Another interesting banner was that borne by Count Pulaski, a gallant Pole, who came to help in the struggle for freedom. He visited Lafayette when the Frenchman was wounded and in the care of the Moravian Sisterhood in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The embroidery of these Sisters was very beautiful, and Pulaski engaged them to make him a banner, which they did. On one side were the letters "U.S.," and on the other the thirteen stars in a circle, surrounding an eye which is rather uncomfortably set in a triangle. They made a mistake in spelling their Latin motto, but the crimson banner, with its silver fringe and its exquisite embroidery, was very handsome. Longfellow's poem about this banner, "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem," is excellent poetry, but hardly accurate history. It is quite probable that the good women sent the banner forth with their blessing, but it is rather doubtful whether they said anything like the following:-- "Take thy banner, and if e'er Thou shouldst press the soldier's bier, And the muffled drums should beat To the tread of mournful feet, Then this crimson flag shall be Martial cloak and shroud for thee";-- for the beautiful little banner was only twenty inches square! When Lafayette visited this country in 1824, this little flag was borne in the procession which welcomed him to Baltimore. In the midst of the grief and horrors of war, there was one day when all the armed ships in the Delaware River were ablaze with the colors of the United States in token of rejoicing. It was July 4, 1777, the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Thirteen cannon were fired, a great dinner was served to the members of Congress and the officials of the army and of the State. The Hessian band, which had been captured at Trenton six months previously, performed some of their merriest music. Toasts followed the dinner, each one honored by a discharge of artillery and small arms and a piece of music by the Hessians. At night the city was illuminated and the streets resounded with hurrahs and the ringing of bells. Then came fireworks, which began and ended with thirteen rockets in honor of the thirteen United States. "Thirteen" appeared not only as the number of stars on the flag, but everywhere else, and at Valley Forge, in the rejoicing over the new alliance with France, the officers marched up to the place of entertainment thirteen abreast and with arm linked in arm. A disrespectful English paper declared that the "rebels" ate thirteen dried clams a day, that it took thirteen "Congress paper dollars" to equal one English shilling, that "every well-organized rebel household has thirteen children, all of whom expect to be major-generals or members of the high and mighty congress of the thirteen United States when they attain the age of thirteen years."