six o'clock in the evening
It must be supposed , that to him cold is a less detestable evil than muscular exertion of any kind . There were some half-dozen men standing about the door ; and though they were doing nothing , it was not to be supposed that they stood there in the bitter cold for their own amusement . The fact was , they were waiting for one of the great events of the day at Ravenna , -- the arrival of the diligenza from Bologna . It was past six o'clock in the evening ; and it could not now be long before the expected vehicle would arrive . It is a distance of some sixty miles from Bologna to Ravenna ; the diligence started at five in the morning , and was due at the latter city at five in the evening . But nobody expected that it would reach its destination at that hour . It had never done so within the memory of man , even in the fine days of summer , and now , when the roads were rough with ridges of frozen mud !