nine o’clock
She strove to lose herself in prayer , that she might not hear these different sounds that spoke to her in an unknown language of which her anguish told her she understood every word . In truth , a terrible thing was happening at the prison . It was no wonder that the whole town had rushed thither . At nine o'clock Père Courtois entered the jail to tell the prisoners at one and the same time that their appeal had been rejected and that they must prepare for immediate death . He found the four prisoners armed to the teeth . The jailer , taken unawares , was pulled into the cell and the door locked behind him . Then the young men , without any defence on his part , so astonished was he , seized his keys , and passing through the door opposite to the one by which he had entered they locked it on him .