five o'clock
Combette gave him a pair of easy shoes of his own that were comfortable to his feet , and as soon as he had them on he wanted to be off , hoping that he might yet be able to overtake the 106th somewhere on the road between Chene and Vouziers . The apothecary labored vainly to dissuade him , and had almost made up his mind to put his horse in the gig and drive him over in person , trusting to fortune to befriend him in finding the regiment , when Fernand , the apprentice , appeared , alleging as an excuse for his absence that he had been to see his sister . The youth was a tall , tallow-faced individual , who looked as if he had not the spirit of a mouse ; the horse was quickly hitched to the carriage and he drove off with Maurice . It was not yet five o'clock ; the rain was pouring in torrents from a sky of inky blackness , and the dim carriage-lamps faintly illuminated the road and cast little fitful gleams of light across the streaming fields on either side , over which came mysterious sounds that made them pull up from time to time in the belief that the army was at hand . Jean , meantime , down there before Vouziers , had not been slumbering . Maurice had explained to him how the retreat was to be salvation to them all , and he was keeping watch , holding his men together and waiting for the order to move , which might come at any minute . About two o'clock , in the intense darkness that was dotted here and there by the red glow of the watch-fires , a great trampling of horses resounded through the camp ; it was the advance-guard of cavalry moving off toward Balay and Quatre-Champs so as to observe the roads from Boult-aux-Bois and Croix-aux-Bois ; then an hour later the infantry and artillery also put themselves in motion , abandoning at last the positions of Chestre and Falaise that they had defended so persistently for two long days against an enemy who never showed himself .