three in the
morning
Had Mr. Higginbotham cared about posthumous renown , his untimely ghost would have exulted in this tumult . Our friend Dominicus , in his vanity of heart , forgot his intended precautions , and mounting on the town pump , announced himself as the bearer of the authentic intelligence which had caused so wonderful a sensation . He immediately became the great man of the moment , and had just begun a new edition of the narrative , with a voice like a field preacher , when the mail stage drove into the village street . It had travelled all night , and must have shifted horses at Kimballton , at three in the morning . `` Now we shall hear all the particulars , '' shouted the crowd . The coach rumbled up to the piazza of the tavern , followed by a thousand people ; for if any man had been minding his own business till then , he now left it at sixes and sevens , to hear the news . The pedlar , foremost in the race , discovered two passengers , both of whom had been startled from a comfortable nap to find themselves in the centre of a mob .