midnight
`` Good day , or rather night , to you , Thane of Aescendune , '' said he to Elfwyn ; `` we have had a fair night 's work , and destroyed a big wasp 's nest ; have you come for your share in the spoil ? '' `` I only ask permission to preserve life ; your work has been of an opposite nature . '' `` Yes , we have been obedient to our king , and avenged him this night of his enemies , who are also , I should have thought , the enemies of the Church . '' `` God will not bless midnight murder , '' said I. `` Murder ! it is not murder to slay heathen Danes ; had they been Christians it would , of course , have been a different thing . '' `` He hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth , '' I replied . `` The good prior wishes me to talk theology .