five o'clock
in the afternoon
At nine o'clock to-day they cease to be free men , they are under the orders of corporals and sergeants and officers who will command them to go `` Vorwärts '' and `` Rechts '' and `` Links '' and all that God-forsaken gibberish , and put them in irons and on bread and water if they do not obey . But yesterday , on the thirteenth of September that is , they were still free to do as they liked : they could dance and sing and get drunk as much as they chose . So the big barn that belongs to Ignácz Goldstein , the Jew , is thrown open for a night 's dancing and music and jollification . At five o'clock in the afternoon the gipsies tuned up ; there was a supper which lasted many hours , after which the dancing began . The first csárdás was struck up at eight o'clock last evening , the last one is being danced now at eight o'clock in the morning , while the whole plain lies in silence under the shimmering sky , and while Pater Bonifácius reads his mass all alone in the little church , and prays fervently for the lads who are going away to-day for three years : away from his care and his tender , paternal attention , away from their homes , their weeping mothers and sorrowing sweethearts . God bless them all ! They are good lads , but weak , impulsive , easily led toward good or evil .