nine
o'clock
It was not very long since his uncle , the governor-general at Rheims , had promulgated a particularly detestable and cold-blooded order , proclaiming martial law and decreeing the penalty of death to whomsoever should give aid and comfort to the enemy , whether by acting for them as a spy , by leading astray German troops that had been entrusted to their guidance , by destroying bridges and artillery , or by damaging the railroads and telegraph lines . The enemy meant the French , of course , and the citizens scowled and involuntarily doubled their fists as they read the great white placard nailed against the door of post headquarters which attributed to them as a crime their best and most sacred aspirations . It was so hard , too , to have to receive their intelligence of German victories through the cheering of the garrison ! Hardly a day passed over their heads that they were spared this bitter humiliation ; the soldiers would light great fires and sit around them , feasting and drinking all night long , while the townspeople , who were not allowed to be in the streets after nine o'clock , listened to the tumult from the depths of their darkened houses , crazed with suspense , wondering what new catastrophe had befallen . It was on one of these occasions , somewhere about the middle of October , that M. de Gartlauben for the first time proved himself to be possessed of some delicacy of feeling . Sedan had been jubilant all that day with renewed hopes , for there was a rumor that the army of the Loire , then marching to the relief of Paris , had gained a great victory ; but how many times before had the best of news been converted into tidings of disaster ! and sure enough , early in the evening it became known for certain that the Bavarians had taken Orleans .