Banbridge count: It's 6.24pm and David Trimble is walking the plank. He has just emerged from his silver Vauxhall Omega accompanied by his wife, Daphne. After 15 years he is losing his beloved place in the House of Commons, but his face, although a characteristic red, remains impassive.
There is only a short distance from the car to the slab-like door of the Banbridge count-centre but that's enough time for the Paisleyite crowd to get in a few quick cat-calls and jeers. The word is that they have been advised not to repeat the disgraceful scenes of the 2001 Westminster count when the Trimbles were jostled and kicked.
On that occasion, the DUP played right into Trimble's hands and he confessed afterwards that he walked his opponents into a trap where they duly discredited themselves.
Only the cameras are allowed to come close to the platform where the candidates stand while the figures are announced. Trimble's voice cracks momentarily as he thanks Daphne and the family for their support over the years and reflects that, for them, there may be a "silver lining" in all this. He thanked the "tens of thousands" of Upper Bann constituents who had given him "the enormous privilege" of representing them for 15 years in the Commons. "There is no greater honour that anyone can have," he said.
Where these voters were last Thursday, he did not say. But he pointed to the record which so many of his constituents signally failed to take into account this week. He had taken the opportunity to "do something for Northern Ireland" and, as a result, the situation was "a much better one".
This is a very different Trimble from the one who came to Oslo seven years ago to collect his Nobel Peace Prize. In his relatively short time in the public eye he has known both triumph and disaster. Most non-Paisleyite observers at the count agree among themselves that future historians will be kind to him.
Since the DUP crowd has been kept outside, the count-centre has a clinical, almost eerie feel about it, and officials busy themselves with their duties - like staff in any hospital ward.
The bad news for Trimble had long been forecast but still people wondered during the day if, once again, Ulster's Houdini could once again cheat his fate. On the morning of the count, there were rumours that nationalists had voted on a tactical basis for the UUP leader but the sceptics wondered if there would be enough.
A DUP official said that, even if they won the seat, they would still call for a recount. Even the winners did not at that stage realise the scale of the victory to come. But an Alliance Party observer said there were "piles" of votes for Simpson, a veritable mountain compared to Trimble's hillock.
The DUP's David Simpson is a successful businessman who concentrated in his vote-getting efforts on bread-and-butter issues. Heavily-built but mild-mannered, he sings gospel songs and, like his party colleague, the Rev William McCrea, has cut a number of CDs.
A native of Portadown, where he started his career as a butcher's apprentice and went on to make it big in meat-processing, Simpson's low-key, man-of-the-people demeanour contrasts with Trimble's more twitchy and ideological persona.
Even before the result was announced, speculation was growing about Trimble's political future. The consensus was that he would probably step down as head of the UUP and take a seat in the House of Lords along with other former Northern party leaders like Lord Molyneaux and Lord Fitt of Dock. As Trimble faded from the scene, the news went around that the Big Man was on his way. Ian Paisley was arriving to savour his triumph.