midnight
I instantly got my oak stick , muffled myself in my great coat , strapped my hat about my ears , and , as the place of meeting was only a quarter of a mile distant , I presently set out . The appearance of the heavens was lowering and angry , particularly in that point where the light of the moon fell against the clouds , from a seeming chasm in them , through which alone she was visible . The edges of this chasm were faintly bronzed , but the dense body of the masses that hung piled on each side of her , was black and inpenetrable to sight . In no other point of the heavens was there any part of the sky visible ; a deep veil of clouds overhung the whole horizon , yet was the light sufficient to give occasional glimpses of the rapid shifting which took place in this dark canopy , and of the tempestuous agitation with which the midnight storm swept to and fro beneath it . At length I arrived at a long slated house , situated in a solitary part of the neighborhood ; a little below it ran a small stream , which was now swollen above its banks , and rushing with mimic roar over the flat meadows beside it . The appearance of the bare slated building in such a night was particularly sombre , and to those , like me , who knew the purpose to which it was usually devoted , it was or ought to have been peculiarly so . There it stood , silent and gloomy , without any appearance of human life or enjoyment about or within it .