two o’clock
Meantime the mounted grenadiers dashed forward at a gallop and overthrew the Austrian cavalry . Meanwhile the division which had escaped from the conflagration received fresh cartridges and reformed in line . But this movement had no other result than to prevent the retreat from becoming a rout . It was two o'clock . Bonaparte watched the battle , sitting on the bank of a ditch beside the highroad to Alessandria . He was alone . His left arm was slipped through his horse 's bridle ; with the other he flicked the pebbles in the road with the tip of his riding-whip .