five in the morning
Rivals who had lately been quarreling over the knotty points of national frontiers now only vied for a twenty-franc rosebud from the bouquetiere . Knights of the Garter and Knights of the Golden Fleece , who had hated each other to deadliest rancor with the length of the Continent between them , got friends over a mutually good book on the Rastadt or Foret Noir . Brains that were the powder depot of one-half of the universe let themselves be lulled to tranquil amusement by a fair idiot 's coquetry . And lips that , with a whisper , could loosen the coursing slips of the wild hell-dogs of war , murmured love to a princess , led the laugh at a supper at five in the morning , or smiled over their own caricatures done by Tenniel or Cham . Baden was full . The supreme empires of demi-monde sent their sovereigns , diamond-crowned and resistless , to outshine all other principalities and powers , while in breadth of marvelous skirts , in costliness of cobweb laces , in unapproachability of Indian shawls and gold embroideries , and mad fantasies and Cleopatra extravagances , and jewels fit for a Maharajah , the Zu-Zu was distanced by none . Among the kings and heroes and celebrities who gathered under the pleasant shadow of the pine-crowned hills , there was not one in his way greater than the steeple-chaser , Forest King -- certes , there was not one half so honest .