midnight
On the 15th of May it was freezing hard . The natives going down to the water 's edge in the morning reported a sudden rise of three feet in the river . It continued to rise all day , and by nightfall was fifteen feet above its former level . In the evening the north wind dropped suddenly , and an hour later it sprang up from the south , and by midnight a torrent of rain was falling . Godfrey could hear sounds like the reports of cannon above the pattering of the rain on the skins , and knew that it must be the ice breaking . In the morning when he looked out the whole mass of ice seemed to be moving . Black cracks showed everywhere across the white surface .