midnight
The worst strain was past with their going , as it seemed to me , and the morning would tell what was to be . `` We will stay here , '' said Selred . `` There should be three thanes and myself , and you two and Erling will seem the right number when men look into this room presently . '' So again the silence of the midnight came down on us , and in the chill we waited for the return of Witred ; and it was two hours before he came . After him we closed the trapdoor , and the doors of the private rooms of the king who had gone , and then the Mercian planned that matter of the horses . `` Halfway to the forest , '' he told us , `` some of the thanes would fain have returned to fall on this place , and take revenge and die . Once I deemed that they would do so , but that fit passed from them .