midday
We lived a life of absolute indolence , getting up with the sun , eating , playing cards , strolling about on the plains where the millet had now been reaped , eating again and going to bed about nine o'clock in the evening . Our chief amusement was to talk with Chun Wa and to watch the way in which he treated the Cossacks , who had become his humble slaves . I am sure there was not one of the men who would not have died gladly for Chun Wa . One afternoon , just as we were finishing our midday meal , we received orders to start . We were no longer in the reserve ; we were needed further on . Everything was packed up in a hurry , and by half-past two the whole battery was on the march , and we left the lovely calm temple , the cypress trees , the chiming gongs , and Chun Wa . The idyll was over , the reality was about to begin .