eleven o'clock at night
It was eleven o'clock at night when Surgeon Wyley of His Majesty 's ship _ Bonetta _ washed his hands , drew on his coat , and walked from the hospital up the narrow cobbled street of Tangier to the Main-Guard by the Catherine Port . In the upper room of the Main-Guard he found Major Shackleton of the Tangier Foot taking a hand at bassette with Lieutenant Scrope of Trelawney 's Regiment and young Captain Tessin of the King 's Battalion . There were three other officers in the room , and to them Surgeon Wyley began to talk in a prosy , medical strain . Two of his audience listened in an uninterested stolidity for just so long as the remnant of manners , which still survived in Tangier , commanded , and then strolling through the open window on to the balcony , lit their pipes .