noon
The day seemed very long in coming . The firing ceased for a while ; then its roll commenced afresh , and grew nearer to the village . Then again all was still . At noon a shepherd staggered into the place , pale , bleeding , bruised , covered with mire . The Prussians , he told them , had forced him to be their guide , had knotted him tight to a trooper 's saddle , and had dragged him with them until he was half dead with fatigue and pain . At night he had broken from them and had fled . They were close at hand , he said , and had burned the town from end to end because a man had fired at them from a housetop .