there was behind the severe language which, at the midnight meeting, fell from the Chief of that able and sleepless body of chosen men. _Napoleon III. Surrenders._ General de Wimpffen went straight from the military conference to the wearied Emperor who had gone to bed. But he received his visitor, who told him that the proposed conditions were hard, and that the sole chance of mitigation lay in the efforts of His Majesty. “General,” said the Emperor, “I shall start at five o’clock for the German head-quarters, and I shall see whether the King will be more favourable;” for he seems to have become possessed of an idea that King William would personally treat with him. The Emperor kept his word. Believing that he would be permitted to return to Sedan, he drove forth without bidding farewell to any of his troops; but, as the drawbridge of Torcy was lowered and he passed over, the Zouaves on duty shouted “Vive l’Empereur!” This cry was “the last adieu which fell on his ears” as we read in the narrative given to the world on his behalf. He drove in a droshki towards Donchery, preceded by General Reille who, before six o’clock, awoke Count Bismarck from his slumbers, and warned him that the Emperor desired to speak with him. “I went with him directly,” said Bismarck, in a conversation reported by Busch; “and got on my horse, all dusty and dirty as I was, in an old cap and my great waterproof boots, to ride to Sedan where I supposed him to be.” But he met him on the high road near Frénois, “sitting in a two-horse carriage.” Beside him was the Prince de la Moskowa, and on horseback Castlenau and Reille. “I gave the military salute,” says Bismarck. “He took his cap off and the officers did the same; whereupon I took off mine, although it was contrary to rule. He said, ‘Couvrez-vous, donc.’ I behaved to him just as if in St. Cloud, and asked his commands.” Naturally, he wanted to see the King, but that could not be allowed. Then Bismarck placed his quarters in Donchery at the Emperor’s disposal, but he, thinking, as we know, that he would return to the Sub-Prefecture, declined the courtesy, and preferred to rest in a house by the wayside. The cottage of a Belgian weaver unexpectedly became famous; a one-storied house, painted yellow, with white shutters and venetian blinds. He and the Chancellor entered the house, and went up to the first floor where there was “a little room with one window. It was the best in the house, but had only one deal table and two rush-bottomed chairs,” In that lowly abode they talked together of many things for three-quarters of an hour, among others about the origin of the war which, it seems, neither desired, the Emperor asserting, Bismarck reports that “he had been driven into it by the pressure of public opinion,” a very inadequate representation of the curious incidents which preceded the fatal decision. But when the Emperor began to ask for more favourable terms, he was told that,