Midnight
But onward and onward the boy wandered , and fortunately his footsteps took the path into a purer atmosphere which led toward the chapel . Here he looked timidly around at the lurid glare behind him , and then entered the church and sank down exhausted , his feverish , smarting eyes closing in slumber on the hard pavement beneath the image of the Virgin Mary . Then came the close and sultry night -- no murmur of a land-wind to drive the smoky canopy away -- the black cinders falling in burning rain on basin , thicket , and lagoon , till even the very lizards and scorpions hid themselves deep within the holes and crevices of the rocks . Midnight came . The dim and silent stars were obscured by a veil of heavy clouds , and with a low , muttering sound of thunder , the vapory masses unclosed their portals , and the rain fell in torrents . The flames , now nearly satisfied with their work , leaped out occasionally from the fallen ruins , but were quenched by the tropical deluge , and smouldered away amid the charred and saturated timbers . Then the thunder ceased , the lizards and scorpions came from their retreats , the teal fluttered over the lagoon , and the noise of the waves bursting over the reef came again to the ear .