. It was the first halt.

"Look at your watch," said Resmith, smiling.

"Ten to, exactly."

"That's right. We have ten minutes in each hour."

All dismounted, examined horses for galls, and looked at their shoes,
took pulls at water-bottles, lit cigarettes, expectorated, coughed,
flicked at flies with handkerchiefs. The party also went past, and
shortly afterwards returned with the stretcher laden.

VI

It was after the long halt at midday that the weather changed. The
horses, martyrized by insects, had been elaborately watered and fed with
immense labour; officers and men had eaten rations and dust from their
haversacks, and for the most part emptied their water-bottles; and the
march had been resumed in a temper captious and somewhat exacerbated.

"Get your horse away; he's kicking mine!" said Captain Resmith
impatiently to George, reflecting the general mood. And George, who was
beginning to experience fatigue in the region of the knees, visited on
his horse the resentment he felt at Resmith's tone.

At precisely that moment some drops of rain fell. Nobody could believe
at first that the drops were raindrops for the whole landscape was
quivering in hot sunshine. However, an examination of the firmament
showed a cloud perpendicularly overhead; the drops multiplied; the cloud
slowly obscured the sun. An almost audible sigh of relief passed down
the line. Everybody was freshened and elated. Some men with an instinct
for the apposite started to sing:

"Shall we gather at the river?"

And nearly the whole Battery joined in the tune. The rain persevered,
thickening. The sun accepted defeat. The sky lost all its blue. Orders
were given as to clothing. George had the sensation that something was
lacking to him, and found that it was an umbrella. On the outskirts of
Ewell the Battery was splashing through puddles of water; the coats of
horses and of men had darkened; guns, poles, and caps carried chaplets
of raindrops; and all those stern riders, so proud and scornful, with
chins hidden in high, upturned collars, and long garments disposed
majestically over their legs and the flanks of the horses, nevertheless
knew in secret that the conquering rain had got down the backs of their
necks, and into their boots and into their very knees but they were
still nobly maintaining the illusion of impermeability against it. The
Battery, riding now stiffly 'eyes front,' was halted unexpectedly in
Ewell, filling the whole