midnight
We will not match ourselves except with our equals , and with our equals in age only , for in dignity we admit of one . We boast being the court end of the town , possessing the Palace and the sepulchral remains of monarchs , and that we have the power to excite , in a degree unknown to the less honoured quarters of the city , the dark and solemn recollections of ancient grandeur , which occupied the precincts of our venerable Abbey from the time of St. David till her deserted halls were once more made glad , and her long silent echoes awakened , by the visit of our present gracious sovereign . My long habitation in the neighbourhood , and the quiet respectability of my habits , have given me a sort of intimacy with good Mrs. Policy , the housekeeper in that most interesting part of the old building called Queen Mary 's Apartments . But a circumstance which lately happened has conferred upon me greater privileges ; so that , indeed , I might , I believe , venture on the exploit of Chatelet , who was executed for being found secreted at midnight in the very bedchamber of Scotland 's mistress . It chanced that the good lady I have mentioned was , in the discharge of her function , showing the apartments to a cockney from London -- not one of your quiet , dull , commonplace visitors , who gape , yawn , and listen with an acquiescent `` umph '' to the information doled out by the provincial cicerone . No such thing : this was the brisk , alert agent of a great house in the city , who missed no opportunity of doing business , as he termed it -- that is , of putting off the goods of his employers , and improving his own account of commission . He had fidgeted through the suite of apartments , without finding the least opportunity to touch upon that which he considered as the principal end of his existence .