midnight
Our marches were always made in the very early morning , many of our starts being soon after midnight , and a curious scene it was in the moonlight , as the long train , with its elephants laden with tents , and camels moaning and grumbling at the weight of the necessaries they were doomed to carry , the light flashing from the guns or the accoutrements of the mounted men , and all on and on , over the sandy dust , till I grew drowsy , and nodded over my horse 's neck , rousing myself from time to time with a start to ask whether it was not all some dream . Just as the sun was getting unpleasantly hot , and the horses caked with sweat and dust , a halt would be called in some shady tope , where the tents rose as if by magic , fires were rapidly lighted by the attendants , and , amidst quite a babel of tongues , breakfast was prepared , while parroquets of a vivid green shrieked at us from the trees , squirrels leaped and ran , and twice over we arrived at a grove to find it tenanted by a troop of chattering monkeys , which mouthed and scolded at us till our men drove them far into the depths of the jungle with stones . Here , with our tents set up in the shade of the trees , we passed the hot days , with the sun pouring down with such violence that I have often thought it might be possible for a loaded gun to get heated enough to ignite the powder . There would be plenty of sleeping , of course , with the sentries looking longingly on , and wishing it was their turn ; and then , soon after midnight , the column would be _ en route _ again , to continue its march till seven , eight , or nine o'clock , according to the distance of the camping-place , the same spots being used by the different regiments year after year . There was very little variety , save that we had more or less dust , according to the character of the road material over which we travelled ; and I heard the news , after many days , that the next would be the last , as eagerly as I had of the one which had been nominated for our start . It was a brilliant morning when we came in sight of a sparkling river , beyond which were the white walls and gilded minarets of Rajgunge , with squat temples and ghauts down at the riverside , and everywhere dotted about tall waving palms , groves of trees , and again , beyond these , the rich green of cultivated lands , rising up to mountains blue in the distance , where the wild jungle filled up the valleys and gorges which seamed their sides . `` Lovely ! ''