the hour of ten
The young fellow 's sleep is restless -- he keeps tossing about , with his fat arms and legs sprawling over the floor , and grunting , and snoring . Under him the straw makes a crackling sound , while the two women whisper together in the darkness , and the reeds of the dry thatch on the roof rustle -LRB- the wind is still drawing an occasional breath -RRB- , and ever and anon a twig brushes against an outside wall . The scene is like a scene in a dream . Out of doors the myriad tongues of the pitch-black , starless night seem to be debating something in soft , sad , pitiful tones which ever keep growing fainter ; until , when the hour of ten has been struck on the watchman 's gong , and the metal ceases to vibrate , the world grows quieter still , much as though all living things , alarmed by the clang in the night , have concealed themselves in the invisible earth or the equally invisible heavens . I seat myself by the window , and watch how the earth keeps exhaling darkness , and the darkness enveloping , drowning the grey , blurred huts in black , tepid vapour , though the church remains invisible -- evidently something stands interposed between it and my viewpoint . And it seems to me that the wind , the seraph of many pinions which has spent three days in harrying the land , must now have whirled the earth into a blackness , a denseness , in which , exhausted , and panting , and scarcely moving , it is helplessly striving to remain within the encompassing , all-pervading obscurity where , helpless and weary in like degree , the wind has sloughed its thousands of wing-feathers -- feathers white and blue and golden of tint , but also broken , and smeared with dust and blood . And as I think of our petty , grievous human life , as of a drunkard 's tune on a sorry musical instrument , or as of a beautiful song spoilt by a witless , voiceless singer , there begins to wail in my soul an insatiable longing to breathe forth words of sympathy with all mankind , words of burning love for all the world , words of appreciation of , for example , the sun 's beauty as , enfolding the earth in his beams , and caressing and fertilising her , he bears her through the expanses of blue .