eleven o'clock
Of the new town spread all around the monuments , the wealthy city which had sprung , as though by enchantment , from the ancient impoverished soil , the great convents and the great hotels , you could , at this distance , merely distinguish a swarming of white facades and a scintillation of new slates ; whilst , in confusion , far away , beyond the rocky mass on which the crumbling castle walls were profiled against the sky , appeared the humble roofs of the old town , a jumble of little time-worn roofs , pressing timorously against one another . And as a background to this vision of the life of yesterday and to-day , the little and the big Gers rose up beneath the splendour of the everlasting sun , and barred the horizon with their bare slopes , which the oblique rays were tingeing with streaks of pink and yellow . Doctor Chassaigne insisted on accompanying Pierre to the Hotel of the Apparitions , and only parted from him at its door , after reminding him of their appointment for the afternoon . It was not yet eleven o'clock . Pierre , whom fatigue had suddenly mastered , forced himself to eat before going to bed , for he realised that want of food was one of the chief causes of the weakness which had come over him . He fortunately found a vacant seat at the / table d'hote / , and made some kind of a / dejeuner / , half asleep all the time , and scarcely knowing what was served to him . Then he went up-stairs and flung himself on his bed , after taking care to tell the servant to awake him at three o'clock .