noon before
He had come in force , determined to prove to the rebels that they had a stronger man than Sir James Tillie to deal with , and he had failed even more ignominiously . He cursed the inhabitants of West Cornwall , and he cursed the fog ; but he was not a fool , and he wasted no time in a wild-goose chase over an unknown country where his men could not see twenty yards before them . Having saved what he could of the tents and trodden out the embers , he consulted with the young lieutenant now in command and came to two resolutions : to send to Pendennis Castle for a couple of light six-pounders , and , since these could not arrive until the morrow , to keep the defence well harassed during the remaining hours of daylight , not attempting a second assault in force , but holding his men in shelter and feeling around the position for a weak point . The day had passed noon before these new dispositions were planned . Posting ten men and a corporal to guard the charred remains of the camp , and two small bodies to patrol the road east and west of the house and to keep a portion of the defence busy in the courtlage , the lieutenant led the remainder of his force through an orchard divided from the south end of the house by a narrow lane , over which a barn abutted . Its high blank wall had been loopholed on both floors and was quite unassailable , but its roof was of thatch . And as he studied it , keeping his men in cover , a happy inspiration occurred to him .