six o'clock
`` Oh , Sigismund ! Now I know that you are dead indeed . '' For a long , long time she lay in a sort of trance of misery . It seemed as if the life had been almost crushed out of her , and it was not until the bells began to ring for the six o'clock service , merrily pealing out their welcome of the new year morning , that full consciousness returned to her again . But , as she clearly realised what had happened , she broke into such a passion of tears as I had never before witnessed , while still in the darkness the new year bells rang gaily , and she knew that they heralded for her the beginning of a lonely life . And so my work ended ; my part in this world was played out . Nevertheless I still live ; and there will come a day when Sigismund and Gertrude shall be comforted and the slanderers punished .