About midnight
`` As soon as the rooms began to fill , I entered the bedroom and examined the arrangements . The inner and outer shutters were closed ; this was a good beginning ; and as the waiting-maid might come to draw back the curtains that hung over the windows , I pulled them together . I was running great risks in venturing to manoeuvre beforehand in this way , but I had accepted the situation , and had deliberately reckoned with its dangers . `` About midnight I hid myself in the embrasure of the window . I tried to scramble on to a ledge of the wainscoting , hanging on by the fastening of the shutters with my back against the wall , in such a position that my feet could not be visible . When I had carefully considered my points of support , and the space between me and the curtains , I had become sufficiently acquainted with all the difficulties of my position to stay in it without fear of detection if undisturbed by cramp , coughs , or sneezings . To avoid useless fatigue , I remained standing until the critical moment , when I must hang suspended like a spider in its web .