twenty minutes
past ten
`` Hearken ! '' said he , in a low , soft voice . `` It is now twenty minutes past ten ; take this watch and keep it as a souvenir of me . Greet Kurshid Pasha from me , and point out to him that it was twenty minutes past ten when you spoke with me , and let him take notice that if after twenty minutes past eleven I can see from the windows of this tower a single hostile soldier in the court-yard of the fortress , then -- I swear it by the mercies of Allah ! -- I will blow the fortress into the air , with every living soul within it . Inform Kurshid Pasha of this when you give him my salutation . '' The silihdar hastened off , and at a quarter to eleven not a soul was to be seen in the court-yard of the fortress of Janina .