nine o'clock
The people were to be given swift , uncontrovertible proof that he had no hand in the unforeseen transactions of the anarchists , who , he would make it appear , had by curious coincidence elected to kill the Prince almost at the very hour when he planned to seize the city as a conqueror . His own connection with the operations of the mysterious Committee of Ten was never to be known to the world . He would see to that . At nine o'clock on Sunday morning a small group of people gathered in the square : a meeting was soon in progress . A goods-box stood over against the very spot on which Olga Platanova died . An old man began haranguing the constantly growing crowd , made up largely of those whose curiosity surpassed discreetness . In the group might have been seen every member of the Committee of Ten , besides a full representation of those who up to now had secretly affiliated with the Party of Equals .