nearly midnight
By way of beginning , I summoned Maignan and put him through a severe examination . Later , I sent for the rest of my household -- such , I mean , as had accompanied me -- and ranging them against the walls of my chamber , took a flambeau in my hand and went the round of them , questioning each , and marking his air and aspect as he answered . But with no result ; so that after following some clues to no purpose , and suspecting several persons who cleared themselves on the spot , I became assured that the chain must be taken up at the other end , and the first link found among Madame de Verneuil 's following . By this time it was nearly midnight , and my people were dropping with fatigue . Nevertheless , a sense of the desperate nature of the case animating them , they formed themselves voluntarily into a kind of council , all feeling their probity attacked ; in which various modes of forcing the secret from those who held it were proposed -- Maignan 's suggestions being especially violent . Doubting , however , whether Madame had more than one confidante , I secretly made up my mind to a course which none dared to suggest ; and then dismissing all to bed , kept only Maignan to lie in my chamber , that if any points occurred to me in the night I might question him on them . At four o'clock I called him , and bade him go out quietly and saddle two horses .