four o’clock
`` However , we shall have enough of them before sunset . Get -- get up ; Monsieur le Duc de Dalmatie desires some information you can give him . '' As he said this , he led me from the room ; and descending the flight of stone steps , we entered the courtyard . It was but four o'clock , the rain , still falling in torrents , yet every one was up and stirring . `` Mount this horse , '' said my gruff friend , `` and come with me towards the left ; the marshal has already gone forward . '' The heavy mist of the morning , darkened by the lowering clouds which almost rested on the earth , prevented our seeing above a hundred yards before us ; but the hazy light of the watch-fires showed me extent of the French position , as it stretched away along the ridge towards the Halle road . We rode forward at a trot , but in the deep clayey soil we sank at each moment to our horses ' fetlocks .