nearly noon
His comrades , too , even those most zealous in the cause , had one by one stolen away , affrighted at the approaching prospect of being outflanked . At last he was left alone , stretched at length between two sand bags , his every faculty bent on defending the front of the barricade , when the soldiers , who had made their way through the gardens in the middle of the block , emerged from a house in the Rue du Bac and pounced on him from the rear . For two whole days , in the fevered excitement of the supreme conflict , Maurice had not once thought of Jean , nor had Jean , since he entered Paris with his regiment , which had been assigned to Bruat 's division , for a single moment remembered Maurice . The day before his duties had kept him in the neighborhood of the Champ de Mars and the Esplanade of the Invalides , and on this day he had remained in the Place du Palais-Bourbon until nearly noon , when the troops were sent forward to clean out the barricades of the quartier , as far as the Rue des Saints-Peres . A feeling of deep exasperation against the rioters had gradually taken possession of him , usually so calm and self-contained , as it had of all his comrades , whose ardent wish it was to be allowed to go home and rest after so many months of fatigue . But of all the atrocities of the Commune that stirred his placid nature and made him forgetful even of his tenderest affections , there were none that angered him as did those conflagrations . What , burn houses , set fire to palaces , and simply because they had lost the battle !