midnight
`` So , '' she said , bravely recovering her cheerfulness , `` you will remain here to rest , and you shall leave when you like and I will follow you within the week . '' I explained , however , that if I were at liberty to return at once I should go back to Brussels that very night and start for the Rhine country next morning . To this she agreed , when she saw I had reason on my side , but before I went she made me sup , and had brought out for me a bottle of the true lachrymæ christi , of which her father had laid in a small store at a great price . By midnight I had said farewell to Francezka and was again in the saddle . As I rode through the blackness and solitariness of the night I could but reflect upon the extraordinary courage and constancy of women when really put to the test . Francezka was the last woman in the world to be weak in the face of calamity . She had in her the making of ten good soldiers , including a general .