about four o'clock in the morning
There were no cities along the route , and they passed through the occasional scattered hamlets without attracting much attention . Now and then a dog barked and at times a face could be seen pressed against a window pane . Sometimes a straggling figure was seen on the road , but at the sight of the shadowy body of marching men it discreetly vanished into the fields or woods at the side of the highway . It was about four o'clock in the morning when they reached the outskirts of the town that was their destination . The lieutenant threw out a cordon of men to guard the roads and intercept any one going to or coming from the place . No fires were built , though in the bitter cold of the early morning they would have been grateful . But the men submitted to this privation without grumbling , and stood about stamping their feet and swinging their arms to keep warm and munching the cold rations that they had brought with them .