midnight
A man , whose wide , lean frame was but ill-covered by a threadbare coat and ragged breeches , and with soleless shoes on his feet , was told off to direct the citoyen to citizen Heron 's rooms . The man walked slowly along with bent knees and arched spine , and shuffled his feet as he walked ; the bunch of keys which he carried rattled ominously in his long , grimy hands ; the passages were badly lighted , and he also carried a lanthorn to guide himself on the way . Closely followed by de Batz , he soon turned into the central corridor , which is open to the sky above , and was spectrally alight now with flag-stones and walls gleaming beneath the silvery sheen of the moon , and throwing back the fantastic elongated shadows of the two men as they walked . On the left , heavily barred windows gave on the corridor , as did here and there the massive oaken doors , with their gigantic hinges and bolts , on the steps of which squatted groups of soldiers wrapped in their cloaks , with wild , suspicious eyes beneath their capotes , peering at the midnight visitor as he passed . There was no thought of silence here . The very walls seemed alive with sounds , groans and tears , loud wails and murmured prayers ; they exuded from the stones and trembled on the frost-laden air . Occasionally at one of the windows a pair of white hands would appear , grasping the heavy iron bar , trying to shake it in its socket , and mayhap , above the hands , the dim vision of a haggard face , a man 's or a woman 's , trying to get a glimpse of the outside world , a final look at the sky , before the last journey to the place of death to-morrow .