seven in the evening
To those who knew how nearly it had come to fighting , and who considered the probable result , the future looked ominous . And fear was mingled with annoyance in the minds of the Anglo-Saxon colony . On the 24th , a public meeting appealed to the British and American consuls . At half-past seven in the evening guards were landed at the consulates . On the morrow they were each fortified with sand-bags ; and the subjects informed by proclamation that these asylums stood open to them on any alarm , and at any hour of the day or night . The social bond in Apia was dissolved . The consuls , like barons of old , dwelt each in his armed citadel .