midnight
Before her moved a great rood , with a figure upon it , of which one arm hung from the nailed hand , swinging as it went ; an embroidery streamed behind with the swiftness of the motion . And next after it came the naked body of a child , impaled , white and ruddy , the head fallen upon the breast , and the arms , too , dangling and turning . And next the figure of a man , hanging by the neck , dressed , it seemed , in a kind of black gown and cape , with its black-capped head twisting from the twisting rope . The same night Oliver Brand came home about an hour before midnight . For himself , what he had heard and seen that day was still too vivid and too imminent for him to judge of it coolly . He had seen , from his windows in Whitehall , Parliament Square filled with a mob the like of which had not been known in England since the days of Christianity -- a mob full of a fury that could scarcely draw its origin except from sources beyond the reach of sense . Thrice during the hours that followed the publication of the Catholic plot and the outbreak of mob-law he had communicated with the Prime Minister asking whether nothing could be done to allay the tumult ; and on both occasions he had received the doubtful answer that what could be done would be done , that force was inadmissible at present ; but that the police were doing all that was possible .