estafette

An estafette came with an order to evacuate the plateau, and to save the artillery.

An estafette, a gendarme, arrived with a telegram; the usher signed a receipt for it.

At that moment Dulac entered the room with a packet of letters just arrived from Paris by estafette.

Estafette, we believe, is the proper term, but the military couriers of that period were always called videttes by the citizens.