about ten o'clock
` General Darrington , when you lie down to die , may God have more mercy on your poor soul than you have shown to your suffering child . ' '' Witness advised him to go to bed , and sleep off the unpleasant recollections of the day , but he said it was so oppressively hot , he wanted to sit at the window , which was wide open . Witness having secured the deed , which was on the table in the room , bade his client good-night , and left the house . He was riding toward town , and thought it was about ten o'clock , when he saw the prisoner sitting under a pine tree near the road , and not more than a half a mile from the bridge over the `` Branch '' that runs at the foot of Elm Bluff . His horse had shied and plunged at sight of her , and , the moonlight being bright as day , witness easily recognized her as the same person he had seen earlier in the afternoon . Thinking her appearance there at that hour was rather mysterious , he asked her if she had lost her way ; to which she replied `` No , sir . '' On the following morning , when the mournful news of the murder of General Darrington had convulsed the entire community with grief and horror , witness had smothered his reluctance to proceed against a woman , and a solemn sense of duty forced him to bring these suspicious circumstances to the knowledge of the District Solicitor .