about two in the morning
On a winter 's night , about two in the morning , the Comtesse Jeanne d'Herouville felt such violent pains that in spite of her inexperience , she was conscious of an approaching confinement ; and the instinct which makes us hope for ease in a change of posture induced her to sit up in her bed , either to study the nature of these new sufferings , or to reflect on her situation . She was a prey to cruel fears , -- caused less by the dread of a first lying-in , which terrifies most women , than by certain dangers which awaited her child . In order not to awaken her husband who was sleeping beside her , the poor woman moved with precautions which her intense terror made as minute as those of a prisoner endeavoring to escape . Though the pains became more and more severe , she ceased to feel them , so completely did she concentrate her own strength on the painful effort of resting her two moist hands on the pillow and so turning her suffering body from a posture in which she could find no ease .