twilight of
November noon
It was the Dead March in _ Saul _ . The long-rolling drums suddenly rent the soul , and destroyed every base and petty thought that was there . Clergy , headed by a bishop , were walking down the cathedral . At the huge doors , nearly lost in the heavy twilight of November noon , they stopped , turned and came back . The coffin swayed into view , covered with the sacred symbolic bunting , and borne on the shoulders of eight sergeants of the old regiments of the dead man . Then followed the pall-bearers -- five field-marshals , five full generals , and two admirals ; aged men , and some of them had reached the highest dignity without giving a single gesture that had impressed itself on the national mind ; nonentities , apotheosised by seniority ; and some showed traces of the bitter rain that was falling in the fog outside . Then the Primate .