midnight
`` They come not ; Gerald returns not , '' I said , as my eye dwelt on the clock , and saw the minutes creep one after the other : `` it matters not ; HE at least shall not escape ! -- were he girt by a million , I would single him from the herd ; one stroke of this right hand is all that I ask of life , then let them avenge him if they will . '' Thus resolved , and despairing at last of the return of Gerald , I left the tower , locked the outer door , as a still further security against my prisoner 's escape , and repaired with silent but swift strides to the beach by the Castle Cave . It wanted about half an hour to midnight : the night was still and breathless ; a dim mist spread from sea to sky , through which the stars gleamed forth heavily , and at distant intervals . The moon was abroad , but the vapours that surrounded her gave a watery and sicklied dulness to her light , and whereever in the niches and hollows of the cliff the shadows fell , all was utterly dark and unbroken by the smallest ray ; only along the near waves of the sea and the whiter parts of the level sand were objects easily discernible . I strode to and fro for a few minutes before the Castle Cave ; I saw no one , and I seated myself in stern vigilance upon a stone , in a worn recess of the rock , and close by the mouth of the Castle Cave . The spot where I sat was wrapped in total darkness , and I felt assured that I might wait my own time for disclosing myself .