midday
He did not see a single person going in his direction . All were fleeing toward the South , and on meeting this city gentleman , well-shod , with walking stick and straw hat , going on alone toward the country which they were abandoning in terror , they showed the greatest astonishment . They concluded that he must be some functionary , some celebrity from the Government . At midday he was able to get a bit of bread , a little cheese and a bottle of white wine from a tavern near the road . The proprietor was at the front , his wife sick and moaning in her bed . The mother , a rather deaf old woman surrounded by her grandchildren , was watching from the doorway the procession of fugitives which had been filing by for the last three days . `` Monsieur , why do they flee ? ''