midnight
`` As an Englishman , '' he said simply -- `` of course . But no less as your friend . '' `` And one man in his time plays many parts '' : few more than this same Lanyard . In no way to be identified with the hunted creature who crept into the British lines out of No Man 's Land was the Monsieur Duchemin who , ten days after that wintry midnight , took passage for New York from `` a British port , '' aboard the steamship _ Assyrian _ . André Duchemin was the name inscribed in the credentials furnished him in recognition of signal assistance rendered the British Secret Service in its task of scotching the Prussian spy system . And the personality he chose to assume suited well the name . A man of modest and amiable deportment , viewing the world with eyes intelligent and curious , his temper reacting from its ways in terms of grave humour , Monsieur Duchemin passed peaceably on his lawful occasions , took life as he found it , made the best of irksome circumstances .