about
three in the afternoon
I kept with me only La Font and two servants . The day was fine , and the air brisk ; the country open , affording many distant prospects which the sun rendered cheerful . We rode for some time , therefore , with the gaiety of schoolboys released from their tasks , and dining at noon in the lee of one of the great boulders that there dot the plain , took pleasure in applying to the life of courts every evil epithet that came to mind . For a little time afterwards we rode as cheerfully ; but about three in the afternoon the sky became overcast , and almost at the same moment we discovered that we had strayed from the track . The country in that district resembles the more western parts of Brittany , in consisting of huge tracts of bog and moorland strewn with rocks and covered with gorse ; which present a cheerful aspect in sunshine , but are savage and barren to a degree when viewed through sheets of rain or under a sombre sky . The position , therefore , was not without its discomforts . I had taken care to choose a servant who was familiar with the country , but his knowledge seemed now at fault .