midnight
` We 'll fight and we 'll conquer again and again . ' '' Thus the happy young midshipman gave full scope to the exuberance of his spirits , feeling very sure that no one was listening to him . As he ceased , a curiously wild , mournful strain struck his ear , ascending from below him on the west , and forming a strange contrast to the merry notes he had been singing . It was like the noonday song of the joyous lark , as he soars into the blue sky , answered by the midnight croak of the raven as he sits on the old abbey 's ivy-covered wall . He listened . It seemed rather like a continued shriek than a song , or the fearful cry of the fabled Banshee as she flits by the family mansion in Ireland , to warn the inmates , as is ignorantly supposed , that one of their number must prepare to quit the world , its pleasures and its sorrows . The young midshipman 's mind was , however , too well trained to indulge even for a moment in any such fancies , for he owed his education to a wise , religious , and loving father .