Mathilda Udolpho was a member of the cursed Udolpho family.[1a] Her role has been taken by a woman from Luccini, Sophia Gallardi, which had many doubts about her true identity even if under the curse of the villa.[1c]
She was the daughter of Guido Ravaglioli and Flaminea Udolpho and the wife of Schedoni Udolpho.[1a]
She was reputedly kept locked in an attic in the west wing of the hamlet and fed Human flesh. In her rooms, poor Mathilda, her swollen head almost insupportable, sometimes raged against her fate, smashing the furniture and attacking the servants with an energy Old Melmoth could only envy. There must have been provision in Melmoth's will for Mathilda. So long as she remained Human, she would have been a beneficiary.[1a]
In her prison she could never tell whether it was day or night, but she knew when there was a storm. She could hear the thunder, and the stones of the ceiling would become wet, occasionally dripping on her.[1c]
She didn't know why she was held prisoner. At first, she had begged for her release, then for an explanation. Now, she didn't bother. They called her Mathilda and were sorry for her, but they'd never let her free. She knew that she would die in her room and be buried under a slab carved with the name of Mathilda Udolpho.[1c]
Once she had secreted a chicken bone from one of her meals, and snapped it, making a sharp tool. For months, she had scraped away at the mortar between the stones, loosening large blocks. She rested her head against the cold wall while she worked away with her bone-trowel, and had flattened a part of her face.[1c]
In the end, Odo Zschokke had caught her. She had tried to sever the vein in his throat with the sharp bone, but it had just broken on his skin. He didn't abuse her for her attack. But she had eaten filleted meat and fowl ever since, and the weights Zschokke fastened around her skull while she was asleep were too heavy to even lift her head.[1c]
She tried many times to remember her real husband, her real family. But she could only picture the face of Schedoni Udolpho, and recall the names of the children he repeatedly told her they had had together: Montoni, Ambrosio, Flaminea.[1c]
In truth, the "actress" who impersonated Mathilda was truly an outsider consumed by the curse as she suspected; her real name was Sophia Gallardi of Luccini. She was still fighting to not fully succumb to the curse. During the last drama, she finally reached the door, her head pushed first against it, and found it unlocked. For the first time in many years, Mathilda was out of her room. With an effort, cradling her head in her hands, she stood up. There was a window at the end of the corridor, and beyond that she saw the valley. For an instant, she was her old self, and then she was at the window. Her head broke the glass and the casement, and she fell with the rain towards the slope hundreds of feet below. She felt as if the fall would never end. But it did.[1b]