about ten
o'clock
Shortly afterwards he had gone from the village . Meanwhile , Bathsheba remained a voluntary prisoner in the attic . The door was kept locked , except during the entries and exits of Liddy , for whom a bed had been arranged in a small adjoining room . The light of Troy 's lantern in the churchyard was noticed about ten o'clock by the maid-servant , who casually glanced from the window in that direction whilst taking her supper , and she called Bathsheba 's attention to it . They looked curiously at the phenomenon for a time , until Liddy was sent to bed . Bathsheba did not sleep very heavily that night . When her attendant was unconscious and softly breathing in the next room , the mistress of the house was still looking out of the window at the faint gleam spreading from among the trees -- not in a steady shine , but blinking like a revolving coast-light , though this appearance failed to suggest to her that a person was passing and repassing in front of it .