midnight
` Scent more fatal than the morning air ! Away , away ! ' In the range of mountains that lead from Olivet to the river Jordan is the great cavern of Genthesma , a mighty excavation formed by the combined and immemorial work of Nature and of Art ; for on the high basaltic columns are cut strange characters and unearthly forms , -LSB- 47 -RSB- and in many places the natural ornaments have been completed by the hands of the sculptor into symmetrical entablatures and fanciful capitals , the work , they say , of captive Dives and conquered Afrites for the great king . It was midnight ; the cold full moon showered it brilliancy upon this narrow valley , shut in on all sides by black and barren mountains . A single being stood at the entrance of the cave . It was Alroy . Desperate and determined , after listening to the spirits in the tomb , he resolved to penetrate the mysteries of Genthesma .