midnight
So once again Peggy and Sally gathered their belongings together for an early start to Trenton . All the day before the maidens were in a pleasurable state of excitement . Each realized that New Jersey was no longer a place for them , so they were glad to go ; still , there were regrets at parting from these people who had been so kind , and whom the vicissitudes of fortune might preclude them from ever seeing again . Full of this feeling , Peggy found herself the victim of a pleasing melancholy the night before they were to leave , and it was long past midnight ere she was able to sleep . How long she slept she did not know , but it seemed to her that she had just fallen into slumber when something caused her to open her eyes . For a few moments she lay in that strange debatable region between sleeping and waking when the mind can not distinguish between the real and the imaginary . All at once she sat up , fully awake , every sense strained and alert .