five in the afternoon
Before this monstrous marvel the mariner stood dumb , and it was afterwards said that that wild night the terminals of heaven and earth were lost , that the storm-winds were haunted , in all the air lamentation , sobbings as for swallowed orbs , and the whisper : `` It is finished '' . Two days previously a telegram from Admiral O'Hara had gone to all the forts in European waters , commanding an interchange of 200 of their men with men of his own fort ; and each officer in command , ignorant that the same instructions had gone to others , had complied : so that by the next morning , the 29th April , 1600 men from eight forts were converging in yachts upon the _ Mahomet _ . As the fort garrisons , originally numbering 500 , had recently been reduced to 300 , the others having been mostly drafted into the 2nd Division of the British Royal Marines , compliance with Admiral O'Hara 's order left a garrison of 100 only at each of eight forts . Toward five in the afternoon of that day , the 29th , 700 men , to the bewilderment of her officers , were in the _ Mahomet _ two of the fort-yachts having arrived upon a troubled First Lieutenant who was in command , all attempts to see the Admiral since the morning having failed . But near seven the Admiral summoned the Treasurer to his _ bureau _ near the bottom , he being in dressing-gown and slippers , very slovenly , seeming either drunk or sick , his mouth gaping to his pantings , and anon his languishing eye shot dyingly to heaven . `` Well , you see how I am , Mr. Treasurer '' , he went , `` seedy . Pain in this temple , trouble with the respiration , and a foul breath .