midnight
`` Do n't take them to Troyes ; keep them in your guardhouse at Arcis , '' he said to the lieutenant ; `` they must be present to-morrow , at daybreak , when we compare the shoes of their horses with the hoof-prints in the park . '' Lechesneau and Pigoult did not follow until they had closely questioned Catherine , Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre , and Laurence . The Durieus , Catherine , and Marthe declared they had only seen their masters at breakfast-time ; Monsieur d'Hauteserre said he had seen them at three o'clock . When , at midnight , Laurence found herself alone with Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre , the abbe and his sister , and without the four young men who for the last eighteen months had been the life of the chateau and the love and joy of her own life , she fell into a gloomy silence which no one present dared to break . No affliction was ever deeper or more complete than hers . At last a deep sigh broke the stillness , and all eyes turned towards the sound . Marthe , forgotten in a corner , rose , exclaiming , `` Death !