noon
Their wives had followed the army also . The while population -LRB- scanty as it was -RRB- had moved off to look for something more stirring than had hitherto come to them . I wandered on slowly , taking my time , getting my direction fairly clear from the glimpses which I sometimes caught of the line of the highway . At a little after noon I ate the last of my victuals near a spring . I rested after my dinner , then pushed on again , till I had won to a little spinney only four miles from Taunton , where my legs began to fail under me . I crept into the spinney , wondering if it contained some good shelter in which I could sleep for the night . I found a sort of dry , high pitched bank , with the grass all worn off it , which I thought would serve my turn , if the rain held off .