midday
Then , turning impatiently upon the sergeant : -- `` Have you no carriage at hand ? '' he said , sharply ; `` or do you want to collect a crowd in the street ? '' The cab , however , which had been waiting a few doors lower down , drove up while he was speaking . The sergeant hurried him in ; the half-dozen loiterers who had already gathered about us pressed eagerly forward ; two of the soldiers and the sergeant got inside ; Müller and I scrambled up beside the driver ; word was given `` to the Préfecture of Police ; '' and we drove rapidly away down the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis , through the arch of Louis Quatorze , out upon the bright noisy Boulevard , and on through thoroughfares as brilliant and crowded as at midday , towards the quays and the river . Arrived at the Quai des Ortëvres , we alighted at the Préfecture , and were conducted through a series of ante-rooms and corridors into the presence of the same bald-headed Chef de Bureau whom we had seen on each previous occasion . He looked up as we came in , pressed the spring of a small bell that stood upon his desk , and growled something in the ear of a clerk who answered the summons . `` Sergeant , '' he said , pompously , `` bring the prisoner under the gas-burner . ''