At the beginning of October I received a notification that I was to serve in the 9th Dragoons, at Dinan in Brittany. I was most anxious not to go so far from Paris, and as my maternal uncle then held a most prominent position in the _Senat_, being Leader of the Left Centre, I obtained a letter from him to the Minister of War, who allowed me to choose whatever regiment I liked. One year before, a great friend of mine, Baron de Lanoy, had enlisted for five years in the 50th Dragoons stationed at Noilly,[13] and he had lately been promoted to the rank of Sergeant. He had strongly advised me to join his regiment, the Colonel of which, the Marquis de Vieilleville, was most favourably disposed towards the _Volontaires_. At my request I was accordingly drafted into that regiment. Unfortunately, shortly before I joined, the Marquis died, and was replaced by Colonel Hermann, who hated _Volontaires_, and proved, as will be seen, a martinet of the worst type. Towards the end of October I received my _feuille de route_, ordering me to present myself at 10 A.M. at the cavalry barracks at Noilly. It was a dull, dreary, miserable, wet day when I took a train at the _gare du Nord_ at half-past seven in the morning, to begin my military experiences--experiences which proved, as will be seen, little short of what I might have had to suffer had I been sentenced to hard labour. An hour later the train stopped at Noilly, where, following the advice previously given to me by my friend de Lanoy, I drove to the Crown Hotel, the best in the place, engaged a room, and hastily swallowed the last decent breakfast I was to enjoy for many days to come. Half an hour before the appointed time I drove to the barracks. The sentry stood shivering in his box, and the thought then flashed across my mind that it would soon become my lot to stand there myself. I passed the gate, and seeing one of the troopers standing outside the guardroom, I was about to ask him where I could find my friend, Sergeant de Lanoy, when a Sergeant, dragging his sword on the ground, stepped out of the guard-room and addressed me: "Hullo! what do you want, you there?" "Sir," I replied, "I am a _Volontaire_, and I want to go and see a friend of mine, Sergeant de Lanoy." "Oh, you're a _Volontaire_, are you? Well, you can wait where you are!" "But, sir," I asked again, "can't I be allowed to go and see Sergeant de Lanoy?" "What! Answers, eh? You'll have to be put through your paces at once, my fine fellow, or else you will make the acquaintance of the _boite_ (cells) sooner than you care for. Wait there and shut up," he concluded.