“The Trip of Le Horla Summary” is a captivating blog article that delves into the intriguing story of “Le Horla.” This iconic tale, penned by the renowned French author Guy de Maupassant, takes readers on a journey through the mind of the protagonist as he grapples with his sanity and the presence of a malevolent entity known as “Le Horla.” Read More Plus One English Summaries.
The story begins with the man describing his preparations for the hot air balloon ride. He is excited about the experience, but he also feels a sense of unease. He believes that he is being watched by something, but he cannot see anything.
The man takes off in the balloon and enjoys the view of the countryside. However, he soon begins to feel uneasy again. He believes that he is being followed by the Horla, a mysterious creature that he has read about. The man becomes increasingly paranoid and eventually descends from the balloon in a panic.
The Trip of Le Horla Summary
The Trip of Le Horla Summary in English
Page 78 :
I got a telegram on the morning of July 8th. It read: “Fine day. Always my predictions, Belgian frontier. Baggage and servants leave at noon at the social session. Beginning of maneuvers at three. So I will wait for you at the works from five o’clock on, Jovis.’
At five o’clock sharp, I entered the gas works of La Villette.
The balloon is lying in the courtyard and appears like a cake made of yellow cloth. It is lying flat on the ground under a rope.
Page 79 :
Two or three hundred people are looking at it. Some are sitting and some are standing. Some are examining the basket. It is a nice little square basket for a human cargo. On its side in golden letters was written ‘Le Horia’ on a mahogany plate.
Suddenly the people begin to stand back as gas is entering into the balloon through a long tube of yellow cloth. The cloth is on the oil. It swells and moves about like a big worm. But another thought occurs to every mind. It is thus nature itself nourishes being until their birth. The creature that will rise soon begins to move. The attendants of Captain Jovis spread and put in place the net which covers it as Le Horia grows larger. The net will help the pressure to be regular and equally distributed at very point.
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The crowd has begun to talk. Some men who look to be specialists ask us to come down. Many things have been criticised in this new type of balloon. We are about to experiment with it with so much pleasure and success. The balloon is growing slowly but surely.
Captain Jovis and his assistants are busy with the last details. The travellers go to dine in the canteen on the gas-works according to the established custom.
When we come out the balloon is swaying. It is big and transparent. It looked like a big fruit, a wonderful pear which is still ripening, covered by the last rays of the setting sun. The basket is now attached and the barometers are brought. The siren is also brought. There were also two trumpets, the eatables, the overcoats and raincoats – that the men can take in the flying basket. Captain Jovis is ready and he calls all the passengers.
Page 80 :
Lieutenant Mallet jumps aboard, climbing first on the aerial net between the basket and the balloon. From it he will watch, during the night, the movements of Le Horia across the skies. M.Etierine Beer gets in after him. Then comes M. Paul Bessand. Then comes M. Patrice Eyries. I am the last. (Note: In French M before a name means Mr. M. is the abbreviation for Monsieur which means Mr.) But the basket is too heavy for the balloon and M. Eyries has to get out. He was very sorry to do that.
M. Joliet stood erect on the edge of the basket. He begs the ladies very courteously to stand aside a little. He thinks he might throw sand on their hats in rising. Then he commands: ‘Let is loose’. He cuts with one stroke of his knife the ropes that keep the balloon to the ground. Le Horla gets it liberty!
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In one second we fly skyward. Nothing can be heard. We float, we rise, we fly, we glide! Our friends shout with joy. They applaud but we can hardly hear them or see
them. We are already so far, so high! We are surprised. Are we really leaving these people down there? Is it possible? Paris spreads out under us. It looks like a dark bluish patch, cut by its streets. From there rise here and there domes, towers, steeples (church towers). Then there is the plain, traversed by long roads amidst green fields and black forest. The sun which could not be seen from below now appears.
We can see whether we are rising or sinking only by throwing a cigarette paper out of the basket now and then. If the paper falls down like a stone, it means the balloon is rising. If it appears to shoot skyward, the balloon is descending.
Page 81 :
The two barometers mark about 500 metres. We look with admiration the earth we are leaving. We are not attached to it in any way. It looks like a coloured map. But all its noises rise to our ears very distinctly. We hear the sound of wheels rolling on the streets, the snap of a whip, the shouts of drivers, the rolling and whistling of trains and the laughter of the boys running after one another. When we pass over a village, the noise of children’s voices is heard above the rest with much clarity.
The view is superb. It is dark on the earth. But we are still in the light. It is now past ten o’clock. Now we begin to hear slight country noises, especially the double cry of the quail. We can hearthe mewing of cats and the barking of dogs. The dogs have caught the smell of the balloon. They have seen it and they are giving the warning. We can hear them barking all over the plain. The cows also wake up in their barns. We can hear them lowing. All the beasts are scared of the monster moving through the air.
The delicious odours of the soil rise towards us. The smell of hay, of flowers, of the wet, green earth is scenting the air.
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At times we rise, and then descend. Every few minutes Lieutenant Mallet says to Captain Jovis: ‘We are descending; throw down half a handful.’ And the captain takes a handful of sand from a bag kept between his legs and throws it overboard.
Page 82 :
Nothing is more amusing, more delicate and more interesting than the manoeuvring of a balloon. It is a big toy, free and Qjcile, but obedient. It is the slave of the wind which we can’t control. Any small thing that we throw overboard will make the balloon go up quickly. It can be a pinch of sand, half a sheet of paper, one or two drops of water or the bones of a chicken we have eaten.
The earth is sleeping. The beasts are awakened by our approach and they announce it everywhere. We now ‘observe’a strong and continuous odor of gas. We must have met with a current of warm air. The balloon expands, losing its invisible blood by the escape-valve.
We are rising. The earth no longer gives back the echo of our trumpets. We have risen almost 2000 feet. There is no light to consult our instruments. We know we are always rising. We can no longer see the earth. A light mist separates us from it. Above our heads twinkle innumerable starts.
A silvery light appears before-us and makes the sky turn pale. Suddenly the moon rises on the edge of a cloud. It seems to be coming from below and we are looking down at it from a great height. Clear and round it comes out of the clouds and slowly rises in the sky.
The earth now does not seem to exist. It is buried in milky vapours that resemble a sea. We are now in space with the moon which looks like another balloon. Our balloon looks like a larger moon, wandering amid the stars. We no longer speak, think nor live; we float along through space in delicious inertia. We have become something indescribable. We are now like birds that don’t even have to flap their wings.
Page 83 :
All memory has disappeared from our minds, all troubles from our thoughts. We have no more regrets, plans or hopes. We wildly enjoy the fantastic journey. We are a wandering travelling world. The planets are our sisters. This world has five men and they have forgotten the earth. The barometers mark twelve hundred metres, then thirteen, fourteen, fifteen hundred. The little rice papers fall about us.
We are now at two thousand metres. Then we go to 2350 and the balloon stops. We blow the siren but no one answers us. Now we go down rapidly, M. Mallet goes on screaming: Throw out more sand!’ The sand and stones we throw come back into our faces as if they are going up, thrown from below. Our descent is rapid.
Here is the earth! Where are we? It is now past midnight and we are crossing a broad, dry well-cultivated country. To the right is a large city. Suddenly from the earth rises a bright fairy light. It disappears and reappears. But one has no time to see clearly as the balloon passes quickly in the wind.
We are now quite near the earth. Beer exclaims: “See, what is that running over there in the fields? Isn’t it a dog? Something was running along the ground with great speed but we could not understand what it was. The captain says it is the shadow of our balloon and it will grow as we descend.
I hear a great noise of foundries in the distance. According to the polar star, we are heading straight for Belgium.
Page 84:
Our siren and our two horns are continually calling. We ask, “Where are we?” But the balloon is going so rapidly that the startled man has not even time to answer us. The growing shadow of Le Horla is fleeing before us over the field, roads and woods. It goes along steadily, going before us by about a quarter of a mile. I am leaning out of the basket, listening the roaring of the wind in the trees and across the harvest fields. I say to Captain Jovis that the wind is fast.
Jovis says they may be waterfalls. I insist it is the wind. Then Jovis nudges me. He does not want to frighten his happy, quiet passengers because he knows that a storm is pursuing us. Suddenly the lights of a town appear. There is such a wonderful flow of light that I feel I am in a fairyland. The clouds are gathering behind us, hiding the moon. But towards the east the sky is becoming clear blue, tinged with red. It is dawn. It grows rapidly and shows us all the little details of the earth – the trains, the brooks, the cows, the goats. All these pass beneath us with surprising speed. Cocks are crowing, but the voice of ducks drowns everything.
The early rising peasants are waving their arms telling us to drop. But we go along steadily watching the world fleeing under our feet. Ahead of us lies a bright highway. It looks like a big river full of islands.
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Page 85 :
The captain asks us to get ready for the descent. He makes M. Mallet leave his net and return to the basket. We then pack the barometers and everything that could be damaged by possible shock. M. Bessand asks us to look at the masts to the left. He says we are at the sea. Fogs have hidden it from us until then. The sea is everywhere.
It is necessary to descend within a minute or two. The rope to the escape valve was religiously enclosed in a little white bag. It was kept in sight of all so that no one would touch it. It is now unrolled and M. Mallet holds it in his hand. Captain Jovis looks for a favourable landing. Behind us the thunder is rumbling and not a single bird follows our mad flight.
We are passing over a canal. The basket trembles and tips over slightly. The guy-rope (the rope that keeps something fixed to the ground) touches the tall trees on both banks. We pass with frightful speed over a large farm. The bewildered chickens, pigeons and ducks fly away. The terrified cows, cats and dogs run towards the house. Only one-half bag of sand (stones) is left. Jovis throws it overboard. Le Horla flies lightly across the roof. The captain shouts The escape valve!’
M. Mallet reaches for the rope and hangs to it and we drop like an arrow. With the slash of a knife the cord which retains the anchqjais cut, and we drag this behind us through a field of beets. Here are the trees. He shouts: “Take care! Hold fast! Look out for your heads!” We pass over the trees. Then a strong shock shakes us. The anchor has taken hold. We are told that we are going to touch the ground. The basket touches the earth. Then it flies up again. Once more, it falls and bounds upward again and at last, it settles on the ground, while the balloon struggles madly like a wounded beast.
Page 86 : Peasants run toward us. They don’t dare to come near. One can’t set foot on the ground until the bag is nearly completely deflated. Some surprised men jump with the wild gestures of savages. All the cows that are grazing along the coast come towards us. They surround our balloon with a strange comical circle of horns, big eyes, and blowing nostrils.
With the help of the Belgian peasants, we pack up all our materials and carry them to t(ie station at Heyst. At 8.20, we take the train to Paris. The descent occurred at 3.15 in the morning.
Thanks to Captain Jovis, we were able to see in a single night, from far up in the sky, the setting of the sun, he rising of the moon and dawn of day, and to go from Paris to the mouth of the Scheldt (a river that flows through Belgium and empties into the North Sea).