about six o'clock
Marsham had indeed attempted to put through a number of minor reforms , but the effect on the temper of the district had been , in the end , little or nothing . The colliers , who had once fervently supported him , thought of him now , either as a fine gentleman profiting pecuniarily by the ill deeds of a tyrant , or as sheltering behind his mother 's skirts ; the Socialist Vicar of Beechcote thundered against him ; and for some time every meeting of his in the colliery villages was broken up . But in the more hopeful days of the last week , when the canvassing returns , together with Marsham 's astonishing energy and brilliant speaking , had revived the failing heart of the party , it was resolved to hold a final meeting , on the night before the poll , at Hartingfield-on-the-Wold , the largest of the mining villages . * * * * * Marsham left Dunscombe for Hartingfield about six o'clock on an August evening , driving the coach , with its superb team of horses , which had become by now so familiar an object in the division . He was to return in time to make the final speech in the concluding Liberal meeting of the campaign , which was to be held that night , with the help of some half-dozen other members of Parliament , in the Dunscombe Corn Exchange . A body of his supporters , gathered in the market-place , cheered him madly as the coach set off . Marsham stopped the horses for a minute outside the office of the local paper .