eleven o'clock
I heard him in silence , and when he had done I thanked him for his information . So ! This was the story that the crafty St. Auban had spread abroad to lull suspicion touching the real nature of their presence until their horses should be fit to undertake the return journey to Paris , or until he should have secured the person of M. de Canaples . Towards eleven o'clock , as the lights in the hostelry opposite were burning low , I descended , and made my way out into the now deserted street . The troopers had apparently seen fit -- or else been ordered -- to seek their beds , for the place had grown silent , and a servant was in the act of making fast the door for the night . The porte-cochère was half closed , and a man carrying a lantern was making fast the bolt , whistling aimlessly to himself . Through the half of the door that was yet open , I beheld a window from which the light fell upon a distant corner of the courtyard .