an hour after midnight
The keys were in a bunch , held together by an iron ring , and Sir George always kept them under his pillow at night . I sought my bed in Eagle Tower and lay down in my clothes to rest and wait . The window of my room was open . Within an hour after midnight I heard the hooting of an owl . The doleful sound came up to me from the direction of the stone footbridge at the southwest corner of the Hall below the chapel . I went to my window and looked out over the courts and terrace . Haddon Hall and all things in and about it were wrapped in slumbrous silence .