_May 1st._--According to a communication of yesterday’s date, from Fabrice, Colonel de la Haye had said to him, that probably a memorial from Thiers would be received, and not the Note from Favre, which had been announced, and that Favre had repeatedly declared that France was now fulfilling the obligations which she had undertaken, would continue to do so, and was prepared to conclude peace, and to recognise the preliminaries as merely intended to lead up to it. In return, he asked for permission to attack Paris by way of Epinay, and the Northern Railway line, through St. Denis, and that the Commune should be called upon, in accordance with the Convention, to withdraw its troops from the enceinte. The colonel requested Fabrice to inform the Chancellor of this. Should the latter decline, the French Government would be able to say, in the presence of Europe, that it had discharged its duty to the best of its ability, but that Germany prevented it from offering an effective resistance to the insurrection. Favre declared that he had exhausted all his resources, and that it was now necessary to know whether Prussia wished to favour the Government or the Commune. De la Haye had expressed a strong desire that Fabrice should not communicate this statement to the Chief, before the receipt of Thiers’ memorial. Fabrice, first of all, begged the Frenchman to hasten the despatch of the letter, but, also before that was done, to explain to Favre the significance and consequences of the demand which he expected us to make upon the Commune for the disarmament of the enceinte, a point upon which Favre did not, at the moment, appear to be quite clear. To this the Prince replied immediately, that we were not _bound_ by any Convention to help the French Government, although we were justified in demanding from it the disarmament of the enceinte, and eventually enforcing the same, if we found it to be in our interest. The latter, however, was not the case. We had no interest in overthrowing the opponents of the French Government at the cost of German blood, so long as that Government did not carry out the stipulations of the preliminary treaty, but sought, on the contrary, to alter them to our prejudice. With the object of dissipating the mistrust that had arisen in this way, by means of a personal discussion of stronger guarantees, or of a fixed term for the payment of the five milliards, the Chancellor finally proposed to Favre that they should meet at Frankfurt or Mainz on any day he chose to select. As I saw later, Favre telegraphed that he would be in Frankfurt on Friday, and the Chief replied that he would arrive there on Saturday--perhaps because he considers Friday unlucky.