about
midnight
The life and soul of those meetings was a well-known talented and charming writer : and I remember with great pleasure how he and I used to get upstairs to the upper story of the house , look out of the little garret window into the night , and see the enemy 's bivouac fires shining in the sky . We used to say to each other all sorts of wonderful things which the shimmer of those fires , combined with the moonlight , used to put into our heads , and then go down and tell our friends what we imagined we had seen . It is a fact that one night one of our number -LRB- an advocate -RRB- who was always the first to hear any news , and whose reports were always reliable -LRB- heaven knows whence he derived his information -RRB- , came in and told us the decision which had just been come to by the council of war concerning the expedition of Count von der Lobau , exactly as I have repeated it to you . It is likewise true that as I was going home about midnight , while the French battalions were falling-in in profound silence -LRB- no _ generale _ being beaten -RRB- and beginning their march over the bridge , I met ammunition waggons , so that I could have no doubt of the accuracy of his information . And lastly , it is the fact that , on the bridge , there was a grey old beggar lying , begging from the French troops as they crossed , whom I could not remember having seen in Dresden before . Last of all it is the fact , and the most wonderful of all , that when , much interested and excited , I reached my own quarters , on climbing up to the top story I _ did _ see a fire on the Meissner Hills , which was neither a watch fire nor a burning building . The sequel showed that the Russians must have known that night all about the attack intended to be made on the following morning , inasmuch as they concentrated troops which had been at a considerable distance upon the Meissner Hills , and it was principally Russian Landwehr which drove the French back as a storm sweeps a field of stubble .