The square in front of City Hall was packed with people. They all craned their heads to look at the sky, but the sunlight was rather dazzling, so the ladies held up parasols while the gentlemen used telescopes to observe what was happening overhead.
"We shouldn't go over there, Madam," Fiegel said.
Georgiana had no objection. In fact, she too was sitting in the carriage with an opera glass raised, awaiting the grand entrance of that "pilot," while Matilda explained this performance, which had once been staged in Paris on October 22, 1797, to the others who had never seen such a spectacle.
The Fructidor Coup had only recently ended then, and the newspapers were discussing the benefits brought by the Treaty of Campo Formio. The performer had been named Garnerin. In truth, it had not been a performance at all, but an experiment rather like dropping two cannonballs at the same time.
Leonardo da Vinci had designed many flying devices. Many remained only ideas, but some had wanted to test whether those devices could truly fly. One drawing depicted a pyramidal object, with a person suspended from its four corners. In Leonardo da Vinci's conception, it could land safely.
There had been a general named Meusnier who wanted hot-air balloons to be steered through human-powered propulsion. He installed propellers on the balloon and designed it as a more aerodynamic oval. Yet the propellers did not generate enough power to alter its course. Then there was this "parachute," designed according to Leonardo da Vinci's plans. It was said that he had once used one from a rooftop in his hometown without breaking his legs.
Then, in Montpellier, Languedoc, a balloon pilot named Brown Charles tied a parachute to a box containing small animals and threw it from a hot-air balloon.