midnight
Forestier was choking , and every time he tried to draw breath the cough seemed to rend his chest . Nothing would soothe or check it . He had to be borne from the carriage to his room , and Duroy , who supported his legs , felt the jerking of his feet at each convulsion of his lungs . The warmth of the bed did not check the attack , which lasted till midnight , when , at length , narcotics lulled its deadly spasm . The sick man remained till morning sitting up in his bed , with his eyes open . The first words he uttered were to ask for the barber , for he insisted on being shaved every morning . He got up for this operation , but had to be helped back into bed at once , and his breathing grew so short , so hard , and so difficult , that Madame Forestier , in alarm , had Duroy , who had just turned in , roused up again in order to beg him to go for the doctor .