accompanied by his wife. It is no part of our duty to narrate the circumstances under which the ascent took place; suffice it to say that the intrepid aeronauts went up against their own will, and with a full conviction that it was almost certain death to do so. Their escape was marvellous. On ascending, they found the wind blowing in a north-easterly direction, and the balloon was driven across the sea towards England. As night approached, M. Duruof attempted to attract the attention of some of the vessels beneath him, but for some time without effect. At length they were descried by the crew of a fishing smack—the Grand Charter, of Grimsby. The story of the rescue cannot be told better than by M. Duruof himself:—" The sea was very rough indeed. I opened the valve and descended until the ropes were trailing in the water, and in an instant we were past the vessel. The crew of the smack, however, launched the boat, and two men rowed it towards us. It was then six o'clock, and seeing the good-will of the fishermen to come and help us, I resolved to stop the speed of the balloon by springing the valve until the car filled with water, and thus give more resistance to the progress of the balloon. However, when I turned round, I could not see the vessel. From time to time tremendous waves broke over the balloon, covering us with water; but still the balloon resisted, and my fear then was that the balloon might burst, in which case we should assuredly been lost. At seven o'clock we again sighted the smack on the horizon, and saw that she was pursuing us, and by degrees we noticed that she came closer to us. The cold was very severe, and our limbs were becoming benumbed. Our strength was failing us, and the hope of being overtaken by the smack was the only thing that gave
