About midnight
It must be confessed , too , that the haycart was to him only a haycart -- and not an ark ; and the sooner he was safely away from it the better he would be pleased . While La Tribe , lying snug and warm beside him , thanked God for a lot so different from that of such of his fellows as had escaped -- whom he pictured crouching in dank cellars , or on roof - trees exposed to the heat by day and the dews by night -- the young man grew more and more restive . Hunger pricked him , and the meanness of the part he had played moved him to action . About midnight , resisting the dissuasions of his companion , he would have sallied out in search of food if the passage of a turbulent crowd had not warned him that the work of murder was still proceeding . He curbed himself after that and lay until daylight . But , ill content with his own conduct , on fire when he thought of his betrothed , he was in no temper to bear hardship cheerfully or long ; and gradually there rose before his mind the picture of Madame St. Lo 's smiling face , and the fair hair which curled low on the white of her neck . He would , and he would not .