The sun during the day had melted the snow that had fallen in the morning, but light flakes were again beginning to come down fast.
"I don't care how hard it snows as long as it keeps on," Hector said in a low voice in answer to an exclamation from Paolo when the first flake fell upon his face.

"The harder the better, for in that case no sentry could see us half a dozen paces away.

There is another advantage.

The wind is from the north, and we have only to keep the driving snow on our right cheeks to make our way straight to the fortress, whereas with an overcast sky on such a dark night as this we should very soon lose all idea of the direction that we were going in." Being obliged to use great caution to avoid noise while getting over the walls, it took them half an hour to reach the end of the street.

They had, while waiting before commencing their operations, twisted one of their sashes, and then wound it round the hook so thickly that this would fall almost noiselessly upon the ground.