noon
`` We have timed our going just right , Star , '' she told the little mare as she made an early start the next morning . `` Lord Cornwallis will not reach Richmond until the last of the week , and the Marquis hath just passed on . I could not have chosen better . '' Filled anew with hope as the prospects seemed more and more favorable Peggy rode briskly toward Hanover Court House , for she planned to reach this place by noon . The road wound along the banks of the Pamunkey , under large tulip trees so big and handsome that she was lost in wonder at their magnificence . In this happy frame of mind she proceeded , marveling often at the fact that she seemed to be the only one on the road . It was the second day , and she had met no one nor had any one passed her . '