I imparted this reflection to our pilot, but he was insensible to my arguments and would not listen. He shook his head in doubt, and without consenting to discuss my reasons, repeated: “If you give the order, I will obey; but I think it will be better to wait.” I finally gave way and consented to wait. After all, I said to myself, we were not badly off in the air, and it was always better to be a little longer up there than to come down too quickly and fall into the hands of the enemy. So we continued our journey. It was a mistake, an irreparable mistake, one which came near costing us dear. From that moment the weather suddenly changed, and a quarter of an hour later all hope of ending our journey peaceably by a regular descent was completely lost. The horizon, which up till now had been clear and radiant, began to take on a disquietingly sombre tint. Mists arose. We could not see where they came from, but they came, interminably rolling and surging and thickening more and more; a tempest was forming around us. It was a strange scene, at once beautiful and terrible, and its very horror so contributed to its beauty that I forgot for the moment that we were ourselves about to play a part in the drama. CHAPTER V THE STORM I will try and set down what I saw. The balloon was above the tempest that was forming; the storm was in preparation, so to speak, under our eyes. The sky above our heads did not change in aspect, but remained placid and transparently blue. We were therefore floating over the clouds, with a full view of the storm beneath us and the unclouded sun above us. It was a dazzling contrast; over our heads was the golden and intense brilliance of an unclouded blue sky, the transparent azure of pure air inundated with light, and under our feet lay deep and changeable night--a black, weltering mass of uneasy chaos, that seemed as if set in motion by the hands of giants; a nameless thing without a form or colour that rolled and eddied and swarmed--the _Tohu-bohu_ of Genesis. It might have been an army of Titans whipping and tormenting the clouds, that were piled up and shattered on one another, and again piled up and shattered endlessly. And over this feverish chaos we heard the rumble of thunder, while the violent and icy wind drove the clouds as a wolf does the sheep when it falls upon a flock. Our poor balloon, though it was great and heavy, carrying, as I have said, not less than a ton, was as light as a feather on the wings of the hurricane. It danced madly up and down, shaken and tossed about like a fragile skiff. So we rolled over this stormy sea without compass or rudder, fascinated by the grandeur and the strangeness of the sight. How long were we in the storm? I cannot say; but suddenly the aeronaut cried, “Monsieur, we are sinking!” And the balloon, without showing any breakage to explain such an accident, sank rapidly, or rather dropped perpendicularly, like a mass.