six o'clock in the afternoon
`` But my own horses are tired . Send for four post-horses . A courier is immediately to set out for Potsdam , and see to it that relay horses be in readiness for me at Steglitz and Zehlendorf ! '' It was six o'clock in the afternoon . The gloomy January day had already yielded to a dark , cold night , enshrouding the city and vicinity of Potsdam . The king was , as usual , to go to Sans-Souci toward nightfall . There , far from the turmoil of the world , he liked to spend his mornings and evenings , retiring from intrusive eyes into the quiet of his simple domestic life .