ger into the Christian's
God."

The most terrible suffering in Paris during the siege was probably
mental, suffering from the want of news; but by the middle of November
the balloon and pigeon postal service was organized. Balloons were
manufactured in Paris, and sent out whenever the wind was favorable.
It was found necessary, however, to send them off by night, lest they
should be fired into by the Germans. A balloon generally carried
one or two passengers, and was sent up from one of the now empty
railroad stations. It also generally took five small cages, each
containing thirty-six pigeons. These pigeons were of various colors,
and all named. They were expected to return soon to their homes,
unless cold, fog, a hawk, or a Prnssian bullet should stop them on
the way. Each would bring back a small quill fastened by threads to
one of its tail-feathers and containing a minute square of flexible,
waterproof paper, on which had been photographed messages in characters
so small as to be deciphered only by a microscope. Some of these
would be official despatches, some private messages. One pigeon
would carry as much as, printed in ordinary type, would fill one
sheet of a newspaper. The Parisians looked upon the pigeons with
a kind of veneration; when one, drooping and weary, alighted on
some roof, a crowd would collect and watch it anxiously. Sometimes
they were caught by the Germans, and sent back into Paris with
false news.

On November 15 a pigeon brought a despatch saying that the South of
France had raised an army for the relief of Paris, and that it was
in motion under an old general with the romantic name of Aurelles des
Paladines, that it had driven the Prussians out of Orleans, and was
coming on with all speed to the capital. The Parisians were eager
to make a sortie and to join this relieving army. General Trochu was
not so eager, having no great confidence in his _francs-tireurs_, his
National Guard, and his Mobiles. They numbered in all four hundred
thousand men; but eighty thousand serviceable soldiers would have
been worth far more.

On November 28, however, the sortie was made; and had the expected
army been at hand, it might have been successful. The Parisians
crossed the Marne, and fought the Prussians so desperately that in
two days they had lost more men than in the battles at Gravelotte.
But on the third day an order was given to return to Paris; the
Government had received reliable information that