It was a scene beyond all words. Presently a monstrous elephant formed itself before our eyes. We entered into the very midst of it, and were blinded by the cold and damp vapour--a singular and awful cloud, whence we emerged but to plunge again into others more awful still; now a furious sea, now a group of hideous phantoms, now long, luminous tracts, glittering like streams of silver in the ghostly white light. "This is not so pleasant," my brother-in-law murmured. "Why not descend?"
The billows of cloud piled together, terribly agitated. Above us, below us and about us, all was stirred to fury. My agitation was great; for of all these circumstances the silence, the absolute silence, was the most terrible. Amid all the shocks of the cloud-masses, amid all the rages of the hideous gigantic phantoms, of those fearful forces that might at any moment crush us in a clap of thunder, not a sound, even of the faintest, was heard. The balloon glided through the enervating, cloud-filled heavens steadily and proudly, and soon we were free of the mists, and sailing serenely under the deep blue sky in the pale light of the moon.
[Illustration: "A SINGULAR AND AWFUL CLOUD."]
"I like this better," said Ernest, and we agreed with him.
We gazed at the white plain of rolling clouds below us. What was that--the little ball that ran so quickly along the furrowed white spaces? The little ball edged with an aureole of tender colours?
"That?" answered Godard. "That is we ourselves--the balloon, or rather its shadow. What do you think of its rate of travelling, Madame Flammarion--you who imagine that we are not moving at all?"
Truly, it was our own shadow, swiftly skimming the clouds below, a curious and charming sight.
And now we saw the first signs of dawn. The balloon sank and sank, and soon we were skimming above meadows scented with a thousand perfumes. To us it seemed that we must touch the trees every moment, so nearly did we approach the earth. But, as a matter of fact, we were still a hundred mètres from the ground. Again it was a delightful experience, thus to skim above the earth in the silent, starry morning, without a breath of air that we could feel. The plains, the hills, the rivulets passed before us as in a dream. It was communion with Nature indeed.