midnight
`` I saw him last in Warwick Inner Yard . '' And in a few words he explained . Hal Randall shook his head . `` May all be well , '' he exclaimed , and then he told how Sir Thomas Parr had come at midnight and roused the Cardinal 's household with tidings that all the rabble of London were up , plundering and murdering all who came in their way , and that he had then ridden on to Richmond to the King with the news . The Cardinal had put his house into a state of defence , not knowing against whom the riot might be directed -- and the jester had not been awakened till too late to get out to send after his wife , besides which , by that time , intelligence had come in that the attack was directed entirely on the French and Spanish merchants and artificers in distant parts of the city and suburbs , and was only conducted by lads with no better weapons than sticks , so that the Temple and its precincts were in no danger at all . The mob had dispersed of its own accord by about three or four o'clock , but by that hour the Mayor had got together a force , the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court and the Yeomen of the Tower were up in arms , and the Earl of Shrewsbury had come in with a troop of horse . They had met the rioters , and had driven them in herds like sheep to the different prisons , after which Lord Shrewsbury had come to report to the Cardinal that all was quiet , and the jester having gathered as much intelligence as he could , had contrived to slip into the garments that concealed his motley , and to reach home .