noon
Had I departed that day for Beaugency , it is likely that you had never heard of me -- leastways , not from my own pen -- for in what so far I have told you , without that which is to follow , there is haply little that was worth the labour of setting down . In the morning , then , I set out ; but having started late , we got no farther than Grenade , where we lay the night once more at the Hotel de la Couronne . And so , through having delayed my departure by a single day , did it come to pass that a message reached me before it might have been too late . It was high noon of the morrow . Our horses stood saddled ; indeed , some of my men were already mounted -- for I was not minded to disband them until Beaugency was reached -- and my two coaches were both ready for the journey . The habits of a lifetime are not so easy to abandon even when Necessity raises her compelling voice . I was in the act of settling my score with the landlord when of a sudden there were quick steps in the passage , the clank of a rapier against the wall , and a voice -- the voice of Castelroux -- calling excitedly `` Bardelys !