midday
The groups in the court paused in their converse and in their occupations , and looked in awe at the gray charger with its strange burden , and the French Chasseur who came so blindly forward like a man feeling his passage through the dark . There was something in the sight that had a vague terror for them before they clearly saw what this thing was which was thus brought into their presence . Cecil moved slowly on into their midst , his hand on the horse 's rein ; then a great darkness covered his sight ; he swayed to and fro , and fell senseless on the gray stone of the paved court , while the muleteer and the camel-drivers , the Kabyls and the French , who were mingled there , crowded around him in fear and in wonder . When consciousness returned to him he was lying on a stone bench in the shadow of the wall , and a throng of lean , bronzed , eager faces about him in the midday sunlight which had broken through the windstorm . Instantly he remembered all . `` Where is he ? '' he asked .