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.

Bismarck in granting the interview had said that he would not discuss an
armistice, but only terms of peace. For the reasons we have explained,
Favre refused to listen even to the proposition of the only terms which
Bismarck was empowered to bring forward. The Chancellor explained those
ideas with which we are already acquainted: "Strasburg," he said, "is
the key of our house and we must have it." Favre protested that he could
not discuss conditions which were so dishonourable to France. On this
expression we need only quote Bismarck's comment:

"I did not succeed in convincing him that conditions, the
fulfilment of which France had required from Italy, and demanded
from Germany without having been at war, conditions which France
would undoubtedly have imposed upon us had we been defeated and
which had been the result of nearly every war, even in the latest
time, could not have anything dishonourable in themselves for a
country which had been defeated after a brave resistance, and
that the honour of France was not of a