midnight
No one saw anything odd in the visit , nor in my being chosen to attend the King . But I knew ; and I was not surprised when we stopped at M. de Gourdon 's only to sup , and then getting to horse , rode through the night and the dusky oak woods , by walled farms and hamlets , and under rustling poplars -- rode many leagues , and forded many streams . The night was hot , it was the month of June ; and it thundered continually , but with no rain . At this point and that bands of men joined us , mysteriously , and in silence ; until from the hill with its bracken and walnut trees , we saw the lights of Cahors below us , and the glimmer of the winding Lot , and heard the bells of the city tolling midnight . By this time , every road adding to our numbers , we were a great company ; and how we lay hidden through the early night in the walnut grove that looks down on the river all men know ; but not the qualms and eagerness that by turns possessed me as I peered through the leaves at the distant lights , nor the prayer I said that I might not shame my race , nor how my heart beat when Henry , who was that day twenty-seven years old , gave the order to advance in the voice of one going to a ball . Two men with a petard -- then a strange invention -- led the way through the gloom , attended by ten picked soldiers . After them came fifty of the King 's guards , and the King with two hundred foot ; then the main body of a thousand .