On a fine evening at the end of August 1783, the peasants of Gonesse were astonished by a ‘bolt from the blue’ in the shape of Professor Charles’s balloon. ‘What is it?’ they exclaim—‘some strange demon, or a visitant from Mars.’ The machine, which had no occupant, King Louis having objected to a man risking his neck, only escaped destruction by the interference of the parish priest. Here, surely, was an opportunity for the fan, by which, as a matter of fact, it was not slow in profiting. Balloon-fans became at once the mode, and ‘La Mode’ appropriated the balloon; hats ‘au ballon,’ everything—dresses, ribbons, even hair, ‘au ballon.’ On December 1st of the same year, MM. Charles and Robert made their ascent in the gardens of the Tuileries. We therefore have a fan representing the departure of ‘les deux intrépides,’ with a group of spectators, among whom are two members of the Royal House, ‘des seigneurs _quantité_.’ On the reverse, two lines of music and five stanzas of verse, of which the first runs as follows: ‘De l’aerostatique sphère françois admirez la splandeur voyez sa forme circulaire coup seé par un Equateur ensélevant elle présente le sigue qui nous attendrit c’est la maison interessante (bis) des gemeaux quelle nous ravit.’ There was an echo in England. An illustration of the event forms the centre subject of a fan in the Schreiber collection. On the left, Biaggini’s Air Balloon is about to ascend; and on the right, The Fall of ye Balloon, the confused mass being viewed with curiosity by three rustics. In the following March, M. Blanchard made his ascent in his balloon with four rudders; the event duly recorded on a fan inscribed ‘La Phisico Mécanique Ou le Vaisseau Volant de Mr. Blanchard.’ The song of four stanzas, ‘Oh parbleu voici du plaisant. Vive la Phisique,’ etc. [Illustration: Taking of the Bastille, 1789. Schreiber Coll^n British Museum.] [Illustration: Duc d’Orléans. Miss Moss.] There were painted as well as engraved balloon-fans—with a centre medallion of two fair damsels viewing ‘sa forme circulaire,’ a smaller medallion of a balloon on either side, the field of the fan in the glitter of stars, spangles, and dotted ornaments. Thus Carlyle, with his characteristic _double entente_, philosophising on these events: ‘Beautiful invention; mounting heavenward, so beautifully,—so unguidably! Emblem of much, and of our Age of Hope itself; which shall mount, specifically-light, majestically in this same manner; and hover,—tumbling whither Fate will. Well if it do not, Pilâtre-like, explode; and _de_mount all the more tragically!—So, riding on windbags, will men scale the Empyrean.’