midnight
The citizens of this ancient town had done all they could to give the Imperial traveller a worthy reception . The chief streets had been decked with ropes of flowers strung from mast to mast and from house to house , and by the harbor , close to the river shore , statues of Hadrian and his wife had been erected . But the storm tore down the masts and the garlands , and the lashed waters of the Nile had beaten with irresistible fury on the bank ; had carried away piece after piece of the fertile shore , flung its waves , like liquid wedges into the rifts of the parched land ; and excavated the high bank by the landing-quay . After midnight the storm was still raging with unheard-of fury ; it swept the palm thatch from many of the houses , and beat the stream with such violence that it was like a surging sea . The full unbroken force of the flood beat again and again on the promontory on which stood the statues of the Imperial couple . Shortly before the first dawn of light the little tongue of land , which was protected by no river wall , could no longer resist the furious attack of the waters ; huge clods of soil slipped and fell with a loud noise into the river and were followed by a large mass of the cliff , with a roar as of thunder the plateau behind sank , and the statue of the Emperor which stood upon it began to totter and lean slowly to its fall . When day broke it was lying with the pedestal still above ground , but the head was buried in the earth .