nine o'clock
He had made no change in his dress , and had evidently intended to prolong his vigil until the morning , but nature had been exhausted , and in spite of himself Douglas ? Dale slept . His old friend stole softly from the room , and cautioning the household not to permit him who must now be regarded as their master to be disturbed , he went out , and proceeded to the search . Douglas Dale did not awake until nine o'clock , and then , starting up with a terrible consciousness of sorrow , and a sense of self-reproach because he had slept , he found Squire Mordaunt standing by his bed . The good old gentleman took the young man 's hand in silence , and pressed it with a pressure which told all . They laid the disfigured dead body of him who but yesterday had been the beloved and honoured master of the house in the library , where he had received the ineffectual warning of the gipsy . It was while Douglas Dale was contemplating the pale , still features of his brother , with grief unutterable , that a servant tapped gently at the door , and called Mr. Mordaunt out . ''