midnight
That , if anything , will restore you to yourself . '' For my part , I was so weary of this double life that I closed with his offer . I longed to know once for all , which -- priest or gallant -- was the dupe of a delusion , and I was resolved to sacrifice one of my two lives for the good of the other -- yea , if it were necessary , to sacrifice both , for such an existence as I was leading could not last ... . Father Serapion procured a mattock , a crowbar , and a lantern , and at midnight we set out for the cemetery , whose plan and arrangements he knew well . After directing the rays of the dark lantern on the inscriptions of several graves , we came at last to a stone half buried under tall grass , and covered with moss and lichen , whereon we deciphered this epitaph , `` Here lies Clarimonde , who in her lifetime was the fairest in the world . '' '' 'T is here , '' said Serapion ; and , placing his lantern on the ground , he slipped the crowbar into the chinks of the slab and essayed to lift it . The stone yielded , and he set to work with the spade .