midnight
By the Queen 's permission , the chamber of state in which the body lay was thrown open to the eager citizens , who thronged in such crowds to behold the sole remains of one they had well nigh idolized , that the guards were compelled to permit the entrance of only a certain number every day . Here was neither state nor pomp to arrest the attention of the sight-loving populace : nought of royalty or gorgeous symbols . No ; men came to pay the last tribute of admiring love and sorrow to one who had ever , noble as he was by birth , made himself one with them , cheering their sorrows , sharing their joys ; treating age , however poor or lowly , with the reverence springing from the heart , inspiring youth to deeds of worth and honor , and by his own example , far more eloquently than by his words , teaching all and every age the duties demanded by their country and their homes , to their families and themselves . And this man was snatched from them , not alone by the ruthless hand of death , but by midnight murder . Was it marvel , the very grief his loss occasioned should rouse to wildest fury men 's passions against his murderer ? It was the evening of the fifth day after the murder , that with a degree of splendor and of universal mourning , unrivalled before in the interment of any subject , the body of Ferdinand Morales was committed to the tomb . The King himself , divested of all insignia of royalty , bareheaded , and in a long mourning cloak , headed the train of chief mourners , which , though they counted no immediate kindred , numbered twenty or thirty of the highest nobles , both of Arragon and Castile .