About nine o'clock
In many places the troops had left the highway and were moving in deep columns across the open plain . To the left and front a cavalry brigade was seen , jogging along at an easy trot in a blaze of sunshine . The entire wide horizon , usually so silent and deserted , was alive and populous with those streams of men , pressing onward , onward , in long drawn , black array , like the innumerable throng of insects from some gigantic ant-hill . About nine o'clock the regiment left the Chalons road and wheeled to the left into another that led to Suippe , which , like the first , extended , straight as an arrow 's flight , far as the eye could see . The men marched at the route-step in two straggling files along either side of the road , thus leaving the central space free for the officers , and Maurice could not help noticing their anxious , care-worn air , in striking contrast with the jollity and good-humor of the soldiers , who were happy as children to be on the move once more . As the squad was near the head of the column he could even distinguish the Colonel , M. de Vineuil , in the distance , and was impressed by the grave earnestness of his manner , and his tall , rigid form , swaying in cadence to the motion of his charger . The band had been sent back to the rear , to keep company with the regimental wagons ; it played but once during that entire campaign .