They were brave men indeed who dared face the perils of a night voyage in an untried balloon, manned by an unskilled pilot, and exposed to the fire of the enemy, into whose hands they ran the greatest risk of falling. It is small wonder there was much excitement in Paris when it became known that the first of the new balloons made during the siege was to take away no less a personage than M. Gambetta, the great statesman, who was at the time, and for long after, the leading man in France. He made his escape by balloon on the 7th of October, accompanied by his secretary and an aeronaut, and managed to reach a safe haven, though not before they had been vigorously fired at by shot and shell, and M. Gambetta himself had actually been grazed on the hand by a bullet. Another distinguished man who hazarded the same perilous feat, though for a very different reason, was M. Janssen, a famous astronomer. On the 22nd of December of that year there was to take place an important total eclipse of the sun, which would be visible in Spain and Algeria. It had long been M. Janssen’s intention to observe this eclipse, and for this purpose he had prepared a special telescope and apparatus; but when the time drew near he found himself and his instruments shut up in besieged Paris, with no possible means of escape except the dangerous and desperate hazard of a voyage by sky. But so great was the astronomer’s enthusiasm for his work, that he resolved to brave even this risk. Taking the essential parts of his telescope with him, and, as aeronaut, an active young sailor, he set sail in the darkness of a winter’s morning, long before dawn, passed safely over the enemy’s lines, and continued the voyage till nearly mid-day, when they sighted the sea, and came down near the mouth of the river Loire, having travelled 300 miles in little more than five hours. Neither Janssen or his telescope were injured in the descent, though the wind was high at the time; and both reached Algeria in time for the eclipse. It must have been a most bitter disappointment to the ardent astronomer, after all his exertions, that when the great day arrived the sun was hidden by clouds, and he was unable to observe the sight for which he had risked so much.