About midnight
And sometimes he could hear voices , very faint and joyful , crying from the rafters or out of the flame on the hearth , and other times the whole house was filled with music that went through it like a wind . And after a while his weakness left no place for pain , and there grew up about him a great silence like the silence in the heart of a lake , and there came through it like the flame of a rushlight the faint joyful voices ever and always . One morning he heard music somewhere outside the door , and as the day passed it grew louder and louder until it drowned the faint joyful voices , and even Winny 's cry upon the hillside at the fall of evening . About midnight and in a moment , the walls seemed to melt away and to leave his bed floating on a pale misty light that shone on every side as far as the eye could see ; and after the first blinding of his eyes he saw that it was full of great shadowy figures rushing here and there . At the same time the music came very clearly to him , and he knew that it was but the continual clashing of swords . ` I am after my death , ' he said , ` and in the very heart of the music of Heaven . O Cheruhim and Seraphim , receive my soul ! '