midnight
I will not go down to the dishonored grave , now yawning for me , permitting , by silence , your Highness , and these your subjects , to believe me the monster of ingratitude , the treacherous coward which appearances pronounce me . No ! '' he continued , raising his right hand as high as his fetters would permit , and speaking in a tone which fell with the eloquence of truth , on every heart -- `` No : here , as on the scaffold -- now , as with my dying breath , I will proclaim aloud my innocence ; I call on the Almighty Judge himself , as on every Saint in heaven , to attest it -- ay , and I believe it WILL be attested , when nought but my memory is left to be cleared from shame -- I am not the murderer of Don Ferdinand Morales ! Had he been in every deed my foe -- had he given me cause for the indulgence of those ungovernable passions which I now feel were roused against him so causelessly and sinfully , I might have sought their gratification by honorable combat , but not by midnight murder ! I speak not , I repeat , to save my life : it is justly forfeited for thoughts of crime ! I speak that , when in after years my innocence will be made evident by the discovery of the real assassin , you will all remember what I now say -- that I have not so basely requited the King and Country who so generously and trustingly befriended me -- that I am no murderer ! '' `` Then , if so convinced of innocence , young man , wherefore not attempt defence ? ''