four o'clock
From a steeple in Sedan came the deep tones of a bell , slowly , mournfully , tolling the hour ; then all was blank and void . Weiss , in the obscurity of his little room at Bazeilles , was aroused by a commotion that caused him to leap from his bed . It was the roar of artillery . Groping about in the darkness he found and lit a candle to enable him to consult his watch : it was four o'clock , just beginning to be light . He adjusted his double eyeglass upon his nose and looked out into the main street of the village , the road that leads to Douzy , but it was filled with a thick cloud of something that resembled dust , which made it impossible to distinguish anything . He passed into the other room , the windows of which commanded a view of the Meuse and the intervening meadows , and saw that the cause of his obstructed vision was the morning mist arising from the river . In the distance , behind the veil of fog , the guns were barking more fiercely across the stream .