ten o'clock
It was called sometimes the diplomats ' ball . At least there was diplomacy back of it . It was mere accident which set this celebration upon the very evening of the battle of Palo Alto , May eighth , 1846 . By ten o'clock there were many in the great room which had been made ready for the dancing , and rather a brave company it might have been called . We had at least the splendor of the foreign diplomats ' uniforms for our background , and to this we added the bravest of our attire , each one in his own individual fashion , I fear . Thus my friend Jack Dandridge was wholly resplendent in a new waistcoat of his own devising , and an evening coat which almost swept the floor as he executed the evolutions of his western style of dancing . Other gentlemen were , perhaps , more grave and staid .