nearly eleven o'clock
The movement to the north was dictated by the marshal 's intense anxiety to place the river between his army and the enemy ; cost what it might , they must be on the right bank that night . The rear-guard had not yet left Osches when a Prussian battery , recommencing the performance of the previous day , began to play on them from a distant eminence , over in the direction of Saint-Pierremont . They made the mistake of firing a few shots in reply ; then the last of the troops filed out of the town . Until nearly eleven o'clock the 106th slowly pursued its way along the road which zigzags through the pass of Stonne between high hills . On the left hand the precipitous summits rear their heads , devoid of vegetation , while to the right the gentler slopes are clad with woods down to the roadside . The sun had come out again , and the heat was intense down in the inclosed valley , where an oppressive solitude prevailed . After leaving la Berliere , which lies at the foot of a lofty and desolate mountain surmounted by a Calvary , there is not a house to be seen , not a human being , not an animal grazing in the meadows .