midnight
And as the old Middle-Age warders of Warwick , every night at curfew , patrolled the battlements , and dove down into the vaults to see that all lights were extinguished , even so do the master-at-arms and ship 's corporals of a frigate perambulate all the decks of a man-of-war , blowing out all tapers but those burning in the legalized battle-lanterns . Yea , in these things , so potent is the authority of these sea-wardens , that , though almost the lowest subalterns in the ship , yet should they find the Senior Lieutenant himself sitting up late in his state-room , reading Bowditch 's Navigator , or D'Anton '' _ On Gunpowder and Fire-arms _ , '' they would infallibly blow the light out under his very nose ; nor durst that Grand-Vizier resent the indignity . But , unwittingly , I have ennobled , by grand historical comparisons , this prying , pettifogging , Irish-informer of a master-at-arms . You have seen some slim , slip-shod housekeeper , at midnight ferreting over a rambling old house in the country , startling at fancied witches and ghosts , yet intent on seeing every door bolted , every smouldering ember in the fireplaces smothered , every loitering domestic abed , and every light made dark . This is the master-at-arms taking his night-rounds in a frigate . * * * * * It may be thought that but little is seen of the Commodore in these chapters , and that , since he so seldom appears on the stage , he can not be so august a personage , after all . But the mightiest potentates keep the most behind the veil .