three o'clock
Then Maïeddine moved away slowly and was lost to sight behind the barricade . As he disappeared , a candle which Victoria had placed near Nevill 's couch on the floor , flickered and dropped its wick in a pool of grease . There was only one other left , and the lamp had been forgotten in the kitchen : but already the early dawn was drinking the starlight . It was three o'clock , and soon it would be day . For some minutes there was no more firing . Stillness had fallen in the quadrangle . There was no sound except the faint moaning of some wounded animal that lived and suffered .