midnight
` Ere we reached London we changed our means of conveyance , and altered the route by which we approached the city , more than once ; then , like a hare which doubles repeatedly at some distance from the seat she means to occupy , and at last leaps into her form from a distance so great as she can clear by a spring , we made a forced march , and landed in private and obscure lodgings in a little old street in Westminster , not far from the Cloisters . ` On the morning of the day on which we arrived my uncle went abroad , and did not return for some hours . Meantime I had no other amusement than to listen to the tumult of noises which succeeded each other , or reigned in confusion together during the whole morning . Paris I had thought the most noisy capital in the world , but Paris seemed midnight silence compared to London . Cannon thundered near and at a distance -- drums , trumpets , and military music of every kind , rolled , flourished , and pierced the clouds , almost without intermission . To fill up the concert , bells pealed incessantly from a hundred steeples . The acclamations of an immense multitude were heard from time to time , like the roaring of a mighty ocean , and all this without my being able to glean the least idea of what was going on , for the windows of our apartment looked upon a waste backyard , which seemed totally deserted .