midnight
` To think ! ' ejaculated the Lord de Vere , rather to himself than his companions , the best of whom he held utterly unworthy of his intercourse -- ` to think that a fellow in a tattered cloak should talk of conveying the Great Carbuncle to a garret in Grub Street ! Have not I resolved within myself that the whole earth contains no fitter ornament for the great hall of my ancestral castle ? There shall it flame for ages , making a noonday of midnight , glittering on the suits of armor , the banners , and escutcheons , that hang around the wall , and keeping bright the memory of heroes . Wherefore have all other adventurers sought the prize in vain but that I might win it , and make it a symbol of the glories of our lofty line ? And never , on the diadem of the White Mountains , did the Great Carbuncle hold a place half so honored as is reserved for it in the hall of the De Veres ! ' ` It is a noble thought , ' said the Cynic , with an obsequious sneer .