two o'clock
Instructions were given the rear-guard to use severe measures , if necessary , to keep the column well closed up ; but there was not much straggling , aware as everyone was that the Prussians were close in our rear , and ready to snap up every unfortunate that they could lay hands on . Their infantry was coming up with the rapidity of the whirlwind , making its twenty-five miles a day , while the French regiments , in their demoralized condition , seemed in comparison to be marking time . At Authe the weather cleared , and Maurice , taking his bearings by the position of the sun , noticed that instead of bearing off toward Chene , which lay three good leagues from where they were , they had turned and were moving directly eastward . It was two o'clock ; the men , after shivering in the rain for two days , were now suffering from the intense heat . The road ascended , with long sweeping curves , through a region of utter desolation : not a house , not a living being , the only relief to the dreariness of the waste lands an occasional little somber wood ; and the oppressive silence communicated itself to the men , who toiled onward with drooping heads , bathed in perspiration . At last Saint-Pierremont appeared before them , a few empty houses on a small elevation . They did not pass through the village .