midnight
`` I shall lead you out this night to attack them ; take only your weapons . If we are defeated , we shall want nothing more ; if victorious , we shall return to our post and our munitions . '' He had lost scarcely two score of his men in the fight , protected as they were by the walls of the fortress , while the besiegers were entirely exposed to the fire of musketry , and the two small cannon they had brought with them , and so they entered into the daring plan of their commander with the utmost zeal . They were instructed as to the plan more fully , and at midnight , as the last rays of the moon sank below the horizon , they quietly filed forth from the fortress and turned towards the insurgents ' camp . Slowly and silently they stole across the plain , without note of drum or fife , and headed by their young commander , until they reached the brow of the little elevation , beyond which the enemy lay sleeping , some in tents , some on the open field , and all unguarded . The signal was given , and the small band of disciplined men fell upon the camp . Lorenzo Bezan with some fifty picked followers sought the head quarters of the camp , and having fought their way thither , possessed themselves of the standards , and made prisoner of the leader of the body of insurgents , and ere the morning sun had risen , the camp was deserted , the enemy , totally defeated , had fled , or been taken prisoners and bound , and the victorious little band of the queen 's troops were again housed within the walls of the fortress .