Having reviewed the situation under pressure from Alexander, the allied ministers decided, at a conference on 2 October, to soften their terms by leaving Givet, Charlemont, Condé and the forts of Joux and l’Écluse to France, knocking 100 million francs off the indemnity and limiting the occupation to a period of five years, with the possibility of reducing it after the first three. The new French ministry of the duc de Richelieu accepted these terms in principle, but there followed weeks of discussion over details, particularly on the indemnity and on certain demands put forward by Alexander,
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