midnight
He was enabled to say so much , having previously entreated his music-master to condescend to sing and play that night before the inner door for the amusement of the women . The maestro suffered himself to be pressed very hard to do the thing he most desired , but after much seeming reluctance he at last yielded to the solicitations of his esteemed pupil , and said he would be happy to oblige him . The negro embraced him cordially , in testimony of his grateful sense of the promised favour , and treated him that day to as good cheer as he could possibly have had at home , or perhaps better . Towards midnight Luis knew , by the signals cautiously given at the turning-box , that the women were all there ; whereupon he and Loaysa went down from the loft with the guitar , complete in all its strings and well tuned . The maestro asked how many were there to hear him , and was told that all the women in the house were there , except their lady , who was in bed with her husband . This was not what Loaysa wished for , nevertheless , by way of making a beginning and obliging his pupil , he touched the guitar softly , and drew from it such tones as ravished the ears of his audience . But who could describe the delight of the women when he sang _ Pesame de ello _ , and followed it up with the magic strains of the saraband , then new in Spain ?