Year: 1877

loon from Belcaguered Paris.


The following, says Figaro, is an abso-
lutely true account of that famous voy-
age in balloon by which NJ Gambetta
| escaped from beleaguered Paris. The
details have hitherto been but imperfect
ly known to the public. We are fortu-
nately enabled to give them as they
came, lately, from NJ. Gambetta's own
ips-not, indeed, in our hearing, but in
that of several persons who merit our
entire confidence.


NJ. Gambetta was dining the other day
with lady holding e high position in
Partisan society. After dinner the illus
trious dictator, in compliance with a
very general request, turned round in
his chair, and related some passages of
! his curious and eventfill life


OF course he soon had to say some
thing about the siege of Paris. He
talked of his dream of a prolonged re-
sistance, and went on to show how he
came to make up his mind to leave the
city by balloon. At length all was ready
for his fight through the air; he bought
furs, took with him the inseparable
Spuller, jumped into the car andconfded
Caesar and his fortunes to the care of the
aeronaut. The latter, as we shall pres
emily see, was so sensible of the honor
that on the strength of it he treated him
self to o remarkably good dinner as
preparation for the journey.
! And now we had better let the hero of
the adventure relate it in his own words,
which, as we may again assure our read
ers, have been exactly reproduced in the
| following account:


"When we started" he said, in his
purest Gascon accent, 81 had terrible
attack of bronchitis Everybody was
saying IF you go you are dead man. ,
The S0v0nts especially assured me that
the temperature would be ice cold.
Luckily, had my furs-those furs that
people have said so much about since
then-and off we went. Once fairly
clear of the earth | found it so hot that
1 was glad to throw off all my wrappers.
( So much for the Sdvants. That's why
L never cared to learn anything. Science
pooh In five or six hours the bal
loon stopped. [ shook the aeronaut,
who had fallen asleep. Where are we 2
Over the Oise, he replied, lust on the
boundary of the department. of the Som
me and Oise.' Are you sure?' 'Oh,
monsieur, [ know the country as well as
I know my own pocket. And in fact,
after looking at my map, and then at the
landscape, found we were above the
Disc, or, at least, above q river. 1t was
the Oise on something else. let it be the
Disc. The point was to know whether
we were still over the Prussian lines or
among our own people. Well, just then,
directly under the car, saw building,
a sort of farm, with a large square court
yard in which number of men were
lying down with theirpiled arms in their
midst. who are they?' ooh mon
sieur,' says he, for certain they are
Gardes Mobiles; we are in the French
lines. The devil We are, said L; but
are you sure of it?-because, it for my
part, you know cannot recognize the
uniforms Perfectly sure Down
we go then, and down we went, till VIC
were not more than seven or eight hun
dred metres from the earth, when we
heard Il German challenge, 'Wer da 2
and saw mighty hustle in the court
yard--the men jumped up, seizing their
arms and beginning to shoot at the bal
loon. And the aeronaut had slipped the
grappler! He was drunk. had just
time to whip out my knife, cut the cord
and pitch him to the bottom of the car
with q threat that, if he stirred, I'd
throw him over. Then we began to
mount again, but slowly enough, as it
seemed to me, for we could hear the
music of the bullets, though at that dis
tance they could not have done us much
harm. [ verify believe that if we had
leaned over we might have caught them
in our hands. In fact, I know we
could, for 1 afterward made the expert


ment at Tours, by setting some chas-
seurs to fire on captive balloon fixed
at about the same height The balls


had no appreciable effect. After awhile
the balloon stopped, then begun to de-


cend once more, with the Prussians still
watching it's motions.


"We were again near the river, SO We
had no better alternative than to drop
into the water or into the arms of the
enemy. scribbled dispatch to let my


colleagues know how we stood, and sent
it off by pigeon, but the bird came
back to the car-no doubt having lost its
way. We were still dropping down, SC
, at last there seemed to be but one hope
the Oise. AS to our getting over the
river to the French side before We fell,
it was not to be thought of there was
not an inch of air. All this while Spul.
Ter had been smoking his cigar like g
philosopher. At last he said, with 6
smile: 'The Disc, the Disc; that's all
very well for you; you know how tc


swim, but may as well tell you 1 don't.
Stuff L said; I'll look after you.
Still we shot down, when on q sudden
puff; there was breath of air, but
such a slight one that made joke Of
J it, and told Spuller it was only the
smoke of his cigar The gods had come
to our aid. The balloon passed the river


and made straight for the top of an oak.


You've no idea how uncomfortable it is


to come down ON the top of an oak-lit.


tie branches without end, and all that
, However, we landed, and were--saved. >
The Lady of the House" Very good
but you must have had just little
scare"


f Gambetta-"Oh, madame, not the
| least in the world.