about noon
In fact , with the sense of prospective security , he tasted a luxurious amazement in being moved about by a superior will , wafted from his inn , and paid for witnessing strange incidents . Angelo took care that he was fed well at the place where they slept , but himself ate nothing . Early after dawn they mounted the heights above the road . It was about noon that Angelo discerned a party coming from the pass on foot , consisting of two women and three men . They rested an hour at the village where he had slept overnight ; the muskets were a quarter of a mile to the rear of them . When they started afresh , one of the muskets was discharged , and while the echoes were rolling away , a reply to it sounded in the front . Angelo , from his post of observation , could see that Vittoria and her party were marching between two guards , and that she herself must have perceived both the front and rearward couple .