ed and succeed each other with the greatest rapidity.
Travelling at this elevation, our fire did not demand continual
attention, and we could easily walk about the gallery. We were as much
at peace upon our lofty balcony as we should have been upon the terrace
of a mansion, enjoying all the pictures which unrolled themselves before
us continually, without experiencing any of the giddiness which has
disturbed so many persons. Having broken my fork in my exertions to
raise the balloon, I went to obtain another one. On my way to get it, I
encountered my companion, M. Proust. We ought never to have been on
the same side of the balloon, for a capsize and the escape of all our
hydrogen gas might have been the result. As it was, so well was the
machine ballasted, that the only effect of our being on the one side
made the balloon incline a little in that direction. The winds, although
very considerable, caused us no uneasiness, and we only knew the
swiftness of our progress through the air by the rapidity with which the
villages seemed to fly away from under our feet; so that it seemed, from
the tranquillity with which we moved, that we were borne along by the
diurnal movement of the globe. Often we wished to descend, in order
to learn what the people were crying to us the simplicity of our
arrangements enabled us to rise, to descend, to move in horizontal or
oblique lines, as we pleased and as often as we considered necessary,
without altogether landing."

When they came to Luzarche, the delighted aeronauts resolved to land.
Already the people were testifying their pleasure at seeing them. Men
came running together from all directions, while all the animals rushed
away with equal precipitation, no doubt taking the balloon for some
wild beast. Finding that their course would lead them straight against
certain houses, the aeronauts again increased their fire, and, slightly
rising, escaped the buildings that had been in their way. Shortly
afterwards they safely landed forty miles from the spot from which they
had started.

It was not only the man of science or the mechanician that devoted
himself to the task of taking possession of the new empire, but the
nobles gave their hands to the aeronauts, and humbly asked the favour of
an ascent. The king had addressed letters to the Brothers Montgolfier,
and the marvellous invention had become an affair of state. The princes
of the blood and the nobles of the court considered it an hono