midnight
-- and to-day Fate had blessed her with the greatest happiness life had ever offered . True , she had had only a few brief hours in which to enjoy it , for the attack of the unbridled boys and the wound inflicted upon her lover had cast a heavy shadow on her bliss . Her mother had again proved to be in the right when she so confidently predicted a second misfortune which would follow the first only too soon . Barine had been torn at midnight from her peaceful home and her wounded lover 's bedside . This was done by the Queen 's command , and , full of angry excitement , she said to herself that the men were right who cursed tyranny because it transformed free human beings into characterless chattels . There could be nothing good awaiting her ; that was proved by the messengers whom Cleopatra had sent to summon her at this unprecedented hour . They were her worst enemies : Iras , who desired to wed her lover -- Dion had told her so after the assault -- and Alexas , whose suit she had rejected in a way which a man never forgives .