midnight
There were three services in the cathedral that day , and the Tenor went to each , but he did not sing . He seemed to have taken cold and was hoarse , with a slight cough , and a peculiar little stab in his chest and catching of the breath , which , however , did not trouble him much to begin with . But as the day advanced every bone in his body ached with a dull wearying pain , and he was glad to go to bed early . Once there , the sense of fatigue was overpowering , yet he could not sleep until long past midnight , when he dropped off quite suddenly ; or rather , as it seemed to him , when all at once he plunged headlong into the river to rescue the Boy , and began to go down , down , down , to a never-ending depth , the weight of the water above him becoming greater and greater till the pressure was unbearable , and a horrid sense of suffocation , increasing every instant , impelled him to struggle to the surface , but vainly , He could not rise -- and down , down , he continued to descend , reaching no bottom , yet dropping at last , before he could help himself , on a sharp stake , pointed like a dagger , that ran right through his chest . The pain aroused him with a great start , but the impression had been so vivid , that it was some time before he could shake off the sensation of descending with icy water about him ; and even when he was wide awake , and although he was bathed in perspiration , the feeling of cold remained , and so did the pain . It was during that night that the weather changed . The next day it was blowing a gale .