six o'clock
From inquiries that she made , she learnt at once that Marat was ill , and confined to his house . This rendered necessary a change of plans , and the relinquishing of her project of affording him a spectacular death in the crowded hall of the Convention . The next day , which was Friday , she devoted to furthering the business of her friend the nun . On Saturday morning she rose early , and by six o'clock she was walking in the cool gardens of the Palais Royal , considering with that almost unnatural calm of hers the ways and means of accomplishing her purpose in the unexpected conditions that she found . Towards eight o'clock , when Paris was awakening to the business of the day and taking down its shutters , she entered a cutler 's shop in the Palais Royal , and bought for two francs a stout kitchen knife in a shagreen case . She then returned to her hotel to breakfast , and afterwards , dressed in her brown travelling-gown and conical hat , she went forth again , and , hailing a hackney carriage , drove to Marat 's house in the Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine . But admittance to that squalid dwelling was denied her .