[Footnote 17: See _Les Captifs délivrés_.]

Almost exactly one year later, on October 23, 1917, I saw the airplane
of the same division hovering over the Fort of the Malmaison just as the
Giraud battalion of the 4th Zouaves Regiment took possession of it. At
dawn it came to observe and note the site of the commanding officer's
post, and to read the optical signals announcing our success. At each
visit it seemed like the moving star of old, now guiding the new
shepherds, the guardians of our dear human flocks--not over the stable
where a God was born, but over the ruins where victory was born.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE FIRST FLIGHT IN A BLÉRIOT]

Later on Captain Colcomb spoke of Guynemer as "the most sublime military
figure I have ever been permitted to behold, one of the finest and
most generous souls I have ever known." Guynemer was not satisfied to be
merely calm and systematically immovable, and to display sang-froid,
though to an extraordinary degree. He amused himself by counting the
holes in his wings, and pointing them out to the observer. He was
furious when the explosions occurred outside his range of vision,
because he was not resigned to missing anything. He seemed to juggle
with the shrapnel. And after landing, he rushed off to his escadrille
chief, Captain Brocard, took him by the arm, and never left him until he
had drawn him almost by force to his machine, compelling him to put his
fingers into the wounds, exulting meanwhile and fairly bounding with
joy. Captain, now Major Brocard, felt quite sure of him from that time,
and referred to him later in these words: "Very young: his extraordinary