eight o'clock
During dinner he was somewhat silent and moody ; but when he got to his wine he recovered his spirits , and seemed tolerably happy . Indeed he conducted himself wonderfully well , considering that during the whole evening Fred and George would talk of nothing but trepanned skulls , false knee-caps -- cork legs -- bullets that had come out of men 's backs ten years after they had entered men 's bellies -- surgeon 's knives -- pincers and tourniquets -- wills -- attorneys -- leaden coffins , and the family vault . George expressed a great desire to go and see his parent shot . Fred said that eight o'clock was so damnation early , or else he 'd be happy . George was so warm in his solicitude , that in spite of his father 's declining this mark of his affection , he insisted on attending him to the ground ; and it was only when Major Longsword gravely assured him that if he , George , was there he , Major Longsword , would not be there too , that the anxious son was prevailed on to give up his project . The affair was to come off in the County Roscommon , about a mile and a half from Carrick , at the edge of a small copse , about a mile on the left-hand side of the Boyle road . A message had been conveyed to Doctor Blake to be near the spot with the different instruments that had been so freely named on the previous evening .