five minutes to nine
And again , the man was dying , perhaps , and had implored to see him . Would it not be cruel to refuse to go -- to delay an hour unnecessarily ? He looked at his watch . It wanted only five minutes to nine . There was no train to Audley after the Ipswich mail , which left London at half-past eight ; but there was a train that left Shoreditch at eleven , and stopped at Brentwood between twelve and one . Robert decided upon going by this train , and walking the distance between Brentwood and Audley , which was upwards of six miles . Fleet street was quiet and lonely at this late hour , and Robert Audley being in a ghost-seeing mood , would have been scarcely astonished had he seen Johnson 's set come roystering westward in the lamp-light , or blind John Milton groping his way down the steps before Saint Bride 's Church .