¶ On Sunday, February 26, the preliminaries of peace were signed. As Thiers signed, Bismarck took him by the hand, saying, “You are the last who ought to have been burdened by France with this sorrow—for of all Frenchmen you have the least deserved it!”
¶ Bismarck, radiant with joy, signed the papers with a new golden pen sent him for this express purpose by the ladies of the German town of Pforsheim.
¶ Said M. Favre: “The countenance of M. de Bismarck was most happy. With theatrical pomp, he sent for a golden pen.... M. Thiers approached the little table on which lay the documents; he wrote his name without betraying the feelings that tortured him. I tried to imitate him, and we withdrew. The sacrifice was accomplished.
¶ “As a special understanding, it was agreed that the siege should be lifted that morning at four o’clock and that France should fire the last shot.
¶ “What sentiment in this, for Paris! Along then, in the deep night that precedes the dawn, with the sky illuminated by occasional flashes of the siege guns, at last the fire lessened, slackened gradually, and then solemn silence fell. Suddenly, through the night, a loud report was heard from the Paris ramparts, followed by a path of fire through the sky; this immediately died away, and deep silence, now unbroken, continued.
¶ “The long siege was over!”
¶ On the third day after signing the hard conditions, 30,000 German troops made their triumphal entry into Paris, after being reviewed on the plain of Longchamps.
With the victorious Prussians, Bismarck rode as far as the Arc de Triomphe.
¶ It was one of the greatest incidents of his eventful life.