noon
In a brief while she had saddled and bridled Etoile-Filante , and ridden out of the camp without warning or farewell to any ; she was as free to come and to go as though she were a bird on the wing . Thus she went , knowing nothing of his fate . And with the sunrise went also the woman whom he loved -- in ignorance . The warm , transparent light of an African autumnal noon shone down through the white canvas roof of a great tent in the heart of the encamped divisions at the headquarters of the Army of the South . In the tent there was a densely packed throng -- an immense , close , hushed , listening crowd , of which every man wore the uniform of France , of which the mute , undeviating attention , forbidden by discipline alike to be broken by sound of approval or dissent , had in it something that was almost terrible , contrasted with the vivid eagerness in their eyes and the strained absorption of their countenances ; for they were in court , and that court was the Council of War of their own southern camp . The prisoner was arraigned on the heaviest charge that can be laid against the soldier of any army , and yet , as the many eyes of the military crowd turned on him where he stood surrounded by his guard , his crime against his chief was forgotten , and they only remembered -- Zaraila . Many of those present had seen him throughout that day of blood , at the head of his decimated squadron , with the guidon held aloft above every foe ; to them that tall , slender form standing there , with a calm , weary dignity , that had nothing of the passion of the mutinous or the consciousness of the criminal in its serene repose , had shed upon it the luster of a heroism that made them ready almost to weep like women that the death of a mutineer should be the sole answer given by France to the savior of her honor .