Now rain spattered in at the window from the trees and bushes, and it was as dark as a cellar, so that it was barely possible to distinguish objects as faintly darker patches in the blackness. Svidrigaylov , stooping down and leaning with his elbows on the sill, stared into the obscurity for a full five minutes. Through the gloom of the night sounded a cannon shot, then another.

Ah, the signal! The water is rising, he thought. Towards morning, in the lower parts of the town, it will swirl through the streets and flood the basements and cellars, the sewer rats will come up to the surface, and amid the rain and the wind people will begin, dripping wet and cursing, to drag their rubbish to the upper floors...

Feodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Part VI, Chapter 6