In the meantime the remainder of us had a long wait at Cheffy for the return of the Chancellor, and then--probably with his permission--drove on to Ferrières, which we reached in about two hours. On the way we passed along the edge of the zone which the French had designedly laid waste all round Paris. Here the destruction was not very marked, but the population of the villages seemed to have been in great part driven away by the Gardes Mobiles. At length, just as it began to grow dark, we entered the village of Ferrières, and shortly afterwards Rothschild’s estate. The King and the first section of his suite took up their quarters for a considerable time in this château. The Minister was to lodge in the last three rooms on the first floor of the right wing, looking out on the meadows and the park. A large drawing-room on the ground floor was selected for the bureau, and a smaller one of the same corridor as a breakfast and dining-room. Baron Rothschild was in Paris, and only left behind him three or four female domestics and a housekeeper, who gave himself great airs of importance. It was already dark when the Chief arrived, and shortly after we sat down to dinner. While we were still at table a message was received from Favre, asking when he could come to continue the negotiations. He had a conference _tête-à-tête_ with the Chancellor in our bureau from 9.30 P.M. until after 11. On leaving he looked distressed, crestfallen, almost in despair--my diary remarks that possibly this expression was assumed with the object of impressing the Minister.