midnight
But weel I wot the letter was frae his ain hand , or , having a sort of business of my ain on my hands , being , as ye weel may see , just as much as I can fairly manage , I canna say I would hae fashed mysell sae muckle about the matter . '' I now recollected the lights seen in the library -- the various circumstances which had excited my jealousy -- the glove -- the agitation of the tapestry which covered the secret passage from Rashleigh 's apartment ; and , above all , I recollected that Diana retired in order to write , as I then thought , the billet to which I was to have recourse in case of the last necessity . Her hours , then , were not spent in solitude , but in listening to the addresses of some desperate agent of Jacobitical treason , who was a secret resident within the mansion of her uncle ! Other young women have sold themselves for gold , or suffered themselves to be seduced from their first love from vanity ; but Diana had sacrificed my affections and her own to partake the fortunes of some desperate adventurer -- to seek the haunts of freebooters through midnight deserts , with no better hopes of rank or fortune than that mimicry of both which the mock court of the Stuarts at St. Germains had in their power to bestow . `` I will see her , '' I said internally , `` if it be possible , once more . I will argue with her as a friend -- as a kinsman -- on the risk she is incurring , and I will facilitate her retreat to France , where she may , with more comfort and propriety , as well as safety , abide the issue of the turmoils which the political trepanner , to whom she has united her fate , is doubtless busied in putting into motion . '' `` I conclude , then , '' I said to MacGregor , after about five minutes ' silence on both sides , `` that his Excellency , since you give me no other name for him , was residing in Osbaldistone Hall at the same time with myself ? ''