Jules Favre met Bismarck on September 18th.  They had a long conversation that evening, and it was continued the next day at Ferneres, Baron Rothschild’s house, in which the King was at that time quartered.  The French envoy did not make a favourable impression; a lawyer by profession, he had no experience in diplomatic negotiations; vain, verbose, rhetorical, and sentimental, his own report of the interview which he presented to his colleagues in Paris is sufficient evidence of his incapacity for the task he had taken upon himself.  “He spoke to me as if I were a public meeting,” said Bismarck afterwards, using an expression which in his mouth was peculiarly contemptuous, for he had a platonic dislike of long speeches.  But let us hear Favre himself: 

“Although fifty-eight years of, age Count Bismarck appeared to be in full vigour.  His tall figure, his powerful head, his strongly marked features gave him an aspect both imposing and severe, tempered, however, by a natural simplicity amounting to good-nature.  His manners were courteous and grave, and quite free from stiffness or affectation.  As soon as the conversation commenced he displayed a communicativeness and good-will which he preserved while it lasted.  He certainly regarded me as a negotiator unworthy of him and he had the politeness not to let this be seen, and appeared interested by my sincerity.  I was struck with the clearness of his ideas, his vigorous good sense, and his originality of mind.  His freedom from all pretensions was no less remarkable.”

It is interesting to compare with this the account given by another Frenchman of one of the later interviews between the two men[11]: 

“The negotiations began seriously and quietly.  The Chancellor said simply and seriously what he wanted with astonishing frankness and admirable logic.  He went straight to the mark and at every turn he disconcerted Jules Favre, who was accustomed to legal quibbles and diplomatic jobbery, and did not in the least understand the perfect loyalty of his opponent or his superb fashion of treating questions, so different from the ordinary method.  The Chancellor expressed himself in French with a fidelity I have never met with except among the Russians.  He made use of expressions at once elegant and vigorous, finding the proper word to describe an idea or define a situation without effort or hesitation.”

“I was at the outset struck by the contrast between the two negotiators.  Count Bismarck wore the uniform of the White Cuirassiers, white tunic, white cap, and yellow band.  He looked like a giant.  In his tight uniform, with his broad chest and square shoulders and bursting with health and strength, he overwhelmed the stooping, thin, tall, miserable-looking lawyer with his frock coat, wrinkled all over, and his white hair falling over his collar.  A look, alas, at the pair was sufficient to distinguish between the conqueror and the conquered, the strong and the weak.”

This, however, was four months later, when Jules Favre was doubtless much broken by the anxieties of his position, and perhaps also by the want of sufficient food, and Comte d’Herisson is not an impartial witness, for, though a patriotic Frenchman, he was an enemy of the Minister.