nearly nine o'clock
When finally the preparations were all completed the 106th found themselves posted in a field of stubble above the road , in a position that commanded a view of the broad plain . The men had parted regretfully with their arms , casting timorous looks behind them that showed they were apprehensive of a night attack . Their faces were stern and set , and silence reigned , only broken from time to time by some sullen murmur of angry complaint . It was nearly nine o'clock , they had been there two hours , and yet many of them , notwithstanding their terrible fatigue , could not sleep ; stretched on the bare ground , they would start and bend their ears to catch the faintest sound that rose in the distance . They had ceased to fight their torturing hunger ; they would eat over yonder , on the other bank , when they had passed the river ; they would eat grass if nothing else was to be found . The crowd at the bridge , however , seemed to increase rather than diminish ; the officers that General Douay had stationed there came back to him every few minutes , always bringing the same unwelcome report , that it would be hours and hours before any relief could be expected . Finally the general determined to go down to the bridge in person , and the men saw him on the bank , bestirring himself and others and hurrying the passage of the troops .