about six o'clock
She did not purpose beginning her task there on that day ; but intended merely to reconnoitre the ground , look to the needful preparations that had been made for her work , and ascertain how far the spot was within her powers of walking . Paolina , too , had felt that the morning of Ash Wednesday was a favourable time for the first experiment of an undertaking that a little alarmed her . For she also had calculated that on such a morning she should be little likely to meet anybody . It was just about six o'clock when Paolina started on her proposed walk ; and she passed through the Porta Nuova , therefore , a little more than half-an-hour before Ludovico and his companion passed , travelling in the same direction . The road , which it was necessary for her to follow in order to reach St. Apollinare in Classe , is the same for the whole of the distance between the city and the ancient church as that which Ludovico and Bianca would follow to reach the celebrated pine forest . The soil on which the forest stands is composed of the accumulation of sand which the rivers -- mainly the Po -- have brought from distant mountains , and deposited in the bed of the Adriatic since the old church was built `` in Classe , '' -- where the fleet once used to be moored . The building thus stands nearly at the edge of the forest , hardly more than a stone 's throw from the furthest advanced sentinels of the wood .