midnight
The jargon of the godly fell smoothly from his tongue , and with its aid and that of certain secret letters he had found his way to the heart of the sectaries . He had sat through weary sermons in Cameronian sheilings , and been present at the childish parades of the Hebronite remnant . There was nothing to be feared in that quarter , for to them all in authority were idolaters and George no worse than James . In those moorland sojournings , too , he had got light on other matters , for he had the numbers of Kenmure 's levies in his head , had visited my lord Stair at his grim Galloway castle , and had had a long midnight colloquy with Roxburghe on Tweedside . He had a pretty tale for his master , once he could get to him . But with Northumberland up and the Highlanders at Jedburgh and Kenmure coming from the west , it had been a ticklish business to cross the Border . Yet by cunning and a good horse it had been accomplished , and he found himself in Cumberland with the road open southward to the safe Lowther country .