midnight
With difficulty did Mary prevail on the impetuous youths to refrain from an effort to effect their freedom . For the three appointed days , she sat in the room by the side of her dead son ; and at every meal-hour she handed in the food necessary for the sustenance of her prisoners . Nor did she conceive that she had any title to rest from her watchful labour , or to cease her care of the dead body , even during the hours of night , till she saw his death avenged . The midnight lamp was regularly trimmed , and hung upon the wall , that its glimmering flame might fall upon the pale face of the youth , as he lay rolled up in the shroud which his mother had prepared for him , while sitting by the bier . At the solemn hour of midnight , she sat silent and sad , looked now in the face of the dead , listened to hear if any sound of a horn without announced the approach of her husband , or of a messenger from him , and then inclined her ear , to catch the broken words of revenge muttered by her sons in their sleep , or the strains of mournful lamentations for the death of their brother , which the energy of their grief forced from them at those intervals when their revenge was overcome by the more intense feeling . Groans and sighs , muttered oaths , sobs , and expressions of impatience , mixed or separate , told continually the workings of their minds . The speech of the dreamer was often mixed with the conversation of those awake ; but so well acquainted was the mother with the sounds of their voices , that she could distinguish the one from the other .