Four o'clock
Then she remembered : the fog must have rolled in from the near-by river and entered the room through the window . Without , the distant firing was growing fiercer . She leaped from her bed and ran to the casement to listen . Four o'clock was striking from a steeple in Sedan , and day was breaking , tingeing the purplish mists with a sickly , sinister light . It was impossible to discern objects ; even the college buildings , distant but a few yards , were undistinguishable . Where could the firing be , _ mon Dieu _ ! Her first thought was for her brother Maurice ; for the reports were so indistinct that they seemed to her to come from the north , above the city ; then , listening more attentively , her doubt became certainty ; the cannonading was there , before her , and she trembled for her husband .