He then complained that the military authorities so seldom consulted him. “This capitulation of Verdun, for instance--I should certainly not have advised that. To undertake to return their arms after peace had been concluded, and still more to let French officials continue the administration as they please. The first condition might pass, as the conditions of peace might provide that the weapons should not be returned. But that _librement_! It ties our hands in the interval, even should they place all kinds of obstacles in our way and act as if there were absolutely no war. They can openly stir up a rising in favour of the Republic, and under this agreement we can do nothing to prevent them.” After dwelling upon this topic for some time, the Minister concluded by saying: “At all events, such a capitulation is unprecedented in history.” Some one referred to the article written by a diplomat in the _Indépendance Belge_ prophesying the restoration of Napoleon. “No doubt,” observed the Chancellor, “Napoleon fancies something of the kind will happen. Moreover, it is not entirely impossible. If he made peace with us he might return with the troops he has now in Germany. Something in the style of Klapka’s Hungarian Legion on a grand scale, to work in co-operation with us. And then his Government is still the legal one. Order being once restored, he would at the outside require an army of 200,000 men for its maintenance. With the exception of Paris, it would not be necessary to garrison the large towns with troops. Perhaps Lyons and Marseilles. The National Guards would be sufficient for the protection of the others. If the republicans were to rise in rebellion they could be bombarded and shelled out.” A telegram reporting Granville’s statement with regard to the Russian declaration concerning the Peace of Paris was sent by the King to the Chief, who read it over to us. It was to the effect that Russia, in taking upon herself to denounce a portion of the Treaty of 1856, assumed the right to set aside the whole on her own initiative, a right which was only possessed by the signatory Powers collectively. England could not tolerate such an arbitrary course, which threatened the validity of all treaties. Future complications were to be apprehended. The Minister smiled, and said: “Future complications! Parliamentary speech-makers! They are not going to venture. The whole tone is also in the future. That is the way in which one speaks when he does not mean to do anything. No, there is nothing to be feared from them now, as there was nothing to be hoped from them four months ago. If at the beginning of the war the English had said to Napoleon, ‘There must be no war,’ there would have been none.”