noon
`` Very salubrious , if it were not for the shooting stars . '' Then as the soldier stared at him he hastened to explain . `` My quip . The shooting star was a Burgundian arrow a cloth-yard long which came winging its way over the walls at noon and made itself at home in my garden . Here is what the arrow carried . '' He pulled from his pouch a small piece of parchment folded and sealed , and handed it to the seeming soldier . The disguised constable took the missive and scanned it narrowly .