midnight
This wondrous colouring ! Fully facing him , the central glory of the whole picture , was a figure of Christ -- unlike any other Christ ever imagined by poet or painter -- an etherealised Form through which the very light of Heaven itself seemed to shine , -- supreme , majestic , and austerely God-like ; -- the face was more beautiful than any ever dreamed of by the hewers of the classic marbles -- it was the face of a great Archangel , -- beardless and youthful , yet kingly and commanding . Round the broad brows a Crown of Thorns shone like a diadem , every prickly point tipped with pale fire , -- and from the light floating folds of intense white which , cloud-like , clung about the divine Form , faint flashes of the lightning gleamed . Above this grand Christ , the heavens were opened , pouring out a rain of such translucent purity of colour and radiance as never had been seen in any painted canvas before -- but beneath , the clouds were black as midnight -- confused , chaotic , and drifting darkly on a strong wind as it seemed into weird and witch-like shapes , wherein there were seen the sun and moon revolving pallidly , like globes of fire lost from their orbits and about to become extinct . And among those shifting black films were a crowd of human creatures , floating and falling into unknown depths of darkness , and striking out wild arms of appeal and entreaty and despair , -- the faces of these were all familiar , and were the life-like portraits of many of those pre-eminent in the history of the time . Chief among them was the Sovereign Pontiff , waxen and wan and dark-eyed , -- he was depicted as fastening fetters of iron round the body of a beautiful youth , laurel-crowned , the leaves of the laurel bearing faint gold letters which spelt the word `` Science . '' Huddled beside him was a well-known leader of the Jesuits , busily counting up heaps of gold , -- another remarkable figure was that of a well-known magnate of the Church of England , who , leaning forward eagerly , sought to grasp and hold the garment of the Pope , but was dragged back by the hand of a woman crowned with an Imperial diadem .