nine o'clock
`` Yes , it is true , '' replied the Prince , stretching himself at his ease , `` I did come home very late last night . '' `` The chamberlain has already waked your highness three times , and your highness has each time assured him that he would get up , but has each time , it seems , fallen asleep again . '' `` Yes , I did fall asleep each time , '' answered Frederick William , in a somewhat irritated tone of voice ; `` and what of it ? '' `` Why , '' said Herr von Leuchtmar pleasantly -- `` why , the painter Gabriel Nietzel , who arrived yesterday , and , to whom your highness promised to give audience this morning at eight o'clock , has been waiting almost two hours ; Count von Berg , on whom your highness was to call at nine o'clock , has been expecting you an hour in vain -- the horse has stood saddled in the stable for an hour ; and the private secretary Müller , with whom your highness was to prepare to-day a treatise upon fortifications , will probably make no progress whatever with the work . '' `` It seems that I am not to have the privilege of sleeping as long as I choose , '' cried the Electoral Prince , with a mocking laugh . `` My house moves like clockwork , in which there is no comfort or rest whatever , but where each must perform his prescribed service with mathematical exactness , that the whole be not stopped . '' `` It is in a house as in a state , '' said Leuchtmar seriously : `` each one , high and low , must do his duty , else the whole machinery stops , and , as your highness very justly remarked , the clockwork either stands still or is at the least put out of order . ''