midnight
I will therefore prevent such a motive from occurring to them by communicating to another their whole secret , and -- if the necessity should arise -- _ letting them know _ that I have done so , without telling them who that other is . Thus my life will be assured . '' I therefore wrote to you on that day a full account of all I had discovered , giving you to understand , however , on the envelope , that you need not examine the contents for some little time . ` I waited in the subterranean vault during the greater part of the next day ; but not till midnight did the confederates gather . What happened at that meeting I shall not disclose , even to you . All was sacred -- solemn -- full of awe . Of the choral hymns there sung , the hierophantic ritual , liturgies , paeans , the gorgeous symbolisms -- of the wealth there represented , the culture , art , self-sacrifice -- of the mingling of all the tongues of Europe -- I shall not speak ; nor shall I repeat names which you would at once recognise as familiar to you -- though I may , perhaps , mention that the `` Morris , '' whose name appears on the papyrus sent to me is a well-known _ littérateur _ of that name .