midnight
`` When the time comes , mayhap the dear God will give me leave to die as my mother 's daughter should . '' `` Bah ! '' said he ; and with that he whistled for his troopers ; and while we looked , my dear lady and her tirewoman were helped upon their horses , and at the leader 's word of command the escort formed upon the captives as a center . A moment later the little glade , with the smoldering embers of the lodge fire to prick out its limits in dusky red , was empty , and on the midnight stillness of the forest the minishing hoofbeats of the horses came fainter and fainter till the distance swallowed them . Then it was that my poor lad , famine-mad and frenzied , rose up to curse me bitterly . `` Now may all the devils in hell drag you down to everlasting torments , John Ireton , for your cold-hearted caution that made us lose when we had good hope to win ! '' he cried .