midnight
The atmosphere was oppressive and lay like a stifling weight on the breast of man ; and if , now and then , a faint breath of air flitted languidly over the country , it was as burning hot as if it had just come out of the mouth of a blast-furnace , and only increased the exhausting sensation of oppression . Then slowly , very slowly , it began to grow dark . There was a long black stripe all along the edge of the sky , which gradually bulged out into a sort of black veil , and as the infrequent stars twinkled forth in the pallid sky , this dark veil blotted them out one by one ; it was just as if some mighty spirit-hand had drawn a crape curtain across a funeral vault bright with glittering lamps . It was already midnight when Maria Kamienszka perceived the first roadside _ csárda _ -LSB- 10 -RSB- which , according to her calculations , lay midway between the county-town and Hétfala . In the midnight gloom and silence it was easier to distinguish distant sounds than to clearly recognise near objects . -LSB- Footnote 10 : Inn . -RSB- It seemed to Maria as if she heard a medley of despairing yells and savage maledictions , and dimly discernible masses of men were moving up and down all round the house .