midnight
Overwhelmed with horror at having deprived his father of life , the unhappy man abjured a country whose civil wars had given birth to such tremendous crimes . Long the victim of despair , he at last sought a quietus to his ever-gnawing remorse , by flying to the bosom of that church which barters salvation for pecuniary mulcts , and represents penance and subserviency to its schemes of worldly aggrandisement to be the wings which will waft the soul over the gulph of purgatory , and securely lodge it in Abraham 's bosom . Not content with becoming a convert to the Romish church , the young Baronet determined upon expiating his unintentional parricide , by taking the cowl , and entering into its strictest order of monachism . Eustace and his friends , when they travelled over the Alps , were lodged one night at this convent , and in the midnight service De Vallance recognized the well-remembered tones of his powerful voice . They afterwards saw him in the garden labouring at his future grave , according to the prescribed rules of his order . His hood was fallen off , and gave to view his face , in which the deepest lines of sorrow were combined with the gloom of sullen superstition . All intercourse was forbidden by that law which chained his tongue to eternal silence , except when employed as the organ of devotion .