midnight
But in the end the knight of Bueil , having killed Geoffroy de la Roche-Pozay , became lord and master of this young murderess , and placed her in a convent , or harem , according to the Saracen custom . About this time one used to see her and hear her chattering as entertainment many foreign dialects , such as the Greek or the Latin empire , Moorish , and , above all , French better than any of those who knew the language of France best in the Christian host , from which sprang the belief that she was demoniacal . The said knight Harduin has confessed to us not to have tilted for her in the Holy Land , not from fear , coldness or other cause , so much as that he believed the time had arrived for him to bear away a portion of the true cross , and also he had belonging to him a noble lady of the Greek country , who saved him from this danger in denuding him of love , morning and night , seeing that she took all of it substantially from him , leaving him none in his heart or elsewhere for others . And the said knight has assured us that the woman living in the country house of Tortebras , was really the said Saracen woman , come into the country from Syria , because he had been invited to a midnight feast at her house by the young Lord of Croixmare , who expired the seventh day afterwards , according to the statement of the Dame de Croixmare , his mother , ruined all points by the said wench , whose commerce with him had consumed his vital spirit , and whose strange phantasies had squandered his fortune . Afterwards questioned in his quality of a man full of prudence , wisdom and authority in this country , upon the ideas entertained concerning the said woman , and summoned by us to open his conscience , seeing that it was a question of a most abominable case of Christian faith and divine justice , answer has been made by the said knight : -- That by certain of the host of Crusaders it has been stated to him that always this she-devil was a maid to him who embraced her , and that Mammon was for certain occupied in her , making for her a new virtue for each of her lovers , and a thousand other foolish sayings of drunken men , which were not of a nature to form a fifth gospel . But for a fact , he , an old knight on that turn of life , and knowing nothing more of the aforesaid , felt himself again a young man in that last supper with which he had been regaled by the lord of Croixmare ; then the voice of this demon went straight to his heart before flowing into his ears , and had awakened so great a love in his body that his life was ebbing from the place whence it should flow , and that eventually , but for the assistance of Cyprus wine , which he had drunk to blind his sight , and his getting under the table in order no longer to gaze upon the fiery eyes of his diabolical hostess , and not to rend his heart from her , without doubt he would have fought the young Croixmare , in order to enjoy for a single moment this supernatural woman . Since then he had had absolution from his confessor for the wicked thought .