about seven
o'clock
Mary showed it by bidding me ask for news at every stopping-place . I asked gendarmes and _ Permissionnaires _ , but I learned nothing . Nobody had ever heard of the battle . The upshot was that for the last hour we all fell silent , and when we reached Paris about seven o'clock my first errand was to the bookstall . I bought a batch of evening papers , which we tried to read in the taxis that carried us to our hotel . Sure enough there was the announcement in big headlines . The enemy had attacked in great strength from south of Arras to the Oise ; but everywhere he had been repulsed and held in our battle-zone .