. He treated them as
if they were warriors who could understand everything relating to
battles. He wrote with the same freedom that Shakespeare's characters
use in speech.

Until the middle of September he piloted two-seated airplanes, carrying
one passenger, either as observer or combatant. At last he went up in
his one-seated Nieuport, reveling in the intoxication of being alone,
that intoxication well known to lovers of the mountains and the air. Is
it the sensation of liberty, the freedom from all the usual material
bonds, the feeling of coming into possession of these deserts of space
or ice where the traveler covers leagues without meeting anybody, the
forgetfulness of all that interferes with one's own personal object?
Such solitaries do not easily accommodate themselves to company which
seems to them to encroach upon their domain, and steal a part of their
enjoyment. Guynemer never enjoyed anything so much as these lonely
rounds in which he took possession of the whole sky, and woe to the
enemy who ventured into this immensity, which was now his park.

On September 29, and October 1, 1915, he was sent on special missions.
These special missions were generally confided to Vedrines, who had
accomplished seven. The time is not yet ripe for a revelation of their
details, but they were particularly dangerous, for it was necessary to
land in occupied territory and return. Guynemer's first mission required
three hours' flying. He ascended in a storm, just as the countermand
arrived owing to the unfavorable weather. When he descended, volplaning,
at daybreak, with slackened, noiseless motor, and landed on our invaded
territory, his heart beat fast. Some peasants going to their work in the
fields saw him as he ascended again, and recognizing the tricolor,
showed much surprise, and then extended their hands to him. This mission
won for Sergeant Guynemer--he had been promoted sergeant shortly
before--his second mention: "Has proved his courage, energy and
sang-froid by accomplishing, as a volunteer, an important and difficult
special mission in stormy weather."--"This palm is worth while," he
wrote in a letter to his parents, "for the mission was hard." On his way
back an English aviator shot at him, but on recognizing him signaled
elaborate excuses.

Some rather exciting reconnaissances with Captain Simeon--one day over
Saint-Quentin they were attacked by a Fokker and, their machine-gun
refusing to work, they were subj