s
career, so well begun. The young cavalry officer then undertook the
business of maritime insurance, earning honorably a large fortune,
which he spent with truly military generosity, strewing his road
with good deeds. He continued working up to the very threshold of
death, for he resigned only a month ago, and it was yesterday,
Thursday, that we laid him in his tomb at the age of seventy-five.

His name was Achille Guynemer. His family is related to the Benoist
d'Azy, the Dupre de Saint-Maur, the Cochin, de Songis, du Tremoul
and Vasselin families, who have left memories of many exemplary
legal careers passed in Paris. His son, who wept yesterday as a
child weeps before the tomb of such a father, is the new
Sub-Prefect of Saverne, the young and laborious administrator who,
from the beginning, won our gratitude and friendship.

The story of the escape from Spain contributes another page to the
family traditions. The young Spanish girl had sent the prisoner a silken
cord concealed in a pie. A fourth companion in captivity was
unfortunately too large to pass through the vent-hole of the prison, and
was shot by the English. It was August 31, 1813, after the passage of
the Bidassoa, that Lieutenant Achille Guynemer was decorated with the
Cross of the Legion of Honor. He was then twenty-one years of age. His
greatgrandson, who resembled the portraits of Achille (especially a
drawing done in 1807), at least in the proud carriage of the head, was
to receive the Cross at an even earlier age.

There were other epic souvenirs which awakened Georges Guynemer's
curiosity in childhood. He was shown the sword and snuffbox of General
Count de Songis, brother of his paternal grandmother. This sword of
honor had been presented to the general by the Convention when he was
merely a captain of artillery, for having saved the cannon of the
fortress at Valenciennes,--though it is quite true that Dumouriez, for
the same deed, wished to have him hanged. The snuffbox was given him by
the Emperor for having commanded the passage of the Rhine during the Ulm
campaign.

Achille Guynemer had two sons. The elder, Amedee, a graduate of the
Ecole polytechnique, died at the age of thirty and left no children. The
second, Auguste, was Sub-Prefect of Saverne under the Second Empire;
and, resigning this office after the war of 1870, he became
Vice-President of the society for the protecti