midnight
The emotions of the day , even more than its bodily exercise , had so wearied him that he went early to bed . They had a double-bedded room , and Elgar continued talking for hours . Even without this , Mallard felt that he would have been unable to sleep . To add to his torments , the clock of the cathedral , which was just on the opposite side of the street , had the terrible southern habit of striking the whole hour after the chime at each quarter ; by midnight the clangour was all but incessant . Elgar sank at length into oblivion , but to his companion sleep came not . Very early in the morning there sounded the loud blast of a horn , all through the town and away into remoteness . Signify what it might , the practical result seemed to be a rousing of the population to their daily life ; lively voices , the tramp of feet , the clatter of vehicles began at once , and waxed with the spread of daylight .