midnight
If it please my lord that I ride thus to escape eyes that else might see further than thine , keen as they are , master Eccles , it is nothing to thee . ' The lock clanged , the gate swung open , and Richard rode through . By this time a process of doubt and reasoning , rapid as only thought can be , had produced in the mind of Dorothy the conviction that there was something wrong . By what authority was Richard riding from Raglan with muffled hoofs between midnight and morning ? His speech to the marquis was plainly a pretence , and doubtless that to Eccles was equally false . To allow him to pass unchallenged would be treason against both her host and her king . ` Eccles !