8 o'clock in the morning
Not a shot has been fired at random , and scarcely a house has been injured . They fire only at the forts and at the batteries on this side , and when they begin in earnest I have no doubt it will be the same . It would be a mere waste of shot to fire up there , and if the Versailles people were to do unnecessary damage it would bring them into odium throughout all France , for it would be said that they were worse than the Prussians . '' On the 25th of April , at 8 o'clock in the morning , the long silence of the besiegers ' batteries ended . Cuthbert was taking his coffee when he heard a sound like the rumble of a heavy wagon . He ran to his window . There was quiet in the street below , for everyone had stopped abruptly to listen to the roar , and from every window heads appeared .