about eleven o'clock
The door used by the servants was at the side of the château , and consequently the readiest way from the public road to the servants ' door , was that by which Westerman had , at the last moment , determined to force an entrance into the château . He trotted up till he faced the garden-wall , and then turned short round to the house , and as he rode close up under the gable-end , he gave Sergeant Craucher directions to take three men and force the door ; but he and the sergeant soon saw that this trouble was spared them , for the door stood wide open before them . We will now go back to the inhabitants of the château . De Lescure and Henri had returned thither about eleven o'clock , and although their safe return , and account of the evening 's victorious engagement for a while quieted the anxious fears of Marie and Madame de Lescure , those ladies by no means felt inclined to rest quietly as though all danger were removed from their pillows . They were in a dreadful alarm at the nearness of the republicans ; they knew well that their ruthless enemies spared none that fell into their hands . I should belie these heroines if I said that they feared more for themselves than for those they loved so dearly , but they were not accustomed yet to the close vicinity of danger ; and when they learned that a battle had been lost and won that evening , within a mile or two , in the very next parish to that in which they lived , they looked at each other , and trembling asked what next was to be done . `` You must not leave us , Charles , you must not leave us again , '' said Madame de Lescure to her husband ; `` indeed you must not leave us here . ''