nine o'clock in the
morning
He had seen the blasting of his highest hopes in the hour of their apparent fruition . He had beheld the destruction of his army and the ruin of his dynasty . He had seen kindred and friends and faithful servants sink under the nameless horrors of a fate he could do nothing to alleviate , and with the knowledge that nothing but death could release them from it , and now at the last moment death had snatched from him even the poor consolation of sharing the sufferings of those nearest and dearest to him on earth . This happened on the 1st of December 1905 , at nine o'clock in the morning . At the same hour Arnold leapt the _ Ithuriel _ over the Ridge , passed down the valley of Aeria like a flash of silver light , and dropped to earth on the shores of the lake . In the same grove of palms which had witnessed their despairing betrothal he found Natasha swinging in a hammock , with a black-eyed six-weeks ' - old baby nestling in her bosom , and her own loveliness softened and etherealised by the sacred grace of motherhood . `` Welcome , my lord ! ''