noon
`` We mean to die , '' replied Percy stoutly ; `` we can scarce hold the house an hour . '' `` Then , '' said Winter quietly , `` I will take such part as you do . '' And looking to his sword and firearms , he leaned against the casement of the window facing the road on which the King 's men would come . Toward noon they came , a gallant company of gentlemen and musketeers , flushed with the early morning ride and filled with zeal to take the traitors who awaited them behind the walls of Master Littleton 's house . Watching from the window Winter saw many faces which he knew ; Sir John Foliot , Francis Conyers , Salway , Ketelsby , all staunch adherents of the King ; -- men who , being dispatched upon any errand , would carry it through most zealously . Before the cavalcade rode a doughty gentleman , Sir Richard Walsh , sheriff of Worcestershire , armed with the royal authority to seize the persons of such conspirators as chanced to fall in his way . It was the sheriff who halted the troop some fifty paces from the house , and , attended by Sir John Foliot and two musketeers , advanced boldly to the closed door .