midnight
In an unlucky moment he made bold to lay hold of the parson , but a piece of the broken barriers in the hands of a flat-boatman felled him to the sod , the terrible crowd swept over him , the lariat was cut and the giant parson hurled the tiger upon the buffalo 's back . In another instant both brutes were dead at the hands of the mob ; Jones was lifted from his feet , and prating of Scripture and the millennium , of Paul at Ephesus and Daniel in the `` buffler 's '' den , was borne aloft upon the shoulders of the huzzaing _ Américains _ . Half an hour later he was sleeping heavily on the floor of a cell in the _ calaboza _ . When Parson Jones awoke , a bell was somewhere tolling for midnight . Somebody was at the door of his cell with a key . The lock grated , the door swung , the turnkey looked in and stepped back , and a ray of moonlight fell upon M. Jules St.-Ange . The prisoner sat upon the empty shackles and ring-bolt in the centre of the floor .