One Hundred Years of Solitude

for his useless temerity. Dont
worry, he would say, smiling.
Dying is much more difficult
than one imagines. In his case
it was true. The certainty that
his day was assigned gave
him a mysterious immunity,
an immortality or a fixed
period that made him
invulnerable to the risks of
war and in the end permitted
him to win a defeat that was
much more difficult, much
more bloody and costly than