four o’clock
`` Good-bye , '' said the aide-de-camp , `` I have scarcely time to get across that fatal river -- and I MUST ; I have a mother in France . What a night ! These poor wretches prefer to lie here in the snow ; half will allow themselves to perish in those flames rather than rise and move on . It is four o'clock , Philippe ! In two hours the Russians will begin to move . I assure you you will again see the Beresina choked with corpses . Philippe !