midnight
You can readily understand , my noble comrade , that I could not help proving my contempt of all personal danger by following Lucila more closely than ever , and singing nightly serenades beneath her flower-decked windows till the morning star began to be reflected in the sea . This very night Lucila 's husband sets out at midnight for Madrid , and from that hour I will in every way avoid the street in which they live ; until then , however , as soon as it is sufficiently dark to be suitable for a serenade , I will have love-romances unceasingly sang before his house . It is true I have information that not only he but Lucila 's brothers are really to enter upon a quarrel with me , and it is for this reason , Senor , that I have requested you to bear me company with your good sword in this short expedition . '' Heimbert seized the Spaniard 's hand as a pledge of his readiness , saying as he did so , `` To show you , dear sir , how gladly I will do what you desire of me , I will requite your confidence with confidence , and will relate a little incident which occurred to me in this city , and will beg you after midnight also to render me a small service . My story is short , and will not detain us longer than we must wait before the twilight has become deeper and more gloomy . `` On the day after we arrived here I amused myself with walking in the beautiful gardens with which the place abounds . I have now been long in these southern lands , but I can not but believe that the dreams which transport me nightly back to my German home are the cause for my feeling everything here so strange and astonishing .