about eight o'clock
He raised the piece of material which stopped up the chimney , and , placing the envelope on the fire-dogs , he set it on fire . He shook with the tongs the remains of that which had been the most ardent , the most complete passion of his life , and he relighted the flames under the pieces of paper still intact . The unreasonable employment of a night which might be his last had scarcely paled his face . But his friends , who knew him well , started on seeing him with that impassively sinister countenance when he alighted from his phaeton , at about eight o'clock , at the inn selected for the meeting . He had ordered the carriage the day before to allay his wife 's suspicions by the pretense of taking one of his usual morning drives . In his mental confusion he had forgotten to give a counter order , and that accident caused him to escape the two policemen charged by the questorship to watch the Palazzetto Doria , on Lydia Maitland 's denunciation . The hired victoria , which those agents took , soon lost track of the swift English horses , driven as a man of his character and of his mental condition could drive .