hour after midnight
`` Excellent , my Lord , most excellent , '' replied the Captain , gleefully rubbing his huge hands one over the other . `` But it is not entirely to fight that we go . You are to act as convoy to those who carry bread to Castle Bernstein . We shall leave here at the darkest hour after midnight and you must return before daybreak so that the Archbishop can not estimate our numbers . Then get out all the old armour there is in the castle and masquerade the peasants in it . Arrange them along the battlements so that they will appear as numerous as possible while I stay in Castle Bernstein and make terms with the Archbishop , for it seems he out-mans us , so we must resort , in some measure , to strategy . On the night assault let each man yell as if he were ten and lay about him mightily .