about eleven o'clock
`` Do you fly , and leave me here , '' Jean said again . `` Hold your tongue ; you are silly ! '' When Jean was seated firmly in the saddle Maurice took the bridle and they made a start . It was somewhere about eleven o'clock , and he hoped to make the journey in three hours , even if they should be unable to proceed faster than a walk . A difficulty that he had not thought of until then , however , presented itself to his mind and for a moment filled him with consternation : how were they to cross the Meuse in order to get to the left bank ? The bridge at Mouzon would certainly be guarded . At last he remembered that there was a ferry lower down the stream , at Villers , and trusting to luck to befriend him , he shaped his course for that village , striking across the meadows and tilled fields of the right bank .