midnight
Now came the morris dance , with the antique dress and strange attitudes of the performers , which was succeeded by a dance of warriors in their coats of mail , and with their swords drawn . After these a masque , prepared by Thomas the Rymer , who sat on the right hand of the King , followed ; and the company laughed , wept , and wondered , as the actors performed their parts before them . But now came the royal dance ; the music burst into a bolder strain , and lord and lady rose , treading the strange measure down the hall , after the King and his fair Queen . Louder , and yet more loud the music pealed ; and , though it was midnight , the multitude without shouted at its enlivening strains . Blithely the dance went on , and the King well nigh forgot the measure as he looked enraptured in the fair face of his beauteous bride . He turned to take her hand in the dance , and in its stead the bony fingers of a skeleton were extended to him . He shrank back aghast ; for royalty shuddereth at the sight of Death as doth a beggar , and , in its presence , feeleth his power to be as the power of him who vainly commanded the waves of the sea to go back .