erst auf den schwaechsten Gegner; oder er flog stundenlang in groessten Hoehe, allein hinter der franzoesischen Front und stuerzte sich von oben herab ueberraschend auf einzeln fliegende deutsche Beobachtungsflugzeuge.  Hatte Guynemer beim ersten Verstoss keinen Erfolg, so brach er das Gefecht sofort ab; auf den laenger dauernden, wahrhaft muterprobenden Kurvenkampf liess er sich nicht gern ein.—­Extract from the Woche of October 6, 1917.]

This is the filth the German paper was not ashamed to print.  Repulsive though 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 triumphs, too far away to be officially recognized; so this German also vilified Guynemer’s fighting methods, Guynemer the foolhardy, the wildly, madly foolhardy, whose machines and clothes were everlastingly riddled with bullets, who fought at such close quarters that he was constantly in danger of collisions—­this Guynemer the German journalist makes out to be a prudent and timid airman, shirking fight and making use of his comrades.  What sort of story had the German who brought him down told?  Was it not obvious that if Guynemer had engaged him at 4000 meters, and had been killed at 700, that he must have prolonged 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 document is invaluable, and ought to be framed and preserved.  How Guynemer would have laughed over it, and how youthfully ringing and honest the laugh would have sounded!  Villiers de l’Isle Adam, remembering the Hegelian 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 Guynemer had brought down four German machines, and acclaimed his triumph, so the whole French nation would take part in mourning him.

At the funeral service held at Saint Antony’s Compiegne, 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 calamity must be kept secret lest the Philistines and their daughters should rejoice over it.  This service was attended by General Debeney, staff major-general, representing the generalissimo, and by all the surviving 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.