midnight
before
A few extra horses were purchased by Peterborough during the day , and it was well for his aides de camp that it was so , for scarcely had they finished their meal than Peterborough ordered them again into the saddle . They were to ride by crossroads right and left to the villages where the different detachments had been ordered to halt , and to tell them the routes marked out for them by which they would again concentrate at midday , so as to ride in comparatively strong force through a small town on the main road , whence news might , not improbably , be sent on to Las Torres . After that they were again to disperse and pervade the country . Jack and Graham carried out these orders , taking guides from each village through which they passed to the next , and it was near midnight before they had finished their work . At four in the morning every detachment was in motion , and at noon the troop was again concentrated . Here the earl learned that a detachment of the enemy had remained behind at Alcala , and , instead of carrying out his previous plan , he rode straight with the whole of his dragoons to that town . When he approached it he divided his force into three bodies , which entered the place simultaneously by different gates , and the Spanish detachment , two hundred strong , at once laid down their arms .