about five o’clock
Wiser now for the artilleryman 's teaching , I sought out food and drink . I had found oil and rags for my burns , and I also took a hat and a flannel shirt that I found in one of the bedrooms . When it was clear to him that I meant to go alone -- had reconciled myself to going alone -- he suddenly roused himself to come . And all being quiet throughout the afternoon , we started about five o'clock , as I should judge , along the blackened road to Sunbury . In Sunbury , and at intervals along the road , were dead bodies lying in contorted attitudes , horses as well as men , overturned carts and luggage , all covered thickly with black dust . That pall of cindery powder made me think of what I had read of the destruction of Pompeii . We got to Hampton Court without misadventure , our minds full of strange and unfamiliar appearances , and at Hampton Court our eyes were relieved to find a patch of green that had escaped the suffocating drift .