midnight
The leap had been so sudden and the whole progress so rapid , that Mabel scarcely saw the woman , but she remembered after , that her dress was dusky red , and that a velvet cloak swept from her shoulders downward to the ground , half torn from her person in its abrupt movements . As she stood lost in amazement at this singular apparition , Mabel fancied that she heard the dip of oars , and could detect the dim outline of a boat making up the river . She sat down mute , and troubled , looking after what seemed at best a floating shadow ; the night had darkened rapidly , and instead of the new moon which should have silvered the sky , came billows of black , angry clouds , in which the thunder began to roll and mutter hoarse threats of a storm . Frightened by the brooding tempest , Mabel pushed her boat out from the shore , and began to row vigorously homeward ; but she had scarcely got into deep water when the clouds became black as midnight ; the winds rose furiously , lashing the waters and raging fiercely through the tree tops , while burst after burst of thunder broke over the hills . She could only see her course clearly when flashes of lightning shot at intervals through the trees , and broke in gleams of scattered fire among the waves , now dashing and leaping angrily around her . Mabel was excited out of her anxieties by this turmoil . There was something in the force and suddenness of the storm that aroused all her courage .