midnight
He had quitted his father in displeasure , and was destined never again to see his face while living . The last intelligence received of young Rookwood was from Bordeaux , whence it was thought he had departed for the Pyrenees . A special messenger had been despatched in search of him , with tidings of the melancholy event . But , as it was deemed improbable by Lady Rookwood that her son could return within any reasonable space , she gave directions for the accomplishment of the funeral rites of her husband on the sixth night after his decease -- it being the custom of the Rookwoods ever to inter their dead at midnight , -- intrusting their solemnization entirely to the care of one of Sir Piers 's hangers-on -- Dr. Titus Tyrconnel , -- for which she was greatly scandalized in the neighborhood . Ranulph Rookwood was a youth of goodly promise . The stock from which he sprang would on neither side warrant such conclusion . But it sometimes happens that from the darkest elements are compounded the brightest and subtlest substances ; and so it occurred in this instance .