about midnight
Subsequently Angelo went to Jacopo for food . This he procured , but he was compelled to leave the man behind , and unpaid . It was dark when he left the inn ; he had some difficulty in evading a flock of whitecoats , and his retreat from the village was still on the Austrian side . Somewhat about midnight Merthyr reached the inn , heralding the carriage . As Jacopo caught sight of Vittoria 's face , he fell with his shoulders straightened against the wall , and cried out loudly that he had betrayed no one , and mentioned Major Weisspriess by name as having held the point of his sword at him and extracted nothing better than a wave of the hand and a lie ; in other words , that the fugitives had retired to the Tyrolese mountains , and that he had shammed ignorance of who they were . Merthyr read at a glance that Jacopo had the large swallow and calm digestion for bribes , and getting the fellow alone he laid money in view , out of which , by doubling the sum to make Jacopo correct his first statement , and then by threatening to withdraw it altogether , he gained knowledge of the fact that Angelo Guidascarpi had recently visited the inn , and had started from it South-eastward , and that Major Weisspriess was following on his track . He wrote a line of strong entreaty to Weisspriess , lest that officer should perchance relapse into anger at the taunts of prisoners abhorring him with the hatred of Carlo and Angelo .