six o'clock
No one in the noisy throng of the staff paid attention to these details . The officers , sons of great lords , were too much occupied by running , by noisy conversation , or by singing , to notice who approached the minister ; all the more since a multitude of people were pushing along the highway . On the sixteenth of Mesore the staff of Prince Ramses , together with his dignity the minister , passed the night under the open sky at the distance of five miles from the regiments which were arranged in battle order across the highway beyond the city of Pi-Bailos . In that early morning which precedes our six o'clock , the hills grew violet , and from behind them came forth the sun . A rosy light flowed over the land of Goshen . Villages , temples , palaces of magnates , and huts of earth-tillers looked like sparks and flames which flashed up in one moment from the midst of green spaces . Soon the western horizon was flooded with a golden hue , and the green land of Goshen seemed melting into gold , and the numberless canals seemed filled with molten silver .