midnight
he shot up rocket-like over Rhineland , striking the entire length of the stream , and its rough - bearded castle-crests , slate-ledges , bramble-clefts , vine-slopes , and haunted valleys , with one brimstone flash . Frankfort and the far Main saw him and reddened . Ancient Trier and Mosel ; Heidelberg and Neckar ; Limberg and Lahn , ran guilty of him . And the swift artery of these shining veins , Rhine , from his snow cradle to his salt decease , glimmered Stygian horrors as the Infernal Comet , sprung over Bonn , sparkled a fiery minute along the face of the stream , and vanished , leaving a seam of ragged flame trailed on the midnight heavens . Farina breathed hard through his teeth . ` The last of him was awful , ' said he , coming forward to where the Monk knelt and grasped his breviary , ` but he was vanquished easily . ' ` Easily ? '