midnight
But , while on , it lashes the sea into fury , driving the breakers upon the beach , where the beat has been left loosely moored . In the reflux of the ebbing tide , this is set afloat and carried away seaward . Driven then upon the coral reef , it bilges , is broken to pieces , when the fragments , as waifs , dance about , and drift far away over the foam-crested billows . It is after midnight . A calm has succeeded the storm ; and silence reigns around the cove where the pirates have put in . The seabirds have returned to their perches on the cliff , and now sit noiselessly -- save an occasional angry scream from the osprey , as a whip-poor-will , or some other plumed plunderer of the night , flits past his place of repose , near enough to wake the tyrant of the sea-shore , and excite his jealous rage . Other sounds are the dull boom of the outside breakers , and the lighter ripple of the tidal wave washing over a strand rich in shells .