nine o’clock in the evening
` Nearly as soon as I ? ' ``` Madame , ' replied the officer , ` we have been ready for the march these four hours . ' `` The officers followed the general into the drawing-room , and refreshments were distributed to the soldiers ; it was a company of grenadiers . `` At nine o'clock in the evening , a courier arrived , bearing dispatches to Bonaparte . At once he , his wife , and his brother , drove to Paris . The grenadiers were ordered to follow immediately and in silence . '' -LSB- Footnote : `` Memoires secretes , '' vol .