about three hours after noon
Said Arthur : We heed not the peril if there be aught to be done ; wherefore let us be stirring straightway . And so said they all . Wherefore they gat to horse , and rode up to the very head of the valley , and the weather was now calm and bright . But the sergeant brought them to the pass whereof the stranger knight had spoken to Birdalone , which led into the Red Knight 's country , and without more ado they entered it when it was now about three hours after noon . But the way was both steep and rough , so that they had much toil , and went not very far ere night fell upon them , and the moon was not yet up . So when they had stumbled on another two hours , and their horses were much spent and they themselves not a little weary , they laid them down to sleep , after they had eaten such meat as they had with them , in a place where was a little grass for the horses to bite ; for all the road hitherto had been mere grim stones and big rocks , walled on either side by stony screes , above which rose steep and beetling crags . In the dawn they arose again , and made no ado till they were in the saddle , and rode till they came to the crest of the pass , and came out thence after a while on to the swelling flank of a huge mountain -LRB- as it might be the side of the mountain of Plinlimmon in Wales -RRB- , which was grassed and nought craggy , but utterly treeless .