New Britain herald., 1918-07-05
CONNECTICUT MEN
 GUARD COMP|EGNE
City Where Burgundians Took
 Joan of Arc Prisoner

Compiegne is the most important city along the line of the attempted advance of the Germans on the Noyon- -Montdidier front.
 situated on the southeast bank of the River Disc, just a mile below it's confluence with the Aisne, the city of Compiegne, with a population of 17,000 at the outbreak of the war, is 52 miles by rail northeast of Paris on the Paris-St. Quentin railway, 45 miles southeast of Anliens and 25 miles west of Soissons.
 Tt is one of the most interesting cities in this part of France, having been known as Compendium in the days of Clovis. It's beautiful loca- ton, on the northwestern fringe of the superb forest of COmpiegne made It a favoritc country residence of many French monarchs The forest which contains more than 1000 acres and is 58 miles in circumference, was for centuries a great royal hunting preserve.
 "It was Louis XIV who commits stoned Gabriel to build the magni- ficent palace which is still we'll pre- served, and it was that monarch who here welcomed Marie Antoinette, the
 
 to France when at the age of 5 she became the bride of the dauphin, the future Louis XVI. It was here also that that other Austrian princess. Marie Louise, spent her brief but happy honeymoon with Napoleon I. AS an evidence of the Emperor's in fatuation for his bride Gan infatua- ton which caused Metternich to write that he is so evidently in love with her that he cannot conceal his feel ings and all his customary ways of life are subordinate to her wishes) there is still to be seen in the park surrounding the palace an iron trellis which he ordered built to remind the 19year-old empress of her favorite trellis at Schonbrunn. This incident is reminiscent of the devotion dis played by the Babylonian king who built one of the seven wonders of the World--the hanging gardens-in order that his bride might not be without her native mountain scenery even on the plains of the Euphrates.
 "It was at Compegne that one of the saddest episodes in French his tory occurred-the capture of Joan of Arc by the Burgundians in 1430 ] followed by her martydom at the stake just twelve months later in Rouen.
 Before the war Compiegne was an industrial town of considerable inn portance, it's chief activities being ] boat-building rope-making, distilling, l and the manufacture of chocolate, l machinery, sacks, chemicals and hats 1 It also carried on a thriving river ! borne traffic in timber and coal, and 1 it's asparagus farms were famous |
 In 1914 Compiegne offered a stern 1 resistece to the Prussians and in the 1 Franco Prussian conflict of 1S70-1971 l it was one of the headquarters of the l German army.
 Now and for all time to come Com piegne will be dear to the hearts of | the French people not because it was once a favorite residence of Louis XIV Louis XVI, Napoleon I, Louis Philippe and Napoleon III, but because on l Christmas Eve, 1894, there was born l here Georges Guynemer, Ace of 1 Aces, the foremost airman of France who before his tragic death at the 1 age of 3 had won every bonor that | his grateful country could bestow upon the matchless defender"