midnight
`` It was , indeed , a bold adventure ! '' said Mad . d'Aulney , with admirable composure ; `` but if , as I am told , a priest gained access to the prisoner through Antoine 's intervention , they would scarcely deem it necessary to run the hazard of employing any other agency ; and let us not be guilty of injustice , by indulging suspicions of the innocent . '' `` I have closely questioned the father confessor on this subject , '' he replied , thoughtfully ; `` and I learn that a stranger , one of his own crafty order , yesterday visited him ; and that soon after leaving his apartment , he was observed in close conference with the wretch Antoine ; but the guard denies admitting any one through the gate at a later hour ; though a priest , or , as is now supposed , the prisoner in his garb , passed out after midnight , with the deserter , who gave some plausible excuse for departing at that unseasonable hour . '' `` The men are terrified by your anger , '' said Mad . d'Aulney , `` and probably contradict each other in their natural eagerness to justify themselves ; you permitted the priests to enter freely , and no one can be blamed for obeying your commands , which did not prohibit a stranger under the sacred habit . '' `` The confessor 's illness , '' resumed D'Aulney , with bitterness , `` has gathered all the priests in the land around him ; and this goat , who entered with the herd , is doubtless a creature of La Tour 's ; but , beshrew me , were the holy father in the last extremity , I would not admit another , without a scrutiny which no artifice could escape . ''