Its proprietor was in bed, and when they knocked at his door his wife cried out from the window, "My husband is a coward and won't open." A voice from within was heard saying, "I go out at night for no one." So they laid hands on the horse and harnessed it to a gig.

All night long they drove in what they supposed was the direction of the Prussian outposts, trumpeting occasionally like elephants in a jungle.

In the morning they found themselves in a desert, not a living soul to be seen, so they turned back towards Paris, got close in to the forts, and started in another direction.

Occasionally they discerned a distant Uhlan, who rode off when he saw them.

On Friday night they slept among the Francs-tireurs, and on the following morning they pushed forward again with an escort.