twelve o'clock
There were circumstances which led some to suppose that a stranger had been received into the cottage on this awful night , and had shared the catastrophe of all its inmates ; others denied that there were sufficient grounds for such a conjecture . Woe for the high-souled youth with his dream of earthly immortality ! His name and person utterly unknown , his history , his way of life , his plans , a mystery never to be solved , his death and his existence equally a doubt , -- whose was the agony of that death-moment ? Last night , between eleven and twelve o'clock , when the Old Year was leaving her final footprints on the borders of Time 's empire , she found herself in possession of a few spare moments , and sat down -- of all places in the world -- on the steps of our new city-hall . The wintry moonlight showed that she looked weary of body and sad of heart , like many another wayfarer of earth . Her garments , having been exposed to much foul weather and rough usage , were in very ill condition , and , as the hurry of her journey had never before allowed her to take an instant 's rest , her shoes were so worn as to be scarcely worth the mending . But after trudging only a little distance farther this poor Old Year was destined to enjoy a long , long sleep .