midnight
This was the object of her aim . Without any woman fears , she began her practice and continued it , day by day , until , as we are told by one of the chroniclers of her melancholy story , `` she could place a ball with an accuracy , which , were it universally equalled by modern duellists , would render duelling much more fatal than it commonly is . '' In secret she procured gunpowder and lead , by arts so ingenious as to baffle detection . At midnight when her mother slept she moulded her bullets . Well might the thoughts and feelings which possessed her mind , while engaged in this gloomy labor , have endowed every bullet with a wizard spell to make it do its bidding truly . Bitter , indeed , were the hours so appropriated ; but they had their consolations . Dark and terrible were the excited moods in which she retired from her toils to that slumber which she could not always secure .