I immediately covered my head with a bonnet of wool which was at
my feet, but the pain only disappeared with my descent to the
ground.
"It was now seven or eight minutes since I had arrived at this
elevation, and I now commenced to descend. I remembered the
promise I had made to the Duke of Chartres, to return in half an
hour. I quickened my descent by opening the valve from time to
time. Soon the balloon, empty now to one half, presented the
appearance of a hemisphere.
"Arrived at twenty-three fathoms from the earth, I suddenly threw
over two or three pounds of ballast, which arrested my descent,
and which I had carefully kept for this purpose. I then slowly
descended upon the ground, which I had, so to speak, chosen."
Such is the narrative of the second aerial voyage. After such a
memorable ascent one is astonished to learn that Professor
Charles never repeated his experiment. It has been said that, in
descending from his car, he had vowed that he would never again
expose himself to such perils, so strong had been the alarm he
felt when the peasants ceasing to hold him down he shot up into
the sky with the rapidity of an arrow. But after him a thousand
others have followed the daring example he set.
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