midnight
`` But what is the history of this wicked hunter , my lord ? and why did he incur such a dreadful doom ? '' `` I know nothing more than that he was a keeper in the forest , who , having committed some heinous crime , hanged himself from a branch of the oak beneath which I found the keeper , Morgan Fenwolf , and which still bears his name , '' replied the earl . `` For this unrighteous act he can not obtain rest , but is condemned to wander through the forest at midnight , where he wreaks his vengeance in blasting the trees . '' `` The legend I have heard differs from yours , '' observed the Duke of Richmond : `` it runs that the spirit by which the forest is haunted is a wood-demon , who assumes the shape of the ghostly hunter , and seeks to tempt or terrify the keepers to sell their souls to him . '' `` Your grace 's legend is the better of the two , '' said Lady Mary Howard , `` or rather , I should say , the more probable . I trust the evil spirit did not make you any such offer , brother of Surrey ? ''