Note 615 — Chapter XIII · THE FESTIVAL OF BLOOD. [August and September, 1572.]
Reading edition
There are great difficulties in fixing the time of this murderous scene. Davila and the Neustadt letter (p. 272) place it before the ringing of the tocsin, that is to say, before day-light; while it is hard to believe that Margaret could be mistaken, or that the murders were committed after the tocsin. Probably it was a little after four o’clock, as from an experiment made last 24th August, it would not have been possible to distinguish the king’s features earlier.