I answered the officers that I could not make up my mind; that I was not sure how such an apparition would be viewed; and that my little "No. 9"—the only one of my fleet actually "in commission"—not being built for battling with high winds I could not be sure to keep an engagement in it.
"No. 9." OVER BOIS DE BOULOGNE
"Come and choose a place to land," they said; "we will mark it out for you in any case." And, as I continued to insist on my uncertainty of being present, they very courteously picked out and marked a place for me themselves, opposite the spot to be occupied by the President of the Republic, in order that M. Loubet and his staff might have a perfect view of the air-ship's evolutions.
"You will come if you can," the officers said. "You need not fear to make such a provisional engagement, for you have already given your proofs."
I hope I shall not be misunderstood when I say that it may be possible that those superior officers did good work for their army and country that morning—because, in order to begin, one must make a beginning—and I should scarcely have ventured to the review without some kind of invitation.
Venturing to the review, as I did in consequence, a whole train of events followed.
In the early morning of 14th July 1903, as the "No. 9" was weighed and balanced, I was nervous lest some unforeseen thing might happen to it in my very grounds. One is often thus on great occasions, and I did not seek to conceal it from myself that this—the first presentation of an air-ship to any army—would be a great occasion.
On ordinary days I never hesitate to mount from my grounds, over the stone wall and the river, and so on to Bagatelle. This morning I had the "No. 9" towed to the railing of Bagatelle by means of its guide rope.
At 8.30 A.M. I called: "Let go all!" Rising, I found my level course at an altitude of less than 100 metres (330 feet), and in a few moments was circling and manœuvring above the heads of the soldiers nearest to me. Thence I passed over Longchamps, and arriving opposite the president I fired a salute of twenty-one blank revolver cartridges.