midnight
Smooth and false pretexts have met my own demand , and even the remonstrance of Edward himself . But , surely , now that William hath permitted this Norman to bring over the letter , he will assent to what it hath become a wrong and an insult to refuse ; and Haco will return to his father 's land , and Wolnoth to his mother 's arms . '' Messire Mallet de Graville -LRB- as becomes a man bred up to arms , and snatching sleep with quick grasp whenever that blessing be his to command -RRB- no sooner laid his head on the pallet to which he had been consigned , than his eyes closed , and his senses were deaf even to dreams . But at the dead of the midnight he was wakened by sounds that might have roused the Seven Sleepers -- shouts , cries , and yells , the blast of horns , the tramp of feet , and the more distant roar of hurrying multitudes . He leaped from his bed , and the whole chamber was filled with a lurid bloodred air . His first thought was that the fort was on fire . But springing upon the settle along the wall , and looking through the loophole of the tower , it seemed as if not the fort but the whole land was one flame , and through the glowing atmosphere he beheld all the ground , near and far , swarming with men .