midnight
There was a bugle-blast and a proclamation , and a fat butler appeared in a high perch in the leftward wall , followed by his servitors bearing with impressive solemnity a royal baron of beef , smoking hot and ready for the knife . After grace , Tom -LRB- being instructed -RRB- rose -- and the whole house with him -- and drank from a portly golden loving-cup with the Princess Elizabeth ; from her it passed to the Lady Jane , and then traversed the general assemblage . So the banquet began . By midnight the revelry was at its height . Now came one of those picturesque spectacles so admired in that old day . A description of it is still extant in the quaint wording of a chronicler who witnessed it : ` Space being made , presently entered a baron and an earl appareled after the Turkish fashion in long robes of bawdkin powdered with gold ; hats on their heads of crimson velvet , with great rolls of gold , girded with two swords , called scimitars , hanging by great bawdricks of gold . Next came yet another baron and another earl , in two long gowns of yellow satin , traversed with white satin , and in every bend of white was a bend of crimson satin , after the fashion of Russia , with furred hats of gray on their heads ; either of them having an hatchet in their hands , and boots with pykes ' -LRB- points a foot long -RRB- , ` turned up .