midday
These disagreeable reflections did not trouble me long , and then I began to feel considerable excitement at the prospect of a brush with the government troops . My thoughts kept me awake most of the night ; still , next morning , when the trumpet sounded its shrill réveillé close at hand , I rose quickly , and in a much more cheerful mood than I had known of late . I began to feel that I was getting the better of that insane passion for Dolores which had made us both so unhappy , and when we were once more in the saddle the `` Castilian gravity , '' to which the General had satirically alluded , had pretty well vanished . No expeditions were sent out that day ; after we had marched about twelve or thirteen miles eastward and nearer to the immense range of the Cuchilla Grande , we encamped , and after the midday meal spent the afternoon in cavalry exercises . On the next day happened the great event for which we had been preparing , and I am positive that , with the wretched material he commanded , no man could have done more than Santa Coloma , though , alas ! all his efforts ended in disaster . Alas , I say , not because I took , even then , any very serious interest in Oriental politics , but because it would have been greatly to my advantage if things had turned out differently .