midnight
And yet , with all their gaiety , as its last triumphant note in truth , they were ready to trifle with death , welcoming , by way of a foil to the easy character of their days , a certain luxurious sense of danger -- the night-alarm , the arquebuse peeping from some quiet farm-building across their way , the rumoured presence in their neighbourhood of this or that great military leader -- delightful premonitions of the adventurous life soon to be their own in Paris . What surmises they had of any vaguer sort of danger , took effect , in that age of wizardry , as a quaintly practical superstition , the expectation of cadaverous `` churchyard things '' and the like , intruding themselves where they should not be , to be dissipated in turn by counter-devices of the dark craft which had evoked them . Gaston , then , as in after years , though he saw no ghosts , could not bear to trifle with such matters : to his companions it was a delight , as they supped , to note the indication of nameless terrors , if it were only in the starts and crackings of the timbers of the old place . To the turbid spirits of that generation the midnight heaven itself was by no means a restful companion ; and many were the hours wasted by those young astrophiles in puzzling out the threats , or the enigmatic promises , of a starry sky . The fact that armed persons were still abroad , thieves or assassins , lurking under many disguises , -LSB- 75 -RSB- might explain what happened on the last evening of their time together , when they sat late at the open windows as the night increased , serene but covered summer night , aromatic , velvet-footed . What coolness it had was pleasant after the wine ; and they strolled out , fantastically muffled in certain old heraldic dresses of parade , caught up in the hall as they passed through , Gaston alone remaining to attend on his grandfather . In about an hour 's time they returned , not a little disconcerted , to tell a story of which Gaston was reminded -LRB- seeing them again in thought as if only half real , amid the bloomy night , with blood upon their boyish flowers -RRB- as they crossed his path afterwards at three intervals .