ten o'clock
`` If you have the bad luck to be captured again , I shall know that your absence will be temporary and , if it became necessary to appoint anyone else to your command , it would only be until your return . '' On leaving the commander-in-chief 's quarters , the adjutant general asked Terence when he thought of rejoining his regiment . `` I am going to start at once , sir . I ordered my horse to be saddled and in readiness , at ten o'clock . '' `` You must not think of doing so , '' the adjutant said . `` The road is very bad , and not at all fit to be traversed on a dark night like this . Besides , you would really gain nothing by it .