midnight
Madame Madelinette ! '' were heard everywhere . Even the English soldiers cheered , and Madelinette sang a la Claire Fontaine , three verses in French and one in English , and the whole valley rang with the refrain sung at the topmost pitch by five thousand voices : `` I ' ya longtemps que je t ' aime , Jamais je ne t ' oublierai . '' The day of pleasure done and dusk settled on Pontiac and on the encampment of soldiers in the valley , a light still burned in the library at the Manor House long after midnight . Madelinette had gone to bed , but , excited by the events of the day , she could not sleep , and she went down to the library to read . But her mind wandered still , and she sat mechanically looking before her at a picture of the father of the late Seigneur , which was let into the moulding of the oak wall . As she looked abstractedly and yet with the intensity of the preoccupied mind , her eye became aware of a little piece of wood let into the moulding of the frame .