After packing my kit and getting my papers from the sergeant-major, who chaffed me good-naturedly by saying that now that I was going to be on intimate terms with a general, he hoped I would not put on too much "side," I went round the company to say good-bye. Later I slipped away to Tho's hut in the native village, and told him of my coming departure. The little man was evidently chagrined at the news; nevertheless, he congratulated me most heartily, and made me promise to write to him, saying, with evident pride, that he was now able to read a little French, so that, with the aid of one of the native clerks in the Commissariat Department, he would be able to decipher my letters. We had a grand dinner that evening in the little telegraph station, a tin of salmon and several bottles of beer having been purchased to swell the _menu_ provided by our usual rations. My friends drank to my success, and I to their health and speedy return to France; and it was late in the night before I retired to rest for the last time in the fort which had, with few intervals, been my home for the past fifteen months. Several of my comrades were present to bid me "Godspeed" when, early the next morning, I filed out with the convoy through the gates of our position. Together with several sick men, both Legionaries and _tirailleurs_, who were going down to the hospital, I left Bo-Ha that evening. We descended the river in _sampans_, and reached Phulang-Thuong next morning. On the morning of the 26th July I left for Bac-Ninh with the weekly convoy to Hanoï which carried the mails. We passed through Dap-Cau at noon, and arrived at our destination at 2 P.M. The country we traversed was a big cultivated plain, dotted with villages, with here and there occasional small groups of low hills. At Bac-Ninh there is a small citadel, built, no doubt, towards the end of the eighteenth century by one of the engineers lent by Louis XVI. to his ally, the Emperor of Annam. It is hexagonal in shape, and constructed according to the principles of Vauban. Each of its sides has a frontage of about 1000 yards, and is furnished with numerous flanking bastions and demi-lunes. There was a company of marines, a battalion of the 3rd Regiment of _Tirailleurs Tonkinois_, and about a thousand militia in garrison there. Inside the citadel were the houses of the General Commanding the 2nd Brigade, the Resident of the province, the officers' quarters, the barracks of the troops, the Staff offices, and the lodgings of the soldier-secretary. On my arrival I reported to the Brigade Major, Captain Michaud, who sent me on with an orderly to the Intelligence Department, where I was to be employed. The chief of this office, Lieutenant Cassier, received me very kindly; and, after telling one of the secretaries, a marine, to go and show me where our lodgings were situated, he informed me that I might rest that afternoon, and come to work the next morning.