about twelve
o’clock
Come , thou shalt drink -- to _ St. Nicolas _ -- O Julia ! ------ What dost thou prick up thy ears at ? -- ’t is nothing but a man , & c . The stranger rode on communing in this manner with his mule and Julia -- till he arrived at his inn , where , as soon as he arrived , he alighted ------ saw his mule , as he had promised it , taken good care of -- took off his cloak-bag , with his crimson-sattin breeches , & c. , in it -- called for an omelet to his supper , went to his bed about twelve o'clock , and in five minutes fell fast asleep . It was about the same hour when the tumult in _ Strasburg _ being abated for that night , -- the _ Strasburgers _ had all got quietly into their beds -- but not like the stranger , for the rest either of their minds or bodies ; queen _ Mab _ , like an elf as she was , had taken the stranger 's nose , and without reduction of its bulk , had that night been at the pains of slitting and dividing it into as many noses of different cuts and fashions , as there were heads in _ Strasburg _ to hold them . The abbess of _ Quedlingberg _ , who with the four great dignitaries of her chapter , the prioress , the deaness , the sub-chantress , and senior canoness , had that week come to _ Strasburg _ to consult the university upon a case of conscience relating to their placket-holes ------ was ill all the night . The courteous stranger 's nose had got perched upon the top of the pineal gland of her brain , and made such rousing work in the fancies of the four great dignitaries of her chapter , they could not get a wink of sleep the whole night thro ' for it -- there was no keeping a limb still amongst them -- in short , they got up like so many ghosts .