ten o'clock
The rest shall stay here . '' And well was it , for one and all , that `` Old Pecksniff '' held firm to his decision . It was one of his lucid intervals . Late that evening , after ten o'clock , there came the sound of hoof-beats on the hard road and the crack of the long-lashed mule-whip , and the fort ambulance clattered up to Folsom 's gate , and the colonel himself , his adjutant by his side , came nervously up the gravel walk . Folsom met them at his door . Instinctively he felt that something new and startling was added to the catalogue of the day 's disastrous tidings . Pecksniff 's face was eloquent of gravest concern , mingled with irrepressible excitement .