the night before about eleven
o'clock
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 the villages through which they had passed -- Courcelles , le Chene , Raucourt ; assuming in men 's imagination the dimensions of a huge train that had blocked the road and arrested the march of armies , and which now , shorn of their glory , execrated by all , had come in shame and disgrace to hide themselves among the sous-prefect 's lilac bushes .