Having failed to reach an agreement on armistice terms, Thiers tried to uncover the Germans' intentions for the peace treaty. Bismarck threatened that the terms for peace would get harsher the longer the war lasted. As of 5 November, he was demanding Alsace with Strasbourg, part of Lorraine not including Metz and an indemnity of 4,000,000,000 francs. On that date, on the Pont de Sèvres, between the German and French lines, Thiers met Favre and counselled acceptance of Bismarck's terms. He offered to take "the responsibility and odium of signing a treaty", according to a letter of Lord Lyons, but Favre would not agree. On 6 November Thiers was back at Versailles when Favre ordered him to break off negotiations and go to Tours. He was escorted to the French lines by German soldiers and from there took a train to Tours. He arrived sitting atop a heap of coal. There was no effort to end the war by diplomatic means between 6 November 1870 and 23 January 1871. During that period Favre and Ernest Picard were the only voices in the government advocating a capitulation or a "sortie torrentielle", a major military undertaking. By 27 December, when howitzers had begun to strike the Parisian fortresses, the city was facing famine and loss of morale. On 5 January the residential areas of the city fell under bombardment. The last gasp of French military resistance came at the battle of Buzenval on 19 January. They were defeated. On 20 January Trochu asked for a local armistice to bury the dead, but Bismarck refused. The French president resigned, and on 22 January when a council of war proposed a second mass sortie, there was no officer willing to lead it. On 23 January, Favre was empowered by the cabinet to seek a general armistice, as opposed to the armistice limited to Paris that Trochu favoured. Such a local ceasefire, Favre argued, would only give the Germans the freedom to concentrate their military power on the provincial armies. Favre was not empowered to negotiate a treaty, since that was supposed to only follow elections to a national assembly. He was to permit the disarming of regular soldiers, but not of the National Guard, whose disarming was either feared lest it result in a popular uprising or promoted lest the Guard initiate an uprising. He was not to concede the Germans entry into Paris. He arrived at Versailles under a safe conduct later that evening.