The biggest war reparations demanded before the Versailles Treaty was 5.5billion in gold francs demanded by Prussia from France after its victory over it in the war of 1870-71.

One morning, on his return from the law-school, Marius found a letter from his aunt, and the sixty pistoles, that is to say, six hundred francs in gold, in a sealed box.

The woman selected a gold chain worth about five louis, and the husband a pair of buckles. worth perhaps fifteen francs.