midnight
At any moment we might be interrupted . So the plan was no sooner conceived than carried out . The rope was made fast to my left wrist . Then I mounted on Marie 's shoulders , and climbed -- not without quavering -- through the window , taking as little time over it as possible , for a bell was already proclaiming midnight . All this I had done on the spur of the moment . But outside , hanging by my hands in the darkness , the strokes of the great bell in my ears , I had a moment in which to think . The sense of the vibrating depth below me , the airiness , the space and gloom around , frightened me .