midnight
did she ever vouchsafe me a single glance of encouragement ? As I am not a general officer , I ca n't get mentioned in a despatch as having eight bullets in my breast and ` lying in a precarious condition , ' even if we were not at peace . If I was only a drummer I could go and make a disgusting noise under her window till she was obliged to look out to tell me to go away , and I would then descend from fortissimo to piano and adagio , for I suppose one could do adagio even upon a drum . But the only fame she is likely to hear of me is that some one will tell her to-morrow that I boozed in the Town Cellar from midnight to six a. m . Now is no one awake but the highest and the lowest in the town , -- the watchman on the top of the cathedral tower , and I deep down in the bowels of the earth . If I were the watchman I would be singing to a certainty , so I do n't see why I should not wake the echoes down here . _ She _ wo n't hear either of us , so here goes .