midnight
The electric machine itself , a battery of Leyden jars was hidden under the altar and connected by a piece of clockwork with that opening covered with metal in which the crucifix had been planted . Black Mask stood silently for a moment on the basement of the altar after removing his helmet from his head , and those who stood nearest were horrified to observe that single hairs of his long flowing mane of hair rose slowly and remained stiffly suspended in the air . There was a deep silence , the silence that prevails under the earth -- among the Dead . And now Fatia Negra began to recite the words of the oath in a solemn ghostly voice : `` I , the bearer of the Black Mask , Fatia Negra , as they call me , swear in the subterranean midnight by the living fire which falling like rain reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes ; by the flood which killed all the dwellers upon earth ; by the gaping gulf which swallowed up the traitorous bands of Dathan and Abiram ; by the spirit which announced the death of King Saul ; by the Angel Lucifer who by reason of his rebellion was cast down from Heaven ; by the angel Malach Hamovesh who carries in his hands the sword of violent death ; by the twelve plagues of Egypt with which Moses visited the land of the Pharaohs ; by all these things and by the star under which I was born do I swear secresy -- and may I perish in fire and water , may I be buried alive in the bowels of the earth , may I become a pillar of salt , may the wild beast of the forest tear me to pieces , may my own weapon turn against me in the evil hour , may I be terrified by midnight spectres and hag-ridden , may my body be smitten with leprosy , my eyes with blindness , my tongue with dumbness , my bones by rottenness , if ever I speak one syllable to anybody , be it priest , or child , or father , or condemning judge , or threatening headsman , of anything I have seen , heard or learnt in this place , or write it down with my hand or put anybody on the track of it ! May every drop of my blood become curse-laden ; may my remotest posterity anathematize me ; may I awake in my grave and go about again as a spectre , if ever I act in anyway contrary to what I now swear ! May all those who are under the earth and above the earth be the witnesses of this my oath ! '' This drastic formula satisfied everybody .