midnight
Lady Kingsley dutifully obeyed ; and Sir Norman went out with a glow at his heart , like a halo round a full moon . The night was intensely dark when Sir Norman got into it once more ; and to any one else would have been intensely dismal , but to Sir Norman all was bright as the fair hills of Beulah . When all is bright within , we see no darkness without ; and just at that moment our young knight had got into one of those green and golden glimpses of sunshine that here and there checker life 's rather dark pathway , and with Leoline beside him would have thought the dreary shores of the Dead Sea itself a very paradise . It was now near midnight , and there was an unusual concourse of people in the streets , waiting for St. Paul 's to give the signal to light the fires . He looked around for Ormiston ; but Ormiston was nowhere to be seen -- horse and rider had disappeared . His own horse stood tethered where he had left him . Anxious as he was to ride back to the ruin , and see the play played out , he could not resist the temptation of lingering a brief period in the city , to behold the grand spectacle of the myriad fires .