midnight
But I , knowing naught , treated her like a sister , walking as it were hand in hand with her towards our common end . And so the time passed on , till , at length , all things were made ready . It was the night before the night when the blow should fall , and there were revellings in the palace . That very day I had seen Sepa , and with him the captains of a band of five hundred men , who should burst into the palace at midnight on the morrow , when I had slain Cleopatra the Queen , and put the Roman and the Gallic legionaries to the sword . That very day I had suborned the Captain Paulus who , since I drew him through the gates , was my will 's slave . Half by fear and half by promises of great reward I had prevailed upon him , for the watch was his , to unbar that small gate which faces to the East at the signal on the morrow night . All was made ready -- the flower of Freedom that had been five-and-twenty years in growth was on the point of bloom .