five o’clock
Then at intervals all day and every day , the big gun boomed and the clarion blared until I used to dream that I was back at Plevna or the Shipka Pass , and could not get my `` copy '' to London and New York because Monsieur Dorn had filled the Houssy Wood with Cossacks from Janenne . It may be supposed that all this _ charivari _ was but an evil thing for a man as much in need of rest as I was , but I verily believe that the noise and bustle of the preparations , though they robbed me now and then of an hour of morning sleep , were almost as useful to me as the idleness I enjoyed , and the tranquil country air into which I could drive or wander afoot whenever the fancy for perfect quiet came upon me . At last the great day dawned , and the great event dawned earlier than the day . At five o'clock the noise of drum and clarion began , and the light of torches flared on the painted fronts of houses -- yellow and pink and blue -- in the quaint old village street . A little later a band came by with shattering brass and booming drum , and for an hour or so the whole place was in a ferment . The cavalry came clattering into the _ Place _ , the hoarse voice of Monsieur Dorn barked through the orders which had by this time grown conventional , and his squadron jingled for the last time for seven years through the movements he had taught them at the expense of so much time and lung power . Then a strange foreboding sort of quiet , an unnatural tranquillity , settled upon everything and continued until near upon the hour of ten .