two o'clock in the morning
I know nothing of the manners of the court , and if you think that tomorrow morning will be quite soon enough for us to deliver the despatches I am quite willing to fall in with your view . It is certainly a long ride , and as we marched hither we found that the roads were very bad , and certainly where the army has passed they are so cut up by the artillery and wagons that they are sure to be quite unfit for going at racing speed . Therefore I think that if we present ourselves at the palace early in the morning , we shall have done all that can be expected of us . '' It was indeed two o'clock in the morning when they arrived at the gates of Paris . Accustomed though they all were to horse exercise , the journey had been a very fatiguing one . Until night fell they had ridden briskly , talking as they went on the probable state of affairs in France and of the military operations that were likely to be undertaken as the result of the victory , but progress became slow after darkness set in . The roads were in many places detestably bad .