the hour of eight
Dawn came and he slept on still ; but by seven all the camp was loudly astir , for they had promised the enemy to begin the battle at eight . Rodriguez breakfasted lightly ; for , now that the day of his dreams was come at last and all his hopes depended on the day , an anxiety for many things oppressed him . It was as though his castle , rosy and fair in dreams , chilled with its huge cold rocks all the air near it : it was as though Rodriguez touched it at last with his hands and felt a dankness of which he had never dreamed . Then it came to the hour of eight and his anxieties passed . The army was now drawn up before its tents in line , but the enemy was not yet ready and so they had to wait . When the signal at length was given and the cannoniers fired their pieces , and the musketoons were shot off , many men fell . Now Rodriguez , with Morano , was placed on the right , and either through a slight difference in numbers or because of an unevenness in the array of battle they a little overlapped the enemy 's left .