midnight
`` There is mighty trouble in feeding fifty men . Besides , you may have to pass as a Royalist , and who can answer for the discretion of so many ? Besides , if we have to turn and double , there is no hiding fifty men . If you ride through the smallest village at midnight , the noise would wake the inhabitants ; and when the enemy came up , they would get news of your passage . `` I do not see that you can do better than take Eustace and Roger and myself . Henri will not be fit to ride for weeks , yet ; and although Jacques is recovering from the loss of his bridle arm , you settled that he was to go to Laville , where the countess would take him into her service . Jarnac lessened your force by half ; but I think that two will be as good as four , on a journey like this .