midnight
`` Pardon , Senor , '' began the solemn Spaniard , `` if I disturb you in your meditations . But as I have had the honor of often seeing you as a courageous warrior and faithful brother in amrs in many a hot encounter , I would gladly solicit you above all others to do me a knightly service , if it does not interfere with your own plans and projects for this night . '' `` Dear sir , '' returned Heimbert courteously , `` I have certainly an affair of importance to attend to before sunrise , but till midnight I am perfectly free , and ready to render you any assistance as a brother in aims . '' `` Enough , '' said Fadrique , `` for at midnight the tones must long have ceased with which I shall have taken farewell of the dearest being I have ever known in this my native city . But that you may be as fully acquainted with the whole affair as behoves a noble companion , listen to me attentively for a few moments . `` Some time before I left Malaga to join the army of our great emperor and to aid in spreading the glory of his arms through Italy , I was devoted , after the fashion of young knights , to the service of a beautiful girl in this city , named Lucila . She had at that time scarcely reached the period which separates childhood from ripe maidenhood , and as I -- a boy only just capable of bearing arms -- offered my homage with a childlike , friendly feeling , it was also received by my young mistress in a similar childlike manner .