midnight
Wolfe remained silent : indeed he scarcely heard his companion ; for a sullen indifference to all things around him had wrapped his spirit , -- that singular feeling , or rather absence from feeling , common to all men , when bound on some exciting action , upon which their minds are already and wholly bent ; which renders them utterly without thought , when the superficial would imagine they were the most full of it , and leads them to the threshold of that event which had before engrossed all their most waking and fervid contemplation with a blind and mechanical unconsciousness , resembling the influence of a dream . They arrived at the place they had selected for their station ; sometimes walking to and fro in order to escape observation , sometimes hiding behind the pillars of a neighbouring house , they awaited the coming of their victims . The time passed on ; the streets grew more and more empty ; and , at last , only the visitation of the watchman or the occasional steps of some homeward wanderer disturbed the solitude of their station . At last , just after midnight , two men were seen approaching towards them , linked arm in arm , and walking very slowly . `` Hist ! hist ! '' whispered Wolfe 's comrade , `` there they are at last ; is your pistol cocked ? ''