midnight
Thereupon the company burst out laughing , and animated by the wine and a wink from their master , they all commenced relating droll and quaint conceits , laughing , shouting , and making a great noise . Now , knowing not that an innocent scholar was there , these jokers , who had drowned their sense of shame in the wine-cups , said things to make the figures on the mantel shake , the walls and the ceilings blush ; and the duke surpassed them all , saying , that the lady who was in bed in the next room awaiting a gallant should be the empress of these warm imaginations , because she practised them every night . Upon this the flagons being empty , the duke pushed Raoul , who let himself be pushed willingly , into the room , and by this means the prince compelled the lady to deliberate by which dagger she would live or die . At midnight the Sire d'Hocquetonville came out gleefully , not without remorse at having been false to his good wife . Then the Duc d'Orleans led Madame d'Hocquetonville out by a garden door , so that she gained her residence before her husband arrived here . `` This , '' said she , in the prince 's ear , as she passed the postern , `` will cost us all dear . '' One year afterwards , in the old Rue du Temple , Raoul d'Hocquetonville , who had quitted the service of the Duke for that of Jehan of Burgundy , gave the king 's brother a blow on the head with a club , and killed him , as everyone knows .