twenty-seven minutes past five
`` Never ? '' `` Well , that is the most extraordinary , the most astounding part of the story . Once a year , Charles d'Ernemont , impelled by a sort of subconscious will-power , came downstairs , took the exact road which his father had taken , walked across the garden and sat down either on the steps of the rotunda , which you see here , in the picture , or on the kerb of the well . At twenty-seven minutes past five , he rose and went indoors again ; and until his death , which occurred in 1820 , he never once failed to perform this incomprehensible pilgrimage . Well , the day on which this happened was invariably the 15th of April , the anniversary of the arrest . '' Maître Valandier was no longer smiling and himself seemed impressed by the amazing story which he was telling us . `` And , since Charles 's death ? ''