his two guns intact....

The _toubib_ (doctor) says I shall be on my feet in three or four
days. Don't see many Boches just now, but that won't last. I read
in a newspaper that I had been mobbed in a friendly manner in
Paris. I must be ubiquitous without knowing it. Modern science
brings about marvels, modern journalism also.

Raymond has two strings (officer's stripes) and the cross of the
Legion. Please congratulate him.

Good night, father.

Georges.

P.S. I, who get seasick over nothing at all, have just been out to
sea for the first time. The water was very rough, especially for a
little motor-boat, but I smiled serenely through it all. Wasn't I
proud!...

In fact, some newspaper had announced that Guynemer would carry the
aviation flag in the Parade of the Fourteenth of July in Paris, and this
was enough to persuade the crowd that some other airman was Guynemer.
Indeed, there had been talk of sending him to Paris on that solemn
occasion, but he had declined. He loved glory, but hated show, and he
had followed his squadron to Flanders, where he had taken to his bed.

The foregoing letter bears Guynemer's mark unmistakably. The son of rich
parents rejoicing over having a room to himself, after having renounced
all comfort from the very first day of his enlistment, and willing to
begin as _garcon d'aerodrome_; the joke about the German airplane sunk
so deep in the wet ground that it would have to be dug out, and the
surprise of the pilot; the delight over Raymond's promotion; the amusing
allusion to sea-sickness by the man who had no equal in air navigation,
are all characteristic details.

Sheik Jabias thus sums up his impressions after visiting the Cid in his
camp:

Vous dominiez tout, grand, sans chef, sans joug, sans digue,
Absolu, lance au poing, panache, au front....

And that Cid had never fought up in the air.

IV. GUYNEMER IN HIS FATHER'S HOUSE

To quote him once more, Sheik Jabias, after being dazzled by the Cid in
his camp, is supposed to see him in his father's castle at Bivar, doing
more humble work.

...Que s'est-il donc passe? Quel est cet equipage?
J'arrive, et je vous trouve en veste, comme un page,
Dehors, bras nus, nu-tete, et si petit garcon
Que vous avez en main l'auge et le cavecon,
Et faisant ce qu'il sied aux ecuyers de faire,
--Cheick, dit le Cid, je suis maintena