' He smiled as if he did not
believe me, but I knew that he was haunted by the idea, and avoided
everything that might uselessly consume a particle of his energy or
disturb his sang-froid, which he intended to devote entirely to Boche
hunting."[27]
[Footnote 27: Unpublished notes by J. Constantin.]
When had he ceased to think himself invincible? The reader no doubt
remembers how he recovered from his wound at Verdun, and the shock it
might have left, merely by flying and offering himself to the enemy's
fire with the firm resolve not to return it. Eight times he had been
brought down, and each time with full and prolonged consciousness of
what was happening. On many occasions he had come back to camp with
bullets in his machine, or in his combination. Yet these narrow escapes
never reacted on his imagination, damped his spirit, or diminished his
_furia_. But had he thought himself invincible? He believed in his star,
no doubt, but he knew he was only a man. One of his most intimate
friends, his rival in glory, the nearest to him since the loss of Dorme,
the one who was the Oliver to this Roland, once received this confidence
from Guynemer: "One of the fellows told me that when he starts up he
only thinks of the fighting before him; he found that sufficiently
absorbing; but I told him that when the men start my motor I always make
a sign to the fellows standing around.
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