midday
cried the landlord , whose skull was gleaming in the sunshine like a pebble . But though Tartarin himself might hasten , it was not so easy a matter to rouse from sleep his dear Alpinists , who intended to accompany him as far as the Pierre-Pointue , where the mule-path ends . Neither prayers nor arguments could persuade the Commander to get out of bed . With his cotton nightcap over his ears and his face to the wall , he contented himself with replying to Tartarin 's objurgations by a cynical Tarasconese proverb : `` Whoso has the credit of getting up early may sleep until midday ... '' As for Bom-pard , he kept repeating , the whole time , `` Ah , _ vaï _ , Mont Blanc ... what a humbug ... '' Nor did they rise until the P. C. A. had issued a formal order . At last , however , the caravan started , and passed through the little streets in very imposing array : Pascalon on the leading mule , banner unfurled ; and last in file , grave as a mandarin amid the guides and porters on either side his mule , came the worthy Tartarin , more stupendously Alpinist than ever , wearing a pair of new spectacles with smoked and convex glasses , and his famous rope made at Avignon , recovered -- we know at what cost . Very much looked at , almost as much as the banner , he was jubilant under his dignified mask , enjoyed the picturesqueness of these Savoyard village streets , so different from the too neat , too varnished Swiss village , looking like a new toy ; he enjoyed the contrast of these hovels scarcely rising above the ground , where the stable fills the largest space , with the grand and sumptuous hotels five storeys high , the glittering signs of which were as much out of keeping with the hovels as the gold-laced cap of the porter and the pumps and black coats of the waiters with the Savoyard head-gear , the fustian jackets , the felt hats of the charcoal-burners with their broad wings . On the square were landaus with the horses taken out , manure-carts side by side with travelling-carriages , and a troop of pigs idling in the sun before the post-office , from which issued an Englishman in a white linen cap , with a package of letters and a copy of _ The Times _ , which he read as he walked along , before he opened his correspondence .