midnight
We pushed back our shallop , and resumed our station on the cliff beside the old mariner and his descendant . `` Wherefore sought ye to peril your own lives fruitlessly , '' said Mark , `` in attempting to save the doomed ? Whoso touches those infernal ships , never survives to tell the tale . Woe to the man who is found nigh them at midnight when the tide has subsided , and they arise in their former beauty , with forecastle , and deck , and sail , and pennon , and shroud ! Then is seen the streaming of lights along the water from their cabin windows , and then is heard the sound of mirth and the clamor of tongues , and the infernal whoop and halloo , and song , ringing far and wide . Woe to the man who comes nigh them ! '' To all this my Allanbay companion listened with a breathless attention .