midnight
`` Spare the boy , Captain Macartney , '' and he shook Harry 's hand -- for the last time , save one , in his life . At the bar of the tavern all the gentlemen stopped , and my Lord Viscount said , laughing , to the barwoman , that those cards set people sadly a-quarrelling ; but that the dispute was over now , and the parties were all going away to my Lord Mohun 's house , in Bow Street , to drink a bottle more before going to bed . A half-dozen of chairs were now called , and the six gentlemen stepping into them , the word was privately given to the chairmen to go to Leicester Field , where the gentlemen were set down opposite the `` Standard Tavern . '' It was midnight , and the town was abed by this time , and only a few lights in the windows of the houses ; but the night was bright enough for the unhappy purpose which the disputants came about ; and so all six entered into that fatal square , the chairmen standing without the railing and keeping the gate , lest any persons should disturb the meeting . All that happened there hath been matter of public notoriety , and is recorded , for warning to lawless men , in the annals of our country . After being engaged for not more than a couple of minutes , as Harry Esmond thought -LRB- though being occupied at the time with his own adversary 's point , which was active , he may not have taken a good note of time -RRB- , a cry from the chairmen without , who were smoking their pipes , and leaning over the railings of the field as they watched the dim combat within , announced that some catastrophe had happened , which caused Esmond to drop his sword and look round , at which moment his enemy wounded him in the right hand . But the young man did not heed this hurt much , and ran up to the place where he saw his dear master was down .