rising. The aeronauts then gave the order to
let go. Scarcely was the balloon let off, when it gently rose a short
distance, and then flew in a horizontal direction towards a palace in
the neighbourhood. In order that the structure should not be destroyed
on the walls and the roof of the palace, the voyagers heaped on the
fuel, and the spectators, who had gathered together from the surrounding
villages, then saw this strange vessel of the air rising with rapidity
to a surprising height. Such a phenomenon was so astonishing, that those
who beheld it could hardly believe their own eyes; and when the balloon
disappeared from view, the delight they had manifested was dashed with
fear for the fate of the bold aeronauts. The latter, seeing that the
balloon was driving through the air towards a range of rocky hills in
the neighbourhood, and perceiving, on the other hand, that their stock
of combustibles was nearly exhausted, judged it prudent to descend. They
diminished their fire, and came gradually down, warning the multitude
below of their intention by means of a speaking-trumpet.

In the course of the descent the balloon alighted upon a large tree, to
the great peril of the travellers; but as soon as the fire was increased
it again mounted and got clear from the branches while the people below,
grasping the cords that were hung out to them, guided the machine to the
spot which the voyagers indicated. To descend to terra firma was then
a comparatively easy matter, and it was safely accomplished. The fire,
which in the case of the French balloons had dried, calcined, and almost
consumed the upper part of the balloon, had no evil effect upon that of
Andriani, which came down looking as fresh as if it had never been used.

The new idea had now passed the frontiers of France, in which it was
originally conceived, and among the other nations, as at first in
France, the power of the inflated balloon came to be tested everywhere
by the construction of small toy globes.

It was just about five months after the first experiment at
Annonay--viz., on the 25th of November, 1783--that the first balloon
ascended in London. We are informed, in the History of Aerostation by
Tiberius Cavallo, that an Italian, Count Zambeccari, who was staying in
the English capital, made a balloon of silk, covered with a varnish of
oil. Its diameter was ten feet, and its weight eleven pounds. It was
gilded for the double purpose of enhancing its appearanc