About ten o'clock
She read no message of love for her in that far-off symbolic writing of the heavens , and with a great sob she wished that she might be gliding into death . She drew the cowl over her head again and covered her face , choosing darkness rather than the light of the stars , which seemed to her like the hard light of eyes that looked at her without seeing her . Presently she felt that she was in the grave , but not resting there : she was touching the hands of the beloved dead beside her , and trying to wake them . About ten o'clock on the morning of the twenty-seventh of February the currents of passengers along the Florentine streets set decidedly towards San Marco . It was the last morning of the Carnival , and every one knew there was a second Bonfire of Vanities being prepared in front of the Old Palace ; but at this hour it was evident that the centre of popular interest lay elsewhere . The Piazza di San Marco was filled by a multitude who showed no other movement than that which proceeded from the pressure of new-comers trying to force their way forward from all the openings : but the front ranks were already close-serried and resisted the pressure . Those ranks were ranged around a semicircular barrier in front of the church , and within this barrier were already assembling the Dominican Brethren of San Marco .