midnight
Maurice experienced a shock of surprise and alarm to learn that once again all their plans were changed , that they were not to fall back on Paris , but proceed to Verdun and effect a junction with Bazaine . There was a report that dispatches had come in during the day from the marshal announcing that he was retreating , and the young man 's thoughts reverted to the officer of chasseurs and his rapid ride from Monthois ; perhaps he had been the bearer of a copy of the dispatch . So , then , the opinions of the Empress-regent and the Council of Ministers had prevailed with the vacillating MacMahon , in their dread to see the Emperor return to Paris and their inflexible determination to push the army forward in one supreme attempt to save the dynasty ; and the poor Emperor , that wretched man for whom there was no place in all his vast empire , was to be bundled to and fro among the baggage of his army like some worthless , worn-out piece of furniture , condemned to the irony of dragging behind him in his suite his imperial household , cent-gardes , horses , carriages , cooks , silver stew-pans and cases of champagne , trailing his flaunting mantle , embroidered with the Napoleonic bees , through the blood and mire of the highways of his retreat . At midnight Maurice was not asleep ; he was feverishly wakeful , and his gloomy reflections kept him tossing and tumbling on his pallet . He finally arose and went outside , where he found comfort and refreshment in the cool night air . The sky was overspread with clouds , the darkness was intense ; along the front of the line the expiring watch-fires gleamed with a red and sullen light at distant intervals , and in the deathlike , boding silence could be heard the long-drawn breathing of the hundred thousand men who slumbered there . Then Maurice became more tranquil , and there descended on him a sentiment of brotherhood , full of compassionate kindness for all those slumbering fellow-creatures , of whom thousands would soon be sleeping the sleep of death .