Francis Lathom was born in 1774 in Rotterdam but moved to Norwich in 1777, where his father was born, before settling in Scotland in 1802 at Inverrurie and then Fyvie. The Midnight Bell was his second novel and was first published in 1798, followed by a pirated copy published in Dublin. It was published in Philadelphia in 1799 and in France in 1813. Apart from the reference to this novel in Northanger Abbey, Lathom is best known as a playwright.

In the novel, Alphonsus senior suffers from suspicion and believes his brother Frederick has more than a platonic relationship with his wife Anna, and sets out to prove it. He announces that he needs to go to Vienna on business, and prior to leaving, he tells his brother, Count Frederick, that he suspects his wife is being unfaithful, to which the Count appears surprised. To test his wife, he tells Frederik to try and win her love whilst he is away, and for two months, he unwillingly complies. Frederik writes letters to his brother praising his wife’s fidelity and stating that no other callers came to the house except the priest. Alphonsus senior was still not convinced, as he allowed suspicion to prejudice his judgment. He sends his servant to the castle with a false report that bandits have killed him.

On receipt of this news, Anna accuses Frederick of killing his brother. He denies it, and the next day she begs him to cease making the situation worse. Alphonsus senior enters the castle at night, and when Anna hears a noise in her chamber, she assumes it is Frederick. When he takes her arm, she picks up a dagger and stabs him through the heart. It is only at dawn that she realises she has stabbed her husband and recollects the vow she had made her son take to kill Frederick, and worries he will carry it out, killing an innocent man. Alphonsus senior’s suspicion and his blind refusal to believe Anna and Frederick were telling the truth have resulted in his own death and the grief of his wife, who rings the bell every night, as part of her penance, calling the holy men to witness her prayers over her dead husband.

The hermit’s tale explains how he had been forced to seek shelter when his horse stumbled and was injured. Dulac and his family took him in, but when he developed a nosebleed in the evening, he left his room for some water. This disturbed Dulac, who was then captured by banditti. When his family looked for him, both he and his money were gone. Suspicion immediately fell on the stranger, and he was arrested and sentenced to death. Due to the influential intervention of his brother Count Harden, his sentence was commuted to life as a galley slave.

After many years, there was a prisoner exchange, and he again met Dulac and learnt what had happened. Thus, the hermit reinforces the book’s warnings about suspicion: “Teach mankind not rashly to fix the stamp of guilt upon that brow on which unproven suspicion hangs, nor to shut the ear of compassion against the voice of him that is accused, because he may seem guilty.” Both in the case of the hermit and Alphonsus senior, circumstances and incorrect information had led to incorrect assumptions, resulting in hardship and death.

More conventional misunderstandings relate to the marriage in the book. Count Arieno wants to marry Camilla, the daughter of Signora Bartini, but knows that, due to her small fortune, his family will not approve. Therefore, his brother Stephano sends her a letter stating Arieno is married and presents his father with a forged marriage certificate. This results in the father reducing Arieno’s inheritance due to what he believes to be disobedience, and the daughter dying of a broken heart. Count Arieno is faced with the prospect of providing his own living and decides to join the army, where he eventually dies in battle. Arieno’s sister is forced by her father to marry Count Byroff despite being in love with Count Frederick. Again, due to suspicions regarding her fidelity, her father persuades her husband to leave the castle.

She sends a letter to Frederick asking him to meet her in the garden. This was intercepted, and when Frederick travels through the wood, he is stabbed. Lauretta’s father points to the shame she will endure if her conduct becomes known and she retires to a convent to give birth to a girl. The child was to remain there until her family came to claim her. Thus, she becomes the second woman to be wrongly accused of infidelity by her male protectors.

Like many eighteenth-century gothic novels, The Midnight Bell tells of lost inheritance, frustrated love, and imprisonment, in this instance, the Bastille, but it also provides a moral for the reader. Alphonsus is given the last word in the story: “to avoid suspicion; for as it is the source of crimes, it is also the worst of crimes, attaching itself with equal mischief to the guilty and the innocent.” The tragedy of The Midnight Bell could have been avoided if suspicion had been tempered by reason.