five
o'clock
* * * * * `` At the Council Chamber , Whitehall , the 4th of February , 1684 -LSB- 1685 N. S. -RSB- , at five in the afternoon . `` The Lords of His Majesty 's most Honourable Privy Council have thought fit , for preventing false reports , I make known that His Majesty , upon Monday morning last , was seized with a violent fit that gave great cause to fear the issue of it ; but after some hours an amendment appeared , which with the blessing of God being improved by the application of proper and seasonable remedies , is now so advanced , that the physicians have this day as well as yesterday given this account to the Council , viz. -- That they conceive His Majesty to be in a condition of safety , and that he will in a few days be freed from his distemper . `` JOHN NICHOLAS . '' Yes , thought I , that is all very well ; but what of yesterday after five o'clock , and what of this morning ? * * * * * As I went to His Majesty 's lodgings an hour afterwards I heard the bells from the churches beginning to peal , to call the folks to give thanks ; yet the faces within the Palace were very different . When I went up into the great antechamber , the physicians were just dispersing ; and , by good fortune I was at hand when my Lord Keeper North questioned Sir Charles Scarburgh as he went back to His Majesty 's chamber . `` Well ? ''