midnight
`` A mistake can not be serious , '' said the Prince to himself , at the end of the review . `` I will proceed upon the theory that the young man is Prince Mahommed . '' This was no sooner determined than the restless mind flew forward to an audience . The time and place -- midnight in the lonesome old Castle -- were propitious , and he was prepared for it . Indeed it was the very purpose he had in view the night of the repast in his tent at El Zaribah where he so mysteriously intrusted the Emir Mirza with revelations concerning the doom of Constantinople . Once more he ran over the scheme which had brought him from Cipango . If Islam could not be brought to lead in the project , Christendom might be more amenable to reason .