one in the morning
The storm must have burst forth there ; the sky was now of an admirable nocturnal purity , as though cleansed by the masses of fallen water . Large stars shone out in the dark velvet , alone illumining , with their mysterious gleams , the silent , refreshed fields , which incessantly displayed only the black solitude of slumber . And across the Landes , through the valleys , between the hills , that carriage of wretchedness and suffering rolled on and on , over-heated , pestilential , rueful , and wailing , amidst the serenity of the august night , so lovely and so mild . They had passed Riscle at one in the morning . Between the jolting , the painful , the hallucinatory silence still continued . At two o'clock , as they reached Vic-de-Bigorre , low moans were heard ; the bad state of the line , with the unbearable spreading tendency of the train 's motion , was sorely shaking the patients . It was only at Tarbes , at half-past two , that silence was at length broken , and that morning prayers were said , though black night still reigned around them .