two o'clock in
the morning
Deeming the impending action no affair of his , as indeed it was not , and indifferent to the activity with which Bridgewater was that night agog , Mr. Blood closed his ears to the sounds of it , and went early to bed . He was peacefully asleep long before eleven o'clock , at which hour , as you know , Monmouth rode but with his rebel host along the Bristol Road , circuitously to avoid the marshland that lay directly between himself and the Royal Army . You also know that his numerical advantage -- possibly counter-balanced by the greater steadiness of the regular troops on the other side -- and the advantages he derived from falling by surprise upon an army that was more or less asleep , were all lost to him by blundering and bad leadership before ever he was at grips with Feversham . The armies came into collision in the neighbourhood of two o'clock in the morning . Mr. Blood slept undisturbed through the distant boom of cannon . Not until four o'clock , when the sun was rising to dispel the last wisps of mist over that stricken field of battle , did he awaken from his tranquil slumbers . He sat up in bed , rubbed the sleep from his eyes , and collected himself .