midnight
`` When I reached Calais on my homeward way , stopped there a day , awaiting the coming of Rouen , for whom I had nuncio communications , and in the evening went to visit a cottage where I had once been a great favourite with an old fellow called Santé-you know those Calais fishers , with painted sabots , and ochred trousers . And ` What ! ' said I to Santé , ` the nets already spread at this hour ? ' ` Nothing to be done to-day , my Father ' , he answered , and explained that he had attempted to pick up a stone before his door , and -- it had burned him : he showed it me : it had the appearance of a piece of ferruginous rock , stuck with pieces of dirty glass ; and it had burned Santé on the midnight of the asteroid 's scattering . `` Imagine my excitement : ` The asteroid ' , I thought , ` may add fifty thousand Jews to the Church ' . I asked Santé for the stone -- Do you blame me ? '' `` Go on , '' said Hogarth .