About two o'clock
The thief did as he was directed ; his arms were around the Prince ; the lapel of his coat was between the Prince 's teeth ; and then through his shut teeth , tight clenched on the coat , the Prince muttered : `` It is in the satchel beneath me . '' Without a word the thief raised his right hand and drove the knife sidewise clear through the Prince 's heart . The last of the accumulations of generations of wrong and robbery and extortion and cruelty had sufficed to purchase their heritor a miserable death , -- in the embrace of a thief ! About two o'clock that day Maximilian returned home . He was covered with dust and powder-smoke , but there was no blood upon him . I did not see him return ; but when I entered the drawing-room I started back . There was a stranger present .