midnight
Their horses flew on like wind ; and the country through which they rode presented to their speed no other obstacle than an occasional hedge , or a short cut through the thicknesses of some leafless beechwood . The stars lent them a merry light , and the spirits of two of them at least were fully in sympathy with the exhilaration of the pace and the air . Perhaps , in the third , a certain presentiment that the present adventure would end less merrily than it had begun , conspired , with other causes of gloom , to check that exaltation of the blood which generally follows a successful exploit . The path which the robbers took wound by the sides of long woods or across large tracts of uncultivated land ; nor did they encounter anything living by the road , save now and then a solitary owl , wheeling its gray body around the skirts of the bare woods , or occasionally troops of conies , pursuing their sports and enjoying their midnight food in the fields . `` Heavens ! '' cried the tall robber , whose incognito we need no longer preserve , and who , as our readers are doubtless aware , answered to the name of Pepper , -- `` heavens ! '' cried he , looking upward at the starry skies in a sort of ecstasy , `` what a jolly life this is !