noon
And ever , it seemed to me from the answers that I got , was I lessening the distance that separated us . I was weak for want of food , for the last time that I had eaten was yesterday at noon , at Mondolfo ; and then but little . Yet all I had this day were some bunches of grapes that I stole in passing from a vineyard and ate as I trotted on along that eternal Via Aemilia . It was towards noon , at last , that a taverner at Castel Guelfo informed me that my party had passed through the town but half an hour ahead of me . At the news I urged my already weary beast along , for unless I made good haste now it might well happen that Parma should swallow up Gambara and his party ere I overtook them . And then , some ten minutes later , I caught a flutter of garments half a mile or so ahead of me , amid the elms . I quitted the road and entered the woodland .