noon
The chill mist which clung to the hillsides , and the atmosphere of doubt which overhung all , were a poor exchange for the roaring bonfires , the good cheer , the enthusiasm , the merriment of the previous evening . But the Irish peasant , if he be less staunch at the waiting -- even as he is more forward in the hand-to-hand than his Scottish cousins -- has the peasant 's gift of endurance ; and in the most trying hours -- in ignorance , in doubt , in danger -- has often held his ground in dependence on his betters , with a result pitiful in the reading . For too often the great have abandoned the little , the horse has borne off the rider , and the naked footman , surprised , surrounded , out-matched , and put to the sword , has paid for all . But on this day a time came , about high noon , when the assemblage -- and the fog -- began at last to melt . Sir Donny was gone , and old Tim Burke of Maamtrasna . They had slipped homewards , by little-known tracks across the peat hags ; and , shamefaced and fearful of the consequences , the spirit all gone out of them , had turned their minds to oaths and alibis . They had been in trouble before , and were taken to know ; and their departure sapped the O'Beirnes ' resolution , whose uneasy faces as they talked together spread the contagion .