ten o'clock
It superseded , too , the necessity of any lamps or torches . We pass over all the first outpourings of Ghita 's anguish , when she learned the wound of Raoul , her many and fervent prayers , and the scenes that took place during the time that the islet was still crowded with the combatants . More quiet hours succeeded when these last were gone ; and as the night advanced , something like the fixed tranquillity of settled despair followed the first emotions . When ten o'clock arrived , we reach the moment at which we wish to raise the curtain once more , in order to present the principal actors in the scene . Raoul lay on the summit of the islet , where his eye could range over the mild waters that washed the rock , and his ear listen to the murmurings of his own element . The Tramontana , as usual , had driven all perceptible vapor from the atmosphere , and the vault of heaven , in its cerulean blue , and spangled with thousands of stars , stretched itself above him , a glorious harbinger for the future to one who died in hope . The care of Ghita and the attendants had collected around the spot so many little comforts , as to give it the air of a room suddenly divested of sides and ceiling , but habitable and useful .