midnight
There , his tiresome papers once written , he had two or three hours of leisure , which he employed in reading and taking notes from the volumes borrowed by him every morning at a reading-room on the Rue Rorer-Collard ; for he had already learned that one leaves college almost ignorant , having , at best , only learned how to study . He left the office at nightfall and reached his room through the Boulevard des Invalides , and Montparnasse , which at this time was still planted with venerable elms ; sometimes the lamplighter would be ahead of him , making the large gas-jets shoot out under the leafless old trees . This walk , that Amedee imposed upon himself for health 's sake , would bring him , about six o'clock , a workman 's appetite for his dinner , -- in the little creamery situated in front of Val-de-Grace , where he had formed the habit of going . Then he would return to his garret , and relight his stove and lamp , and work until midnight . This ardent , continuous effort , this will-tension kept in his mind the warmth , animation , and excitement indispensable for poetical production . His mind expanded rapidly , ready to receive the germs that were blown to him by the mysterious winds of inspiration . At times he was astonished to see his pen fill the sheet so rapidly that he would stop , filled with pride at having thus reduced to obedience words and rhythms , and would ask himself what supernatural power had permitted him to arm these divine wild birds .