The balloon at first collapsed, then furiously expanded,
then whirled round and round with horrible velocity, and finally,
reeling and staggering like a drunken man, hurled me with great force
over the rim of the car, and left me dangling, at a terrific height,
with my head downward, and my face outwards, by a piece of slender
cord about three feet in length, which hung accidentally through a
crevice near the bottom of the wicker-work, and in which, as I fell,
my left foot became most providentially entangled. It is
impossible- utterly impossible- to form any adequate idea of the
horror of my situation. I gasped convulsively for breath- a shudder
resembling a fit of the ague agitated every nerve and muscle of my
frame- I felt my eyes starting from their sockets- a horrible nausea
overwhelmed me- and at length I fainted away.
How long I remained in this state it is impossible to say. It
must, however, have been no inconsiderable time, for when I
partially recovered the sense of existence, I found the day
breaking, the balloon at a prodigious height over a wilderness of
ocean, and not a trace of land to be discovered far and wide within
the limits of the vast horizon.
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