midnight
Once he stopped to help a comrade with a bandaged jaw , who could not speak but clung to his arm for a time and then fell dead in the freezing mire ; and again he aided another , who groaned : `` Trent , c'est moi -- Philippe , '' until a sudden volley in the midst relieved him of his charge . An icy wind swept down from the heights , cutting the fog into shreds . For an instant , with an evil leer the sun peered through the naked woods of Vincennes , sank like a blood-clot in the battery smoke , lower , lower , into the blood-soaked plain . When midnight sounded from the belfry of St. Sulpice the gates of Paris were still choked with fragments of what had once been an army . They entered with the night , a sullen horde , spattered with slime , faint with hunger and exhaustion . There was little disorder at first , and the throng at the gates parted silently as the troops tramped along the freezing streets . Confusion came as the hours passed .