midnight
She seemed to them like a harbinger of hope ; she had few words , but those words reverberated with courage and energy ; she moved the supine , she braced the timid ; she brought the wavering firmness and the nervous strength ; she said what Adone had taught her to say , but she put into it all her own immense faith in him , all her own innocent and undoubting certainty that his cause was just and would be blessed by heaven . The Edera water belonged to them . Would they let it be turned away from their lands and given to strangers ? As a little spaniel or beagle threshes a covert , obedient to his master 's will and working only to please him , so she scoured the country-side and drove in , by persuasion , or appeal , or threat , all those who would lend ear to her , to the midnight meetings on the moors , or in the homesteads , where Adone harangued them , with eloquence ever varied , on a theme which was never stale , because it appealed at once to the hearts and to the interests of his hearers . But many of them , though fascinated , remained afraid . `` When all is said , what can we do ? '' they muttered .