At the Sous-Prefecture Delaherche failed to find Rose at her usual station in the janitor’s lodge.  Everywhere were evidences of disorder; all the doors were standing open; the reign of terror had commenced.  As there was no sentry or anyone to prevent, he went upstairs, encountering on the way only a few scared-looking men, none of whom made any offer to stop him.  He had reached the first story and was hesitating what to do next when he saw the young girl approaching him.

“Oh, M. Delaherche! 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.