noon
Not with beat of drum or colors flying did they advance ; but slow in step , with arms reversed , and their heads downcast , they marched on towards the mound . Defiling beneath this , they moved into the plain , and , corps by corps , piled their arms and resumed their `` route , '' the white line serpentining along the vast plain , and stretching away into the dim distance . Never was a sight so sad as this ! All that war can present of suffering and bloodshed , all that the battlefield can show of dead and dying , were nothing to the miserable abasement of those thousands , who from daybreak till noon poured on their unceasing tide ! On the hill beside the Emperor stood several officers in white uniform , whose sad faces and suffering looks attested the misery of their hearts . `` Better a thousand deaths than such humiliation ! '' was the muttered cry of every man about me ; while in very sorrow at such a scene , the tears coursed down the hardy cheeks of many a bronzed soldier , and some turned away their heads , unable to behold the spectacle .