The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-28 00:00:00

The following letter (No. 2) written by M.
Eugene d'Arnoult to the Nation, contains the
fullest account that has yet appeared of the adven-
tures of the balloon in Belgium, Holland, and
Germany :
" We passed I know not how much time in contemplat-
ing the enchanting scene around us—but at length we all
felt the necessity of going downwards to see where we were.
Presently the balloon came so near to the earth that we
could readily distinguish the tall chimneys of a great many
flaming furnaces. 'lf we were to fall upon some of them,'
said Morzolfier, anxiously. These furnaces told us very
clearly that we were in Belgium, and, besides, the Flemish
songs that continually reached our ears left no doubt upon
the point. Godard, Nader, all of us, called out frequently
to the people below, Where are we ?' but got no other
answer than shouts of laughter. There were two bells in
the car, and Yon and myself rang them as hard as we could,
while Nader roared through his speaking trumpet. I had
an opportunity of observing that the purity of the air in no
degree attenuates the quantity of false notes lodged in the
throats of certain individuals. Our aerial Charivari at
length provoked a corresponding one on earth,and we could
hear dogs barking, ducks quacking, men swearing, and
women screaming. All this had a droll effect; but time
went on, the wind blew hard, it was dark night, and our
balloon drove on with prodigious rapidity, and we were not
able to tell exactly where we were. I could not see my
compass, and we were not allowed to light a lucifer match
under any pretext whatsoever. From the direction in
which we had passed over Lille, we judged that we must
be going towards the sea—Louis Godard fancied that he
could see lighthouses. We descended again to within
150 yards of the earth. Beneath us we saw a flat marshy
country of sinister aspect, and indicating plainly the neigh-
bourhood of the coast. Every ono listened with
all his ears, and many fancied they heard the murmurs of
the sea. The further we went on the more desert the
country became—there was no light whatever, and it be-
came more and more difficult to guess where we were going.
I am entirely out of my reckoning,' exclaimed Louis
Godard, and my opinion is that the only thing we have to
do is to descend at once.' What, here in the marshes ?'
remonstrated all of us ; 'and suppose we are driven into the
sea.' The balloon went driving on still. "We cannot de-
scend here,' said Jules Godard, 'we are over water.' Two
or three of us looked over the edge of the car, and affirmed
that we were not over water, but trees, 'lt is water,' Jules
Godard persisted. Every one now looked out attentively.
and as the balloon descended a little, we saw plainly that
there was no water, but without being able to say positively
whether there were trees or not. At the moment when Jules
Godard thought he saw water, Nader exclaimed, see a
railway.' It turned out that what Nader took for a railway
was a canal running towards the Scheldt, which we had
passed over a few minutes before. Hurrah for balloons
They are things to travel in—rivers, mountains, custom-
houses—all are passed wi:hout let or hindrance. But every
medal has its reverse; and if we were delighted at having
safely got over the Scheldt,, we by no means relished the
prospect of going on to the Zuyder Zee. Shall we go
down ?' asked Louis Godard. There was a moment's pause.
We consulted together; suddenly I uttered a cry of joy;
the position of the needle of my compass indicated that
the balloon had made a half turn to the right, and was
now going duo east. The aspect of the stars confirmed
this assertion. Forward I' was now the cry, We threw
out a little ballast, neouuted higher, and started with
new vigour with our backs turned to the deprecated Zuyder
Zee. It was now three in the morning, and none of us
had slept. Just as we began to try to sleep a little my
diabolic compass showed that the balloon was turning
back again. Where are you going to take us to ?' cried
out Yon b the immense 'ma.,s of canvas which was °sell.
lating above our heads. Louis Godard again proposed to
descend ; but we said 'No ; forward, for Ward l' Two hours
sped away without our being able to tell where we were.
At five o'clock day broke, and broad daylight came on with
marvellous rapidity. It is true that we were at a height of
980 metres. Novel writers and others have so much abused
descriptions of sunrise on mountains and on the ocean that
I shall say little about this one, although it is not a com-
mon thing to see the horizon of fire below the clouds. The
finest Venetian paintings could only give an idea of the luxu-
riant tones of the heavens that we saw. Such dazzling
magnificence led me to wonder that there is no revival of
sun worship, since men must necessarily have some mate-
rial representation of the Divinity. It is true the sun is net
made in man's image I We now had beneath us an immense
plain, the same probably that we had passed over in the
night. There is nothing more pleasant at first sight, nor
more monotonous in the long run, than the sort of country
which forms at least one-third of Holland. There are
miniature woods the S'Ze of bouquets, fields admirably cul-
tivated and divided into little patches like gardens, rivers
with extraordinary windings, microscopic roads, coquettish-
looking villages, so white and so clean that I think the
Dutch housewives must ecour the very roofs of their houses
every morning. In the midst of every village there is a
jewel of a church with a shining steeple. While riding
along at a height of 700 mottos we had beneath us a picture
of Paul Potter's 50 leagues square. All at once tho tableau
became animated. The people below had perceived the
balloon. We heard cries expressive of astonishment,
fright, and even of anger, but the feeling of fright seemed
to predominate. We distinctly saw women in their
chemises look hurriedly out of windows and then rush
back again. We saw chubby boys locking at us, and
blubbering as if they were mad. Some men, more de-
termined than the rest, ficed off guns at us. I saw seve
ral mammas pointing us out to stubborn babies, with
an attitude which seemed to say that our balloon was Old
Bogy. Old women raised their hands against us, and at
their signal many ran away, making the sign of the cross.
It is evident that in some of these villages we were taken
to be the deyil in person. On this point it is apropos to
cite a letter communicated to me which has been addressed
to the Courrier de .Hanovre. I translate it textually :
" This morning at about six o'cloca we saw passing over
our heads, at a prodigious neight, an immense round form,
to which was suspended something which looked like a
square house of a red colour. Seine people pretend to have
seen animated beings in this strange machine, and to have
heard issuing from it superhuman crie-. What think you,
Mr. Editor ? The whole country is in a state of alarm, and
it will be long before our people recover their equanimity.'
"At 7 a.m. we crossed over a lake near Yesel ; the wind
then again pushed us in a new direction, nearly at right
angles with that which we were taking before. In less
than a quarter of an hour the balloon got into Westphalia,
near Itenheim ; then wo crossed the great river Ems, the
towns of Itheine and Ibbenburrhen, and returned to Han-
over a little above Osnabruck ; v, a traversed, without deign-
ing to take notice of them, a little chain of mountains, and
by way no doubt of relaxation after so long a journey went
all round a lake, which is called in Gormaa Dummersse.
We then got into a great plain, through which runs a road.
At this time the balloon became almost motionless. The
reason of this was that the heat of the sun had caused the
gas to expand. Louis Godard was very uneasy about this
dilation. After two or three oscillations our aerial courser
decided upon going off rapidly in an eastern direction, with
about two degrees variation towards the north. This course
would have taken us to Hamburg and the Baltic, but we
were all so completely absorbed by the splendour of the
tableau before us that we took little notice of the change.
Our hippogriff passed over Wagenfeld.Steyerberg, where
there is a river which flows into the Weser. We came
within sight of the groat river and Nienburg, a considerable
town on one of its banks. We saw a steamboat going down
the river from the town; the view here was charming. A
rustling of the silk of our balloon made us look upwards,
the monster, under the influence of the sun, now very hot,
was palpably swelling As it would have been supremely
ridiculous, after having made such a first-rate journey, to
have treated the inhabitants of Nienburg with the spectacle
of seeing us blown up—to say nothing of the consequences
of such a catastrophe to our own limbs—we resolved to
come down. The remaining bags of ballast were got in
order, the ropes and anchors prepared, and Godard opened
the safety valve. The monster is disgorging l' exclaimed
Thirion. And the balloon did vomit forth its gas with a
tremendous noise, which may be compared to the snor-
ing of some gigantic animal. While our companion made
this observation, we were descending at the rate of
two metres to the second. "fo the ropes ! to the ropes !
hold on well 1' cried the brothers Godard, who seemed quite
in their element; 'take care of the shock.' Every one
climbed up to the ropes which attach the car to the circular
handles underneath the balloon. Madame Nader, whose
sang froli was truly magnificent, grasped two large ropes
with her delicate hands. Nader did the like, but at the
same time put his arms round his wife so as to protect her
body. I was on one side towards the middle of the sort of
hurdle which serves as a balcony. I was on my knees and
clinging to two ropes. Montgolfier, Thirion, and St. Felix
were near me. The balloon descended so rapidly that it gave
us the vertigo. The air, which we had left so calm above,
became a violent wind as we neared the earth. We are
going to throw down the anchors,' said Godard, 'hold
Ah! the car struck the earth with tremendous vio-
lence. I cannot imagine how it was that my arms were not
broken. After the first teertble shock the balloon went up
again, but the safety valve was opened—it again fell—and
we suffered a second shock, if not more violent at least more
painful to us than the first. Up we went again—the balloon
dragged its anchors. Several tinies we thought wo should be
thrown out. The anchors aro broken,' exclaimed Godard.
The balloon beat the ground with its head like a kite when
it falls down. It was horrible. On wo went towards Nien-
burg, at the rate of ten leagues an hour.* Three large
trees wore cut through by the car as clean as if by a wood-
man'e hatchet. One small anchor remained to us. We
threw it down, and it carried away the roof of a house.
If the balloon had dragged us through the town we should
inevitably have been cut to pieces. But fortunately it rose:
little, and then bumped against the ground withvarseirc
wrenched
violence as before. Every ono of these shocks
rope
our limbs ! To complete our misfortunes the.
vralve shut.
safety-valve got loose from us, and the safity pe of the
ting up we lost all hope of the balloon
1. the earth,
empttyti,nuf itself. It
want on by hounds of 25, 30, and 40 metres

A letter of M. Louis Godard pays, in two places, that
the balloon, when descending, was driven by the wind at
the rate of 60 leagues an hour; but this is prooably g mis-
print,