about four o'clock
In the wood across the valley the Prussians appeared to be receiving re-enforcements , for their fire gradually grew warmer . There was no one to be seen ; at most , the swiftly vanishing form now and then of a man changing his position . A villa , with green shutters , was occupied by their sharpshooters , who fired from the half-open windows of the _ rez-de-chaussee _ . It was about four o'clock , and the noise of the cannonade in the distance was diminishing , the guns were being silenced one by one ; and there they were , French and Prussians , in that out-of-the-way-corner whence they could not see the white flag floating over the citadel , still engaged in the work of mutual slaughter , as if their quarrel had been a personal one . Notwithstanding the armistice there were many such points where the battle continued to rage until it was too dark to see ; the rattle of musketry was heard in the faubourg of the Fond de Givonne and in the gardens of Petit-Pont long after it had ceased elsewhere . For a quarter of an hour the bullets flew thick and fast from one side of the valley to the other . Now and again someone who was so incautious as to expose himself went down with a ball in his head or chest .