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Georges Guynemer - Knight of the Air by Henry Bordeaux
page 18 of 218 (08%)
interrupted by the fall of the Empire. He died in Paris, in the rue
Rossini, in 1866. Edmond About, who had known his son at Saverne, wrote
the following biographical notice:

A child of fifteen years enlisted as a Volunteer in 1806. Junot
found him intelligent, made him his secretary, and took him to
Spain. The young man won his epaulettes under Colonel Hugo in 1811.
He was made prisoner on the capitulation of Guadalajara in 1812,
but escaped with two of his comrades whom he saved at the peril of
his own life. Love, or pity, led a young Spanish girl to aid in
this heroic episode, and for several days the legend threatened to
become a romance. But the young soldier reappeared in 1813 at the
passage of the Bidassoa, where he was promoted lieutenant in the
4th Hussars, and was given the Cross by the Emperor, who seldom
awarded it. The return of the Bourbons suddenly interrupted this
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 Dupré de Saint-Maur, the Cochin, de Songis, du Trémoul
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.

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