about seven o'clock
At this they looked rather abashed , although they thought fit to cuff me for an impudent young dog . And when the straw was all out , and nothing found underneath , it was not a little hard on me that they left me to put it in again myself , roundly rating one another for the sorry figure they cut . I was too glad to be rid of them to raise much clamour about the straw , and loaded it back as best I could , wondering if all his Majesty 's servants were as wide-awake as the smuggler-catchers of Donegal . This was my only adventure till about seven o'clock when I sighted the lights of Knockowen , and knew this tedious journey was at an end . His honour , I was told , was not at home . He had crossed to Fanad to be present at the wake of my poor mother , who , I heard , had died long before my father and Mr Gorman could reach her yesterday . She was to be buried , they told me , on the next day at Kilgorman ; and I could guess why there was all this haste .