f the sun glittered on the floating vehicle which bore me
along rapidly before the wind."

After a while he sights three more vessels, which signify their
willingness to stand by, whereupon he promptly descends, dropping
beneath the two rear-most of them. From this point the narrative of the
sinking man, and the gallant attempt at rescue, will rival any like tale
of the sea. For the wind, now fast rising, caught the half empty balloon
so soon as the car touched the sea, and the vessel astern, though in
full pursuit, was wholly unable to come up. Observing this, Mr. Sadler,
trusting more to the vessel ahead, dropped his grappling iron by way of
drag, and shortly afterwards tried the further expedient of taking off
his clothes and attaching them to the iron. The vessels, despite these
endeavours, failing to overhaul him, he at last, though with reasonable
reluctance, determined to further cripple the craft that bore him so
rapidly by liberating a large quantity of gas, a desperate, though
necessary, expedient which nearly cost him his life.

For the car now instantly sank, and the unfortunate man, clutching at
the hoop, found he could not even so keep himself above the water, and
was reduced to clinging, as a last hope, to the netting. The result of
this could be foreseen, for he was frequently plunged under water by the
mere rolling of the balloon. Cold and exertion soon told on him, as he
clung frantically to the valve rope, and when his strength failed him he
actually risked the expedient of passing his head through the meshes
of the net. It was obvious that for avail help must soon come; yet the
pursuing vessel, now close, appeared to hold off, fearing to become
entangled in the net, and in this desperate extremity, fainting from
exhaustion and scarcely able to cry aloud, Mr. Sadler himself seems to
have divined the chance yet left; for, summoning his failing strength,
he shouted to the sailors to run their bowsprit through his balloon.
This was done, and the drowning man was hauled on board with the life
scarcely in him.

A fitting sequel to the above adventure followed five years afterwards.
The Irish Sea remained unconquered. No balloonist had as yet ever
crossed its waters. Who would attempt the feat once more? Who more
worthy than the hero's own son, Mr. Windham Sadler?

This aspiring aeronaut, emulating his father's enterprising spirit,
chose the same starting ground at Dublin, and on the longest day of
1817