nine at night
`` Done with you , O King ! '' says Dan ` l , and the reprieve was made out , quick as lightning . Well , sir , Dan ' l knew the ropes , as he said ; and moreover , I reckon there was a kind of freemasonry among post-boys ; and the two together , taken with his knowledge o ' horseflesh , helped him down the road as never a man was helped before or since . 'T was striking nine at night when he started out of London with the reprieve in his pocket , and by half-past five in the morning he spied Salisbury spire lifting out of the morning light . There was some hitch here -- the first he met -- in getting a relay ; but by six he was off again , and passed through Exeter early in the afternoon . Down came a heavy rain as the evening drew in , and before he reached Okehampton the roads were like a bog . Here it was that the anguish began , and of course to Dan ` l , who found himself for the first time in his life sitting in the chaise instead of in the saddle , 't was the deuce 's own torment to hold himself still , feel the time slipping away , and not be riding and getting every ounce out of the beasts : though , even to _ his _ eye , the rider in front was no fool .