midnight
What a singular moment is the first one , when you have hardly begun to recollect yourself after starting from midnight slumber ! By unclosing your eyes so suddenly , you seem to have surprised the personages of your dream in full convocation round your bed , and catch one broad glance at them before they can flit into obscurity . Or , to vary the metaphor , you find yourself , for a single instant , wide awake in that realm of illusions , whither sleep has been the passport , and behold its ghostly inhabitants and wondrous scenery , with a perception of their strangeness , such as you never attain while the dream is undisturbed . The distant sound of a church-clock is borne faintly on the wind .