three o'clock
in the morning
It was Jean Stein , who was hurrying as fast as his beast could carry him from Durbellière to M. Larochejaquelin ; but instead of explaining now what was the purport of his errand , we will return to Clisson , and see how Westerman finished there the task he had undertaken . When he found himself foiled at the gate , he returned as quickly as possible to the house . His men had already ransacked every room , and in their anxiety to find the more distinguished inhabitants of the château , allowed the domestics to escape ; but few of them had been in bed , and even they were overlooked in the anxiety of the troopers to find M. de Lescure . They did not dream that any warning could have been given to the château , nor could they conceive it possible that at three o'clock in the morning the royalists should have been up , and ready for instant flight . It was not till nearly five that they satisfied themselves that neither de Lescure nor his wife , nor any of his family were in the house ; and then , at the command of their General , they commenced the work of destruction . The troopers got hay and straw from the farm-yard -LRB- not without some opposition from the loose bull , -RRB- and piled them in every room in the château ; they then took the furniture , beds , curtains , wearing apparel , and every article of value they could find , and placed them in heaps , in such a way as to render them an immediate prey to the flames . They did the same to the barns and granaries , in which there were large stores of corn , and also to the stables , in which stood the horses and cattle ; the bull , which François had loosened , was the only animal about the place that did not perish .