The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-02 00:00:00

A Special Correspondent in a Balloon.

(From the St. James's Magazine.)
The "Professor" aroused me at three o'clock,
when I found the canvas straining its bonds, and
emitting a hollow sound, as of escaping gas. The
basket was made fast directly, the telescopes tossed
into place; the Professor climbed to the side, hold-
ing by the network; and I coited up in a rope at
the bottom. " Stand by your cables," he said, and
the bags of ballast were at once cut away. Twelve
men took each a rope in hand. and played out slowly,
letting us glide gently upward. The earth seemed
to be falling away, and we poised motionless in the
blue ether. The tree tops sank downward, the hills
dropped noiselessly through space, and directly the
Chickahorniny was visible beyond us, winding like
a ribbon of silver through the ridgy landscape.
" Guess I got 'em new, jest where I want 'em," said
Lowe, with a gratified laugh; "jest keep still as
you mind to, and squint your eye through my glass,
while I make a sketch of the roads and the country.
Hold hard there, and anchor fast !' he screamed to
the people below. Then he fell imperturbably to
work, sweeping the country with his hawk eye,
and escaping nothing that could contribute to the
completeness of his jotting. We had been but a few
minutes thus poised, when close below, from the
edge of a timber stretch, puffed a volume of white
smoke. A second afterward, the air quivered with
the peal of a cannon. A third, and we head the split-
ting shriek of a shell, that passed a little to our
lef', but in exact range, and burst beyond us in the
ploughed field, heaving up the clay as it exploded.
Ha r said Lowe, " they have got us foul !
Haul in the cables—quick !" he shouted, in a fierce
tone. At the same instant, the puff, the report, and
the shriek were repeated ; but this time the shell
.:urst to our right in mid-air, and scattered frag-
ments around and below us. " Anotber shot will
do our business," said Lowe betwee❑ his teeth ; "it
isn't a mile, and they have got the range." Again
the puff and the whizzing shock. I closed my eyes,
and held my breath hard. The explosion was so
close, that the pieces of shell seemed driven across
my face, and my ears quivered with the sound. I
looked at Lowe, to see it he was struck. He had
sprung to his feet, and clutched the cordage fran-
tically. " Are you pulling in there, you men ?' he
bellowed, with a loud imprecation. " Puff! bang !
whiz-z z-z ! splutter !'' broke a third shell, and my
heart was wedged in my throat. I saw at a glimpse
the whole bright landscape again. I heard the
voices of soldiers below, and saw them running
across fields, fences, and ditches, to reach out an-
chorage. I saw some drummer boys digging in the
field beneath for one of the buried shells. I saw the
waving of signal figs, the commotion t brougn the
camps—officers galloping their horses, teamsters
whipping their mules, regiments turning out, drums-
'seating, and batteries limbered up. I rem'irked, last
of all, the site of the battery that alarmed us ; and by
strange sharpness of sight and sense, believed that
I saw the gunners swabbing, ramming, and aiming
the pieces. " Puff ! bang ! whiz-z-z-z ! splutter !
crash." " Puff! bang ! whiz z z z! splutter! crash."
My--," said Lowe, hissing the words slowly and

terribly, " t hey have opened upon us from anot tar
battery." The scene seemed to dissolve. A cold dew
broke from my forehead. I grew blind and deaf.
I had fainted. " Pitch some water in his face,"
said somebody. "He ain't used to it. Helloe !
there, he comes to." I staggered to my feet. There
tuust have been a thousand men about us. They
were looking curiously at the aeronaut and me.
The balloon lay fuming and struggling on the clods.
'• Three cheers for the Uuion bal-loon !" called a
little fellow at my side. "Hip, hip--hooroar !
hooroar ! hooroar."