laherche! isn't this dreadful! Here, quick! this way, if you
would like to see the Emperor."

On the left of the corridor a door stood ajar, and through the narrow
opening a glimpse could be had of the sovereign, who had resumed his
weary, anguished tramp between the fireplace and the window. Back and
forth he shuffled with heavy, dragging steps, and ceased not, despite
his unendurable suffering. An aide-de-camp had just entered the room--it
was he who had failed to close the door behind him--and Delaherche heard
the Emperor ask him in a sorrowfully reproachful voice:

"What is the reason of this continued firing, sir, after I gave orders
to hoist the white flag?"

The torture to him had become greater than he could bear, that
never-ceasing cannonade, that seemed to grow more furious with every
minute. Every time he approached the window it pierced him to the heart.
More spilling of blood, more useless squandering of human life! At every
moment the piles of corpses were rising higher on the battlefield, and
his was the responsibility. The compassionate instincts that entered so
largely into his nature revolted at it, and more than ten times already
he had asked that question of those who approached him.

"I gave orders to raise the white flag; tell me, why do they continue
firing?"

The aide-de-camp made answer in a voice so low that Delaherche failed to
catch its purport. The Emperor, moreover, seemed not to pause to listen,
drawn by some irresistible attraction to that window at which, each time
he approached it, he was greeted by that terrible salvo of artillery
that rent and tore his being. His pallor was greater even than it had
been before; his poor, pinched, wan face, on which were still visible
traces of the rouge that had been applied that morning, bore witness to
his anguish.

At that moment a short, quick-motioned man in dust-soiled uniform, whom
Delaherche recognized as General Lebrun, hurriedly crossed the corridor
and pushed open the door, without waiting to be announced. And scarcely
was he in the room when again was heard the Emperor's so oft repeated
question.

"Why do they continue to fire, General, when I have given orders to
hoist the white flag?"

The aide-de-camp left the apartment, shutting the door behind him, and
Delaherche never knew what was the general's answer. The vision had
faded from his sight.

"Ah!" said Rose, "things are going badly; I can see that clearly enough
by all tho