nine o’clock
With magical swiftness of movement , prompted by an intense desire , the dead woman was carried into the convent parlour , passed through the window , and lowered from the walls before the Abbess , followed by the nuns , returned to take up Sister Theresa 's body . The sister left in charge had imprudently left her post ; there were secrets that she longed to know ; and so busy was she ransacking the inner room , that she heard nothing , and was horrified when she came back to find that the body was gone . Before the women , in their blank amazement , could think of making a search , the Duchess had been lowered by a cord to the foot of the crags , and Montriveau 's companions had destroyed all traces of their work . By nine o'clock that morning there was not a sign to show that either staircase or wire-cables had ever existed , and Sister Theresa 's body had been taken on board . The brig came into the port to ship her crew , and sailed that day . Montriveau , down in the cabin , was left alone with Antoinette de Navarreins . For some hours it seemed as if her dead face was transfigured for him by that unearthly beauty which the calm of death gives to the body before it perishes .