about ten o'clock
`` She has never been heard of since the day of her expulsion . '' The advice , however , was good , the judgment good enough ; but before it could be followed a stroke more telling than any Can Grande 's sword could have made was wrought by Madonna of the Peach-Tree . On the night of that same day Can Grande was sitting in the palace with two chosen companions , as dare-devil as himself , waiting the hour of an assignation . It was about ten o'clock : at half-past the hour they were to go out cloaked into the streets , bent upon the lifting of a decent burgess 's wife from her bed . Hence they were not in the castle , which is near San Zeno , but in the Della Scala Palace , in the very heart of the city . The two accomplices were Baldo Baldinanza , a grey villain , and young Francesco della Rocca Rossa . All three were armed with swords and daggers ; the cloaks lay with the masks on the table .