Besides, military honour required France to keep a fortress that had kept the tricolour flying.

Metz the Germans held, and it was impossible to turn them out.

Obviously the case of Belfort was on a different footing.

In his conference of February 24, Thiers at last defied Bismarck in these words: "No; I will never yield Belfort and Metz in the same breath.

You wish to ruin France in her finances, in her frontiers.