The ascension of this gigantic vessel was immensely spectacular; but it was also most adventurous and foolhardy. The great bag, which at best was made of poor materials, was in bad repair after its frequent inflations. But of the six passengers in the gallery not one could be induced to remain behind to lessen the risk to the others. Their pilot, M. de Rozier, remonstrated with them; the proprietor M. C. Flesselle wished them to cast lots; but no one would abandon the journey. So, with fear and reluctance, the pilot ordered the mooring ropes to be cut. Just as the ascent began, a seventh passenger, M. Fontaine, sprang into the gallery and sailed aloft with the others. By vigorous stoking the aërial sailors urged their fiery vessel upward three thousand feet, whence, apparently without fear, they waved their hats to the vast throng below. [Illustration: FIG. 9.—LA FLESSELLE.] The spectators were now in a frenzy of excitement. For more than a week they had vacillated between hope and disappointment; but now they saw the huge ship soaring into the sky, perhaps on her way to destruction. They heard the blast of martial music and the booming of mortars. Then the accumulated emotion of the multitude burst forth. Exclamations of joy, shrieks of fear, thunders of applause resounded above the sea of people. Finally the balloon began to burst, a dangerous rent running vertically along her side. The machine descended with great rapidity, to the alarm of everyone. It is reported that not fewer than sixty thousand people ran to the place of landing, with the greatest apprehension for the lives of the travelers. But the adventurous men stepped forth from the gallery, after a fifteen minutes’ voyage, without hurt of any kind, save an insignificant scratch borne by Joseph Montgolfier, who on this occasion made his first and last ascension. This was also the first and last ascension of that gigantic fire balloon; for although it furnished a world of delirious emotion and excitement, the trouble of inflating the vessel was too great to be repeated.