seven in the morning
It was maintained on its own resources and dependencies ; its pasture land fed a troop of fifty oxen and ninety-nine sheep , for by some traditional law , no religious order was allowed to possess one hundred of anything , while certain outbuildings sheltered ninety-nine pigs of a particular breed , which were most carefully reared and fattened . The espaliers of the priory , which were exposed to the mid-day sun , furnished peaches , apricots , and grapes , while preserves of these fruits were skillfully made by a certain Brother Eusebius , who was the architect of the famous rock constructed of sweetmeats which had been presented to the two queens by the Hotel de Ville of Paris at the last state banquet which had taken place there . In the interior of this paradise for gourmands and sluggards , in a sumptuous apartment , we shall find Gorenflot , ornamented with an additional chin , and characterized by that sort of venerable gravity which the constant habit of repose and good living gives to the most vulgar faces . Half-past seven in the morning had just struck . The prior had profited by the rule which gave to him an hour 's more sleep than to the other monks , and now , although he had risen , he was quietly continuing his sleep in a large armchair as soft as eider down . The furniture of the room was more mundane than religious ; a carved table , covered with a rich cloth , books of religious gallantry -- that singular mixture of love and devotion , which we only meet with at that epoch of art -- expensive vases , and curtains of rich damask , were some of the luxuries of which Dom Modeste Gorenflot had become possessed by the grace of God , of the king , and of Chicot . Gorenflot slept , as we have said , in his chair , when the door opened softly , and two men entered .