midnight
`` But I was n't , sir , of my own free will , only master Robert had told me what I must say , and stick to it , and swear to it through thick and thin , and I 'm afraid not to obey him . '' `` Poor fellow , I see you are , indeed , his tool ; but if I find myself in any sort of a position ere long , I will take care to make your situation more comfortable . '' `` Thank ye , sir , '' said Leonard Hust , just as the last shackle dropped from the prisoner 's wrists . In the mean time , let us turn for a moment to the bedside of Captain Robert Bramble , for it is long past midnight , and , weary in mind and body , he had retired to that rest which he most certainly needed . But sleep is hardly repose to the guilty , and he was trebly so . Phantoms of all imaginable shapes flitted across his brain , pictures of suffering , of misery and of danger , to all of which he seemed to be exposed , and from which he had no power to flee . Alas , how fearful the shadows that haunt a bad man 's pillow .