Ten
o'clock
Since he had quitted the Panorama he felt as though he no longer knew where he was . It seemed to him as if he had all at once been transported from one to another town , parted by centuries . He had left the solitude , the slumbering peacefulness of old Lourdes , which the dead light of the vellum had increased , to fall at last into new Lourdes , sparkling with brightness and noisy with the crowd . Ten o'clock had just struck , and extraordinary animation reigned on the footways , where before breakfast an entire people was hastening to complete its purchases , so that it might have nothing but its departure to think of afterwards . The thousands of pilgrims of the national pilgrimage streamed along the thoroughfares and besieged the shops in a final scramble . You would have taken the cries , the jostling , and the sudden rushes for those at some fair just breaking up amidst a ceaseless roll of vehicles . Many , providing themselves with provisions for the journey , cleared the open-air stalls where bread and slices of sausages and ham were sold .