one o'clock
So we waited , and when our pursuers , a half score of men on horseback , came up to us , we met them with a fusillade of powder and shot , which persuaded them to allow us to go our way and evidently made them content to go theirs , for we saw nothing more of them . On the way to London , Frances told us briefly the story of the day . She had started to her father 's house and had left the river at Baynard 's Castle stairs . It was near one o'clock when she left her boat , and the snow , which had been falling for an hour or more , covered the ground . When she reached the head of the narrow street leading to Upper Thames Street from the river stairs , she found a coach waiting for her . The driver touched his hat and asked if she was Mistress Jennings . When she answered that she was , he said I had sent him to watch for her and to take her to Sir Richard 's house , the snow being deep and the storm violent .