midnight
Not a breath of air is stirring , not a sound is heard save the lazy plash and ripple of the Danube , as it steals away under its low swampy banks , sluggish and unseen . Yet there is life breathing in the midst of this apparent solitude : human hearts beating , with all their hopes and fears , and joys and sorrows , in this isolated spot . Even here beauty pillows her head on the broad chest of strength ; infancy nestles to the refuge of a mother 's bosom ; weary labour lies prone and helpless , with relaxed muscles and limp , powerless limbs ; youth dreams of love , and age of youth ; and sleep spreads her welcome mantle over the hardy tribe who have chosen this wild waste of Hungary for their lair . It is long past midnight ; their fires have been out for hours ; their tents are low and dusky , in colour almost like the plain on which they are pitched ; you might ride within twenty yards of it , and never know you were near a gipsy 's encampment , for the Zingynie loves to be unobserved and secret in his movements ; to wander here and there , with no man 's leave and no man 's knowledge ; to come and go unmarked and untrammelled as the wind that lifts the elf-locks from his brow . So he sleeps equally well under the coarse canvas of a tent or the roof of a clear cold sky ; he pays no rent , he owns no master , and he believes that , of all the inhabitants of earth , he alone is free . And now a figure rises from amongst the low dusky tents , and comes out into the light of the clear starry sky , and looks steadfastly towards the east as if watching for the dawn , and turns a fevered cheek to the soft night air , as yet not fresh and cold enough to promise the approach of day . It is the figure of a woman past the prime of life , nay , verging upon age , but who retains all the majesty and some remains of the beauty which distinguished her in bygone days ; who even now owns none of the decay of strength or infirmity of gait which usually accompanies the advance of years , but who looks , as she always did , born to command , and not yet incapable of enforcing obedience to her behests .