midnight
IT is Bulwer , the prince of modern novelists , who says : `` There is in calumny a rank poison that , even when the character throws off the slander , the heart remains diseased beneath the effect . '' And this is the exact condition in which Maria finds herself . The knaves who have sought her ruin would seem to have triumphed ; the ears of the charitable are closed to her ; her judgment seems sealed . And yet when all is dark and still ; when her companions sleep in undisturbed tranquillity ; when her agitated feelings become calmed ; when there seems speaking to her , through the hushed air of midnight , the voice of a merciful providence-her soul quickens , and she counsels her self-command , which has not yet deserted her . Woman 's nature is indeed strung in delicate threads , but her power of endurance not unfrequently puts the sterner sex to the blush . `` Slander has truly left my heart diseased , but I am innocent , and to-morrow , perhaps , my star will brighten . These dark struggles can not last forever ! ''