fitted with gearing to enable the air traveller to proceed in any
other direction than that in which the wind blew him. The
inventor first flew down from a stool, then from a table,
afterwards from a window, and finally from a garret, from which
he passed above the houses in the neighbourhood, and then,
moderating the working of his machine, he descended slowly to the
earth."

Tradition records that under Louis XIV. a certain rope-dancer,
named Alard, announced that on a certain day he would perform the
feat of flying in the air. We have no description of his wings.
It is recorded, however, that he set out on his adventurous
flight; but he had not calculated all the necessities of the
case, and, falling to the ground, he was dangerously hurt.

Leonardo da Vinci might have known the art of flying in the air,
and might even have practiced it. A statement to this effect, at
least, is found in several historians. We have, however, no
direct proof of the fact.

The Abbe Deforges, of Etampes, announced in the journals in 1772
that he would perform the great feat. On the appointed day
multitudes of the curious flocked to Etampes. The abbe's machine
was a sort of gondola, seven feet long and about two feet deep.
Gondola conductor, and baggage weighed in all 213 pounds. The
pious man believed that he had provided against everything.
Neither tempest nor rain should mar his flight, and there was no
chance of his being upset; whilst the machine, he had decided,
was to go at the rate of thirty leagues an hour.