midnight
The _ German _ would often in these disputes say , he found by his art , that the stop to the Prince 's glory would be his love . This so incensed _ Hermione _ , and consequently the Prince , that they had like to have broke with him , but durst not for fear ; he knowing too much to be disobliged : on the other side , _ Fergusano _ is most wonderfully charmed with the wit and masculine spirit of _ Hermione _ , her courage , and the manliness of her mind ; and understanding which way she would be served , resolved to obey her , finding she had an absolute ascendancy over the Prince , whom , by this means , he knew he should get into his sole management . _ Hermione _ , though she seemed to be possessed so entirely of _ Cesario _ ' . heart , found she had great and powerful opposers , who believed the Prince lay idling in her arms , and that possibly she might eclipse his fame , by living at that rate with a woman he had no other pretensions to but love ; and many other motives were urged daily to him by the admirers of his great actions : and she feared , with reason , that some time or other , ambition might get the ascendancy of love : she , therefore , in her midnight conferences with _ Fergusano _ , often urged him to shew her that piece of his art , to make a philtre to retain fleeting love ; and not only keep a passion alive , but even revive it from the dead . She tells him of her contract with him ; she urges his forced marriage , as she was pleased to call it , in his youth ; and that he being so young , she believed he might find it lawful to marry himself a second time ; that possibly his Princess was for the interest of the King ; and men of his elevated fortune ought not to be tied to those strictnesses of common men , but for the good of the public , sometimes act beyond the musty rules of law and equity , those politic bands to confine the _ mobile _ . At this unreasonable rate she pleads her right to _ Cesario _ , and he hearkens with all attention , and approves so well all she says , that he resolves , not only to attach the Prince to her by all the force of the Black Art , but that of necessary marriage also : this pleased her to the last degree ; and she left him , after he had promised her to bring her the philtre by the morning : for it was that she most urged , the other requiring time to argue with him , and work him by degrees to it . Accordingly , the next morning he brings her a tooth-pick-case of gold , of rare infernal workmanship , wrought with a thousand charms , of that force , that every time the Prince should touch it , and while he but wore it about him , his fondness should not only continue , but increase , and he should hate all womankind besides , at least in the way of love , and have no power to possess another woman , though she had all the attractions of nature .