midnight
He had also to do the work of a menial , but not in a menial spirit . It was his to wait upon his lord at table , to be a graceful cup bearer , a clever carver , able to select the titbits for the ladies , and then to assign the other portions according to rank . It was his to follow the hounds , to learn the blasts of the horn , which belonged to each detail of the field ; to track the hunted animal , to rush in upon boar or stag at bay , to break up or disembowel the captured quarry . It was his to learn how to thread the pathless forests , like that of Arden ; by observing the prevalent direction of the wind , as indicated by the way in which the trees threw their thickest branches , or the side of the trunk on which the mosses grew most densely ; to know the stars , and to thread the murky forest at midnight by an occasional glimpse of that bright polar star , around which Charley 's Wain revolved , as it does in these latter days . It was his to learn that wondrous devotion to the ladies , which was at the foundation of chivalry , and found at last its reductio ad absurdum in the Dulcinea of Don Quixote ; but it was not a bad thing in itself , and softened the manners , nor suffered them to become utterly ferocious . He was taught to abhor all the meaner vices , such as cowardice or lying -- no gentleman could live under such an imputation and retain his claim to the name . But it must be admitted that there were higher duties practised wheresoever the obligations of chivalry were fully carried out : the duty of succouring the distressed or redressing wrong , of devotion to God and His Church , and hatred of the devil and his works .