nearly nine o'clock
the scoundrel , if I could but have laid hands on him ! But we shall see . '' The bugles were sounding the signal to prepare for breaking camp , and each had to hurry away to rejoin his command . The preparations for departure dragged , however , and the troops had to stand waiting in heavy marching order until nearly nine o'clock . A feeling of hesitancy seemed to have taken possession of their leaders ; there was not the resolute alacrity of the first two days , when the 7th corps had accomplished forty miles in two marches . Strange and alarming news , moreover , had been circulating through the camp since morning , that the three other corps were marching northward , the 1st at Juniville , the 5th and 12th at Rethel , and this deviation from their route was accounted for on the ground of the necessities of the commissariat . Montmedy had ceased to be their objective , then ?