iderable difficulty. He remained there till
the 16th. He had no means of procuring himself a passport. At length, on
the 16th, some friends of his on the Northern Railway obtained for him a
special passport, worded as follows:--

"Allow M. ----, an Inspector on the service of the Company, to pass."

He decided to leave the next day, and take the day train, thinking,
perhaps rightly, that the night train would be more closely watched.

On the 17th, at daybreak, favored by the dim dawn, he glided from street
to street, to the Northern Railway Station. His tall stature was a
special source of danger. He, however, reached the station in safety.
The stokers placed him with them on the tender of the engine of the
train, which was about to start. He only had the clothes which he had
worn since the 2d; no clean linen, no trunk, a little money.

In December, the day breaks late and the night closes in early, which is
favorable to proscribed persons.

He reached the frontier at night without hindrance. At Neuveglise he was
in Belgium; he believed himself in safety. When asked for his papers he
caused himself to be taken before the Burgomaster, and said to him, "I
am a political refugee."

The Burgomaster, a Belgian but a Bonapartist--this breed is to be
found--had him at once reconducted to the frontier by the gendarmes, who
were ordered to hand him over to the French authorities.

Cournet gave himself up for lost.

The Belgian gendarmes took him to Armentieres. If they had asked for the
Mayor it would have been all at an end with Cournet, but they asked for
the Inspector of Customs.

A glimmer of hope dawned upon Cournet.

He accosted the Inspector of Customs with his head erect, and shook
hands with him.

The Belgian gendarmes had not yet released him.

"Now, sir," said Cournet to the Custom House officer, "you are an
Inspector of Customs, I am an Inspector of Railways. Inspectors do not
eat inspectors. The deuce take it! Some worthy Belgians have taken
fright and sent me to you between four gendarmes. Why, I know not. I am
sent by the Northern Company to relay the ballast of a bridge somewhere
about here which is not firm. I come to ask you to allow me to continue
my road. Here is my pass."

He presented the pass to the Custom House officer, the Custom House
officer read it, found it according to due form, and said to Cournet,--

"Mr. Inspector, you are free."

Cournet, delivered from the Belgian gendarmes by