midnight
When they had ended their meal , and Eppie had removed the remnants , the husband and wife went into the adjoining chamber and sat down by the bedside , where James presently joined them with a book in his hand . Eppie , having _ rested _ the fire in the kitchen , came into the parlour , and sat on the edge of a chair just inside the door . Peter had said nothing about the night , and indeed , in his wrath with the carpenter , had hardly noted how imminent was the storm ; but the air had grown very sultry , and the night was black as pitch , for a solid mass of cloud had blotted out the stars : it was plain that , long before morning , a terrible storm must break . But midnight came and went , and all was very still . Suddenly the storm was upon them , with a forked , vibrating flash of angry light that seemed to sting their eyeballs , and was replaced by a darkness that seemed to crush them like a ponderous weight . Then all at once the weight itself seemed torn and shattered into sound -- into heaps of bursting , roaring , tumultuous billows . Another flash , yet another and another followed , each with its crashing uproar of celestial avalanches .