midnight
`` Now joining Cardillac 's house in the Rue Nicaise there is a high wall , with niches and old stone figures in them , now half crumbled away . One night I was standing close beside one of these stone images and looking up at those windows of the house which looked out upon the court enclosed by the wall . All at once I observed a light in Cardillac 's workshop . It was midnight ; Cardillac never used to be awake at that hour ; he was always in the habit of going to rest on the stroke of nine . My heart beat in uncertain trepidation ; I began to think something might have happened which would perhaps pave the way for me to go back into the house once more . But soon the light vanished again . I squeezed myself into the niche close to the stone figure ; but I started back in dismay on feeling a pressure against me , as if the image had become instinct with life .