midnight
The birds were singing gayly as they flitted about over his head . The bees hummed along from flower to flower . At last , so it seemed to him , he had come into a land of peace and quiet , where there was rest and comfort and where no man need go in fear of his life . It was a country where vengeance was not a duty and where midnight combats were not a custom he found himself smiling as he thought that a grisly dragon and a goblin rider would be equally out of place in this laughing landscape . Then the bell in the steeple of the little church began to ring merrily , and he rose to his feet in expectation . All of a sudden the knowledge came to him why it was that they were ringing . He wondered then why the coming of the bride was thus delayed .