The news of this marvellous event spread like wild-fire throughout the kingdom, and soon not only all France, but all Europe also, was ringing with the tidings. The French Royal Academy of Sciences immediately invited Stephen Montgolfier to Paris, and provided him with money to repeat his experiment. He accordingly constructed a yet larger machine, which stood no less than 72 feet high, had it most magnificently painted and decorated and hung with flags, and sent it up at Versailles in the presence of the King and all his court. This particular balloon is noteworthy as having been the first of all balloons to carry living passengers into the air. They were three in number, a sheep, a cock, and a duck. Breathlessly the assembled multitude watched these innocent victims placed in the basket and soar calmly and majestically above their heads; and eagerly they followed the balloon to where it fell half a mile away to learn their fate. Would they have been suffocated in those upper regions of the air which no human being had yet explored, or would they be dashed to pieces in the descent? But they found the trio quite uninjured; the unimaginative sheep grazing quietly, and the duck cheerfully quacking. Forthwith the cry then arose that it was time for a man to hazard the ascent, and King Louis, who, like every one else, was vastly excited over the wonder, suggested that two criminals then lying under sentence of death should be sent aloft. But now a brave French gentleman--M. Pilâtre de Rozier, a name ever to be remembered in the history of the conquest of the air--uprose in indignation. “Shall vile criminals have the first glory of rising into the sky!” he cried, and then and there he proudly claimed for himself the honour of being first among mortals in the history of the world to sail the air. His courageous resolve was wildly applauded, and forthwith preparations were commenced for the new venture. A yet larger balloon was made, in height as tall as a church tower, with a mouth 15 feet across. Around the mouth was fastened a gallery of wicker-work, three feet wide, to hold the passengers, and below all was slung with chains an iron brazier of burning fuel.