six o'clock in the evening
But she found a difficulty in arranging her thoughts ; her mind was in too excitable a condition to admit of close application . She commenced , and discarded letter after letter . Finally , she gave up trying to write for the present . There was time enough ; the foreign mail , as she had ascertained , did not close until six o'clock in the evening . She thought a drive through the old city would work off her excitement and tranquilize her nerves . She rang and ordered a fly , and drove out . First she went to Holyrood , and soon lost all consciousness of her own present and individual troubles in dreaming of all those princes , heroes , and beauties of history who had lived and sinned or suffered within those old palace walls .