midnight
He is the curate of Binondo and has been in former years a professor in the college of San Juan de Letran , -LSB- 16 -RSB- where he enjoyed the reputation of being a consummate dialectician , so much so that in the days when the sons of Guzman -LSB- 17 -RSB- still dared to match themselves in subtleties with laymen , the able disputant B. de Luna had never been able either to catch or to confuse him , the distinctions made by Fray Sibyla leaving his opponent in the situation of a fisherman who tries to catch eels with a lasso . The Dominican says little , appearing to weigh his words . Quite in contrast , the other priest , a Franciscan , talks much and gesticulates more . In spite of the fact that his hair is beginning to turn gray , he seems to be preserving well his robust constitution , while his regular features , his rather disquieting glance , his wide jaws and herculean frame give him the appearance of a Roman noble in disguise and make us involuntarily recall one of those three monks of whom Heine tells in his `` Gods in Exile , '' who at the September equinox in the Tyrol used to cross a lake at midnight and each time place in the hand of the poor boatman a silver piece , cold as ice , which left him full of terror . -LSB- 18 -RSB- But Fray Damaso is not so mysterious as they were . He is full of merriment , and if the tone of his voice is rough like that of a man who has never had occasion to correct himself and who believes that whatever he says is holy and above improvement , still his frank , merry laugh wipes out this disagreeable impression and even obliges us to pardon his showing to the room bare feet and hairy legs that would make the fortune of a Mendieta in the Quiapo fairs . -LSB- 19 -RSB- One of the civilians is a very small man with a black beard , the only thing notable about him being his nose , which , to judge from its size , ought not to belong to him .