peep of day

It is the pearl-blue peep of day.

Breakfast was over, and yet, between the lower edge of the sun and the gentle sweeping line of the hills above which he was rising, not more than two hand-breadths of golden sky could be seen; for our ancestors were still, at that period, a matutinal people, rising generally before the peep of day, and hearing the birds' first song.

But Gerard was to go at peep of day, and neither he nor Margaret could afford to lose an hour in sleep.

At peep of day Gerard rose, flung the feather bed upon his snoring companion, and went in search of milk and air.

He was within an ace of swooning, but recovered to a deep sense of disgust and discouragement, and settled to go back to Holland at peep of day: this resolution formed, he plucked up a little heart, and, being faint with hunger, asked one of the men of garlic whether this was not an inn after all?