nine o'clock
General de Wimpffen has set out again for the German headquarters to sign the capitulation . '' Ah , how much those words meant to him , what comfort there was in them , what relief ! his horrid nightmare dispelled , his property saved from destruction , his daily life to be resumed , under changed conditions , it is true , but still it was to go on , it was not to cease ! It was little Rose who had told him of the occurrences of the morning at the Sous-Prefecture ; the girl had come hastening through the streets , now somewhat less choked than they had been , to obtain a supply of bread from an aunt of hers who kept a baker 's shop in the quarter ; it was striking nine o'clock . As early as eight General de Wimpffen had convened another council of war , consisting of more than thirty generals , to whom he related the results that had been reached so far , the hard conditions imposed by the victorious foe , and his own fruitless efforts to secure a mitigation of them . His emotion was such that his hands shook like a leaf , his eyes were suffused with tears . He was still addressing the assemblage when a colonel of the German staff presented himself , on behalf of General von Moltke , to remind them that , unless a decision were arrived at by ten o'clock , their guns would open fire on the city of Sedan .