Midnight
`` Who knows what to-morrow may bring forth ! Fairest and dearest Leoline , good-night ! '' He rode away in the moonlight , with the stars shining peacefully down upon him . His heart at the moment was a divided one -- one half being given to Leoline , and the other to the Midnight Queen and her mysterious court . The farther he went away from Leoline , the dimmer her star became in the horizon of his thoughts ; and the nearer he came to Miranda , the brighter and more eagerly she loomed up , until he spurred his horse to a most furious gallop , lest he should find the castle and the queen lost in the regions of space when he got there . Once the plague-stricken city lay behind him , his journey was short ; and soon , to his great delight , he turned into the silent deserted by-path leading to the ruin . Tying his horse to a stake in the crumbling wall , he paused for a moment to look at it in the pale , wan light of the midnight moon .