midnight
In short , she was just what we wanted , and , indeed , we could not have had a ship better suited to our purpose even though we had built her ourselves . Needless to say , we determined to cut her out from under the guns of the fort , and capture her , at any risk , that very night . During the day we got up our arms , loaded our pistols , sharpened up our swords and cutlasses , and got all ready for the night attack . We were in a fever of impatience to try our luck , and could hardly bring ourselves to wait until dark , still less until midnight , which we decided was the earliest hour at which we could make an attempt . So great was our excitement and impatience that we strove to allay them by drinking raw spirits continually ; and by night we were mad with drink , the only effect of which was to turn us into a gang of demons who would stop at nothing . It was perhaps due to the drink -- though we did not know it -- that we actually took the vessel after all ; for we encountered a most stubborn resistance ; and had there been any people in the fort , they would certainly have opened fire upon us , and we should have been killed to a man . Luckily , as it happened , for us , there was a carnival in progress in the town that night , and nearly every man in the place was attending it .