midnight
`` When ? '' `` I was returning from France a few days afterwards , and , at Calais , the prisoner came on board the packet-ship in which I returned , and made the voyage with me . '' `` At what hour did he come on board ? '' `` At a little after midnight . '' `` In the dead of the night . Was he the only passenger who came on board at that untimely hour ? '' `` He happened to be the only one . ''