midnight
And there lay the studio naked to the eyes of the lightning , with its tortured forms throbbing out of the dark , and quivering , as with life , in the almost continuous palpitations of the light ; while on the couch lay the motionless mass of whiteness , gleaming blue in the lightning , almost more terrible in its crude indications of the human form , than that which it enclosed . It lay there as if dropped from some tree of chaos , haggard with the snows of eternity -- a huge mis-shapen nut , with a corpse for its kernel . But the lightning would soon have revealed a more terrible sight still , had there been any eyes to behold it . At midnight , while a peal of thunder was just dying away in the distance , the crust of death flew asunder , rending in all directions ; and , pale as his investiture , staring with ghastly eyes , the form of Karl started up sitting on the couch . Had he not been far beyond ordinary men in strength , he could not thus have rent his sepulchre . Indeed , had Teufelsbürst been able to finish his task by the additional layer of gypsum which he contemplated , he must have died the moment life revived ; although , so long as the trance lasted , neither the exclusion from the air , nor the practical solidification of the walls of his chest , could do him any injury . He had lain unconscious throughout the operations of Teufelsbürst , but now the catalepsy had passed away , possibly under the influence of the electric condition of the atmosphere .