midnight
At last he crawled half dead out of the water , and staggered to his den . `` I am safe here , '' he groaned ; `` she will never come near me again ; unmanly , ungrateful wretch that I am . '' And he flung his emaciated , frozen body down on the floor , not without a secret hope that it might never rise thence alive . But presently he saw by the hour-glass that it was past midnight . On this , he rose slowly and took off his wet things , and moaning all the time at the pain he had caused her he loved , put on the old hermit 's cilice of bristles , and over that his breastplate . He had never worn either of these before , doubting himself worthy to don the arms of that tried soldier . But now he must give himself every aid ; the bristles might distract his earthly remorse by bodily pain , and there might be holy virtue in the breastplate .