was concealed beneath a covering of silk
resplendent with embroidery and gold-lace.
The aeronaut was making his final arrangements,
when a pupil of the Ecole Militaire
came forward and addressed him:

"Monsieur," he said, with a foreign accent,
"I am here to offer myself as your travelling
companion."

"I would willingly accept the honour of
your company, young man," replied the
aeronaut, "but I have calculated the
ascensional power of my machine to carry up only
a single person."

"That is no obstacle at all; you will put
so much less sand in the car, and I shall serve
you as ballast."

"Your argument is excellent," answered
the aeronaut; "but the only ballast that is
of any use to me is ballast which I can get
rid of, should occasion require. Nevertheless,
if you consent to"—

This proposition, made in a sarcastic tone,
did not suit the young man's notions. He
became red in the face, nipped his brows,
fixed his eyes on the speaker's countenance,
and said to him in an angry voice, "Monsieur,
I am determined to go." He then jumped
into the car, and clung so tightly to the ropes
of the machine, that the taffety of which the
balloon was made, was torn in several places.
In consequence of this accident, the ascent
was impossible. The young man was
overwhelmed with reproaches by the aeronaut,
and threatened by the spectators; and his
friends got him out of the way as quickly as
they could, in spite of his resistance. The
adventurer thus prevented from ascending
was Jean Pierre Blanchard, who was making
his début; the young man who displayed such
despotic wilfulness, and such bold imprudence,
was Napoleon Bonaparte, then a pupil at the
Ecole Militaire of Paris. M. the Chevalier
de Keralio, one of the inspectors, ordered
him to be put under arrest, as a punishment
for playing so wild a prank. Blanchard,
discouraged by such an unlucky beginning,
and yielding to the earnest request of a
London medical man of the name of Burton,
went over to England, where he soon formed
an intimate friendship with the Italian
Lunardi and with the English Doctor Jefferies,
who, after Montgolfier had made his experiments
founded on Priestley's pneumatic data,
had devoted themselves in common to the
study of aerostatic science.

On the fifteenth of the same month, seventeen
hundred and eighty-four, Lunardi made
another ascent at Moorfields. Blanchard and
Jefferies were to have accompanied him on
this aerial journey; but the former was
seized with so violent a fever, that he was
obliged to keep his bed. Dr. Jefferies, yielding
to the entreaties of his wife, his children,
and his friends, who were alarmed at the risk
of life to which he was exposing himself,
consented, most unwillingly, to refrain from
joining the expedition, which was perfectly
successful. Lunardi ascended to a very
considerable altitude, and alighted without
accident at the end of a couple of hours, about
eight miles from the spot from which he had
started. Blanchard, however, in his turn made
an ascent from London a few days afterwards
with Mr. Sheldon.

The consequence of these successful results
was to redouble the taste of the three friends
for aerostatic experiments. Having been
informed that Pilatre de Rozier, and Romain,
had proposed to traverse the Straits of Dover
by means of a balloon, they were seized with
the desire of achieving such an exploit, and
set to work to rob the two French aeronauts
of the merit of priority, if possible. Romain,
who was already famous as a balloon-maker,
possessed the secret of rendering taffety
impermeable. When he arrived at Boulogne
on the twentieth of December, Lunardi went
to him under a false name, and offered to
purchase his secret, representing himself as a
simple amateur anxious for information; but
all his endeavours to become acquainted with
Remain's methods and process were in vain.
Meanwhile Pilatre, who was also at Boulogne,
learnt the news of the preparations which
Blanchard was making on the other side of
the Channel. He became alarmed, and
hastened to Dover. He consoled himself
with a delusive hope, in consequence of the
bad state of the machine prepared in England,
and the labour necessary for its completion.
His anxiety was at an end; he recrossed the
Channel, and immediately proceeded to Paris,
to hurry on the finishing of the balloon which
was to bear him, as he thought, triumphantly
over the Strait. But Blanchard was still
more expeditious; for, having made an ascent
from London with Mr. Sheldon on the twenty-
fifth of December, his apparatus was ready,
and wooden supports to receive it were raised
in the court of Dover Castle. The entire
skill and talent of the town was generously
volunteered to aid the departure, which was
fixed to take place on the first of January,
seventeen hundred and eighty-five.

It had been agreed that Blanchard and
Jefferies should perform the ascent alone,
and that Lunardi should pass over to the
French coast to receive them. On the twenty-
eighth of December, accompanied by Lord
Castelmain and several other eminent persons,
he arrived at Calais, and remained there
himself; but his travelling companions took
up different positions, posting themselves at
intervals from Boulogne to beyond Oye. Lord
Castelmain installed himself at Wissant, with
half a score persons. An inhabitant of the
village is said still to possess the telescope
which his lordship left as a souvenir at the
inn where he staid. Mr. Sadler, a rich
London amateur, had also projected a similar
enterprise. He arrived at Dover towards the
end of the month; but his balloon having
been injured during the journey, he returned
to London to have it repaired. Subsequently,