midnight
Raby led them with the same good success as his captain , though the marines with their muskets had some difficulty in getting up , and ran no little risk of falling over again ; but no casualty occurred . It was , however , a long business , thus getting up in a single file at so slow a pace , but at last the whole body were drawn up together . Captain Fleetwood , for greater convenience , separated them into two divisions , he leading the first , and Jack Raby , who was delighted with his own importance , acting at ; guide to the second . It wanted just half an hour to midnight when they were put in motion . He found the greatest difficulty in passing over the rough ground , and keeping the direct path near the cliff , without the risk of some of his followers slipping from the precipice to their left . He had , it must be remembered , gone over the same path several times in the day , and once on the night of his attempted escape , when he and his friends went to get the rope , and the arms , and provisions , or it would have been almost impossible for him to find the way . On the party went , silent as the dead , and though the sound of the marines ' heavy and regular tread might have been heard at a distance , had any one been on the watch for them , the footsteps of the blue-jackets , as they sprang from rock to rock , were light almost as those of Indian warriors on any similar exploit .