THE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaall
The Gold-Bug
Four Beasts in One
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Balloon-Hoax
MS. Found in a Bottle
The Oval Portrait
EDGAR ALLAN POE
THE UNPARALLELED ADVENTURES OF ONE HANS PFAALL (*1)
BY late accounts from Rotterdam, that city seems to be in a high state
of philosophical excitement. Indeed, phenomena have there occurred of
a nature so completely unexpected--so entirely novel--so utterly at
variance with preconceived opinions--as to leave no doubt on my mind
that long ere this all Europe is in an uproar, all physics in a ferment,
all reason and astronomy together by the ears.
It appears that on the---- day of---- (I am not positive about the
date), a vast crowd of people, for purposes not specifically
mentioned, were assembled in the great square of the Exchange in the
well-conditioned city of Rotterdam. The day was warm--unusually so for
the season--there was hardly a breath of air stirring; and the multitude
were in no bad humor at being now and then besprinkled with friendly
showers of momentary duration, that fell from large white masses
of cloud which chequered in a fitful manner the blue vault of the
firmament. Nevertheless, about noon, a slight but remarkable agitation
became apparent in the assembly: the clattering of ten thousand tongues
succeeded; and, in an instant afterward, ten thousand faces were
upturned toward the heavens, ten thousand pipes descended simultaneously
from the corners of ten thousand mouths, and a shout, which could be
compared to nothing but the roaring of Niagara, resounded long, loudly,
and furiously, through all the environs of Rotterdam.
The origin of this hubbub soon became sufficiently evident. From behind
the huge bulk of one of those sharply-defined masses of cloud already
mentioned, was seen slowly to emerge into an open area of blue space, a
queer, heterogeneous, but apparently solid substance, so oddly shaped,
so whimsically put together, as not to be in any manner comprehended,
and never to be sufficiently admired, by the host of sturdy burghers who
stood open-mouthed below. What could it be? In the name of all the vrows
and devils in Rotterdam, what could it possibly portend? No one knew, no
one could imagine; no one--not even the burgomaster Mynheer Superbus Von
Underduk--had the slightest clew by which to unravel the mystery; so, as
nothing more reasonable could be done, every one to a man replaced his
pipe carefully in the corner of his mouth, and cocking up his right
eye towards the phenomenon, puffed, paused, waddled about, and grunted
significantly--then waddled back, grunted, paused, and finally--puffed
again.
In the meantime, however, lower and still lower toward the goodly city,
came the object of so much curiosity, and the cause of so much smoke. In
a very few minutes it arrived near enough to be accurately discerned. It
appeared to be--yes! it was undoubtedly a species of balloon; but surely
no such balloon had ever been seen in Rotterdam before. For who, let me
ask, ever heard of a balloon manufactured entirely of dirty newspapers?
No man in Holland certainly; yet here, under the very noses of the
people, or rather at some distance above their noses was the identical
thing in question, and composed, I have it on the best authority, of
the precise material which no one had ever before known to be used for
a similar purpose. It was an egregious insult to the good sense of the
burghers of Rotterdam. As to the shape of the phenomenon, it was even
still more reprehensible. Being little or nothing better than a huge
foolscap turned upside down. And this similitude was regarded as by no
means lessened when, upon nearer inspection, there was perceived a large
tassel depending from its apex, and, around the upper rim or base of the
cone, a circle of little instruments, resembling sheep-bells, which kept
up a continual tinkling to the tune of Betty Martin. But still worse.
Suspended by blue ribbons to the end of this fantastic machine,
there hung, by way of car, an enormous drab beaver hat, with a brim
superlatively broad, and a hemispherical crown with a black band and a
silver buckle. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that many citizens
of Rotterdam swore to having seen the same hat repeatedly before; and
indeed the whole assembly seemed to regard it with eyes of familiarity;
while the vrow Grettel Pfaall, upon sight of it, uttered an exclamation
of joyful surprise, and declared it to be the identical hat of her good
man himself. Now this was a circumstance the more to be observed, as
Pfaall, with three companions, had actually disappeared from Rotterdam
about five years before, in a very sudden and unaccountable manner, and
up to the date of this narrative all attempts had failed of obtaining
any intelligence concerning them whatsoever. To be sure, some bones
which were thought to be human, mixed up with a quantity of odd-looking
rubbish, had been lately discovered in a retired situation to the east
of Rotterdam, and some people went so far as to imagine that in this
spot a foul murder had been committed, and that the sufferers were in
all probability Hans Pfaall and his associates. But to return.
The balloon (for such no doubt it was) had now descended to within
a hundred feet of the earth, allowing the crowd below a sufficiently
distinct view of the person of its occupant. This was in truth a very
droll little somebody. He could not have been more than two feet in
height; but this altitude, little as it was, would have been sufficient
to destroy his equilibrium, and tilt him over the edge of his tiny
car, but for the intervention of a circular rim reaching as high as
the breast, and rigged on to the cords of the balloon. The body of the
little man was more than proportionately broad, giving to his entire
figure a rotundity highly absurd. His feet, of course, could not be seen
at all, although a horny substance of suspicious nature was occasionally
protruded through a rent in the bottom of the car, or to speak more
properly, in the top of the hat. His hands were enormously large. His
hair was extremely gray, and collected in a cue behind. His nose was
prodigiously long, crooked, and inflammatory; his eyes full, brilliant,
and acute; his chin and cheeks, although wrinkled with age, were broad,
puffy, and double; but of ears of any kind or character there was not a
semblance to be discovered upon any portion of his head. This odd little
gentleman was dressed in a loose surtout of sky-blue satin, with tight
breeches to match, fastened with silver buckles at the knees. His vest
was of some bright yellow material; a white taffety cap was set jauntily
on one side of his head; and, to complete his equipment, a blood-red
silk handkerchief enveloped his throat, and fell down, in a dainty
manner, upon his bosom, in a fantastic bow-knot of super-eminent
dimensions.
Having descended, as I said before, to about one hundred feet from the
surface of the earth, the little old gentleman was suddenly seized
with a fit of trepidation, and appeared disinclined to make any nearer
approach to terra firma. Throwing out, therefore, a quantity of sand
from a canvas bag, which, he lifted with great difficulty, he became
stationary in an instant. He then proceeded, in a hurried and agitated
manner, to extract from a side-pocket in his surtout a large morocco
pocket-book. This he poised suspiciously in his hand, then eyed it with
an air of extreme surprise, and was evidently astonished at its weight.
He at length opened it, and drawing there from a huge letter sealed with
red sealing-wax and tied carefully with red tape, let it fall precisely
at the feet of the burgomaster, Superbus Von Underduk. His Excellency
stooped to take it up. But the aeronaut, still greatly discomposed, and
having apparently no farther business to detain him in Rotterdam, began
at this moment to make busy preparations for departure; and it being
necessary to discharge a portion of ballast to enable him to reascend,
the half dozen bags which he threw out, one after another, without
taking the trouble to empty their contents, tumbled, every one of them,
most unfortunately upon the back of the burgomaster, and rolled him over
and over no less than one-and-twenty times, in the face of every man in
Rotterdam. It is not to be supposed, however, that the great Underduk
suffered this impertinence on the part of the little old man to pass off
with impunity. It is said, on the contrary, that during each and every
one of his one-and twenty circumvolutions he emitted no less than
one-and-twenty distinct and furious whiffs from his pipe, to which he
held fast the whole time with all his might, and to which he intends
holding fast until the day of his death.
In the meantime the balloon arose like a lark, and, soaring far away
above the city, at length drifted quietly behind a cloud similar to that
from which it had so oddly emerged, and was thus lost forever to the
wondering eyes of the good citizens of Rotterdam. All attention was
now directed to the letter, the descent of which, and the consequences
attending thereupon, had proved so fatally subversive of both person and
personal dignity to his Excellency, the illustrious Burgomaster Mynheer
Superbus Von Underduk. That functionary, however, had not failed, during
his circumgyratory movements, to bestow a thought upon the important
subject of securing the packet in question, which was seen, upon
inspection, to have fallen into the most proper hands, being actually
addressed to himself and Professor Rub-a-dub, in their official
capacities of President and Vice-President of the Rotterdam College of
Astronomy. It was accordingly opened by those dignitaries upon the
spot, and found to contain the following extraordinary, and indeed very
serious, communications.
To their Excellencies Von Underduk and Rub-a-dub, President and
Vice-President of the States’ College of Astronomers, in the city of
Rotterdam.
“Your Excellencies may perhaps be able to remember an humble artizan, by
name Hans Pfaall, and by occupation a mender of bellows, who, with three
others, disappeared from Rotterdam, about five years ago, in a manner
which must have been considered by all parties at once sudden, and
extremely unaccountable. If, however, it so please your Excellencies, I,
the writer of this communication, am the identical Hans Pfaall himself.
It is well known to most of my fellow citizens, that for the period of
forty years I continued to occupy the little square brick building, at
the head of the alley called Sauerkraut, in which I resided at the time
of my disappearance. My ancestors have also resided therein time out of
mind--they, as well as myself, steadily following the respectable and
indeed lucrative profession of mending of bellows. For, to speak the
truth, until of late years, that the heads of all the people have been
set agog with politics, no better business than my own could an
honest citizen of Rotterdam either desire or deserve. Credit was good,
employment was never wanting, and on all hands there was no lack of
either money or good-will. But, as I was saying, we soon began to feel
the effects of liberty and long speeches, and radicalism, and all that
sort of thing. People who were formerly, the very best customers in the
world, had now not a moment of time to think of us at all. They had, so
they said, as much as they could do to read about the revolutions, and
keep up with the march of intellect and the spirit of the age. If a fire
wanted fanning, it could readily be fanned with a newspaper, and as the
government grew weaker, I have no doubt that leather and iron acquired
durability in proportion, for, in a very short time, there was not a
pair of bellows in all Rotterdam that ever stood in need of a stitch or
required the assistance of a hammer. This was a state of things not
to be endured. I soon grew as poor as a rat, and, having a wife and
children to provide for, my burdens at length became intolerable, and I
spent hour after hour in reflecting upon the most convenient method of
putting an end to my life. Duns, in the meantime, left me little leisure
for contemplation. My house was literally besieged from morning till
night, so that I began to rave, and foam, and fret like a caged
tiger against the bars of his enclosure. There were three fellows in
particular who worried me beyond endurance, keeping watch continually
about my door, and threatening me with the law. Upon these three I
internally vowed the bitterest revenge, if ever I should be so happy as
to get them within my clutches; and I believe nothing in the world but
the pleasure of this anticipation prevented me from putting my plan
of suicide into immediate execution, by blowing my brains out with a
blunderbuss. I thought it best, however, to dissemble my wrath, and to
treat them with promises and fair words, until, by some good turn of
fate, an opportunity of vengeance should be afforded me.
“One day, having given my creditors the slip, and feeling more than
usually dejected, I continued for a long time to wander about the most
obscure streets without object whatever, until at length I chanced to
stumble against the corner of a bookseller’s stall. Seeing a chair close
at hand, for the use of customers, I threw myself doggedly into it,
and, hardly knowing why, opened the pages of the first volume which
came within my reach. It proved to be a small pamphlet treatise on
Speculative Astronomy, written either by Professor Encke of Berlin or
by a Frenchman of somewhat similar name. I had some little tincture of
information on matters of this nature, and soon became more and more
absorbed in the contents of the book, reading it actually through twice
before I awoke to a recollection of what was passing around me. By this
time it began to grow dark, and I directed my steps toward home. But
the treatise had made an indelible impression on my mind, and, as I
sauntered along the dusky streets, I revolved carefully over in my
memory the wild and sometimes unintelligible reasonings of the writer.
There are some particular passages which affected my imagination in a
powerful and extraordinary manner. The longer I meditated upon these
the more intense grew the interest which had been excited within me.
The limited nature of my education in general, and more especially my
ignorance on subjects connected with natural philosophy, so far from
rendering me diffident of my own ability to comprehend what I had read,
or inducing me to mistrust the many vague notions which had arisen in
consequence, merely served as a farther stimulus to imagination; and I
was vain enough, or perhaps reasonable enough, to doubt whether
those crude ideas which, arising in ill-regulated minds, have all the
appearance, may not often in effect possess all the force, the reality,
and other inherent properties, of instinct or intuition; whether, to
proceed a step farther, profundity itself might not, in matters of a
purely speculative nature, be detected as a legitimate source of falsity
and error. In other words, I believed, and still do believe, that truth,
is frequently of its own essence, superficial, and that, in many cases,
the depth lies more in the abysses where we seek her, than in the actual
situations wherein she may be found. Nature herself seemed to afford
me corroboration of these ideas. In the contemplation of the heavenly
bodies it struck me forcibly that I could not distinguish a star with
nearly as much precision, when I gazed on it with earnest, direct and
undeviating attention, as when I suffered my eye only to glance in
its vicinity alone. I was not, of course, at that time aware that this
apparent paradox was occasioned by the center of the visual area being
less susceptible of feeble impressions of light than the exterior
portions of the retina. This knowledge, and some of another kind, came
afterwards in the course of an eventful five years, during which I
have dropped the prejudices of my former humble situation in life, and
forgotten the bellows-mender in far different occupations. But at the
epoch of which I speak, the analogy which a casual observation of a star
offered to the conclusions I had already drawn, struck me with the force
of positive conformation, and I then finally made up my mind to the
course which I afterwards pursued.
“It was late when I reached home, and I went immediately to bed. My
mind, however, was too much occupied to sleep, and I lay the whole night
buried in meditation. Arising early in the morning, and contriving
again to escape the vigilance of my creditors, I repaired eagerly to the
bookseller’s stall, and laid out what little ready money I possessed,
in the purchase of some volumes of Mechanics and Practical Astronomy.
Having arrived at home safely with these, I devoted every spare moment
to their perusal, and soon made such proficiency in studies of this
nature as I thought sufficient for the execution of my plan. In the
intervals of this period, I made every endeavor to conciliate the
three creditors who had given me so much annoyance. In this I finally
succeeded--partly by selling enough of my household furniture to satisfy
a moiety of their claim, and partly by a promise of paying the balance
upon completion of a little project which I told them I had in view, and
for assistance in which I solicited their services. By these means--for
they were ignorant men--I found little difficulty in gaining them over
to my purpose.
“Matters being thus arranged, I contrived, by the aid of my wife and
with the greatest secrecy and caution, to dispose of what property I had
remaining, and to borrow, in small sums, under various pretences,
and without paying any attention to my future means of repayment, no
inconsiderable quantity of ready money. With the means thus accruing I
proceeded to procure at intervals, cambric muslin, very fine, in pieces
of twelve yards each; twine; a lot of the varnish of caoutchouc; a
large and deep basket of wicker-work, made to order; and several other
articles necessary in the construction and equipment of a balloon of
extraordinary dimensions. This I directed my wife to make up as soon as
possible, and gave her all requisite information as to the particular
method of proceeding. In the meantime I worked up the twine into
a net-work of sufficient dimensions; rigged it with a hoop and the
necessary cords; bought a quadrant, a compass, a spy-glass, a common
barometer with some important modifications, and two astronomical
instruments not so generally known. I then took opportunities of
conveying by night, to a retired situation east of Rotterdam, five
iron-bound casks, to contain about fifty gallons each, and one of a
larger size; six tinned ware tubes, three inches in diameter, properly
shaped, and ten feet in length; a quantity of a particular metallic
substance, or semi-metal, which I shall not name, and a dozen demijohns
of a very common acid. The gas to be formed from these latter materials
is a gas never yet generated by any other person than myself--or at
least never applied to any similar purpose. The secret I would make no
difficulty in disclosing, but that it of right belongs to a citizen of
Nantz, in France, by whom it was conditionally communicated to myself.
The same individual submitted to me, without being at all aware of my
intentions, a method of constructing balloons from the membrane of a
certain animal, through which substance any escape of gas was nearly an
impossibility. I found it, however, altogether too expensive, and was
not sure, upon the whole, whether cambric muslin with a coating of
gum caoutchouc, was not equally as good. I mention this circumstance,
because I think it probable that hereafter the individual in question
may attempt a balloon ascension with the novel gas and material I have
spoken of, and I do not wish to deprive him of the honor of a very
singular invention.
“On the spot which I intended each of the smaller casks to occupy
respectively during the inflation of the balloon, I privately dug a hole
two feet deep; the holes forming in this manner a circle twenty-five
feet in diameter. In the centre of this circle, being the station
designed for the large cask, I also dug a hole three feet in depth. In
each of the five smaller holes, I deposited a canister containing
fifty pounds, and in the larger one a keg holding one hundred and fifty
pounds, of cannon powder. These--the keg and canisters--I connected in
a proper manner with covered trains; and having let into one of the
canisters the end of about four feet of slow match, I covered up the
hole, and placed the cask over it, leaving the other end of the match
protruding about an inch, and barely visible beyond the cask. I then
filled up the remaining holes, and placed the barrels over them in their
destined situation.
“Besides the articles above enumerated, I conveyed to the depot, and
there secreted, one of M. Grimm’s improvements upon the apparatus for
condensation of the atmospheric air. I found this machine, however,
to require considerable alteration before it could be adapted to the
purposes to which I intended making it applicable. But, with severe
labor and unremitting perseverance, I at length met with entire success
in all my preparations. My balloon was soon completed. It would contain
more than forty thousand cubic feet of gas; would take me up easily, I
calculated, with all my implements, and, if I managed rightly, with
one hundred and seventy-five pounds of ballast into the bargain. It
had received three coats of varnish, and I found the cambric muslin to
answer all the purposes of silk itself, quite as strong and a good deal
less expensive.
“Everything being now ready, I exacted from my wife an oath of secrecy
in relation to all my actions from the day of my first visit to the
bookseller’s stall; and promising, on my part, to return as soon as
circumstances would permit, I gave her what little money I had left,
and bade her farewell. Indeed I had no fear on her account. She was
what people call a notable woman, and could manage matters in the world
without my assistance. I believe, to tell the truth, she always looked
upon me as an idle boy, a mere make-weight, good for nothing but
building castles in the air, and was rather glad to get rid of me.
It was a dark night when I bade her good-bye, and taking with me, as
aides-de-camp, the three creditors who had given me so much trouble,
we carried the balloon, with the car and accoutrements, by a roundabout
way, to the station where the other articles were deposited. We there
found them all unmolested, and I proceeded immediately to business.
“It was the first of April. The night, as I said before, was dark; there
was not a star to be seen; and a drizzling rain, falling at intervals,
rendered us very uncomfortable. But my chief anxiety was concerning
the balloon, which, in spite of the varnish with which it was defended,
began to grow rather heavy with the moisture; the powder also was liable
to damage. I therefore kept my three duns working with great diligence,
pounding down ice around the central cask, and stirring the acid in the
others. They did not cease, however, importuning me with questions as
to what I intended to do with all this apparatus, and expressed much
dissatisfaction at the terrible labor I made them undergo. They could
not perceive, so they said, what good was likely to result from
their getting wet to the skin, merely to take a part in such horrible
incantations. I began to get uneasy, and worked away with all my might,
for I verily believe the idiots supposed that I had entered into a
compact with the devil, and that, in short, what I was now doing was
nothing better than it should be. I was, therefore, in great fear of
their leaving me altogether. I contrived, however, to pacify them by
promises of payment of all scores in full, as soon as I could bring
the present business to a termination. To these speeches they gave, of
course, their own interpretation; fancying, no doubt, that at all events
I should come into possession of vast quantities of ready money; and
provided I paid them all I owed, and a trifle more, in consideration of
their services, I dare say they cared very little what became of either
my soul or my carcass.
“In about four hours and a half I found the balloon sufficiently
inflated. I attached the car, therefore, and put all my implements in
it--not forgetting the condensing apparatus, a copious supply of water,
and a large quantity of provisions, such as pemmican, in which much
nutriment is contained in comparatively little bulk. I also secured in
the car a pair of pigeons and a cat. It was now nearly daybreak, and I
thought it high time to take my departure. Dropping a lighted cigar on
the ground, as if by accident, I took the opportunity, in stooping to
pick it up, of igniting privately the piece of slow match, whose end,
as I said before, protruded a very little beyond the lower rim of one of
the smaller casks. This manoeuvre was totally unperceived on the part of
the three duns; and, jumping into the car, I immediately cut the single
cord which held me to the earth, and was pleased to find that I shot
upward, carrying with all ease one hundred and seventy-five pounds of
leaden ballast, and able to have carried up as many more.
“Scarcely, however, had I attained the height of fifty yards, when,
roaring and rumbling up after me in the most horrible and tumultuous
manner, came so dense a hurricane of fire, and smoke, and sulphur, and
legs and arms, and gravel, and burning wood, and blazing metal, that
my very heart sunk within me, and I fell down in the bottom of the car,
trembling with unmitigated terror. Indeed, I now perceived that I had
entirely overdone the business, and that the main consequences of the
shock were yet to be experienced. Accordingly, in less than a second,
I felt all the blood in my body rushing to my temples, and immediately
thereupon, a concussion, which I shall never forget, burst abruptly
through the night and seemed to rip the very firmament asunder. When
I afterward had time for reflection, I did not fail to attribute the
extreme violence of the explosion, as regarded myself, to its proper
cause--my situation directly above it, and in the line of its greatest
power. But at the time, I thought only of preserving my life. 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. My sensations, however, upon thus recovering, were by no means
so rife with agony as might have been anticipated. Indeed, there was
much of incipient madness in the calm survey which I began to take of my
situation. I drew up to my eyes each of my hands, one after the other,
and wondered what occurrence could have given rise to the swelling of
the veins, and the horrible blackness of the fingernails. I afterward
carefully examined my head, shaking it repeatedly, and feeling it with
minute attention, until I succeeded in satisfying myself that it was
not, as I had more than half suspected, larger than my balloon. Then,
in a knowing manner, I felt in both my breeches pockets, and, missing
therefrom a set of tablets and a toothpick case, endeavored to account
for their disappearance, and not being able to do so, felt inexpressibly
chagrined. It now occurred to me that I suffered great uneasiness in the
joint of my left ankle, and a dim consciousness of my situation began to
glimmer through my mind. But, strange to say! I was neither astonished
nor horror-stricken. If I felt any emotion at all, it was a kind of
chuckling satisfaction at the cleverness I was about to display in
extricating myself from this dilemma; and I never, for a moment, looked
upon my ultimate safety as a question susceptible of doubt. For a few
minutes I remained wrapped in the profoundest meditation. I have a
distinct recollection of frequently compressing my lips, putting
my forefinger to the side of my nose, and making use of other
gesticulations and grimaces common to men who, at ease in their
arm-chairs, meditate upon matters of intricacy or importance. Having,
as I thought, sufficiently collected my ideas, I now, with great caution
and deliberation, put my hands behind my back, and unfastened the large
iron buckle which belonged to the waistband of my inexpressibles. This
buckle had three teeth, which, being somewhat rusty, turned with great
difficulty on their axis. I brought them, however, after some trouble,
at right angles to the body of the buckle, and was glad to find them
remain firm in that position. Holding the instrument thus obtained
within my teeth, I now proceeded to untie the knot of my cravat. I had
to rest several times before I could accomplish this manoeuvre, but it
was at length accomplished. To one end of the cravat I then made fast
the buckle, and the other end I tied, for greater security, tightly
around my wrist. Drawing now my body upwards, with a prodigious exertion
of muscular force, I succeeded, at the very first trial, in throwing
the buckle over the car, and entangling it, as I had anticipated, in the
circular rim of the wicker-work.
“My body was now inclined towards the side of the car, at an angle
of about forty-five degrees; but it must not be understood that I was
therefore only forty-five degrees below the perpendicular. So far from
it, I still lay nearly level with the plane of the horizon; for the
change of situation which I had acquired, had forced the bottom of the
car considerably outwards from my position, which was accordingly one
of the most imminent and deadly peril. It should be remembered, however,
that when I fell in the first instance, from the car, if I had fallen
with my face turned toward the balloon, instead of turned outwardly from
it, as it actually was; or if, in the second place, the cord by which
I was suspended had chanced to hang over the upper edge, instead of
through a crevice near the bottom of the car,--I say it may be readily
conceived that, in either of these supposed cases, I should have been
unable to accomplish even as much as I had now accomplished, and the
wonderful adventures of Hans Pfaall would have been utterly lost to
posterity, I had therefore every reason to be grateful; although, in
point of fact, I was still too stupid to be anything at all, and hung
for, perhaps, a quarter of an hour in that extraordinary manner, without
making the slightest farther exertion whatsoever, and in a singularly
tranquil state of idiotic enjoyment. But this feeling did not fail to
die rapidly away, and thereunto succeeded horror, and dismay, and a
chilling sense of utter helplessness and ruin. In fact, the blood so
long accumulating in the vessels of my head and throat, and which had
hitherto buoyed up my spirits with madness and delirium, had now begun
to retire within their proper channels, and the distinctness which was
thus added to my perception of the danger, merely served to deprive me
of the self-possession and courage to encounter it. But this weakness
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