The Mysterious Island | Page 6

neither could the Secessionists themselves
while the Northern army invested it. The Governor of Richmond for a
long time had been unable to communicate with General Lee, and he
very much wished to make known to him the situation of the town, so
as to hasten the march of the army to their relief. Thus Jonathan Forster
accordingly conceived the idea of rising in a balloon, so as to pass over
the besieging lines, and in that way reach the Secessionist camp.
The Governor authorized the attempt. A balloon was manufactured and
placed at the disposal of Forster, who was to be accompanied by five
other persons. They were furnished with arms in case they might have

to defend themselves when they alighted, and provisions in the event of
their aerial voyage being prolonged.
The departure of the balloon was fixed for the 18th of March. It should
be effected during the night, with a northwest wind of moderate force,
and the aeronauts calculated that they would reach General Lee's camp
in a few hours.
But this northwest wind was not a simple breeze. From the 18th it was
evident that it was changing to a hurricane. The tempest soon became
such that Forster's departure was deferred, for it was impossible to risk
the balloon and those whom it carried in the midst of the furious
elements.
The balloon, inflated on the great square of Richmond, was ready to
depart on the first abatement of the wind, and, as may be supposed, the
impatience among the besieged to see the storm moderate was very
great.
The 18th, the 19th of March passed without any alteration in the
weather. There was even great difficulty in keeping the balloon
fastened to the ground, as the squalls dashed it furiously about.
The night of the 19th passed, but the next morning the storm blew with
redoubled force. The departure of the balloon was impossible.
On that day the engineer, Cyrus Harding, was accosted in one of the
streets of Richmond by a person whom he did not in the least know.
This was a sailor named Pencroft, a man of about thirty-five or forty
years of age, strongly built, very sunburnt, and possessed of a pair of
bright sparkling eyes and a remarkably good physiognomy. Pencroft
was an American from the North, who had sailed all the ocean over,
and who had gone through every possible and almost impossible
adventure that a being with two feet and no wings would encounter. It
is needless to say that he was a bold, dashing fellow, ready to dare
anything and was astonished at nothing. Pencroft at the beginning of
the year had gone to Richmond on business, with a young boy of
fifteen from New Jersey, son of a former captain, an orphan, whom he

loved as if he had been his own child. Not having been able to leave the
town before the first operations of the siege, he found himself shut up,
to his great disgust; but, not accustomed to succumb to difficulties, he
resolved to escape by some means or other. He knew the
engineer-officer by reputation; he knew with what impatience that
determined man chafed under his restraint. On this day he did not,
therefore, hesitate to accost him, saying, without circumlocution, "Have
you had enough of Richmond, captain?"
The engineer looked fixedly at the man who spoke, and who added, in a
low voice,--
"Captain Harding, will you try to escape?"
"When?" asked the engineer quickly, and it was evident that this
question was uttered without consideration, for he had not yet
examined the stranger who addressed him. But after having with a
penetrating eye observed the open face of the sailor, he was convinced
that he had before him an honest man.
"Who are you?" he asked briefly.
Pencroft made himself known.
"Well," replied Harding, "and in what way do you propose to escape?"
"By that lazy balloon which is left there doing nothing, and which
looks to me as if it was waiting on purpose for us--"
There was no necessity for the sailor to finish his sentence. The
engineer understood him at once. He seized Pencroft by the arm, and
dragged him to his house. There the sailor developed his project, which
was indeed extremely simple. They risked nothing but their lives in its
execution. The hurricane was in all its violence, it is true, but so clever
and daring an engineer as Cyrus Harding knew perfectly well how to
manage a balloon. Had he himself been as well acquainted with the art
of sailing in the air as he was with the navigation of a ship, Pencroft
would not have hesitated to set out, of course taking his young friend

Herbert with him; for, accustomed to brave the fiercest