nine o'clock
At nine o'clock of that miserable morning the packing of our lads into the train will commence , but until then they are making merry , bless them ! They are true Hungarians , you know ! They will dance , and they will sing , they will listen to gipsy music and kiss the girls so long as there is breath in their body , so long as they are free to do it . 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 .