midnight
`` When didst thou drink as deep a drought of water before , Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst ? '' said the Black Knight . `` Never since my wine-butt leaked , and let out its liquor by an illegal vent , '' replied the friar , `` and so left me nothing to drink but my patron 's bounty here . '' Then plunging his hands and head into the fountain , he washed from them all marks of the midnight revel . Thus refreshed and sobered , the jolly priest twirled his heavy partisan round his head with three fingers , as if he had been balancing a reed , exclaiming at the same time , `` Where be those false ravishers , who carry off wenches against their will ? May the foul fiend fly off with me , if I am not man enough for a dozen of them . '' `` Swearest thou , Holy Clerk ? ''