Pain quickly got back into contact with the French Press, and in 1877 he was dispatched to report on the Russo-Turkish War for "La Lanterne". Bluffing his way into Plevna without a "firman" from the Ottoman Sultan giving him permission to be there, Pain managed to befriend Osman Nuri Pasha, and was present in the city throughout the siege and at its capture by the Russians, as a consequence spending the rest of the war imprisoned. In 1880, he was finally able to return to France due to a general amnesty for communards.