midnight
As soon as the servants were asleep , he was to load two mules with provisions ; two others were to carry my mother and myself ; and , striking through the mountains by an unfrequented trail , we were to make a fair stroke for liberty and life . As soon as they had thus decided , I showed myself at the window , and , owning that I had heard all , assured them that they could rely on my prudence and devotion . I had no fear , indeed , but to show myself unworthy of my birth ; I held my life in my hand without alarm ; and when my father , weeping upon my neck , had blessed Heaven for the courage of his child , it was with a sentiment of pride and some of the joy that warriors take in war , that I began to look forward to the perils of our flight . Before midnight , under an obscure and starless heaven , we had left far behind us the plantations of the valley , and were mounting a certain cañon in the hills , narrow , encumbered with great rocks , and echoing with the roar of a tumultuous torrent . Cascade after cascade thundered and hung up its flag of whiteness in the night , or fanned our faces with the wet wind of its descent . The trail was break-neck , and led to famine-guarded deserts ; it had been long since deserted for more practicable routes ; and it was now a part of the world untrod from year to year by human footing . Judge of our dismay when , turning suddenly an angle of the cliffs , we found a bright bonfire blazing by itself under an impending rock ; and on the face of the rock , drawn very rudely with charred wood , the great Open Eye which is the emblem of the Mormon faith .