MIDNIGHT was on the mountains,
     Midnight was on the town,
And sleep, the balmy seraph,
     Came sweetly, gently down,
Sealing the lids of sorrow,
     Hushing the storm of strife,
And calming down to quiet
     The busy hum of life.

The stars were in their dwellings,
     Watching the world below,
And on her path of silver
     The white moon travell'd slow;
When forth the monster hurried,
     With fury on his crest,
And fire upon his forehead,
     And flames upon his breast.

With awful, savage grandeur,
     The roof he rushes o'er,
Forcing his flaming fingers
     Through window and through door.
The ships within the harbour,
     The boats a-near the place,
Are shining in the anger
     That flashes from his face.

With lurid look he rushes
     Across the narrow street,
Thrusting his red arms upward,
     Which in the centre meet,
And hiss with raging fury,
     No waters scarce can tame,
Or art avail to lessen,
     A canopy of flame.

The youth, the timid maiden,
     And manhood in its prime,
Old age, o'errun with wrinkles,
     And whiten'd much by time,
The mother with her baby
     Beneath the shining star,-
All rush before the monster,
     Whose eyelids flash afar.

Yet, in this dread tornado,
     The breeze of mercy flows;
No human life was injured
     In all this rush of woes.
God saved the stricken parent,
     And child upon his knee:
No lot, however bitter,
     But it might bitterer be.

We pass not by the matron,
     Who, in the dreadful roar,
Rose up to leave her dwelling,
     Perchance for evermore;
And from the shelf her Bible
     She snatch'd with tearful eyes,
The best of all her treasures,
     Her chiefest, richest prize.