three o’clock in the
morning
Hendon ascended three flights of stairs to his room , with his charge , after ordering a meal to be sent thither . It was a poor apartment , with a shabby bed and some odds and ends of old furniture in it , and was vaguely lighted by a couple of sickly candles . The little King dragged himself to the bed and lay down upon it , almost exhausted with hunger and fatigue . He had been on his feet a good part of a day and a night -LRB- for it was now two or three o'clock in the morning -RRB- , and had eaten nothing meantime . He murmured drowsily -- `` Prithee call me when the table is spread , '' and sank into a deep sleep immediately . A smile twinkled in Hendon 's eye , and he said to himself -- `` By the mass , the little beggar takes to one 's quarters and usurps one 's bed with as natural and easy a grace as if he owned them -- with never a by-your-leave or so-please-it-you , or anything of the sort . In his diseased ravings he called himself the Prince of Wales , and bravely doth he keep up the character .