nine o’clock
But , alas ! when my companions at length departed , they left me in no condition to complete a sermon . I fell fast asleep , and was wakened in the morning by the bishop 's servant . The dismay I felt is indescribable ; I started up -- it was nine o'clock : I began to write ; but my hand and my mind trembled , and my ideas were in such confusion , that I could not , great genius as I was , produce a beginning sentence in a quarter of an hour . I kept the bishop 's servant forty minutes by his watch ; wrote and re-wrote two pages , and walked up and down the room ; tore my two pages ; and at last , when the footman said he could wait no longer , was obliged to let him go with an awkward note , pleading sudden sickness for my apology . It was true that I was sufficiently sick at the time when I penned this note : my head ached terribly ; and I kept my room , reflecting upon my own folly , the whole of the day . I foresaw the consequences : the living was given away by my patron the next morning , and all hopes of future favour were absolutely at an end .