about six o'clock
This could only be determined at the moment and the place . But it was certain that the abduction must be made that night , and not when , at break of day , the victim was led to her funeral pyre . Then no human intervention could save her . As soon as night fell , about six o'clock , they decided to make a reconnaissance around the pagoda . The cries of the fakirs were just ceasing . The Indians were in the act of plunging themselves into the drunkenness caused by liquid opium mingled with hemp , and it might be possible to slip between them to the temple itself . The Parsee , leading the others , noiselessly crept through the wood , and in ten minutes they found themselves on the banks of a small stream , whence , by the light of the rosin torches , they perceived a pyre of wood , on the top of which lay the embalmed body of the rajah , which was to be burned with his wife .