midnight
Death is at all time a terrible visitant , but in such a place and under such circumstances it was tenfold more awful than usual . The blank in so small a band was a great one . It would perhaps have depressed them more than it did had their own situation been less desperate . But they had too fierce a battle to fight with disease , and the midnight gloom , and the bitter frost , to give way to much feeling about him who was gone . Thus the long winter passed heavily away . The sun came back at last , and when he came his beams shone upon a pale , shattered , and heart-weary band of men . But with his cheering light came also _ hope _ , and health soon followed in his train .