twelve o'clock at night
I was heartily disappointed with it , I remember , and thought it -- as I still think it -- an indifferent piece of work . However , I have tried to write for these thirty-five long years , and if I have not become practised in letters , I am at least a past master in the Lodge of Disappointment . Such as it was , `` The Bowmen '' appeared in _ The Evening News _ of September 29th , 1914 . Now the journalist does not , as a rule , dwell much on the prospect of fame ; and if he be an evening journalist , his anticipations of immortality are bounded by twelve o'clock at night at the latest ; and it may well be that those insects which begin to live in the morning and are dead by sunset deem themselves immortal . Having written my story , having groaned and growled over it and printed it , I certainly never thought to hear another word of it . My colleague `` The Londoner '' praised it warmly to my face , as his kindly fashion is ; entering , very properly , a technical caveat as to the language of the battle-cries of the bowmen . `` Why should English archers use French terms ? ''