one
o'clock in the morning
The officer in command of them told the innkeeper that , in consequence of the tumult before his doors , in which , as he heard , some of those lodging there had been concerned , he had orders to post his men round the house , and to allow no one to enter or leave under any pretence whatever until the cardinal himself had examined into the affair . These orders were delivered in a loud voice before the servants of the inn , but the officer privately assured the innkeeper afterwards that he would be well paid for his loss of custom , and that it was probable that the guard would be removed in a day or two . Thus Beaufort 's emissaries were not able to obtain news of what was passing within , and did nothing until past noon , when it occurred to them that the cardinal had taken this strange step of closing the inn in order to prevent its being known that Hector and his followers had left Paris . Men were at once sent off to the different gates of the city , and one of these returning with the news that the north gate had been opened at one o'clock in the morning and that six men bearing a pass from the cardinal had ridden out , a party of twenty horsemen started out in pursuit , while others were ordered to ride by all the different routes to Poitou , in case , as was likely enough , Hector had ridden to his castle . The fugitive , however , and his followers were all well mounted , and had fourteen hours ' start . They separated at Le Mans . Hector here wrote a long letter to the Baronne de Blenfoix , and a shorter one to MacIntosh .