five in the afternoon
The command , `` Preserve yourself for others besides your dying friend , '' yet throbbed at his heart ; and with ten thousand rapturous visions flitting before his sight , he trod in air , until the humble door of his melancholy home presenting itself , at once wrecked the illusion , and offered sad reality in the person of his emaciated friend . On the count 's entrance to the sick chamber , Doctor Cavendish gave him a few directions to pursue when the general should awake from the sleep into which he had been sunk for so many hours . With a heart the more depressed from its late unusual exaltation , Thaddeus sat down at the side of the invalid 's bed for the remainder of the day . At five in the afternoon , General Butzou awoke . Seeing the count , he stretched out his withered hand , and as the doctor predicted , accosted him rationally . `` Come , dear Sobieski ! Come nearer , my dear master . ''