Midnight
The men were brought into the house by turns , and had some refreshment , leaving a sufficient guard on the horses , which was changed from time to time . Thus Cromwell waited with no little uncertainty , often casting an anxious eye upon Colonel Everard , who , he suspected , could , if he chose it , well supply the place of his absent confidant . Everard endured this calmly , with unaltered countenance , and brow neither ruffled nor dejected . Midnight at length tolled , and it became necessary to take some decisive step . Tomkins might have been treacherous ; or , a suspicion which approached more near to the reality , his intrigue might have been discovered , and he himself murdered or kidnapped by the vengeful royalists . In a word , if any use was to be made of the chance which fortune afforded of securing the most formidable claimant of the supreme power , which he already aimed at , no farther time was to be lost . He at length gave orders to Pearson to get the men under arms ; he directed him concerning the mode of forming them , and that they should march with the utmost possible silence ; or as it was given out in the orders , `` Even as Gideon marched in silence when he went down against the camp of the Midianites , with only Phurah his servant .