midnight
Meanwhile , Mistress Ellesmere , a person of great trust in the family , and who assumed much authority in her mistress 's absence , laid her orders upon Deborah , the governante , immediately to carry the children to their airing in the park , and not to let any one enter the gilded chamber , which was usually their sporting-place . Deborah , who often rebelled , and sometimes successfully , against the deputed authority of Ellesmere , privately resolved that it was about to rain , and that the gilded chamber was a more suitable place for the children 's exercise than the wet grass of the park on a raw morning . But a woman 's brain is sometimes as inconstant as a popular assembly ; and presently after she had voted the morning was like to be rainy , and that the gilded chamber was the fittest play-room for the children , Mistress Deborah came to the somewhat inconsistent resolution , that the park was the fittest place for her own morning walk . It is certain , that during the unrestrained joviality of the preceding evening , she had danced till midnight with Lance Outram the park-keeper ; but how far the seeing him just pass the window in his woodland trim , with a feather in his hat , and a crossbow under his arm , influenced the discrepancy of the opinions Mistress Deborah formed concerning the weather , we are far from presuming to guess . It is enough for us , that , so soon as Mistress Ellesmere 's back was turned , Mistress Deborah carried the children into the gilded chamber , not without a strict charge -LRB- for we must do her justice -RRB- to Master Julian to take care of his little wife , Mistress Alice ; and then , having taken so satisfactory a precaution , she herself glided into the park by the glass-door of the still-room , which was nearly opposite to the great breach . The gilded chamber in which the children were , by this arrangement , left to amuse themselves , without better guardianship than what Julian 's manhood afforded , was a large apartment , hung with stamped Spanish leather , curiously gilded , representing , in a manner now obsolete , but far from unpleasing , a series of tilts and combats betwixt the Saracens of Grenada , and the Spaniards under the command of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella , during that memorable siege , which was terminated by the overthrow of the last fragments of the Moorish empire in Spain . The little Julian was careering about the room for the amusement of his infant friend , as well as his own , mimicking with a reed the menacing attitude of the Abencerrages and Zegris engaged in the Eastern sport of hurling the JERID , or javelin ; and at times sitting down beside her , and caressing her into silence and good humour , when the petulant or timid child chose to become tired of remaining an inactive spectator of his boisterous sport ; when , on a sudden , he observed one of the panelled compartments of the leather hangings slide apart , so as to show a fair hand , with its fingers resting upon its edge , prepared , it would seem , to push it still farther back .