Georges Guynemer | Page 5

it was he in reality who educated his son.
Guynemer is a very old French name. In the Chanson de Roland one
Guinemer, uncle of Ganelon, helped Roland to mount at his departure.
A Guinemer appears in Gaydon (the knight of the jay), which describes
the sorrowful return of Charlemagne to Aix-la-Chapelle after the drama
of Roncevaux; and a Guillemer figures in Fier-à-Bras, in which
Charlemagne and the twelve peers conquer Spain. This Guillemer
l'Escot is made prisoner along with Oliver, Bérart de Montdidier,
Auberi de Bourgoyne, and Geoffroy l'Angevin.
In the eleventh century the family of Guynemer left Flanders for
Brittany. When the French Revolution began, there were still
Guynemers in Brittany,[6] but the greatgrandfather of our hero,

Bernard, was living in Paris in reduced circumstances, giving lessons in
law. Under the Empire he was later to be appointed President of the
Tribunal at Mayence, the chief town in the country of Mont Tonnerre.
Falling into disfavor after 1815, he was only President of the Tribunal
of Gannat.
[Footnote 6: There are still Guynemers there. M. Etienne Dupont,
Judge in the Civil Court of Saint-Malo, sent me an extract from an
_aveu collectif_ of the "Leftenancy of Tinténiac de Guinemer des
Rabines." The Guynemers, in more recent times, have left traces in the
county of Saint-Malo, where Mgr. Guynemer de la Hélandière
inaugurated, in September, 1869, the Tour Saint-Joseph, house of the
Little Sisters of the Poor in Saint-Pern.]
Here, thanks to an unusual circumstance, oral tradition takes the place
of writings, charters, and puzzling trifles. One of the four sons of
Bernard Guynemer, Auguste, lived to be ninety-three, retaining all his
faculties. Toward the end he resembled Voltaire, not only in face, but in
his irony and skepticism. He had all sorts of memories of the
Revolution, the Empire, and the Restoration, of which he told
extraordinary anecdotes. His longevity was owing to his having been
discharged from military service at the conscription. Two of his three
brothers died before maturity: one, Alphonse, infantry officer, was
killed at Vilna in 1812, and the other, Jules, naval officer, died in 1802
as the result of wounds received at Trafalgar. The last son, Achille,
whom we shall presently refer to again, was to perpetuate the family
name.
Auguste Guynemer remembered very vividly the day when he faced
down Robespierre. He was at that time eight years old, and the mistress
of his school had been arrested. He came to the school as usual and
found there were no classes. Where was his teacher? he asked. At the
Revolutionary Tribunal. Where was the Revolutionary Tribunal?
Jestingly they told him where to find it, and he went straight to the
place, entered, and asked back the captive. The audience looked at the
little boy with amazement, while the judges joked and laughed at him.
But without being discomposed, he explained the purpose of his visit.

The incident put Robespierre in good humor, and he told the child that
his teacher had not taught him anything. Immediately, as a proof of the
contrary, the youngster began to recite his lessons. Robespierre was so
delighted that, in the midst of general laughter, he lifted up the boy and
kissed him. The prisoner was restored to him, and the school reopened.
However, of the four sons of the President of Mayence, the youngest
only, Achille, was destined to preserve the family line. Born in 1792, a
volunteer soldier at the age of fifteen, his military career was
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