midnight
You wo n't back out , will you ? '' `` No ; for it would be the saving of some of the poor fellows . But we shall see . '' They did that very night , for , instead of the regular cool wind coming down the upper valley , a fierce hot gust roared from the other direction like a furnaces-blast from the plains ; and at midnight down came the most furious storm the most travelled of the officers had ever encountered . The lightning flashed as if it were splintering the peaks which pierced the clouds , and the peals of thunder which followed sounded like the falling together of the shattered mountains , while amidst the intense darkness the sentries on the walls could hear the hiss and seething of the rain as it tore by on the rushing winds which swept through gorge and valley . The next morning the storm broke dark and gloomy , with the rain falling heavily and the river rolling along thick and turbulent , while one of the first things the sentries had to report was the fact that one of the hostile camps -- the one nearest to the fort -- was being struck . By night the tribe in another of the side valleys was withdrawn , and during the days which followed one by one the little camps of white-robed tribes-men melted away like the snow upon the lower hills , till not a man of the investing forces remained , and the long-harassed defenders looked in vain from the highest tower of the fort for their foes .