midnight
He forthwith went on to say with some pains that his master had made him to use a means by which he might remember the number from all others in case , by ill-hap , the letter should be lost . And on this wise he gave us to know for certain that the vast sum demanded was not an error on his part . It was to this end that he had stamped on his memory the names of Saint George and Saint Christina , whose days in the calendar are on the 24th of April and the 24th of July , and the number of thousands named for the ransom was likewise four and twenty . Also Herdegen had bid him think of twice the twelve apostles , and of the twenty-four hours from midnight till midnight again . It would seem beyond belief to most folks , he said , yet it was indeed twenty-four thousand , and not hundred , sequins which that devilish Sultan has asked , as indeed we must know from the letter . Presently , when he had rested a while , we made him tell us more , and we learned that the Sultan had been minded to set Herdegen free without price , and he would have had him led forthwith to the imprisoned King Janus of Cyprus , to whom he thought he might thus do a pleasure , but that Ursula Tetzel , who was standing by with her husband , had whispered to the Sultan that she would not see him robbed of a great profit forasmuch as that yonder Christian slave -- and she pointed to my brother -- was of one of the richest families of her native town , who could pay a royal ransom for him and find it no great burthen ; and that the same was true of Sir Franz , who was likewise to have been set free . Hereupon the Sultan , who at all times lacked moneys , notwithstanding the heavy tribute he levied on all merchandise , commanded that Herdegen and the Bohemian should be led away again and then he asked this overweening ransom .