s no revival of
sun worship, since men must necessarily have some material
representation of the divinity. It is true that the sun is not made in
man's image! We now had beneath us an immense plain, the same,
probably, that we had passed over in the night. There is nothing more
pleasant at first sight, nor more monotonous in the long-run, than the
sort of country which forms at least one-third of Holland. There are
miniature woods the size of bouquets, fields admirably cultivated and
divided into little patches like gardens, rivers with extraordinary
windings, microscopic roads, coquettish-looking villages, so white and
so clean that I think the Dutch housewives must scour the very roofs of
their houses every morning. In the midst of every village there is a
jewel of a church with a shining steeple. While riding along at a
height of 700 metres, we had beneath us a picture of Paul Potter's fifty
leagues square. All at once the tableaux became animated. The people
below had perceived the balloon. We heard cries expressive of
astonishment, fright, and even of anger; but the feeling of fright
seemed to predominate. We distinctly saw women in their chemises look
hurriedly out of windows and then rush back again. We saw chubby boys
looking at us, and blubbering as if they were mad. Some men, more
determined than the rest, fired off guns at us. I saw several mammas
pointing us out to stubborn babies, with an attitude which seemed to say
that our balloon was Old Bogy. Old women raised their hands against us,
and at their signal many ran away, making the sign of the cross. It is
evident that in some of these villages we were taken to be the devil in
person. On this point it is _apropos_ to cite a letter communicated to
me which has been addressed to the _Courrier de Hanovre_. I translate
it textually:--

"`This morning, at about six o'clock, we saw passing over our heads, at
a prodigious height, an immense round form, to which was suspended some
thing which looked like a square house of a red colour. Some people
pretend to have seen animated beings in this strange machine, and to
have heard issuing from it superhuman cries. What think you, Mr
Editor? The whole country is in a state of alarm, and it will be long
before our people recover their equanimity.'

"At seven a.m. we crossed over a lake near Yssel; the wind then again
pushed us in a new direction, nearly at right angles with that which we
were taking