midnight
She sat on the little window-seat , her hand holding back the curtain which shaded the room from the bright moonlight without ; her head resting its weariness against the corner of the window-frame ; her eyes burning and stiff with the intensity of her gaze . The ruddy morning stole up the horizon , casting a crimson glow into the watcher 's room . It was the morning of the day of trial ! `` Thou stand ` st here arraign 'd , That , with presumption impious and accursed , Thou hast usurp 'd God 's high prerogative , Making thy fellow mortal 's life and death Wait on thy moody and diseased passions ; That with a violent and untimely steel Hast set abroach the blood that should have ebbed In calm and natural current : to sum all In one wild name -- a name the pale air freezes at , And every cheek of man sinks in with horror -- Thou art a cold and midnight murderer . '' MILMAN 'S `` FAZIO . '' Of all the restless people who found that night 's hours agonising from excess of anxiety , the poor father of the murdered man was perhaps the most restless . He had slept but little since the blow had fallen ; his waking hours had been too full of agitated thought , which seemed to haunt and pursue him through his unquiet slumbers .