About one in the morning
At midnight the road that leads from the pasture to the plaza was animated like a fair . The windows of the taverns were illuminated , and before them passed linked shadows moving with the steps of the dance to the sound of the pianos . From the inns , the red doorways flashed rectangles of light over the dark ground , and in their interiors arose shouts , laughter , twanging of guitars , and clinking of glasses , a sign that wine circulated in abundance . About one in the morning a horseman passed up the road at a short trot . He was the herald , a rough herder who stopped before the inns and illuminated houses , announcing that the bulls for the penning-in were to pass in a quarter of an hour , and asking that the lights be put out and all remain in silence . This command in the name of the national fiesta was obeyed with more celerity than an order from high authority . The houses were darkened and their whiteness was blended with the sombre mass of the trees ; the people became quiet , hiding themselves behind window-grilles , palisades , and wire-fences , in the silence of those who await an extraordinary event .