A.Andrews. The Flying Machine: Its Evolution through the Ages (Putnam)

Nevertheless the pure birdmen gallantly continued their hopeless course. In 1742 the Marquis de Bacqueville thought he could fly across the Seine with four individual insect-wings on arms and legs. Originally he thought his valet could do it, but the servant declined on a point of precedence. The Marquis took off from the Quai Vol­taire and crashed on a washerwoman’s raft in midstream.