midnight
All slept -- all England slept ; and from my window , commanding a wide prospect of the star-illumined country , I saw the land stretched out in placid rest . I was awake , alive , while the brother of death possessed my race . What , if the more potent of these fraternal deities should obtain dominion over it ? The silence of midnight , to speak truly , though apparently a paradox , rung in my ears . The solitude became intolerable -- I placed my hand on the beating heart of Idris , I bent my head to catch the sound of her breath , to assure myself that she still existed -- for a moment I doubted whether I should not awake her ; so effeminate an horror ran through my frame . -- Great God ! would it one day be thus ?