midnight
It was there , however , no longer ; and breathing with greater freedom , I turned my glances to the pallid and rigid figure upon the bed . Then rushed upon me a thousand memories of Ligeia -- and then came back upon my heart , with the turbulent violence of a flood , the whole of that unutterable wo with which I had regarded her thus enshrouded . The night waned ; and still , with a bosom full of bitter thoughts of the one only and supremely beloved , I remained gazing upon the body of Rowena . It might have been midnight , or perhaps earlier , or later , for I had taken no note of time , when a sob , low , gentle , but very distinct , startled me from my revery . -- I felt that it came from the bed of ebony -- the bed of death . I listened in an agony of superstitious terror -- but there was no repetition of the sound . I strained my vision to detect any motion in the corpse -- but there was not the slightest perceptible .