midnight
After they had conferred about it for six months , one night the council sent in their decision , sealed , that they thought it was not expedient . The Emperor went down to the Greek Church that night and partook of the Lord 's Supper , and he set his house in order , and the next morning you could hear the tramp of soldiers in the streets of St. Petersburgh . The Emperor summoned his guard , and before noon sixty-five thousand men were surrounding that palace . Just at midnight there came out a proclamation that every slave in Russia was forever set free . The proclamation had gone forth , and all the slaves of the realm believed it . They have been free ever since . Suppose they had not believed it ?