four o'clock in the
afternoon
A line of rocks in the form of the top of a lance , and connecting themselves with the land by a narrow isthmus , stretch out there into the water , ending abruptly with a large peak-shaped breaker . Nothing is commoner in the architecture of the sea . In attempting to reach the plateau of the peaked rock from the shore , it was necessary to follow an inclined plane , the ascent of which was here and there somewhat steep . It was upon a plateau of this kind , towards four o'clock in the afternoon , that a man was standing , enveloped in a large military cape , and armed ; a fact easy to be perceived from certain straight and angular folds in his mantle . The summit on which this man was resting was a rather extensive platform , dotted with large masses of rock , like enormous paving-stones , leaving between them narrow passages . This platform , on which a kind of thick , short grass grew here and there , came to an end on the sea side in an open space , leading to a perpendicular escarpment . The escarpment , rising about sixty feet above the level of the sea , seemed cut down by the aid of a plumb-line .