About eleven o'clock
The army , under the pushing and hauling process , pushed back to the rear by General Ducrot during the hour and a half while the command was in his hands , hauled forward to the front again by de Wimpffen , his successor , knew not where to yield obedience , and the entire lack of plan and competent leadership , the incomprehensible vacillation , the abandonment of positions only to retake them again at terrible cost of life , all these things could not fail to end in ruin and disaster . From there Delaherche pushed forward to the Sous-Prefecture to ascertain whether the Emperor had returned yet from the field of battle . The only tidings he gleaned here were of Marshal MacMahon , who was said to be resting comfortably , his wound , which was not dangerous , having been dressed by a surgeon . About eleven o'clock , however , as he was again going the rounds , his progress was arrested for a moment in the Grande-Rue , opposite the Hotel de l'Europe , by a sorry cavalcade of dust-stained horsemen , whose jaded nags were moving at a walk , and at their head he recognized the Emperor , who was returning after having spent four hours on the battle-field . It was plain that death would have nothing to do with him . The big drops of anguish had washed the rouge from off those painted cheeks , the waxed mustache had lost its stiffness and drooped over the mouth , and in that ashen face , in those dim eyes , was the stupor of one in his last agony . One of the officers alighted in front of the hotel and proceeded to give some friends , who were collected there , an account of their route , from la Moncelle to Givonne , up the entire length of the little valley among the soldiers of the 1st corps , who had already been pressed back by the Saxons across the little stream to the right bank ; and they had returned by the sunken road of the Fond de Givonne , which was even then in such an encumbered condition that had the Emperor desired to make his way to the front again he would have found the greatest difficulty in doing so .