ten o'clock in the
morning
They had with them , in the wagon , a map of Bellevue and Meudon upon a large scale , with every house marked upon it . `` It is going to be a dark night , '' the officer said , as they hurried away , `` and we shall have snow before midnight . '' Another hour or two was spent in purchasing various articles , taken from the French villas . Darkness had come on , and Ralph told the officers that he should not return until the next morning to Versailles ; and that if the articles to be entrusted to his care for delivery were put in rough cases -- of which there were plenty , which had come full of stores -- and brought by ten o'clock in the morning , carefully directed , it would be in sufficient time . `` Will you give us leave to sleep in one of the villas , upon the farther side of the road ? '' Ralph asked the officer in command . `` My boy has never seen a shot fired , in earnest ; and I should like him to be able to say he had watched the fire of the forts , round Paris . ''