midnight
On Sunday evening next let one of you meet me , at ten o'clock , near the principal entrance of the Cathedral of St. Mary , and I will deliver the written instructions of the mode of proceeding which circumstances may render necessary . '' `` I shall keep the appointment myself , '' said Stephano to his companions ; and another obsequious but somewhat coarse bow denoted full compliance with all that Nisida had required through the medium of the slips of paper . She made a sign for the banditti to take the bags of gold from the table , an intimation which Piero and Lomellino did not hesitate to obey . The private staircase leading into the garden then afforded them the means of an unobserved departure ; and Nisida felt rejoiced at the success of her midnight interview with the chiefs of the Florentine banditti . Six days had now elapsed since Flora Francatelli became an inmate of the Carmelite Convent . During this period she was frequently visited in her cell by Sister Alba , the nun who had received her at the bottom of the pit or well into which she descended by means of the chair ; and that recluse gradually prepared her to fix her mind upon the necessity of embracing a conventual life . It was not , however , without feelings of the most intense -- the most acute -- the most bitter anguish , that the unhappy maiden received the announcement that she was to pass the remainder of her existence in that monastic institution .