eneral stopped
before the young hero and eyed him with evident pleasure; then he
proclaimed him a gallant soldier, touched his two shoulders with his
sword, as they did to champions of past ages, pinned the _rosette_ on
his coat, and embraced him. Then to the stirring tune of
'_Sambre-et-Meuse_' the band and the soldiers marched in front of the
new officer who, the ceremony now being over, joined his relatives some
distance away."

General d'Esperey, looking over Guynemer's _Vieux-Charles_, noticed the
damaged parts.

"How comes it that your foot was not injured?" he asked, pointing to one
of the bullet-holes.

"I had just removed it, _mon general_," said Guynemer, with his usual
simplicity.

None of the airmen with whom Guynemer shared his joy ever forgot that
afternoon of July 5, 1917. The summer sun, the serene beauty of the
hills bordering the Aisne, the distant bass of the battle, lent to the
scene an enchanting but solemn interest. Tragic memories were in the
minds of all the bystanders, and great names were on their lips--the
names of retiring, noble, hard-working Dorme, reported missing on May
25, and of Captain Lecour-Grandmaison, creator of the three-seaters,
who, on one of these machines, brought down five Germans, but was killed
in a combat on May 10 and brought back to camp dead by a surviving
comrade. Guynemer's red _rosette_ meant glory to the great chasers, to
wounded Heurtaux, to Menard and Deullin, to Auger, Fonck, Jailler,
Guerin, Baudouin, and all their comrades! And it meant glory to the
pilots and observers who, always together in the discharge of duty, are
not infrequently together in meeting death: to Lieutenant Fressagues,
pilot, and sous-lieutenant Bouvard, observer, who once fought seven
Germans and managed to bring one down; to Lieutenant Floret and
Lieutenant Homo, who, placed in similar circumstances, set two machines
on fire; to Lieutenant Viguier who, on April 18, had the pluck to come
down to twenty-five meters above the enemy's lines and calmly make his
observations; and to so many others who did their duty with the same
daring, intelligence, and conscientiousness, to the hundreds of more
humble airmen who, while the infantry says the sanguinary mass, throw
down from above, like the chorister boys in the _corpus Christi_
procession, the red roses of epics!

The whole Storks Escadrille had received from General Duchene the
following _citation_: "Escadrille No. 3. Commander: Captai