about three o'clock
But the miraculous loaves and fishes of the gospel would have been necessary to successfully alleviate even the distress which he saw with his own eyes , and although much of the preaching of the social democrats still seemed to him mere phrase-making and altogether mistaken , he yet came gradually to the conclusion that somewhere -- he did not precisely know where -- in the construction of the social machine there must be a flaw , seeing that there were so many people who could and would work , and yet were doomed to despair and ruin for lack of employment . The spring of 1878 came round , and brought with it two attempts on the life of the emperor within three weeks . Scarcely had the people recovered from the horror caused by Hodel 's crime when it was shaken to its depths by Nobiling 's murderous shot . On that terrible Sunday , June the 2d , Wilhelm had dined with Schrotter , and about three o'clock they started for a walk . In the few steps that separate the Mittelstrasse from the Linden they saw what was going on in the town . In Unter den Linden , however , they were received by the yells of the newspaper men calling out the first special editions , and found themselves in the stream of people pouring toward the Palace or to No. 18 , where they pointed out the window on the second floor from which the too-well-aimed shot had fallen . From the special editions , from the confused remarks and exclamations of the crowd in which the two friends found themselves , and the information they obtained from the grim-looking policemen , rougher and less communicative than ever , they learned all that was necessary of the bloody deed which had taken place an hour ago .