the first hour after noon
If you are loth to risk your life with your eyes shut , say so , and I will go to someone else . ' But he was not in a position , as I well knew , to refuse such an offer , and presently he accepted it with a fresh semblance of heartiness . I told him I should want four troopers to escort us , and these he offered to procure , saying that he knew just the knaves to suit me . I bade him hire two only , however , being too wise , to put myself altogether in his hands ; and then , having given him money to buy himself a horse -- I made it a term that the men should bring their own -- and named a rendezvous for the first hour after noon , I parted from him and went rather sadly away . For I began to see that the king had not underrated the dangers of an enterprise on which none but desperate men and such as were down in the world could be expected to embark . Seeing this , and also a thing which followed clearly from it -- that I should have as much to fear from my own company as from the enemy -- I looked forward with little hope to a journey during every day and every hour of which I must bear a growing weight of fear and responsibility . It was too late to turn back , however , and I went about my preparations , if with little cheerfulness , at least with steadfast purpose .