midnight
There were tall doors at the end of the hall , closed and guarded by police , and in the middle of each of the long sides two other doors , also closed , communicating with other rooms and passages , in one of which the priest had waited just now until the Council could see him . Except for the rapid , heavy voice of the President the hall was very quiet , and from the very silence and motionlessness of those present there exhaled a certain air of tenseness . It would have been impossible for any intelligent person not to notice it , and for the priest , with his nerves strung , as they now were , to an extreme pitch of sensitiveness and attention , the atmosphere was overwhelmingly significant . Of what it signified he had no idea , beyond the knowledge he already possessed -- that the hours were running out , and that midnight would see a decisive event which , though it must mean ultimately the ruin of every person present , might , for all that , change the line of the world 's development . A protest so desperate as this could not but have a tremendous effect upon human sentiment . He had caught a glimpse an hour before , as he whirled through the streets , far up against the luminous slay westwards , of a string of floating specks , which he knew to be the guard-boats , strung out now , night and day , in a vast circle round the city . At midnight they would surely move ... .