“The King was sitting at the window in the upper story of the Dilkosha house, with some English gentlemen, when the balloon passed up close by, and the gentleman took off his hat and bowed gracefully as he passed, at which the King seemed much pleased.  I commanded a regiment of Dragoons, and the King told me to take a party of my boldest and best-mounted men and follow the balloon.  I selected seventeen, and we were all ready in our saddles.  The balloon went straight up, and we lost sight of the man and the boat in which he sat.  The machine, though it was sixty feet long, including boat and all, and twelve feet wide, seemed at last to be no larger than a small water-jug.  Below we had no wind, but we soon saw the balloon driven by an upper current to the eastward, along the Fyzabad road.  We followed as fast as the horses could carry us, crossed the Goomtee river over the old stone bridge, and passed many travellers on the road staring at the extraordinary machine, for they had heard nothing about it, and we had no time to tell them.  When we had gone about seventeen miles, the balloon began to descend.  It was in the month of March, and the weather was hot, and I had lost three horses before it came to the ground.  The young man then began to let go his fish, and they came fluttering down, while the oil-cloths about the balloon made a noise like the growling of a wild beast.  Seeing the enormous machine going at this rate, followed by us at full speed, the people along the road, who are always numerous in the morning, became so panic-struck that a great many fell down senseless upon their faces, and some of them could not be got to rise for some hours afterwards.

“We were not far from it when it approached the ground, and swept along on the border of this grove, on our left.  Fortunately for the young man, it did not strike any trees.  He was dressed all in black, and a very tall, handsome young man he was.  As soon as he found himself near enough to the ground, he jumped out, holding one rope in his hand, and tried to stop the balloon, calling out to the people on the road, as loud as he could, puckaro, puckaro!—­seize, seize!  We were then within two hundred yards of it, and at full speed; and, instead of helping the young man, the people on the road, thinking the order was to seize them, fell down flat on their faces, unable to look upon the balloon, or utter a word.  They all thought that it was some terrible demon from above come to seize and devour them.  When we had headed it a little, we all sprang from our saddles, joined the young man at the ropes, and lashed them round anything we could find, as we were being dragged along.  The young man took out his penknife, and gave the balloon a gash in the side, to let out the smoke that inflated it, and it collapsed and stopped.  The first thing, sir, that the young man did was to call for fire, take a cigar from his waistcoat pocket, and begin to smoke, while we went to the assistance