noon
Thus the galley slaves of old laboured at their oars and the builders of the pyramids beneath their loads , all moving like one man . But here was no tune of flutes to set the pace , or monotonous song to help the lifting ; only the voice of Berselius like a whip-lash , and the gun-butt of Félix drumming on the ribs of laggards . A light , hot wind was blowing in their faces . Adams , still at the head of the column , had suffered severely during the morning march , and the re-start after the noon rest was painful to him as a beating ; but the reserve forces of a powerful constitution that had never been tampered with were now coming into play , and , after a time , he felt little discomfort . His body , like a wound-up mechanism , did all the work ; his mind became divorced from it ; he experienced a curious exaltation , like that which comes from drink , only finer far and more ethereal . The column seemed marching far swifter than it was marching in reality , the vast sunlit land seemed vaster even than it was ; the wind-blown grass , the far distant trees , the circling skyline , all spoke of freedom unknown to man : the freedom of the herd they were pursuing ; the freedom of the bird flying overhead ; the freedom of the wind blowing in the grass ; the freedom of the limitless , endless , sunlit country . Meridians of silence , and light , and plains , and trees , and mountains , and forests .