five in the afternoon
It was little we could see of the battle ; but a man would be blind not to know that all the fields behind us were covered with flying men . But then , though we on the right wing knew nothing of it , the Prussians had begun to show , and Napoleon had set 20,000 of his men to face them , which made up for ours that had bolted , and left us much as we began . That was all dark to us , however ; and there was a time , when the French horsemen had flooded in between us and the rest of the army , that we thought we were the only brigade left standing , and had set our teeth with the intention of selling our lives as dearly as we could . At that time it was between four and five in the afternoon , and we had had nothing to eat , the most of us , since the night before , and were soaked with rain into the bargain . It had drizzled off and on all day , but for the last few hours we had not had a thought to spare either upon the weather or our hunger . Now we began to look round and tighten our waist-belts , and ask who was hit and who was spared . I was glad to see Jim , with his face all blackened with powder , standing on my right rear , leaning on his firelock .