about midnight
` That we will see , ' was the cry , and a signal went round . '' Denys then related , bursting with glee , how at bedtime he had been taken to a cell instead of the great dortour , and strictly forbidden to sleep ; and to aid his vigil , a book had been lent him of pictures representing a hundred merry adventures of monks in pursuit of the female laity ; and how in due course he had been taken out barefooted and down to the parlour , where was a supper fit for the duke , and at it twelve jolly friars , the roaringest boys he had ever met in peace or war . How the story , the toast , the jest , the wine-cup had gone round , and some had played cards with a gorgeous pack , where Saint Theresa , and Saint Catherine , etc. , bedizened with gold , stood for the four queens ; and black , white , grey , and crutched friars for the four knaves ; and had staked their very rosaries , swearing like troopers when they lost . And how about midnight a sly monk had stolen out , but had by him and others been as cannily followed into the garden , and seen to thrust his hand into the ivy and out with a rope-ladder . With this he had run up on the wall , which was ten feet broad , yet not so nimbly but what a russet kirtle had popped up from the outer world as quick as he ; and so to billing and cooing : that this situation had struck him as rather feline than ecclesiastical , and drawn from him the appropriate comment of a `` mew ! '' The monks had joined the mewsical chorus , and the lay visitor shrieked and been sore discomforted ; but Abelard only cried , `` What , are ye there , ye jealous miauling knaves ? ye shall caterwaul to some tune to-morrow night .