midnight
`` I regained Florence with but one thought : how could she be restored to sanity , yet be maintained in that beauty which had triumphed over centuries ? As I entered my apartment I saw before me the portrait of that other Antonio di Manzecca , whom I so closely resembled , whom she had loved , whose return she still awaited . I stood there blinded by a flash of inspiration . `` At midnight my plan was complete . '' * * * * * As he paused , and the conclusion became clear to me , I was taken with a kind of stupor . `` A few days later , '' he said , `` as she stood gazing down through the twilight , a man emerged from the forest , in face and dress the image of that other Antonio di Manzecca . At his signal , servants in the old-time livery of the Manzecca appeared with a ladder , which they leaned against the ramparts .