Part 16 (1/2)

After watching his friend's body through the night, the hero of d'Annunzio goes to the aerodrome where the next trials for altitude are to take place He cannot think of robbing the dead ions of the air he feels a soothing influence and an increase of power: the dead man himself pilots his her up in divine intoxication

In the same way the warlike power of Guynemer's companions is not di each one, and instilling into the to do more and raveyards, the stone crosses above the empty tombs say only, after the na in the churchyards of the Vale of Chamonix similar inscriptions: ”Lost on Mont-Blanc” As the ive up their victims, so the air seems to have kept Guynemer

”He was neither seen nor heard as he fell,” M Henri Lavedan wrote at the beginning of October; his body and his one? By ings did heis known He ascended and never came back, that is all Perhaps our descendants will say: ”He flew so high that he could not coain”[29]

[Footnote 29: _L'Illustration_, October 6, 1917]

I ree line read in soh the rest of the poem has vanished from memory:

Un jet d'eau qui montait n'est pas redescendu

Does this not e force of Guynehout France some sort of miracle was expected: Guynemer must reappear--if a prisoner he must escape, if dead he o on believing even to the extrens his letters froues recalled a passage from Balzac in which some peasants at work on a haystack call to the post, no news Oh! I beg your pardon, people say that Napoleon has died at St Helena” Work stops at once, and the peasants look at one another in silence But one fellow standing on the rick says: ”Napoleon dead! psha! it's plain those people don't know him!” The journalist added that he heard a speech of the saer on the motor-bus read in a newspaper the news of Guynemer's death; everybody seemed dismayed The chauffeur alone sine When he had done, he pulled down the hood, put away his spectacles, carefully wiped his dirty hands on a cloth still dirtier, and planting hier said: ”Very well I tell you that the man who is to down Guynemer is still an apprentice Do you understand?”

The credulity of the poor people of France with regard to their hero wasWhen the death of Guyne, froes where news travels slowly, but is long pondered upon Guyneht of 700 meters, northeast of Poelkapelle cemetery, in the Ypres sector A Gerone to where the s of the h the head, and his leg and shoulder had been broken in the fall; but his face was untouched, and he had been identified at once by the photograph on his pilot's diploiven to him

Nevertheless, it seemed as if Guynemer's fate still remained somewhat obscure The German War Office published a list of French machines fallen in the German lines, with the official indications by which they had been recognized Now, the number of the _Vieux-Charles_ did not appear on any of these lists, although having only one wing broken the nuht to have been plainly visible Who were the noncommissioned officer and the two soldiers? Finally, on October 4, 1917, the British took Poelkapelle, but the ene On the 9th the village was completely occupied by the British, and they searched for Guynerave No trace of it could be found in either the raveyard

In fact, the Gere in an official document that both the body and the airplane of Guynen Office replied as follows to a question asked by the Spanish Ambassador:

Captain Guyneht on Septeraveyard No 2 south of Poelkapelle A surgeon found that he had been shot through the head, and that the forefinger of his left hand had been shot off by a bullet The body could neither be buried nor removed, as the place had been since the previous day under constant and heavy fire, and during the following days it was impossible to approach it The sector authorities co had plowed up the entire district, and that no trace could be found on September 12 of either the body or the machine Fresh inquiries, which were made in order to answer the question of the Spanish Embassy, were also fruitless, as the place where Captain Guynemer fell is now in the possession of the British

The Ger been unable to render the last honors to a valiant eneation in this case was only reatest difficulty, as the ene, fresh troops were frequently brought in or relieved, and eye witnesses had either been killed or wounded, or transferred

Our troops being continually engaged have not been in a position to give the aforesaid information sooner

So there had been nofrom his eneht in the air had continued around his body; the Allied guns had kept the Germans away from it So nobody can say where lies as left of Guyneh he was, he escaped He as life and movement itself, could not accept the immobility of the tomb

German applause, like that hich the Greeks welcomed the dead body of Hector, did not fail to welcome Guynemer's end At the end of three weeks a coarse and discourteous paean was sung in the _Woche_ In its issue of October 6, this paper devoted to Guynemer, under the title ”Most Successful French Aviator Killed,” an article whose lying cowardice is enough to disgrace a newspaper, and which ought to be preserved to shaiven with the article, which ran as follows:

Captain Guyneh reputation in the French arht down more than fifty airplanes, but ot back to their caed it is true The French, in order to iven up stating, in the past few months, the place or date of their so-called victories Certain French aviators, taken prisoner by our troops, have described his method thus: sometimes, when in command of his squadron, he left it to his men to attack, and when he had ascertained which of his opponents was the weakest, he attacked that one in turn Soreat altitudes, for hours, above his own lines, and when he saw one of our machines separated from the others would pounce upon it unawares If his first onset failed, he would desist at once, not liking fights of long duration, in the course of which real gallantry reichste Franzosische Karossen Ruheschossen haben wollte Von diesen ist jedoch nachgewiesenerhafen zuruckgekert Ulich zu eblichen Luftsiege nicht ene franzosische Flieger berichtet: Entweder liess er, als Geschwaderfuhrer fliegend, seine Kareifen un sturzle sich dann erst auf den schwachsten Gegner; oder er flog stundenlang in grossten Hohe, allein hinter der franzosischen Front und sturzte sich von oben herab uberraschend auf einzeln fliegende deutsche Beobachtungsflugzeuge Hatte Guyne, so brach er das Gefecht sofort ab; auf den langer dauernden, wahrhaft ern ein--Extract from the _Woche_ of October 6, 1917]

This is the filth the Gerh it is, I must analyze some of its details An enemy's abuse reveals his own character So this German denied the fifty-three victories of Guynemer, all controlled, and with such severity that in his case, as in that of Dorme, he was not credited with fully a third of his distant triunized; so this Ger methods, Guynemer the foolhardy, the wildly, ly riddled with bullets, who fought at such close quarters that he was constantly in danger of collisions--this Guynemer the German journalist ht anduse of his coht hied him at 4000 ed the struggle, and prolonged it above the enemy's lines?

Finally, the German journalist had the unutterable meanness and infamy to saddle on imprisoned French aviators this slander of their comrade, insinuated rather than boldly expressed After all, this docuht to be frahed over it, and how youthfully ringing and honest the laugh would have sounded! Villiers de l'Isle Adaelian philosophy, once wrote: ”The man who insults you only insults the idea he has formed of you, that is to say, himself”

As a whole army (the Sixth) marched on May 25 towards that hill of the Aisne valley where Guyneht down four German machines, and acclaimed his triu hine, the Bishop of Beauvais, Monseigneur Le Senne, spoke, taking for his text the Psalm in which David laments the death of Saul and his sons slain _on the summits_, and says that this calahters should rejoice over it This service was attended by General Debeney, staff eneralissi members of the Storks Escadrille, with their former chief, Major Brocard His successor, Captain Heurtaux, whose unexpected appearance startled the congregation--he seemed so pale and thin on his crutches--had left the hospital for this ceremony, and looked so ill that people were surprised that he had the strength to stand