midnight
It seems to me that we are going to heaven ; and I want to be awake to see-the lady '' -- The words faltered , and died upon her lips . The beautiful image of her mother , fading slowly from her memory , seemed already a vision so vague , that to name it were to lose it , -- an idea too precious and too impalpable to put in words . The past , with all its love and joy and beauty , was becoming for our ` Toinette what we may fancy heaven is to a little baby , whose solemn eyes and earnest gaze seem forever attempting to recall the visions of celestial beauty it has left for the pale , sad skies , and mournful sounds of earth . On rushed the train through the quiet night , waking wild echoes in the woods , and leaving them to whisper themselves again to sleep when it had passed ; lighting dark valleys that the moonlight left unlighted , with its whirling banner of flame and sparks , and its hundred blazing windows ; moving across the holy calm of midnight like some strange and troubled vision , some ugly nightmare , that for the moment changes peace and rest to horror and affright , and then passes again to the dim and ghostly Dreamland , whose frontier crowds our daily life on every hand , and whence forever peep and beckon the mysteries that perplex and haunt the human mind . On and on and on , through misty lowland and shadowy wood , and over shining rivers , and through sleeping hamlets , and winding , snake-like , between great round hills and along deep mountain-gorges , until the wild , bright eyes that watched beneath Cherry 's matted curls grew soft and dim ; and at last the white lids fell , and the curve of the sad lips relaxed beneath the kiss of God 's mildest messenger to man , -- the spirit of sleep . As for Giovanni , he long had slumbered heavily ; and even Pantalon , whose bright eyes were seldom known to close , was now curled up beneath the organ-covering , dreaming , perhaps , of the nut-groves and spice-islands where he had once known liberty and youth . Just then it came , -- a crash as if heaven and earth had met ; a wild , deep cry , made up of all tones of human agony and fright ; the shriek of escaping steam ; the rending and splintering of wood and iron ; destruction , terror , pain , and death , all mingled in one awful moment .