about three o'clock in the
morning
The beautiful woman had many stately rooms , and yet there was not space enough for her . Long since had she wept through them all . Back and forth she went to the balcony and blew her breath on the panes in warm rings through which she could look out at the Waag . A great waste field of ice stretched out before her , reaching from Mitosin Castle to Madocsany ; the moon lighted up a landscape still as death ; about three o'clock in the morning , as she gazed out from her balcony over the wide waste , like a mad woman , it suddenly seemed to her as if a black spot moved over there and came nearer and nearer the castle ; as it came nearer , it proved to be the figure of a man ; the nearer it approached , stumbling among the ice blocks , the more evident became its purpose to come straight to the castle . It was somebody from Mitosin ! Idalia wakened her people and gave orders to carry out a stretcher and help the man who was with difficulty struggling through the ice , and bring him to the castle . This man was Master Mathias .