Questions About Paul Clifford

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Very Confusing. I have in my hands an edition of this book published in 1830 by Harper. I cannot find the famous line, said to be the opening line about a stormy night. Can someone help me out?

Rino Pensato “It was a dark and stormy night” is really the incipit, or first line, of Paul Clifford (Chapter I). But the novel has, before the Incipit, a quote of…more“It was a dark and stormy night” is really the incipit, or first line, of Paul Clifford (Chapter I). But the novel has, before the Incipit, a quote of poet George Crabbe (1754 – 1832): "“Say, ye oppressed by some fantastic woes, Some jarring nerve that baffles your repose, Who press the downy couch while slaves advance With timid eye to read the distant glance, Who with sad prayers the weary doctor tease To name the nameless, ever-new disease, Who with mock patience dire complaints endure, Which real pain and that alone can cure, How would you bear in real pain to lie Despised, neglected, left alone to die? How would you bear to draw your latest breath Where all that’s wretched paves the way to death?—Crabbe.”
It is not, of course, the incipit of Paul Clifford, it is a quote of a work by Crabbe. The incipit of Paul Clifford (Chapter I) is “It was a dark and stormy night; [the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”]: I Think it is the reason of confusion.
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