midnight
Both owls were willing . Then Akka bade the gentleman owl that he should go and seek the black rats who had gone off , and counsel them to hurry home immediately . The lady owl she sent to Flammea , the steeple-owl , who lived in Lund cathedral , with a commission which was so secret that Akka only dared to confide it to her in a whisper . It was getting on toward midnight when the gray rats after a diligent search succeeded in finding an open air-hole in the cellar . This was pretty high upon the wall ; but the rats got up on one another 's shoulders , and it was n't long before the most daring among them sat in the air-hole , ready to force its way into Glimminge castle , outside whose walls so many of its forebears had fallen . The gray rat sat still for a moment in the hole , and waited for an attack from within . The leader of the defenders was certainly away , but she assumed that the black rats who were still in the castle would n't surrender without a struggle .