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 the Army of the Loire (under Aurelles des Paladines) had met with a reverse, and would form no junction with the Parisian forces.

By the end of November cannon had been cast in the beleaguered city, paid for, not by the Government, but by individual subscription.  These guns were subsequently to playa tragic part in the history of the city.  Some carried farther than the Prussian guns.  All of them had names.  The favorite was called Josephine, and was a great pet with the people.