three o'clock precisely
What a crowd filled the large hall of the University of Christiana in which the drawing of the great lottery was to take place -- a crowd that overflowed into the very court-yards , as even the immense building was not large enough to accommodate such a throng , and even into the adjoining streets , as the court-yards , too , proved inadequate toward the last . On that Sunday , the 15th of July , it certainly was not by their calmness and phlegm that one would have recognized these madly excited people as Norwegians . Was this unwonted excitement due solely to the interest excited by this drawing , or was it due , at least , in a measure , to the unusually high temperature of the summer 's day ? The drawing was to begin at three o'clock precisely . There were one hundred prizes -- divided into three classes : 1st , ninety prizes ranging in value from one hundred to one thousand marks , and amounting in all to forty-five thousand marks ; 2d , nine prizes of from one thousand to nine thousand marks , and amounting to forty-five thousand marks , and 3d , one prize of one hundred thousand marks . Contrary to the rule that is generally observed in lotteries of this kind , the drawing of the grand prize was reserved for the last . It was not to the holder of the first ticket drawn that the grand prize would be given , but to the last , that is to say , the one hundredth .