about midnight
`` She 'll be sure to give me something to drink which will turn me into a swine . '' `` You 'll then at least have a finer burial than if you had remained a man , '' jeered Simplex . Nothing could induce the wagoner to stir a step from beside his horses , and he was quite content to sup upon the buckwheat balls which he had brought with him in his knapsack . Simplex , on turning in himself about midnight , derisively assured his snoring companion that he neighed as if he were turned into a horse already . Meanwhile the woman led the priest and his wife into the palisaded mansion . It was a massive structure , consisting of numerous rooms united together by long narrow passages with heavy iron-clouted doors . She stopped at last in a hexagonal vaulted chamber , from the central arch of which hung a huge lamp .