Soldiers' record, 1868-08-22

              D e v o t e d t o t l i e X n t e r e w t s o r t l i o S o l d i e n s i cind S a i l o r t s o f t l i o l a t e Wai*. -
VOL 1. HARTFORB, COO., AUOtJST 22, 1868. m n.
My Pirst and Last Balloon. Ascent.
'lA billet'doux from the Professor's
daughter!" cried out one of the hotel wits.
"Herr Englander, I will be your second ;
but that Gallard is a d with the
small sword."
I made no reply, being rather ashamed
of my situation, and also of my flirtation ;
but I finished my wine, tore the note care-lessly
"p, and strolled off to Gallard's
lodgings.
The old woman let me in with a spite-ful
look, such as she had never before
greeted me with ; but at the time I attri-buted
this to cold and rheumatism—great
disturbers of the temper—and knowing
my way pushed straight on for the labor-atory,
where I was told my friend was
engaged.
I entered it—he was not there ; I went
up stairs—he was not there, but his mathe-matical
drawings lay scattered on the ta-ble,
and the ink was still wet in his pen.
I went down again, and sought him in the
balloon-room, and not finding him there, I
opened a door that led int© an inner gar-den-
house.
There was Gallard, benidng over six
small sacks full of what appeared to be
black and white sand ; but he hastily tied
up the mouths of the bags as he saw me,
and turned in his usual passive way to
take my hand. To my surprise, he had
already stained his face, and was now the
color of the poorer Cairene Arabs.
" I am glad you are come," he said ; "I
began to think your courage had failed
you, or that you were too much occupied
with gallantry and that bad comedy called
society, to care much for risking your neck
with an enthusiast."
Gallard said this in rather a splenetic
way, but I took no notice of his mood,
simply replying:
" I do not change when I have once
made up my mind. I am ready now, as
I have been ever since I offered to go with
you."
"That's right," he said, with his teeth
clenched, "bravely said, and like an Eng
lishman; and I pi omise you such a flight
in the air as you will never forget. Mind,
to-morrow at eleven, for it is a good'mile
and a half from here."
I turned to go ; he followed me to the
door ; and as I shook his cold, corpse-like
hand, he said, with rather a forced gaie-ty,
as I thought:
" I have forgotten the syren," ho said,
"quite forgotten her, sponged lier name
from my slate, erased her photograph,
burned her letters—Ha! but you see we
enthusiasts soon lbrget these frivolities ;
love and a catarrh are quickly cured.
How do you got on, by-the-by, with the—
the—Fulverniachers ?"
I colored sliglitly as I replied: "Oh!
pretty well! The Professor is rather a
bore, but the daughter is charming."
And putting my lingers to my lips, 1
laughed and blew them apart, as Spanish
lovers do.
He smiled, as he shut tlie door, without
making any answer.
I was with Gallard punctually at eleven
o'clock the following day. I found his
pai)ers put up, his desk closed, and fiacre
waiting for us at the door. Ho received
me with the abstacted air of a man whose
thoughts are lixed on the future. He was
busy collecting necessary instruiTients for
the journey ; an hygrometer, an aneroid
barometer, and dry and wet bulb ther-luometers,
'i'lio ballast, and the balloon
itself, were already on the ground. As
we stepped into the carriage Gallard
threw open his bornouse, and drew from
under it the engraved sword I had seen
before, and a pair of pistols.
"Why arms ?" I said, laughing, as the
coach drove olf. "Will the prince of the
powers of the air attact us ?"
"No," said lie, drily ; "but on two oc-casions,
when I havj been throwing out
the grappling anchor, ignorant farmers
have threatened to fire at me; and it is as
well to go armed. Beside that, last year
at Strasburgh, the country people were
troublesome when we landed. I had to
force them, sword in hand, les singes, to
help to obtain the balloon. There are few
countries, mon c/ier, where a sword is not
useful for defence or attack ; and beside
we may want it to let out the gas in case
of the valve not working at a critical mo-ment
"
I was satisfied, and I said so.
"I hope they won't put the ballast near
any fire," he said, a f t em lo^g^lpparently
thoughtful silence.
"Why, sand is not very inflammable, is
it?" said I.
Gallard made no reply, but gave a sort
of sardonic smile that I could not inter-pret.
As we approached the scene of the ap-proaching
ascent Gallard grew more and
more silent; and wrapping himself up in
his cloak, sat in one corner of tho coach
absorbed in thought. The streets leading
to the gate were crowded with citizens
and soldiers hastening to the place from
whence the balloon was to ascend. Mer-chants'
clerks, Tyrolese riflemen, Hunga-rian
wagoners—all clases were elbowing
on, all bent on the same object, all eyes
turned the same way, in every mouth the
same subject.
"1 shail never forget this day," said I,
my eyes glowing with excitement.,
"You never will," replied Gallard
gravely.
It was just as he uttered these words
the coach drew up with a sudden jerk at
the gate of the enclosure, where 1 could
see the large balloon struggling and sway-ing
to release itself from the ropes that
bound it to the earth. Now, there is al-ways,
as travelers will remember, fastened
in the inside of all the hacknej'^-coaches of
Vienna a small looking glass, in a tawdry
gilt frame. It serves, I suppose, to help
the Viennese ladies to arrange their bon-nets,
the dandies to twist their moustach-ios.
I was the first to get out of the car-riage
; and as I passed the looking-glass
I caught in it a pale glimpse of my friend
Gallard's face; it wore a momentary ex-pression
of hideous mockery, which made
me rather fear that the excitement of the
moment was too much for his brain ; but I
said nothing, lest I might unnerve him.
A cheer ran round the arena, and hand-kerchiefs
waved, as we both entered the
enclosure, bearing the national flags(white
with a black spread eagle) that our gate-keeper
presented us Avith as we passed
him. The preparations were already
made ; there were the tubs full of iron fil-ings
laid between straw, and on these had
been poured vitriolic acid and water.
These tubs, covered with others, wore
contained in strong casks, sunk in the
ground ; and through holes made in the
top of these casks tin tubes were fittec^
to which the silken tube of the balloon
was fastened. The net was already ad-justed,
and the balloon being thrce-quar-ters
full, the tin tubes were removed and
the silken pipes tied up and coiled into
the boat, which was now being fastened
to the loop.
Gallard did not speak, but giving a
scofling look at the populace, proceeded
to examine the fittings of the balloon He
looked at the valve in the top part of the
air-ship that was so soon to bear us star-ward,
and several times pulled the string
that fastened the brass-shutter padded
with leather. He then tested the cords
that suspended the car to the balloon by a
hoop of cane, which had been sewn with
leather.
It was a fine autumn afternoon, within
half an hour of sunset, and a brisk wind
blowing. The clouds over our head were
fast turning to crimson and gold; into
their glory we were about to ascend. J
felt at once excited and awe-struck; but
Gallard, imperturbable as ever, seemed
entirely occupied in watching the bunches
of men who held on to the four ropes that
still retained the swaying balloon. At
his word of command three of the ropes
were suddenly let go, and the balloon,
feeling itself freer, swung so as to almost
touch the ground.
We each took a draught of Vosslauer
wine, brought to us by one of the attend-ants,
and then stepped into the car, in
which the ballast, instruments, and weap-ons
had now all been neatly packed away.
As the signal gun bellowed forth, Gallard
drew his sword and cut the last rope, and
I fired a pistol as the balloon ascended
steadily and majestically.
I instantly experienced that peculiar
sensation as if some great force was press
ing my feet upward, but 1 felt no pain in
my ears; and the stillness and tranquility
of the air we traversed was delightful, and
roused my imagination to the uttermost.
A grim, composed sfnile broke forth
even on the corpse-like face of Gallard.
Vienna now lay beneath us, like a toy
city. The barometer showed us to be only
a mile and a half up, but it seemed to me
already seven or eightmiles. Every thing
now appeared on a plane; the highest buil-dings
had no more apparent elevation than
the mountains on a geological model.
The country round Vienna lay beneath
like a colored map. There was St. Ste-phen's,
no larger than a doll's house; pal-aces,
barracks, shops, fountains, had all
dwindled to little blocks, no larger than
cheese-cakes. Even the park itself, and
the vast rolling multitude we had left, ap-peared
no larger than a green meadow in
a picture.
The balloon, looking like a large gold-en
bubble, had risen into the clouds that
now hid it from the earth. A moment
more and we pierced the cloud, and rose
above it into a clearer and more radiant
atmosphere. Now below us the detached
fleeces, coalesced, and formed into what
resembled a sea of white cotton; above
they were smooth, close-packed, and level.
Beyond this were dense hills or thunder
clouds, of the color of cannon-smoke,which
were moving slowly at irregular intervals.
We could now see the shadow of the bal-loon
passing over the ground and the
nearer clouds, at first small as an egg, but
gradually widening, and encircled with an
iris halo.
We could still hear the cannon roaring
farewell to us from below. We were now
ten thousand feet above the earth; we
were going fast before the wind, and had
lost sight of the city. The atn/osphere
got rapidly colder, and a slight sifting of
snow fell sprinkling around us.
"How do you like my air-ship, mon
amiV said Gallard, as he pulled his sword
in and out of its sheath.
"Marvellous !" said I ; "it gives me a
sense of a new power."
"Just open that bag, and throw out
eight or ten handfuls of sand."
I stooped down, and was about to untie
the string that fastened the mouth of the
second sack, when Gallard leaped up and
caught my arm.
"Now then—now, then, you foolish
Englishman!" he cried; "the nearest one,
ihe neaestone !"
I looked round, raiher angrily.
"You are rather hasty to-d.iy, Monsieur
Gallard," I said
"Pardon me," he replied, rapidly recov-ering
his serenity: " I dislike the English
race, but I like individuals of the species.
We aeronauts arc obliged to be partic-ular.
We must mount higher, and visit
Aldebaran, and skirt the glittei-ing do-mains
of the jewel-gilt Orion. More sand!
throw out more sand, mon ami.'"
I leant over the c ir, and baled out
handful after handful of sand ; thus light-ened,
our air-ship rose higher and higher.
We were a thousand feet higher. The
temperature our enstruinent showed to be
thirty degrees lower than on the ground
we had quitted. Gallard stooping behind
me, untied the second bag—it was the
black ballast.
A grunt, more like that of la beast than
the voice of a man, made me look round,
and pause in my task. It was from Gal-lard.
He was standing up and cocking a
pistol. His eyes burnt with rage I dropt
the bag of ballast, in my alarm, over the
side of the car, and up we soared a mile
higher than we had vet attained.
"Dog!" cried Gallard, "beast! fool of
an accursed Englishman ! you are now at
my mercy. I brought you up here only
to destroy you. You have alienated from
me the only woman I ever loved. I no
longer care for life, money or fame. You
have made all worthless to me. In return
1 laid this trap for you. Here no one can
hear your cries. Here I have death for
you in a dozen shapes. I have these two
pistols and a sword. This bag at my
feet contains gunpowder—move an inch, I
fire into it, and we shall be in the twink-ling
of an eye blown up to the moon.
Two black pieces of flesh, and a red shriv-el
of silk, will jbe all that will reach the
earth. Choose your death—steel, lead,
or fire!"
"You must be raving mad, Mons.
Gallard," I said. "I iiave ever been
your friend. I never even spoke to Miss
Pulvermacher untill you had thrust fier
from yon. I am no favored suitor. I am
ready again to yield my claims to yours.
Do not stain your hands with blood. Re-flect;
this is a cruel treacherous murder
that you plan."
"Bah!" roared Gallard; "I have Syrian
bood in my veins; with us, revenge is a
part of our religion. I have sworn to all
the creatures of hell that both of us shall
not again revisit the earth alive. Hound
of an Englishman die !"
As he said this, Gallard came closer,
and deliberately^aiming between my eyes,
fired before I could seize his arm.
The hammer fell, but there was no re-port.
Thanks to God's great goodness,
he had by mistake seized the unloaded
pistol.
He. then seized the right one, and cock-ed
it with a yell of fiendish rage. This
time my death seemed certain, but before
he could press the trigger, I had beaten it
from his hand with a weapon he little ex-pected—
a heavy barometer, on which I
had been making observations, and which
rested beside me against the side of the car.
With a second blow, quick as lightning
I struck him senseless, and in an instant
tossed overboard his sword and the fallen
pistol. I then, by a sudden effort, lifted
the bag of gunpowder, and threw it also
over. I was now in some degree safe, and
I stooped over my fallen enemy to see
what life remained in him. The moment
I did so, Gallard leapt up, and I felt a
fierce stab of a knife, which but for my
watch, had killed me on the spot. Gal-lard
had recovered from the blow, but re-mained
apparently insensible, while I
turned my back in order that he might o-pen
his knife, and strike me the more un-expectedly
and certainly-
This second act of deliberate treachery
roused the wild beast within me. There
was, I felt and saw, no safety for me but
in the death of Gallard. Should one have
mercy on snakes or wolves? 1 drew back,
and, before he could rise, struck him again
with the barometer, and ropcatcd the blows
till he became insensible. I then by an
almost superhuman exertion, lifted him
to the edge of the car, and slid his body
over, holding fast by the ropes to escape
myself being thi own out by the swaying
of the car.
I gave the insensible man one half-re-morseful
glance—and then the instinct of
self-preservation came over me, and I
launched him into the air. He fell—
fell—fell—fell, and a horrible fascination
comi)elled me to watch the body till,small
as a beetle, it reached a white sea of cloud
and smoke, and disappeared in that abyss.
I was saved, 1 knelt and thanked God for
that deliverance. But how to steer the
balloon, and biingi safely back to earth.