about nine o’clock
Sometimes she struggled with her tears ; but when she was desired to plead , she collected her powers , and spoke in an audible although variable voice : -- `` God knows , '' she said , `` how entirely I am innocent . But I do not pretend that my protestations should acquit me : I rest my innocence on a plain and simple explanation of the facts which have been adduced against me ; and I hope the character I have always borne will incline my judges to a favourable interpretation , where any circumstance appears doubtful or suspicious . '' She then related that , by the permission of Elizabeth , she had passed the evening of the night on which the murder had been committed , at the house of an aunt at Chêne , a village situated at about a league from Geneva . On her return , at about nine o'clock , she met a man , who asked her if she had seen any thing of the child who was lost . She was alarmed by this account , and passed several hours in looking for him , when the gates of Geneva were shut , and she was forced to remain several hours of the night in a barn belonging to a cottage , being unwilling to call up the inhabitants , to whom she was well known . Unable to rest or sleep , she quitted her asylum early , that she might again endeavour to find my brother . If she had gone near the spot where his body lay , it was without her knowledge .