midnight
Each examined the priming , saw that his horn and pouch were accessible , and loosened his knife in its sheath . The corporal , moreover , fixed his `` baggonet , '' as he called the formidable , glittering instrument that usually embellished the end of his musket -- a MUSKET being the weapon he chose to carry , while the bee-hunter himself was armed with a long western RIFLE . The raptures of a conqueror 's mood Rushed burning through his frame ; The depths of that green solitude Its torrents could not tame , Though stillness lay , with eve 's last smile , Round those far fountains of the Nile -- MRS HEMANS . When the bee-hunter and Corporal Flint thus went forth in midnight , from the `` garrison '' of Castle Meal -LRB- Chateau au Miel -RRB- , as the latter would have expressed it , it was with no great apprehension of meeting any other than a four-footed enemy , notwithstanding the blast of the horn the worthy corporal supposed he had heard . The movements of the dog seemed to announce such a result rather than any other , for Hive was taken along as a sort of guide . Le Bourdon , however , did not permit his mastiff to run off wide , but , having the animal at perfect command , it was kept close to his own person . The two men first moved toward the grove of the Kitchen , much to Hive 's discontent .