midnight
We feel the water on our flesh as if the deluge had washed our clothes away . We enter the open trench , and the embrace of night and storm resumes the sole possession of this confusion of corpses , stranded and cramped on a square of earth as on a raft . The wind freezes the drops of sweat on our foreheads . It is near midnight . For six hours now we have marched in the increasing burden of the mud . This is the time when the Paris theaters are constellated with electroliers and blossoming with lamps ; when they are filled with luxurious excitement , with the rustle of skirts , with merrymaking and warmth ; when a fragrant and radiant multitude , chatting , laughing , smiling , applauding , expanding , feels itself pleasantly affected by the cleverly graduated emotions which the comedy evokes , and lolls in contented enjoyment of the rich and splendid pageants of military glorification that crowd the stage of the music-hall . `` Are n't we there ?