midnight
Papers and relics proved not only his guilt but his remorse ; remorse which , as the apparition had said , permitted him no peace in his wanderings . Those startling words , `` A murderer on board ! '' had doubtless struck fresh terror to his heart and , unable to face the accusation , he had thus terminated his wretched existence . Colonel Demarion revisited the little tavern , and on several occasions occupied the haunted chamber ; but never again had he the honor of receiving a midnight commission from a ghostly visitor , and never again had the landlord to bemoan the flight of a non-paying customer . Giraudier , _ pharmacien , première classe _ , is the legend , recorded in huge , ill-proportioned letters , which directs the attention of the stranger to the most prosperous-looking shop in the grand _ place _ of La Croix Rousse , a well-known suburb of the beautiful city of Lyons , which has its share of the shabby gentility and poor pretence common to the suburban commerce of great towns . Giraudier is not only _ pharmacien _ but _ propriétaire _ , though not by inheritance ; his possession of one of the prettiest and most prolific of the small vineyards in the beautiful suburb , and a charming inconvenient house , with low ceilings , liliputian bedrooms , and a profusion of _ persiennes _ , _ jalousies _ , and _ contrevents _ , comes by purchase . This enviable little _ terre _ was sold by the Nation , when that terrible abstraction transacted the public business of France ; and it was bought very cheaply by the strong-minded father of the Giraudier of the present , who was not disturbed by the evil reputation which the place had gained , at a time the peasants of France , having been bullied into a renunciation of religion , eagerly cherished superstition .