twelve o'clock
at night
I heard them as plainly as I see you standing before me , '' said a peasant whom the gendarmes were questioning in the parlour of the inn which Rénine had entered . `` So did I , '' said the waiter . `` Three shots . It may have been twelve o'clock at night . The snow , which had been falling since nine , had stopped ... and the shots sounded across the fields , one after the other : bang , bang , bang . '' Five more peasants gave their evidence . The sergeant and his men had heard nothing , because the police-station backed on the fields .