sage, "All goes
well!" A later telegram the same evening stated that the balloon had at
midnight on Sunday passed the Belgian frontier over Erquelines, where
the Custom House officials had challenged the travellers without
receiving an answer.

But eight-and-forty hours since the start went by without further news,
and excitement in Paris grew intense. When the news came at last it
was from Bremen, to say that Nadar's balloon had descended at Eystrup,
Hanover, with five of the passengers injured, three seriously.
These three were M. Nadar, his wife, and M. St. Felix. M. Nadar, in
communicating this intelligence, added, "We owe our lives to the courage
of Jules Godard." The following signed testimony of M. Louis Godard is
forthcoming, and as it refers to an occasion which is among the most
thrilling in aerial adventure, it may well be given without abridgment.
It is here transcribed almost literatim from Mr. H. Turner's valuable
work, "Astra Castra."

"The Giant," after passing Lisle, proceeded in the direction of Belgium,
where a fresh current, coming from the Channel, drove it over the
marshes of Holland. It was there that M. Louis Godard proposed to
descend to await the break of day, in order to recognise the situation
and again to depart. It was one in the morning, the night was dark,
but the weather calm. Unfortunately, this advice, supported by long
experience, was not listened to. "The Giant" went on its way, and
then Louis Godard no longer considered himself responsible for the
consequences of the voyage.

The balloon coasted the Zuyder Zee, and then entered Hanover. The sun
began to appear, drying the netting and sides of the balloon, wet from
its passage through the clouds, and produced a dilatation which elevated
the aeronauts to 15,000 feet. At eight o'clock the wind, blowing
suddenly from the west, drove the balloon in a right line towards the
North Sea. It was necessary, at all hazards, to effect a descent. This
was a perilous affair, as the wind was blowing with extreme violence.
The brothers Godard assisted, by M. Gabriel, opened the valve and got
out the anchors; but, unfortunately, the horizontal progress of the
balloon augmented from second to second. The first obstacle which the
anchors encountered was a tree; it was instantly uprooted, and dragged
along to a second obstacle, a house, whose roof was carried off. At this
moment the two cables of the anchors were broken without the voyagers
being aw