about six o'clock
Little scenes , too , of startling vividness moved before him , as he sat there with half-closed eyes -- scenes of the imagined arrest -- the scuffle as the portrait was torn away and Anthony burst out in one last desperate attempt to escape . He saw him under every kind of circumstance -- dashing up stairs and being met at the top by a man with a pike -- running and crouching through the withdrawing-room itself next door -- gliding with burning eyes past the yew-hedges in a rush for the iron gates , only to find them barred -- on horseback with his hands bound and a despairing uplifted face with pike-heads about him . -- So his friend dreamed miserably on , open-eyed , but between waking and the sleep of exhaustion , until the crowning vision flashed momentarily before his eyes of the scaffold and the cauldron with the fire burning and the low gallows over the heads of the crowd , and the butcher 's block and knife ; and then he moaned and sat up and stared about him , and the young pursuivant looked at him half-apprehensively . Towards evening the house grew quieter ; once , about six o'clock , there were voices outside , the door from the hall was unlocked , and a heavily-built , ruddy man came in with two pikemen , locking the door behind him . They paid no attention to the prisoner , and he watched them mechanically as they went round the room , running their eyes up and down the panelling , and tapping here and there . `` The room has been searched , sir , already , '' said the young constable to the ruddy-faced man , who glanced at him and nodded , and then continued the scrutiny . They reached the fireplace and the officer reached up and tapped the wood over the mantelpiece half-a-dozen times .