Cecilia de St. Bertrand, an orphan of obscure origins who as an infant was abandoned to the care of a peasant woman, wants nothing more than to marry her true love, Varàno. But the objections of his father, the Marchese di Varàno, are not the only challenge Cecilia must overcome. Murderous banditti, a bloody corpse, mysterious manuscripts, the terrors of the Inquisition, and imprisonment in a ruined castle at the hands of a debauched count are only a few of the thrilling dangers and surprises Cecilia will encounter. With a narrative that ranges across Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland, from the palaces of the Venetian nobility to the blood-soaked lair of banditti and the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition, Eleanor Sleath's (1802) is a lost classic of Gothic fiction that ranks alongside and . This first-ever reprint features a new introduction by J.S. Mackley.