midnight
Old Border Ballad . We return to Portanferry , and to Bertram and his honest-hearted friend , whom we left most innocent inhabitants of a place built for the guilty . The slumbers of the farmer were as sound as it was possible . But Bertram 's first heavy sleep passed away long before midnight , nor could he again recover that state of oblivion . Added to the uncertain and uncomfortable state of his mind , his body felt feverish and oppressed . This was chiefly owing to the close and confined air of the small apartment in which they slept . After enduring for some time the broiling and suffocating feeling attendant upon such an atmosphere , he rose to endeavour to open the window of the apartment , and thus to procure a change of air .