midnight
`` Thou sayest well , '' replied the other , with affection . `` I have always looked upon thee as my sword arm , to carry out by thy young strength the deeds which time hath left me ill conditioned to perform . '' `` Thou remembrest , '' began Effingston , `` the night three months since , I rode to Chartsey Manor , with intent to sound Lord Cecil regarding his attitude on issues then before Parliament . It was midnight ere I left , and well on toward the stroke of two when I arrived in the outskirts of London . Proceeding slowly on my way , drinking in deeply the beauties of the night , suddenly there sounded upon my startled ear a woman 's scream , which quickly ceased , as if she who uttered it had been rudely seized about the throat . I reined up my horse and listened . Distinctly could I hear , not two hundred paces from me , the sound of scuffling feet and an outburst of drunken laughter , ending in a round of fiendish cursing .