midnight
the song ! '' `` Time enough for that ; we 're doing very well as it is . Upon my life , though , they hold a deal of wine . I thought we 'd have had them fit to bargain with before ten , and see , it 's near midnight ; and I must have my forage accounts ready for the commissary-general by to-morrow morning . '' This speech having informed me the reason of the Major 's presence there , I resolved to wait no longer a mere spectator of their proceedings ; so dismounting from my position , I commenced a vigorous attack upon the door . It was some time before I was heard ; but at length the door was opened , and I was accosted by an Englishman , who , in a strange compound of French and English , asked , `` What the devil I meant by all that uproar ? '' Determining to startle my old friend the major , I replied , that `` I was aide-de-camp to General Picton , and had come down on very unpleasant business . ''