five minutes past midnight
Not they . It was on paper that the assault should be at daybreak to-morrow . Such leaders as they were can not IMPROVISE . Rage and grief in his heart , Raynal waited chafing in the trenches till five minutes past midnight . He then became commander of the brigade , gave his orders , and took thirty men out to creep up to the wreck of the bastion , and find the late colonel 's body . Going for so pious a purpose , he was rewarded by an important discovery . The whole Prussian lines had been abandoned since sunset , and , mounting cautiously on the ramparts , Raynal saw the town too was evacuated , and lights and other indications on a rising ground behind it convinced him that the Prussians were in full retreat , probably to effect that junction with other forces which the assault he had recommended would have rendered impossible .