midnight
But he kept on his way , though the cold pierced him to the bone , and the jagged ice cut his feet , and the hunger in his body gnawed like a rat 's teeth . He kept on his way , a poor gaunt , shivering thing , and by long patience traced the steps he loved into the very heart of the burgh and up to the steps of the great cathedral . `` He is gone to the things that he loved , '' thought Patrasche : he could not understand , but he was full of sorrow and of pity for the art-passion that to him was so incomprehensible and yet so sacred . The portals of the cathedral were unclosed after the midnight mass . Some heedlessness in the custodians , too eager to go home and feast or sleep , or too drowsy to know whether they turned the keys aright , had left one of the doors unlocked . By that accident the foot-falls Patrasche sought had passed through into the building , leaving the white marks of snow upon the dark stone floor . By that slender white thread , frozen as it fell , he was guided through the intense silence , through the immensity of the vaulted space -- guided straight to the gates of the chancel , and , stretched there upon the stones , he found Nello .