ten o’clock
This is what I will do ; I will stay here till to-morrow and _ be blind _ ; but beware of the agent ; that cursed Provencal is the devil 's own valet ; he has the ear of Fouche just as I have that of the First Consul . '' `` If the Messieurs Simeuse are here , '' said the abbe , `` I would give ten pints of my blood and my right arm to save them ; but if Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne is in the secret she has not -- and this I swear on my eternal salvation -- betrayed it in any way , neither has she done me the honor to consult me . I am now very glad of her discretion , if discretion there be . We played cards last night as usual , at boston , in almost complete silence , until half-past ten o'clock , and we neither saw nor heard anything . Not a child can pass through this solitary valley without the whole community knowing it , and for the last two weeks no one has come from other places . Now the d'Hauteserre and the Simeuse brothers would make a party of four . Old d'Hauteserre and his wife have submitted to the present government , and they have made all imaginable efforts to persuade their sons to return to France ; they wrote to them again yesterday .