What had befallen the night?

"But what had befallen the night? The moon was not yet set, and we were all in shadow: I could scarcely see my master's face, near as I was. And what ailed the chestnut tree? it writhed and groaned; while wind roared in the laurel walk, and came sweeping over us." (Bronte 258).

Here, Jane and Mr. Rochester are sitting outside, near the chestnut tree; Mr. Rochester has just proposed to Jane, and they are now engaged. This passage is metaphorical foreshadowing. In saying that Jane could not see her master's face for shadows, "near as [she] was," she is suggesting that, although she is now nearly a legal entity with her lover, there remains things unseen and hidden about him; mysteries unsolved. The chestnut tree creaks and moans in the wind, and is soon to be wrenched about by lightning, as is told on the next page of the novel, as Jane and Mr. Rochester are soon to be broken apart.