four o'clock
You may go in and watch the torture yourself if you are so minded , for the _ viva voce _ schools are open to the public . But one such experiment will be enough for you , unless you are very hard-hearted . The sight of the long table , behind which sit Minos , Rhadamanthus & Co. , full-robed , stern of face , soft of speech , seizing their victim in turn , now letting him run a little way as a cat does a mouse , then drawing him back , with claw of wily question , probing him on this side and that , turning him inside out , -- the row of victims opposite , pale or flushed , of anxious or careless mien , according to temperament , but one and all on the rack as they bend over the allotted paper , or read from the well-thumbed book -- the scarcely-less-to-be-pitied row behind of future victims , `` sitting for the schools '' as it is called , ruthlessly brought hither by statutes , to watch the sufferings they must hereafter undergo -- should fill the friend of suffering humanity with thoughts too deep for tears . Through the long day till four o'clock , or later , the torture lasts . Then the last victim is dismissed ; the men who are `` sitting for the schools '' fly all ways to their colleges , silently , in search of relief to their over-wrought feelings -- probably also of beer , the undergraduate 's universal specific . The beadles close those ruthless doors for a mysterious half-hour on the examiners . Outside in the quadrangle collect by twos and threes the friends of the victims , waiting for the reopening of the door , and the distribution of the `` testamurs . ''