ames, thought at first it was their own victory. "It was my
first one, falling from the upper story," Guynemer explained drolly, in
his Stanislas-student manner. With his "_terrible oiseau_" he had waged
battle with the three pilots "of the upper story," and had forced them
down one after the other. "The first one," he said, "had a half-burned
card in his pocket which had certainly been given him that same morning,
judging by the date, which read in German: 'I think you are very
successful in aviation.' I have his photograph with his Gretchen. What
German heads! He wore the same decorations as that one who fell in the
Bus wood...." Is this not Achilles setting his foot on Hector and
taking possession of his trophies? Guynemer's heart was stone to his
enemies. He saw in them the wrongs done to France, the invasion of our
country, the destruction of our towns and villages, our desolation, and
our dead, so many of our dead whose deserted homes weep for them. His
was not to give pity, but to do justice. And in doing justice, when an
adversary whom he had forced down was wounded, he brought him help with
all his native generosity.

For him, thirty seconds had separated the Capitol from the Tarpeian
Rock. After his triple victory came his incredible fall, unheard of,
fantastic, from a height of 3000 meters, the Spad falling at the highest
speed down to earth, and rebounding and planting itself in the ground
like a picket. "I was completely stupefied for twenty-four hours, but
have escaped with merely immense fatigue (especially where I wear my
looping-the-loop straps, which saved my life), and a gash in my knee
presented to me by my magneto. During that 3000-meter tumble I was
planning the best way to hit the ground (I had the choice of sauces): I
found the way, but there were still 95 out of 100 chances for the wooden
cross. _Enfin_, all right!" And this postscript followed: "Sixth time I
have been brought down: record!"

Lieutenant V.F., of the Dragon Escadrille, colliding with a comrade's
airplane at a height of 3000 meters, had a similar fall onto the
Avocourt wood, and was similarly astounded to find himself whole. He
had continued maneuvering during the five or six minutes of the descent.
"Soon," he wrote, "the trees of the Hesse forest came in sight; in fact,
they seemed to approach at a dizzy rate of speed. I switched off so as
not to catch fire, and a few meters before reaching the trees I nosed up
my machine with a