midnight
Going into the cave , he addressed a letter to Ilderim , and another to Simonides , giving notice of the news received , and of his purpose to go up immediately to Jerusalem . The letters he despatched by swift messengers . When night fell , and the stars of direction came out , he mounted , and with an Arab guide set out for the Jordan , intending to strike the track of the caravans between Rabbath-Ammon and Damascus . The guide was sure , and Aldebaran swift ; so by midnight the two were out of the lava fastness speeding southward . It was Ben-Hur 's purpose to turn aside at the break of day , and find a safe place in which to rest ; but the dawn overtook him while out in the Desert , and he kept on , the guide promising to bring him afterwhile to a vale shut in by great rocks , where there were a spring , some mulberry-trees , and herbage in plenty for the horses . As he rode thinking of the wondrous events so soon to happen , and of the changes they were to bring about in the affairs of men and nations , the guide , ever on the alert , called attention to an appearance of strangers behind them . Everywhere around the Desert stretched away in waves of sand , slowly yellowing in the growing light , and without any green thing visible .