three o'clock in the
morning
`` We started off much more briskly , as if we had been having a drink of wine , and I even heard a few jokes . A woman is quite enough to electrify Frenchmen , you see . The soldiers , who were reanimated and warm , had almost reformed their ranks , and an old franc-tireur -LSB- 2 -RSB- who was following the litter , waiting for his turn to replace the first of his comrades who might give in , said to one of his neighbors , loud enough for me to hear : '' ` I am not a young man , now ; but by Jove , there is nothing like a woman to make you feel queer from head to foot ! ' `` We went on , almost without stopping , until three o'clock in the morning , when suddenly our scouts fell back again . Soon the whole detachment showed nothing but a vague shadow on the ground , as the men lay on the snow , and I gave my orders in a low voice , and heard the harsh , metallic sound of the cocking of rifles . There , in the middle of the plain , some strange object was moving about . It might have been taken for some enormous animal running about , which uncoiled itself like a serpent , or came together into a coil , then suddenly went quickly to the right or left , stopped , and then went on again .