midnight
`` No ! mother , no , not afraid , not afraid to venture a fall , or meet a sprinkling of sea spray , and good truth I have enough to do with fears in doors , here in this grim old mansion , without -- '' `` Fears ? '' -- `` Yes , fears , dear mother , '' said the boy , looking archly round at his attendant , who waited in the back ground , and who vainly sought by signs to silence her unruly charge . `` Do you know that the figure of King Herod , cruel Herod , the murderer of his wife , and the slayer of the innocents , stalks down every night from the tapestry in my sleeping room and wanders through the galleries at midnight ; and than the cross , where the three Jews were executed a long , long time ago , in the reign of King John I think ; they say that it drops blood on the morning of the Holy Friday ; -- and then mother , and this is really true , '' continued the child , changing from his playful manner to a tone of great earnestness , `` there is the figure of a lady in rich attire , but pale , very pale , who glides through the apartments -- yes ; Herbert and Richard and several of the serving men have seen it ; and mistress Alice , poor old soul once was seen to address it , but she would allow no one to question her on the subject ; and they say it was her doom , and that she must therefore die of her present sickness . Ay : 't was in this very room too -- the lady 's chamber . '' `` Boy , '' interrupted Lord Greville sternly , `` if thou canst find no better subject for thy prate , than these unbecoming fooleries , be silent -- Helen ! why should you encourage his forwardness , and girlish love of babbling ?