326 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



They carried with them despatches from Paris and 

 a number of carrier-pigeons. Over the enemy camps 

 they went, to alight somewhere, far or near, at the 

 pleasure of the winds. Thus the provinces received 

 despatches, newspapers, and private letters from 

 Paris. The car of the balloon was loaded with all 

 these. 



"But how carry back to Paris despatches from the 

 provinces? To leave a city by balloon in any chance 

 direction is not so very difficult; but to return by 

 balloon to the same city is practically impossible. 

 The balloon goes as the wind wills, not as its pas- 

 sengers would like to have it go. To seek to return 

 by the means employed in departing would be to 

 compromise everything by incurring the risk of land- 

 ing in the midst of the Prussian lines. 



"The only remaining expedient was to use those 

 incomparable aids, the pigeons, which the aeronaut 

 had taken with him on his departure. Eeleased, one 

 at a time, with despatches enclosed in a quill and 

 fastened to the bird's tail, they flew back over the 

 German army to the pigeon-house; they reentered 

 Paris and brought news of what was going on in 

 ■the provinces. 



"Do not imagine that the winged messenger was 

 able to transmit only a few words or at most a few 

 lines. It was not with a pen or on ordinary paper 

 that the despatches entrusted to the pigeons were 

 written. By ingenious methods and with unheard-of 

 delicacy it was found possible to obtain characters 

 so fine and sheets of paper so thin that a roll of these 



