midnight
I warned you of your danger , and happily you heeded the signs of the time ; else you , too , would now molder beneath the walls of the Alamo . His prey escaped him , and with redoubled eagerness he sought to consummate my destruction . I was made a prisoner in my own home , ere the sod settled on my father 's grave ! I fled in the midnight hour , and you see me here ! Dr. Bryant , I well-nigh cut short the knotted thread of my life ; but one thing saved me , else my body would even now whirl along the channel of the river . When I parted from the blue-eyed , sainted Mary , she gave me this book , and asked me not only to read but follow its teachings . She clasped my hand , and told me to remember God , and the eternity which awaited me , and the judgment of that other , final world .