two o’clock to five
I took an interval in the middle of the day , when my patient 's condition was at its best , for the repose I needed . For the rest of the four-and-twenty hours , as long as his life was in danger , I never left his bedside . Towards sunset , as usual in such cases , the delirium incidental to the fever came on . It lasted more or less through the night ; and then intermitted , at that terrible time in the early morning -- from two o'clock to five -- when the vital energies even of the healthiest of us are at their lowest . It is then that Death gathers in his human harvest most abundantly . It was then that Death and I fought our fight over the bed , which should have the man who lay on it . I never hesitated in pursuing the treatment on which I had staked everything .