NAVIGATING THE AIR 



were carried some fifteen hundred feet into the air, 

 descending uninjured, two miles from the starting-point, 

 a few minutes later. The cage was broken open in the 

 descent, but its occupants escaped injury, and the sheep 

 was found quietly grazing when the rescue party arrived. 



The successful voyage of these caged animals stimu- 

 lated the balloonists to attempt the crucial test of sending 

 up a balloon carrying a human passenger. But from 

 this perilous undertaking the boldest spirits recoiled, 

 even the Montgolfiers refusing to venture. In those 

 days, however, there was always a means of securing 

 human beings, willing or otherwise, for any undertaking. 

 Where gold would not tempt, it needed but a word of 

 the monarch to commute the death-sentence of some 

 criminal, placing him at the disposal of the scientists 

 for a better or worse fate than the gallows, as the case 

 might be. And so when Louis XVI heard of the plight 

 of the balloon-makers, he came to their assistance with 

 the offer of two condemned prisoners to be sent on the 

 first aerial voyage. This offer had an unexpected effect. 

 The pride of a certain high-minded aeronaut named 

 Rozier, who had hitherto refused to risk his life, was 

 touched at the thought of criminals performing an act 

 that all honest men refused. "What! are vile criminals 

 to have the glory of being the first to ascend into the 

 air?'* he exclaimed. "No, no, that must not be." 

 And forthwith he oflFered his own services for the hazard- 

 ous undertaking. 



The royal decree was accordingly repealed, to the 

 chagrin of the criminals, no doubt, and preparations 

 made for the momentous attempt. Montgolfier was 



