midnights
She had been sad since they came from Pontefract , for it had seemed more than ever apparent that the King 's letter to Rome must be ever delayed in the sending . Daily , at night , the King swore with great oaths that the letter must be sent and his soul saved . He trembled to think that if then he died in his bed he must be eternally damned , and she added her persuasions , such as that each soul that died in his realms before that letter was sent went before the Throne of Mercy unshriven and unhouselled , so that their burden of souls grew very great . And in the midnights , the King would start up and cry that all was lost and himself accursed . And it appeared that he and his house were accursed in these days , for when they were come back to Hampton , they found the small Prince Edward was very ill . He was swollen all over his little body , so that the doctors said it was a dropsy . But how , the King cried , could it be a dropsy in so young a child and one so grave and so nurtured and tended ?