tators, to a height of three
thousand one hundred twenty-three feet in two minutes, where it entered
the clouds. The heavy rain which descended as it rose did not impede,
and tended to increase, surprise. The idea that a body leaving the earth
was travelling in space was so sublime, and appeared to differ so
greatly from ordinary laws, that all the spectators were overwhelmed
with enthusiasm. The satisfaction was so great that ladies in the
greatest fashions allowed themselves to be drenched with rain, to avoid
losing sight of the globe for an instant.

The balloon, after remaining in the atmosphere three-quarters of an
hour, fell in a field near Gonesse, a village fifteen miles from the
Champ-de-Mars. The descent was imputed to a tear in the silk.

The effect on the inhabitants of this village well illustrates that the
human character with an unawakened intellect is the same in all
countries and ages:

"For on first sight it is supposed by many to have come from another
world; many fly; others, more sensible, think it a monstrous bird. After
it has alighted, there is yet motion in it from the gas it still
contains. A small crowd gains courage from numbers, and for an hour
approaches by gradual steps, hoping meanwhile the monster will take
flight. At length one bolder than the rest takes his gun, stalks
carefully to within shot, fires, witnesses the monster shrink, gives a
shout of triumph, and the crowd rushes in with flails and pitchforks.
One tears what he thinks to be the skin, and causes a poisonous stench;
again all retire. Shame, no doubt, now urges them on, and they tie the
cause of alarm to a horse's tail, who gallops across the country,
tearing it to shreds."

A similar tale has lately been told me as having occurred in Persia,
where a fire-balloon was let off by some French visitors to the Shah's
palace at Teheran, when it alighted. No less than three shots were fired
at it when on the ground, before anyone would venture nearer.

It is no wonder, then, that the paternal government of France deemed it
necessary to publish the following "_avertissement_" to the public:

"INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE ON THE ASCENT OF BALLOONS, OR GLOBES, IN THE
AIR

"PARIS, August 27, 1783.

"The one in question has been raised in Paris this said day,
August 27, 1783, at 5 P.M., in the Champ-de-Mars.

"A discovery has been made, which the Government deems it