midnight
`` By fire also ? '' said the astonished Lanfranc . `` It is a sad and tragical story , '' replied Geoffrey , `` and it would weary you and sadden me to relate it now . Bloodshed and all the horrors of midnight rapine and warfare are mingled in it , and there is a deep mystery yet unsolved . Tell me , my brother , wert thou an inmate of St. Wilfred 's priory when it was so mysteriously destroyed ? '' `` I was . '' `` And how didst thou escape ? ''