midnight
Shall any one say that such true prayers are not heard , because they are spoken by lips that have sinned ? If not , God is not good , nor did Christ die to save men . The daughter of princes , the wife of two kings , as she was to be , and the mother of two kings , and of many more in line after them , she drew down her veil that none might see her face under the dim lights , and she went out thence , very lonely and sad , into the streets of Jerusalem . At midnight came a priest of the church to trim the lights at the tomb ; yet the three did not move , and he prayed awhile and went away . But when the watchmen cried the dawning , and their voices came faintly in by the doorway , floating through the dark church , Gilbert rose to his feet , and Dunstan with him , and they took their arms with them , and went away , leaving the Lady Anne the last of them all , her white hands still clasping the iron bars , her sad black eyes still turned to heaven . Faint streaks were in the eastern sky , but it was still almost dark as the two men turned to the left to follow the way by which they had come . Three steps from the door , Dunstan stumbled against something neither hard nor soft , and in many fights he had learned what that thing was .