midnight
This , indeed , was no mighty offence in the eyes of the town - council , inasmuch as it bore no great friendship to his Lordship the Constable and Elector , and had had many quarrels with him-nay , long after this the council was able to gain possession of the land and ruins by purchases -- till , uncle Christian bitterly rued having sent his men-at - arms , whose duty it was to defend the castle , out into the country , though it were for so good a purpose as fighting against the Hussites . It might have brought him into bad favor with the Elector ; however , it did him no further mischief . One thing was certainly proven beyond doubt : that knavish treason had been at work in this matter ; at Nuremberg , under the torture , it came out that the bear-master had been a spy and tell-tale bribed by Laymingen to discover whither Pfinzing and his men had removed . And lest any one should conceive that here was an end to the woes that had fallen on the forest lodge in that short time from midnight to daybreak , I must record one more ; for the new day , which dawned with no hue of rose , grey and dismal over the tawny woods , brought us fresh sorrow and evil . Behind the moss-hut , wherein I had found my Herdegen with the dancing hussy , the Swabian Junker and Ritter Franz had fought , without any heed of the law and order of such combat -- fought for life or death , and for my sake . And as though in this cruel time I were doomed to go through all that should worst wound my poor heart , I must need go forth to see the stricken limetree at that very moment when the Junker had dealt his enemy a deadly stroke and came rushing away with his hair all abroad like a mad man . It was indeed a merciful chance that my Uncle Conrad and the chaplain likewise had come forth to the garden , so that I might go with them to see the wounded knight .