five o'clock
`` When the day came that was to witness the Chevalier 's farewell to the world he was utterly happy . He gave all his Greek books to his landlady , and his sword he sent in a golden sheath to the King of France , and all his mementos of Ireland he gave to the young Huguenot who sold fish in the street where he lived . `` Then he rode out to St. Voltaire 's , slew his horse at the door , and presented the carcass to the monastery cook . `` At five o'clock that night he felt , for the first time , free -- forever free from sex . No woman could enter the monastery ; no monk could descend below the second story . So as he climbed the winding stair that led to his cell at the very top of the Tower of Chastity he paused for a moment by an open window which looked down fifty feet on to a road below . It was all so beautiful , he thought , this world that he was leaving , the golden shower of sun beating down upon the long fields , the spray of trees in the distance , the vineyards , quiet and green , freshening wide miles before him .