two in the morning
The first road would certainly be taken by my kinsman and his escort : Mina 's camp lay above the second : but , a little way beyond , at Alsasua , a third road of about five leagues joins the two , and by this short cut I was certain of heading off our quarry . There was no call to hurry . If , as I judged likely , the party meant to sleep the night at Vittoria , I had almost twenty-four hours in hand . So we rode warily , on the look-out for French vedettes , and reaching Beasain a little before two in the morning took up a comfortable position on the hillside above the junction of the roads . At dawn we shifted into better shelter -- a shepherd 's hut , dilapidated and roofless -- and eked out a long day with tobacco and a greasy pack of cards . A few bullock carts passed along the road below us , the most of them bound westward , and perhaps half-a-dozen peasants on mule-back . At about four in the afternoon a French patrol trotted by .