nine o'clock
`` Let all the public places in the city be occupied by troops , and field-pieces be placed on the bridges of the Inn . Let patrols march through the streets all night , and every citizen who is found in the street after nine o'clock , or keeps his house lighted up after that hour , shall be shot . Make haste , gentlemen , and carry my orders literally into execution . Have the patrols call upon all citizens to keep quiet and not appear in the streets after nine o'clock . Sentence of death will be passed upon those who violate this order . '' Owing to these orders issued by the general , a profound stillness reigned at night in the streets of Innspruck ; no one was to be seen in the streets , and on marching through them the patrols did not find a single offender whom they might have subjected to the inexorable rigor of martial law . But no sooner had the patrols turned round a corner than dark forms emerged here and there from behind the pillars of the houses , the wells , and the crucifixes , glided with the noiseless agility of cats along the houses , and knocked here and there at the window-panes .