ten in the morning
THE FORTY-FIVE GUARDSMEN On the 26th of October , 1585 , the barriers of the Porte St. Antoine were , contrary to custom , still closed at half-past ten in the morning . A quarter of an hour after , a guard of twenty Swiss , the favorite troops of Henri III. , then king , passed through these barriers , which were again closed behind them . Once through , they arranged themselves along the hedges , which , outside the barrier , bordered each side of the road . There was a great crowd collected there , for numbers of peasants and other people had been stopped at the gates on their way into Paris .