midnight
The anchorites and saints of the Middle Ages had the same experience . Jeanne d'Arc was a most conspicuous instance . Above all these stood forth two men of a later day , the representatives of two opposite principles , of two systems which were in eternal antagonism , yet these two were alike in their intense natures , their vivid imaginations , and the force of their phantom illusions . Luther threw his ink-bottle at the head of the devil , and Loyola had many a midnight struggle with the same grim personage . To all this Hilda listened attentively , understanding fully his theory , and fully appreciating the examples which he cited in order to illustrate that theory , whether the examples were those well-known ones which belong to general history , or special instances which had come under his own personal observation . Yet all his arguments and examples failed to have any effect upon her whatever . After all there remained fixed in her mind , and immovable , the idea that she had seen the dead , and in very deed ; and that Zillah herself had risen up before her eyes to confound her at the moment of the execution of her vengeance .