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, Amédée, a graduate of the
École 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 protection of Alsatians and
Lorrainers, the President of which was the Count d'Haussonville. He had
married a young Scottish lady, Miss Lyon, whose family included the
Earls of Strathmore, among whose titles were those of Glamis and Cawdor
mentioned by Shakespeare in "Macbeth."