midnight
Some still breathed , others were but slightly injured , but many more were drawn forth whose lips were still in death , their brave arms nerveless , and their hearts pulseless forever . O , it was a night of agony , of terror and dismay ! The fireman 's risk of life is not poetry , nor a romance of zeal , or picture wrought by the imagination . It is an earnest , solemn , terrible thing , as they could witness who stood around those blackened corses on that midnight of woe . Hal searched with undiminished care for the noble stranger , until his worn energies required repose . In vain did he gaze upon the recovered bodies to find that of the fireman it was not there , Towards morning they found his cap ; they knew it by the strange device -- the anchor and the cross emblazoned on its front , above the number of his company . `` A fitting death for him to die ! ''