midnight
`` If repentance has not yet begun , he is very near it . '' The bishop was soon after informed that the clergy would triumph on this occasion , and that the criminal would go to the scaffold with the most edifying religious sentiments . The prelate , with whom was the attorney-general , expressed a wish to see the rector . Monsieur Bonnet did not reach the palace before midnight . The Abbe Gabriel , who made many trips between the palace and the jail , judged it necessary to fetch the rector in the episcopal coach ; for the poor priest was in a state of exhaustion which almost deprived him of the use of his legs . The effect of his day , the prospect of the morrow , the sight of the secret struggle he had witnessed , and the full repentance which had at last overtaken his stubborn lamb when the great reckoning of eternity was brought home to him , -- all these things had combined to break down Monsieur Bonnet , whose nervous , electrical nature entered into the sufferings of others as though they were his own . Souls that resemble that noble soul espouse so ardently the impressions , miseries , passions , sufferings of those in whom they are interested , that they actually feel them , and in a horrible manner , too ; for they are able to measure their extent , -- a knowledge which escapes others who are blinded by selfishness of heart or the paroxysm of grief .