midnight
See , they are all shaking hands with emphasis , as if ratifying some league . '' `` We must be on the alert , '' said Caroline , `` and perhaps we shall find a clue . '' Later , the rector came to them to mention that he would not sleep at home that night , and Shirley had better stay with Caroline -- arrangements which they could not but connect with a glimpse of martial scarlet they had observed on a distant moor earlier in the day , and the passage , by a quiet route , of six cavalry soldiers . So the girls sat up that night and watched , until , close upon midnight , they heard the tramp of hundreds of marching feet . The mob halted by the rectory for a muttered consultation , and then moved cautiously along towards the Hollow 's Mill . In vain did the two watchers try to cross to the mill by fenced fields and give the alarm . When they reached a point from which they could overlook the mill , the attack had already begun , and the yard-gates were being forced .