midnight
The owl beat against the window-panes , the raven croaked from the old yew-tree , and the wind wandered moaning round the house like a lost soul ; but the Otis family slept unconscious of their doom , and high above the rain and storm he could hear the steady snoring of the Minister for the United States . He stepped stealthily out of the wainscoting , with an evil smile on his cruel , wrinkled mouth , and the moon hid her face in a cloud as he stole past the great oriel window , where his own arms and those of his murdered wife were blazoned in azure and gold . On and on he glided , like an evil shadow , the very darkness seeming to loathe him as he passed . Once he thought he heard something call , and stopped ; but it was only the baying of a dog from the Red Farm , and he went on , muttering strange sixteenth-century curses , and ever and anon brandishing the rusty dagger in the midnight air . Finally he reached the corner of the passage that led to luckless Washington 's room . For a moment he paused there , the wind blowing his long grey locks about his head , and twisting into grotesque and fantastic folds the nameless horror of the dead man 's shroud . Then the clock struck the quarter , and he felt the time was come .