The Emperor walked nervously up and down the long, low-ceiled
apartment, the common room of the public inn at Nogent. Grouped around
a long table in the center of the room several secretaries were busy
with orders, reports and dispatches. At one end stood a group of
officers of high rank in rich uniforms whose brilliance was shrouded by
heavy cloaks falling from their shoulders and gathered about them, for
the air was raw and chill, despite a great fire burning in a huge open
fireplace. Their cloaks and hats were wet, their boots and trousers
splashed with mud, and in general they were travel-stained and weary.
They eyed the Emperor, passing and repassing, in gloomy silence mixed
with awe. In their bearing no less than in their faces was expressed a
certain unwonted fierce resentment, which flamed up and became more
evident when the Emperor turned his back in his short, restless march
to and fro, but which subsided as suddenly when he had them under
observation. By the door was stationed a young officer in the uniform
of the Fifth Regiment of the infantry of the line. He stood quietly at
attention, and was evidently there on duty.

From time to time officers, orderlies and couriers came into the room,
bearing dispatches. These were handed to the young officer and by him
passed over to the Emperor. Never since the days of Job had any man
perhaps been compelled to welcome such a succession of bearers of evil
tidings as Napoleon on that winter night.

The Emperor's face was pale always, but there was an ashy grayness
about his pallor in that hour that marked a difference. His face was
lined and seamed, not to say haggard. The mask of imperturbability he
usually wore was down. He looked old, tired, discouraged. His usual
iron self-control and calm had given place to an overwhelming
nervousness and incertitude. He waved his hands, he muttered to
himself, his mouth twitched awry from time to time as he walked.

"Well, messieurs," he began at last, in sharp, rather high-pitched
notes--even his voice sounded differently--as he lifted his eyes from
perusing the latest dispatch and faced the uneasy group by the
fireplace, "you are doubtless anxious to know the news." The Emperor
stepped over to the table as he spoke, and gathered up a handful of
dispatches and ran over them with his hands. "It is all set forth
here: The Germans and the English have shut up Carnot in Antwerp," he
continued rapidly, throwing one