midnight
He turned : -- he threw himself upon the bed , and placed his hands over his face . His thoughts were scattered into a thousand indistinct forms , but over all , there was one rapturous remembrance ; and that was , that the morrow was to unite him for ever to her whose possession had only rendered her more dear . Meanwhile , the hours rolled on ; and as he lay thus silent and still , the clock of the distant church struck with a distinct and solemn sound upon his ear . It was the half-hour after midnight . At that moment an icy thrill ran , slow and curdling , through his veins . His heart , as if with a presentiment of what was to follow , beat violently , and then stopped ; life itself seemed ebbing away ; cold drops stood upon his forehead ; his eyelids trembled , and the balls reeled and glazed , like those of a dying man ; a deadly fear gathered over him , so that his flesh quivered , and every hair in his head seemed instinct with a separate life , the very marrow of his bones crept , and his blood waxed thick and thick , as if stagnating into an ebbless and frozen substance . He started in a wild and unutterable terror .