the car in which our travellers were sitting, was safely moored at a convenient distance from the earth for them to alight. Edric now unloosed the descending ladder, and reverentially assisted the doctor, who was encumbered with his long cloak, to reach terra firma in safety,—amidst the bustle and exclamations of the crowd, who thronged round them expressing their wonder and astonishment audibly, in broad English.
"Where the deuce did this spring from?" cried one; "the car would load a waggon!"
"And what is gone with the balloon?" said another; "it is clean vanished!"
"Well, I never saw such a thing in all my life before!" exclaimed a third; "I think they must be come from the moon."
"Hush! hush," cried an old gentleman bustling amongst them, who seemed as one having authority. "What's the matter? what's the matter?"
"We are strangers, Sir," said Edric, advancing and addressing him: "we come here to see the wonders of your country, and
