night, about
ten o’clock
`` That will injure the sale of Les Aigues , '' said Gaubertin to the company generally , `` I know very well that I would not buy the place . The peasantry over there are such a bad set of people ; even in the days of Mademoiselle Laguerre I had trouble with them , and God knows she let them do as they liked . '' At the end of the month of May the general still gave no sign that he intended to sell Les Aigues ; in fact , he was undecided . One night , about ten o'clock , he was returning from the forest through one of the six avenues that led to the pavilion of the Rendezvous . He dismissed the keeper who accompanied him , as he was then so near the chateau . At a turn of the road a man armed with a gun came from behind a bush . `` General , '' he said , `` this is the third time I have had you at the end of my barrel , and the third time that I give you your life . ''