four o'clock
By this time it was nearly midnight , and my people were dropping with fatigue . Nevertheless , a sense of the desperate nature of the case animating them , they formed themselves voluntarily into a kind of council , all feeling their probity attacked ; in which various modes of forcing the secret from those who held it were proposed -- Maignan 's suggestions being especially violent . Doubting , however , whether Madame had more than one confidante , I secretly made up my mind to a course which none dared to suggest ; and then dismissing all to bed , kept only Maignan to lie in my chamber , that if any points occurred to me in the night I might question him on them . At four o'clock I called him , and bade him go out quietly and saddle two horses . This done , I slipped out myself without arousing anyone , and mounting at the stables , took the Orleans road through the forest . My plan was to strike at the head , and surprising Madame de Verneuil while the event ; still hung uncertain , to wrest the secret from her by trick or threat . The enterprise was desperate , for I knew the stubbornness and arrogance of the woman , and the inveterate enmity which she entertained towards me , more particularly since the King 's marriage .