midnight
The leaves of the tall domes and kissing branches of the elms , that peeped on either side into open windows of people asleep and told across the street to each other the secrets there , were now themselves heavy as if with surfeit of gossip and they drooped and hardly rustled . Not a tipsy waiter lurked in the shadows , not a skylarking couple of darkey lovers whispered on doorsteps . No birds , nor even crickets , serenaded the torpid night . The shuffling feet of Andrew Waples barely made watch-dogs growl in their dreams , and started his own heart with the concussions they produced on the arborescent and deeply-shadowed aisles of the after midnight . He saw the town-hall clock pallidly illuminated above its tower . The low frame villa of Chancellor Walworth , cowering amongst the pine-trees , expressed the burden of parricidal blood that had of late oppressed its memories . There were no murmurs from the court-room where Judge Barnard had been tried , but its deep silence seemed from the clock to tick : `` Removed !