eight o’clock
Seated on a rock , Arcadia 's half-goat god , the deity of silly sheep and silly poets , sent forth trickling streams through his rustic pipes ; and in the centre of a green grove , an enamoured Salmacis , bathing in a pellucid basin , seemed watching for her Hermaphrodite . It was in this rural theatre and its fanciful confines that Madame Carolina and her councillors resolved that their magic should , for a night , not only stop the course of time , but recall past centuries . It was certainly rather late in the year for choosing such a spot for the scene of their enchantment ; but the season , as we have often had occasion to remark in the course of these volumes , was singularly fine ; and indeed at this moment the nights were as warm , and as clear from mist and dew , as they are during an Italian midsummer . But it is eight o'clock ; we are already rather late . Is that a figure by Holbein , just started out of the canvas , that I am about to meet ? Stand aside ! It is a page of the Emperor Charles the Fifth !