eight o'clock
The bolt , she knew , was on her side , and she could withdraw it ; but she did not do so ; seeming to take the impediment as though it were a sufficient bar against her entrance . Then she ran down the stairs rapidly , opened the front door , and found herself out in the night air . It was a cold windy night -- not so late , indeed , as to have made her feel that it was night , had she not come from the gloom of the dark parlour , and the glimmer of her one small lamp . It was now something beyond the middle of October , and at present it might be eight o'clock . She knew that there would be moonlight , and she looked up at the sky ; but the clouds were all dark , though she could see that they were moving along with the gusts of wind . It was very cold , and she drew her cloak closer about her as she stepped out into the archway . Up above her , almost close to her in the gloom of the night , there was the long colonnade of the palace , with the lights glimmering in the windows as they always glimmered .