the hour of five
A sweep of drenching rain brought the old man suddenly to his feet and stumbling into the market place . The alert little dog tumbled about him , barking ecstatically . The fever was gone and Auld Jock 's head quite clear ; but in its place was a weakness , an aching of the limbs , a weight on the chest , and a great shivering . Although the bell of St. Giles was just striking the hour of five , it was already entirely dark . A lamp-lighter , with ladder and torch , was setting a double line of gas jets to flaring along the lofty parapets of the bridge . If the Grassmarket was a quarry pit by day , on a night of storm it was the bottom of a reservoir . The height of the walls was marked by a luminous crown from many lights above the Castle head , and by a student 's dim candle , here and there , at a garret window .