four in the
afternoon before
It was as old as Ruscino , a dull , dark , very ancient place with monasteries and convents like huge fortresses and old palaces still fortified and grim as death amongst them . A Cistercian monastery , which had been chiefly built by the second Giulio , crowned a prominent cliff , which dominated the town , and commanded a view of the whole of the valley of the Edera , and , on the western horizon , of the Leonessa and her tributary mountains and hills . He had not been there for five years ; he went on foot , for there was no other means of transit , and if there had been he would not have wasted money on it ; the way was long and irksome ; for the latter half , entirely up a steep mountain road . He started in the early morning as soon as Mass had been celebrated , and it was four in the afternoon before he had passed the gates of the town , and paid his respects to the Bishop . He rested in the Certosa , of which the superior was known to him ; the monks , like the Bishop , had heard nothing . So far as he could learn when he went into the streets no one in the place had heard anything of the project to alter the course of the river . He made the return journey by night , so as to reach his church by daybreak , and was there in his place by the high altar when the bell tolled at six o'clock , and the three or four old people , who never missed an office , were kneeling on the stones .