midnight
I say it is impossible that the gods who rule the world can have pleasure in the screams of dying infants or the groans of slaughtered men . '' Giscon placed his hand to his ears as if to shut out such blasphemy , and hurried away , while Malchus , mounting his horse , rode out slowly and thoughtfully to his father 's villa . He was not at heart sorry that he was freed from this association into which , without knowing the measures by which it intended to carry out its aims , he had rashly entered . He was ready for armed insurrection against the tyrants of Carthage , but he revolted from the thought of this plan for a midnight massacre -- it was not by such means that he would have achieved the regeneration of his country . He felt , too , that the reason which he had given Giscon was a valid one . He had no right , at his age , to involve his family in such a conspiracy . Did it fail , and were he found to be among the conspirators , Hanno and his associates would be sure to seize the fact as a pretext for assailing Hamilcar .