midnight
I see their thoughts ere their lips proclaim them ; and I scorn , while I see , the weakness and the vices which I never shared . I laugh at the madness of the warrior ; I mock within my soul at the tyranny of kings . Surely there is something in man 's nature more fitted to command , more worthy of renown , than the sinews of the arm , or the swiftness of the feet , or the accident of birth ! '' As Morven , the son of Osslah , thus mused within himself , still looking at the heavens , the solitary man beheld a star suddenly shooting from its place , and speeding through the silent air , till it suddenly paused right over the midnight river , and facing the inmate of the pile of stones . As he gazed upon the star , strange thoughts grew slowly over him . He drank , as it were , from its solemn aspect the spirit of a great design . A dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth snatched the star from his sight , but left to his awakened mind the thoughts and the dim scheme that had come to him as he gazed .