about ten o’clock
He therefore , as just intimated , begged the Kid to make the best of his way to Limestone Ridge , beside which his domicile stood . To this request the Kid willingly acceded , as it would afford him another opportunity of seeing Martha ; so , when evening was about to set in , he commenced his journey . Earlier in the day , the brave Captain O'Donohue , of the 18th , white out on a foraging party towards Chippewa , came up with some outposts of the enemy , who , noticing his dauntless bearing , and the steady , onward tramp of his handful of men , fled at his approach without firing a single shot . When passing out of the camp to the main road , the Kid learned that the whole force was to move off at about ten o'clock in the direction of Chippewa ; it being the intention of the commander , as previously observed , to get between the body of regulars about proceeding from that point , and that of the volunteers , to move forward , and form a junction with them , from Port Colborne ; intending to attack and defeat the one before the other came up . At this time O'Neill 's troops did not , as is confidently asserted , number as many as five hundred men ; while the force of the enemy surrounding him on every side , was estimated at an aggregate of some thousands . This he well knew , but he had invaded the territories of the ancient and implacable antagonist of his country and his name , and he was determined to make another Thermopylae of any pass in which he happened to meet the foe , no matter how overwhelming their numbers . This intelligence impressed the Kid with the idea that a battle might possibly take place somewhere in the vicinity of Stevensville or Ridgeway ; as he knew that the leader of the Irish Republican Army , or forlorn hope , as so small a body of men might be termed , would attempt to intercept a junction of the enemy somewhere near one or the other of these points , as both lay on the line between Chippewa and Port Colborne , taking the Sodom Road and the Grand Trunk Railway as the surest and speediest route between both these latter places .