four hours before noon
Eva felt painfully how incapable of rendering assistance the others considered her , and her pride forbade her to urge it upon them . Even her Aunt Kunigunde scarcely asked her a question . It seemed to the abbess that the right hour for a decisive enquiry had not yet come , and wise Aunt Christine never talked with her younger niece upon religious subjects unless she herself requested her to do so . The mass for the dead was to be celebrated at an unusually early hour , for another , which would be attended by the whole city and all the distinguished persons , knights , and nobles who had come to the Reichstag , was to begin four hours before noon . This was for Prince Hartmann , who had been snatched away so prematurely . The Ortliebs , with all their kindred and servants , the members of the Council with their wives and daughters , and many burghers and burgher women , assembled soon after sunrise in St. Sebald 's Church . Those present were almost lost in the spacious , lofty interior with its three naves .