midnight
Now he was visible , now he was concealed by the clouds of smoke which , circling round and then rising in the air , formed a dark canopy over the combatants . Young Chandos was not far off . Whatever might have been his sensations at first , he was collected enough now to attend steadily to his duty , and the work going on was a pretty severe trial to young nerves . The midnight battle raged fiercer and fiercer . A shot came flying by . Ralph felt that he was hit severely in the arm , and was compelled to summon another man to the wheel ; but binding up his wounded limb , he stood as before at his post . Not many minutes afterwards a round shot struck the bulwarks , sending splinters flying in every direction .