y succeeded in reaching the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, where
they encountered M. Delaherche, intent on picking up the latest news
and seeing what was to be seen. He at once came up and greeted them,
apparently delighted to meet Maurice, to whom he said that he had just
returned from accompanying Captain Beaudoin over to Floing, where the
regiment was posted, and he became, if that were possible, even more
gracious than ever upon learning that Weiss proposed to pass the night
at Bazeilles, where he himself, he declared, had just been telling the
captain that he intended to take a bed, in order to see how things were
looking at the dyehouse.

"We'll go together and be company for each other, Weiss. But first let's
go as far as the Sous-Prefecture; we may be able to catch a glimpse of
the Emperor."

Ever since he had been so near having the famous conversation with him
at Baybel his mind had been full of Napoleon III.; he was not satisfied
until he had induced the two soldiers to accompany him. The Place de la
Sous-Prefecture was comparatively empty; a few men were standing about
in groups, engaged in whispered conversation, while occasionally an
officer hurried by, haggard and careworn. The bright hues of the foliage
were beginning to fade and grow dim in the melancholy, thick-gathering
shades of night; the hoarse murmur of the Meuse was heard as its current
poured onward beneath the houses to the right. Among the whisperers it
was related how the Emperor--who with the greatest difficulty had
been prevailed on to leave Carignan the night before about eleven
o'clock--when entreated to push on to Mezieres had refused point-blank
to abandon the post of danger and take a step that would prove so
demoralizing to the troops. Others asserted that he was no longer in the
city, that he had fled, leaving behind him a dummy emperor, one of his
officers dressed in his uniform, a man whose startling resemblance to
his imperial master had often puzzled the army. Others again declared,
and called upon their honor to substantiate their story, that they
had seen the army wagons containing the imperial treasure, one hundred
millions, all in brand-new twenty-franc pieces, drive into the courtyard
of the Prefecture. This convoy was, in fact, neither more nor less than
the vehicles for the personal use of the Emperor and his suite, the
_char a banc_, the two _caleches_, the twelve baggage and supply wagons,
which had almost excited a riot in