midnight
Was he the sport of a dream , or was there some dreadful curse fallen upon him that he should be for ever haunted by the victim of his arm , and the call of vengeance for blood be ever upon his track ? He breathed short and hard , and the smoky atmosphere in which he was enveloped rendered respiration still more difficult . As through this oppressive vapour , which seemed only fit for the nether world , he saw the coffin-plate flash back the flame , his imagination accumulated horror on horror ; and when the blaze sank , and but the bright red of the fire was reflected , it seemed to him to burn , as it were , with a spot of blood , and he could support the scene no longer , but rushed from the barn in a state of mind bordering on frenzy . It was about an hour afterwards , near midnight , that the old barn was in flames ; most likely some of the straw near the fire , in the confusion of the breaking up of the party , had been scattered within range of ignition , and caused the accident . The flames were seen for miles round the country , and the shattered walls of the ruined mansion-house were illuminated brightly by the glare of the consuming barn , which in the morning added its own blackened and reeking ruin to the desolation , and crowds of persons congregated to the spot for many days after . The charred planks of the coffin were dragged from amongst the ruin ; and as the roof in falling in had dragged a large portion of the wall along with it , the stones which had filled the coffin could not be distinguished from those of the fallen building , therefore much wonder arose that no vestige of the bones of the corpse it was supposed to contain should be discovered . Wonder increased to horror as the strange fact was promulgated , and in the ready credulity of a superstitious people , the terrible belief became general , that his sable majesty had made off with O'Grady and the party watching him ; for as the Dublin bailiffs never stopped till they got back to town , and were never seen again in the country , it was most natural to suppose that the devil had made a haul of _ them _ at the same time .