midnight
`` I will , '' replies Florence calmly . These words of hope have steadied her and braced her nerves . Ethel and Mrs. Talbot , carrying the lamps , go on before , while Ringwood and Florence , having lifted the senseless body of Adrian , now indeed sufficiently light to be an easy burden , follow them . Reaching the corridor , they cross it hurriedly , and carrying Adrian up a back staircase that leads to Captain Ringwood 's room by a circuitous route , they gain it without encountering a single soul , and lay him gently down on Ringwood 's bed , almost at the very moment that midnight chimes from the old tower , and only a few minutes before Arthur Dynecourt steals from his chamber to make that last visit to his supposed victim . Slowly and with difficulty they coax Sir Adrian back to life . Ringwood had insisted upon telling the old housekeeper at the castle , who had been in the family for years , the whole story of her master 's rescue , and she , with tears dropping down her withered cheeks , had helped Ringwood to remove his clothes and make him comfortable . She had also sat beside him while the captain , stealing out of the house like a thief , had galloped down to the village for the doctor , whom he had smuggled into the house without awaking any of the servants .