about three o’clock
If Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille had noted her mother 's face she might have seen what no one ever will see -- Death laughing . To enter into the interests that lay beneath this introduction to my tale , we must for a moment forget the actors in it , and look back at certain previous incidents , of which the last was closely concerned with the death of Madame Crochard . The two parts will then form a whole -- a story which , by a law peculiar to life in Paris , was made up of two distinct sets of actions . Towards the close of the month of November 1805 , a young barrister , aged about six-and-twenty , was going down the stairs of the hotel where the High Chancellor of the Empire resided , at about three o'clock one morning . Having reached the courtyard in full evening dress , under a keen frost , he could not help giving vent to an exclamation of dismay -- qualified , however , by the spirit which rarely deserts a Frenchman -- at seeing no hackney coach waiting outside the gates , and hearing no noises such as arise from the wooden shoes or harsh voices of the hackney-coachmen of Paris . The occasional pawing of the horses of the Chief Justice 's carriage -- the young man having left him still playing _ bouillote _ with Cambaceres -- alone rang out in the paved court , which was scarcely lighted by the carriage lamps . Suddenly the young lawyer felt a friendly hand on his shoulder , and turning round , found himself face to face with the Judge , to whom he bowed .