noon
And on that she departed , with her little gray felt hat jauntily tilted over her ear . The cannonade and firing redoubled and came nearer . Evidently there was fighting very near us , quite close to us . The next day towards noon we saw them both come back , the General and Mme. General . And in what a condition ! Panting , frightened , forbidding , with clothes white with dust , and hands and faces black with powder . The General was wounded in the left hand , he had twisted around his wrist a handkerchief bathed in blood .