midnight
We took two rails from a neighboring fence , and formed a bier by laying across some boards from the bottom of the boat . And thus we bore Zenobia homeward . Six hours before , how beautiful ! At midnight , what a horror ! A reflection occurs to me that will show ludicrously , I doubt not , on my page , but must come in for its sterling truth . Being the woman that she was , could Zenobia have foreseen all these ugly circumstances of death , -- how ill it would become her , the altogether unseemly aspect which she must put on , and especially old Silas Foster 's efforts to improve the matter , -- she would no more have committed the dreadful act than have exhibited herself to a public assembly in a badly fitting garment ! Zenobia , I have often thought , was not quite simple in her death .