midnight
But every drop of blood seemed frozen in his frame as he beheld an enormous claw thrust through the roof , member as it seemed of some being too gigantic to be contained in the chamber or the tower itself . Cold , poignant , glittering as steel , it rested upon a socket of the repulsive hue of jaundiced ivory , with no vestige of a foot or anything to relieve its naked horror as , rigid and lifeless , yet plainly with a mighty force behind it , it pointed at the magician 's heart . As Abano , following the youth 's eye , caught sight of the portent , his visage assumed an expression of frantic horror , his spells died upon his lips , and the gorgeous figures became grinning apes or blotchy toads : madly he seized the young man 's hand , and strove to force him to complete his signature . The robust youth felt as an infant in his grasp , but ere the stylus could be again thrust upon him the first stroke of the midnight hour rang through the chamber , and instantly the gigantic talon pierced Abano from breast to back , projecting far beyond his shoulders , and swept him upwards to the roof , through which both disappeared without leaving a trace of their passage . Horror and thankfulness rushed together into the young man 's mind , and there contended for some brief instants : but as the last stroke sounded all the crystal vials shivered with a stunning crash , and their hellish inmates , rejoicing in their deliverance , swarmed into the chamber . All made for the youth , who , tugged , clawed , fondled , bitten , beslimed , blinded , deafened , beset in every way by creatures of indescribable loathsomeness , grasped frantically as his sole weapon , the stylus ; but it had become a writhing serpent . This was too much , sense forsook him on the spot .