about ten o'clock at night
In the course of the week after the Michaelmas term at which my second provostry ended , he was so insupportably drunk that he fell head foremost into his drum , which cost the town five-and-twenty shillings for a new one -- an accident that was not without some satisfaction to me ; and I trow I was not sparing in my derisive commendations on the worth of such a public officer . Nevertheless , he was still kept on , some befriending him for compassion , and others as it were to spite me . But Robin 's good behaviour did not end with breaking the drum , and costing a new one . -- In the course of the winter it was his custom to beat , `` Go to bed , Tom , '' about ten o'clock at night , and the reveille at five in the morning . -- In one of his drunken fits he made a mistake , and instead of going his rounds as usual at ten o'clock , he had fallen asleep in a change house , and waking about the midnight hour in the terror of some whisky dream , he seized his drum , and running into the streets , began to strike the fire-beat in the most awful manner . It was a fine clear frosty moonlight , and the hollow sound of the drum resounded through the silent streets like thunder . -- In a moment every body was a-foot , and the cry of `` Whar is ` t ?