However, this is a step too far for Pierre, who helps her to escape to the home of Peter’s sister.William Apess (1798-1839) published several important works, including an autobiography, and is rightly regarded as one of the founders of Native American letters. The Marquis decides that he wants Adeline dead. Theodore is imprisoned and Adeline returned to the abbey. The Marquis runs them down at an inn, where Theodore wounds him. She escapes and Theodore takes her away in a carriage, with the Marquis in hot pursuit. With Peter, she plots to escape the abbey, but she is tricked, and she finds herself taken not to a safe place but to the Marquis’s house. Peter tells Adeline what is really going on: the Marquis, who is married, plans to hold a fake wedding with Adeline and then keep her as a mistress. The manuscript that terrifies her, and she eventually decides to tell Pierre about it. Meanwhile, Adeline has discovered a manuscript written by someone who had been held a prisoner in the abbey. She confesses her fears to Pierre, who does not contradict her. After Theodore’s attempted warning, Adeline fears she will be sent back to her father. Pierre and the Marquis hold lengthy private conversations.

One of the Marquis’s attendants, Theodore, attempts to warn Adeline that she is in danger, but he, too, is sent away. Louis suspects that something is amiss, but he must return to his regiment. The Marquis is the owner of the abbey, and his appearance seems to distress Pierre. On a stormy night, a group of horsemen arrives at the abbey: the Marquis de Montalt and attendants. He starts courting her delicately, while she politely rebuffs his attention. However, he concludes that Adeline is not the cause, and he begins to fall for Adeline himself. Louis tries, but he loses his father in the trees. She confides in him that she believes Adeline is having an affair with Pierre: her husband has been going off by himself, and Constance wants Louis to follow him. Constance, in particular, is relieved to see her son. The de la Mottes left Paris without telling him, and he has come to find them. She finds a young man, who turns out to be Pierre and Constance’s son, Louis.

In the morning, Adeline is sent out to see if any creditors have arrived at the abbey. None of the party wants to stay in such a sinister place, but Peter explores the ruins and announces that there is nothing there except owls and bats. Their wagon breaks down, and the party travel on foot to a ruined abbey. Threatened now by the mysterious host as well as Pierre’s creditors, the de la Mottes decide to take their chances in a dark forest. Later in the night, Pierre’s host reappears, dragging a beautiful young woman behind him: “If you wish to save your life,” Pierre’s host announces, “swear that you will convey this girl where I may never see her more.” Pierre agrees, and he and the young woman-Adeline-are taken back to Pierre’s carriage. He comes to an ancient house, where he is given a room for the night-and locked inside it. Pierre proceeds on foot in the direction of a distant light. Darkness falls and the de la Mottes are stranded, unable to see the path ahead. Monsieur Pierre de la Motte is fleeing his creditors in Paris, with his wife, Constance, and two loyal servants, Peter and Annette. The Romance of the Forest displays all the hallmarks of Gothic fiction: a mystery plot, ancient settings, and an innocent hero preyed upon by a powerful man.

It follows the mysterious de la Motte family and their ward, Adeline, as they take up residence in an abandoned abbey.

The Romance of the Forest is a 1791 novel by the British pioneer of Gothic fiction, Ann Radcliffe.

A son of the forest summary