about
noon
Those who remained looked out for arms as best they could , taking up pitchforks , bars of iron , wooden cudgels , or whatever else lay ready to hand . `` I came here to buy powder and shot , '' said the forester to Anton . `` Now I have a gun , and I will fire my very last charge , if we can only revenge the insult they have offered to our eagle . '' Meanwhile the hours passed as usual at the castle , and it was now about noon . The baron , accompanied by his wife , walked in the sunshine , grumbling because the molehills against which his foot tripped were not yet leveled . This led him to the conclusion that there was no reliance to be placed upon hired dependents of any kind ; and that Wohlfart was the most forgetful of his class . On this theme he enlarged with a kind of gloomy satisfaction , the baroness only contradicting him as far as she could without putting him out of temper .