midnight
He lodged in the house of one of my warders , at the very time when he first wrote to you ; and then he was eating spring-lamb at eighteen-pence a pound , and early asparagus at I do n't know how much a bundle ! ' On that very same day , and in that very same hour , my injured gentleman wrote a solemn address to me , demanding to know what compensation I proposed to make him for his having passed the night in a ` loathsome dungeon . ' And next morning an Irish gentleman , a member of the same fraternity , who had read the case , and was very well persuaded I should be chary of going to that Police-Office again , positively refused to leave my door for less than a sovereign , and , resolved to besiege me into compliance , literally ` sat down ' before it for ten mortal hours . The garrison being well provisioned , I remained within the walls ; and he raised the siege at midnight with a prodigious alarum on the bell . The Begging-Letter Writer often has an extensive circle of acquaintance . Whole pages of the ` Court Guide ' are ready to be references for him . Noblemen and gentlemen write to say there never was such a man for probity and virtue .