nine o’clock
The carriage rolled across the Place Louis XV and out on to the Cours la Reine at last . Along that beautiful , tree-bordered avenue between the Champs Elysees and the Seine , almost empty at this hour of the day , they made better speed , leaving now a cloud of dust behind them . But fast to danger-point as was the speed , to the women in that carriage it was too slow . As they reached the barrier at the end of the Cours , nine o'clock was striking in the city behind them , and every stroke of it seemed to sound a note of doom . Yet here at the barrier the regulations compelled a momentary halt . Aline enquired of the sergeant-in-charge how long it was since a cabriolet such as she described had gone that way . She was answered that some twenty minutes ago a vehicle had passed the barrier containing the deputy M. le Chapelier and the Paladin of the Third Estate , M. Moreau .