four o'clock
in the morning
`` What a singular circumstance connected with this double execution it is that the day of mid-Lent should have been selected . At seven o'clock to-morrow , the hour fixed , the streets will be filled with groups of masqueraders , who , having passed the night at the different balls and places of entertainment beyond the barriers , will be just returning home ; added to which , at the place of execution , the Barrière St. Jacques , the noise of the revels still being kept up in honour of the carnival can be distinctly heard . '' * * * * * The following morning 's sun rose bright and cloudless . At four o'clock in the morning various troops of soldiers surrounded the approaches to Bicêtre . We shall now return to Calabash and her mother in their dungeon . The condemned cell of Bicêtre was situated at the end of a gloomy passage , into which a trifling portion of light and air was admitted by means of small gratings let into the lower part of the wall . The cell itself would have been wholly dark but for a kind of wicket , let into the upper part of the door , which opened into the corridor before mentioned .