noon
Here , the temporary path was entirely hidden by the incursions of a swollen torrent ; there , it was faintly perceptible in occasional patches of soft ground , or partly traceable by fragments of abandoned armour , skeletons of horses and men , and remnants of the rude bridges which had once served for passage across a river or transit over a precipice . Among the rocks of the topmost of the range of mountains immediately overhanging the plains of Italy , and presenting the last barrier to the exertions of a traveller or the march of an invader , there lay , at the beginning of the fifth century , a little lake . Bounded on three sides by precipices , its narrow banks barren of verdure or habitations , and its dark and stagnant waters brightened but rarely by the presence of the lively sunlight , this solitary spot -- at all times mournful -- presented , on the autumn of the day when our story commences , an aspect of desolation at once dismal to the eye and oppressive to the heart . It was near noon ; but no sun appeared in the heaven . The dull clouds , monotonous in colour and form , hid all beauty in the firmament , and shed heavy darkness on the earth . Dense , stagnant vapours clung to the mountain summits ; from the drooping trees dead leaves and rotten branches sunk , at intervals , on the oozy soil , or whirled over the gloomy precipice ; and a small steady rain fell , slow and unintermitting , upon the deserts around . Standing upon the path which armies had once trodden , and which armies were still destined to tread , and looking towards the solitary lake , you heard , at first , no sound but the regular dripping of the rain-drops from rock to rock ; you saw no prospect but the motionless waters at your feet , and the dusky crags which shadowed them from above .