noon
But Captain Nobbut would hear to no such reasonable proposal . On the contrary , he would hold me in arrest till he could report me and have instructions from his colonel . Knowing what a stake it was I rode for , you may imagine how this day in durance ate into me like a canker . With ordinary diligence the trooper who carried the news of me should have gone to Charlotte by way of Queensborough and returned by noon . But being of the same surly breed with his captain , 't was full three of the clock before he came ambling back with an order to set me forthwith upon the road to headquarters . Once free of the camp of detention you may be sure I put Blackstar to his best paces ; but hasten as I would it was coming on to evening when I passed the inner safety line and galloped down the high street of the town . As luck would have it , the first familiar face I saw was that of Charles Stedman , the commissary-general .