III.  The soldiers to give up arms and banners; officers to keep their swords.

IV.  The armistice to extend all over France.

V. Paris to pay indemnity, and give up its forts to the Prussians.

VI.  The Germans not to enter Paris during the armistice.

VII.  Elections to be held throughout France for a National Assembly charged to consider conditions of peace.

Some slight modifications were made in these hard terms, which were signed Jan. 28, 1871.

As aide-de-camp and secretary to the French minister, d’Herisson was present at all the interviews between Bismarck and his principal.  When the terms, proposed by Germany were reported by Jules Favre to the Committee of Defence, they were thought less severe than had been feared.

The next morning Favre and d’Herisson were at Versailles by dawn.  Bismarck, who was an early riser, soon appeared, and took the minister and his aide-de-camp to his study.  There the two men talked, and the secretary took notes of the conversation.

Bismarck and Favre presented a great contrast.  Bismarck was then fifty-five years of age; Jules Favre was six years older.  Bismarck wore the uniform of a colonel of White Cuirassiers,—­a white coat, a white cap, and yellow trimmings.  He seemed like a colossus, with his square shoulders and his mighty strength.  Jules Favre, on the contrary, was tall and thin, bowed down by a sense of his position, wearing a black frock-coat that had become too wide for him, with his white hair resting on its collar.  He was especially urgent that the National Guard in Paris should retain its arms.  He consented to the disarmament of the Mobiles and the army, but he said it would be impossible to disarm the National Guard.  At length Bismarck yielded this point, but with superior sagacity remarked:  “So be it.  But believe me you are doing a foolish thing.  Sooner or later you will be sorry you did not disarm those unquiet spirits.  Their arms will be turned against you.”

When the question was raised concerning the indemnity to be paid by Paris, Bismarck said, laughing, that Paris was so great a lady, it would be an indignity to ask of her less than a milliard of francs ($200,000,000).  The ransom was finally settled at two hundred millions of francs ($40,000,000).

“The dinner-hour having arrived, the chancellor invited us,” says d’Herisson, “to take seats at his table.  Jules Favre, who wanted to write out carefully the notes I had taken, begged to have his dinner sent up to him; so I alone followed the chancellor to the dining-room, where about a dozen military and civil functionaries were assembled, but all were in uniform.  The chancellor, who sat at the head of the table, placed me on his right.  There was plenty of massive silver, belonging evidently to a travelling case.  The only deficiency was in light, the table being illuminated by only two wax candles stuck in empty wine-bottles.  This was the only evidence of a time of war.”