Metternich continued negotiations with the French envoy Caulaincourt through early to mid March 1814, when victory at the Laon put the Coalition back on the offensive. By this time Metternich was tiring of trying to hold the Coalition together, and even the British-engineered Treaty of Chaumont did not help. In the absence of the Prussians and Russians the Coalition agreed to the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty. Francis rejected a final plea from Napoleon that he would abdicate in favour of his son with Marie Louise as regent, and Paris fell on 30 March. Military manoeuvres had forced Metternich westward to Dijon on 24 March and now, after a deliberate delay, he left for the French capital on 7 April. On 10 April he found a city at peace and, much to his annoyance, largely in the control of Tsar Alexander. The Austrians disliked the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau that Russia had imposed on Napoleon in their absence, but Metternich was reluctant to oppose them and on 11 April signed the treaty. Thereafter he focused on safeguarding Austrian interests in the forthcoming peace; asserting Austria's influence in Germany over that of Prussia; and undoing Russian ascendancy. For these reasons he ensured that the Italian provinces of Lombardy and Venetia, lost to French client states in 1805, were duly re-annexed.