 On February 1, Negrín proposed, in the last meeting of the Cortes in the Figueres Castle, capitulation with the sole condition of respecting the lives of the vanquished and the holding of a plebiscite so the Spanish people could decide the form of government, but Franco did not accept.On February 2, the Nationalists entered Girona, arrived within 50 kilometers of the frontier on February 3, occupied Figueres on February 8 and Rojo ordered the Republican troops to withdraw to the French frontier.Hundreds of thousands of Republican soldiers, women, children and old men marched to the French frontier on foot and on carts, buses and trucks through bitterly cold sleet and snow.