About two o’clock
But towards the evening he became agitated and pronounced words so indistinctly that they remained a secret between God and himself . At midnight he fell into a kind of swoon , and nothing could be heard but the slight scratching of his finger nails on the sheet . He no longer knew me . About two o'clock the death rattle began . The hoarse and rapid breathing which came from his breast was loud enough to be heard far away in the village street , and my ears were so full of it that I fancied I heard it long after that unhappy day . At daybreak he made a sign with his hand which we could not understand , and sighed long and deeply . It was his last .