midnight
There , about that table in this humble hostelry , were gathered four noblemen -- three of them the most powerful in all England -- who were arrayed against each other as leaders of the two factions that were playing for the highest stakes a mortal knows . Every one knew the relative positions of the others -LRB- for Rivers naturally judged Gloucester to be against the Woodvilles -RRB- ; that , within a few short days , the final move must be made ; and that all their gayety and jocosity were hollow , and assumed but as a mask . At that very moment , while they smiled and played at friendship , Rivers and Grey were consumed with anxiety at this sudden appearance of Buckingham , their arch-enemy , and were hating him and Richard with fierce intensity ; Buckingham was regarding them with all the fervid resentment the old Nobility had for this upstart family ; while Gloucester , with neither hatred nor resentment in his mind , but with the cool , calm judgment that ever rose above the pettiness of personal feeling , was viewing them only as pawns that hampered his game of statecraft and therefore must be swept from the board . It was near midnight when they quit the table and retired to their rooms above . Richard dismissed Catesby , who as Chamberlain was waiting for him , and drawing the rude chair to the many-paned window he opened it , and sat looking out upon the street below . Comparative quiet had settled over the town , broken now and then by a noise from the camp , or the shouts of some roistering soldiers far down the road . Around the inn there was only the tramp of the guards , the rattle of their arms , or the low word of greeting as they met .