midnight
She placed on the dead man 's breast a trencher , with salt sprinkled upon it , set one candle at the head and another at the feet of the body , and lighted both . Then she resumed her song , and awaited the approach of those whose voices had been heard without . Brown was a soldier , and a brave one ; but he was also a man , and at this moment his fears mastered his courage so completely that the cold drops burst out from every pore . The idea of being dragged out of his miserable concealment by wretches whose trade was that of midnight murder , without weapons or the slightest means of defence , except entreaties , which would be only their sport , and cries for help , which could never reach other ear than their own ; his safety entrusted to the precarious compassion of a being associated with these felons , and whose trade of rapine and imposture must have hardened her against every human feeling -- the bitterness of his emotions almost choked him . He endeavoured to read in her withered and dark countenance , as the lamp threw its light upon her features , something that promised those feelings of compassion which females , even in their most degraded state , can seldom altogether smother . There was no such touch of humanity about this woman . The interest , whatever it was , that determined her in his favour arose not from the impulse of compassion , but from some internal , and probably capricious , association of feelings , to which he had no clue .