M. Gambetta left Paris by balloon this day week, and
arrived, after a very perilous journey, at Amiens. At first, when he, his secretary M. Spuller, and his aeronaut M. Trichet, rose above the Prussian lines, many bullets whistled by them, but as they were about 1,000 yards high, never hit. After some time, from some unexplained cause, they descended very rapidly to within 200 yards of a plain where the Prussians had been manceuvring on previous days, but now, luckily for M. Gambetta, vacant. By throwing out sand they rose again, but passed over German regi- ments, who fired at them while they were still within easy range, and M. Gambetta's hand was slightly grazed. When at last the balloon descended, near Montdidier, it became entangled in a tree, and M. Gambetta and M. Spuller were both in the greatest danger, but both reached Amiens and Rouen without any worse calamities than a few scratches. It certainly is a new experience, this communication of a Prime Minister with his friends by balloon. We can hardly imagine how England would feel if Mr. Gladstone, having at first elected to stay in Downing Street during a siege of London, dis- covered that his energy was so necessary to the Provinces that he must rejoin Mr. Childers and Mr. Bruce at Liverpool by balloon.
