Now it was in the autumn of that year, at the season when the days and nights are of one length, that the great inroad of the sea befell.  The day had been stormy, with a brackish wind clamouring out of the sea, and as the darkness closed in it was with us as it is with blind men who hear and feel the more keenly because of their blindness and all that we heard was the boom of billows breaking on the long shore and the crying and groaning of the old oaks and high firs in the forest. Then in the midmost of the night we were aroused by so terrible a noise, mingled with shrieking and wailing, that we crowded to the Prior's door.  Speedily he rose, and we followed him out of doors, wondering what disaster had happened.  The moon was shining brightly; shreds of cloud were flying across the cold sky; the air was full of the taste of salt.