four o'clock in the morning
Twice they stopped at inns at quiet villages , knocked up the sleeping hosts , and obtained hot wine for themselves and hot gruel for their horses . Their pace grew slower as the animals became thoroughly knocked up , and at last could not be urged beyond a walk . At the next village they stopped , and as they found that there was no possibility of obtaining fresh horses , they determined to push forward on foot . It was now four o'clock in the morning , and they had ridden over forty miles . Another guide was obtained , and they set forward . Although they had hurried to the utmost , it was ten o'clock in the morning before they came down upon a valley with a narrow stream which their guide told them fell into the sea , near Leuchars . They were , he said , now within two miles of the castle , the track from which to the sea ran down the valley .