He is almost ahead of his quarry.

He seems to know no law; he set out, I believe, with a commission entitling him to ring his one and forty bells every seven and a half minutes, or eight times in the hour; but long since he must have torn up that warranty, for he is now his own master, breaking out into little sighs of melancholy or wistful music whenever the mood takes him.

I have never heard such profoundly plaintive airs as his--very beautiful, very grave, very deliberate.

One cannot say more for persistent chimes than this--that at the Abbey hotel it is no misfortune to wake in the night.
Long John has a companion in Foolish Betsy.

Foolish Betsy is the stadhuis clock, so called (Gekke Betje) from her refusal to keep time with the giant: another instance of the power which John exerts over the town, even to the wounding of chivalry.