about six in the morning
The table was arranged , and then Monsieur Goulden took from a closet a bottle of his Metz wine , which he kept for great occasions , and we supped like old friends , rather than as master and apprentice ; all the evening he never stopped speaking of the merry days of his youth ; telling me how he once had a sweetheart , but that , in 1792 , he left home in the _ levée en masse _ at the time of the Prussian invasion , and that on his return to Fénétrange , he found her married -- a very natural thing , since he had never mustered courage enough to declare his love . However , this did not prevent his remaining faithful to the tender remembrance , and when he spoke of it he seemed sad indeed . I recounted all this in imagination to Catharine , and it was not until the stroke of ten , at the passage of the rounds , which relieved the sentries on post every twenty minutes on account of the great cold , that we put two good logs on the fire , and at length went to bed . The next day , the 18th of December , I arose about six in the morning . It was terribly cold ; my little window was covered with a sheet of frost . I had taken care the night before to lay out on the back of a chair my sky-blue coat , my trousers , my goat-skin vest , and my fine black silk cravat . Everything was ready ; my well-polished shoes lay at the foot of the bed ; I had only to dress myself ; but the cold I felt upon my face , the sight of those window-panes , and the deep silence without , made me shiver in anticipation .