midnight
`` The views advanced , '' said Ledru Rollin , `` so far as they tend to the elevation of the masses and to popular preparation for reform , Republicanism or revolution , have my most cordial approval ; but I would beg to ask how long are the people to ` wait and hope ? ' When is to come the hour to strike ? '' `` Who can tell , '' said M. Dantès , in his low , clear and musical tones , `` at what moment the breath will come which may hurl on its errand of devastation the avalanche which the snows and suns of centuries , perchance , have been preparing for its awful mission ? In the stillness of the night-time , beneath the clear blue sky of summer , or amid the ravings of the midnight tempest , its dread march is ordered , and in resistless , crushing sublimity it begins to move on to accomplish its terrible errand . Who may predict the precise moment when the earthquake shall rock , the tornado sweep , the red lightning scathe , or the lava flood desolate ? And who shall tell the day or the hour when the people , in their majesty and might , shall rise to avenge their wrongs ? The snow-flake falls fleecily on the mountain 's top through many a long and silent night ; a land green as Eden smiles over the volcano ; through many a calm and sunny day the electric flame gathers in the firmament !