two o'clock in the morning
This long rain , too , was just the kind of cause which was likely to loosen the strata of rock piled up in the ledges ; if the dreaded event should ever come to pass , it would be at such a time . He paced his chamber uneasily until long past midnight . If the morning came without accident , he meant to have a careful examination made of all the rents and fissures above , of their direction and extent , and especially whether , in case of a mountain-slide , the huge masses would be like to reach so far to the east and so low down the declivity as the mansion . At two o'clock in the morning he was dozing in his chair . Old Sophy had lain down on her bed , and was muttering in troubled dreams . All at once a loud crash seemed to rend the very heavens above them : a crack as of the thunder that follows close upon the bolt , -- a rending and crashing as of a forest snapped through all its stems , torn , twisted , splintered , dragged with all its ragged boughs into one chaotic ruin . The ground trembled under them as in an earthquake ; the old mansion shuddered so that all its windows chattered in their casements ; the great chimney shook off its heavy cap-stones , which came down on the roof with resounding concussions ; and the echoes of The Mountain roared and bellowed in long reduplication , as if its whole foundations were rent , and this were the terrible voice of its dissolution .