eleven o’clock
That man , representing human justice , trembled . Pale , struck to the heart , he dared not cast his eyes upon the bed where lay the woman he had loved so well , now livid beneath the hand of death , gathering strength to conquer agony from the greatness of her sin and its repentance . The mere sight of Veronique 's thin profile , sharply defined in white upon the crimson damask , caused him a vertigo . At eleven o'clock the mass began . After the epistle had been read by the rector of Vizay the archbishop removed his dalmatic and advanced to the threshold of the bedroom door . `` Christians , gather here to assist in the ceremony of extreme unction which we are about to administer to the mistress of this house , '' he said , `` you who join your prayers to those of the Church and intercede with God to obtain from Him her eternal salvation , you are now to learn that she does not feel herself worthy , in this , her last hour , to receive the holy viaticum without having made , for the edification of her fellows , a public confession of the greatest of her sins . We have resisted her pious wish , although this act of contrition was long in use during the early ages of Christianity .