THE EMPEROR DREAMS Within a mean room, which had hastily been prepared for his use, upon a camp bed, having cast himself down, fully clothed as he was, lay the worn-out, dispirited, embittered Emperor.

He sought sleep in vain.
Since Leipsic, with its horrible disaster a few months before, one reverse of fortune had succeeded another.

He who had entered every country a conqueror at the head of his armies, whose myriads of soldiers had overrun every land, eating it up with ruthless greed and rapacity, and spreading destruction far and wide, was now at bay.

He who had dictated terms of peace in all the capitals of Europe at the head of triumphant legions was now with a small, weak, ill-equipped, unfed army, striving to protect his own capital.

France was receiving the pitiless treatment which she had accorded other lands.