six o'clock
The choir were busy rehearsing a mass of Rossini , which they had studied and practised for this occasion . The women were trimming the altar , the boys and girls were bringing flowers . On Sunday morning the bishop was to drive overland to Sainte-Agnes from Hanover , and Emil Bergson had been asked to take the place of one of Amedee 's cousins in the cavalcade of forty French boys who were to ride across country to meet the bishop 's carriage . At six o'clock on Sunday morning the boys met at the church . As they stood holding their horses by the bridle , they talked in low tones of their dead comrade . They kept repeating that Amedee had always been a good boy , glancing toward the red brick church which had played so large a part in Amedee 's life , had been the scene of his most serious moments and of his happiest hours . He had played and wrestled and sung and courted under its shadow .