Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies

“Finally, we stopped, and were instantly surrounded. Nothing could equal the simple and tender regard of the country people, their admiration, and their lively emotion. “I called at once for the cures and the magistrates. They came round me on all sides: there was quite a fete on the spot. I prepared a short report, which the cures and the syndics signed. Then arrived a company of horsemen at a gallop. These were the Duke of Chartres, the Duke of Fitzjames, and M. Farrer. By a very singular chance, we had come down close by the hunting-lodge of the latter. He leaped from his horse and threw himself into my arms, crying, ‘Monsieur Charles, I was first!’ “Charles adds that they were covered with the caresses of the prince, who embraced both of them. He briefly narrated to the Duke of Chartres some incidents of the voyage. “‘But this is not all, monseigneur. I am going away again,’ added Charles. “‘What! Going away!’ exclaimed the duke. “‘Monseigneur, you will see. When do you wish me to come back again?’ I said. “‘In half an hour.’ “‘Very well: be it so. In half an hour I shall be with you again.’ “M. Robert descended from the car, and I was alone in the balloon. “I said to the duke, ‘Monseigneur, I go.’ I said to the peasants who held down the balloon, ‘My friends, go away, all of you, from the car at the moment I give the signal.’ I then rose like a bird, and in ten minutes I was more than 3,000 feet above the ground. I no longer perceived terrestrial objects; I only saw the great masses of nature. “In going away, Charles had taken his precautions against the possible explosion of the balloon, and made himself ready to make certain observations. In order to observe the barometer and the thermometer, placed at different extremities of the car, without endangering the equilibrium, he sat down in the middle, a watch and paper in his left hand, a pen and the cord of the safety-valve in his right. “I waited for what should happen,” continues he. “The balloon, which was quite flabby and soft when I ascended, was