In less than three weeks they were fighting for their existence on their own soil.
In less than a month the French emperor was a prisoner, and in seven weeks his empire had ceased to exist.
The surrender of Metz, August 4th, and of Sedan, September 2d, were monumental disasters.

With the news of the latter, and of the capture of the emperor, the Assembly immediately declared the empire at an end, and proclaimed a third republic in France.
Two hundred and fifty thousand German troops were marching on Paris.
Fortifications were rapidly thrown about the city, and the siege, which was to last four months, had commenced.
The capitulation, which was inevitable from the first, took place in January, 1871.

The terms of peace offered by the Germans were accepted, including the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, and an enormous war indemnity.
The Germans were in Paris, and King William, the Crown Prince (_Unser Fritz_), Bismarck, and Von Moltke were quartered at Versailles; and in that place, saturated with historic memories, there was enacted a strange and unprecedented scene.

On January 18, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors, King William of Prussia was formally proclaimed Emperor of a new German Empire.

Ludwig II., that picturesque young King of Bavaria, in the name of the rest of the German states, laid their united allegiance at his feet, and begged him to accept the crown of a united Germany.
Moved by his colossal misfortunes, and perhaps partly in displeasure at having a French republic once more at her door, England offered asylum to the deposed emperor.