midnight
Through this well-meant blunder of an understrapper those on board the launch had received warning that we were on their track . I telegraphed to the lock-keeper at Denouval to allow no craft to pass toward Paris until further orders . We thus held the launch in a thirteen-mile stretch of water , but the night was pitch dark , and passengers might be landed on either bank with all France before them , over which to effect their escape in any direction . It was midnight when I reached the lock at Meulan , and , as was to be expected , nothing had been seen or heard of the launch . It gave me some satisfaction to telegraph to that dunderhead at Denouval to walk along the river bank to Meulan , and report if he learnt the launch 's whereabouts . We took up our quarters in the lodgekeeper 's house and waited . There was little sense in sending men to scour the country at this time of night , for the pursued were on the alert , and very unlikely to allow themselves to be caught if they had gone ashore .