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Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
106
many
of
the
bones
being
broken.
His
brother
was
still
breathing,
but
he
was
not
able
to
speak,
and
in
a
few
minutes
he
expired.”
De
Maisonfort,
who,
against
his
own
will,
was
left
on
the
earth,
was
witness
of
this
sad
event.
He
has
given
the
following
explanation
of
it:--
“Some
minutes
after
their
departure
the
voyagers
were
assailed
by
contrary
winds,
which
drove
them
back
again
upon
the
land.
It
is
probable
that
then,
in
order
to
descend
and
seek
a
more
favourable
current
of
air,
which
would
take
them
out
again
to
sea,
Roziers
opened
the
valve
of
the
gas
balloon;
but
the
cord
attached
to
this
valve
was
very
long,
it
worked
with
difficulty,
and
the
friction
which
it
occasioned
tore
the
valve.
The
stuff
of
the
balloon,
which
had
suffered
much
from
many
preliminary
attempts,
and
from
other
causes,
was
torn
to
the
extent
of
several
yards,
and
the
valve
fell
down
inside
the
balloon,
which
at
once
emptied
itself.”
According
to
this
narrative,
there
was
no
conflagration
of
the
gas
in
the
middle
of
the
atmosphere,
nor
is
it
stated
precisely
whether
the
grating
of
the
Montgolfiere
was
lighted.
Maisonfort
ran
to
the
spot
when
the
travellers
fell,
found
them
covered
with
the
cloth
of
the
balloon,
and
occupying
the
same
positions
which
they
had
taken
up
on
departing.
By
a
sad
chance,
that
seems
like
irony,
they
were
thrown
down
only
a
few
paces
from
the
monument
which
marks
the
spot
where
Blanchard
descended.
At
the
present
day
Frenchmen
going
to
England
via
Calais
do
not
fail
to
visit
at
the
forest
of
Guines
the
monument
consecrated
to
the
expedition
of
Blanchard.
A
few
paces
from
this
monument
the
cicerone
will
point
out
with
his
finger
the
spot
where
his
rivals
expired.
“Such
was
the
end
of
the
first
of
aeronauts,
and
the
most
courageous
of
men,”
says
a
contemporaneous
historian.
“He
died
a
martyr
to
honour
and
to
zeal.
His
kindness,
amiability,
and
modesty
endeared
him
to
all
who
knew
him.
She
who
was
dearest
to
him--a
young
English
lady,
who
boarded
at
a
convent
at
Boulogne,
and
whom
he
had
first
met
only
a
few
days
prior
to
his
last
ascent--could
not
support
the
news
of
his
death.
Horrible
convulsions
seized
her
and
she
expired,
it
is
said,
eight
days
after
the
dreadful
catastrophe.
Roziers
died
at
the
age
of
twenty-eight
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