midnight
Next morning I awoke from prolonged and sound repose with the impression that I was yet in X -- , and perceiving it to be broad daylight I started up , imagining that I had overslept myself and should be behind time at the counting-house . The momentary and painful sense of restraint vanished before the revived and reviving consciousness of freedom , as , throwing back the white curtains of my bed , I looked forth into a wide , lofty foreign chamber ; how different from the small and dingy , though not uncomfortable , apartment I had occupied for a night or two at a respectable inn in London while waiting for the sailing of the packet ! Yet far be it from me to profane the memory of that little dingy room ! It , too , is dear to my soul ; for there , as I lay in quiet and darkness , I first heard the great bell of St. Paul 's telling London it was midnight , and well do I recall the deep , deliberate tones , so full charged with colossal phlegm and force . From the small , narrow window of that room , I first saw THE dome , looming through a London mist . I suppose the sensations , stirred by those first sounds , first sights , are felt but once ; treasure them , Memory ; seal them in urns , and keep them in safe niches ! Well -- I rose .