twelve o'clock
It was only just when the cart was starting that the courier reached the jail with the reprieve . All night Gabriel Varden and his friends had been at work ; they had gone to the young Prince of Wales , and even to the ante-chamber of the king himself . Successful , at last , in awakening an interest in his favour , they had an interview with the minister in his bed as late as eight o'clock that morning . The result of a searching inquiry was that , between eleven and twelve o'clock , a free pardon to Barnaby Rudge was made out and signed , and Gabriel Varden had the grateful task of bringing him home in triumph with an enthusiastic mob . `` I need n't say , '' observed the locksmith , when his house in Clerkenwell was reached at last , and he and Barnaby were safe within , `` that , except among ourselves , _ I _ did n't want to make a triumph of it . But directly we got into the street , we were known , and the hub-bub began . Of the two , and after experience of both , I think I 'd rather be taken out of my house by a crowd of enemies than escorted home by a mob of friends ! ''