eight o’clock in the evening
Nevertheless , the advantage remained with Michael and his companions , which might be very important to them if the relay was poorly provided with horses . Two carriages were perhaps more than the postmaster could provide for , at least in a short space of time . Half an hour after the berlin was left far behind , looking only a speck on the horizon of the steppe . It was eight o'clock in the evening when the two carriages reached Ichim . The news was worse and worse with regard to the invasion . The town itself was menaced by the Tartar vanguard ; and two days before the authorities had been obliged to retreat to Tobolsk . There was not an officer nor a soldier left in Ichim .