midnight
The villagers ' cheeks flushed ; some of them threw down their cudgels ; others put them on their shoulders like muskets . And so the prisoners were transferred into the keeping of the police , and were taken to the prison in the market-place . Those who had saved the town stood a long time in the market-place and told of their courage and of their great exploit . And in the little room of the inn , where the smoke is as thick as a cloud , and the great men of the town mix their midnight toddy , more is heard of the deed , magnified . They grow bigger in their rocking-chairs ; they swell in their sofa corners ; they are all heroes . What force is slumbering in that little town of mighty memories ! Thou formidable inheritance , thou old Viking blood !