midnight
Some great force was behind him . He must write ! He must write ... . He dropped the ink over the table and over the paper , he jotted down his ideas in the first words that came to him until midnight ; he could see his letter in all its different parts , and when he slept it floated through his sleep . `` I must have a clear copy of it before I begin the Latin translation . '' He had written the English text thinking of the Latin that would come after , and very conscious of the fact that he had written no Latin since he had left Maynooth , and that a bad translation would discredit his ideas in the eyes of the Pope 's secretary , who was doubtless a great Latin scholar . `` The Irish priests have always been good Latinists , '' he murmured as he hunted through the dictionary .