Here he distinguished himself
from the first by his coolness, his extraordinary resource, and his
utter contempt for danger, and became one of the idols of the French
army and a proverb for success and audacity, besides attaining to
the rank of lieutenant, gaining, after his famous night flight across
Mulhausen for bomb-dropping purposes, the affectionate sobriquet of the
Firefly of France, and winning in rapid succession the military Medal,
the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, and the Cross of War with palms.
According to rumor, the duke was lately intrusted with a mission of
exceptional peril, involving a flight into hostile territory and the
capture of certain photographs of defenses much needed for the plans
of the supreme command. With his wonted brilliancy, he is said to have
accomplished the errand and to have returned in safety as far as the
French lines. Here, however, we enter the realm of conjecture. The duke
has disappeared; the plans he bore have never reached the generalissimo;
and rumor persistently declares that at some point upon his return
journey he was intercepted by German agents and induced by bribes or
coercion to deliver up his spoils.
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