Page:Wonderful Balloon Ascents, 1870.djvu/228

212 days of the old Republic. He had been commissioned by the Committee of Public Safety to go to Maubeuge, where Jourdan's army was encamped, and to offer him the use of his balloon. The representative to whom the young doctor presented his commission, knew nothing about balloons, and not being able to understand the order of the Committee of Public Safety, it suddenly dawned upon him that Coutelle, with his trumpery forgery about balloons, was nothing else than a spy, and he was about to have him shot. The genuineness of the order from the Committee, however, was proved, and Coutelle's case was listened to.

"The army was at Beaumont," says Coutelle, "and the enemy, placed at a distance of only three miles, could attack at any moment. The general told me this fact, and engaged me to return and communicate it to the Committee. This I did. The Commission then felt the necessity of making an experiment with a balloon that could raise two persons, and the minister placed at my service the garden and the little mansion of Meudon. Many of the members of the Commission came to witness the first ascent of a balloon held in hand, like a kite, by means of two cords. The Commissioners ordered me to place myself in the car, and instructed me as to a number of signals which I must repeat, and observations which I must make. I raised myself to the full length of the cord, a height of 1,500 feet, and at this height, with the help of a glass, I could distinctly see the seven bends of the river Seine. On returning to the earth, I received the compliments of the Commission.

"Arrived at Maubeuge, my first care was to find a suitable spot to erect my furnace, and to make every preparation for the arrival of my balloon from Meudon. Each day my observations contained something new either in the