six o'clock
He started in the early morning as soon as Mass had been celebrated , and it was four in the afternoon before he had passed the gates of the town , and paid his respects to the Bishop . He rested in the Certosa , of which the superior was known to him ; the monks , like the Bishop , had heard nothing . So far as he could learn when he went into the streets no one in the place had heard anything of the project to alter the course of the river . He made the return journey by night , so as to reach his church by daybreak , and was there in his place by the high altar when the bell tolled at six o'clock , and the three or four old people , who never missed an office , were kneeling on the stones . He had walked over forty miles , and had eaten nothing except some bread and a piece of dried fish . But he always welcomed physical fatigue ; it served to send to sleep the restless intellect , the gnawing regrets , the bitter sense of wasted powers and of useless knowledge , which were his daily company . He had begged his friends , the friars , to obtain an interview with the Syndic of Sand Beda , and interrogate him on the subject .