nearly three o'clock in the morning
From place to place he wandered , feeling no fatigue , but only a burning fever in his head and an icy chill in his heart . Sometimes he would walk up and down some broad square twenty or thirty times ; then again he followed a long thoroughfare throughout its whole length , and retraced his steps without seeing that he passed twice through the same street . At last he found himself in a great crowd of people . Had he realised that it was nearly three o'clock in the morning the presence of such a concourse would have astonished him . But if he was not actually ill and out of his mind , he was at all events in such a confused state that he did not even ask himself what was the meaning of the demonstration . The tramp of marching troops recalled the thought of Gouache , and suddenly he understood what was happening . The soldiers were leaving Rome to attack the Garibaldians , and he was near one of the gates .