"Hurrah! Run off to my rooms and fetch my double-barrelled pistols; have my horse saddled, and come and rejoin me at Le Bourget." I have forgotten to mention that, out of the first proceeds of _Christine_, I had bought a horse of that same Chopin who, on the morning of the 29th, had been taken for the emperor upon the place de l'Odéon. "What is Le Bourget?" Bard asked. "Le Bourget is the first relay posting-station on the road to Soissons." "Why take your horse, then, if there is a relay post?" "Ah! in case the post-master should have sent out all his horses; they may have been seized. That is the reason I cannot take my carriage, because of the barricades and because all the posting-masters have not post-carriages in their sheds in spite of the law which legally compels them to have them. Then you see, my dear fellow, if we find a carriage, we will take it; if we only find one horse, we will ride side by side at full speed; if we find neither one nor the other, we shall still have my horse, and you must ride behind me, and we will represent the finest half of the four sons of Aymon." "I understand." "Then fetch my horse and the pistols, and whichever reaches Le Bourget first, waits for the other." "I will fly the whole way!" cried Bard, as he dashed off towards the quay Pelletier. "And I also," I replied, as I ran off down the rue de la Vannerie, which led straight into the rue Saint-Martin, my most direct way for reaching La Villette. One word about what was passing while Bart was running along the quay Pelletier and I was scampering down the rue Saint-Martin. Étienne Arago returned to the _National_ office when he had dispersed his men. "Do you know the news?" Stapfer asked him. "What news?" "Thiers is found once more." "Pooh! Where is he, then?" "He is up there, and has begun searching for some subject to write a leader on." "Well, then, I will take him one." "You know nobody is allowed to enter his office when he is working?" "Rubbish! Haven't we been into the king's study?" "Well, then, go in. You can give him that reason as an excuse, and he will indeed be hard to please if he is not satisfied with it." Arago entered. Thiers turned round to see who had the impertinence to defy his orders. He recognised Arago, who had played a very important rôle in the drama being enacted. The frowning face of the famous political writer softened when he saw who it was. "Oh! it is you!" he said. "Yes.... I have hunted you out to give you a subject for an article." "What is it?" Arago related the whole adventure of Montrouge and how M. le Duc de Chartres had managed to escape in time. Thiers listened with the deepest attention. "Dear, dear," he said when Arago had finished. "Who knows but that you have probably saved the life of a son of France...." Arago stood with his mouth gaping and his eyes inordinately wide open.