about midnight
`` I know it to be a falsehood , '' the latter retorted , with fiery quickness . `` Those people are his enemies . I have it on the word of an honest man and a Canadian . '' It so happened that about midnight Germain crossed the Seine by the Petit-Pont , a bridge not so public as the Pont-Neuf , and , regardless of the robberies always occurring , plunged among the crooked streets of the Latin Quarter . He had not walked far before a carriage , driving swiftly away from a small lane or passage , attracted his notice . At the bottom of the passage was a door having a lamp over it ; upon the lamp some letters and a device . He stopped and read -- `` MTRE .