four o’clock
Then he began to lie , and told them flatly that he had promised nothing at all . The non-appearance of this legendary regiment , which the inhabitants longed for with such eagerness that they had actually dreamt of its arrival , was the chief cause of the panic . Well-informed people even named the exact spot on the high road where the soldiers had been butchered . At four o'clock Rougon , followed by Granoux , again repaired to the Valqueyras mansion . Small bands , on their way to join the insurgents at Orcheres , still passed along in the distance , through the valley of the Viorne . Throughout the day urchins climbed the ramparts , and bourgeois came to peep through the loopholes . These volunteer sentinels kept up the terror by counting the various bands , which were taken for so many strong battalions .