de Vogué, had already foreseen the prodigious development of air-travel.
All the young people of the time longed to fly. Guynemer, studying the
new invention with his customary energy, could hardly do otherwise than
share the general infatuation. His comrades, like himself, dreamed of
parts of airplanes and their construction. But the idea of Lieutenant
Constantin is different: "When an airplane flew over the quarter,
Guynemer followed it with his eyes, and continued to gaze at the sky for
some time after its disappearance. His desk contained a whole collection
of volumes and photographs concerning aviation. He had resolved to go up
some day in an airplane, and as he was excessively self-willed he tried
to bring this about by every means in his power. 'Don't you know anybody
who could take me up some Sunday?' Of whom has he not asked this
question? But at college it was not at all easy, and it was during
vacation that he succeeded in carrying out his project. If I am not
mistaken, his first ascension was at the aërodrome of Compiègne. At that
time the comfortable cockpits of the modern airplanes were unknown, and
the passenger was obliged to place himself as best he could behind the
pilot and cling to him by putting his arms around him in order not to
fall, so that it was a relief to come down again!..."

The noticeable sentence in these notes is the first one: _When an
airplane flew over the quarter, he followed it with his eyes, and
continued to gaze at the sky for some time after its disappearance._ If
Jean Krebs had survived, he could perhaps enlighten us still further;
but, even to this reasonable friend, could Guynemer have revealed what
was still confused to himself? Jean Constantin only saw him once in a
reverie; and Guynemer must have kept silent about his resolutions.

Soon afterwards, as Guynemer was obliged once more to renounce his
studies--and this was the year in which he was preparing for the