CHAPTER XV.

Balloons.--Large Number dispatched.--Small Number lost.--Worth. --Carrier-pigeons.--Their Failure.--Their Instincts.--_Times_ "Agony Column."--Correspondence.--Letters to Besieged.--Count Solms. --Our Dispatch-bag.--Moltke complains that it is abused.--Washburne's Answer.--Bismarck's Reply 182