midnight
In January news arrived that he was preparing scaling-ladders and training his men in the use of them . Still the days dragged by . The ice on the river began to break up and swirl past the ramparts on the tides . The end of April came , and with it a furious midnight storm , and out of the storm a feeble cry -- the voice of a half-dead Frenchman clinging to a floe of ice far out on the river . He was rescued , placed in a hammock , and carried up Mountain Street to the General 's quarters ; and Murray , roused from sleep at three o'clock in the morning , listened to his story . He was an artillery-sergeant of Levis 's army ; and that army , twelve thousand strong , was close to the gates of Quebec . The storm had fallen to a cold drizzle of rain when at dawn Murray 's troops issued from the St. Louis gate and dragged their guns out through the slush of the St. Foy road .