midnight
For some reason the police had been withdrawn . The hammering inside the shops puzzled them , but they still clung to the idea that all this clamor was only a ruse to frighten them into surrendering . From the interior the pounding gradually approached as far as the walls of the courtyard . At midnight one of these walls went thundering to the ground . A few minutes later another fell . The strikers grouped together , dismayed . `` By God , boys , '' one of them yelled , `` he 's tearing it down ! ''