about nine o'clock at night
They talked loudly of the horror , the infamy , and the shamefulness , of making the King 's Highway a place of general toll and contribution ; but still they abstained most scrupulously from taking any notice of gentlemen who were out late upon the road , especially if they went on horseback . It was about two days after the period of which we have spoken , when the Earl of Sunbury , caring very little for the loss he had met with on the road , and thinking of it merely as one of those unpleasant circumstances which occur to every man now and then , sat in his library with every sort of comfort and splendour about him , enjoying in dignified ease the society of mighty spirits from the past , in those works which have given and received an earthly immortality . His hand was upon Sallust ; and having just been reading the awful lines which present in Catiline the type of almost every great conspirator , he raised his eyes and gazed on vacancy , calling up with little labour , as it were , a substantial image to his mind 's eye of him whom the great historian had displayed . The hour was about nine o'clock at night , and the windows were closed , when suddenly a loud ringing of the bell made itself heard , even in the Earl 's library . As the person who came , by applying at the front entrance , evidently considered himself a visitor of the Earl , that nobleman placed his hand upon the open page of the book and waited for a farther announcement with a look of vexation , muttering to himself , `` This is very tiresome : I thought , at all events , I should have had a few days of tranquillity and repose . '' `` A gentleman , my lord , '' said one of the servants , entering , `` is at the gate , and wishes to speak with your lordship . '' `` Have you asked what is his business ? ''