cords being cut, it ascended, together with
a wicker cage, which was fastened to it by a rope. In this cage they had
put a sheep, a cock, and a duck, which were the first animals that ever
ascended into the atmosphere with an aerostatic machine. When the
machine went up, its power of ascension or levity was six hundred
ninety-six pounds, allowing for the cage and animals.

The machine raised itself to the height of about one thousand four
hundred forty feet; and being carried by the wind, it fell gradually in
the wood of Vaucresson, at the distance of ten thousand two hundred feet
from Versailles, after remaining in the atmosphere only eight minutes.
Two game-keepers, who were accidentally in the wood, saw the machine
fall very gently, so that it just bent the branches of the trees upon
which it alighted. The long rope to which the cage was fastened,
striking against the wood, was broken, and the cage came to the ground
without hurting in the least the animals that were in it, so that the
sheep was even found feeding. The cock, indeed, had its right wing
somewhat hurt; but this was the consequence of a kick it had received
from the sheep, at least half an hour before, in presence of at least
ten witnesses.

It has been sufficiently demonstrated by experiments that little or no
danger is to be apprehended by a man who ascends with such an aerostatic
machine. The steadiness of the aerostat while in the air, its gradual
and gentle descent, the safety of the animals that were sent up with it
in the last-mentioned experiment, and every other observation that could
be deduced from all the experiments hitherto made in this new field of
inquiry seem more than sufficient to expel any fear for such an
enterprise; but as no man had yet ventured in it, and as most of the
attempts at flying, or of ascending into the atmosphere, on the most
plausible schemes, had from time immemorial destroyed the reputation or
the lives of the adventurers, we may easily imagine and forgive the
hesitation that men might express, of going up with one of those
machines: and history will probably record, to the remotest posterity,
the name of M. Pilatre de Rozier, who had the courage of first venturing
to ascend with a machine, which in a few years hence the most timid
woman will perhaps not hesitate to trust herself to.

The King, aware of the difficulties, ordered that two men under sentence
of death should be sent up; but Pilatre de Rozier was ind