noon
`` Monsieur de la Marinière 's hermitage , '' said the Prefect to his companion . `` It looks like one , sapristi ! '' said the General . Nothing could seem stiller , more fast asleep , than Les Chouettes in the approaching noon of that hot September day . The dogs barked and growled , it was true , but only one of them , the youngest , troubled himself to get up from where he lay in the warm sand . No human creature was to be seen about the house or buildings ; the silence of the woods lay all around ; the dry air smelt delicately of wood smoke and fir trees ; the shadows were very deep , cutting across the broad belts of glowing sunshine . `` Every one is asleep , '' said the Prefect .