Somehow or other this troubled him, but, notwithstanding, he was soon fast asleep.
He woke in the middle of the night and the darkness.

A terrible noise was rumbling overhead, like the rolling beat of great drums echoing through a brazen vault.

The roof of the loft in which he lay had no ceiling; only the tiles were between him and the sky.

For a while he could not come quite awake, for the noise kept beating him down, so that his heart was troubled and fluttered painfully.

A second peal of thunder burst over his head, and almost choked him with fear.