midnight
The wedding-feast was but just begun , -- when ` twixt the dark and the day , Quick as the water that runs to earth the Leprechaun slipped away ! So the daylight came , and the dreams were past , and the wild harp sang no more , And Terence looked at the cold black hearth and the silent open door , And he cried , `` I have sold my life this night , ye have my heart in pawn , -- Take wife and gold , but come ye back , ye little Leprechaun ! '' No one could say just how it came to be whispered that the Templars of Temple Assheton dealt in black magic . Travelers told strange tales of France , where the Order was stronger than it was in England -- tales of unhallowed processionals and midnight incantations learned from the infidels of Syria . A Preceptor , Gregory of Hildesheim , was said to possess writings of a wizard who had suffered death some years before , and to have used them for the profit of the Order . Swart the drover , who had sold many good horses to the Templars and expected to sell more , laughed at these uncanny rumors . Wealthy the Order was , to be sure , but that was no miracle .