midnight
The cool and yet mild air of the summer night refreshed Waverley after his rapid and toilsome walk ; and the perfume which it wafted from the birch-trees , bathed in the evening dew , was exquisitely fragrant . -LSB- It is not the weeping birch , the most common species in the Highlands , but the woolly-leaved Lowland birch , that is distinguished by this fragrance . -RSB- He had now time to give himself up to the full romance of his situation . Here he saw on the banks of an unknown lake , under the guidance of a wild native , whose language was unknown to him , on a visit to the den of some renowned outlaw , a second Robin Hood , perhaps , or Adam o ' Gordon , and that at deep midnight , through scenes of difficulty and toil , separated from his attendant , left by his guide . -- What a variety of incidents for the exercise of a romantic imagination , and all enhanced by the solemn feeling of uncertainty , at least , if not of danger ! The only circumstance which assorted ill with the rest , was the cause of his journey -- the Baron 's milk-cows ! This degrading incident he kept in the background .