9 P.M.
And punctually at eleven , in each , began perhaps the darkest massacre of history -- no quarter given -- and when the alarm went forth , whichever of the unarmed fort-men rushed to the dark armoury found the door fastened against him . Of two men in bed , talking together through an open door , one arose at the stroke of a clock and killed the other ; some perished in sleep -- all very quietly accomplished : a few shots , a few lost echoes in the vast castles , a few daubs of blood . And in no case did a single one , either massacred or assassin , escape alive : for , in every case , some one or other of the fort-officers -- Admiral , Lieutenant , Commander -- to prevent capture , opened the inlet to the flood in the very thick of the doom , went down with his muteness and his bubbling , and the sea , a secret in its bosom , rolled over the Sea . All the next day , till near 9 P.M. , not one syllable was definitely known of this tremendous fact by anyone in Britain : for though , early astir , the Regent telegraphed the _ Mahomet _ , all day he waited without reply . At eleven the Prime Minister said to him : `` Things , my Lord King , wear at this moment an aspect so threatening , that I see no escape from civil war , even if it be brief , except by the immediate forcing through of the Bill , and I stand ready -- now -- to propose you as new peers -- '' `` Wait '' , answered the Regent : `` pass to-night the Bill should , but I think I shall effect that by myself going to the Lords , and listening a little to the talk '' . A dark day , with an under-thought always , whatever the business , of one thing -- the Sea ... . About 5.30 , as was his custom , he went up a stair to pass along two corridors to the little cream suite in which lived Margaret , for whom the doctors now promised sanity , her forehead daily seeming to drink-in peace from the contact of his palm , after which she would comb his hair , he lying on a sofa , or taking tea ; and , `` Well , dear '' , he said , this last day of all , as her ladies retired to an inner salon , `` how is the head ? ''