midnight
Cousin Maud had dipped deep into her purse and likewise into her linen-press , and on the table under the Christmas-tree lay many a thing fit for the bride-chest of a maid of good birth ; and albeit Ann could not but rejoice over these gifts for their own sake , she did so all the more gladly , inasmuch as she guessed that Cousin Maud was well-disposed to speed her marriage . We were all , indeed , glad and thankful ; all save the Magister , whose face was ill-content and sour by reason that he had culled many verses and maxims concerning love , for the most part from the Greek and Latin poets , and yet all his attempts to repeat them before Ann came to nothing , inasmuch as she was again and again taken up with Herdegen and with me , after she had once shaken hands with him and given him her greetings . At supper he was as dumb as the carp which were served , and it befell that for the first time Herdegen took his seat between him and his heart 's beloved ; and verily I was grieved for him when , after supper , he withdrew downcast to his own chamber . The rest of us went forth to Saint Sebald 's church , where that night there would be midnight matins , as there was every year , and a mass called the Christ mass . Cousin Maud and Kunz were with us , as in the old happy days when we were children and when we never missed ; and in the streets as we went , we met all manner of folks singing gladly : Puer natus in Bethlehem , Sing , rejoice , Jerusalem ! or the carol : Congaudeat turba fadelium ! Natus est rex , Salvator omnium In Bethlehem .