noon
Then are the harpies gone -- Yet ere we perch Where such foul birds have roosted , let us cleanse The foul obscenity they 've left behind them . AGAMEMNON . The embassy of Wildrake had been successful , chiefly through the mediation of the Episcopal divine , whom we formerly found acting in the character of a chaplain to the family , and whose voice had great influence on many accounts with its master . A little before high noon , Sir Henry Lee , with his small household , were again in unchallenged possession of their old apartments at the Lodge of Woodstock ; and the combined exertions of Joceline Joliffe , of Phoebe , and of old Joan , were employed in putting to rights what the late intruders had left in great disorder . Sir Henry Lee had , like all persons of quality of that period , a love of order amounting to precision , and felt , like a fine lady whose dress has been disordered in a crowd , insulted and humiliated by the rude confusion into which his household goods had been thrown , and impatient till his mansion was purified from all marks of intrusion . In his anger he uttered more orders than the limited number of his domestics were likely to find time or hands to execute . `` The villains have left such sulphureous steams behind them , too , '' said the old knight , `` as if old Davie Leslie and the whole Scottish army had quartered among them . ''