General Werther readily acceded to the proposal, and on the 2nd of March, Baron de X*** presented himself at the outpost with a German envoy. The colonel received the German officer and the baron in a room in one of the ruined barracks. The German envoy first asked for an exchange of prisoners. This was readily granted by the colonel. Then the Baron de X*** began in his turn to explain the object of his visit. Scarcely had he begun when the colonel stopped him: "I do not know, and do not desire to know, sir, whether you come here to speak for yourself alone or as the representative of a certain number of your countrymen; but I will answer you briefly and clearly. I am here on the authority of superior orders to defend the place against the enemies of the country. The political inducements which you urge have not the slightest weight with me. I utterly ignore them. I shall not surrender the place unless compelled by force or ordered to do so by the Emperor's Government. Permit me to add, sir, that the part you are performing to-day is not an honourable one. What do you think of it, _Monsieur le capitaine_?" added he, turning to the German officer. The latter merely bowed slightly. "The prisoners shall be exchanged this very day, if you desire it, man for man," said the colonel, rising. "As to you, sir, if you had not come here protected by a flag of truce, I should have you tried, and probably shot before the garrison, ere sunset." And dismissing his two visitors, the governor enjoined on the officer commissioned to accompany them back to the outposts not to allow them to have any communication with anyone. The besieger from this day forwards was but slow in carrying on his approach works; he contented himself with terminating the second parallel and setting up three batteries of six pieces each, which opened fire on the 6th of March upon the faces right and left of bastions II. and III., and on the left face of demi-lune No. 2, with the evident intention of making a breach at four hundred yards' distance. Three mortar batteries covered the works with bombs. The Germans were evidently intending to keep the garrison occupied, and put it out of heart; waiting the chance of political events to put the place in their hands. Of the four thousand men under General Werther's command, and who had been reduced to three thousand four hundred by the losses sustained, it was necessary to send one thousand to Troyes; only two thousand five hundred men therefore remained before La Roche-Pont. Besides, the general had received orders to run no risks, but limit himself to a surveillance of the passages from the Saône to the Marne, and blockading the garrison of La Roche-Pont, keeping it sufficiently employed to prevent its taking the offensive, but without losing men in the capture of so insignificant a place. On the other hand, the royalists of the lower town were constantly predicting the end of hostilities and the return of the Bourbons.