midnight
`` How shall we rank thee upon glory 's page ? Thou more than soldier , and just less than sage . '' `` Grief fills the room up of my absent child ; Lies in his bed , walks up and down with me ; Remembers me of all his gracious parts . '' Near midnight , on March the ninth , the weary fugitives arrived at Gonzales . They had been detained by the deep mud in the bottom lands , and by the extreme exhaustion of the ladies , demanding some hours ' rest each day . The village was dark and quiet . Here and there the glimmer of a candle , now and then the call of a sentry , or the wail of a child broke the mysterious silence .