duplicates of the orders by officers capable of
transmitting them with accuracy. There would certainly be a gain of
rapidity.[39] attempt of another kind was made in 1794, at the battle of
Fleurus, where General Jourdan made use of the services of a balloonist
to observe and give notice of the movements of the Austrians. I am not
aware that he found the method a very useful one, as it was not again
used; but it was claimed at the time that it assisted in gaining him the
victory: of this, however, I have great doubts.

It is probable that the difficulty of having a balloonist in readiness
to make an ascension at the proper moment, and of his making careful
observations upon what is going on below, whilst floating at the mercy
of the winds above, has led to the abandonment of this method of gaining
information. By giving the balloon no great elevation, sending up with
it an officer capable of forming correct opinions as to the enemy's
movements, and perfecting a system of signals to be used in connection
with the balloon, considerable advantages might be expected from its
use. Sometimes the smoke of the battle, and the difficulty of
distinguishing the columns, that look like liliputians, so as to know to
which party they belong, will make the reports of the balloonists very
unreliable. For example, a balloonist would have been greatly
embarrassed in deciding, at the battle of Waterloo, whether it was
Grouchy or Bluecher who was seen coming up by the Saint-Lambert road; but
this uncertainty need not exist where the armies are not so much mixed.
I had ocular proof of the advantage to be derived from such observations
when I was stationed in the spire of Gautsch, at the battle of Leipsic;
and Prince Schwarzenberg's aid-de-camp, whom I had conducted to the same
point, could not deny that it was at my solicitation the prince was
prevailed upon to emerge from the marsh between the Pleisse and the
Elster. An observer is doubtless more at his ease in a clock-tower than
in a frail basket floating in mid-air; but steeples are not always at
hand in the vicinity of battle-fields, and they cannot be transported at
pleasure.

There is still another method of signaling, by the use of large fires
kindled upon elevated points of the country. Before the invention of the
telegraph, they afforded the means of transmitting the news of an
invasion from one end of the country to the other. The Swiss have made
use of them to call the militia to