six in the morning
`` As to the asses , gentlemen , '' replied Ruler Potter , `` they , I take it , are emblematic of penitence , which I am sure your reverences ought not be ashamed of , since if my memory serves me right , -LRB- and it is good enough to trust on such matter , -RRB- I have read somewhere in Scripture that the apostles rode asses , and were not ashamed . '' `` Aye , '' replied the venerable priests , `` but that was so long ago , and bears so little resemblance to our case , that it will not serve as a precedent . Heading a band of vagrants in pursuit of plunder , you have overrun our country , caused the death of our good king , and made the priesthood to be scoffed at , which is a crime meriting death . Having set yourself up for a ruler adds no small injury to the insults you have already inflicted upon this kingdom ; we therefore condemn you to death , and are resolved to see you hanged on one of these trees at six in the morning . '' The general essayed to speak in reply to this sentence , but the priests bid him hold his peace , and join them in preparing his soul for heaven . And forthwith they commenced chanting prayers over him ; but as their prayers were in Latin , not one word could he understand . Instead , however , of bemoaning his fate , as the reader may be prepared to expect , the condemned betook himself to mourning the loss of his kingdom , and devising means to regain it .