There is nothing ruffles the temper so much as getting up in the dark, fumbling with your buckles and straps, and finding everyone else just as surly and cross as you feel yourself.

It was considered a necessary part of my training that I should turn out and arm myself at all times of the night.

It was the part of my exercises that I hated the most." Philip laughed.
"It will not make much difference here, Francois.

I don't like getting out of a warm bed, myself, on a dark winter's morning; but as there will be certainly no undressing tonight, and we shall merely have to get up and shake the straw off us, it will not matter much.

By half-past five it will be beginning to get light.
At any rate, we should not mind it tomorrow, as it will be really our first day of military service." Up to a late hour fresh arrivals continued to pour in, and the cooks and servants of the castle were kept hard at work, administering to the wants of the hungry and tired men.