about one o'clock in the morning
An order was promulgated that there was to be no sleeping . The grand-guards were out nearly a mile to the front , and a chain of sentinels at frequent intervals extended down to the Aisne . The officers were seated in little groups about the camp-fires , and beside a low wall at the left of the road the fitful blaze occasionally flared up and rescued from the darkness the gold embroideries and bedizened uniforms of the Commander-in-Chief and his staff , flitting to and fro like phantoms , watching the road and listening for the tramp of horses in the mortal anxiety they were in as to the fate of the third division . It was about one o'clock in the morning when it came Maurice 's turn to take his post as sentry at the edge of an orchard of plum-trees , between the road and the river . The night was black as ink , and as soon as his comrades left him and he found himself alone in the deep silence of the sleeping fields he was conscious of a sensation of fear creeping over him , a feeling of abject terror such as he had never known before and which he trembled with rage and shame at his inability to conquer . He turned his head to cheer himself by a sight of the camp-fires , but they were hidden from him by a wood ; there was naught behind him but an unfathomable sea of blackness ; all that he could discern was a few distant lights still dimly burning in Vouziers , where the inhabitants , doubtless forewarned and trembling at the thought of the impending combat , were keeping anxious vigil . His terror was increased , if that were possible , on bringing his piece to his shoulder to find that he could not even distinguish the sights on it .