Think duelling is already intense? Well add in a couple hot air balloons and see where that takes you.
At around the very early 1800's two fenchmen by the name of Monsieur de Grandpré and Monsieur le Pique both laid claim to the heart of a woman named Mademoiselle Tirevit and as these things go they agreed the only way the men could resolve the situation was with a balloon duel.
At the day appointed for the balloon duel, the two duelers entered their respective balloon cars accompanied by their seconds. At nine o’clock in the morning the cords securing the balloons to the ground were cut.The balloons rose to a height of about a half a mile and were separated at a distance of about eighty yards apart when a predetermined signal was given from below and the duel commenced.
Le Pique fired the first shot and missed. Grandpré then fired. Grandpré’s shot hit its mark and le Pique’s balloon collapsed and descended with “fearful rapidity.” It was a terrible end for both le Pique and his second: When the balloon at last fell, they were “dashed to pieces on a house top.”
The victor, monsieur Grandpré celebrated. He went “aloft in the grandest style,” and some seven leagues from where the balloons ascended, Grandpré and his second landed safely. Defeating le Pique meant Grandpré also won Tirevit’s heart, or at least that is what the two men believed as they thought Tirevit would “bestow her smiles on the survivor.”
Honestly the French know how to settle things even as ordinary as this.
At around the very early 1800's two fenchmen by the name of Monsieur de Grandpré and Monsieur le Pique both laid claim to the heart of a woman named Mademoiselle Tirevit and as these things go they agreed the only way the men could resolve the situation was with a balloon duel.
At the day appointed for the balloon duel, the two duelers entered their respective balloon cars accompanied by their seconds. At nine o’clock in the morning the cords securing the balloons to the ground were cut.The balloons rose to a height of about a half a mile and were separated at a distance of about eighty yards apart when a predetermined signal was given from below and the duel commenced.
Le Pique fired the first shot and missed. Grandpré then fired. Grandpré’s shot hit its mark and le Pique’s balloon collapsed and descended with “fearful rapidity.” It was a terrible end for both le Pique and his second: When the balloon at last fell, they were “dashed to pieces on a house top.”
The victor, monsieur Grandpré celebrated. He went “aloft in the grandest style,” and some seven leagues from where the balloons ascended, Grandpré and his second landed safely. Defeating le Pique meant Grandpré also won Tirevit’s heart, or at least that is what the two men believed as they thought Tirevit would “bestow her smiles on the survivor.”
Honestly the French know how to settle things even as ordinary as this.
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Heh. One wonders how the war might have gone if Napoléon (or indeed any other country) even had an air force.
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