midnight
Was it too late to make that effort ? ... . Presently the strains of music pervaded my consciousness , the chimes of Trinity ringing out in the damp night the Christmas hymn , Adeste Fideles . It was midnight it was Christmas . How clear the notes rang through the wet air that came in at my window ! Back into the dim centuries that music led me , into candle-lit Gothic chapels of monasteries on wind-swept heights above the firs , and cathedrals in mediaeval cities . Twilight ages of war and scourge and stress and storm -- and faith .