midnight
The measures undertaken by government to suppress outrage failed most signally . The difficulty of arresting a suspected individual was great in a country where a large force was always necessary . The difficulty of procuring evidence against him was still greater ; for even such as were not banded in the conspiracy , had a greater dread of the reproach of informer , than of any other imputation ; and when these two conditions were overcome , the last and greatest of all difficulties remained behind , -- no jury could be found to convict , when their own lives might pay the penalty of their honesty . While thus , on one side , went the agent , with his cumbrous accompaniments of law-officers and parchments , police constables and bailiffs , to effect a distress or an ejectment ; the midnight party with arms patrolled the country , firing the haggards and the farmhouses , setting all law at defiance , and asserting in their own bloody vengeance the supremacy of massacre . Not a day went over without its chronicle of crime ; the very calendar was red with murder . Friends parted with a fervour of feeling , that shewed none knew if they would meet on the morrow ; and a dark , gloomy suspicion prevailed through the land , each dreading his neighbour , and deeming his isolation more secure than all the ties of friendship . All the bonds of former love , all the relations of kindred and affection , were severed by this terrible league .