midnight
`` Can I see my mother and sister before I go ? '' `` They are waiting on the beach , '' Drummond answered . Thanking his liberators , he followed them from the jail to the beach . It was midnight , and the stars looked coldly down on the youth as he hurried from the prison . His proud spirit rebelled at flying from home . He had done no wrong and consequently had nothing to fly from ; but when his mother threw her arms about his neck and implored him to go , he assented . `` I shall appeal to the king , show him my wrong and obtain my right . ''