Then General Trochu asked for an armistice of two days to bury
the dead; but his real object was that Jules Favre might enter the
Prussian lines and endeavor to negotiate. Before this took place,
however, Trochu himself resigned his post as military governor. He
had sworn that under him Paris should never capitulate. General
Vinoy took his command.

The moment the Government of Defence was known to be in extreme
difficulty, the Communists issued proclamations and provoked risings.
The Hôtel-de-Ville was again attacked. In this rising famished
women took a prominent part. Twenty-six people were killed in the
_émeute_, and only twenty-eight by that day's bombardment.

On January 23 Jules Favre went out to Versailles. Paris was hushed.
It was not known that negotiations were going on, but all felt
that the end was near at hand. No one, dared to say the word
"capitulate," though some of the papers admitted that by February
3 there would not be a mouthful of bread in the city.

On January 27 the Parisians learned their fate. The following
announcement appeared in the official journal:

"So long as the Government could count on an army of relief, it was
their duty to neglect nothing that could conduce to the prolongation
of the defence of Paris. At present our armies, though still in
existence, have been driven back by the fortune of war.... Under
these circumstances the Government has been absolutely compelled to
negotiate. We have reason to believe that the principle of national
sovereignty will be kept intact by the speedy calling of an Assembly;
that during the armistice the German army will occupy our forts;