noon
It said : -- `` Let none who look for safety go to Milan . '' A week following the day of meetings on the Motterone , Luigi the spy was in Milan , making his way across the Piazza de ' Mercanti . He entered a narrow court , one of those which were anciently built upon the Oriental principle of giving shade at the small cost of excluding common air . It was dusky noon there through the hours of light , and thrice night when darkness fell . The atmosphere , during the sun 's short passage overhead , hung with a glittering heaviness , like the twinkling iron-dust in a subterranean smithy . On the lower window of one of the houses there was a board , telling men that Barto Rizzo made and mended shoes , and requesting people who wished to see him to make much noise at the door , for he was hard of hearing . It speedily became known in the court that a visitor desired to see Barto Rizzo .