midnight
-- No , I can not submit to that . '' `` I should think not , '' observed Jonathan , who had some practice in the knight 's moods , and knew how to humour him . `` It 's a miserable weakness to be afraid of bloodshed . -- The general who gives an order for wholesale carnage never sleeps a wink the less soundly for the midnight groans of his victims , and we should deride him as a coward if he did . And life is much the same , whether taken in battle , on the couch , or by the road-side . Besides those whom I 've slain with my own hands , I 've brought upwards of thirty persons to the gallows . Most of their relics are in yonder cases ; but I do n't remember that any of them have disturbed my rest .