midday before
The old men could tell him nothing . They were stolid and stoical . Yes , there was war , but it was not any business of theirs to find where the armies were marching , and his heart went out more strongly than ever to the people , over whom military ambition and the folly of kings were driving the wheels of cannon . It was well toward midday before he secured any real information . They encountered at the crossing of a brook a small French patrol under a lieutenant , an intelligent man , whom by lucky chance Carstairs had met two weeks before . He told them that going at a moderate rate they could reach by the next morning a large French army which lay north and west . Some British troops -- he did not know how many -- had come up , and they were on the extreme left of the allied line .