It needed not this last account to spur me on to visit him. I only doubted

whether or not I should endeavour to see Idris again, before I departed.

This doubt was decided on the following day. Early in the morning Raymond

came to me; intelligence had arrived that Adrian was dangerously ill, and

it appeared impossible that his failing strength should surmount the

disorder. "To-morrow," said Raymond, "his mother and sister set out for

Scotland to see him once again."

"And I go to-day," I cried; "this very hour I will engage a sailing

balloon; I shall be there in forty-eight hours at furthest, perhaps in

less, if the wind is fair. Farewell, Raymond; be happy in having chosen the

better part in life. This turn of fortune revives me. I feared madness, not

sickness--I have a presentiment that Adrian will not die; perhaps this

illness is a crisis, and he may recover."

Everything favoured my journey. The balloon rose about half a mile from the

earth, and with a favourable wind it hurried through the air, its feathered

vans cleaving the unopposing atmosphere. Notwithstanding the melancholy

object of my journey, my spirits were exhilarated by reviving hope, by the

swift motion of the airy pinnace, and the balmy visitation of the sunny

air. The pilot hardly moved the plumed steerage, and the slender mechanism

of the wings, wide unfurled, gave forth a murmuring noise, soothing to the

sense. Plain and hill, stream and corn-field, were discernible below, while

we unimpeded sped on swift and secure, as a wild swan in his spring-tide

flight. The machine obeyed the slightest motion of the helm; and, the wind

The Last Man