ten o'clock
`` Nay , if you think of the matter in that way , '' replied the honest citizen , `` there is no more to be said -- I will come for you to-morrow , with a barge proper to the occasion . -- But remember , my good young lord , that I do not , like some men of my degree , wish to take opportunity to step beyond it , and associate with my superiors in rank , and therefore do not fear to mortify my presumption , by suffering me to keep my distance in the presence , and where it is fitting for both of us to separate ; and for what remains , most truly happy shall I be in proving of service to the son of my ancient patron . '' The style of conversation led so far from the point which had interested the young nobleman 's curiosity , that there was no returning to it that night . He therefore exchanged thanks and greetings with George Heriot , and took his leave , promising to be equipped and in readiness to embark with him on the second successive morning at ten o'clock . The generation of linkboys , celebrated by Count Anthony Hamilton , as peculiar to London , had already , in the reign of James I. , begun their functions , and the service of one of them with his smoky torch , had been secured to light the young Scottish lord and his follower to their lodgings , which , though better acquainted than formerly with the city , they might in the dark have run some danger of missing . This gave the ingenious Mr. Moniplies an opportunity of gathering close up to his master , after he had gone through the form of slipping his left arm into the handles of his buckler , and loosening his broadsword in the sheath , that he might be ready for whatever should befall . `` If it were not for the wine and the good cheer which we have had in yonder old man 's house , my lord , '' said this sapient follower , `` and that I ken him by report to be a just living man in many respects , and a real Edinburgh gutterblood , I should have been well pleased to have seen how his feet were shaped , and whether he had not a cloven cloot under the braw roses and cordovan shoon of his . ''