas and Yarico fall in love and decide to return to England together. Two events are triggered by Thomas’s arrival in Barbados enroute to England: (1) Inkle sells Yarico to the governor whom he believes to be a slave trader in order to follow through with the marriage to Narcissa and save his family’s money and (2) Captain Campley goes to the Governor to request permission to marry Narcissa and is given it because he mistaken for Inkle as the Governor has never met Inkle or Campley. Before the wedding of Campley and Narcissa, the Governor, a slave trader to Thomas, agrees to buy Yarico from Thomas, an unknown slave peddler to the Governor. After the Governor meets Yarico, who reveals that she is pregnant, Thomas’s Uncle Medium appears and reveals that he is infact Narcissa’s true betrothed. When the Governor hears that Thomas was trying to sell Yarico because he loved her and wanted her to be taken care of because he had to fulfill his family duty and that Campley and Narcissa are in love, the Governor consents to the marriages of these respective couples.https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_gothic/1004/thumbnail.jp

Priory of St. Clair; OR SPECTRE OF THE Murdered Nun. A GOTHIC TALE [Transcript]

The Archbishop of Rouen had the ability to pardon a condemned criminal once a year. One such pardon was that of Lewis Chabot, Count de Valvé. Intrigued by an overheard conversation, Lewis goes to the Priory of St. Clair where he witnessed Julietta reluctantly making her nun\u27s vows. He is unable to forget her, so bribes the under gardener, Alexis, to carry letters proclaiming his passion and desire to free her from the nunnery. Julietta refuses him. Lewis then procures a potent liquor that will, when drunk, simulate death. Julietta drinks it unknowingly and Alexis and Lewis carry away the coffin that contains her body. When she wakes, Julietta continues in her refusal of him. Since Julietta is obdurate in her refusal, Lewis makes her his unwilling mistress. One night he catches her trying to escape through the chapel in his castle and murders her as she clings, shrieking, to the altar. Six months later, Lewis marries, but his marriage is troubled by his odd behaviour, brought on by the fact that he\u27s being haunted by the spectre of Julietta. He is also being blackmailed by Alexis and attempts to murder him. This attempt results in his arrest and condemnation to burn at the stake. Granted the pardon by the Archbishop of Rouen, Lewis goes abroad, enters a monastery, and dies, penitent, three years later. Isabel remarries and her son grows up and marries the niece of the murdered Julietta.https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_gothic/1016/thumbnail.jp