midnight
Midnight was gathering slowly over the earth ; the beautiful , the mystic hour , blent with a thousand memories , hallowed by a thousand dreams , made tender to remembrance by the vows our youth breathed beneath its star , and solemn by the olden legends which are linked to its majesty and peace -- the hour in which , men should die ; the isthmus between two worlds ; the climax of the past day ; the verge of that which is to come ; wrapping us in sleep after a weary travail , and promising us a morrow which , since the first birth of Creation has never failed . As the minutes glided on , Falkland felt himself grow gradually weaker and weaker . The pain of his wound had ceased , but a deadly sickness gathered over his heart : the room reeled before his eyes , and the damp chill mounted from his feet up -- up to the breast in which the life-blood waxed dull and thick . As the hand of the clock pointed to the half-hour after midnight the attendants who waited in the adjoining room heard a faint cry . They rushed hastily into Falkland 's chamber ; they found him stretched half out of the bed . His hand was raised towards the opposite wall ; it dropped gradually as they approached him ; and his brow , which was at first stern and bent , softened , shade by shade , into his usual serenity . But the dim film gathered fast over his eye , and the last coldness upon his limbs .